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NO TIME FOR OPTIMISM No sooner does General Foch begin a smashing attack in the Soissons sector and take prisoners and guns with the cooperation of hardhitting American divisions than his movement Is welcomed by our im ¬ pressionable optimists as the beginning of the end for Germany The note of elation rises to a cres ¬ cendo of triumphant faith in victory It is said that the French strategist has regained the initia ¬ tive that he will not lose it again that Paris Amiens and the channel ports are safe now and that with a million American troops in the line the Gelmans will soon bo driven from French terri ¬ tory It is unfortunate that a gleam of success turns the heads of many of our people so and that they see in it the growing dawn of victory and the sunburst of peace The enemy is less imaginative whatever his successes are whatever advantage he obtains he continues to plan a military triumph in the west in the east he considers that lie has won the war warNo No optimism could be more foolish than the auto ¬ intoxication of the Americans and their allies when a German thrust is parried a drive cheeked or stopped in Flanders 1icardy or the Champagne There is reason for elation when General Foch turns on the foe niid throws him back with heavy casual ¬ ties and accumulating losses as he has done in this his first real offensive since he assumed command of the allied forces on the western front neverthe ¬ less his success should not be hailed as an assur ¬ ance that the worst is over and that henceforth the Germans will have to fight a defensive campaign that must end in defeat and disaster disasterThe The road to victory will be long and toilsome however brilliant the strategy of General Foch however valiantly the allied troops acquit them ¬ selves in the field As that master of war has said tills is a struggle between peoples as well as between armies It might be just as fatal for the people of the allied nations to be victims of over confidence as for the armies to suffer from it There is little dangfr of the latter the allied soldiers know their foe they do not make the mis ¬ take of underrating his genius for war his fighting ability But there is a real danger that the allied peoples and particularly the Americans will be deceived by overconfidencc to the point of relaxing their energies when the situation calls for a supreme effort if a victory is to be won and a democratic peace secured securedIn In homely phrase winnings a round and that is just what General Foch has done in the Soissons sector may be and generally is a different thing from winning a fight In this war Germany has won most of the rounds so far and shows few if any signs of waning skill and strength In the field It was never more true that the allies need all the resources they can command to end the war in their favor As many ships as many airplanes as much artillery and ammunition as can be constructed and manufactured and as quickly as possible is the urgent the imperative need of a crisis which was never more acute And as for troops too many of them cannot be organized and trained not two millions but twice two millions or more We are speaking of Americas contribution our allies are near the end of their resources in man power powerIt It cannot be repeated too often that Germany designs to recruit a vast army in Russia to match every American soldier with a coerced or corruptible Russian New York Times
