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ACID TEST FOR AMERICANS AMERICANSTlie Tlie American soldier lias had but little opportu ¬ nity to show his mettle for half a century Our lirusli with Spain and our subsequent campaign in the Philippines were in an inconspicuous theater of Avar and gave no real means of comparing the American boys as material for military training and effective ¬ ness with tlie levies for the great armies of Europe Our maneuvers when we had any were not cal ciliated to give a measure of the war capacity of young American manhood Of course we knew our youth We knew their courage sameness intelli ¬ gence adaptability and sense of responsibility We lnow that not one of them was without confidence that he could worthily wear the four stars of a full general need be Better than that we knew his moral courage and his sense of patriotic duty dutyWe We did have one slight chance to measure the American soldier with the European and Japanese in the Boxer expedition The result justified our faith For less than a year we have been training our boys to fight in modern war The qualifications for satisfactory military service ara higher than ever The men with whom our soldiers are now associated on the western front and those whom they are fighting have had three or more years of training behind the line and in actual war Our boys have been pitted against the petted guards of the German emperor called into battle only when a crisis is at hand and victory must be had The American soldiers of a year have met and driven back these veterans of the imperial household the flower of the greatest military system of the world We Americans are not ovcrmodest We do not suffer from lack of selfconfidence Conscious as we are of this we find peculiar gratification in tbining facts that speak for themselves of the won ¬ derful qualities of young American manhood manhoodThe The course of General Bullard and his command at Chateau Thierry makes ones heart beat high lie was ordered by his French commander to give ground He declined on the ground that his troops did not know how to retreat He ordered them for ¬ ward The check of the German offensive on the Manic began with this sharp counter of his men His act savored of insubordination Only a bril ¬ liant success could justify it He took the chance and report makes him a lieu tenantgeneral tenantgeneralThe The most interesting and amusing evidence of the wonderful work our men are doing on the battle front in France is to K found in the German military reports They first ignored the presence of American troops Then they belittled their numbers Then they reported as killed more than they have raid could cross the seas To be a successful liar a man must have some sense of humor The German is without it The sense of real human proportion it implies he lacks A German lie can only fool a German GermanThe The contest on the Ourcq has been bitter We are driving the Germans back The true fighting edge of tlie Americans has stiffened the morale of the whole allied arniy The French and British know what they may count on iu the five millions to come It tlie first two hundred thousand thus can stand the gaff and wield it itIut Iut the American people must prepare at once for a sad awakening to the awful cost of war Our total casualties to date as reported are but IGOOO1 with seven divisions engaged in this battle iu the alieiit General March says that the casualties are now to be reported in full as they occur and not bpreud over many days Iu May the English lost 100000 men in jne their casualties wore 144000 They had it is true many more men engaged Itnt if the ratio of loss to men engaged is the same and we know no reason why it should not be our cas ¬ ualties in this battle alone may easily be more than double all previous losses Let us sternly nerve ourselves and bravely maintain the sacrificial spirit W U Taft in Philadelphia Ledger
