The Grangeville globe. [volume] (Grangeville, Idaho) 1907-1922, 1918-06-27

HOW III StanuS Win tneSe Qepen0H
largely on how it stands with Amert-
cans at home
Our people must understand the
enemy they have to fight; they must
understand too, the strength of our
allies, and that which we must supply
TO make the winning sure.
The great conflict centers in the
western front; there RACES the struggle
of peoples who love the arts OF peace
against a people who would rule by
the sword.
In 1909, when Napoleon Bonaparte
was having things very much his own
way in Europe, he whipped Prussia,
took a lrage portion of Prussian ter
ritory and about half of Prussian SUBJ
jects away from the Prussian sovereign
and finding the rulers still very much
inclined toward militarism, prescribed
limits to their army, to which Prussia
, agreed because she had to.
The agreement was that Prussia
should not have an army of over $4,000
men Prussia lived up to that agree
ment to the letter, but
Even in that early day she showed
her ability to wriggle out of an agree
ment that was distasteful to her, and
shed id not live up to the spirit of 1t.
She did not maintain an army OF
more than $4,000 men ut any one time
that Is an active army-but she kept
men in until they were well trained;
then they went out and others went In
for training, and so 1t was until very
large portion of the male population
was drilled and ready for action should
necessity arise.
The military policy instituted then
has been maintained to this day, as
has the policy of the rulers of bending
their morals to their personal desires,
and taking the other half of the step,
violating agreements in letter as well
as in spirit
That Prussian military spirit did not
subside or even lie dormant. When
others thought they had 1t paralyzed,
it still thriyed. In 1913, it had be-
cCme so strong that many Germans
themselves leb' lied against it, aud left
the country latl er than submit to liz
advocates. Hnndipis IF thousands Of
others left lotar.
IN 1871 II was even stronger. and II
was then lua' Germany rsapci tho
x, Attest haryeS. of its policy wrestling
| AiSGce and Lon raine from France.
AID it Is : same military spirit
that the world faces today.
Stronger, more arrogant, grown sell
fish, cold and brutal, mil,tarism Is try
ing to fasten itself on the renal lder Of
tire world, to the proiit OF one nation
that became an armed camp.
1t is the fruit of this militarism that
one sees everywhere along the lighting
front in Europe, the militarism that
menaces America today as 1t menaces
every European country that has
fought and Is fighting to prevent its
spread.
To understand fully all shat this
war means to us and the problems
America has to face-serious problems,
more serious than many of us have
realized-we must consider the situa-
ton in four important phases. They
81 are:
What is it going to take to thor
oughly whip Germany?
How much of 1t can and will Eng
land do?
How much of 1t can and will France
dor
How much must America do to fin
ish the job?
We cannot understand what 1t is go
ing to take to whip Germany unless we
get something of notion of what
there is left of Germany to whip and
the method of fighting our men must
face.
In studying war conditions l had
gone into England first, where l haC
observed all the various activities
with the view of watching both mer
and materials from the recruiting Of
the men, through the training in al
branches, to the battle front and bacl
through base hospitals, hospital ships
and into the general hospitals; ais,
the manufacture of munitions from the
factory to the front and back to thu
salvage plants.
This brought me to the British from
the week before the German offensiv,
of 1913 began Driving through all the
larger cities north of the Somme ant
about 10 smaller villages, stopping al
scores of places OF interest, had the
opportunity of observing all the lines
of British defense and to get some
thing Of an understanding Of the ter
rible sacrifice that an army must make
in an effort to break through,
As we walked thru the trenche.
and on into the various lines of defens,
the British and German cannon wer,
even then sounding out each other
guns and trying to silence the oppo
sition with shell fire
In one place there was constan
booming for two hours, the shells fly
ing over our heads with whiz-z-z an,
a whir, but they were of no great dan
ger to us, for they were aimed ia
enough in front and back of us /,
pass safely over us.
Al times we stood by cannon a!
they were fired at the enemy. Every
where was seen desolation. In Bel
GUM and in many parts of France tn,
s ground was all shell-holes, pitted il
so thick that they lapsed into eacl
other They were filled with muddy
water and with stranded tanks. can
Il non, shells, dead horses. helmets, bay
onets, barbed wire, wrecked trucks
and here and there the body Of 6
German soldier that probably had beer
buried with boots ard uniform bu
had been blown to the surface agair
by the explosion of shells.