by Richard van Pelt, WWI Correspondent

The month drew to an end with German armies threatening French and British forces in the west, while Russian armies continued to press from the east. The German plan to hold Russia at bay in the east while dealing fatal blows to the allies in the west seemed to be working, as the headlines attest:

STORY OF THE DAY IN FEW WORDS
Exhausted by Superhuman Efforts, German Army Stops to Breathe
RUSSIAN INVASION CAUSES MUCH ALARM
Italy, Bulgaria and Greece All in Danger of Being Drawn Into the Conflict

Exhausted, Germany’s great army on the French frontier has paused in its main attack today to recuperate.

It was bringing up reinforcements, filling gaps and substituting fresh troops for worn out ones.

The Franco-British allies still held their main positions.

The fighting had gone somewhat against them but they had not been overwhelmed.

Interviewed by the United Press, Winston Churchill, First Lord of the Admiralty, stated that the war was being maintained by the Prussian military aristocracy. “In a word, it is the old struggle of 100 years ago against Napoleon. the grouping of the forces is different; the circumstances are different; the occasions is different; man, above all, is different – happily – but the issue is the same. We are at grips with Prussian militarism. England stands right in the path of this ever-growing power.

In response, the German ambassador, Count Von Bernstorff stated that Churchill was largely responsible for the war “and is known to have proposed an attack on the German fleet before the war started.” “Churchill’s appeal to the American people,” the ambassador stated, “is based entirely on the wrong assumption of a separation between the emperor and the so-called military aristocracy of Germany on one hand and the German people on the other. This assumption is entirely wrong.” The ambassador provided further evidence in rebuttal by stating that “It is proved wrong by the fact that German social democrats voted credits in parliament for the war. . . “ He noted that German social democrats supported the government while the British labor party said that not all had been done that could have been done to prevent war.

KAISER ORDERS RUSSIAN ADVANCE CHECKED AT ONCE
German Troops Being Rushed to East Prussia to Face Russian Hordes
AUSTRIA QUITS SERVIA TO FACE THE RUSSIANS

BELGIAN ACTIVITIES ANNOYING
Compels Withdrawal of 40,000 Troops From the French Frontier

The waring parties planned for a short war. In the words of the poet, Robert Burns:

The best-laid schemes o’ mice an ‘men
Gang aft agley,
An’lea’e us nought but grief an’ pain,
For promis’d joy!

Or, as the Prussian military theorist, Carl von Clausewitz, wrote: “War is an area of uncertainty; three quarters of the things on which all action in War is based are lying in a fog of uncertainty to a greater or lesser extent.”

The editor of the Capital Journal related much the same, but focused on the effect the war would have on the parties:

There is one phase of the European war situation that has not been discussed and is apparently overlooked by those who are guessing at the results of the war and figuring out what will happen if either side wins. It is pretty generally conceded that the allies can not hope to overrun Germany. They may drive her back and herd her armies inside her own boundaries, but when it comes to invading her, getting away from their base of supplies and fighting her armies behind their almost impregnable defenses, that is another proposition.

On the other hand should Germany beat her enemies and win her way to Paris,what can she accomplish thereby?

* * *

England, like Germany, is practically safe from invasion, for her fleet can stop any army’s crossing the channel. Mistress of the seas, and from her insular situation safe from attack, what can Germany hope to get from her?

The situation resolves itself into one of certain loss to the winner as well as the losers, and the probability is that when the “unpleasantness” is settled the participant countries will be in the same shape they are now, so far as territory is concerned, and all will be almost hopelessly in debt if the conflict is continued for any length of time.