The annual winter peace flurry is blowing over. It will completely disappear when the spring offensives begin. Then Germany must be beaten in the field. Victory by economic pressure has been rendered impossible by the defection of Russia. Germany can fight on without other foreign trade if the vast resources of Russia are at her disposal, and victory by attrition, much heralded in 1915, seems more distant than ever. In spite of three years of losses greater armies will face each other across the trench lines of the Western front this spring than ever before in the conflict.

If the war is to be won, America must make a mighty effort,--and make it in force this year. The policy of another year's stalling before a grand Allied offensive in 1919 is dangerous. It takes no particular insight to see that Italy and France are tired under the strain of the war. The true instinct of immediate self-preservation which destroyed the Russian resistance is likely to spread to Western Europe if its peoples are called upon to face a fifth and a sixth year of war. We hope that Germany feels this influence first but we cannot count upon this. Half a million Americans in action this year may avail more than two millions a year from now if the Allies should lose their punch. Let the American force, small as it is, play an important part in the air, on the sea, and on land during the coming campaign.