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Show REGARDS PHCt BEFORE 1913 AS 001 0FJES11 Medill McCormick Says Russia's Collapse and America's Unreadiness Will Prolong War. WASHINGTON TO DECIDE THE ISSUE More Powerful Direction and Greater Unity of Effort Ef-fort Needed at National Capital. CHICAGO, Nov. IS. Russia's collapse and the unreadiness of the United States make hopeless any thoughts of peace before be-fore 1913, in the opinion of MedlH McCormick. Mc-Cormick. congressman at largo of Illinois, who has just returned from a visit to most of the important fronts of the European Eu-ropean battle line. Mr, McCormick said: The Germans are not winning the war. Neither are we. The war today presents a stalemate from which we are unable to extricate extri-cate ourselves, because of the collapse col-lapse of Russia and the unreadiness of the United States. There is practically prac-tically no hope that Russia can be in any sense useful during- the year 1918. From the most responsible persons I heard a disheartening tale of Russian Inefficiency, corruption, incendiarism and. murder. Russia is so disordered that she can not make war. Happily, Hap-pily, in all probability, neither can she make peace. Germany might propose pro-pose concessions and indemnities in the west and to recoup herself in the east. What would the European democracies de-mocracies do under these ci rcum -stances? The principal public men with whom I talked were not all agreed upon the answer to that question. ques-tion. Object of German Drive. Since the German high command controls all the central powers from the Bosphorus to the Baltic, they act with jrreater energy, unity and skill than their enemies. Thus they made a seemingly successful drive into Italy. The real object of their political politi-cal foray into Venetia was partly to make camouflage on a grand scale to conceal their steady losses from Verdun to Passchendaele and partly to provoke revolution In Italy. While I was in the now conquered Italian territory a little while ago, the Italian command expected an attack at-tack in the neighborhood of Asiago. The Italians were underpinned, neither had they enough ammunition. The margin of subsistence in the . country is so narrow that it must affect af-fect the morale of the population. But, even so, the Italians would not have been driven back so far as they were if two or three divisions, holding hold-ing an almost impregnable point, debauched de-bauched hy the excellent spy system of Germany, had not thrown down their arms. The Italians had defeated the AuBtrians. It was German divisions with artillery from the eastern and westorn fronts which restored the morale of the Austrian-Hungarian troops and themselves led the suc-cussful suc-cussful thrust. The French and British have a moderate mod-erate preponderance in guns, and, man for man, they outfight the Germans. Ger-mans. Boys in the Ranks. All of the German class of next year's boys of 1 are. in the arm v. a nd many of 1 fl, who.e tea r-stained facc-3 a.mong tlie prisoners, wrench the hearts of the Tommies and the Pollus. who show them a shv. tender and clumsy kindness. Plainly the resources re-sources in men a.nd materia) are running run-ning low. While there are sMIM excellent ex-cellent German divisions in Flander?. there was an appreciable diminution in the morale and the physical quality qual-ity of the German trnopw nn t e French and British front during tho ten weeks in which T was in Furnpn. Germany everywhere had lost the offensive. of-fensive. Tho issue of the war will be decided not on the Ionzo or thf Fiavp; not on the Meuse or the Rhino, but In Washington and by 1 he furna.cey of A merlca. This wa r must he won. if we are to win it. by the manufacture in America of thousands of engines of war. Men can not win the war. The splendid little A merlcan annv wide h alread y has crossed the ?. rendered a great service when t echo of the first American fet upon the soil of Prance carrier to pvpry home v hih has s:icrifife .1 I and almost al-most all French home? have an-u I'iced i. the promise thM the strength, and sMU more the industrial trenlnp, of America would bring succor to France. Hope of France. One of the greatest of Pre ml: en-eralt:, en-eralt:, perhaps the greatest, wir.h'the burden of the long front unop hi s boulder p, said to me: "Tlink '"od for your little army. Tt bnoved our falling hope. bnt its prese.n t ero i costs us material. Send us I'ar nop mid ammunition now, nnd more of them, lest there be none of us left v. hen you rea Hy c-'-t berp." We t-nn not hope to have, a vai an 1 1 y i n Fr a nee next yer. Rut America, whone furnaces ,-An forge bs much Hie'-l as the. furnaces of all Europe, c-Hti produce the cannon ! 2.Vcnn cannon. We mii.H have- greater o-ordina t Ion ' of effort than we k-we now. We mus; have more powerful d'.re-.-tion, greater unity of effort, a true war -Mir: "';!. 1 such as does not e-is; in WishinfcEon a council of n-,m who, irrespective nf ' faction and party, represent in the grentertt decree the rnrs;v and the grnili? of America. We rnupt bend all our energies to mlte the erMi in-d-js'ral effoit in tln'e. jt wu be f-ultleps if wo a,-e retidy late. |
