New-York tribune., 1918-01-16
A Time for Courage and for
Optimism

ne fOmely Ola prOVerD that 1t is dark
est just before dawn" never had a more
appropriate application than at the pres
ent moment. All Of us, the nations in
arms against Germany, are passing
through grim and trying hours. Hopes
well founded and hopes i'll founded have
alike collapsed; war weary, the world faces
more war. There are to be millions more
casualties
And, in addition, war is beginning to in
wade the smallest details of our own lives.
What was last year terrible, but far
away, is now distressing and with
in our gates. The fine hours when the
first regiments march and men and women
are buoyed up by visible evidence of
splendid self-sacrifce have passed by; war
IS the most monotonous, least inspiring
business in the world at the front and at
the rear, and the agony and the monotony
have come
We have had bitter disappontments in
Russia and Italy. We have had lesser
establishments nearer home. Our great
effort will be long delayed; we shall not
arrive soon; nor has our national pride
been spared in the revelations of failures
at the very start
such being the case, we have been pass
ing through period of depression. In the
gloom the enemy takes on a gigantic form
and IN the obscurity our own resources and
those of our allies shrink sadlv. The weak
OF heart begin to murmur, the disloyal and
the unstable hasten to add to the depres-
sion Of the war.
Yet II one will but face these things,
are they not after all inevitable Incidents
Of war? When has a great battle for y
noble cause been easily won? Thinking in
terms of American history, what was VAL
ley Forge; what were the long, drab wears
Of suffering in the Revolution with so few
moments Of victory or even near victory?
There are many still alive to tell of tho
depression Of 1864, when Grants armv
disappeared into the shadows of the Will
derness and emerged only at the shambles
of Cold Harbor.
Are we, the sons and daughters of the
men Of 1864, the inheritors of the tradi-
tions of the ragged Continentals, to be
shaken before we encounter an enemy
three thousand miles away? Are we,
whose ancestors fought against all the
odds of the Revolutionary era, to be con-
quered in advance Of battle by foe whose
losses we know, whose weaknesses grow
daily more manifest?
No nation ever had to face a struoo1a
with greater odds against it than Germany
to-day. And when Germany had numbers
munitions, everything that preparation
and organization could give her of advan-
tage, she failed at the Marne. at Ynres
and Verdun
The war has been in great measure
transferred from the front to the rear.
only behind the lines can Germany win
ana behind her own lines there is weak.
ness Often deceived, often misled ono
hesitates to believe what is true in 1918
because one wrongly believed it true in
1915.
Whatever happens in this war. the
worst is over. Come what NAV. we shah
not see another such crisis as the Marine
a crisis like only to those when on French
soil the Huns in Champagne and the Sara.
Gems in Poitou were overthrown by West
ern civilization under French leadership
We have but to hold to win, to hold whore
the line has never yet broken
National confidence is Individual conf
dence The courage of the Individual is
valuable element in the collective conf
dence of the community, the nation. The
war is conflict between civilizations.
Ideals, ideas, before it is a battle between
men. Our armies will not win at the front
II those who stay behind do not give them
the moral support they need. The snirit
OF France prevailed when the material wac
weak at the Marne, at Verdun. Materials