Jasper County Democrat, Volume 20, Number 89, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 6 February 1918 — MEN OF ALL PARTS NOW AT THE FRONT [ARTICLE]

MEN OF ALL PARTS NOW AT THE FRONT

If “Rainbow Division” Not Already There, It Soon Will 80. HISTORY IF SECTOR HELD Americans on the German Border, Probably on the Fifty-3|ile Front Between Xan< y and Die. Washington, February 5. Every state in the Union is represented in the expeditionary force th it has taken over the responsibility for a secter of the west iront in France There are some 200,000. American soldiers, well trained, holding this sector. This number, of course, does hot represent the total strength of the American expeditionary force in France. It will not be long until an army of 500,000 is subject to the command of General Pershing. Not since the United States entered the war has the troop movement been so heavy as it is just now. Whether the Indiana regiment o' artillery has yet had its turn in the front line is not known here, for General Pershing has thus far not been instructed to report by cable, from day to day, the units that are at the front. It may be said, however, that if the Indiana regiment of artillery has not already had its tarn at the front it will take its turn there very shortly. The entire division, popularly known as the Rainbow division, has now had three months of training in France and. under the rule that has-been laid down, is ready for active service. All the regulars that preceded this division are likewise ripe for active duty and at least two other national guard divisions are also available for Croat line service. The fifty-mile sector held by the Americans is near the German border; —If in due time the American army should go through this sector it would spread itself opt in the Rhine country and some optimistic persons here believe might menace Berlin. To the military experts here, the fact that the American army has been intrusted with that part of the line nearest the German border and therefore nearest to Berlin is significant. Viewing the west 'front as a whole. Great Britain is now bolding the northern end of the line and is thereby defending the English, channel and that part of Belgium which is not occupied by the Germans. Tbe French army is holding back that part of the German line which, if released. would burst on Paris,

while as already pointed out, the American army has taken over the sector that lies nearest to German ground and the German capital. The American sector probably lies between Nancy and St. Die. Indications of the presence of American troops in this region was first given when the German army headquarters announced, November 3, that “North American soldiers” had been captured in a trench raid, the total American casualties being three killed, five wounded, and twelve prisoners, on the Rhine-Marne canal, which joins the River Meurthe between Nancy and Luneville. This strip between Nancy and St. Die, perhaps fifty miles in length, offers an opportunity for a stroke at some of the important of Germany’s lines of communication, but since September, 1914, it has been the scene of comparatively little fighting. This was due, no doubt, to the fact that German strategy had shifted the center of the war in the west to Belgium and northern France, and that it was consequently of the first importance to push back the German lines in those regions. The occupation of Belgium, too, gave the Germans possession of communication lines running to the Westphalian munition district and Prussia, which were olf greater value for the reinforcement of the bulk of their lines than those leading toward Lorraine. Nevertheless, despite the difficult country and the importance of the German northern position, the American lines are still a starting point from which could be aimed an attack at the great German frontier fortress of Metz and other points of considerable strategic value. Berlin, February 4.—(Via London) —Wilhelm Dittmann, the radical socialist deputy, who was tried by an extraordinary coiirtmartial on the charge of inciting to high treason, resistance to public authority and transgression of the prohibition against participating in the direction of the general strike, was today sentenced to five years confinement in a fortress. From the meagre accounts of the economic situation in Germany reaching neutral countries —and they are meagre to a degree—the general strike that prevailed throughout the empire last week has virtually been ended.