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Show H THE LITTLE "IF" IN WAR. H The largeness of the small word "IF" was never more B "vividly illustrated than in the von Mackensen campaign B 3n the Balkans during the past few years. If that dashing B captain could have been allowed to prosecute his Rumani- B an drive a little longer, he would have come into a wonder- H iully valuable strategic position on the Sereth river. If H' She had attained that objective, he would have captured a B great line of railway running down the valley of that B Tiver, If he had gained this railway, Rumanian evacua- l tion of Moldavia would have been inevitable, and the Ru-Imanian Ru-Imanian capital and people would have been compelled to retire into some part of the Russian province of Bessarabia. Bess-arabia. If this had been done, the German vanguard would have been within a hundred miles of Odessa on tho Black sea, Russia's great grain port. If the invader had then driven on to Odessa, as he apparently would have been able to do, the richness of his booty would be incalculablethe in-calculablethe German stomach would have been assured of plenty of food for a good while to come. Here the bigness of the "IF" becomes apparent. It has proved insurmountable, because Gen. Cardona, away over on the shores of the Adriatic, has upset all the German Ger-man calculations. Within the past three days he has been inflicting such a merciless beating upon the Austriana that unless the latter receive prompt succor they will lose Triest even Vienna is reported as in a state of panic. So von Mackensen is compelled to abandon his own well-laid well-laid plans with all their promise of victory, and hurry, across with help for this master's ally. The Sereth, the railroad, a conquered Rumania, the fat graneries of Odessa all the hopes must be deferred the "if" stood in the way. Temporarily Rumania is saved; and whether the salvation is to be permanent, depends upon the rescue of Austria from the present demobilization. Mackensen's many "ifs," and the Kaiser's, too, for that matter, could be very profitably reduced to one; namely, "if" Austria could ever get up pluck and power enough to defend he)' own lines and be an ally worth whjle instead of a constant incubus, Germany might be able to do business for herself her-self on a more profitable and consistent scale. Deseret News. |