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Show ENGLISH VIEW OF 1 THE BIG CONTEST By H. G WELLS. The Noted English Novelist and Pub llelat. London, Oct 6, This is a war not only of men. but of things. Things also go to war. The men do splendid splen-did deeds, but it is the things that make their deeds possible and w shall misunderstand this struggle com pletely, and much that lies before us In this Btruggle if we let ourselves suppose that it needs only a response on the part of the men recruiting A greater need s for gear, hoardings. hoard-ings. taxlcRbs, the postofflre and newspaper clamor "Your king and COOntrj 1 'I you" to every able man Much more Is that rrue of every warm blankr-i e-, cry overcoat, every flannel flan-nel shirt, every stout pair of boots or sox, every r.ervlce revolver, every pound in our pockets. Much moro for recruits to offer themselve abundantly, but ear has to be made and pot together and bought, and has to be paid for I doubt if the people have begun lo reckon on the strain of that, or oi bow much thej may serve their country coun-try by enlisting their property and i their possessions. Success of Gear. For let there be no mock about I the opening stages of this war Ail the initial successes of Germany were sneresses of gear. In artlller and the transport cf every sorl of sup I piles perpiany was overw helmlnglv at the advantage, and the rrent march thai came so near Paris was far more n triumph of boots and tires than ot men Germany was at the outset also enormously superior in the number ol her flying machines. I have poini-ed poini-ed this out and expressed conviction j that the German makes so inferlo-rn inferlo-rn .iviator to the Englishman or Kmnehman that ultimately these latter lat-ter would "bully the German out of the sky " This Is already happening. The first news of the British aviators from General French confirmed my very obvious remarks in a previous article about the need for a larger supply of these most essential weapons, weap-ons, and my congratulations upon the recent energy of cur aviation wing. Toes Trodden Upon. Some one's toes were trodden in that path since it cracked life rifl-fire rifl-fire through the press and technical papers, declaring that the report of General French had completely disposed dis-posed of my "hysterics." I am not ashamed to sound a high note In a thing so urgent. I would rather crack my voice and reputation reputa-tion than to see this matter neglected neglect-ed now It will be most lamentable if the brilliant performances of the men we have and the reassurance of interested exports produce national complacency in this matter, when the need for more machines and better machines, training more men and con Btant inventiveness Is a thing of supreme su-preme urgency. In this matter of material It is Germany Ger-many and Russia only that seem to have been fully equipped for a struggle strug-gle of the magnitude of the present rtar. Russia had her surprise and learned her lesson from Japan in 19114 When the kaiser donned his shining armor on behalf of Austria the Russian armor gleamed even brighter than the German It is astonishingly as-tonishingly new and complete. Wo In England were, also prepared, to the last button indeed, most admirably for the expeditionary' force and with our Indian army. We have very ample stores In hand for the size of our army, but now the task before us is not only to keep up our equipment to the levn of our recruiting, but also to do everything ev-erything else In our power to supple mrnt the lesser productive power of our present and potential allies Our part at sea is only one side of our national duty I dare not write about our British manhood at war, except to say that I am proud to bo English. But we must now justify jus-tify the claim to be the factory of the world We must show our ability abili-ty to put flannel shirts by the millions, milli-ons, rugs, wraps, waterproofs, boots, rifles, ammunition into the battle line. That is not perhaps so glorious a task as ruling all the seas, but it is equally equal-ly essential to victory. No doubt Germans on their side are pouring out supplies from 10,000 busy workshops, but with our uninvaded country we shall beat them at that They are also making all sorts of gruns and queer war engines at those mighty works at Essen. . Happily tbftl quality of docility and obediencn n which Germans excel carries with t a lack of quick in entiveness thai distinguishes both the Erench unof ' 'lcial and English intelligence. Yet can feci in my bones the tremen-lous tremen-lous industry, tremendous straining, he uninspired systematic German ingenuity in-genuity that are going on. They are sertalhly constructing Zpppellns, larger lar-ger Zeppelins and improved Zeppe-ins. Zeppe-ins. They will be no trouble to iviators with bombs or light guns Irlng explosive shells, . The Germans will also try to mako " ilgger and bigger guns, and I suspect , hey will build up their guns on vasr edrail wheels to go over soft ground nd so convert them into skld-liko ronclads They are also probably jrnlng all the river Rhine banks from lonn to Westel into a diabolical net work of traps and obstacles against future attacks by allied armies, which ihrv foresee Incidentally, they are using up no end of stuff, but we have to reckon with this German passion for preparation; we have to keep pace with Essen Now we have not only to keep pace with Essen, but as soon as possible we have to get at Essen and smash up Essen forever. Westphalia and not Berlin is the vital target in this western war on material, for it Is at this center of manufacture and not at the center of government that a hostile army must strike to end the war. nr |