Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1918-08-28
THE STAGE IS SET
Actors and Properties in the s~tupendous
War Drama at Last Determined

thN vi
his foe to some extent feared, that the
huge lighter-than-ai machine would sig-
nifcantly affect the course of the con-
flict. Neither the aspiration nor the anX-
iety is today justified. The Zeppelin is
obsolete. So are many other agencies OF
warfare, both mechanical and human.
Rusty also are a profusion of prophecies,
particularly those which sought to as
semble a cast for the greatest of world
dramas.
The scenario has often been rewritten.
Kitchener planned it in three acts, each
of a years duration. A favorlte Amerl-
can revision apportions it in five after
the high classical manner. Something
decidedly stronger than literary tradi-
ton, however, inspires the feeling that
this is the form the colossal tragic play
will take, for without undue assumptions
it is evident that the drama is soaring to
a climax, and that its chief actors as well
as its most potent machinery have been
at last revealed. Naturally, some new
corners will enter the cast before the
final curtain falls, but the stellar roles
seem to have been definitely established.
The situation has its analogies with
1913 in Europe and 1864 in America. In
both fateful years it was clear what
weapons and what men would be con-
cerned in the final hostilities. The issue
hung then as it does now, not on the
selection Of these agencies, but on the
efficacy of their employment.
Prophecy has been discredited in all
wars, and even though the purposes of
Foch grow palmer with each new round
of victories, it is futile specifically to
forecast events more than a few days
ahead. But the material with which all
sides are working has unquestionably
acquired an authoritative status. The
experimental period, productive of many
false hopes, insubstantial joys and even
fears intensified by speculation, now dis
counted, is past.
1t is startling, indeed, to recall the
men and weapons that nave been super
seeded up to the time when the war
reached its present state of crystalliza-
ton. Zeppelins are fast becoming almost
as archaic as Roman battering rams.
The seaplane, the marvelously mobile
heavier-than-air machine, makes its valid
claims for overhead supremacy. Cavalry
has become a comparatively minor factor
in land fighting. Tanks win distinction
as the most important new mechanical
contrivance of the conflict.
The submarine, on which Germany
based her hopes of sea power, while still
pestiferouS, has been so reduced in ag-
g~ressive vitality that its operations are
no longer a determining factor in the
great events. Moreover, it cannot rank
with the "whippets" and their big broth
ers in novelty. Far back in the nine
teenth century Robert Fulton outlined
to Napoleon a scheme of undersea attack
on vessels. The plan was discarded as
being too inhuman.
The gas offensive, however, was some
thing as new as it was dastardly, but
though it has taken its place in the fight
ing, nobody believes that gas" will win
the war unless it be that of the now re-
hearsing peace orators of the Reichstag.
The possibilities of heavy and light
artillery have been determined. Nirtu-
ally all the problems of 1914 concerning
it have been solved. The same thing is
true of the methods of attack and de-
Tense. 1t is competence of performance
which cunts today.
On the personal side the lineup of
winners and losers is assuming compile
ton. A host of captains and kings nave
departed. Kitchener, Franz Josef, Won
Kissing. Won Der Goltz, Mohammed V,
! Earl Roberts and Gallieni are dead. Re-
tired from the selected final cast are
Field Marshal French, Serial, Pau.
Castelnau, Viviani, Asquith, Cadorna,
Sir William Robertson, Won Kluck, Won
Tirpitz, Townshend and many others.
Joffre has a parquet seat, but the savior
of France at the first Marine battle is at
this moment overshadowed by other
figures.
Four years ago, save only for Wilson,
Lloyd George. Clemenceau, King Albert
and the Hohenzollern family, scarcely a
nam now prominent in either battle,
statecraft or administration, was known
20 the general public. The new list re-
vised for the drama whose end, if not the
date of it, can be foreshadowed, includes
Pershing, Foch, Mangin, Haig, Diaz,
Humbert, Petain, Nivelle, Debeney,
Byng, Rawlinson, Hertling, Won Behncke,
Won Boehm, Karl of Austria and Luden-
dorff. H~indenburg was just beginning to
be known four years ago, but his repu-.
tation reached it's zenith at Mazurian
Lakes, not long after the war began.
The new pageant which history has un-
folded gives one a feeling that the first
Zeppelin attack on Antwerp belongs