Western Star AND WALLACE COUNTY GAZETTE. PUBLISHED Every Tuesday and Friday. TUESDAY, MAY 8, 1917. THE WAR.

Western Star, 8 May 1917, Page 2

Western Star AND WALLACE COUNTY GAZETTE. PUBLISHED Every Tuesday and Friday. TUESDAY, MAY 8, 1917. THE WAR.

News from Russia is not so satisfactory as one would desire. The disjointed and scrappy character of the cable intelligence does not make it absolutely clear that Russia is concentrating all her energies upon an Allied victory. Rather, it would appear that her energies are being dissipated by the work of arranging conditions of stable government. One message stated that the position was still grave, the meaning being not-that revolutionary fighting is likely to ensue but that in the absence of settled government no well defined policy can be put into operation. The needs of the country are, first, stable government, and, secondly, organisation. Were these two factors settled, at this stage of the war a big offensive on th e Eastern frontier would vastly assist the AngloBritish offensive • on fhe Hindenburg line now at its climax. It is not reassuring to read of Germans and Russians fraternising on the Eastern frontier, and as has been suspected, this may be a new means employed by Germany for easing the position while she is receiving such a pounding in Northern France. Russian slackness at this stage of the war may mean its prolongation. The United States has entered the war in a whole-hearted way, and, guided by the experience of the past, is leaving nothing to chance. Russia, is to receive great assistance in her work of reorganisation. In addition to a. political and economic commission, President Wilson is sending eminent railway engineers to assist in the reconstruction of the, transport system 1 . This shows that there is a lot to be done in Russia before she can exert her full strength effectively. And what the United State is doing in other directions is worth noting. Up to April Ist there have been fortyfive thousand enlistments. There is to be a curtailment of passenger train services, and the shipment of the country’s entire output of railway stock to the Allies. The States seized sixteen German ships at the Phillipine Islands, and this will make good some of the victims of subraarinism, to minimise the dangers of which the States and the Allies propose mining practically the whole of the North Sea, a gigantic undertaking. German Americans have been warned that any attempt to plot or agitate for peace with Germany will be treated as a treasonable act and punished accordingly, an evidence of the determination of the States to see the thing through t o i the end. Nor is this all. The subscriptions to the two billion dollar war loan are pouring in at the rat© of a million an hour. A new Food Bill has been introduced in Congress. It makes the President virtual dictator and gives him absolute control as regards shipments and speculation and even the use of food and stimulants. Mr Balfour and Mr Wilson have agreed to immediate measures guaranteeing the food supplies of the Allies and the systematic and scientific destruction of submarines. The latter is a very important announcement, and the world may yet hear of an invention that will render the submarine an effete weapon of war. The principal American inventive genius is working on the submarine problem. There are seventyfive experts assisting Mr Edison, the famous inventor. Twenty per cent of the inventions that have been tested by the Government, it is stated, are utilisable hut have not solved the problem. The inventors are principally seeking an electrical device, which will either divert or prematurely explode the torpedoes, and if their efforts are crowned with success they will have rendered mankind an incalculable service.