Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 16, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 28 January 1918 — AMERICA SPELLS GERMAN DEFEAT [ARTICLE]

AMERICA SPELLS GERMAN DEFEAT

Entry Into War Means Victory for Allies, Says British x Writer. CONTROL OF FOOD WILL WIN ■Row a Case In Which “the Dog Ha*. Begun to Bite the ♦Pig," Says Writer—Something Rotten in Germany. London. —How America’s entry Into* the war has hurt Germany is the subject of an interesting article in theBirmingham Post by Edgar Wallace,, author and military correspondent. It Is now a case in which “the dog hasbegun to bite the pig,’’ he says. “It Is as well,” Mr. Wallace writes, “to separate the causesToTTlie present German offensives from the circumstances which have made them pos- • sible. We know that the stagnation, of the Russian front allows the Germans to employ in the west troops which, were the Russian army an active factor in the war, could not havebeen employed; we know that the Italian has'lost nearly 300,000 men in the course of the fighting of the last month; but neither of these facts explains the German offensive plan. For example, the push against the Isonzowas obviously uninfluenced by Italian losses —because they had not occurred. The push against Italy was and Is part of the great scheme which would certainly have been carried out even if Russia had remained loyal to the alliance.

“Reason Is ‘America ”* “The reason is summed up in the word ‘America.’ I do not particularly refer to the forces which America will put into the field. The German general staff, I am certain, has no particular fear that sufficient American, troops will be put into the field next year to secure a decision against Germany. I doubt very much whether the German is worrying at all about what will happen in the field in the summer of 1918. But he is tremendously concerned over what will happen in Germany between May and August of that year unless he can break the fighting spirit of the entente during the forth-? coming months of the winter. “It is no secret that Germany had been drawing large supplies of food and necessary raw material from America, via neutral countries. America supplied these articles in the way of business, just as she supplied Britain with material in the way of business, and strictly in the way of business the neutral countries had been passing on their Imports to Germany. “And so this jolly war might have gone on whilst Germany’s credit abroad held —only America came in. She declared war, she called millions of men, she reorganized her Industries to meet the demands of war—and then she sat down to take a good look at the neutrals. And they seemed unnecessarily bloated. They did their best to engage her sympathy. And they had little bread and potato riots just to show there was no deception. “But America understood. She said very simply, ‘Feed yourselves, you big stiffs!’. (if the picturesque' vulgarity be allowed). “In the old nursery rhyme, when the stick began to beat the dog, the dog began to bite the pig. If the neutral has no food to spare and cannot buy any in America, the German cannot buy food from the neutral. In fact, the dog has begun to bite the pig. The neutrals have no right to complain.

Something Rotten in Germany. "So many millions of tons of foodstuffs which came to-Germany once In the dear dead days are not coming any more. She Is that much shorter of food. We do not know for certain the conditions of Germany’s food reserves. That there is something rotten there we know from the curious attitude of Bulgaria. “But If the German, with all the supplies he was securing from the neutral, was short in the spring of 1917, what will be his position in the spring of 1918, when the new American embargo becomes fully operative? We think It will be fairly bad. The German crops were poor—as were all the world’s. “Nobody but a perfectly Insane person or a statistician—who will believe anything —imagines that the world shortage of food does not affect Germany. It does affect her very seriously. It will affect her worse this year than It did last. “Food Is going to decide this war. . The fact that the German censor has closed down all reference to food difficulties and coal shortages is significant. The things that Germans do not talk about are the things that matter. If we are witnessing the beginning of a series of offensives In the west and the opening of a new campaign, that campaign,, as I have said before, Is a hunger offensive, and the plan dates from that day when America decided that It was a good Idea to ration the neutrals, but they would have to find the rations themselves. "If my theory Is sound and well founded we should look to the collapse of the war In June or July. I do not say if the German does not break us In the field between now end Augusr. He won’t break us In the field or starve us in our homes.”