Life — July 4, 1918 — page 16: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

JULY 4, 1918 “* While there is Life there's Hope"? VOL. 72 No. 1862 Published by LIFE PUBLISHING COMPANY J. A. Mitcnsut, Pres‘t. A. Minter, Secty end Treas. West Thirty-Girst Street, New York English Offices, MILLION menin France! Even the black- est pessimists must admit that that is a good beginning. And eighty-nine ships—maybe more to be launched on the Fourth of July (440,000 tons of them), which looks like real progress in ships. And the Italian victory, which, just at this writing, grows bigger with every fresh edition of the papers! A very good victory, that! Not that it is much of a job for Italians to beat Austrians when the Italians feel like fighting, but the cruel reverses that befell, not long ago, some Italians that had taken the German poison, make this growing re- assurance trebly acceptable, Also the campaign against U-boats goes on with a constancy and precision that gives satisfaction to the Allies. So the news at this writing is good, and people who cannot resist wondering when the war will end begin again to hope they will live to see peace, And, of course, when they say peace they mean a peace to be thankful for; one worth what peace will have cost this world when it gets it. But the German drive in France is not over yet, and there must be a lot of fighting before the German armies fall hack across the Rhine. More troops, good masters! More of everything— money, munitions, meat, wheat, Red Cross, Y. M. C. A., doctors, hospitals, bandages, farmerettes, women waiters in the clubs and restaurants, women car-conductors; more bonds, more taxes, more thrift stamps, more drives, more war, war, war! It's tiresome it’s very trying; but it’s the only y and, after all, how light our end of it Rolls House, Brean: Bldgs., London, F, C. is, compared with others! Belgians in Belgium are still being executed by the dozen by their German rulers; northern France is a dust-heap; “ Merrie Eng- land” is full of pluck, but hardly gay. The world the war leaves, if it leaves any, will hardly be a very cheerful world again for the remnants of the older generation. The young whom the war spares will get over it, and go blithely about their business, but their elders can hardly hope to do as well. Their world is going to smash, The more reason to take what com- fort offers, and a good deal offers this week. And there will be great and cheering satisfaction when the final show-down comes and the Prus- sian learns his place. ERHAPS Austria is a watched pot, and will not boil as expected, but if so she will belie abundant advertise- ment. In every paper one reads that she is on her very last legs, and if her effort against Italy ends in the disas- trous failure that now looks probable, we may learn what happens in a country whose last legs double up un- der it. We want to know. Germany is pretty shaky now in many details, bankrupt, very short of raw material, and, unless all men are liars, very short of food. She can still fight hard, and she may fight long, but she has bet every hope of future comfort on her ability to conquer the rest of the civil- ized world, and there is no prospect that she can do it. The presence of a million American troops in France means that the war must come to a real settlement and convincing wreck of Germany's past aims and intentions, for our troops cannot be withdrawn until Germany's power for mischief is done for. They are now definitely committed to the defense of France, and we, back at home, are committed to maintain them and add to their number as fast as the utmost effort can contriv: Everybody now wants to have this trouble over at the earliest possible day, and every- body now knows what that means Or of the current profuse discus- sion of Russia and the need to put some props under her, something is likely to come. We seem now to be under instruction about Russia by our newspapers, and if the pains they are taking with us in that particular were being taken about something in Ger- many our correspondents would tell us that the German people were being prepared for a new move. Mr, Wilson's well-known aversion to meddling with revolutions would not apply to the case of a country which is being invaded while its revolution is in process. If Germany had taken the opportunity of Mexico's disturbance to send an armed force there, of course our troops would have taken a hand at once. Then there would have come the problem of fighting the Germans in Mexico without fighting the Mexicans, and that is now the problem in Russia. Russia left to herself might work out her revolution, but Russia overrun with Germans and German propaganda, needs help. There need not be exces- sive delicacy about fighting Russians who have played into German hands and sacrificed their country to crazy whims and mad ambitions, but it is desirable, of course, to proceed in such a way that the great mass of Russians who don’t want German rule will see rescue, and not their own subversion, in whatever armed help the Allies can provide for them. The available door to Russia seems to be Vladivostok. If troops are to go to her aid from there they must be largely Japanese, but with them there should go troops of the other Allies. But Vladivostok and Japan are far from Petrograd, end the going is not comicbooks.com