of each or any of the combatants
involved is out of the question; indeed, it would be a difficult task
for the shrewdest military expert to establish a sound estimate, for
there are probably few, perhaps none, to whom the armies under
consideration are sufficiently well known for that. Besides all this,
moreover, the present conflict is taking place under conditions
absolutely different from any we have before known, totally new to our
experience.

Formerly, when the situation was more simple than at present, there were
always at the outbreak of war a few experienced experts who could
correctly estimate the prospects for each side in the struggle, for it
was usually fairly clear from the very beginning what each side wanted
to gain and what in the case of victory each would gain. But in the
present situation there is not a word of prophecy which can be uttered
in face of the fact that the most terrible war known to history has
broken out without any of the powers involved in the least wishing it.
It was in Russia first that at the last moment the war party seemed to
have gained the upper hand and to have set in motion the whole bloody
sport. We may rely on it that the statesmen of Austria were of the
honest belief that they could localize the conflict with Servia.

But it is impossible any longer to consider this world war as a
continuation of that conflict. Servia has vanished completely from the
horizon, and in the moment when that end disappeared from view, each
nation found itself suddenly fighting for nothing else save its own
national integrity. The real purposes in this war will not come to the
surface until the balance of the power becomes a little more sharply
defined. Then in the victors' camp all manner of purposes and desires
will suddenly spring up wide awake.

When Everything Is Over.

Meanwhile, little as may be affirmed today concerning the prospects for
the parties in this struggle and the manner of the war's conclusion,
this assertion may safely be put forth; this world will wear a vastly
different appearance when everything is over.

We hope, and may reasonably expect, that the war will be relatively
short. The Franco-Prussian war lasted from the middle of July to the end
of February; military operations began early in August and closed with
the truce of Jan. 28. That the present war will be dragged out to so
great a length, involving so incredible a number of men, demanding so
severe a straini