Trench and camp. [volume] (Augusta, Ga.) 1917-1919, 1918-01-16
THE THIRD YEAR AND
THE WAR OUTLOOK

Can editorial from the New York Times,
If the new. year brings dlslinslon anu ~,
Europe and their new ally, the Qnlted
States, it finds Germany, the leader OF
the enemy federation intriguing 10 WIN.
by insidious propaganda, a victory when
she has failed to impose by force of arms.
There have been triumphS, stopping snort
of success, for the Austro- Germans III the
field, and they can point to the war map
as showing greater gains in Europe Ply
the square mile than France and Britain
may claim But the failure of the sub
marine campaign to register famine con-
ditions in the British Isles is blow 70
German hopes so positive, so OMNIBUS or
ultimate defeat, that the war map might
as well be torn up for all the promise of
"a German made peace it holds out.
There were three salient events or de-
yelopments of the year 1917: The revolt
ton in Russia, resulting in the breakdown
Of her government and her military ma
chine; the entrance into the war OF the
United States, with al ITS WeaHn Oh ma,
terial and men and the illimitable moral
effect of the American decision; and the
waning of the submarine menace that was
to bring England to her knees to suppl
cate for peace, even if the United States
threw its resources into the scale. The
end of 1916 saw Germany protesting a
desire for peace with forel<noWledge tnat
disruption and chaos We're coming TO
Russia At that time the last bloody
touches weer being put to .the undolng
of Runania, Destroyed and abandoned
by the Cars government; but on the
western front the French and British
had proved at Verdun and in the battle
of the Somme that the Germans could
neither pass@nor hold their lines. So the
year closed for the western allies with
hopes of a military decision in new OF
fensive in the spring and summer of 1917:
although they had misgivings about Rus
sia which, after General Brusiiofr's re-
markable campaign of territory gained
and Austrian prisoners taken in Galicia
a, "A tba MI had hapn nVStPriOllSiV
inactive and mute for months. 1taly's per
Torrance along the Isonzo had been cred
liable enough to justify confidence in her
ability to hold the Austrans there at the
worst, and with thorough preparation and
at a time selected by Cadorna to break
through n the road to Laibach. and, by
driving the enemy from the Carso, in
vest Trieste. If the Russians We're true to
the alliance and resumed operations on
the Dvina, in Galicia, and in Asia Minor,
Teutonic extremity would be matter of
only months. That was the fond hope IN
the west and there seemed to be justif-
cation for it.
A year ago the governments of France
and Great Britain did not count upon the
United States an an ally at sea and in
the field; and when, as a consequence
of German atrocities and bad faith, the
entrance of this country into the war was
regarded as not improbable, the thought
was more of the financial assistance it
would extend than of the armies it could
In short, France and Great Britain had
faith in the ultimate triumph of their
arms. That Germany feared it was
shown by her nervous overtures for peace
seriously meant, but only half confessed
But in four short months there came a
transformation that was to confound opti
mistic forecasts about the duration of the
war and to throw a baleful shadow over
the free peoples fighting for genuine de-
mocracy. The Russian revolution fell
over night. carrying down the Cars gov
eminent in shapeless ruin; the submarine
campaign revived the hopes of Germany
to pitch of citation. Then the United
States at last made it's epochal decision.
Peace had now to be looked at through
the dwarfng end of the telescope, for
if the United States, with its splendid
resources and young vitality, compensat-
ed the Western allies for the loss of
Russia, it would be a year or more before
America might could make itself felt;
and perhaps never, for the sinking of
British and neutral cargo ships went on
at a distressful rate, pointing to vindica-