The daily star-mirror. (Moscow, Idaho) 1911-1939, 1919-01-04
WHEN THE TIDE TURNED IN
THE WORLDS GREATEST WAR

~ AAAOAS Ouo NV ldl Via
: we. Where can we look for aid? TIL
J British have just suffered grave de
I feat. The Italians have their own so.
} to defend after the disaster of las
autumn. Our troops are in retreat
The Americans are not ready and the
are untried as yet in the fierce or
deal of modern warfare. The Ger
mans know we'll that in three month
or six months the Americans will b
ready and strong in numbers. Tha
is why they are throwing every ounc
OF their formidable power against u
now. The Hun is at the gate now
1t is a question of days, not of week
or months. Where can we look TO
aid now?"
And out of their hooks and corner
and hiding places crawled forth tn,
Shiny brood of the Bolshevik-Social
lists, Of the Boloists, Caillouxists ant
pacifists, and they Kissed into the ear.
of the people, make peace! Victor,
has become impossible. Why go OF
shedding rivers of blood uselessly
The Germans will give you an hon.
orable, even a generous peace. Save
Paris! Make peace!"
The holy wrath of France crushed
those serpents whenever their heads
became visible. Clemenceau, the en-
bodiment of the dauntless spirit Of
France, stood forth, the very soul Of
patriotic ardor and indomitable cour-
age. But the serpents were there
crawling hidden in the grass, ever
kissing, "Make peace!"
And then, suddenly out of the
~1oo~ fJoehoI tho 1,rb+oip~ "a n p1rr
I sword, sharp and mighty, a sword
which had never been drawn except
for freedom, a sword which had never
known defeat-the sword of America!
The Turning of the Tide.
A division of Marines and other
American troops were rushed to the
front as a desperate measure to try
and stop a gap where flesh and blood,
even when animated by French hero
ism, seemed incapable of further re-
sistance. They came in trucks, in
cattle cars, by any conceivable kind
of conveyance, crowded together like
sardines. They had had little food,
and less sleep, for days.
When they arrived, the situation
had become such that the French COM
mand advised, indeed ordered them to
retire. But they and their brave gen
eral would not hear of it. They dis
embarked almost upon the field Of
battle and rushed forward, with little
care for othodox battle order, without
awaiting the arrival of their artillery,
which had been unable to keep up with
their rapid passage to that front.
They stormed ahead, right through
the midst of a ~retreating French divi-
sion, yelling like wild Indians, ardent,
young, irresistible in their fury of bat
tie. Some of the Frenchmen called
out a well-meant warning: "Don't
go in this direction. There are the
boches with machine guns" They
shouted back: "That's where we want
to go. That's where we have come
three thousand miles to GO" And
they did go, into the very teeth of
the deadly machine guns. In defiance
of all precedent they stormed, with
rifle and bayonet in frontal attack,
against massed machine guns.
They threw themselves upon the
victory-flushed Huns to whom this
unconventional kind Of fierce onset
came as a complete and d~isconcerting
surprise. They fought like demons,
with utterly reckless bravery. They
paid the price, alas! in heavy losses,
but for what they paid they took COM
p~ensation in over-full measure.
They formed of themselves a spear
head at the point nearest Paris,
against which the enemy's onslaught
shattered itself and broke. They
stopped the Hun, they beat him back,
they broke the spell of his advance.
They started victory on it's march.
A new and unspent and mighty
force had come into the fray. And
the Hun knew it to his cost and the
French knew it to their unbounded
joy. The French turned. Side by side
the Americans and the French stood,
and on that part of the front the
Germans never advanced another inch
from that day. They held for awhile
and then set in the beginning of the
great defeat.
1 was in Paris when the news of
the American achievement reached
the population. They knew full well
what it meant. The danger was still
present, but the crisis was over. The
could not break through. He
could and would be stopped and ulti-
mately thrown back, out of France,
out of Belgium, cross the Rhine and
beyond!
The aid for which the sorely beset
people of France had been praying,
had arrived. The Americans had come,
young, strong, daring, eager to fight,
capable Of standing up against and
stopping and beating back German
shock troops specially selected and
trained, and spurred on by the belief
N their own irristibility and the ex-
laustion of their opponents. The full
of the hideous instruments of
warfare which the devilish ingenuity
If the Germans had invented, liquid
ire, monstrous shells, various kinds
# gases including the horrible mus
ard gas, had struck the Americans
'quarely and fully, and they had stood
md fought on and won.
The French, SO calm in their trials,
restrained in their own victories,
rave full vent to their joy and en-
husiasm at the splendid fighting and
of the Americans. The talk
f them was everywhere in Paris.
hundreds of thousands of American
oldiers already in France, thousands
oming upon every steamer, millions
to come if needed-and they had
hOWn the great stuff thew were made