Richmond Palladium (Daily), Volume 43, Number 267, 21 September 1918 — Page 6

THE RICHMOND PALLADIUM AND SUN-TELEGRAM. SATURDAY, SEPT. 21, 1918.

PAGE SIX

THE RICHMOND PALLADIUM

AND SDN-TELEGRAM

Published Every Evening Except Sunday, by Palladium Printing Co. Palladium Building. North Ninth and Sailor Streets. Entered at the Post Office at Richmond. Indiana, as Se ond Class Mall Matter.

MEMBER OF THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Th Associated Prss is exclusively entKld to the UM tor reoubllcatlon of all new dljpatches credited to It o not otherwise credited In tJlln paper and also the aam published herein. All rlfhts of republication OX ape eU.1 dlspatckee h train are alsw reaerved.

'hy Farmers Will Buy Bonds (From the Seventh Federal Reserve District) The farmer will buy Fourth Liberty Loan Bonds because they are the best and safest investment in the world. Because they are backed by the greatest nation in the world, whose debt3 have been paid always in full. Because they provide a full measure of insurance against want, old age, or temporary financial stress. Because the possession of Liberty Bonds will better your credit; as collateral Liberty Bonds rank highest when you wish to borrow. Because if you don't buy bonds, just that much more money will have tovbe raised by taxation; in the one case you receive interest for the money loaned, in the other a tax receipt. Because the investment of money in Liberty Bonds means a financial reserve that will enable one to share in the country's prosperity after the war. . Because no American citizen desires to shift the burden of supporting the government and the boys in the trenches on to his neighbor's shoulders.

Weak Link of Enemy's Defence Laid Open by Pershing's Victory

By HILAIRE BELLOC Author of "Elements of the Great War" and Britain's Military Critic

Copyright, 1918, New The American victory last Thursday. September 12. has two great items of Interest attached to it a fact and a question. The fact Is the extreme precision of the operation; the question is how quickly and on what scale the enemy will be able to bring men down south from his congestion in the north between Rhelms and Arras. i The extreme precision of the Amer- ' lean work was unexpected by the enemy and must rank as a new asset against him. The enemy certainly ex iected that the new army raised from j the smallest possible nucleus of professionals, rapidly trained and (in their eyes) little more than militia, would be necessarily deficient in staff work. So long as the American units were only fighting brigaded with the British or French, or even later, when they acted in Isolated divisions under French command, the enemy could cherish this illusion. Now that the first general action undertaken by a force mainly American and under American command has proved more exact and rapid than any other of the war he must 'completely revise his view. He, and the Allies, too. for that matter, are in possession of a new fact, which gravely alters the chances of the campaign against the Central Powers and in our own favor. The guns opened at 1 a. m. the morning of Thursday. September 12. The zero hour was 5:30 o'clock in the morning of Friday. September 13, just over twenty-fours hours from the moment when the first American troops, left their trenches. Two forces, acting on either side of the St. Mlhiel salient met at St. Benoit, and the enemy front had receded over a segment flfP V,?. r,JTi forty miles In the total front and near ly two hundred square miles in area. Over 13.000 prisoners already had been counted and sixty guns captured. The operation was so exact and, therefore, so brief that the first details can be rapidly teld. There was no surprise. The enemy nownonrr hri ri,c,iQ iw .Mv. the Imminence of an attack between the Meuse and the Moselle. The greater credit, therefore, is due to the success of the enterprise. As no ef- j fort at surprise was intended, a pre llminary bombardment of no less than four hours was delivered along the whole southern front of the salient. A little after daybreak Thursday last the right central half of this front from a point south of the Isolated (and to the Germans essential) observation point of the high Montsec to a point just west of the famous Bois le Pretre was the 6cene of a sudden assault by the American Infantry. It was the - first operation on such a scale attempted by them since their entry Into this campaign. They attacked along a front of eleven miles out of a total of twenty-five between the Moselle and the Meuse. There was no continuous water ob stacle here, only an isolated pond far behind the line. The tanks could do their work. The German line broke hopelessly. By the middle of the morning the advanced units were already near Thiaucourt, and shortly afterward they held that town, between five and six miles from their point of departure four to six hours before. Here let me describe the salient which has been reduced. In shape it was a right-angled triangle, the angle of the apex was somewhat under 90 degrees and Its longer side ran due east and west for twentyfive miles, as I have said, from the Moselle just below Pont-a-Mousson to the Meuse at the Camp des Romains (fort and hill) and St. Mihiel, and even for a few hundred yards beyond that river. Thence it turned sharply.

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York Tribune Inc. slightly east of north to make the shorter side of the triangle about fifteen miles, to a point west of Fresnes. The hypothenuse of this triangle was somewhat under thirty miles. It is this area, the importance of which will be seen in a moment, that was cleared with such astonishing celerity In the course of last Thursday. " v.i-.it ucU .UtdlUCU nL Lilt? III ML sign of attack to withdraw. For pollti-f ml rRnna nmhahw a aia cal reasons, probably, he did not retire until the last moment and the attack was too quick for him. He had long withdrawn most of his heavy guns arid material, including, apparently, most of his aircraft, but he had to leave his field guns, some heavies and men enough to hold his line forty miles long. The American main attack was on the long southern side of the tri angle, lying east and west. But at the ! same time a smaller attack was launched from the middle of the other and shorter side between St. Mihiel and Frenes. ' We may be certain that at the first sound of the opening bombardment the I::"" : I " "v" vvauenemy did not allow, however, for the' retreat from the salient began. The rapidity of the American action. On the short western face, where there is very little broken and much densely

wooded country he held up the attack t0 g0 round behlnd through Goudefairly well against the American and court while the direct communication French forces. With the aid of Aus-J wlth Verdun from Nancy was also cut.

irian reinforcements ne here pre vented a complete advance for nearly twelve hours. But on the southern face he collapsed before the main attack. The 'consequence was a very heavy loss in infantry, no less than 15.000 men at least, and probably that total will be increased before the counting is over. Early Friday, caval ry from the southern American attack had joined with the advance from the I west, and the salient of St. Mihiel ceased to exist. The conformation of the countryside is peculiar. The river Meuse runs from south to north in a sharply defined valley which varies in width from one to three miles. On either si(le f this valley rise steep, wooded iniio Hum ouu m ieei in ueisni above the water, and these form two banks, as it were, inclosing the stream. Th,f . h'n on the eastern side are called "the Heights of the Meuse Most rivers run in the midst of a broad basin and receive from either side tributaries whose sources lie far off. The peculiarity of the river: Meuse and Its strange trench valley Is that no such tributaries come In from j the eastern side. The moment you! have passed the summit of the eastern l hills, in ,some places only two miles from the river, you are already in another river basin, that of the Moselle, and this stream runs off eastward away from the Meuse. The heights of the Meuse fall abrubtly on this eastern side on to the plain of the Woevre, which stretches eastward as far as the eye can reach to the Moselle on the horizon. On a clear day one can just see from the summits of these heights beyond the plain of the hills around Metz, twenty odd miles away. The formation of the Woevre is clay. It is sparsely inhabited, very bad going in wet weather and full of ponds, shallow marshes and numerous woods. The Germans held all this plain of the Woevre, and their organization stretched westward so far that the tip of their triangle included a few miles of the hills and reached the Meuse itself at the little town of St. Mihiel, from which the whole salient took its name. The pinching out of the salient has had the effect of removing the Germans everywhere from the upper Meuse valley above Verdun. The river and all the eastern heights bounding it are in the hands of the.

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Yanks Are Thrifty From the New York World. THREE million dollars, saved by American soldiers in the war tone of France, have been transmitted free of charge to relatives, friends or creditors in America within the last six months. Almost half, was sent In July and the first week of August, when the everincreasing force of Yankee soldiers began to understand fully that the transmitting of their money ,from the extreme front to their homes, free . of all charge, wjjs he latest friendly service offered by the Y. M. C. A. National War Work Council. The system, which the i. M. C. A., inaugurated as only one of its phases of service to the soldier, is simplicity itself. A soldier in the war zone wishing to send money to some one in America, hands the cash to a Y. M. C. A. secretary with the address and leaves the rest te the Red Triangle. : Although the bulk of the remittances are sent with no comment, a few are accompanied by explanations, one man writing that his remittance was to pay his tailor, while another sent his insuranve premium. One soldier sent 75 cents for a box of candy for his sweetheart.

Allies, who now look down from the summits upon the plain below, which is crossed diagonally by the new German line from near Fresues, immediately at the foot of the hills, to Pagny, far off on the Moselle. Though the operation was in no way a main offensive, and was but the prelude to what must follow, it is certain that important strategic results must immediately attach to it. The first isthe release of the main eastern railway from Bar-le-Duc to Nancy. This main latterai communication of the Allies during all these years of war in the west, consisted of two great trunk railways perpetually referred to in these columns. The first goes from Calais and Boulogne through Amiens, to Paris. It is the main line of the Northern Railway company in time of peace. The second goes from Chateau Thierry and Chalons to Barle-Duc and Nancy, with a branch" going off to Verdun. There are, of course plenty of lesser branch lines, but they are often single track and far .less well provided with buildings, repair shops and sidings. By this long avenue of railway, from Calais to Paris and from Paris to Nancy the Allies most quickly move . , . , . troops and supplies back and forth along the line of the front, a matter of high importance, because rapidity of movement, especially in concentration, is the essence of surprise, and, therefore, of victory. Now, for a matter of ten or twelve miles near Commercy, the eastern railway runs through the trench of the upper ileuse and along the bank of that river, while the most important b.railch line runs down thc va,1?y t0 Verdun. When the Germans reached St. Mihiel, September 23. 1914, they were actually across a few yards of the Verdun branch and had under their guns a few miles of ihe main line beiow Commercy. Therefore, from that day to last Thursday, that is, nearly four M mni ' ni years, the main Allied lateral commu nication was cut and the supply oi Nancy and Toul and the lim through Lorraine and down to the Vosges had Later, during the course of the op erations against Verdun in 1916, the branch from Chalons to Ver-iun came under German fire, and it was this isolation of Verdun from its railway supply that made the situation of that front so critical during the earlier part of .1916. As we all know, the main line of the Allied lateral communications suffered further this year. By Aril 4. 1918, the Amiens line came un der the German fire, and by May 30 the eastern line at Chateau Thierry. The latter was released a few days after the counter offensive of July 18 and the former on August 8. But the eastern line still lay cut further on by Commercy, and the Verdun branch also. The first immediate effect of the American victory last Thursday was to RHEUMATISM Truster's Rheumatic Tablets bring relief when all ciher remedies fail. Why suffer? Ask your druggist about Truster's Rheumatic Tablets, the only purely vegetable remedy for that dreaded disease. Remember, we i guarantee every boy. A 30 days treatment, 50c. The tablets are chocolate coated and easy to take. Any druggist should be able to supply you, or write the I rusler Remedy Co., Huntington, Indiana.

' THE AMERICAN THREAT TO When Pershing's men reduced the St. Mlhiel salient they reopened, for the German lateral communications which converge at Conflans.

relieve both these lines, and by Friday morning, September 13, the whole Allied main lateral line of communication in the West, for the first time since the early days of the war, was restored to full use. The second strategic consequence of the American victory was the approach of the AUies to the main Germau lateral communication, and this is of very high importance. The German line in the West had for its main railway lateral line behind the front and serving it for concentration and supply the railway from Metz to Conflans, Longuyon, Sedan, Mezieres, Valenciennes and Lille. As in the Allied case, there are numerous minor branch lines behind the main one. For instance, if the junction at Conflans came under close-range Allied fire, the work could go on, though less easily, round by Thiorville and Fontoy or Luxemburg. But behind Longuyon, the junction for Luxemburg, there is no branch line. There is here the great mass of the Ardennes hills and forests, and if the railway is reached and cut just here the whole unity of the German lateral communications is destroyed. That is the vital matter. It would mean that the German army in the West would be compelled to act in the future as two separate arnjies dependent upon two separate lines of supply, with no direct communication between thorn. The enemy could not rush men up north or down south to meet each new blow. He would have to go around through Belgium with a loss of time of several days, and that would be fatnl to him. The lines are not yet in danger. The American victory does not yet bring Conflans nearer than 20,000 yards from the furthest possible forward emplacement of the heavy guns nor Longuyon nearer than 24,000 yards; but it provides a line from which advance but a few miles would put both these

junctions out of action, and in the case of the second one wouVl strike a fatal blow at the enemy's lateral communications. He knows that well enough and will mass to defend that railway. But he cannot be every' where; and to compel him to mass there is to compel his thinning his front dangerously further south - In the open plain of Lorraine, on the sector from Nancy to Charm es The third strategic result of the American victory is more simple and apparent to every one. It consists In the relative loss of men. Two German divisions have ceased to exist, and there has been a total loss in killed, prisoners and wounded of at least 30,000, and all that has been the work of twenty-four hours. The price paid In Allied, especially American, casualties is known to be slight, though the actual figures, of course, are kept secret. This loss is serious to the enemy at the present moment. Apart from two new tactical assets of the Allies, the new tanks and the American unit of combat, which, as I have explained before, is virtually a new tactical Instrument, the great peril of the Germans is the rapidly increasing disproportion between their numbers and ours. Long ago, August 20, they had to break up eight divisions to fill their gaps, and they had to send for Austrain reinforcements, and the number of these which can be spared is limited. To have two divisions destroyed and from four to six more hammered In one brief operation of twenty-four hours, with the immediate loss of 30,000 men, is at least a heavy blow. There remains the question of how rapidly and upon what scale the enemy can bring troops southward, south and east of Rhelms and the Argonne, to meet the menace . which imperils

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THE GERMAN COMMUNICATIONS u ee of the Allies, the railroads centering at Tout and Nancy and Menaud, tne

bis existence. As my readers know, three-quarters of the1 German strength was concentrated ,for attack before June 15 north and west of the Argonne, only one-quarter held the other half of the line from the Argonne to the Swiss frontier. And one-half was concentrated for attack between Arras and Rhelms alone. When the attack was suddenly turned Into anxious defense upon July IS this congestion in the north was pinned and kept there by the perpetually increasing and lengthening Allied assaults, which gave no respite from July 18 to the present day, and which compelled the Germans to concentrate still in the north. Ceaseless French and American pressure in front of Laon that is, against St. Gobain and the west end of the Chemin des Dames had for its Object not to outflank this immensely strong position, though that might come from accident, but. the pinning of the great enemy forces at the very apex of the dangerous bulge they bold between Verdun and the sea. That is why at the same time of this attack on the St. Mihiel salient you hear of heavy work north of Soissons. But the Germans north of Cambrai have got behind a good water line, which impedes the tanks. They can spare men. At what rate and in what numbers can they spare them to get TRIED MANY. FOl'ND THE BEST. Good digestion is the foundation of good health. Foley Cathartic Tablets keep the bowels regular, sweeten the stomach and tone up the liver. There is nothing better if one desires an oldfashioned, harmless physic gentle in action, yet thoroughly cleansing in effect. J. P. Gaston, Newark, Ind., says he used a great many kinds of cathartics, but Foley Cathartic Tablets gave him more satisfaction than any other. He says they are the best cathartic tablets made. For sale by A. G. Luken & Co.-Adv.

down south and hold Lorraine? Upon the answer to that question depends the remainder of this year's campaign. So far they have only got one division

down, only one that has been Identified at least. They have lost the Initiative. They cannot tell when the next blow will fall. They may guess il will not be in the north, but they can only guess. And wherever they concentrate they will be imperilled by having a .proportionately diminishing force compared with their opponents on some other sector of the line. Their strategical position is unenviable. Ohio Electric THE WAY TO OO" Railway Change of Time Effective SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 15 Limited3 Leave 8:05, 10:05 a. m.; 12:05, 2:05, 4:05 p. m. Locals Leaves 6:00, 9:15, 11:15 a. m.; 1:45, 3:45, 5:15, 6:05, 7:30, 8:30, 10:30 p. m. W. S. WHITNEY, G. P. A., Springfield, 0. Kl R 3 N R V N V V ft V Kl N N