Browning chief. [volume] (Browning, Mont.) 1941-1953, 1943-10-29
WNU Service, Union Trust Building,
Washington, D. C.

Washington, ID. T..
at is my guess that the war will
end by 1885," the senator said. "The
collapse of Germany may come any
time"
Pencils slid over copy paper.
Mine, too. We sat around the long,
green, committeeman table in the
Senate Office building. Other press
and radio men (and women) and a
few visitors listened to the three
senator's who had made 100000
mile trip beginning in Maine, up
through Nova Scotia, through Green
land, Iceland, Great Britain, Africa,
the Near East, India, China, Aus
tralia, the Pacific islands, and back
home.
thought as took down the notes
for my broadcast that wished
many of the people who write to
me, calling congress dumb, were
there to listen to these men regaling
us with first-hand information, facts,
figures, impressions, which later
they were to pass on to their COL
leagues in the form of long and de-
tailed reports. Much of the material
will never be printed.
The trip was spoofed by the pa
pers, when it was proposed, as "an-
other junket." But sitting there, lis
tening to these men, there was no
doubt in my mind that they had done
real job. They had slept in gaudy
villas in Africa, they had camped in
the fields with the troops, lain un-
der matched roofs, in bamboo shell
tiers, taken their chances across wide
sweeps of water in planes unaccom-
panied by any fighter protection.
They had tried to find out the things
you and want to know-how the
war is being fought.
Reasons Why
You have already read the gist of
what those senators-and Senator
Lodge, who made the journey, plus
side trip-said. The information
will come out in reports and
speeches before the senate and the
house.
1t was a long session but the
I4lAA6 SlldI oIA uSh l1lC "do tllC SCSOllu
sentence which I quoted at the be-
ginning of this article.
''The collapse of Germany may
come at any time"
These men didn't pretend to be
military experts or prophets. That
statement of one of them-Senator
Russell of Georgia-to which the
others, Senators Mead of New York
and Brewster of Maine, agreed, was
based on what they had heard and
seen including photographs of what
Russell called "leveled Hamburg"
by the time this is in print
there may be other German cities
leveled as fiat.
Another thing was the testimony of
a French official who believed Ger
many would crumble soon. He was
anxious that America be prepared
to step in and take control. Unless
we did, he insisted, chaos would
spread, perhaps anarchy.
have heard that fear expressed
by other Europeans.
Basis of Belief
What is the basis of the belief
that Germany will collapse suddenly
and perhaps soon? On the belief
that history will, in some measure,
repeat itself as it always does. That
the civilian morale will crumble in
Germany, that the spirit of hopeless
ness will spread to the army as it
did in 1918.
Already we know that submarine
crews no longer volunteer. They
have to be drafted. This is where
the rift began in Germany's morale
in the last war.
And what will contribute most to
Germany's collapse?
Not the Russian victories alone;
not the drive that will come when,
as many believe, the British-Amer-
lean operations are intensified.
These will turn the scale. But the
cumulative effect of defeats on all
fronts plus the bombing of her
cities already at work will bring
victory through air power"
The Germans, very high British
official said to us not long ago, are
a logical people. When the realiza-
ton of the hopelessness of further
fighting is established, they will be-
gin the logical process of surrender
And if you read the report of Chief
Of Staff General Marshall, you will
see how the realization of the
growth of Allied air power spreads
slowly over the whole battle scene.