The Wonder of War on Land Read online

  PREFACE

  Never, in the history of the world, has the courage of the individualsoldier and the skill of the individual officer been so superblywitnessed as in the Great War. Still less has it ever been that ageneral dealt with such mighty forces or was confronted with suchappalling problems of organization. The brain would reel with itsimmensity were it not for the fact that the brain grows accustomed toprodigies, to prodigies of valor, of skill, and of self-sacrifice.

  Two great questions stand out paramount in the Great War. It is aconflict of principles, it is also a conflict of strategies. These twoare interlocked. The strategy that dooms hundreds of thousands to deathrecklessly is the result of one principle; the strategy that makesevery soldier a hero and a patriot is based on an opposing principle.These are hereinafter set forth and tell their own hideous and theirown glorious tale.

  War, such as the Great War, has never been before. The changedconditions did not come suddenly, they came gradually, and each newdeath-dealing device was brought about as the result of some disasterthat had gone before. The Siege-Gun explains the fall of Liege, theweakness of fortifications explains trench warfare, the defense atYpres explains the poison gas, and the trench deadlock foreshadows thetank.

  The United States is in the war. It is our war. We must know allthat can be known. We must do all that can be done. We have enteredthe war on a high and noble plane, and we must know what are thefundamental principles at stake. War is neither a gathering of heroesnor a shambles. It is holy and it is dreadful. It is sublime and it issordid. It is so terrible a thing that it can only be pardoned whenits causes are just, even as they are just, noble, and sublime in thiswar. To give the boys of the United States a fair viewpoint on thiswar, to reveal the great issues involved, to build up a swift-bloodedadmiration for the men who have taken their lives in their handsto defend these great ideals and to prepare our lads for a manhoodin which they shall be worthy of their fathers and of their elderbrothers, to give a deeper pulse to the pride of being an American, isthe aim and purpose of

  THE AUTHOR.