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LOOKS LIKE LONG WAR Because most competent military authorities have agreed that the present campaign will prove the decisive struggle of the war a large part of the public seems to have Jumped to the conclusion that if the Germans fall in their great offensive peace must soon follow This is by no means a logical deduction nor is it justified by the past history of warfare The battle of Gettysburg was probably the decisive battle of the Civil war but the strug ¬ gle dragged on for a long time after Lees dis ¬ astrous defeat So it is likely enough that if the Germans fail to reach a decision in the present campaign they will be able to hold out on the de ¬ fensive for many long months by successively shortening their lines And slowly yielding ground through France and Belgium In this event politi ¬ cal factors would l e far more likely to bring about a rapid ending of the war than the most effective military pressure that the allies can reas onably expect to develop within the next twelve months In other words If the war is to be won by a decisive military victory over the German armies in the field the allies even with American aid can hardly expect to have the necessary over ¬ whelming superiority over the enemy much before 1920 This Is not a particularly pleasant fact to face but the allies have done their cause far more harm by optimistically underestimating the enemys strength than by undue pessimism And the Ameri ¬ can people will be wise to realize the magnitude of the job ahead of them and then KO to It Leslies
