The Idaho Republican. [volume] (Blackfoot, Idaho) 1904-1932, 1918-07-30
AMERICAN POWER
WORRIES GERMANY
Only Cloud on Horizon in Opinion
of Optimistic Leaders of
Teut0n Forces.
ALLIES EXPECT TOO MUCH
People Of England and France Think
United States Will Perform Mi.
racles In the Very Near
Future.

|: United States Will Perform Mi.
|: racles In the Very Near
/: Future.
BY JOHN LLOYD BALDERsToN.
Copyright, 1917, by the Mcclure Newspa
|: per Syndicate.)
|: Observation-Disclosures ton of the impol
lance Of the coming efforts of full
aroused America came quickly to bot
|: camps of belligerents when 1t wa
known last spring, soon after the breal
with Germany, that American troop
! would be sent to Europe. But militar!
: events Of the past few months have i'm
mensely enhanced the Importance O.
the role the United States will b.
called upon to play.
Private advices received here from
Germany indicate that the anticipation
Of American force Is the dominating
note in the present anxiety of Ger
many's rulers to force peace at any
cost before the next campaign has
been fought out.
At the beginning of this years fight.
ing, both Germany and the allies were
optimistic. Germany believed SO
strongly that, the unrestricted subma.
rine warfare would bring victory In
few months that she did not hest
tate to drag in reluctant America
against her. The allies were almost
equally confident that the hammer
blows on the SOmme could be followed
up, this year, by decisive strokes that
would send the enemy armies scuttling
for the Rhine. Both sides we're wrong.
| Berlin Thinks Situation Good.
Aside from the shadow of the Amer
lean eagle that has fallen over Ger
many, the military situation at present
is regarded in the highest Berlin quar-
tiers as good. Information regarding
recent speeches at the supposedly Sc
cret sessions Of the main committee
Of the reichstag, as we'll as accounts
Of views recently expressed in private
by leading men Of the empire, indi-
cate that Germans would be more cock
sure than ever that they had won the
war, were 1t not for the treacherous
behavior of the never-to-be sufficiently
strafed Herr Wilson. =
From competent source here have
obtained the gist of communication
recently privately made to a group of
banking and manufacturing magnates
in Germany, as representing the opin-
ion Of the general staff, which means
the NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS. combina-
tion.
A little over year ago, this German
summary remarked, the situation was
extremely gloomy. The great attack
on verdun had failed; after swallow.
Ing up, the summary did not add, the
flower of the German army. Rouma-
mia had just entered the war. The
French and British We're dealing blows
on the Somme that caused grave I'M
easiness. Late in the autumn, Rouma-
mia had been defeated by Falkenhayn
and Mackensen, and the danger in the
east removed, but the British attacks
towards Bapaume, in September, near
ly resulted in disastrous break.
through. II
One Cloud on Horizon.
The present position, contrasted
with that of last year, is painted in
bright colors. Thanks to the "bri-
liant and successful" retreat of Hin
denburg in the Somme area as the
winter drew towards an end, and to
the invention Of new tactics which re-
moved the possibility of such defeats
as were narrowly averted on the
Somme, the present year is represented
as one Of brilliant strategical success.
The. great allied attacks, east of Arras
In April and May, on the Aisne in
April, and in Flanders later in the
year, are declared to have failed. The
only France-British successes admitted
are the purely local" setbacks infict-
ed on the Germans at Vimy, the Mes :
sines ridge, and Verdun. Russia is =
out of action, and the west 9
ern allies incapable of undertaking :
further Offensives on the scale of these :
which have failed; the only cloud on y
he horizon, the summary concluded, is y
he army of the United States, whose :,
strength and prowess are written down 9
cautiously as an unknown quantity" 4
That, in spite of what they believe +,
o be their improved position on the
vest front, and the collapse of Russian s
assistance in the east, the Germans Il
hould be more anxious for peace than h
hey were year ago, is due to the 8
herman fear of what they may have
o face from across the Atlantic. So o.
1uch am informed is freely admitted d
the German capital, although the W
ierman press has been ordered to m
neer at and belittle in every possible n,
'ay the new enemy. The process is II
familiar one. 1t Is the same as that n
mployed towards England, while the in
british armies were slowly and pain h,
nlly being called out of the ground r.
nd fashioned into shape. The sneers o.
topped when the civilian levies struck N
n the Somme, one month less than 70
yo years after the war began. On
Allies Expect Too Much. W,
Rut tho Amoricop proce,,o ~ nor -