Full text of "Kelly Miller's history of the world war for human right; being an intensely human and brilliant account of the world war and why and for what purpose America and the allies are fighting and the important part taken by the Negro, including the horrors and wonders of modern warfare, the new and strange devices, etc. .."

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KEI^Y MILDER, A. M., 1,1,. D.
Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, Howard University, Washington D. C.

KELLY MILLER'S HISTORY

The World War

FOR

Human Rights

An Intensely Human and Brilliant Account of the World
War; Why America Entered the Conflict; What the Allies
Fought For; And a Thrilling Account of the Import-
ant Part Taken by the Negro in the Tragic Defeat
of Germany; The Downfall of Autocracy, and
Complete Victory for the Cause of
Righteousness and Freedom.

INCLUDING

A Wonderful Array of Striking Pictures Made from Recent Official Photo*
graphs, Illustrating and Describing the New and Awful Devices Used
in the Horrible Methods of Modern Warfare, together with
Remarkable Pictures of the Negro in Action
in Both Army and Navy.

KELLY MILLER, A. M., LL. D.

The Weil-Known and Popular Author of
"Race Adjustment," "Out of the House of Bondage"
and "The Disgrace of Democracy."

ALSO

Important Contributions by JOHN J. PERSHING, the Famous General,
FREDERICK DRINKER, the Noted War Correspondent,
and E. A. ALLEN, Author of "The History
of Civilization."

PUBLISHED BY

A. JENKINS
Copyright, 1919
By

O. KELLER

THE NEGRO'S PART IN THE WAR

By Pkofessor Kelly Miller, the Well-Known Thinker

and Writer.

This treatise will set forth the black man's part in the
world's war with the logical sequence of facts and the bril-
liant power of statement for which the author is famous.
The mere announcement that the author of "Race Adjust-
ment," "Out of the House of Bondage," and "The Dis-
grace of Democracy" is to present a history of the Negro
in the great world conflict, is sufficient to arouse expectancy
among the wide circle of readers who eagerly await any-
thing that flows from his pen.

In this treatise, Professor Miller will trace briefly, but
with consuming interest, the relation of the Negro to the
great wars of the past. He will point out the never-failing
fount of loyalty and patriotism which characterizes the
black man's nature, and will show that the Negro has never
been a hireling, but has always been characterized by that
moral energy which actuates all true heroism.

The conduct of the Negro in the present struggle will
be set forth with a brilliant and pointed pen. The idea of
three hundred thousand American Negroes crossing three
thousand miles of sea to fight against autocracy of the Ger-
man crown constitutes the most interesting chapter in the
history of this modern crusade against an unholy cause.
The valor and heroism of the Afro-American contingent
were second to none according to the unanimous testimony
of those who were in command of this high enterprise.

THE NEGRO'S PART IN THE WAR.

The story of Negro officers in command of troops of
their own color will prove the wisdom of a policy entered
upon with much distrust and misgiving. It is just here
that Professor Miller reaches the high-water mark. Here
is a storv never told before, because the world has never
before witnessed Negro officers in large numbers partici-
pating in the directive side of war waged on the high level
of modern science and system.

Professor Miller's treatise carries its own prophecy.
He logically enough forecasts the future of the race in glow-
ing colors as the result of his loyal and patriotic conduct tfe
this great world epoch.

The author wisely queries: "When, hereafter, the
Negro asks for his rights as an American citizen, where
can the American be found with the heart or the hardihood
to say him, Nay?"

The work will be profusely illustrated.

Publishers.

March 27, 1919.

GENERAL PREFACE

WHILE the underlying causes of the greatest war
in all history must be traced far back into the
centuries, the one great object of the conflict which
was precipitated by the assassination of the Archduke
Francis Ferdinand of Austria, in Bosnia, at the end of
June, 1914, is the ultimate determination as to whether
imperialism as exemplified in the government of Germany
shall rule the world, or whether democracy shall reign.

Whenever men or nations disregard those principles
which society has laid down for their conduct in modern
civilized life, and obligation and duty are forgotten in the
desire for self-advancement, conflict results.

Since the days of Athens and Sparta the world's great-
est wars have in the main been conflicts of ideals— democ-
racy being arrayed against oligarchy— men fighting for
individual rights as against militarism and military dom-
ination.

In the World War, which terminated with the sign-
ing of the armistice, November 11, 1918, which painted
the green fields of France and Belgium red with blood,
and swept nations into the most significant and bitter
struggle in all history, the fight was against the Imperial
Government of Germany, by men and nations who claim
that humanity the world over has rights that must be
observed.

Germany has brought upon herself the destruction of
her government by ruthlessly trampling upon her neigh-
bors and assuming that " might is right."

The Imperial Government, led by the House of Hohen-
zollern, was suffering from an exaggerated ego. Her

GENERAL PREFACE.

trouble was psychological. The men who study the strange
workings and twists of the human mind which land some
men in the institutions for the criminal insane, agree that
when any man becomes obsessed wTith an idea and " rides
a hobby" to the exclusion of all else, he loses his balance
and develops an obliquity of view wrhich makes him a dan-
gerous creature.

Germany was obsessed with the spirit of militarism
and almost everything else had been sacrificed to this idol.
The very first appearance of Germans in history is as a
warlike people. The earliest German literature is of folk-
tales about war heroes, and these stories tell of the manly
virtues of the heroes.

It is true that there are many scientists, poets, and
musicians among the Germans, but their warlike side must
never be forgotten. The entire race is imbued with the
military spirit, the influence reaching to every phase of
national life. All that was best in the nation was raised
to its highest efficiency through military training, but in
the accomplishment of its purposes the House of Hohen-
zollern, which is responsible for the development of the
national fighting arm, neglected much and produced mil-
lions of creatures who are but human machines, taught
to obey orders without consideration as to the effect their
acts might produce, whether right or wrong.

In their criticisms of the Prussian militarism the
world democracies defined militarism as an arrogant, or
exclusive, professional military spirit, developed by train-
ing and environment until it became despotic, and assumed
superiority over rational motives and deliberations.

This attitude was reflected in the conduct of the Kaiser,
who, as illustrative of the point, is quoted at the dedi-
cation of the monument to Prince Frederick Charles at
Frankfurt-on-the-Oder in 1891, as having said, "We would

GENERAL PREFACE.

vii

rather sacrifice our eighteen army corps and our forty-two
millions inhabitants on the field of battle than surrender a
single stone of what my father and Prince Charles Fred-
erick gained."

His speeches were filled with similar bombastic and
extravagant expressions which were the subject of inter-
national comment for many years. Other countries besides
Germany have maintained great armies, but their main-
tenance has been but an incidental part of the general busi-
ness of the nation and there was no submerging of the
spirit which seeks and demands appropriate public ideals
in government and action. So that while other elements
have always tended to produce friction between neighbor-
ing countries, it was adamant, stubborn, military Prussian-
ism which asserted itself in the middle of 1914 and set
the world afire.

Enough is known at this writing to show that the cost
in lives, money, morals and weakening of humanity as a
whole, is staggering, and yet the whole truth can not be real-
ized for years to come. In our own great struggle, which
had for its object the liberation of the Negro, the scars
which our country received have not yet been entirely elim-
inated. Portions of the country devastated by the soldiers
still bear the marks of the invasion, but what was lost in
money and material things was made up by the welding
together of the two sections of the country. The Union
was made a concrete, humanitarian body of citizens. The
battle was for the right and liberty triumphed. And by
the defeat of Germany liberty again triumphs and the
world is made a safe place in which to live.

And just as America fought for liberty in the stirring
days of 1776, and her peoples fought one another in the
trying days of 1861-65, so America was drawn into the
World's War that the principles of liberty, for which she

viii

GENERAL PREFACE.

has ever stood, might be perpetuated throughout the
world, and that an international peace might be estab-
lished, which has for its purposes the ending of such con-
vulsions as have shaken the world since August, 1914, since
the first shots were fired in fair Belgium by German
invaders.

CONTENTS

CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTORY

CIVILIZATION AT ISSUE — THE GERMAN EMPIRE — CHARACTER OF WILLIAM II — TEE

Obeat Conspiracy — The War by Years — United States in the War — Two
Hundred Fifty Miles of Battle — The Downfall of Turkey — The Demo-
cratic Close of tue War 17

CHAPTER II
GEN. PERSHING'S OWN STORY
Organization of His General Staff— Training in France— In the Aisne Of-
fensive— At Chateau Thierry— The St. Mihiel Salient — Meuse-Argonne,
First Phase — The Battle in the Forest — Summary 49

CHAPTER III
PRESIDENT WILSON'S REVIEW OF THE WAR
Troop Movement During the Year — Tribute to American Soldiers — Splen. id
Spirit of the Nation — Resume the Work of Peace — Outline of Work in
Paris — Support of Nation Urged 79

CHAPTER IV
THE FLASH THAT SET THE WORLD AFLAME
Teutons Find in a Murder the Excuse for War — Germany Inspired by Am-
bitions for World Control — The Struggle for Commercial Supremacy a
Factor — The Underlying Motives 89

CHAPTER V
WHY AMERICA ENTERED THE WAR
The Iron Hand of Prussianism — The Arrogant Hohenzollern Attitude —
Secretary Lane Tells Why We Fight — Broken Pledges — Laws Violated
— Prussianism the Child of Barbarity — Germany's Plans for a World
Empire 97

CHAPTER VI
THE THINGS THAT MADE MEN MAD
Germany's Barbarity — The Devastation of Belgium — Human Fiends — Fire-
brand and Torch — Rape and Pillage — The Sacking of Louvain — Wanton
Destruction — Official Proof 113

CHAPTER VII
THE SLINKING SUBMARINE
A Voracious Sea Monster — The Ruthless Destructive Policy of Germany —
Starvation of Nations the Goal — How the Submarines Operate — Some

Personal Experiences 136

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER VIII

THWARTING THE U-BOAT

Xets to Entangle the Sea Sharks of War— "Chasers" or "Skimming dish"
Boats — "Blimps" and Seaplanes — Hunting the Submarine With "Lance,"
Bomb and Gun — A Sailor's Description 154

CHAPTER IX
THE EYES OF BATTLE
Aeroplanes and Airships — They Spy the Movements of Forces on Land or
Sea — Lead Disastrous Bomb Attacks — Valuable in "Spotting" Sub-
marines— The Bombardment at Messines Ridge 170

CHAPTER X
WAR'S STRANGE DEVICES
Chemistry a Demon of Destruction — Poison Gas Bombs — Gas Masks — Hand
Grenades — Mortars — "Tanks" — Feudal "Battering Rams" — Steel Hel-
mets— Strange Bullets — Motor Plows — Real Dogs of War 185

CHAPTER XI

WONDERFUL WAR WEAPONS

The Terrible Rapid-fire Gun — Armored Automobiles and Automobile Artillery
— Howitzers — Mounted Forts — Armored Trains — Observation Towers —
Wireless Apparatus — The Army Pantry 205

CHAPTER XII

THE WORLD'S ARMIES

The Efficient German Organization — The Landwehr and Landsturm —
General Forms of Military Organization — The Brave French Troops —
The Picturesque Italian Soldiery — The Peace and War Strength —
Available Fighting Men — Fortifications 224

CHAPTER XIII
THE WORLD'S NAVIES
Germany's Sea Strength — Great Britain's Immense War Fleet — Immense
Fighting Craft — The United States' New Battle Cruisers — The Fastest
and Biggest Ocean Fighting Ships — The Picturesque Marines: The
Soldiers of the Sea 243

CHAPTER XIV
THE NATIONS AT WAR
Unexpected Developments — How TnE War Flames Spread — A Score of Coun-
tries Involved — TnE Points of Contact — Picturesque and Rugged
Bulgaria, Roumania, Servia, Greece, Italy and Historic Southeast
Europe 259

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER XV

MODERN WAR METHODS

Individual Initiative as Against Mass Movements — Trench Warfare a Game
of Hide and Seek — Rats and Disease — Surgery's Triumphs — Changed Tac-
tics— Italian Mountain Fighting 281

CHAPTER XVI
WOMAN AND THE WAR

She has Won "Her Place in the Sun" — Rich and Poor in the Munitions
Factories — 'Nurse and Ambulance Driver — Khaki and Trousers — Organ-
izer and Farmer — Heroes in the Stress of Circumstances — Dying Men's
Work for Men — Even a "Bobbie" 298

CHAPTER XVII

THE TERRIBLE PRICE

A Nation of Men Destroyed — Millions in Shipping and Commerce Destroyed —
World's Maps Changed — Billions in Money — Immense Debts — Nation's
Wealth — The United States a Great Provider 316

CHAPTER XVIII

THE WORLD RULERS AT WAR

Woodrow Wilson, the Champion of Democracy — The Egotistical Kaiser —
The German Crown Prince — Britain's Monarch — Constantine Who Quit
Rather than Fight Germany — President Poincare — And Other National
Heads 328

CHAPTER XIX
THE WAR'S WHO'S WHO
Striking Figures in the Conflict — Joffre, the Hero of Marne — Nivelle, the
French Commander — Sir Douglas Haig — The Kaiser's Chancellor— Ven-
izelos — "Black Jack" Pershing 344

CHAPTER XX
CHEMISTRY IN THE WAR
Substitutes for Cotton— Nitrates Produced from Air— Yeast a Real Sub-
stitute for Beef — Seaweed Made to Give up Potash— A Gangrene Pre-
ventittve — Soda Made Out of Salt Water — America Chemically Indepen-
dent 3g]

CHAPTER XXI
OUR NEIGHBORING ALLY
Canada's Recruiting — Raise 33,000 Troops in Two Months— First Expedi-
tionary Force to Cross Atlantic— Bravery at Ypres and Lens— Meeting
Difficult Problems— Quebec Aroused by Conscription 371

xii

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER XXII
THE HEROIC ANZAC
Forces that Stirred the World in the Gallipoli Campaign — Famous as Sap-
pers— The Blasting of Messines Ridge — Two Years Tunnelling — 30,000
Germans Blown to Atoms — 1,000,000 Pounds of Explosives Used — Troops
that Were Transported 11,000 Miles 390

CHAPTER XXIII
AMERICA STEPS IN
President Wilson's Famous Message to Congress — The War Resolution —
April 6, 1917, Sees the United States at War — Review of the Negotia-
tions Between Germany and America — The U-Boat Restricted Zone An-
nouncement of Germany — Premier Lloyd George on America in the Con-
flict 399

CHAPTER XXIV
UNCLE SAM TAKES HOLD
Makes World's Biggest War Loan — Seize German Ships — Intrigue Exposed —
General Pershing and Staff in Europe — The Navy on Duty in North Sea
— First United States Troops Reach France — Germany's Attempts to
Sink Troop Ships Thwarted dy Navy's Guns 427

CHAPTER XXV
A GERMAN CRISIS
The Downfall of Bethmann-Hollweg — The Crown Prince in the Lime Light
— Hollweg's Unique Career — Dr. Georg Michaelis Appointed Chancellor
— The Kaiser and How He Gets His Immense Power 444

CHAPTER XXVI
UNCLE SAM AND THE NEUTRALS
President Wilson Puts Embargo on Food Shipments — Scandinavian Countries
Furnishing Supplies to Germany Inspires Order — The Difficult Position
of Norway, Denmark, Holland and Switzerland 452

CHAPTER XXVII
THE ACTIONS OF THE WAR
From Bosnia to Flanders — Marne the Turning Point of the Conflict — The
Conquests of Servia and Rumania — The Fall of Bagdad — Russia's Women
Soldiers — America's Conscripts 463

CHAPTER XXVIIT
AMERICAN FORCES BECOME FACTOR
United Sttes Soldiers Tnsptred Allied Troops — Russian Government Col-
lapses- Italian Army Fails — Allied War Council Formed — Foch Com-
mands Allied Armies — Pershinq Offers American Troops — Under Fire —
U-Boat Bases Raided by British 473

CONTENTS. xiii

CHAPTER XXIX
AMERICANS TURN WAR'S TIDE
Brilliant American Fighting Stops Hun Advance — French and British In-
spired— Famous Marines Lead in Picturesque Attack — Halt Germans at
Chatteau-Thierry — Used Open Style Fighting — Thousands of Germans
Slain — United States Troops in Siberia — Mew Conscription Bill Passed —
Allied Successes on All Fronts , . . . , 489

CHAPTER XXX
VICTORY— PEACE

The German Empire Collapses — Foch's Strategy Wins — American Inspiration
a Big Factor — Bulgaria, Turkey and Ausrtia Quit War — Monarch s
Fall — Kaiser Abdicates and Flees Germany — Armistice Signed — November
11, Peace 497

THE NEGRO IN THE WORLD WAR 507

ONE OP THE WOUNDED AND HIS MOTHER.
A member of the famous 369th Colored Infantry, who was wounded in) the
fighting, and his proud mother. He sacrificed a leg for the cause of righteousness
and World Peace.

CHEERFULLY DOING THE WORK REQUIRED.
Transporting tan bark, to be used in connection with tanning leather. No slackers.
The colored women did willingly and efficiently their part in helping win the war.

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Photo Press 111. Serv.

• ENTERTAINING CONVALESCENT AMERICAN SOLDIERS AT AUTHEIL.
Negro musicians were in great demand in France. This picture shows Lieut. Europe's

noted colored band.

THE BAND IN LaBOURBOULE, FRANCE.
The arrival of the- colored musicians created great excitement. This band heralded

the coming of soldiers to rest up.

Photo Press 111. Serv.

A SNIPER AT WORK.
This papier-mache camouflage, made to imitate a dead horse, furnished good protection

for the sharpshooter.

Photo Press 111. Serv.

SENEGALIANS ON THE SOMME FRONT.
These men were In the thick of the fighting. Ever ready and always anxious to do

their Dart.

Photo Press 111. Serv.

WOUNDED COLORED SOLDIERS ON THE MACEDONIAN FRONT.
They were with the ambulance X. A., and the major surgeon is distributing- cigarettes.

Private
Henry Johnson \

Private
Needham Roberts

Of the New York National Guards (now the 369th), who ^^^nJ^^l
the French for routing 24 Germans and preventing the- f**V** gj* * aonWthe
developed plan to assail one of the most ^P^VJoi? bv the French General
American front. They have been awarded the War Cross by the *rencn ^re
of the division under whom they are serving.

Copyrighted by Committee on Public Information,
COLORED SOLDIERS BUILDING ROADS "OVER THERE."

Copyrighted by Committee on Public Information.
COLORED SOLDIERS IN THE TRENCHES "OVER THERE."
(Note the tin hats.)

Copyrighted by Committee on Public Information.
HOTEL BOOKER T. WASHINGTON "OVER THERE."
The Negro Soldiers are surely fighting for Democracy. It is coming to them

by leaps and bounds.

Copyrighted by Committee on Public Information.
COLORED SOLDIERS LEAVING AN AMERICAN PORT FOR "OVER THERE."
( See them dancing on the right. )

The Late Major Walker, of the First Colored Battalion,
District of Columbia National Guard

THE late Major James E. Walker was born in Virginia, Sep-
tember 7, 1874. He was educated in the public schools of
Washington, D. C, and was graduated from the M Street
High School in 1893, and the Miner Normal School in 1894. For
twenty-four years he was in the public school service, and since
1899 was supervising principal. In 1896 he was made Lieutenant in
the First Separate Battalion of the National Guard of the District
of Columbia. In 1909 he was made Captain and in 1912, through
competitive examination, was commissioned Major. His command
was called out to guard the White House, and while on this duty
Major Walker's health became impaired. He was sent to the U. S.
Hospital at Fort Bayard, New Mexico, for treatment, where he died
April 4, 1918.

CHAPTER I.

Introductory.

Civilization at Issue- -The German Empire — Character of William II — The
Great Conspiracy — The War by Years — United States in the War — Two
Hundred Fifty Miles of Battle — Tee Downfall of Turkey — The Demo-
cratic Close of the War.

HE World War, terminated by the signing of the

more far-reaching changes than any war known to
history, and is destined to so profoundly influence civili-
zation that we see in it the beginning of a new age. Some-
what similar wars in the past were the campaigns of Alex-
ander; the wars that overthrew the Roman Empire and
the Napoleonic wars of a previous century; but this one
war surpasses them all, measured by any scale that can
be applied to military operations. It was truly a World
War, thus in a class by itself. Beginning in Central
Europe, twenty-eight natiops— nearly all of the important
nations of the world— with a total population of about
1,600,000,000— or eleven-twelfths of the human race-
became involved. It cost 10,000,000 human lives, 17,000,000
more suffered bodily injury; the money cost was about
$200,000,000,000, but who can measure the cost in untold
suffering caused by ruined homes and wrecked lives that
attended it? Or who can measure the property loss, con-
sidering that the fairest provinces of Europe were swept
with the bezom of destruction?

Rightly to judge the real significance of such a world
struggle, we must consider conditions that made it pos-
sible; study the issue involved stripped of all misleading
statements ; review its course and weigh the nature of the
profound changes— geographical, political and economic—

1918, was attended with

INTRODUCTORY.

that resulted. We shall find that this war was the cul-
mination of century-old causes; that two rival theories of
government— impossible to longer co-exist— met in deadly
conflict; and that civilization itself was the stake at issue.
We shall see that beyond the wreck of empires and troubled
days of reconstruction now upon us— through it all ap-
proaches a wonderful new age. Autocracy has crumbled;
a higher form of democracy will arise and in peaceful
days to come the nations of the world will rapidly advance
in all that constitutes national well-being.

THE GERMAN STATES.

The early history of Germany is a confused panorama
of a thousand years, during which time Central Europe
was a country of numerous separate states, many of them
at times coming together as a more or less closely knit
confederacy under the lead of a powerful state, only to
fall apart into a mass of confused units at a later date. It
is interesting to learn that among the Teutonic knights of
that early time, none was more noted than Count Thassilo
Von Zollern who founded the house of Hohenzollern, that
played such an ambitious role in European history, the
house wThose downfall was one of the dramatic results of
the war.

THE RISE OF PRUSSIA.

At its height the German Empire consisted of a union
of twenty-five Germanic states of various grades and the
Reichland of Alsace-Lorraine under the leadership of
Prussia, by far the most important state of the Empire.
The foundation of Prussia's greatness was laid by Fred-
erick the Great in 1763 when he tore Silesia from Austria
in an entirely unprovoked war. He wished to enlarge the
bounds of Prussia, he coveted Silesia, so he took it. In
that deed of spoliation we see manifested the spirit that

INTRODUCTORY.

has animated official Germany since that date. Not only
is the House of Hohenzollern descended from the Robber
Knights of old, but the same is true of the military caste
of Germany generally. Recent centuries have cast only a
thin veneer of modern thought over essentially medieval
conceptions of national rights and duties.

THE DAYS OF BISMARCK.

For a century after the reign of Frederick, Prussia
remained the most prominent Germanic state in Europe.
Then we come to the days of Bismarck. He is regarded
as a remarkable statesman. He himself delighted to be
known as the man of " Blood and Iron." Judging from
his acts his one motive in life was to advance the power
and influence of Prussia. In the decade 1860-1870 he
instigated three wars,— with Denmark in 1864, with Aus-
tria in 1866, with France in 1870,— not one of which was
justifiable. The war with France was occasioned by de-
liberately changing the wording of a telegram— in itself
friendly— from the King of Prussia to Napoleon III,
knowing it would result in war. All were short wars, all
resulted in victory for Prussia and consequent increase
in territory. Under the glamour of the great victory over
France in 1871 came the formation of the German Empire.

THE GERMAN EMPIRE.
Thus there suddenly arose in Central Europe, in the
place of the weak confederation of earlier years, one em-
pire of great actual strength, generously endowed as
regards territory, and at the head of that empire was a
state that alone of modern states most resembles Rome
of early centuries, that ruled the Mediterranean world,
imposing on the conquered people of that section her lan-
guage, her laws and her customs. Like her great proto-
type, we now know tnat official Prussia regarded all she

INTRODUCTORY.

had accomplished to the formation of the empire as sim-
ply a station reached in a career of progress which was
to end in a World empire as greatly surpassing that of
Rome in her palmy days as the world of the twentieth
century surpasses the known world of Roman times.

DEVELOPMENT OF THE EMPIRE.

The empire enjoyed a brief span of national life. In
less than fifty years it ceased to exist, a republic of an
uncertain nature takes its place. To outward appearances
the development of the empire was a brilliant one. A
colonial empire wras established— mostly in Africa— nearly
five times as great in area as the home empire; she had
large possessions in the Pacific and had gained a foothold
in China. The rich potash and iron deposits of Alsace in-
creased her wealth and marvelously built up her industries
and she became one of the greatest manufacturing nations
of modern times. Her population doubled, her foreign
trade increased four fold, her shipping grew by leaps and
bounds. Her army became so perfected that it was ac-
knowledged to be the greatest military machine the world
had ever seen; she was building a navy that threatened
the supremacy of England on the sea.

BUILT ON A FOUNDATION OF SAND.

In spite of this brilliant development,, the empire
rested on a foundation of sand. You will never under-
stand the World War unless you grasp this thought and
its justification. The government was autocratic, though
under the form of a constitutional government. The entire
military class in Germany held to theories of government,
of national rights and wrongs that belonged to the middle
ages. Theories of state-craft which the world long since
outgrew were proclaimed and taught, and enforced by
every means at command of the government, the military

INTRODUCTORY.

class, the professors, scientists and theologians of Ger-
many. Education and religion were state controlled. As
a consequence, every German child from his cradle to his
grave was under the influence of state officials and never
allowed to forget reverence for the kaiser, the glorious
military record of Germany, German supremacy in every
department of culture. Such a government was hopelessly
behind modern ideas.

WILLIAM II.

William II was the third emperor of Germany,— also
the last. His reign began, in pomp and ceremony, June
15, 1888, it ended in the darkness and gloom of night, shortly
before the signing of the armistice, November 11, 1918.
Other reigns have been longer in duration ; none surpassed
his in deeds. When his reign began he said he wculd lead
his people to 6 ' shining days." He did so; but " shining
days" ended in despairing night.

Personally, William II was an able man, but he was
not well balanced. In the early days of his reign, Bismarck
confided to a friend that it would some day be necessary
for Germany to confine William II in an insane asylum.
We must remember his lineage, his long line of ancestors
dating back to the Eobber Knights of the Middle Ages,
all used to the exercise of autocratic power. Medieval
conceptions were his by inheritance. He believed he was
divinely commissioned to rule Germany; he said so in his
speeches. He believed he was a man of destiny who was
to advance Germany to the zenith of earthly greatness;
he himself, not someone else, asserted this. He asserted
that while Napoleon failed in his great scheme of con-
quest, he, by God's help, would succeed. Every promi-
nent military leader in Germany applauded such beliefs.
He said that when he contemplated the paintings of his

INTRODUCTORY.

ancestors, and the military chiefs of Germany, who ad-
vanced the insignificant Mark of Brandenbury to the rank
of the most powerful state in Europe, they seemed to re-
proach him for not being active in similar work. But we
now know that he was not idle.

ACTIVITIES IN WHICH HE WAS INTERESTED.

One year after the accession of William II he paid a
spectacular visit to "his friend" (as he called him) Abdul
Hamid, Sultan of Turkey, the head of one of the most
cruel, licentious, incompetent, blood-thirsty governments
that ever cursed the world ; greeted him with a kiss, put on
a Turkish uniform (fez and all), and assured the Moham-
medan world that he was henceforth their friend. The
ignorant Turks actually supposed he had become a Mo-
hammedan and native papers spoke of him as "His Islamic
Holiness." In the light of history, the meaning of all this
is so clear that he who runs may read, and the wayfaring
man, though a fool, need not err therein. This visit was
repeated in 1898. For more than twenty years every effort
was made to extend German influence in Turkey, because
that country with its minerals, its oils, its wonderfully
strong strategical location was vital to the success of a vast
scheme of conquest official Germany with William II as
leader was contemplating.

PAN-GERMANISM.

Two years after his accession, there was organized the
Pan-Germanic League. This League soon attracted to its
ranks, the entire class of Prussian Junkers, virtually all
the military class, and a galaxy of writers and speakers.
The purpose of the league was to foster in the minds of
German people the idea that it was their privilege, right
and duty to extend the power, influence and political dom-
inance of Germany to all parts of the world, peacefully if

INTRODUCTORY.

possible, otherwise by the sword. This doctrine was taught
openly and boldly in Germany in books and pamphlets
and by means of lectures with such frankness and fullness
of details that the world at large laughed at it as an ex-
uberant dream of fanatics. Intellectual, military, and offi-
cial Germany was in earnest. Her generals wrote books
illustrated with maps showing the stages of world con-
quest; her professors patiently explained how necessary
all this was to Germany's future; while her theologians
pointed out it was God's will. But the world at large, •
except uneasy France, slept on.

OUTWORKINGS OF THE PLOT.

It was this vision that fired the imagination of Wil-
liam II. He was to be the Augustus of this greater Roman
Empire; over virtually all the earth the House of Hohen-
zollern was to exercise despotic sway. Then began prepa-
ration for the World's War. With characteristic German
thoroughness and patience the plans were laid. Thorough-
ness, since they embraced every conceivable means that
would enhance their prospect of victory, her military lead-
ers, scientists and statesmen were all busy. Patience, since
they realized there was much to do. Many years were
needed and Germany refused to be hurried. She carefully
attended to every means calculated to increase the com-
merce and industry of the empire, but with it all— under-
lying it all— were activities devoted to preparation for
world conquest. Building for world empire, Germany
could afford to take time.

PROBLEMS TO BE SOLVED.
Time was needed to solve the military problems in-
volved. A nation aspiring to territory extending from
Hamburg to Bagdad must firmly control the Balkan
States. That meant that Austria must become, in effect,

INTRODUCTORY.

a German province; Serbia must be crushed; Bulgaria
must become an ally; and Turkey must be brought under
control. In 1913, two of these desired results were attained.
Turkey was to a surprising degree under the military and
economic control of Germany. Austria had become such
a close ally that she might almost be styled a vassal of
Germany. She faithfully carried out the wishes of Ger-
many in 1908 when she annexed the Serbian states of
Bosnia and Herzegovnia, a step she felt safe in taking since
(the Kaiser's own words) behind her was the " shining
sword of Germany." It were tedious to enlarge on this
point. Let it suffice to say that in 1914 Germany felt her-
self ready for the conflict. Enormous supplies of guns,
of a caliber before unthought of, and apparently inexhaust-
ible supplies of ammunition had been prepared; strategic
railroads had been built by which armies and supplies could
be hurried to desired points; the Kiel Canal had been
completed; her navy had assumed threatening proportions;,
her army, greatly enlarged, was in perfect readiness.

THE REAL CAUSES OF THE WAR.

The real cause of the war is now disclosed. It is not
necessary to discuss other possible causes. The pistol shot
at Serajevo was the occasion, not the cause of the war.
The simple fact is that on one pretext or another war would
have come anyway, simply because Germany was ready.
In 1913 the speakers of the Pan-German League were go-
ing to and fro in Germany making public speeches on all
possible occasions, warning the people to be ready, telling
them "There was the smell of blood in the air," that the
wrath of God was about to be visited upon the nations that
would hem Germany in. We now know from official sources
that Germany was eager for war in the fateful days of
July 1914, when France and England were almost beg-

INTRODUCTORY.

ging for peace. All this is made exceedingly clear in the
secret memoirs of Prince Lichnowski, German ambassador
to England, the published statements of the premier of
Bavaria, also those of the Prince of Monaco, and the rec-
ords of the Potsdam council over which the Kaiser pre-
sided, secretly convened one week after the murder of the
Prince. There were present the generals, diplomats and
bankers of Germany.

DECISION FOR WAR.

The matter of possible war was carefully considered.
To the earnest question of the emperor, all present assured
him that the interests they represented were ready, with
the exception of the financiers who desired two weeks' time
in which to make financial arrangements for the coming
storm. This was given them, and the council adjourned.
The emperor, to divert suspicion, hurried off on a yacht-
ing trip while the financiers immediately commenced dis-
posing of their foreign securities. The stock markets of
London, Paris, and New York during that interval of time
bear eloquent testimony to the truth of these assertions.
Two weeks and three days after the council adjourned,
Austria sent her ultimatum to Serbia. The truth of these
statements is vouched for by Henry Morgenthau, Ameri-
can ambassador to Turkey.

Thus were unleashed the dogs of war. For four long
years they rioted in blood. To advance dynastic ambitions
and national greed, millions of Armenian Christians were
tortured, outraged and murdered; hapless Belgians were
ravished and put to the sword, their cities made charnal
heaps; millions of men— the fairest sons of many lands-
gave up their lives, and anguished hearts sobbed out their
grief in desolated homes, while generations to come will
feel the crushing financial burdens this struggle has en-
tailed with its heritage of woe.

INTRODUCTORY.

THE WAR BY YEARS.

We must now gain a general view of the events of the
war. Every well-informed man or woman feels the neces-
sity of such outline knowledge. It was not only the great-
est war in history, but it was our war. Our liberties were
threatened. Rivers and hamlets of France are invested
with new interest. There, our American boys are sleeping ;
they died that our Republic might live. We may regard
the annals of other wars with languid interest ; those of this
war grip our hearts, our breath comes quicker as we read ;
we experience a glow of patriotic pride. We shall let each
year of the war tell its story. Of necessity we can only
record the main events, the peaks of each year's achieve-
ments.

EVENTS OF 1914.

A state of war was declared to exist in Germany, July
31, 1914. Four days later Germany had mobilized five
large armies with full supplies on the extended line from
Metz northward along the eastern boundary of .France—
a distance of about 130 miles. That mobilization was a
wonderful exhibition of military efficiency. From Verdun
to Paris, slightly southwest, is also about 130 miles.

The German plan of campaign may be crudely stated
as follows: Regard that extended line as a flail ready to
fall, hinged near Verdun, moved in a circle until the north-
ern tip, under command of Von Kluck, should fall with
all the energy Germany could put into the blow on Paris.
In the meantime, the other armies would crush back, out-
flank, defeat, and capture the small British and hastily
mobilized French armies that confronted them along the
entire line. It was believed that a short campaign would
crush France, over-awe Great Britain, and end the war in
the West. It was thought that six weeks would be ample
to accomplish this result.

INTRODUCTORY.

BELGIAN RESISTANCE.
Germany expected that at the most a day or so would
see Belgian resistance broken and the dash on Paris be-
gun. It was not safe to start such a forward rush with
Belgium unconquered. This was the first of many, many
mistakes made by Germany. It required two weeks to
break down this resistance. Thus the northern end of the
flail was held and movement along the entire line was
slowed down or suspended. The unexpected delay saved
France. Let us remember this when we read the story
of Belgium's martyrdom, a story written in blood. Then
began the fulfillment of the threat of William II to the
Prince of Monaco 6 'the world will see what it never
dreamed of." And truly the world never dreamed of the
terrible scenes that attended the sack of Louvain (August
26). Not until after the situation in Belgium had been
given a bloody setting did the first dash on Paris begin
(August 23).

RETREAT TO THE MARNE.

We are now approaching the " Miracle of the Marne."
The line of German armies along the eastern frontier of
France were confronted by the forces of France, hastily
mobilized during the delay occasioned by the heroic but
pathetically futile resistance of Belgium. The first Eng-
lish army had also assumed a position before the menac- '
ing rush of the German forces. The only thing the Allies
could do was to retreat. This movement, directed by Gen-
eral Joffre, was a remarkably able one. His plan was
to give ground before the advance without risking a deci-
sive battle until he could rearrange his forces and gain a
favorable position. Only with difficulty was the retreat
saved from becoming a great disaster when the British
army was defeated at Mons-Charleroi (August 21-3). Ap-
parently, the German forces were carrying everything

INTRODUCTORY.

before them as the retreat continued. The flail, swinging
from Metz to Belgium, was falling with crushing effect
along the entire front, the movement being very rapid at
the western but slow at the eastern end. It was centered
at Verdun because it was not safe to leave that fortress
unconquered in the rear.

THE FIRST BATTLE OF THE MARNE.

The Marne is a small river in France, gently cours-
ing from the water-shed south of Verdun to the Seine
near Paris, its general course convex to the north. It will
hereafter rank as one of the storied rivers of history, the
scene of mighty battles, where the red tide of German suc-
cess ebbed in its flow. The night of September 4, the
German armies were in position along this river in an
irregularly curved line slightly convex to the south from
a point only twenty-five miles east of Paris to Verdun,
one hundred and twenty-five miles, slightly to the north-
east. The evening of that day, General Joffre issued
orders for a general attack all along the line. His mes-
sage to the French Senate was couched in words of deep
meaning, —he had made, he said, the best disposition pos-
sible. France could only await in hope the outcome. The
battle that besran the next dav continued for one week and

O t/

ended with a victory for the Allies as the German armies
were forced back everywhere, a varying distance, to a line
of defense prepared back of the Aisne River, to the north
and east. This was a marvelous result. Just as the world
was waiting with bated breath to hear of the fall of Paris,
it heard instead, that the German army was in retreat.
It was truly a miracle. Why not see in it proof that a
Power infinitely greater than that of man was directing
events?

introductory;

THE MAGNITUDE OF THE BATTLE.

The battle front covered a distance of about 125 miles.
The forces engaged numbered about 1,500,000 men. Thus
this battle far exceeds in magnitude the battle of Mukden,
previously considered the greatest battle of modern times ;
while the great battle of Waterloo was an insignificant
skirmish in comparison. It is of further interest Jo learn
that Allied success was largely the result of the use of
flying machines for scouting purposes, which enabled
General Joffre to take instant advantage of tactical mis-
takes of General Von Kluck. The results were commen-
surate with the immensity of the struggle. Paris was
saved; the first period of the war in the west was ended;
Germany was rudely awakened from her dream of easy
conquest.

THE BATTLE OF TANNENBERG.

The success of the Allies in the west was in a measure
offset by Teutonic victories in the east. When the inva-
sion of Belgium began, Russia made immediate efforts to
counteract by invasion of East Prussia. She was success-
ful to the extent of drawing to that section a number of
army corps that would otherwise have taken part in the
Marne campaign. These movements culminated in the
battle of Tannenberg, commencing August 26, 1914. Tan-
nenberg is nearly one hundred miles southeast of Konigs-
burg. This was the battle that gave General Von Hinden-
burg his fame. He was a native of East Prussia, and
acquainted with the country, but had lived in retirement
for some years. Appointed to command, he made such a
skillful disposition of his troops that the Russian army
was virtually annihilated, less than one corps escaped
by headlong flight. According to German authority, 70,000
Russians were captured. General Von Hinderburg was
acclaimed the greatest soldier of the day, and was imme-

INTRODUCTORY.

diately appointed field marshal in command of all the
German forces in the east.

EVENTS OF 1915.

The year 1915 was one of meager results, the advan-
tages remaining on the side of the Central Powers, with
this understanding, however: The Allies were growing
stronger because Great Britain was making rapid progress
in marshaling her resources for war. On the west front,
the long, irregular line of trenches, from Switzerland on
the south to Ostend on the North Sea, marking the Ger-
man retreat after the battle of the Marne, remained with-
out substantial change. Do not understand there were
no battles along that extended line. Almost daily there
wrere conflicts that in former wars would have been given
a place among the world's great battles. They are scarcely
worth mentioning in the annals of this war. Back and
forth across that narrow line surged the red tide without
decisive changes in position. There were attacks and coun-
ter attacks of the most sanguinary nature near Calais.
The first instance of the use of gas in war occurred in these
battles, at the second battle of Ypres, April 23, 1915.

ON THE EAST FRONT.

In spite of the great reverse at Tannenberg, Russia
was not defeated. Her armies in Galicia (Northeastern
Hungary) were winning important battles. A determined
effort was made in 1915 by Germany to crush Russia and
thus retire her from the war. For days at a time, on the
railroads of East Germany, double headed trains were
passing every fifteen minutes, loaded with troops and
munitions withdrawn from the western front which ac-
counts for the comparative quiet in that section, which in
turn gave Great Britain time to prepare in earnest. And

INTRODUCTORY.

so it was that during a large part of 1915 Russia had to
withstand the shock of war. Russian soldiers were brave ;
her generals able, but the whole official life was more or
less corrupt.

The poison of German propaganda was at work. Her
ammunition was totally insufficient. Immense supplies
made in France according to specifications furnished by
high officials in Russia did not fit the guns they were in-
tended to serve. There were already signs of the approach-
ing utter collapse of Russia as a world power, then more
than a year distant in time. In spite of these drawbacks
we read of brilliant but futile efforts of her poorly
equipped army to stem the tide of Teutonic success that
soon began.

Before the close of the year Poland was entirely over-
run by German forces. It seemed for a time as if Petro-
grad itself must fall. In short, it was thought that Russia
was crushed. Then it was that the Kaiser wrote to his
sister, the Queen of Greece, "having crushed Russia, the
rest of Europe will soon tremble before me." But when
1915 ended a line of trenches from Riga on the north to
Czernowitz on the south still guarded the frontiers of
Russia.

THE DARDANELLES CAMPAIGN.
This campaign began in December, 1914, and con-
tinued during 1915. It was an effort on the part of the
Allies to force the Dardanelles, capture Constantinople,
and inflict a crushing blow on Turkey. This effort was a
dismal failure for the Allies, but had all the effect of a
decisive victory for Turkey and her allies. The fact that
the attack was failing had considerable to do with induc-
ing Bulgaria to enter the war on the side of Germany.
The immediate result of this step on the part of Bulgaria
was the complete crushing .of Serbia (October 6-December

INTRODUCTORY.

2), and this in turn made possible full and free railroad
transportation between Germany on the north and Turkey
on the south. The net result was to greatly strengthen
the Teutonic allies. The conduct of Turkey in the war
was marked by most atrocious treatment of the Armen-
ians. Belgium on the north, Armenia on the south, are
blood-stained chapters in the annals of war.

EVENTS OF 1916.

Apparently believing that Russia was so badly crip-
pled that she could not again peril Austria-Hungary or
wrest Poland from the grasp of Germany, the latter
country gathered her available resources for a decisive,
crushing blow in France. We have several times men-
tioned Verdun. It is well to study its location on the
map, about 130 miles slightly north of east of Paris. It
is a city of great historic interest, beautifully located in
the Meuse valley with its approach defended by low-lying
ranges of hills through which lead numerous defiles. At
this city, more than a thousand years ago, was concluded
the celebrated treaty of Verdun that settled the disputes
between the grandsons of Charlemagne, and this consti-
tutes a landmark in the early history of France.

It was Verdun that held back the southern end of the
flail wherewith France wTas to be crushed in 1914; in the
battle of the Marne it held the eastern or left wing of the
long German line, which could not advance and leave
Verdun unsubdued in the rear. The German Crown Prince
was in command near Verdun. His ideal was Napoleon.
His private library contained nearly everything ever
written about that great general. He was exceedingly
anxious to pose as the conqueror of France. To strengthen
his dynasty, the Kaiser was also anxious that his son
should take a prominent part. Accordingly it was planned

INTRODUCTORY.

to gather an enormous army under his command, over-
whelm Verdun and smash through to Paris. Thus Prince
Wilhelm would be enrolled among the great commanders
of history. Von Hindenburg was opposed to this plan,
he wanted to finish up his work so happily begun in
Russia. But the Crown Prince had his way ; and immense
supplies of guns, ammunition, and men were withdrawn
from the eastern front and massed at Verdun.

THE GREAT BATTLE OF VERDUN.

The annals of history record no battle approaching
in duration, artillery fire, and awful sacrifice than the bat-
tle that enveloped Verdun for six months, beginning Feb-
ruary 21, 1916. Other battles have been fought along
more extended fronts and thus engaged larger numbers
of troops; but none ever presented in a more acute form
the issue of national life or death. The stand of the heroic
Greeks at Thermoplae denying passage to the hosts of
Persia was not more vital to the cause of civilization than
this storied defense of Verdun. The reflective writer can
but notice that in every campaign of the war, when fur-
ther success of the German armies meant victory, it was
as if an unseen Power decreed "thus far and no further."
It was so at Verdun. The French soldier, calmly going
to death, chanting "They shall not pass," did not die in
vain.

THE BATTLE ITSELF.

The French were taken somewhat by surprise as they
had not expected such an early attack or that its fury
would break at Verdun. Of course it was known that a
great force was being assembled, but no one dreamed of
the enormous concentration of guns of all kinds that were
made. They literally cumbered the ground and the shells
assembled were in keeping. The German generals were

INTRODUCTORY.

so confident of success that foreign correspondents were
invited to be present to witness the resistless onslaught.
The evening before the attack began there was a banquet
at the German headquarters, the Kaiser and all his not-
able generals (but not Von Hindenburg) were present.
The toast was "After four days, Verdun; then Paris."
They estimated that it would take possibly three weeks to
accomplish their ends. Evidently among the uninvited
and unseen guests were Defeat and Death.

The attack that commenced the next day lasted with
but slight interruptions until October. It is interesting
to remark that more shot and shell were used in this battle
than the total used during the four years of the Civil War
in America on both sides. Verdun itself was reduced to
ruins. Considerable portions of the fortified area to the
north of Verdun were captured, including the important
forts Douamont and Vaux, but the entire attack failed.
The minor successes achieved were won with an appalling
loss of life and were easily retaken by the French later
in the fall. Verdun was renamed by the German soldiers
as "The Grave," and such it truly was to the hopes of
victory and peace that inspired the toast at the Verdun
banquet.

CONQUEST OF ROUMANIA

Roumania is one of the Balkan States. Her entry
into the second Balkan war in 1913 was one of the deci-
sive factors against Bulgaria. After the entry of Bulgaria
into the World War in 1915 the pressure became very
strong on Roumania by Russia to come into the war on
the side of the Allies. The summer of 1916 Russia had
reorganized her forces, and the war in the west was going
against Germany at Verdun and along the Somme. This
was deemed an opportune time for Roumania to enter the
war and so, with no principles at stake, Roumania declared

INTRODUCTORY.

war on Austria, August 27, 1916. The response of Ger-
many and Bulgaria to this new menace was prompt and
decisive. Before the end of the year Roumania was
crushed, the capital city, Bucharest, wTas taken. Roumania
was not at all prepared to wage war on the scale this war
had assumed, but the immediate cause of her easy con-
quest was the failure of Russia to keep her promises of
assistance. Russia, undermined by German intrigue, with
traitors at court, was already tottering to her fall.

EVENTS OF 1917.

The year 1917 witnessed startling changes in the group-
ing of the belligerent powers. The three largest republics
in the world— China, Brazil, and the United States, — were
drawn into the war on the side of the Entente Allies.
Other small nations, members of the Pan-American Union,
joined with the United States in this action. Other South
American nations showred their sympathy with the United
States by severing diplomatic relations with Germany.
In Europe, Greece made a formal declaration of war July
2, 1917. Thus all of the Balkan States were finally in-
volved. To complete the record, we must note that Siam
in Asia and Liberia in Africa also joined the Entente
Allies. Never before in history had there been such an
alignment of nations for purposes of war. It was signifi-
cant of one thing,— growing resentment against what had
long been recognized as the criminal ambitions of Ger-
many to dominate the world.

THE UNITED STATES IN WAR.

April 6, 1917, will hereafter be one of the most im-
portant dates in the annals of this republic. Then it was
^ that Congress in a joint resolution declared a state of war
existed between the United States and Germany, and

INTRODUCTORY.

authorized the President to employ the naval and military
power of our country to carry on the war and pledged
all our resources to that end. We can now see that the
hidden currents of national destiny were tending in an
irresistible way to war on the part of the United States.
Every consideration of national safety and every prin-
ciple that we hold dear, demanded that we should re-
spond to the call of the President to arms. Then com-
menced the wonderful preparations for war on the part
of the United States. Official Germany in conversation
with Minister Gerard, before the rupture of diplomatic
relations, laughed to scorn the thought that the United
States could render any military aid worth considering
to her allies. Germany in the fall of 1917 was not
laughing.

THE COLLAPSE OF RUSSIA.

The collapse of Russia was the second great event of
1917. It was the result of a long train of causes. Let it
suffice to say that treachery in high places backed by
German propaganda, had undermined the government.
March 15, 1917, the storm broke. The utter overthrow of
autocratic rule in Russia was one of those explosive out-
breaks, but few of which have occurred in history. In a
single day the old order of government passed away never
to return in Russia. It was a revolution as thorough-
going as its prototype, the French revolution of 1789, and
it soon developed equal scenes of horror. After some
months of struggle, the government of Russia passed under
the control of the Bolsheviki and anarchy followed, out-
doing the scenes of the French commune. The immediate
effect on the war was to retire Russia from the conflict,
thus releasing a large army and its supplies for service
elsewhere.

INTRODUCTORY.

THE ITALIAN REVERSE.

Having achieved such signal successes in the east, Rus-
sia and Roumania being both disposed of, the German
leaders planned a campaign designed to crush Italy. In
the summer of 1917 the Italian front was along the Isonza
River in Austrian territory. The test of Italian endur-
ance was at hand. A great force of Austrians and Ger-
mans was assembled along the river. As was usual in all
Teutonic drives, endeavors were made by propaganda
work to break down the morale of the Italian troops. This
effort consisted in spreading fearsome accounts of the
crushing nature of the blow about to fall, the folly of
further resistance, and the advantages to be gained by
accepting the generous terms of peace their true friends
—their former allies— were ready to grant. This effort
had an effect, but Italy was not Russia.

The drive began October 24th. It was a very pro-
nounced Teutonic success, though the great object of the
drive was not achieved. In three weeks' time the Italians
were forced back from the Isonza to the Piava River line ;
nearly 200,000 soldiers had been captured, together with
immense supplies of all kinds. But yet Italy was not
crushed, the German forces were firmly held along the
Piava. We should reflect that in the World War millions
were engaged and the loss of one or even two hundred
thousand men did not mean the end of the war,

EVENTS OF 1918.

The Allies could only hope to defend their position on
the west front against the impending offensive on the part
of Germany, for which preparations on a vast scale were
being made, until reinforcements from the United States
could reach them sufficient to enable them to take the of-
fensive in their turn. Germany hastened its preparations

INTRODUCTORY.

through the winter months of 1917-18, for they knew they
must win a decisive victory to crush the armies of France
and England before the United States could give efficient
assistance. It was a race between America and Germany,
and America won. With the assistance of the British and
French merchant marine and such shipping as could be
procured at home the American forces were landed in
France in the most astonishing numbers ever recorded.
The fears of Germany, the hopes of the Allies were alike
exceeded by the forces sent across the ocean. The first of
July, 1918, there were one million American soldiers in
France. They came just in time to avert disaster.

GERMAN OFFENSIVE IN 1918.

The initiative was with Germany, and the German
command selected the British army in position along the
Scarpe River, north of Cambria, to the Oise River— a dis-
tance of sixty miles— as the object of the first drive. The
assault began the morning of March 21, 1918. Along the
entire front the artillery fire that opened the drive was
on the scale never before approached in war. More than
one million men, the choicest troops of Germany, were
ready to assault the British lines and they came on, wave
after wave, and Germany came perilously near success in
her efforts to break through the British lines. The British
were driven back beyond the lines of the battle of the
Somme in 1916, important towns were captured, but their
lines still held. The first phase of the great battle— known
in history as the battle of Picardy— was a defeat to Ger-
man hopes.

WHEN THE AMERICANS CAME.

From the opening of the great offense of March 21,
1918, to the signing of the armistice, November 11, 1918,
there were few days when there were not battles raging

INTRODUCTORY.

at several places along the west front extending from near
Metz in a prolonged sweep, west to Rheims, thence in an
irregular curved line convex toward Paris curving to the
North Sea near Dixmude approximately 250 miles in
length. There were days and weeks when battles of great
intensity raged at certain sections, then died away in that
vicinity to break in fury elsewhere. Organized efforts on
a large scale in certain directions were called drives.
Until July the initiative was with Germany, that is to sAy
the Allies were on the defensive. They were waiting fvi
reinforcements from America. Germany was making des-
perate efforts to win a decisive victory and force peace on
their terms before effective aid could arrive.

TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTY MILES OF BATTLE.

At this point try to realize what these statements im-
ply. We do not grasp their meaning. A battle front of
two hundred and fifty miles ! And along that line at least
ten million men were facing each other with other mil-
lions in reserve. Trench lines were strung along most of
the front. Not simply one line of trenches, but several,
with connecting trenches, the opposing lines being at places
only a few hundred yards apart. As the struggle con-
tinued, however, it became more and more a war in the
open.

This series of struggles are undoubtedly the greatest
exertion of military power in the history of the world.
Never before had such masses of munitions been used;
never before had scientific knowledge been so drawn on
in the service of war. Thousands of airplanes were pa-
trolling the air, sometimes scouting, sometimes dropping
bombs on hostile troops or on hostile stores, sometimes
flying low, firing their machine guns into the faces of
marching troops. Thousands upon thousands of great

INTRODUCTORY.

guns were sending enormous projectiles, which made great
pits wherever they fell. Swarms of machine guns were
pouring their bullets like water from a hose upon charg-
ing soldiers. It was an inferno such as Dante never
dreamed of. The Fifteen Decisive Battles of history of
which we have heard— all put together,— were exceeded
day after day in the summer of 1918 when Germany was
making her last desperate effort. Thus for weeks the red
tide of war ebbed and flowed, while civilization trembled
in the balance.

UNIFIED COMMAND.

It was clearly seen by the Allied leaders that appoint-
ing a generalissimo to command all their forces was a
necessity. This command was given to General Ferdinand
Foch, who had won fame in the battle of the Marne and
who was recognized as one of the greatest strategists of
the day. Events soon demonstrated the wisdom of this
step. No general ever commanded such armies as he.
Napoleon, Von Moltke, Grant and Lee were great generals,
but everything connected with this war was on a scale
never before approached, and we can say that the quali-
ties of leadership displayed by Marshal Foch were nec-
essarily on a higher plane of action— and we can say this
without in the least detracting from the just fame of other
Allied commanders— as Pershing, Haig, Allenby, Diaz and
others. When the war opened, Germany had much to say
about her unconquerable army ; her generals were supposed
to be superior in a military way to any others. The war
showed that other soldiers were just as brave, other gen-
erals just as able. The fetish of German military invinci-
bility was early overthrown.

AMERICAN ASSISTANCE.

No American can read the story of the part America
took in the war without experiencing a glow of patriotic

INTRODUCTORY.

feeling. Every Allied nation can say the same thing. We
came late into the struggle, but no nation in history ever
made such wonderful preparation for war as did our coun-
try in the eighteen months that elapsed from the declara-
tion of war to the signing of the armistice. Our prepa-
rations in France, representing only a part of our total
effort, were on such an enormous scale, that neutral na-
tions—as Sweden and Spain— sent trusted officials to
investigate if it were possibly true that America was mak-
ing such colossal preparations; could it be that men by
the hundreds of thousands were disembarking on Euro-
pean soil every week? Were such forces drilled? Were
supplies sent them? It was almost unbelievable. Surely,
it must be American brag. They came, they saw, they
departed convinced but in bewildered wonderment. It
was the slowly growing realization of what this prepara-
tion meant that spurred Germany on during the early
summer of 1918. But it was too late. Already the hand-
writing of defeat was outlining in letters of fire on the
wall.

AGAIN THE MARNE.
May 27, 1918, the Germans opened a drive towards
Paris. It resulted in a deep bulge in the line from Rheims
west to Soissons, once more the German line in that sec-
tion had reached the Marne. It was a time of great
anxiety in the Allied world. The German tide was rolling
on about seven miles a day toward Paris about fifty miles
distant to the southwest. The German commanders felt
sure of success and were talking about the "strong Ger-
man peace" they would enforce. The war minister assured
the Reichstag that they must exact at least $50,000,000,000
as indemnity, while their economic writers devised an elab-
orate plan whereby all the trade of the world was to pay

INTRODUCTORY.

tribute to Germany. It was another ease of "Thus far
and no farther."

CHATEAU THIERRY.

Chateau Thierry was a thriving city, about 6,000 in
population, on the Marne River, approximately 50 miles
northeast of Paris. It is in a fertile valley. There amid
fields of ripening wheat the advancing troops of Germany
were suddently confronted by American marines, hurried
to the scene of action in motor driven vehicles of all de-
scriptions from Paris. The forces that faced them, bent
on forcing a passage to Paris were composed of the best
Prussian guards and shock troops. They felt perfectly
confident they could drive the Americans back. But the
amateurs went into the battle (the afternoon of June 2)
as calmly as if going to drill on the parade ground. In-
stead of being driven from the field they repulsed the
seasoned veterans of Germany. It was at a cruel loss to
themselves, 1,600 dead, 2,500 wounded out of 8,000 that
came from Paris on that journey of victory and death;
but they never faltered. This was not a battle of great
dimensions but it is among the most important battles of
the war. It saved Paris; but that is not all. When the
news of that battle was flashed up and down the west front,
not an Allied force but was thrilled, enthused, given new
courage; the message that the Americans had stopped the
Germans at Chateau Thierry, electrified Paris. Strong
men wept as they realized that the forces of the Great
Republic, able and brave, stood between Prance and the
ravening wolf of Germany.

OTHER VICTORIES.

In the limited space at our command we can only
give a general description of the remaining weeks of war-
fare in which Ajnerican forces participated. Before

INTRODUCTORY.

advancing at Chateau Thierry the Germans had fortified
their position in Beileau Woods which they had previously
occupied. In the black recesses of this woods they estab-
lished nest after nest of machine guns and in the jungle
of matted underbrush, of vines, of heavy foliage they had
placed themselves in a position they believed impregnable.
The battle of Ghateau Thierry was not rendered secure
until the Germans were driven from Beileau Woods. And
so for the next three weeks the battle of Beileau Woods
raged. Fighting day after day without relief, without
sleep, often without water, and for days without hot ra-
tions, the marines met and defeated the best divisions
Germany could throw into the line. According to official
decree in France the name of that woods is now "Woods
of the American Brigade." In September, came the won-
derful work of reducing the St. Mihiel salient to the south
and to the east of Verdun, a German wedge that had with-
stood every effort to drive it back for four years. We
can only mention the series of battles that took place in
the Forest of the Argonne. When the armistice was de-
clared American forces had fought their way to Sedan.
That was the place that witnessed the deep humiliation of
France in the war of 1870 with which the German Empire
began. Germany was only saved from a deeper humilia-
tion near Sedan in this war that ended that empire, by
the prompt signing of the armistice.

THE DOWNFALL OF TURKEY.

We must notice even in a hurried review of the war
the downfall of Turkey, the release of ancient Mesopo-
tamia, Palestine, and large parts of Asia Minor, and free-
ing the ancient Christian nation of Armenia from the
dreadful despotism of Turkish misrule. It is impossible
to go into the details of the successive movements lead-

INTRODUCTORY.

ing to this happy result. The forces of Great Britain,
under command of General Maud, later General Allenby,
must be given the credit. We must not forget that Meso-
potamia was the cradle land of early civilization. There
are the plains of Shinar, there are the ruins of Babylon
and Nineveh. Now, that Turkish rule has been over-
thrown, we may look to see that entire country once more
a scene of smiling fertility.

And consider the case of Palestine, the land of Biblical
history, the home of Abraham, and the scene of Old Testa-
ment activities; finally there is the land forever hallowed
by the ministrations of Jesus of Nazareth. It was the
goal of the religious wars of the Crusades. For more
than six centuries it groaned under Turkish misrule. The
tide of British success began in 1917. In December of that
year (9th) Jerusalem was taken by the British forces
under command of General Allenby. During 1918 all
Palestine was freed. September 20, 1918, Nazareth, the
boyhood home of Jesus, was taken. The future of Pales-
tine with its wealth of Biblical history is a wonderful
theme for contemplation. Given the blessings of a twen-
tieth century government there is no reason why Palestine
should not once more become a land " flowing with milk
and honey."

THE APPROACHING END.

The ending of the war was almost as dramatically
sudden as its beginning. As late as July 15, 1918, accord-
ing to statements of German leaders, they still believed
they were to be successful; less than four months later
at Senlis, France, their representatives signed an armis-
tice, the terms of which were the most drastic and humili-
ating ever inflicted on a prominent nation ; while the Kaiser
and Crown Prince had fled for safety to Holland, a nation
they had asserted existed only by the long sufferance of

INTRODUCTORY.

Germany. Before the fatal day (November 11, 1918) of
the armistice— like the falling of a house of cards— had
occurred a succession of abject surrenders, as one by one
of the nations composing the Teutonic Alliance had fallen
before the crushing blows of the Entente forces.

The middle of July the great German offensive was
held. It was expected by the German leaders that, as in
the past, there would, now ensue a period of comparative
quiet along the wrest front during which Germany could
rearrange her forces, perhaps to open an attack elsewhere.
Marshal Foch— ably seconded by General Pershing and
General Haig— thought differently. There were one mil-
lion American soldiers on the fighting line, other millions
were coming, Great Britain had thrown into France her
reserve army held in England to meet unforeseen emer-
gencies. Then was the time to begin a counter-attack.
Accordingly, just as a German official was explaining to
the Reichstag that General Foch had no reserves to with-
stand a fresh onslaught that Germany would soon begin,
—the blow fell. A great counter-attack was initiated by
the French and Americans along the Marne-Aisne front
July 18, 1918.

THE ALLIES TAKE THE INITIATIVE.

From that day to the signing of the armistice the in-
itiative remained with General Foch. Up and down the
long line, now here, now there; the British and Belgians
on the north, the French and Americans on the south, first
one, then the other, then together, the Allies drove for-
ward with hammer blows on the yielding German armies.
That subtle force, so hard to define, the morale of the
invaders, was broken down. Their confidence was gone.
They knew they were defeated. The one hope of their
leaders was to get safely back to Germany, and soon a

INTRODUCTORY.

general retreat was in progress. But to remove armies
aggregating several million men, with guns and supplies,
from a contracted area, in the face of a victorious and
aggressive enemy, without the retreat degenerating into
a rout is almost impossible ; it requires generalship of high-
est order. Day by day the remorseless jaws of the Allied
military machine, hinged to the north of the Aisne,— Brit-
ish and Belgian forces on the north, French in the center,
Americans on the south and east,— were closing, and when
the American forces fought their way through the Argonne
to Sedan (forty miles northeast of Rheims) the case was
liopeless. Only the armistice saved Germany from the
humiliation of a surrender, on a scale vastly greater than
the surrender of the French armies near that same point-
in 1870.

THE COLLAPSE OF THE TEUTONIC ALLIES.

With Germany herself falling, it is not strange that
the nations leagued with her also went down to defeat.
They had been almost forced into the war by Germany;
not one of them could carry on a war when deprived of
counsel and help from Germany. Only the threat of force
kept Austria in the wai\ As the counter-attack in
France gained in force, as the retreat continued, it was
recognized on all hands that the end was approaching.
The will to war— the morale— was completely broken down;
and so on every side the Allied forces gained great vic-
tories with surprising ease.

Bulgaria was the first nation to surrender. This was
the conclusion of a succession of great victories beginning
September 16, 1918, ending by the surrender ten days later.
The case with Turkey was hopeless after Bulgaria fell.
No reinforcements or supplies could reach them from Ger-
many. The English forces under General Allenby were

INTRODUCTORY.

carrying everything before them. Turkey surrendered
October 31, 1918. Austria-Hungary was the third power
to surrender. This came as the culmination of one of the
greatest drives of the war.

GREAT ITALIAN VICTORY.

In 1917— as we have seen,— Italy suffered a great
reverse, losing 200,000 soldiers and immense supplies. In
August, 1918, Austria renewed the attack. In his procla-
mation to his soldiers, the Austrian commander bade them
remember 6 'the white bread, the fat cattle, the wine" and
supplies they had won the year before. Surely as great
rewards awaited them this time, and learned professors
assured them and the entire nation that they belonged to
a ' 4 conquering superior race" and so could be confident of
further victory. The drive was a " hunger offensive" on
the part of hard-pressed Austria. It was a dismal failure.
It is interesting to know that American airplanes, piloted
by Americans, rendered great assistance in repulsing this
attack. Then came the counter-attack. In this drive
American forces assisted. The drive began October 27th;
it was attended by a series of most astonishing victories.
The drive culminated in the abject surrender of Austria,
November 3, 1918. The victories can only be explained
by the fact that the morale of the Austrian troops had
completely broken down, more than 500,000 prisoners being
taken, together with enormous supplies.

THE GERMAN ARMISTICE.

With their armies perilously near route on the west-
ern front, with a great military disaster confronting them,
with everyone of her allies forced to surrender, with revo-
lution threatening at home, there was nothing left for
Germany to do but to make the best terms possible. Their

INTRODUCTORY.

commissioners met General Foch at Senlis and the drastic
armistice terms were signed at 5 o'clock, Paris time, the
morning of November 11, 1918, and the last shots in the
war were fired at 11 o'clock, that forenoon, Paris time.
The war had lasted (from the date of the declaration of
war on Serbia) four years, three months and thirteen days.
On subsequent pages we shall consider more in detail this
skeletonized story, study the enormous political, geographic
and economic changes it has necessitated, and mentally
view the new age in history at hand.

MARSHAL FERDINAND FOCH.
This is the latest photograph of Marshal Ferdinand Foch, Supreme Commander of the Allied
Armies, as he appears since the termination of the war. A comparison of this photograph with
earlier ones shows the effect of the war on the famous general.

I —

SERGT. HENRY JOHNSON, OP ALBANY, N. Y., THE OUTSTANDING HERO.

Single-handed he routed 36 Huns, killing- 4 of them and wounding the remainder.
When his ammunition ran out he used a bolo knife. Sergt. Johnson, of the 369th
Colored Infantry (old 15th of N. Y.), was the first man in his regiment to win the
French War Cross.

From U. & U.

LIEUTENANT ROBERT S. CAMPBELL,, U. S. ARMY.
The first man in the 92nd American Division (Negroes) to receive the dis-
tinguished service cross for bravery in the fighting in the Argonne. He was a
member of Co. I, 368th Infantry.

CHAPTER II.

General Pershing's Own Story of the Victorious
American Army.

Organization op His General Staff — Training in France — In the Aisore Of-
fensive—At Chateau Thierry— The St. Mihiel Salient— Meuse-Argonne,
First Phase — The Battle in the Forest — Summary.

r I ^HIS is a brief summary of the organization and opera-

tions of the American Expeditionary Force from May

26, 1917, until the signing of the armistice, November
11, 1918. Immediately upon receiving my orders I selected
a small staff and proceeded to Europe in order to become
familiar with conditions at the earliest possible moment.

The warmth of our reception in England and France
was only equaled by the readiness of the commanders in
chief of the veteran armies of the Allies and their staffs
to place their experience at our disposal. In consultation
with them the most effective means of co-operation of
effort was considered. With French and British armies
at their maximum strength, and all efforts to dispossess
the enemy from his firmly intrenched positions in Belgium
and France failed, it was necessary to plan for an Ameri-
can force adequate to turn the scale in favor of the Allies.
Taking account of the strength of the Central Powers at
that time, the immensity of the problem which confronted
us could hardly be over-estimated. The first requisite be-
ing an organization that could give intelligent direction
to effort, the formation of a General Staff occupied my
early attention.

A well organized General Staff through which the
commander exercises his functions is essential to a suc-

ORGANIZATION OF GENERAL STAFF.

GENERAL PERSHING'S OWN STORY.

cessful modern army. However capable our division, our
battalion, and our companies as such, success would be im-
possible without thoroughly co-ordinated endeavor. A
General Staff broadly organized and trained for war had
not hitherto existed in our army. Under the Commander-
in-Chief, this staff must carry out the policy and direct
the details of administration, supply, preparation, and
operations of the army as a whole, with all special branches
and bureaus subject to its control. As models to aid us
we had the veteran French General Staff and the experi-
ence of the British who had similarly formed an organiza-
tion to meet the demands of a great army. By selecting
from each the features best adapted to our basic organic
zation, and fortified by our own early experience in the
war, the development of our great General Staff system
was completed.

The General Staff is naturally divided into five groups,
each with its chief who is an assistant to the Chief of the
General Staff. G. 1 is in charge of organization and equip-
ment of troops, replacements, tonnage, priority of over-
seas shipment, the auxiliary welfare association and cog-
nate subjects; G. 2 has censorship, enemy intelligence,
gathering and disseminating information, preparation of
maps, and all similar subjects; G. 3 is charged with all
strategic studies and plans, movement of troops, and the
supervision of combat operations; G. 4 co-ordinates im-
portant questions of supply, construction, transport ar-
rangements for combat, and of the operations of the
service of supply, and of hospitalization and the evacua-
tion of the sick and wounded ; G. 5 supervises the various
schools and has general direction and co-ordination of edu-
cation and training.

The first Chief of Staff was Colonel (now Major-Gen-
eral) James G. Harbord, who was succeeded in May, 1918,

GENERAL PERSHING'S OWN STORY.

by Major-General James W. Mc Andrew. To these offi-
cers, to the deputy Chief of Staff, and to the assistant
Chiefs of Staff, who, as heads of sections, aided them, great
credit is due for the results obtained not only in perfect-
ing the General Staff organization but in applying correct
principles to the multiplicity of problems that have arisen.

ORGANIZATION OF THE FORCES.

After a thorough consideration of Allied organiza-
tions it was decided that our combat division should con-
sist of four regiments of infantry of 3,000 men, with three
battalions to a regiment and four companies of 250 men
each to a battalion, and of an artillery brigade of three regi-
ments, a machine gun battalion, an engineer regiment, a
trench-mortar battery, a signal battalion, wagon trains, and
the headquarters staffs and military police. These, with
medical and other units, made a total of over 28,000 men, or
practically double the size of a French or German division.
Each corps would normally consist of six divisions— four
combat and one depot and one replacement division— and
also two regiments of cavalry, and each army of from three
to five corps. With four divisions fully trained, a corps
could take over an American sector with two divisions in
line and two in reserve, with the depot and replacement
divisions prepared to fill the gaps in the ranks.

Our purpose was to prepare an integral American
force which should be able to take the offensive in every
respect. Accordingly, the development of a self-reliant
infantry by thorough drill in the use of the rifle and in
the tactics of open warfare was always uppermost. The
plan of training after arrival in Prance allowed a division
one month for acclimatization and instruction in small
units from battalions down, a second month in quiet trench
sectors by battalions, and a third month after it came out

GENERAL PERSHING'S OWN STORY.

of the trenches when it should be trained as a complete
division in war of movement.

SCHOOLS OF INSTRUCTION.

Very early a system of schools was outlined and
started, which should have the advantage of instruction
by officers direct from the front. At the great school center
at Langres, one of the first to be organized, was the staff
school, where the principles of general staff work, as laid
down in our own organization, were taught to carefully
selected officers. Men in the ranks, who had shown quali-
ties of leadership, were sent to the school of candidates
for commissions. A school of the line taught younger
officers the principles of leadership, tactics, and the use of
the different weapons. In the artillery school, at Saumur,
young officers were taught the fundamental principles of
modern artillery; while at Issoudun an immense plant was
built for training cadets in aviation. These and other
schools, with their well-considered curriculums for train-
ing in every branch of our organization, were co-ordinated
in a manner best to develop an efficient army out of willing
and industrious young men, many of whom had not before
known even the rudiments of military technique. Both
Marshal Haig and General Petain placed officers and men
at our disposal for instructional purposes, and we are
deeply indebted for the opportunities given to profit by
their veteran experience.

AMERICAN ZONE.

The eventual place the American army should take on
the western front was to a large extent influenced by the
vital question of communication and supply. The north-
ern ports of France were crowded by the British armies'
shipping and supplies while the southern ports, though

GENERAL PERSHING'S OWN STORY.

otherwise at our service, had not adequate port facilities
for our purposes and these we should have to build. The
already overtaxed railway system behind the active front
in northern France would not be available for us as lines
of supply and those leading from the southern ports of
northeastern France would be unequal to our needs with-
out much new construction. Practically all warehouses,
supply depots and regulating stations must be provided
by fresh constructions. While France offered us such ma-
terial as she had to spare after a drain of three years,
enormous quantities of material had to be brought across
the Atlantic.

VAST PREPARATIONS NECESSARY.

With such a problem any temporization or lack of
definiteness in making plans might cause failure even
with victory within our grasp. Moreover, broad plans
commensurate with our national purpose and resources
would bring conviction of our power to every soldier in
the front line, to the nations associated with us in the war,
and to the enemy. The tonnage for material for neces-
sary construction for the supply of an army of three and
perhaps four million men would require a mammoth pro-
gram of shipbuilding at home, and miles of dock construc-
tion in France, with a corresponding large project for
additional railways and for storage depots.

All these considerations led to the inevitable conclu-
sion that if we were to handle and supply the great forces
deemed essential to win the war we must utilize the south-
ern ports of France— Bordeaux, La Pallice, St. Nazaire,
and Brest— and the comparatively unused railway systems
leading therefrom to the northeast. Generally speaking,
then, this would contemplate the use of our forces against
the enemy somewhere in that direction, but the great depots

GENERAL PERSHING'S OWN STORY.

of supply must be centrally located, preferably in the area
included by Tours, Bourges, and Chateauroux, so that our
armies could be supplied with equal facility wherever they
might be serving on the western front.

SKILLED HELP.

To build up such a system there were talented men in
the Eegular Army, but more experts were necessary than
the army could furnish. Thanks to the patriotic spirit
of our people at home, there came from civil life men
trained for every sort of work involved in building and
managing the organization necessary to handle and trans-
port such an army and keep it supplied. With such as-
sistance the construction and general development of our
plans have kept pace with the growth of the forces, and
the Service of Supply is now able to discharge from ships
and move 45,000 tons daily, besides transporting troops
and material in the conduct of active operations.

WORK OF THE DEPARTMENTS.

As to organization, all the administrative and supply
services, except the Adjutant General's, Inspector Gen-
eral's, and Judge Advocates General's Departments which
remain at general headquarters, have been transferred to
the headquarters of the services of supplies at Tours under
a commanding general responsible to the commander-in-
chief for supply of the armies. The Chief Quartermaster,
Chief Surgeon, Chief Signal Officer, Chief of Ordnance,
Chief of Air Service, Chief of Chemical Warfare, the gen-
eral purchasing agent in all that pertains to questions of
procurement and supply, the Provost Marshal General in
the maintenance of order in general, the Director General
of Transportation in all that affects such matters, and the
Chief Engineer in all matters of administration and sup-

GENERAL PERSHING'S OWN STORY.

ply, are subordinate to the Commanding General of the
Service of Supply, who, assisted by a staff especially
organized for the purpose, is charged with the adminis-
trative co-ordination of all these services.

TRANSPORTATION AND ENGINEER'S DEPARTMENT.

The transportation department under the Service of
Supply directs the operation, maintenance, and construc-
tion of railways, the operation of terminals, the unloading
of ships, and transportation of material to warehouses or
to the front. Its functions make necessary the most inti-
mate relationship between our organization and that of
the French, with the practical result that our transpor-
tation department has been able to improve materially the
operations of railways generally. Constantly laboring
under a shortage of rolling stock, the transportation de-
partment has nevertheless been able by officient manage-
ment to meet every emergency.

The Engineer Corps is charged with all construction,
including light railways and roads. It has planned and con-
structed the many projects required, the most important
of which are the new wharves at Bordeaux and Nantes, and
the immense storage depots at La Pallice, Montoir, and
Gievres, besides innumerable hospitals and barracks in
various ports of France. These projects have all been
carried on by phases keeping pace with our needs. The
Forestry Service under the Engineer Corps has cut the
greater part of the timber and railway ties required.

PURCHASES IN EUROPE.

To meet the shortage of supplies from America, due
to lack of shipping, the representatives of the different
supply departments were constantly in search of available
material and supplies in Europe. In order to co-ordinate

GENERAL PERSHING'S OWN STORY.

these purchases and to prevent competition betwaen our
departments, a fgeneral purchasing agency was created
early in our experience to co-ordinate our purchases and,
if possible, induce our Allies to apply the principle among
the Allied armies. While there was no authority for the
general use of appropriations, this was met by grouping
the purchasing representatives of the different depart-
ments under one control, charged with the duty of consoli-
dating requisitions and purchases. Our efforts to extend
the principle have been signally successful, and all pur-
chases for the Allied armies are now on an equitable and
co-operative basis. Indeed, it may be said that the work
of this bureau has been thoroughly efficient and business-
like.

ARTILLERY, AIRPLANES AND TANKS.

Our entry into the war found us with few of the aux-
iliaries necessary for its conduct in the modern sense.
Among our most important deficiencies in material were
artillery, aviation, and tanks. In order to meet our re-
quirements as rapidly as possible, we accepted the offer of
the French Government to provide us with the necessary
artillery equipment of seventy-fives, one fifty-five milli-
meter howitzers, and one-fifty-five G P F guns from their
own factories for thirty divisions. The wisdom of this
course is fully demonstrated by the fact that, although we
soon began the manufacture of these classes of guns at
home, there were no guns of the calibers mentioned manu-
factured in America on our front at the date the armistice
was signed. The only guns of these types produced at
home thus far received in France are 109 seventy-five milli-
meter guns.

In aviation we were in the same situation, and here
again the French Government came to our aid until our
own aviation program should be under way. We obtained

GENERAL PERSHING'S OWN STORY.

from the French the necessary planes for training our
personnel, and they have provided us with a total of 2,676
pursuit, observation, and bombing planes. The first air-
planes received from home arrived in May, and altogether
we have received 1,379. The first American squadron
completely equipped by American production, including
airplanes, crossed the German lines on August 7, 1918. As
to tanks, we were also compelled to rely upon the French.
Here, however, we were less fortunate, for the reason that
the French production could barely meet the requirements
of their own armies.

OUR OBLIGATIONS TO FRANCE.

It should be fully realized that the French Govern-
ment has always taken a most liberal attitude and has been
most anxious to give us every possible assistance in meet-
ing our deficiencies in these as well as in other respects.
Our dependence upon France for artillery, aviation, and
tanks was, of course, due to the fact that our industries
had not been exclusively devoted to military production.
All credit is clue our own manufacturers for their efforts
to meet our requirements, as at the time the armistice was
signed we were able to look forward to the early supply
of practically all our necessities from our own factories.

CAMP WELFARE WORK.

The welfare of the troops touches my responsibility
as Commander-in-Chief to the mothers and fathers and
kindred of the men who came to France in the impres-
sionable period of youth. They could not have the privi-
lege accorded European soldiers during their periods of
leave of visiting their families and renewing their home
ties. Fully realizing that the standard of conduct that
should be established for them must have a permanent in-

GENERAL PERSHING'S OWN STORY.

fluence in their lives and on the character of their future
citizenship, the Ked Cross, the Young Men's Christian
Association, Knights of Columbus, the Salvation Army,
and the Jewish Welfare Board, as auxiliaries in this work,
were encouraged in every possible way. The fact that our
soldiers, in a land of different customs and language, have
borne themselves in a manner in keeping with the cause for
which they fought, is due not only to the efforts in their
behalf but much more to other high ideals, their discipline,
and their innate sense of self-respect. It should be re-
corded, however, that the members of these welfare socie-
ties have been untiring in their desire to be of real service
to our officers and men. The patriotic devotion of these
representative men and women has given a new signifi-
cance to the Golden Rule, and we owe to them a debt of
gratitude that can never be repaid.

COMBAT OPERATIONS.

During our periods of training in the trenches some
of our divisions had engaged the enemy in local combats,
the most important of which was Seicheprey by the
Twenty-sixth on April 20, in the Toul sector, but none
had participated in action as a unit. The First Division,
which had passed through the preliminary stages of train-
ing, had gone to the trenches for its first period of in-
struction at the end of October and by March 21, when
the German offensive in Picardy began, we had four divi-
sions with experience in the trenches, all of which were
equal to any demands of battle action. The crisis which
this offensive developed was such that our occupation of
an American sector must be postponed.

TROOPS PLACED UNDER MARSHAL FOCH.

On March 28 I placed at the disposal of Marshal Pooh
who had been agreed upon as Commander-in-Chief of the

GENERAL PERSHING'S OWN STORY.

Allied armies, all of our forces to be used as he might
decide. At his request the First Division was transferred
from the Toul sector to a position in reserve at Chau-
mont en Vexin. As German superiority in numbers re-
quired prompt action, an agreement was reached at the
Abbeville conference of the Allied premiers and command-
ers and myself on May 2 by which British shipping was
to transport ten American divisions to the British army
area, where they were to be trained and equipped, and
additional British shipping was to be provided for as
many divisions as possible for use elsewhere.

THE CANTIGNY OPERATIONS.

On April 26 the First Division had gone into the line
in the Montdidier salient on the Picardy battlefront.
Tactics had been suddenly revolutionized to those of open
warfare, and our men, confident of the results of their
training, were eager for the test. On the morning of May
28 this division attacked the commanding German posi-
tion in its front, taking with splendid dash the town of
Cantigny and all other objectives, which were organized
and held steadfastly against vicious counter-attacks and
galling artillery fire. Although local, this brilliant action
had an electrical effect, as it demonstrated our fighting
qualities under extreme battle conditions, and also that
the enemy's troops were not altogether invincible.

THE GERMAN AISNE OFFENSIVE.

The Germans' Aisne offensive, which began on May
27, had advanced rapidly toward the Kiver Marne and
Paris, and the Allies faced a crisis equally as grave as
that of the Picardy offensive in March. Again every avail-
able man was placed at Marshal Foch's disposal, and the
Third Division, which had just come from its preliminary

GENERAL PERSHING'S OWN STORY.

training in the trenches, was hurried to the Marne. Its
motorized machine gun battalion preceded the other units
and successfully held the bridgehead at the Marne, oppo-
site Chateau-Thierry. The Second Division, in reserve
near Montdidier, was sent by motor trucks and other avail-
able transport to check the progress of the enemy toward
Paris. The Division attacked and retook the town and
railroad station at Bouresches and sturdily held its ground
against the enemy's best guard divisions. In the battle
of Belleau Wood, which followed, our men proved their
superiority and gained a strong tactical position, with far
greater loss to the enemy than to ourselves. On July 1,
before the Second was relieved, it captured the village of
Vaux with most splendid precision.

Meanwhile our Second Corps, under Maj. Gen.
George W. Read, had been organized for the command
of our divisions with the British, which were held back in
training areas or assigned to second-line defenses. Five
of the ten divisions were withdrawn from the British area
in June, three to relieve divisions in Lorraine and the
Vosges and two to the Paris area to join the group of Ameri-
can divisions which stood between the city and any farther
advance of the enemy in that direction.

OPERATIONS NEAR RHEIMS.

The great June- July troop movement from the States
was well under way, and, although these troops were to
be given some preliminary training before being put into
action, their very presence warranted the use of all the
older divisions in the confidence that we did not lack re-
serves. Elements of the Forty-second Division were in
the line east of Rheims against the German offensive of
July 15, and held their ground unflinchingly. On the right
flank of this offensive four companies of the Twenty-

GENERAL PERSHING'S OWN STORY.

eighth Division were in position in face of the advancing
waves of the German infantry. The Third Division was
holding the bank of the Marne from the bend east of the
mouth of the Surmelin to the west of Mezy, opposite
Chateau-Thierry, where a large force of German infantry
sought to force a passage under support of powerful
artillery concentrations and under cover of smoke screens.
A single regiment of the Third wrrote one of the most bril-
liant pages in our military annals on this occasion. It
prevented the crossing at certain points on its front
while, on either flank, the Germans, who had gained a foot-
ing, pressed forward. Our men, firing in three directions,
met the German attacks with counter-attacks at critical
points and succeeded in throwing two German divisions
into complete confusion, capturing 600 prisoners.

BEGINNING OF THE COUNTER ATTACK.

The great force of the German Chateau-Thierry of-
fensive established the deep Marne salient, but the enemy
was taking chances, and the vulnerability of this pocket
to attack might be turned to his disadvantage. Seizing
this opportunity to support my conviction, every division
with any sort of training was made available for use in a
counter-offensive. The place of honor in the thrust to-
ward Soissons on July 18 was given to our First and
Second Divisions in company with chosen French divi-
sions. Without the usual brief warning of a preliminary
bombardment, the massed French and American artillery,
firing by the map, laid down its rolling barrage at dawn
while the infantry began its charge. The tactical hand-
ling of our troops under these trying conditions was ex-
cellent throughout the action. The enemy brought up
large numbers of reserves and made a stubborn defense
both with machine guns and artillery, but through five

GENERAL PERSHING'S OWN STORY.

days' fighting the First Division continued to advance
until it had gained the heights above Soissons and cap-
tured the village of Berzy-le-sec. The Second Division
took Beau Repaire farm and Vierzy in a very rapid ad-
vance and reached a position in front of Tigny at the end
of its second day. These two divisions captured 7,000
prisoners and over 100 pieces of artillery.

THE SOISSONS ATTACK.

The Twenty-sixth Division, which, with a French divi-
sion, was under command of our First Corps, acted as a
pivot of the movement toward Soissons. On the 18th it
took the village of Torcy, while the Third Division was
crossing the Marne in pursuit of the retiring enemy. The
Twenty-sixth attacked again on the 21st, and the enemy
withdrew past the Chateau-Thierry-Soissons road. The
Third Division, continuing its progress, took the heights
of Mont St. Pere and the villages of Charteves and Jaul-
gonne in the face of both machine gun and artillery fire.

On the 24th, after the Germans had fallen back from
Trugny and Epieds, our Forty-second Division, which had
been brought over from the Champagne, relieved the
Twenty-sixth and, fighting its way through the Foret de
Fere, overwhelmed the nest of machine guns in its path.
By the 27th it had reached the Ourcq, whence the Third
and Fourth Divisions were already advancing, while the
French divisions with which we were co-operating were
moving forward at other points.

The Third Division had made its advance into Ron-
cheres Wood on the 29th and was relieved for rest by a
brigade of the Thirty-second. The Forty-second and
Thirty-second undertook the task of conquering the
heights beyond Cierges, the Forty-second capturing Sergj
and the Thirty-second capturing Hill 230, both American

GENERAL PERSHING'S OWN STORY. 63

divisions joining in the pursuit of the enemy to the Vesle,
and thus the operation of reducing the salient was fin-
ished. Meanwhile the Forty-second was relieved by the
Fourth at Chery-Chartreuve, and the Thirty-second by
the Twenty-eighth, while the Seventy-seventh Division
took up a position on the Vesle. The operations of these
divisions on the Vesle were under the Third Corps. Maj.
Gen. Robert L. Bullard, commanding.

BATTLE OF ST. MIHIEL.

With the reduction of the Marne salient we could look
forward to the concentration of our divisions in our own
zone. In view of the forthcoming operation against the
St. Mihiel salient, which had long been planned as our
first offensive action on a large scale, the First Army was
organized on August 10 under my personal command.
While American units had held different divisional and
corps sectors along the western front, there had not been
up to this time, for obvious reasons, a distinct American
sector; but, in view of the important parts the American
forces were now to play, it was necessary to take over a
permanent portion of the line. Accordingly, on August 30,
the line beginning at Port sur Seille, east of the Moselle
and extending to the west through St. Mihiel, thence north
to a point opposite Verdun, was placed under my com-
mand. The American sector was afterwards extended
across the Meuse to the western edge of the Argonne
Forest, and included the Second Colonial French, which
held the point of the salient, and the Seventeenth French
Corps, which occupied the heights above Verdun.

PREPARATION FOR THE ATTACK.

The preparation for a complicated operation against
the formidable defenses in front of us included the as-

GENERAL PERSHING'S OWN STORY.

sembling of divisions and of corps and army artillery,
transport, aircraft, tanks, ambulances, the location of hos-
pitals, and the molding together of all of the elements
of a great modern army with its own railheads, supplied
directly by our own Service of Supply. The concentra-
tion for this operation, which was to be a surprise, involved
the movement, mostly at night, of approximately 600,000
troops, and required for its success the most careful atten-
tion to every detail.

The French were generous in giving us assistance in
corps and army artillery, with its personnel, and we were
confident from the start of our superiority over the enemy
in guns of all calibers. Our heavy guns were able to reach
Metz and to interfere seriously with German rail move-
ments. The French Independent Air Force was placed
under my command which, together with the British
bombing squadrons and our air forces, gave us the largest
assembly of aviation that had ever been engaged in one
operation on the western front.

LOCATION OF THE TROOPS.

From Les Eparges around the nose of the salient at
St. Mihiel to the Moselle River the line was roughly forty
miles long and situated on commanding ground greatly
strengthened by artificial defenses. Our First Corps
(Eighty-second, Nintieth, Fifth, and Second Divisions),
under command of Maj. Gen. Hunter Liggett, restrung
its right on Pont-a-Mouson, with its left joining
our Third Corps (the Eighty-ninth, Forty-second, and
First Divisions), under Maj. Gen. Joseph T. Dick-
man, in line to Xivray, were to swing in toward Vigneulles
on the pivot of the Moselle River for the initial assault.
From Xivray to Mouilly the Second Colonial French Corps
was in line in the center and our Fifth Corps, under com-

GENERAL PERSHING'S OWN STORY.

mand of Maj. Gen. George H. Cameron, with our
Twenty-sixth Division and a French division at the west-
ern base of the salient, were to attack three difficult hills—
Les Eparges, Combres, and Amaramthe. Our First Corps
had in reserve the Seventy-eighth Division, our Fourth
Corps the Third Division, and our First Army the Thirty-
fifth and Ninety-first Divisions, with the Eightieth and
Thirty-third available. It should be understood that our
corps organizations are very elastic, and that we have at
no time had permanent assignments of divisions to corps.

MOVEMENT OF THE TROOPS.

After four hours' artillery preparation, the seven
American divisions in the front line advanced at 5 A. M.
on September 12, assisted by a limited number of tanks
manned partly by Americans and partly by the French.
These divisions, accompanied by groups of wire cutters
and others armed with bangalore torpedoes, went through
the successive bands of (barbed wire that protected the
enemy's front line and support trenches, in irresistible
waves on schedule time, breaking down all defense of an
enemy demoralized by the great volume of our artillery
fire and our sudden approach out of the fog.

Our First Corps advanced to Thiaucourt, while our
Fourth Corps curved back to the southwest through Non-
sard. The Second Colonial French Corps made the slight
advance required of it on very difficult ground, and the
Fifth Corps took its three ridges and repulsed a counter-
attack. A rapid march brought reserve regiments of a
division of the Fifth Corps into Vigneulles in the early
morning, where it linked up with patrols of our Fourth
Corps, closing the salient and forming a new line west of
Thiaucourt to Vigneulles and beyond Fresnes-en-Woevre.
At the cost of only 7,000 casualties, mostly light, we had

GENERAL PERSHING'S OWN STORY.

taken 16,000 prisoners and 443 guns, a great quantity of
material, released the inhabitants of many villages from
enemy domination, and established our lines in a position
to threaten Metz. This signal success of the American
First Army in its first offensive was of prime importance.
The Allies found they had a formidable army to aid them,
and the enemy learned finally that he had one to reckon
with.

PREPARATION FOR THE ARGONNE OFFENSIVE.

On the day after we had taken the St. Mihiel salient,
much of our corps and army artillery which had oper-
ated at St. Mihiel and our divisions in reserve at other
points, were already on the move toward the area back of
the line between the Meuse Biver and the western edge of
the forest of Argonne. With the exception of St. Mihiel,
the old German front line from Switzerland to the east
of Rheims was still intact. In the general attack all
along the line, the operation assigned the American army
as the hinge of this Allied offensive was directed toward
the important railroad communications of the German
armies through Mezieres and Sedan. The enemy must hold
fast to this part of his lines or the withdrawal of his forces
with four years' accumulation of plants and material would
be dangerously imperiled.

The German army had as yet shown no demoraliza-
tion and, while the mass of its troops had suffered in
morale, its first-class divisions and notably its machine gun
defense were exhibiting remarkable tactical efficiency as
well as courage. The German General Staff was fully
aware of the consequences of a success on the Meuse-
Argonne line. Certain that he would do everything in his
power to oppose us, the action was planned with as much
secrecy as possible and was undertaken with the deter-

GENERAL PERSHING'S OWN STORY.

mination to use all our divisions in forcing a decision. We
expected to draw the best German divisions to our front
and to consume them while the enemy was held under grave
apprehension lest our attack should break his line, which
it was our firm purpose to do.

LINE OF BATTLE.

Our right flank was protected by the Meuse, while our
left embraced the Argonne Forest, whose ravines, hills,
and elaborate defense screened by dense thickets had been
generally considered impregnable. Our order of battle
from right to left was the Third Corps from the Meuse
to Malancourt, with the Thirty-third, Eightieth, and
Fourth Divisions in line, and the Third Division as corps
reserve; the Fifth Corps from Malancourt to Vauquois,
with Seventy-ninth, Eighty-seventh, and Ninety-first Divi-
sions in line, and the Thirty-second in corps reserve; and
the First Corps, from Vauquois to Vienne le Chateau, with
Thirty-fifth, Twenty-eighth, and Seventy-seventh Divi-
sions in line, and the Ninety-second in corps reserve. The
army reserve consisted of the First, Twenty-ninth, and
Eighty-second Divisions.

BATTLE OPERATIONS.

On the night of September 25 our troops quietly took
the place of the French who thinly held the line in this
sector wrhich had long been inactive. In the attack, which
began on the 26th, we drove through the barbed wire en-
tanglements and the sea of shell craters across No Man's
Land, mastering all the first line defenses. Continuing
on the 27th and 28th, against machine guns and artillery
of an increasing number of enemy reserve divisions, we
penetrated to a depth of from three to seven miles, and
took the village of Montfaucon and its commanding hill

GENERAL PERSHING'S OWN STORY.

and Exermont, Gercourt, Cuisy, Septsarges, Malancourt,
Ivoiry, Epinionville, Charpentry, Very, and other villages.
East of the Meuse one of our divisions, which was with
the Second Colonial French Corps, captured Marche-
ville and Rieville, giving further protection to the flank
of our main body. We had taken 10,000 prisoners, we
had gained our point of forcing the battle into the open
and were prepared for the enemy's reaction, which was
bound to come, as he had good roads and ample railroad
facilities for bringing up his artillery and reserves.

GREAT DIFFICULTIES OVERCOME.

In the chill rain of dark nights our engineers had to
build new roads across spongy, shell-torn areas, repair
broken roads beyond No Man's Land, and build bridges.
Our gunners, with no thought of sleep, put their shoulders
to wheels and dragropes to bring their guns through the
mire in support of the infantry, now under the increas-
ing fire of the enemy's artillery. Our attack had taken
the enemy by surprise, but, quickly recovering himself,
he began to fire counter-attacks in strong force, supported
by heavy bombardments, with large quantities of gas.
Prom September 28 until October 4 we maintained the
offensive against patches of woods defended by snipers
and continuous lines of machine guns, and pushed for-
ward our guns and transports, seizing strategical points
in preparation for further attacks.

OTHER UNITS WITH ALLIES.

Other divisions attached to the Allied armies were
doing their part. It was the fortune of our Second Corps,
composed of the Twenty-seventh and Thirtieth Divisions,
which had remained with the British, to have a place of
honor in co-operation with the Australian Corps on Sep-

GENERAL PERSHING'S OWN STORY.

tember 29 and October 1 in the assault on the Hindenburg
Line where the St. Quentin Canal passes through a tunnel
under a ridge. The Thirtieth Division speedily broke
through the main line of defense for all its objectives,
while the Twenty-seventh pushed on impetuously through
the main line until some of its elements reached Gouy. In
the midst of the maze of trenches and shell craters and
under cross-fire from machine guns the other elements
fought desperately against odds. In this and in later
actions, from October 6 to October 19, our Second Corps
captured over 6,000 prisoners and advanced over 13 miles.
The spirit and aggressiveness of these divisions have been
highly praised by the British army commander ruder vfhom
they served.

OPERATIONS NEAR RHEIMS.

On October 2-9 our Second and Thirty-sixth Divisions
were sent to assist the French in an important attack
against the old German positions before .iheims. The
Second conquered the complicated defense works on their
front against a persistent defense worthy of the grimmest
period of trench warfare and attacked the strongly held
wooded hill of Blanc Mont, which they captured in a sec-
ond assault, sweeping over it with consummate dash and
skill. This division then repulsed strong counter-attacks
before the village and cemetery of Ste. Etienne and took
the town, forcing the Germans to fall back from before
Rheims and yield positions they had held since September,
1914. On October 9 the Thirty-sixth Division relieved the
Second and, in its first experience under fire, withstood
very severe artillery bombardment and rapidly took up the
pursuit of the enemy, now retiring behind the Aisne.

RESULTS OF AMERICAN OPERATIONS.

The Allied progress elsewhere cheered the efforts of
our men in this crucial contest as the German command

GENERAL PERSHING'S OWN STORY.

threw in more and more first-class troops to stop our
advance. We made steady headway in the almost impene-
trable and strongly held Argonne Forest, for, despite this
reinforcement, it was our army that was doing the driving.
Our aircraft was increasing in skill and numbers and forc-
ing the issue, and our infantry and artillery were improv-
ing rapidly with each new experience. The replacements
fresh from home were put into exhausted divisions with
little time for training, but they had the advantage of
serving beside men who knew their business and who had
almost becomes veterans overnight. The enemy had taken
every advantage of the terrain, which especially favored
the defense by a prodigal use of machine guns manned by
highly trained veterans and by using his artillery at short
ranges. In the face of such strong frontal positions we
should have been unable to accomplish any progress ac-
cording to previously accepted standards, but I had every
confidence in our aggressive tactics and the courage of
our troops.

PROGRESS UNDER DIFFICULTIES.

On October 4 the attack was renewed all along our
front. The Third Corps tilting to the left followed the
Brieulles-Cunel road; our Fifth Corps took Gesnes, while
the First Corps advanced for over two miles along the
irregular valley of the Aire River and in the wooded hills
of the Argonne that bordered the river, used by the enemy
with all his art and weapons of defense. This sort of
fighting continued against an enemy striving to hold every
foot of ground and whose very strong counter-attacks
challenged us at every point. On the 7th the First Corps
captured Chatel-Chehery and continued along the river to
Cornay. On the east of Meuse sector one of the two divi-
sions co-operating with the French captured Consenvoye

GENERAL PERSHING'S OWN STORY.

and the Haumont Woods. On the 9th the Fifth Corps,
in its progress up the Aire, took Fleville, and the Third
Corps, which had continuous fighting against odds, was
working its way through Brieulles and Cunel. On the
10th we had cleared the Argonne Forest of the enemy.

FORMATION OF SECOND ARMY.

It was now necessary to constitute a second army, and
on October 9 the immediate command of the First Army
was turned over to Lieut. Gen. Hunter Liggett. The
command of the Second Army, whose divisions occupied a
sector in the Woevre, was given to Lieut. Gen. Robert L.
Bullard, who had been commander of the First Division
and then of the Third Corps. Major General Dickman
was transferred to the command of the First Corps, while
the Fifth Corps was placed under Maj. Gen. Charles P.
Summerall, who had recently commanded the First Divi-
sion. Maj. Gen. John L. Hines, who had gone rapidly up
from regimental to division commander, wras assigned to
the Third Corps. These four officers had been in France
from the early days of the expedition and had learned
their lessons in the school of practical warfare.

Our constant pressure against the enemy brought day
by day more prisoners, mostly survivors from machine
gun nests captured in fighting at close quarters. On Octo-
ber 18 there was very fierce fighting in the Caures Woods
east of the Meuse and in the Ormont Woods. On the 14th
the First Corps took St. Juvin, and the Fifth Corps, in
hand-to-hand encounters, entered the formidable Kriem-
hilde Line, where the enemy had hoped to check us indefi-
nitely. Later the Fifth Corps penetrated further the
Kriemhilde Line, and the First Corps took Champigneulles
and the important town of Grandpre. Our dogged offen-
sive was wearing down the enemy, who continued desper-

GENERAL PERSHING'S OWN STORY.

ately to throw his best troops against us, thus weakening
his line in front of our Allies and making their advance
less difficult.

AMERICANS IN BELGIUM.

Meanwhile we were not only able to continue the bat-
tle, but our Thirty-seventh and Ninety-first Divisions were
hastily withdrawn from our front and dispatched to help
the French army in Belgium. Detraining in the neigh-
borhood of Ypres, these divisions advanced by rapid stages
to the fighting line and were assigned to adjacent French
corps. On October 31, in continuation of the Flanders
offensive, they attacked and methodically broke down all
enemy resistance. On November 3 the Thirty-seventh had
completed its mission in dividing the enemy across the
Escaut River and firmly established itself along the east
bank included in the division zone of action. By a clever
flanking movement, troops of the Ninety-first Division
captured Spitaals Bosschen, *a difficult wood extending
across the central part of the division sector, reached the
Escaut, and penetrated into the town of Audenarde. These
divisions received high commendation from their corps
commanders for their dash and energy.

REGROUPING FOR FINAL ASSAULT.

On the 23d the Third and Fifth Corps pushed north-
ward to the level of Bantheville. While we continued to
press forward and throw back the enemy's violent counter-
attacks with great loss to him, a regrouping of our forces
was under way for the final assault. Evidence of loss of
morale by the enemy gave our men more confidence in
attack and more fortitude in enduring the fatigue of inces-
sant effort and the hardships of very inclement weather.

With comparatively well-rested divisions, the final
advance in the Meuse-Argonne front was begun on Novem-

GENERAL FUKSHlNCi « OWN STORY.

ber 1. Our increased artillery force acquitted itself mag-
nificently in support of the advance, and the enemy broke
before the determined infantry, which, by its persistent
fighting of the past weeks and the dash of this attack, had
overcome his will to resist. The Third Corps took Aincre-
ville, Doulcon, and Andevanne, and the Fifth Corps took
Landres et St. Georges and pressed through successive
lines of resistance to Bayonville and Chennery. On the
2d the First Corps joined in the movement, which now
became an impetuous onslaught that could not be stayed.

SUCCESSFUL ACCOMPLISHMENT.

On" the 3d advance troops surged forward in pursuit,
some by motor trucks, while the artillery pressed along
the country roads close behind. The First Corps reached
Authe and Chatillon-Sur-Bar, the Fifth Corps, Fosse and
Nouart, and the Third Corps Halles, penetrating the ene-
my's line to a depth of twelve miles. Our large caliber
guns had advanced and were skillfully brought into posi-
tion to fire upon the important lines at Montmedy, Lon-
guyon, and Conflans. Our Third Corps crossed the Meuse
on the 5th and the other corps, in the full confidence that
the day was theirs, eagerly cleared the way of machine
guns as they swept northward, maintaining complete co-
ordination throughout. On the 6th, a division of the First
Corps reached a point on the Meuse opposite Sedan,
twenty-five miles from our line of departure. The stra-
tegical goal which was our highest hope was gained. We
had cut the enemy's main line of communications and
nothing but surrender or an armistice could save his army
from complete disaster.

TROOPS ENGAGED.

In all forty enemy divisions had been used against us
in the Meuse- Argonne battle. Between September 26 and

GENERAL PERSHING'S OWN STORY.

November 6 we took 26,059 prisoners and 468 guns on
this front. Our divisions engaged were the First, Second,
Third, Fourth, Fifth, Twenty-sixth, Twenty-eighth, Twen-
ty-ninth, Thirty-second, Thirty-third, Thirty-fifth, Thirty-
seventh, Forty-second, Seventy-seventh, Seventy-eighth,
Seventy-ninth, Eightieth, Eighty-second, Eighty-ninth,
Ninetieth, and Ninety-first. Many of our divisions re-
mained in line for a length of time that required nerves
of steel, while others were sent in again after only a few
days of rest. The First, Fifth, Twenty-sixth, Forty-
second, Seventy-seventh, Eightieth, Eighty-ninth, and
Ninetieth were in the line twice. Although some of the
divisions were fighting their first battle, they soon became
equal to the best.

OPERATIONS EAST OF THE MEUSE.

On the three days preceding November 10, the Third,
the Second Colonial, and the Seventeenth French Corp?
fought a difficult struggle through the Meuse Hills south
of Stenay and forced the enemy into the plain. Mean-
while, my plans for further use of the American forces
contemplated an advance -between the Meuse and the
Moselle in the direction of Longwy by the First Army,
while, at the same time, the Second Army should assure
the offensive toward the rich iron fields of Briey. These
operations were to be followed by an offensive toward
Chateau-Salins east of the Moselle, thus isolating Metz.
Accordingly, attacks on the American front had been
ordered and that of the Second Army was in progress on
the morning of November 11, when instructions were re-
ceived that hostilities should cease at 11 o . 'clock A. M.

At this moment the line of the American sector, from
right to left, began at Port-Sur-Seille, thence across the
Moselle to Vandieres and through the Woevre to Bezon-

GENERAL PERSHING'S OWN STORY.

vaux, in the foothills of the Meuse, thence along to the foot-
hills and through the northern edge of the Woevre forests
to the Meuse at Mouzay, thence along the Meuse connect-
ing with the French under Sedan.

RELATIONS WITH THE ALLIES.

Co-operation among the Allies has at all times been
most cordial. A far greater effort has been put forth by
the Allied armies and staffs to assist us than could have
been expected. The French Government and army have
always stood ready to furnish us with supplies, equipment,
and transportation, and to aid us in every way. In the
towns and hamlets wherever our troops have been stationed
or billeted the French people have everywhere received
them more as relatives and intimate friends than as sol-
diers of a foreign army. For these things words are quite
inadequate to express our gratitude. There can be no
doubt that the relations growing out of our associations
here assure a permanent friendship between the two peo-
ples. Although we have not been so intimately associated
with the people of Great Britain, yet their troops and ours
when thrown together have always warmly fraternized.
The reception of those of our forces who have passed
through England and of those who have been stationed
there has always been enthusiastic. Altogether it has been
deeply impressed upon us that the ties of language and
blood bring the British and ourselves together completely
and inseparably.

STRENTGH.

There are in Europe altogether, including a regiment
and some sanitary units with the Italian army and the
organizations at Murmansk, also including those en route
from the States, approximately 2,053,347 men, less our
losses. Of this total, there are in France 1,338,169 com-

GENERAL PERSHING'S OWN STORY.

batant troops. Forty divisions have arrived, of which the
infantry personnel of ten have been used as replacements,
leaving 30 divisions now in Prance organized into three
armies of three corps each.

The losses of the Americans up to November 18 are:
Killed and wounded, 36,145 ; died of disease, 14,811 ; deaths
unclassified, 2,204; wounded, 179,625; prisoners, 2,163;
missing, 1,160. We have captured about 44,000 prisoners
and 1,400 guns, howitzers and trench mortars.

WARM APPRECIATION.

The duties of the General Staff, as well as those of the
army and corps staffs, have been very ably performed.
Especially is this true when we consider the new and diffi-
cult problems with which they have been confronted. This
body of officers, both as individuals and as an organization,
have, I believe, no superiors in professional ability, in effi-
ciency, or in loyalty.

Nothing that we have in France better reflects the
efficiency and devotion to duty of Americans in general
than the Service of Supply, whose personnel is thoroughly
imbued with a patriotic desire to do its full duty. They
have at all times fully appreciated their responsibility to
the rest of the army and the results produced have been
most gratifying.

SPECIAL WORK OF DEPARTMENTS.

Our Medical Corps is especially entitled to praise for
the general effectiveness of its work both in hospital and
at the front. Embracing men of high professional attain-
ments, and splendid women devoted to their calling and
untiring in their efforts, this department has made a new
record for medical and sanitary proficiency.

The Quartermaster Department has had difficult and

GENERAL PERSHING'S OWN STORY.

various tasks, but it has more than met all demands that
have been made upon it. Its management and its personnel
have been exceptionally efficient and deserve every pos-
sible commendation.

SPLENDID TECHNICAL SERVICE.

As to the more technical services, the able personnel
of the Ordnance Department in France has splendidly ful-
filled its functions, both in procurement and in forward-
ing the immense quantities of ordnance required. The
officers and men and the young women of the Signal Corps
have performed their duties with a large conception of
the problem and with a devoted and patriotic spirit to
which the perfection of our communications daily testify.
While the Engineer Corps has been referred tc in another
part of this report, it should be further stated that the
work has required large vision and high professional skill,
and great credit is due their personnel for the high profi-
ciency that they have constantly maintained.

Our aviators have no equals in daring or in fighting
ability and have left a record of courageous deeds that
will ever remain a brilliant page in the annals of our
army. While the Tank Corps has had limited opportuni-
ties its personnel has responded gallantly on every possible
occasion and has shown courage of the highest order.

The Adjutant General's Department has been directed
with a systematic thoroughness and excellence that sur-
passed • any previous work of its kind. The Inspector
General's Department has risen to the highest standards
and throughout has ably assisted commanders in the
enforcement of discipline. The able personnel of the
ljudge Advocate General's Department has solved with
judgment and wisdom the multitude of difficult legal prob-

GENERAL PERSHING'S OWN STORY.

lems, many of them involving questions of great inter-
national importance.

TRIBUTE TO THE PERSONNEL OF THE VARIOUS

BRANCHES.

It would be impossible in this brief preliminary report
to do justice to the personnel of all the different branches
of this organization which I shall cover in detail in a later
report.

The navy in European waters has at all times most
cordially aided the army, and it is most gratifying to report
that there has never before been such perfect co-operation
between these two branches of the service.

As to Americans in Europe not in the military serv-
ices, it is the greatest pleasure to say that, both in official
and in private life, they are intensely patriotic and loyal,
and have been invariably sympathetic and helpful to the
army.

Finally, I pay the supreme tribute to our officers and
soldiers of the line. When I think of their heroism, their
patience under hardships, their unflinching spirit of of-
fensive action, I am filled with emotion which I am unable
to express. Their deeds are immortal, and they have
earned the eternal gratitude of our country.

CHAPTER III.

Pkesident Wilson's Review of the War.

Troop Movement During the Year — Tribute to American Soldiers — Splendid
Spirit of the Nation — Resume the Work of Peace — Outline of Work in
Paris — Support of Nation Urged.

N DECEMBER 2, 1918, just prior to sailing for

Europe to take part in the Peace Conference, Presi-

dent Wilson addressed Congress, reviewing the work
of the American people, soldiers, sailors and civilians, in the
World War which had been brought to a successful con-
clusion on November 11th. His speech, in part, follows:
' i The year that has elapsed since I last stood before
you to fulfill my constitutional duty to give to the Congress
from time to time information on the state of the Union
has been so crowded with great events, great processes and
great results that I can not hope to give you an adequate
picture of its transactions or of the far-reaching changes
which have been wrought in the life of our Nation and
of the world. You have yourselves witnessed these things,
as I have. It is too soon to assess them ; and we who stand
in the midst of them and are part of them are less quali-
fied than men of another generation will be to say what
they mean or even what they have been. But some great
outstanding facts are unmistakable and constitute in a
sense part of the public business with which it is our duty
to deal. To state them is to set the stage for the legis-
lative and executive action which must grow out of them
and which we have yet to shape and determine.

TROOP MOVEMENT DURING THE YEAR.

"A year ago we had sent 145,918 men overseas. Since
then we have sent 1,950,513, an average of 162,542 each
month, the number in fact rising in May last to 245,951,

PRESIDENT WILSON'S REVIEW OF THE WAR.

in June to 278,760, in July to 307,182 and continuing to
reach similar figures in August and September— in August
289,570 and in September 257,438. No such movement of
troops ever took place before, across 3,000 miles of sea,
followed by adequate equipment and supplies, and carried
safely through extraordinary dangers of attack, dangers
which were alike strange and infinitely difficult to guard
against. In all this movement only 758 men were lost by
enemy attacks, 630 of wThom were upon a single English
transport which was sunk near the Orkney Islands.

"I need not tell you what lay back of this great move-
ment of men and material. It is not invidious to say that
back of it lay a supporting organization of the industries
of the country and of all its productive activities more
complete, more thorough in method and effective in results,
more spirited and unanimous in purpose and effort than
any other great belligerent had ever been able to effect.
We profited greatly by the experience of the nations which
had already been engaged for nearly three years in the
exigent and exacting business, their every resource and
every proficiency taxed to the utmost. We were the pupils.
But we learned quickly and acted with a promptness and
a readiness of co-operation that justify our great pride
that we were able to serve the world with unparalleled
energy and quick accomplishment.

TRIBUTE TO AMERICAN SOLDIERS.

"But it is not the physical scale and executive effi-
ciency of preparation, supply, equipment and dispatch
that I would dwell upon, but the mettle and quality of the
officers and men we sent over and of the sailors who kept
the seas, and the spirit of the Nation that stood behind
them. No soldiers, or sailors, ever proved themselves more
quickly ready for the test of battle or acquitted themselves

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Africa and the World Democracy

HOW AFRICA WAS DIVIDED UP AMONG THE NATIONS
OP EUROPE BEFORE THE WAR

Area

Country Sq. Miles

British Empire 3,700,000

France 4,641,000

Germany I . . . 931,000

Portugal 749,000

Italy 593,000

Area

Populat'n Country Sq. Miles PopulaVn
*<>q9*nnn Belgium (Belgian

u,6^,vvv CongQ) 909,000 15,000,000

29,577,000 gpain 88,000 660,000

13,420,000 INDEPENDENT STATES

8,244,000 Abyssinia , 432,000 8,000,000

1,579,000 Liberia 40,000 1,800,000

Used by permission of the "Crisis," New York.

PRESIDENT WILSON'S REVIEW OF THE WAR.

with more splendid courage and achievement when put to
the test. Those of us who played some part in directing
the great processes by which the war was pushed irre-
sistibly forward to the final triumph may now forget all
that and delight our thoughts with the story of what our
men did. Their officers understood the grim and exacting
task they had undertaken and performed with audacity,
efficiency, and unhesitating courage that touch the story
of convoy and battle with imperishable distinction at every
turn, whether the enterprise were great or small— from
their chiefs, Pershing and Sims, down to the youngest
lieutenant; and their men were worthy of them— such men
as hardly need to be commanded, and go to their terrible
adventure blithely and with the quick intelligence of those
who know just what it is they would accomplish. I am
proud to be the fellow-countryman of men of such stuff
and valor. Those of us who stayed at home did our duty;
the war could not have been won or the gallant men who
fought it given their opportunity to win it otherwise; but
for many a long day we shall think ourselves 'accursed
we were not there, and hold our manhoods cheap while
any speaks that fought' with these at St. Mihiel or Thierry.
The memory of those days of triumphant battle will go
with these fortunate men to their graves; and each will
have his favorite memory. 4 Old men forget; yet all shall
be forgot, but he'll remember with advantages what feats
he did that day!'

* 6 What we all thank God for with deepest gratitude
is that our men went in force into the line of battle just
at the critical moment, and threw their fresh strength into
the ranks of freedom in time to turn the whole tide and
sweep of the fateful struggle— turn it once for all, so that
henceforth it was back, back, back for their enemies,
always back, never again forward! After that it was only
a scant four months before the commanders of the Central

PRESIDENT WILSON'S REVIEW OF THE WAR.

empires knew themselves beaten, and now their very em-
pires are in liquidation!

SPLENDID SPIRIT OF THE NATION.

"And throughout it all how fine the spirit of the
Nation was; what unity of purpose, what untiring zeal!
What elevation of purpose ran through all its splendid
display of strength, its untiring accomplishment. I have
said that those of us who stayed at home to do the work
of organization and supply will always wrish that we had
been with the men whom we sustained by our labor; but
we can never be ashamed. It has been an inspiring thing
to be here in the midst of fine men who had turned aside
from every private interest of their own and devoted the
whole of their trained capacity to the tasks that supplied
the sinews of the whole great undertaking! The patriot-
ism, the unselfishness, the thoroughgoing devotion and dis-
tinguished capacity that marked their toilsome labors, day
after day, month after month, have made them fit mates
and comrades of the men in the trenches and on the sea.
And not the men here in Washington only. They have but
directed the vast achievement. Throughout innumerable
factories, upon innumerable farms, in the depths of coal
mines and iron mines and copper mines, wherever the stuffs
of industry were to be obtained and prepared, in the ship-
yards, on the railways, at the docks, on the sea, in every
labor that was needed to sustain the battle lines men have
vied with each other to do their part and do it well. They
can look any man-at-arms in the face, and say, we also
strove to win and gave the best that was in us to make our
fleets and armies sure of their triumph!

PATRIOTIC WOMEN OF AMERICA.

"And what shall we say of the women— of their instant
intelligence, quickening every task that they touched; their

PRESIDENT WILSON'S REVIEW OF THE WAR.

capacity for organization and co-operation, which gave
their action discipline and enhanced the effectiveness of
everything they attempted ; their aptitude at tasks to which
they had never before set their hands ; their utter self-
sacrificing alike in what they did and in what they gave?
Their contribution to the great result is beyond appraisal.
They have added a new luster to the annals of American
womanhood.

* ' The least tribute we can pay them is to make them
the equals of men in political rights, as they have proved
themselves their equals in every field of practical work
they have entered, whether for themselves or for their
country. These great days of completed achievement
would be sadly marred were we to omit that act of justice.
Besides the immense practical services they have rendered,
the women of the country have been the moving spirits in
the systematic economies by which our people have volun-
tarily assisted to supply the suffering peoples of the world
and the armies upon every front with food and everything
else that we had that might serve the common cause. The
details of such a story can never be fully written, but we
carry them in our hearts and thank God that we can say
we are the kinsmen of such.

RESUME THE WORK OF PEACE.

"And now we are sure of the great triumph for which
every sacrifice was made. It has come, come in its com-
pleteness, and with the pride and inspiration of these days
of achievement quick within us we turn to the tasks of
peace again— a peace secure against the violence of irre-
sponsible monarchs and ambitious military coteries and
made ready for a new order, for new foundations of jus-
tice and fair dealing.

"We are about to give order and organization to this

PRESIDENT WILSON'S REVIEW OF THE WAR.

peace, not only for ourselves, but for the other peoples of
the world as well, so far as they will suffer us to serve them.
It is international justice that we seek, not domestic safety
merely. . . .

"So far as our domestic affairs are concerned the
problem of our return to peace is a problem of economic
and industrial readjustment. That problem is less seri-
ous for us than it may turn out to be for the nations which
have suffered the disarrangements and the losses of war
longer than we. Our people, moreover, do not wait to be
coached and led. They know their own business, are quick
and resourceful at every readjustment, definite in pup-
pose and self-reliant in action. Any leading strings we
might seek to put them in would speedily become hope-
lessly tangled because they would pay no attention to them
and go their own way. All that we can do as their legis-
lative and executive servants is to mediate the process of
change here, there and elsewhere as we may. I have heard
much counsel as to the plans that should be formed and
personally conducted to a happy consummation, but from
no quarter have I seen any general scheme of reconstruc-
tion emerge which I thought it likely we could force our
spirited business men and self-reliant laborers to accept
with due pliancy and obedience.

ORGANIZATION FOR WAR.

"While the war lasted we set up many agencies by
which to direct the industries of the country in the services
it was necessary for them to render, by which to make
sure of an abundant supply of the materials needed, by
which to check undertakings that could for the time be
dispensed with and stimulate those that were most service-
able in war, by which to gain for the purchasing depart-
ments of the government a certain control over the prices

PRESIDENT WILSON'S REVIEW OF THE WAR.

of essential articles and materials, by which to restrain
trade with alien enemies, make the most of the available
shipping and systematize financial transactions, both pub-
lic and private, so that there would be no unnecessary
conflict or confusion— by which, in short, to put every ma-
terial energy of the country in harness to draw the common
load and make of us one team in accomplishment of a
great task.

"But the moment we knew the armistice to have been
signed we took the harness off. Raw materials upon which
the government had kept its hand for fear there should
not be enough for the industries that supplied the armies
have been released, and put into the general market again.
Great industrial plants whose whole output and machinery
had been taken over for the uses of the government have
been set free to return to the uses to which they were put
before the war. It has not been possible to remove so
readily or so quickly the control of foodstuffs and of ship-
ping, because the world has still to be fed from our gran-
aries and the ships are still needed to send supplies to our
men oversea and to bring the men back as fast as the dis-
turbed conditions on the other side of the water permit;
but even there restrains are being relaxed as much as pos-
sible, and more and more as the weeks go by.

" Never before have there been agencies in existence
in this country which knew so much of the field of supply
of labor, and of industry as the War Industries Board,
the War Trade Board, the Labor Department, the Food
Administration and the Fuel Administration have known
since their labors became thoroughly systematized; and
they have not been isolated agencies; they have been
directed by men which represented the permanent depart-
ments of the government and so have been the centers of
unified and co-operative action. It has been the policy

PRESIDENT WILSON'S EEVIEW OF THE WAR.

of the Executive, therefore, since the armistice was as-
sured (which is in effect a complete submission of the
enemy) to put the knowledge of these bodies at the dis-
posal of the business men of the country and to offer their
intelligent mediation at every point and in every matter
where it was desired. It is surprising how fast the process
of return to a peace footing has moved in the three weeks
since the fighting stopped. It promises to outrun any
inquiry that may be instituted and any aid that may be
offered. It will not be easy to direct it any better than
it will direct itself. The American business man is of
quick initiative. . . .

OUTLINE OF WORK IN PARIS.

"I welcome this occasion to announce to the Congress
my purpose to join in Paris the representatives of the
governments with which we have been associated in the
war against the Central Empires for the purpose of dis-
cussing with them the main features of the treaty of peace.
I realize the great inconveniences that will attend my leav-
ing the country, particularly at this time, but the con-
clusion that it was my paramount duty to go has been
forced upon me by considerations which I hope will seem
as conclusive to you as they have seemed to me.

"The Allied governments have accepted the bases of
peace which I outlined to the Congress on the 8th of Janu-
ary last, as the Central Empires also have, and very rea-
sonably desire my personal counsel in their interpretation
and application, and it is highly desirable that I should
give it, in order that the sincere desire of our government
to contribute without selfish purpose of any kind to settle-
ments that will be of common benefit to all the nations con-
cerned may be made fully manifest. The peace settle-
ments which are now to be agreed upon are of trans-

PRESIDENT WILSON'S REVIEW OP THE WAR. 87

cendent importance both to us and to the rest of the world,
and I know of no business or interest which should take
precedence of them. The gallant men of our armed forces
on land and sea have consciously fought for the ideals
which they knew to be the ideals of their country; I have
sought to express those ideals; they have accepted my
statements of them as the substance of their own thought
and purpose, as the associated governments have accepted
them; I owe it to them to see to it, so far as in me lies,
that no false or mistaken interpretation is put upon them,
and no possible effort omitted to realize them. It is now
my duty to play my full part in making good what they
offered their life's blood to obtain. I can think of no call
to service which could transcend this. . . .

SUPPORT OF NATION URGED.

"May I not hope, gentlemen of the Congress, that in
the delicate tasks I shall have to perform on the other
side of the sea in my efforts truly and faithfully to inter-
pret the principles and purposes of the country we love,
I may have the encouragement and the added strength of
your united support? I realize the magnitude and diffi-
culty of the duty I am undertaking. I am poignantly
aware of its grave responsibilities. I am the servant of
the Nation. I can have no private thought or purpose of
my own in performing such an errand. I go to give the
best that is in me to the common settlements which I must
now assist in arriving at in conference with the other work-
ing heads of the associated governments. I shall count
upon your friendly countenance and encouragement. I
shall not be inaccessible. The cables and the wireless will
render me available for any counsel or service you may
desire of me, and I shall be happy in the thought that I
am constantly in touch with the weighty matters of do-

PRESIDENT WILSON'S REVIEW OP THE WAR.

mestic policy with which we shall have to deal. I shall
make my absence as brief as possible and shall hope to
return with the happy assurance that it has been possible
to translate into action the great ideals for which America
has striven."

PRESIDENT WILSON'S DIPLOMATIC MISSION.

In accordance with this message, President Wilson
broke the traditions of more than a century, and took upon
himself the deep responsibility of a diplomatic mission.
He went as the representative of one of the great belliger-
ent powers to confer with the premiers and leading diplo-
mats of Europe to frame, not only a peace of justice to
terminate the World War, but— if possible— to organize a
League of Nations, henceforth making such cataclysms an
impossibility.

CHAPTER IV.
THE FLASH THAT SET THE WORLD AFLAME.

Teutons Find in a Murder the Excuse for War — Germany Inspired by Am-
bitions fob World Control — The Struggle for Commercial Supremacy a
Factor — The Underlying Motives.

THE assassination of the Archduke Francis Ferdinand, heir
apparent to the throne of Austria, together with his wife,
in Bosnia, during the last days of June, 1914, is com-
monly regarded as the blow which forged the chain that bound
the European powers in bloody warfare. The tragedy was the
signal for putting on the world stage the greatest war play of
all times.

When Austria, regarding the murder of the Archduke as
a National affront, precipitated the conflict which has con-
vulsed the universe, she marked the way easy for Imperial Ger-
many to put into effect a long-contemplated plan for territo-
rial expansion, and to wage a warfare so insidious, so brutal
and so ruthless in its character as to amaze the civilized world.

Word-pictures were drawn, so to speak, of a mighty
nation striving to burst iron bands that were slowly strangling
her, and her perfectly natural wish to find outlets for her
rapidly growing population and commerce. Germany sought
to obtain "a place in the sun," to use one of the Kaiser's most
unfortunate expressions, and the world soon found that the
"place" included the territory embracing a few ports on the
English channel, with control of Holland and Belgium,
Poland, the Balkan countries, a big slice of Asia Minor,
Egypt, English and French colonies in Africa, not to mention
remote possibilities,

Germany's ambitions may have been laudable, but her
methods of trying to satisfy these ambitions were not such as

8§

90 THE FLASH THAT SET THE WORLD AFLAME.

co either gain for her the "solar warmth" which she sought to
win, or gain for her the friendship of the nations of the civilized
world. The drama which Germany directed moved swiftly in
this wise:

Austria claimed that Servia, as a Nation, was responsible
for the assassination of the Archduke in Bosnia. She sent an
ultimatum to Belgrade, making demands which the Servians
could not admit. Thereupon Austria declared war and moved
across the Danube with her army.

THE FOUR GROUPS.

Austria's attack threatened to disturb the balance of
power, because at the time the continent was divided into four
groups: The close alliance of the central powers — Germany,
Austria and Italy — referred to as the Triple Alliance or Drei-
bund; the Triple Entente, or understanding between Great
Britain, France and Russia; the smaller group whose neutral-
ity and integrity had been guaranteed, or at least recognized —
Belgium, Denmark, Holland and the Grand Duchy of Luxem-
bourg, sandwiched in between Germany, France and Belgium,
together with Switzerland. The fourth group included the
Balkan nations : Bulgaria, Servia, Montenegro, Greece, Tur-
key and Roumania, all drawn close to Russia; Norway and
Sweden, and the Iberian nations, Spain and Portugal. The
increase in the power of one of these groups would at any time
have been sufficient to precipitate a war, but in the movement
of Austria against Servia there entered a racial element.
There was a threatened drawing of another Slavonic peoples
into the Teutonic system. Besides this, the action let loose the
flood of militarism which civilization had been holding in check.

With this situation in mind, it is easy to understand how
Germany could precipitate a world conflict by attempting to
keep open the way to the near East, and controlling the mar-
kets as against Britain, France and Russia. Back of all this
was the question of commercial supremacy, Germany showing

THE FLASH THAT SET THE WORLD AFLAME. 91

her intention of keeping the way open to the near East and
dominating the markets as against Britain, France and Russia.

Russia could not stand by and see one of her Slavonic
wards crushed, and France, which held the Russian national
debt, prepared to support her debtor, whereupon Germany,
threatened on both sides, struck. In doing so the Kaiser ig-
nored the rights of the small neutral states, invaded Belgium
and brought his armies within threatening distance of Eng-
land. France prepared to defend her country against Ger-
many, and England, alarmed by the move of Germany and
sympathizing with Belgium, struck back to avert the disaster
which she felt must follow the German movement, which had
been threatening for years.

REGARDED EACH OTHER WITH SUSPICION.

All attempts to maintain a balance of power between the
European countries were from time to time jeopardized by
various developments. The elements in the continental group
struggled against each other, and the Nations, while seemingly
at rest, regarded each other w ith suspicion. One of the under-
lying forces that the world knew must at some time be felt was
of racial origin. The historical explanations of the war would
involve the retelling of almost everything that has happened
in Europe for more than a century.

But it is necessary to the long train of evil consequences
which have followed the interference of other powers in the
settlement of affairs between Russia and Turkey after the war
of 1877, when Russia was victorious. Russia and Turkey had
agreed upon a large Bulgaria and an enlarged and independ-
ent Servia, but at the Berlin Congress, which Austria had taken
the initiative in calling, Austria showed that she wished to have
as much as possible of this Christian territory of Southeastern
Europe kept under the domination or nominal authority of
Turkey. Austria feared Russia's influence with the new coun-
tries of Servia, Roumania, Bulgaria and Montenegro, and

92 THE FLASH THAT SET THE WORLD AFLAME.

therefore she desired to have this territory remain Turkish by
influence, to the end that she might some day acquire part or
all of it for herself.

One of the articles of the agreement of Berlin turned
Bosnia and Herzegovina over to Austria for temporary occu-
pation and management. Austria was a trustee of the country
which lies between Servia and the Adriatic sea, and while Aus-
tria's management was efficient, Servia looked forward to the
time when a union could be effected with Bosnia, which would
provide Servia with an outlet to the sea.

THE SERVIANS EMBITTERED.

But when Russia fell humiliated by the Japanese and the
Young Turks reformed their government, and there was pros-
pect that the Turks might demand the evacuation of Bosnia by
Austria, the powers that had engaged in the Berlin treaty were
informed that Austria had decided to make Bosnia and Herze-
govina a part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The Ser-
vians were embittered, because this stood in the way of their
attaining their ideals, and their country was landlocked.

With this bitterness rankling in her national breast, Servia
joined forces with Bulgaria, Greece and Montenegro to drive
the Turks out of Europe. The larger powers, including Aus-
tria, tried to prevent the action, but the heroic Balkan struggle
is a matter of history. Servia was to have secured as a share
of the conquered territory a portion of Albania, on the Adri-
atic. This would have compensated her for the loss of Bosnia,
but the great powers, led by Austria, stepped in, and a plan
was devised of making Albania an independent state or princi-
pality, with a German prince to rule over it.

The Servians were bitter, and both Servia and Greece
demanded of Bulgaria portions of the territory acquired in the
war and which had originally been assigned to Bulgaria as her
share. Bulgaria stood upon her technical rights and precipi-
tated the last Balkan war, which was really made possible, or

THE FLASH THAT SET THE WORLD AFLAME. 93

probable, by the Austrian policy. When the war was con-
cluded Servia had acquired more territory to the south, but she
remained a landlocked country, with Bosnia, Montenegro and
Albania stretching between her and the Adriatic sea.

This was the situation when the assassination of the Arch-
duke Ferdinand and his wife occurred in Bosnia. The Arch-
duke was, in effect, a joint ruler with the Emperor Franz
J oseph, who was nearly 84 years of age, and the entire world
realized that great events were likely to follow the killing of
the heir apparent to the Austro-Hungarian throne. The mur-
der was committed by a young Servian fanatic, and Austria
determined to hold Servia responsible for the murder, and
therefore presented her now- famous ultimatum.

NO CAUSE FOR WAR.

Students of history hold that if there had been a proper
respect for the commendable desire of the Christian peoples in
European Turkey to throw off the Turkish yoke and become
self-governing states, there would have been no cause for war,
so far as relates to Servia and the situation which precipitated
the conflict. There would have been developed a series of
peaceful and progressive countries of the non-military type of
Denmark, Sweden and Holland.

A wiser treatment of the Balkan problem might have
averted the war, but it could not have set aside racial differ-
ences, nor could it have ended the curse of militarism or set at
rest the distrust and fear which it promotes.

The end of European militarism might have come about,
however, through a better understanding between Germany
and France. This might have been arrived at years ago if
Germany had opened the Alsace-Lorraine question, and had
rearranged the boundary line between the two countries so that
the French-speaking communities lost in the Franco-Prussian
war be ceded back to France. The cost of maintaining the
feud over Alsace-Lorraine has been a burden to both France

94 THE FLASH THAT SET THE WORLD AFLAME.

and Germany, and the progress which Germany has made in
world affairs, despite the burden of militarism which she has
carried, is one of the marvels of the century. And the situation
compelled France to maintain a defensive military organiza-
tion which was as great a burden to her and barrier to world
peace as the military burden of Germany.

STRAIN BETWEEN GERMANY AND RUSSIA.

Whether Germany conspired to bring on the war so that
she could wage a campaign of aggression has not yet been
made clear, but the strain between Germany and Russia had
been growing for some time, and the assassination of the Teu-
tonic heir, Francis Ferdinand, by a ward of Russia, created an
occasion which gave Germany an opportunity to fight, without
being compelled to directly precipitate the conflict. Russia
could do naught else but come to the aid of Servia, and Ger-
many by reason of her alliance with Austria must aid the latter
country.

Germany anticipated the entry of Italy into the conflict
as the third member of the Triple Alliance, but Italy did not
regard Germany's action as defensive and declined to aid Aus-
tria. Germany had made overtures to Great Britain, but Eng-
land had an understanding with France, which was in the
nature of a limited alliance, and Germany might have kept
England out of the struggle; but Germany proceeded with a
plan to invade France by way of Belgium, which was in viola-
tion of international agreement establishing Belgium's neu-
trality and independence. Germany had nothing to gain by
choosing the Belgium route, for the fact is that even had the
Belgian government approved the movement, there must have
been a French counter-movement, which would have made Bel-
gium the theatre of war just the same.

Pan-Germanism has been described as one of the under-
lying motives in the world war, and Pan- Slavism has always
opposed Pan-Germanism. Pan-Germanism is described as a

THE FLASH THAT SET THE WORLD AFLAME. 9o

well-defined policy or movement which seeks the common wel-
fare of the Germanic peoples of all Europe and the advance
of Teutonic culture, while Pan- Slavism, represented by Rus-
sia, seeks in the main the uniting of all the Slavonic folk for
common welfare. The contact between these two has always
been seething, and the racial differences made burdensome the
arbitrary alignment and political geography arranged by the
Berlin Congress.

OUTLETS TO THE WORLD'S MARKET.

The commercial side, however, was a big factor, for Ger-
many sought world markets for its products. In the near East
are the grain fields of Mesopotamia, and in the far East are
the vast markets of India and China. The great banking and
financial interests of Europe have been seeking the conquest of
Asia for nearly half a century. German capital built railroads
through Asia Minor, but English capital controls the Suez
Canal. Russia welded the Balkan states until the Slavonic
wedge from the Black sea to the Adriatic barred Germany's
wray to the Orient. England threatened the Kaiser's expan-
sion on the sea; while Russia, on one side, with France her
strong ally, closed the Germans in on opposite sides. So Ger-
many must have outlets to the world markets.

The religious element was also a factor in the affairs of
Europe, for the territory has been divided into four large reli-
gious groups for centuries. Moslems counted several millions
of Turks, Bosnians and Albanians in Europe, the Prot-
estants among the Germans, English, Swiss and Hungarians
number about 100,000,000, while the Roman Catholics in all
the Latin countries, Southern Germany, Croatia, Albania,
Bohemia, and in Russian Austria and Russian Poland are
about 180,000,000. The Greek Catholics in Russia, the Balkan
countries and a few provinces in the Austrian Empire number
more than 110,000,000.

The differences in religion have precipitated many Euro-

)

96 THE FLASH THAT SET THE WORLD AFLAME.

pean struggles, but for more than a century the countries have
been forced to assume an attitude of tolerance, so that churches
other than those established by the State have thrived. But
just what influence religions may have had in the various inci-
dents of the war it is difficult to determine.

The outstanding fact is that but for the arrogant, mili-
taristic policy of Imperial Germany, the differences between
nations might have been settled, and almost indescribable
horrors of the war would never have been experienced.

CHAPTER V.

WHY AMERICA ENTERED THE WAR.

The Iron Hand of Prussianism — The Arrogant Hohenzollern Attitude —
Secretary Lane Tells Why We Fight — Broken Pledges — Laws Violated
— Prussianism the Child of Barbarity — Germany's Plans for a World
Empire.

NOT merely to prevent Germany from opening avenues of
commerce to the seas nor to throttle the ambitions of
the Kaiser was America drawn into the vortex of war
with France, England, Russia, Belgium, Italy and other
nations ; but that the iron hand of Prussianism, as exemplified
in the conduct of the German Government, might be lifted
from the shoulders of men, and the world given that measure
of peace and security which modern civilization demands.

Germany by her ruthless submarine warfare brought deso-
lation to many American homes. She sank without a pang of
conscience the great transatlantic steamship Lusitania, and,
while pretending friendship for the United States and plead-
ing no intent to disregard American rights, broke her own
pledges and repeated her overt acts, ignoring international law
and the rights of all neutrals at sea.

She began her outlawry by the invasion of Belgium,
which was followed by conduct on the part of the German
forces which clearly marked them descendants of the "wolf
tribes" of feudal days, fighting with the motto before them of,
"To the victor belong the spoils."

But all of Germany's diabolical acts involving the peace
and security of America and American citizens might have
been the subject of international adjudication but for the arro-
gance of the ruling forces of the Teutons. In a broad sense,
Prussianism is credited with responsibility for the devastating
war and for the policy which drew America into the conflict.
The country, led by President Woodrow Wilson, who

WHY AMERICA ENTERED THE WAR.

temporized to an extent that for a time made him the subject
of bitter criticism, found that war was being forced upon it by
an autocratic and ambitious German Government — that of the
Hohenzollern dynasty — which possessed an insane ambition to
dominate the earth, leaving to America no alternative but to
borrow the piratical terrorism of Imperialistic Germany, with
temporary abandonment of its own constitutional free govern-
ment, and join the Allies to defend it.

In the sense which Prussianism or militarism is here used
it denotes a mental attkude or view. It is a condition of mind
which is partisan, exaggerated and egotistical, and is developed
by environment and training. Just as the professional spirit
in any other occupation leads to an exhibition of exaggerated
importance, the despotic doctrine of militarism assumes supe-
riority over rational motives and deliberations. Everything
must be sacrificed to perpetuate and maintain the honor and
prestige of the military.

WHAT MILITARISM IS.

What that militarism is and what it has done to America,
and to the whole world, is best summed up in the words of
Secretary Lane, of the Department of the Interior, at Wash-
ington, who in an address before the Home Club of the De-
partment on June 4, 1917, just when America was beginning
to send forces to Europe, said:

"America is at war in self-defense and because she could
not keep out ; she is at war to save herself with the rest of the
world from the nation that has linked itself with the Turk and
adopted the methods of Mahomet, setting itself to make the
world bow before policies backed by the organized and scien-
tific military system.

"Why are we fighting Germany? The brief answer is
that ours is a war of self-defense. We did not wish to fight
Germany. She made the attack upon us; not on our shores,
but on our ships, our lives, our rights, our future. For two

WHY AMERICA ENTERED THE WAR. 99

years and more we held to a neutrality that made us apologists
for things which outraged man's common sense of fair play
and humanity.

"At each new offense — the invasion of Belgium, the kill-
ing of civilian Belgians, the attacks on Scarborough and other
defenseless towns, the laying of mines in neutral waters, the
fencing off of the seas — and on and on through the months,
we said :

" 4 This is war — archaic, uncivilized war, but war. All
rules have been thrown away ; all nobility ; man has come down
to the primitive brute. And while we cannot justify, we can-
not intervene. It is not our war.'

IN WAR TO DEFEND RIGHTS.

"Then why are we in? Because we could not keep out.
The invasion of Belgium, which opened the war, led to the
invasion of the United States by slow, steady, logical steps.
Our sympathies evolved into a conviction of self-interest. Our
love of fair play ripened into alarm at our own peril.

"We talked in the language and in the spirit of good faith
and sincerity, as honest men should talk, until we discovered
that our talk , was construed as cowardice. And Mexico wras
called upon to cow us.

"We talked as men would talk who cared alone for peace
and the advancement of their own material interests, until we
discovered that we were thought to be a nation of mere money-
makers, devoid of all character — until, indeed, we were told
that we could not walk the highways of the world without per-
mission of a Prussian soldier, that our ships might not sail
without wearing a striped uniform of humiliation upon a nar-
row path of national subservience.

"We talked as men talk who hope for honest agreement,
not for war, until we found that the treaty torn to pieces at
Liege was but the symbol of a policy that made agreements
worthless against a purpose that knew no word but success.

100

WHY AMERICA ENTERED THE WAR.

"And so we came into this war for ourselves. It is a war
to save America, to preserve self-respect, to justify our right
to live as we have lived, not as some one else wishes us to live.
In the name of freedom we challenge with ships and men,
money and an undaunted spirit, that word Verboten' which
Germany has written upon the sea and upon the land.

"For America is not the name of so much territory. It is
a living spirit, born in travail, grown in the rough school of
bitter experiences, a living spirit which has purpose and pride
and conscience, knows why it wishes to live and to what end,
knows how it comes to be respected of the world, and hopes to
retain that respect by living on with the light of Lincoln's love
of man as its old and new testaments.

AMERICA MUST LIVE.

"It is more precious that this America should live than
that we Americans should live. And this America as we now
see has been challenged from the first of this war by the strong
arm of a power that has no sympathy with our purpose, and
will not hesitate to destroy us if the law that we respect, the
rights that are to us sacred, or the spirit that we have, stand
across her set will to make this world bow before her policies,
backed by her organized and scientific military system. The
world of Christ — a neglected but not a rejected Christ — has
come again face to face with the world of Mahomet, who willed
to win by force.

"With this background of history and in this sense, then,
we fight Germany:

"Because of Belgium — invaded, outraged, enslaved, im-
poverished Belgium. We cannot forget Liege, Louvain and
Cardinal Mercier. Translated into terms of American history
these names stand for Bunker Hill, Lexington and Patrick
Henry.

"Because of France — invaded, desecrated France, a mil-
lion of whose heroic sons have died to save the land of Lafay-

WHY AMERICA ENTERED THE WAR. 101

ette. Glorious, golden France, the preserver of the arts, the
land of noble spirit. The first land to follow our lead into
republican liberty.

"Because of England — from whom came the laws, tradi-
tions, standards of life and inherent love of liberty which we
call Anglo-Saxon civilization. We defeated her once upon the
land and once upon sea. But Australia, New Zealand, Africa
and Canada are free because of what we did. And they are
with us in the fight for the freedom of the seas.

"Because of Russia — new Russia. She must not be over-
whelmed now. Not now, surely, when she is just born into
freedom. Her peasants must have their chance; they must go
to school to Washington, to Jefferson and to Lincoln, until
they know their way about in this new, strange world, of gov-
ernment by the popular will ; and

"Because of other peoples, with their rising hope that the
world may be freed from government by the soldier.

GERMANY'S CRIMES AGAINST US.

"We are fighting Germany because she sought to terrorize
us and then to fool us. We could not believe that Germany
would do what she said she would do upon the seas.

"We still hear the piteous cries of children coming up out
of the sea where the Lusitania went down. And Germany has
never asked forgiveness of the world.

"We saw the Sussex sunk, crowded with the sons and
daughters of neutral nations.

"We saw ship after ship sent to the bottom — ships of
mercy bound out of America for the Belgian starving; ships
carrying the Red Cross and laden with the wounded of all
nations; ships carrying food and clothing to friendly, harmless,
terrorized peoples ; ships flying the Stars and Stripes — sent to
the bottom hundreds of miles from shore, manned by Ameri-
can seamen, murdered against all law, without warning.

"We believed Germany's promise that she would respect

102

WHY AMERICA ENTERED THE WAR.

the neutral flag and the rights of neutrals, and we held our
anger and outrage in check. But now we see that she was hold-
ing us off with fair promises until she could build her huge fleet
of submarines. For when spring came she blew her promise
into the air, just as at the beginning she had torn up that
'scrap of paper.' Then we saw clearly that there was but one
law for Germany, her will to rule.

"We are fighting Germany because she violated our con-
fidence. Paid German spies filled our cities. Officials of her
Government, received as the guests of this nation, lived with
us to bribe and terrorize, defying our law and the law of
nations.

"We are fighting Germany because while we were yet her
friends — the only great power that still held hands off — she
3ent the Zimmermann note calling to her aid Mexico, our
southern neighbor, and hoping to lure Japan, our western
neighbor, into war against this nation of peace.

GOVERNMENT THAT HAS NO CONSCIENCE.

"The nation that would do these things proclaims the gos-
pel that government has no conscience. And this doctrine can-
not live, or else democracy must die! For the nations of the
world must keep faith. There can be no living for us in a world
where the State has no conscience, no reverence for the things
of the spirit, no respect for international law, no mercy for
those who fall before its force. What an unordered world!
Anarchy ! The anarchy of the rival wolf packs !

"We are fighting Germany because in this war feudalism
is making its last stand against oncoming democracy. We see
it now. This is a war against an old spirit, an ancient, out-
worn spirit. It is a war against feudalism — the right of the
castle on the hill to rule the village below. It is a war of democ-
racy— the right of all to be their own masters. Let Germany
be feudal if she will! But she must not spread her system over
a world that has outgrown it. Feudalism plus science, thir-

WHY AMERICA ENTERED THE WAR.

teenth century plus twentieth; this is the religion of the mis-
taken Germany that has linked itself with the Turk ; that has,
too, adopted the method of Mahomet: 6 The State has no con-
science,' 'the State can do no wrong.' With the spirit of the
fanatic, she believes this gospel and that it is her duty to spread
it by force.

" With poison gas that makes living a hell, with submarines
that sneak through the seas to slyly murder non-combatants,
with dirigibles that bombard men and women while they sleep,
with a perfected system of terrorization that the modern world
first heard of when German troops entered China, German
feudalism is making war upon mankind.

LIVE IN HAUNTED TERROR.

"Let this old spirit of evil have its way and no man will
live in America without paying toll to it, in manhood and in
money. This spirit might demand Canada from a defeated,
navyless England, and then our dream of peace on the north
would be at an end. We would live, as France has lived for
forty years, in haunting terror.

"America speaks for the world in fighting Germany.
Mark on a map those countries which are Germany's allies,
and you will mark but four, running from the Baltic through
Austria and Bulgaria to Turkey. All the other nations, the
whole glove around, are in arms against her or are unable to
move. There is deep meaning in this.

"We fight with the world for an honest world, in which
nations keep their word; for a world in which nations do not
live by swagger or by threat; for a world in which men think
of the ways in which they can conquer the common cruelties of
nature instead of inventing more horrible cruelties to inflict
upon the spirit and body of man ; for a world in which the am-
bition or the philosophy of a few shall not make miserable all
mankind; for a world in which the man is held more precious
than the machine, the system or the State."

104

WHY AMERICA ENTERED THE WAR.

In Ms denunciations of the Imperial German Govern-
ment President Wilson and his advisers have indicted the
House of Hohenzollern, of which Emperor Wilhelm is the
head, and which has developed the unbending military spirit
which has resulted in Germany being counted an outcast among
the nations of the world.

America, it must be noted, has no antipathy for the Ger-
mans as a race, but modern civilization opposes that form of
Government which has permitted the cruel characteristics of
the "wolf tribes" of feudal times to be carried down through
the generations, and capitalized by the Imperial powers to
bring terror to the hearts of all who do not bow to the iron hand
of the Kaiser and his ilk.

GERMANY A WARLIKE RACE.

The thing from which this Prussianism — this militarism —
grew is easily traceable down the German ages. The very
first appearance of the Germans in history is as a warlike
race. The earliest German literature is composed of folk tales
about war heroes — their ideals and manly virtues. And this
ideal in one form or another, under varying circumstances and
conditions, persisted throughout the centuries.

It is not merely that military service has been compulsory
in Germany, but that almost everything else has been subju-
gated to the development of the army. While Germany has
given to the world a generous quota of scientists, industrial
geniuses, musicians and poets, the whole race is imbued with
the warlike spirit and its influence is manifest in every phase
of national life. Practically all that is best in the nation in the
way of efficiency has been inspired or may be traced to the
military discipline to which the people have been subjected for
years. They have been created human machines, trained to
obey orders and to perform the services to which they are as-
signed without protest and without question.

The history of Germany began with Henry, the Fowler,

WHY AMERICA ENTERED THE WAR. 105

about A. D. 929, who was essentially the first sovereign. He
developed the system of margraves or wardens to guard the
frontiers of the kingdom, fortified his towns and required
every ninth man to take up arms for his country. Robbers
were forced to become soldiers or be hanged, and as lawlessness
was rampant there was no dearth of material to fill up the
ranks of the army.

The margraves, or military leaders under them, grew in
importance and influence until the offices tended to become
hereditary. Gradually the country was divided into princi-
palities, each of which maintained a force of arms. This lim-
ited form of military rule maintained for several centuries of
troublesome times, or until about 1412, when Emperor Sigis-
mund appointed Burgrave Frederick, of Nuremberg, "Stratt-
halter," or vice-regent.

BIRTH OF THE MILITARY SPIRIT.

This appointment marked the establishment of the Ilohen-
zollerns in Brandenburg, and, in fine, fixes the birth of the
military spirit in Germany.

Other princes of the German Reich maintained armies,
but the Hohenzollerns were destined to imprint upon the na-
tion the military ideal. In the beginning history says that
Burgrave Frederick tried all the arts of peace, but it was only
with the army of Franks and some artillery that he was able
to batter down the castles of the robber lords and bring order
into Brandenburg.

Thomas Carlyle gives a list of twelve electors who strove
in turn to consolidate the power of Prussia, so that when Fed-
erick the Great became King of Prussia he found much of the
work done. Among the rulers of these strenuous days to whom
the Kaiser Wilhelm may point as having handed down to him
the warlike spirit are Kurfuerst Joachim I, of Brandenburg
(1529), who introduced Roman law and established a supreme
court for all the provinces at Berlin; Kurfuerst Joachim II,

106

WHY AMERICA ENTERED THE WAR.

of Brandenburg (1542), whom history describes as an un-
scrupulous despot, fond o f luxury and display, and who
changed his religion because it was an advantage politically for
him to do so; Margrave Georg Frederick von Ansbach (1564) ,
who caused the eyes of sixty peasants to be bored out upon
winning the Peasants' war, and Kurfuerst Frederick William
der Grosse, of Brandenburg (1652), known as the "Great
Elector," a fighter, who had two clearly defined aims : to build
up agriculture and maintain a big army.

For years the Hohenzollems and their aids were fighting
unfriendly neighbors and quarrelsome princes, and when after
the lapse of time the Thirty Years' War finally turned Ger-
many into a field of blood, the Great Elector emerged from
the strife with the support of about 25,000 well drilled soldiers,
and freed his country from foreign foes.

HELD EUROPE AT HIS MERCY.

The establishment of the power of the Junkers — the auto-
crats of Prussianism — is credited to Frederick the Great, who
was the great drillmaster who organized the Prussian army on
lines of efficiency and economy. It is related that Frederick,
afterward "The Great," was taken from his women teachers
at the age of seven years and subjected to rigid military dis-
cipline. He commanded a company of cadets, composed of
the sons of nobles who were compelled to drill for him, and at
the age of fourteen he was a captain in the Potsdam Guards,
and when, in 1740, he became king, he took the army and held
all Europe at his mercy. His successor, Frederick William
II, was incapable, and the French revolution found Germany
in a state of discord.

When Frederick William III acceded to the throne in
1797 he started to reorganize the army. Frederick William I
had divided the country into districts, or cantons, and here
began the system of compulsory military training. All males
born were enrolled and liable to service when of age. The army

WHY AMERICA ENTERED THE WAR. 107

was recruited by districts and every district had its regiment,
though later exemptions were allowed. Under Frederick Wil-
liam III, Scharnhorst, a Hanoverian, was the military reor-
ganizer, and he began the work with the slogan "All dwellers
of the State are born defenders of the same."

Instead of depending for its development on king, the
army was directed by genius of best men developed by the
system. After the formation of the German Empire in 1871,
which placed the king of Prussia at its head, the Constitution
of the German Empire made every German a member of the
active army for seven years. Service with colors three }^ears
and with the reserve four. In 1875 there were eighteen army
corps, of which twelve were Prussian. The strength by law
in 1874 was 400,000.

PEACE STRENGTH INCREASED.

In 1881 the established peace strength was increased by
thirty-four battalions of infantry, forty batteries of field artil-
lery and other forces, and in 1886 Bismarck, recognizing the
power of Prussianism and its military influence, was com-
pelled to dissolve the Reichstag, but after the election in 1887
thirty-one other battalions and twenty-four batteries were
added. Two complete army corps were added in 1890, and in
1893 the color service, or length of time when reservists were
subject to duty under colors only, was decreased by two years,
bringing the peace strength up to more than half a million and
the reservists up to 4,000,000. Step by step the strength of
the military force was increased until after the adoption of
the law of 1913, when provision was made for 699 battalions of
infantry, 633 batteries of field artillery; 44 battalions of engi-
neers ; 55 battalions of garrison artillery ; 31 battalions of com-
munications and 26 battalions of train troops — a grand total
of 870,000 actually in service in peace strength.

The German Empire is composed of twenty-six states —
Prussia, Bavaria, Wurttemberg, Baden, Saxony, Hesse, Meek-

108 WHY AMERICA ENTERED THE WAR.

lenburg-Schwerin, Mecklenburg- Sterlitz, Oldenburg, Bruns-
wick, Sax-Weimer-Eisnach, Sax-Coburg-Gotha, Saxe-Mein-
ingen, Saxe-Altenburg, Waldeck, Lippe, Schaumburg-Lippe,
Reuss (elder line), Reuss (younger line), Anhalt, Schwarz-
Rudolsadt, Schwarzburg-Sonderhausen, Hamburg, Bremen,
Lubeck and Reichsland — the Alsace-Lorraine. The area is
less than that of the State of Texas while the population ac-
cording to the most recent statistics is about 65,000,000.

Every male person between the ages of eighteen and forty-
five is liable for military service. Reservists under the rules
in force when the war started were subject to two musters an-
nually and two periods of training not to exceed eight weeks
in duration.

EGOTISTICAL AND EXAGGERATED UTTERANCES.

That the present Emperor is imbued with the harsh mili-
tary spirit of his ancestors is illustrated by his many egotistical
and exaggerated utterances. In dedicating the monument of
Prince Frederick Charles at Frankfurt-on-the-Oder in 1891,
he is quoted as having said :

"We would rather sacrifice our eighteen army corps and
our 42,000,000 inhabitants on the field of battle than surrender
a single stone of what my father and Prince Frederick gained."
The thrills which such expressions arouse are born of an in-
veterate emotional habit, and are responsible for the obliquity
of view and conduct which has made Germany an outcast
among civilized nations.

But Germany was not satisfied with what she had obtained
by her crusading. Developments of the war prove conclu-
sively that the Kaiser has followed out the blood and iron
politico-economic methods of Bismarck for the development of
Prussian power and that while at times Germany has been
reported to be maneuvering for peace, her peace moves have in
reality been war moves, and that a truce would only give the
Imperial Government time in which to further Prussianize and

WHY AMERICA ENTERED THE WAR.

109

prepare for a greater world war the territory to the southeast
which she has conquered under the guise of a friendly alliance.

It will be recalled that President Wilson declared that
"America must fight until the world is made safe for democ-
racy." This declaration refers immediately to the plans which
it has developed Germany had for its conquest. Based upon
reports received by agents of the United States, of England,
of France and other countries, Germany aimed to form a con-
solidation of an impregnable military and economic unit
stretching from the North Sea to the Mediterranean, cutting
Europe permanently in half, controlling the Dardanelles, the
Agean and the Baltic, and eventually forming the backbone
of a Prussian world empire.

LEAGUE AT WORK SINCE 1911.

In her southeastern conquests, it is apparent, Germany
followed almost in toto the long established plan of the Pan-
German League, whose propaganda had been regarded outside
of Germany as the harmless activity of extremists? too radical
to be taken seriously. Coupled with this plan, as an instrument
of economic consolidation, the German officials used with only
slight modification the system of customs union expansion
which aided Prussia in former years to extend her domination
over the other German States now making up the empire.

As early as 1911 the Pan-German League is said to have
circulated a definite propaganda of conquest, with printed ap-
peals containing maps of a greater Germany, whose sway from
Hamburg to Constantinople and then southeastward through
Asiatic Turkey was marked out by boundaries very coincident
with the military lines held today, under German officers, by
the troops of Germany, Austria-Hungary, Bulgaria and Tur-
key. Adhesion of the German Government itself to such a
plan was not suspected by the other Powers, although the
propagandists were permitted to continue their activities un-
hindered and to spread their appeals in a country of strict press

110

WHY AMERICA ENTERED THE WAR.

supervision. How closely the German Government did ad-
here to the plan in reality has been demonstrated clearly by
the course of the war.

Following the footsteps of Bismarck, who used the Fran-
co-Prussian war alliance to bring Baden, Bavaria and Wurt-
temburg into the German confederacy and then into the Ger-
man Empire, Emperor William chose war as the means of
establishing the broad pathway to the southeast which was
essential for realization of the dream of a great Germany.

VERGE OF DISSOLUTION.

The subjugation of Austria-Hungary, which would have
presented a different task under ordinary conditions, became in
these circumstances comparatively very simple. A polyglot
combination of States, having little in common and apparently
held together only by the decaying genius of the aged Em-
peror Franz Joseph, the dual monarchy was regarded every-
where as on the verge of dissolution. Her helplessness before
Russia's army became apparent early in the war, and the eager-
ness with which Germany seized the opportunity thus pre-
sented is pointed to as emphasizing the far-sightedness of
the German plans.

Austria-Hungary's submission is declared to be complete,
both in a military and economic sense. The German officers
commanding her armies, abetted by industrial agents, scattered
throughout the country by Germany, hold the Austrian and
Hungarian population in a union which neither the hardships
of war, the death of the Emperor nor the inspiration of the out-
side influences, such as the Russian revolution, can break.

Bulgaria's declaration of war on the side of Germany was
actuated by a German diplomatic coup, which in itself is re-
garded now as further evidence that a clear road through to
the Dardanelles was considered in Berlin as a primary and im-
perative purpose of the war.

In the case of Turkey, German domination is even more

WHY AMERICA ENTERED THE WAR. Ill

complete than in Austria-Hungary and Bulgaria. Not only
have German officers led in defending Turkish territory and
in eradicating inharmonious elements, such as the Armenians
and Syrians, but German industrial organizations have taken a
firm grip on Turkish industry and a large delegation of Ger-
man professors have been spreading German kultur among the
population.

The developments threw a new light on many events be-
fore the war. Among them the long-unexplained declaration
of Emperor William at Damascus in 1898 that all Mohamme-
dans might confidently regard the German Emperor as "their
friend forever." There also is a complete understanding now
of Germany's eagerness to obtain, in 1899, a concession for the
Bagdad railroad, an artery of communication now indispens-
able to the German operations.

These are the things and conditions to which the Allies
referred when in replying to one of President Wilson's peace
notes they declared that war must accomplish the "liberation of
Italians, of Slavs, of Rumanians and of Tzecho-Slovacs from
foreign domination; the enfranchisement of populations sub-
ject to the bloody tyranny of the Turk; the expulsion from
Europe of the Ottoman Empire, and the restoration of Servia,
Montenegro and Rumania."

America entered the war to fight for Democracy. On the
surface the United States pledged itself to protect its ships and
make secure the lives of its citizens on the highways of the
world, but the principles for which the manhood of the coun-
try were called to fight have been summarized as follows :

That the nations of the world shall co-operate and not
compete. The paradox of history is that every struggle leads
to firmer unity. Wars cemented France, unified the British
Empire, consolidated the American Union.

That national armaments be limited to purposes of inter-
nal police, no nation be allowed to have a force sufficient to be

112 WHY AMERICA ENTERED THE WAR.

a menace to general peace, and a League of Peace be formed
which shall have at its hand sufficient armed power to compel
order among the States.

That nations be governed by the people that compose
them, and for the benefit of those people, and not of a ruling
class.

That every nation be governed with an eye to the welfare
of the whole world as well as to its own prosperity or glory,
and patriotism properly subjected to humanity.

That the power of government be dissociated from ad-
vancing the profits of capital, and made always to mean the
welfare of labor. ♦

That security of life, freedom of worship and opinion, and
liberty of movement be assured to all men everywhere.

That no munitions or instruments of death be manufac-
tured except under control of the International Council of
the World.

That the seas be free to all.

That tariffs be adjusted with a view to the general welfare
and not as measures of national rivalry.

That railways, telegraph, and telephone lines, and all
other common and necessary means of intercommunication be
eventually nationalized.

That every human being in a country be conscripted to
devote a certain part of his or her life to national service.

That both labor unions and combinations of capital be
under strict government control, so that no irresponsible group
may conspire against the commonwealth.

That every child receive training to equip him or her for
self-support and intelligent citizenship.

That woman shall enjoy every right of citizenship.

That the civil shall always have precedence over the mili-
tary authority.

And that the right of free speech, of a free press, and of
assembly shall remain inviolate.

CHAPTER VI.

THE THINGS THAT MADE MEN MAD.

Germany's Barbarity — The Devastation of Belgium — Human Fiends — F'ibjj-

brand and torch eape and plllage the sacking of louvain wanton*

Destruction — Official Proof.

'HE conduct of Germany in ignoring international treaties

I and invading Belgium first aroused the antagonism of
the United States and the rest of the civilized world, and
furnished the primary glimpse of how Imperialism made light
of human rights. What the Kaiser and his arrogant followers
did is fully set forth in the report which a special envoy, ap-
pointed by King Albert of Belgum, laid before President Wil-
son on September 16, 1914.

The mission consisted of Henry Carton de Wiart, Min-
ister of Justice; Messrs. de Sadeleer, Hymans and Vander-
velde, Ministers of State, and Count Louis de Lichtervelde,
serving as secretary of the mission. On being received by
President Wilson, Mr. de Wiart, for the mission, outlined for
the world and for America, the situation in part as follows :

"His Majesty, the King of the Belgians, has charged us
with a special mission to the President of the United States.
Let me say how much we feel ourselves honored to have been
called upon to express the sentiments of our King and of our
whole nation to the illustrious statesman whom the American
people have called to the highest dignity of the commonwealth.

"Ever since her independence was first established, Bel-
gium has been, declared neutral in perpetuity. This neutrality,
guaranteed by the Powers, has recently been violated by one
of them. Had we consented to abandon our neutrality for the
benefit of one of the belligerents, W2 would have betrayed our
obligations toward the others. And it was the sense of our
international obligations as well as that of our dignity and
honor that has driven us to resistance.

114

THE THINGS THAT MADE MEN MAD.

"The consequences suffered by the Belgian nation were
not confined purely to the harm occasioned by the forced march
of the invading army. This army not only seized a great por-
tion of our territory, but it committed incredible acts of vio-
lence, the nature of which is contrary to the laws of nations.

"Peaceful inhabitants were massacred, defenseless women
and children were outraged; open and undefended towns were
destroyed ; historical and religious monuments were reduced to
dust and the famous library of the University of Louvain was
given to the flames.

"Our government has appointed a Judicial Commission to
make an official investigation, so as to thoroughly and impar-
tially examine the facts and to determine the responsibility
thereof, and I will have the honor, Exellency, to hand over to
you the proceedings of the inquiry.

THE UNITED STATES' ATTITUDE.

"In this frightful holocaust which is sweeping over
Europe, the United States has adopted a neutral attitude.

"And it is for this reason that your country, standing
apart from either one of the belligerents, is in the best position
to judge, without bias or partiality, the conditions under which
the war is being waged.

"It is at the request, even at the initiative of the United
States, that all civilized nations have formulated and adopted
at the Hague a law regulating the laws and usages of war.

"We refuse to believe that war has abolished the family
of civilized powers, or the regulation to which they have freely
consented.

"The American people has always displayed its respect
for justice, its search for progress and an instinctive attach-
ment for the laws of humanity. Therefore, it has won a moral
influence which is recognized by the entire world, lit is for this
reason that Belgium, bound as she is to you by ties of commerce
and increasing friendship, turns to the American people at this

THE THINGS THAT MADE MEN MAD.

115

time to let you know the real truth of the present situation.
Resolved to continue unflinching defence of its sovereignty and
independence, it deems it a duty to bring to the attention of
the civilized world the innumerable grave breaches of rights of
mankind, of which she has been a victim.

"At the very moment we were leaving Belgium, the King
recalled to us his trip to the United States and the vivid and
strong impression your powerful and virile civilization left
upon his mind. Our faith in your fairness, our confidence in
your justice, in your spirit of generosity and sympathy, all
these have dictated our present mission."

THK INVESTIGATING COMMITTEE.

In the report handed to President Wilson, the preface sets
forth that the committee appointed to investigate the conduct
of the German invaders, and all of the surrounding circum-
stances, consisted of Messrs. Cattier, professor at the Brussels
University; Nys, counselor of the Brussels Court of Appeals;
Verhaegen, counselor of the Brussels Court of Appeals;
Wodon, professor at the Brussels Universny ; Secretary, Mr.
Gillard, Director of the Department of Justice. Afterwards,
when the invasion made it necessary to transfer the seat of the
government from Brussels to Antwerp, a sub-committee was
appointed there, consisting of Mr. Cooreman, Minister of
State; Members, Count Goblet d'Aviella, Minister of State,
Vice President of the Senate; Messrs. Ryckmans, Senator;
Strauss, Alderman of the City of Antwerp ; Van Cutsem, Hon-
orary President of the Law Court of Antwerp. Secretaries,
Chevalier Ernst de Bunswyck, Chief Secretary of the Belgian
Minister of Justice ; Mr. Orts, Counselor of the Legation.

In brief the report submits first, that in violation of the
perpetual treaty of June 26, 1831, Germany notified Belgium
that France was about to march upon Germany, and that Ger-
many proposed to frustrate such a move by sending its soldiers
through Belgium ; that the German government had no inten-

116

THE THINGS THAT MADE MEN MAD.

tion of making war against Belgium, and that if Belgium made
no opposition it would evacuate Belgium after hostilities
ceased, and during the period the German forces were in the
country, would buy everything needed for its army. Belgium
replied that it had assurance from France that France had no
intention of invading Belgium, and that if France attempted
to pass through Belgium would oppose such an act with force.
It informed the German Imperial Government that it would
similarly oppose any move on the part of Germany to pass
through.

Nevertheless Germany proceeded at once through Bel-
gium. Quoting articles from the Hague treaty, the commis-
sion's report reads :

THE DAYS OF BABARISM.

"In the days of barbarism, the population of a territory
occupied by the enemy was deprived of all judicial capacity.
At that time," as Ghering writes ironically, " 'the enemy was
absolutely deprived of rights; everything he owned belonged
to the gallant warrior who had wrenched it away from him.
One had merely to lose it.'

"In our days the rules of warfare clearly establish the dif-
ference between the property of the government of the terri-
tory occupied and the property of individuals. While the pres-
ent doctrine allows the conqueror to seize, in a general way,
everything in the way of movable property belonging to the
State, it obliges him, on the other hand, to respect the property
of individuals, corporations and public provincial administra-
tions.

"The Hague Convention, signed October 18, 1897, by all
the civilized States, among others by Germany, contains the
following stipulations regarding laws and customs of warfare
on land:

" 'Art. 46. The honor and right of the family, the life of
the individual and private property, as well as religious con-

THE THINGS THAT MADE MEN MAD. H7

victions and the exercise of worship, must be respected. Pri-
vate property cannot be confiscated.

" 'Art. 47. Pillaging is formally prohibited.

" 'Art. 53. When occupying territory, the army can only
seize cash as well as funds and securities belonging entirely to
the State ; also depots of arms, ways and means of transporta-
tion, warehouses and provisions, and in a general way all mov-
able property belonging to the State and liable to be used for
warlike operations.

" 'Art. 56. Property of municipalities, property of estab-
lishments consecrated to worship, to charity and instruction;
to art and science, even though belonging to the State, will be
treated as private property.'

"In defiance of these conventional rules, voluntarily and
solemnly accepted by Germany, she has committed, from the
beginning of her invasion of Belgian soil, numerous attacks
upon private property."

GERMAN CUPIDITY.

At Hasselt, the report shows that on August 12, 1914,
the Germans confiscated the funds of the branch of the Na-
tional Bank, which amounted to 2,075,000 francs. At Liege,
on entering the city, they forcibly seized the funds of a branch
of the same bank, amounting to 4,000,000 francs. Moreover,
upon finding at that branch bundles of bank notes of 5- franc
denomination, representing an amount of 400,000 francs, and
which were not yet signed, they forced a printer to sign those
bank notes by means of a rubber stamp, which they had also
seized, and afterwards put the notes in circulation. The bank,
it is explained, was a shareholders' corporation, the capita!
having been obtained by subscription from private parties and
was in no wise an institution of the State.

The enormity of this offence is made apparent by the fact
that in the war of 1870, when the Prussians entered Rhiems in
the Franco-Prussian war, and they wanted to confiscate the

118

THE THINGS THAT MADE MEN MAD.

funds of the branch of the National Bank of France, Crown
Prince Frederick ordered that funds which were found at the
bank could not be seized so long as they were not used for the
maintenance of the French army, it having been contended by
directors of the institution that the bank was not a State, but a
private bank. But more than this Germany levied supplies
from every Belgian city and tried to levy upon the city of
Brussels the sum of 50,000,000 francs and the province of Bra-
bant 450,000,000 francs.

TREATY OBLIGATIONS.

Categorically, the violation and disregard of every phase
of the Hague treaty is described. In spite of the strict pro-
vision that undefended cities, villages and dwellings are not to
be bombarded, and where bombardment is necessary the com-
manding officer of the attacking party must warn the authori-
ties that such bombardment is to take place, German aero-
planes and dirigibles bombarded relentlessly from the begin-
ning. In Antwerp a Zeppelin threw explosive bombs at the
Royal Palace, but the missiles went astray, demolishing private
residences, killing eight persons and injuring many. Servants
were killed in their beds in one private house when the bombs
tore away the top of the building.

"In the Place du Poids Public a bomb fell on the pave-
ment. Fragments scattered all over the place. Not a house
facing the square was untouched. A policeman was cut to
pieces, all that was found of him being a leg covered with a few
rags of his uniform. Five other persons who opened their
windows were blown to atoms. The bed-rooms of two houses
facing one another were visited. In the first there were three
corpses. Blood was scattered all over the place. The floor
was covered with fragments of windows and with blood-soaked
underwear. Op the ceiling and walls, parts of intestines and
brains were visible. In the other house two old persons had
been killed while looking down upon the street. Later Ant-

THE THINGS THAT MADE MEN MAD.

119

werp was bombarded, as was Heyst-op-den-Berg and the city
of Malines, which was undefended, and where there was not
a Belgian soldier. At Malines the batteries fired shell after
shell in the direction of the Cathedral of Saint Rombault, a
beautiful edifice, which was hit many times and badly damaged,
though there was no military reason for the assault as the town
was practically abandoned.

The commission turned over to President Wilson explos-
ive bullets used by the Germans at Werchter, and submitted
briefs from physicians who treated wounds made by the ex-
plosive bullets.

DETAILED ATROCITIES OUTLINED.

A few details of the atrocities are outlined as follows:
"German cavalry, occupying the village of Linsmeau,
were attacked by some Belgian infantry and two Gendarmes.
A German officer was killed by our troops during the fight,
and subsequently buried at the request of the Belgian officer
in command. None of the civilian population took part in the
fight. Nevertheless, the village was invaded at dusk on Au-
gust 10 by a strong force of German cavalry, artillery and
machine guns. In spite of the assurance given by the Burgo-
master that none of the peasants had taken part in the previous
fighting two farms and six outlying houses were destroyed by
gun-fire and burned. All the male population were compelled
to come forward and hand over what they possessed. No re-
cently discharged firearms were found, but the invaders divided
the peasants into three groups. Those in one group were
bound and eleven of them placed in a ditch, whither they were
afterward found dead, their skulls fractured by the butts of
German rifles.

"During the night of August 10, German cavalry entered
Velm in great numbers ; the inhabitants were asleep. The Ger-
mans, without provocation, fired upon Mr. Deglimme-Gever's
house, broke into it, destroyed furniture, looted money, burned

120

THE THINGS THAT MADE MEN MAD.

barns, hay, corn stacks, farm implements, six oxen, and the
contents of the farmyard. They carried off Mme. Deglimme
half -naked, to a place two miles away. She was then let go
and was fired upon as she fled, without being hit. Her hus-
band was carried away in another direction."

Farmer J eff Dierckx, of Neerhespen, bears witness to the
following acts of cruelty committed by German cavalry at
Orsmael Neerhespen, on August 10, 11 and 12:

SHOCKING BARBARITIES.

"An old man of the latter village had his arm sliced in
three longitudinal cuts; he was then hanged head downward
and burned alive. Young girls have been raped and little chil-
dren outraged at Orsmael, where several inhabitants suffered
mutilations too horrible to describe. A Belgian soldier belong-
ing to a battalion of cyclist carbineers who had been wounded
and made prisoner was hanged, while another who was tend-
ing his comrade was bound to a telegraph pole and shot."

The sacking of Louvain, which was one of the vile acts of
the Germans during the early days of the war, is described
briefly in the report of the commission as follows :

"The Germans entered Louvain on Wednesday, August
19, after having set fire to the towns through which they
passed.

"From the moment of their having entered the city of
Louvain, the Germans requisitioned lodgings and victuals for
their troops. They entered every private bank of the city and
took over the bank funds. German soldiers broke the doors
of houses abandoned by their inhabitants, pillaged them and
indulged in orgies.

"The German authorities took hostages; the mayor of the
city, Senator Vander Kelen, the Vice Rector of the Catholic
University, the Dean of the City; magistrates and aldermen
were also detained. All arms down to fencing foils had been

THE THINGS THAT MADE MEN MAD. 121

handed over to the town administration and deposited by the
said authorities in the Church of St. Peter.

"In the neighboring village, Corbeck-Loo, a young ma-
tron, 22 years old, whose husband was in the army, was sur-
prised on Wednesday, August 19, with several of her relatives,
by a band of German soldiers. The persons who accompanied
her were locked in an abandoned house, while she was taken
into another house, where she was successively violated by five
soldiers.

LUSTFUL CRUELTY OF THE GERMANS.

"In the same village, on Thursday, August 20, German
soldiers were searching a house where a young girl of 16 lived
with her parents. They carried her into an abandoned house
and, while some of them kept the father and mother off, others
went into the house, the cellar of which was open, and forced
the young woman to drink. Afterwards they carried her out
on the lawn in front of the house and violated her successively.
She continued to resist and they pierced her breast with bay-
onets. Having been abandoned by the soldiers after their
abominable attacks, the girl was carried off by her parents, and
the following day, owing to the gravity of her condition, she
was administered the last rites of the church by the priest of
the parish and carried to the hospital at Louvain."

Upon entering villages occupied by the Germans after
they were driven back to Louvain, the report says the Belgian
soldiers found that the German soldiers had sacked, ravaged
and set fire to the villages everywhere, taking with them and
driving before them all the male inhabitants. "Upon entering
Hofstade, the Belgian soldiers found the corpse of an old
woman who had been killed by bayonet thrusts ; she still heldf
in her hand the needle with which she was sewing when at-
tacked ; one mother and her son, aged about 15 years, lay there
pierced with bayonet wounds ; one man was found hung.

"In Sempst, a neighboring village, were found corpses

122

THE THINGS THAT MADE MEN MAD.

of two men partially burned. One of them was found with legs
cut off to the knees ; the other was minus his arms and legs. A
workman had been pierced with bayonets, afterward while lie
was still living the Germans soaked him with petroleum and
locked him in a house which they set on fire. An old man and
his son had been killed by sabre cuts ; a cyclist had been killed
by bullets ; a woman coming out of her house had been stricken
down in the same manner."

A LAME EXCUSE OFFERED.
Concerning the sacking of Louvain itself, the report says
that one detachment of the Germans met another detachment
while in full flight from the Belgian soldiers, and attacked one
another. This was the basis for the pretext that they had been
attacked by the citizenry of Louvain and was responsible for
the bombardment of the city. The bombarding lasted until 10
o'clock at night, and afterward the German soldiers set fire to
the city.

"The houses which had not taken fire were entered by
German soldiers, who were throwing fire grenades, some of
which seem to have been provided for the occasion. The larg-
est part of the city of Louvain, especially the quarters of 'Ville
Haute,' comprising the modern houses, the Cathedral of St.
Peter, the University Halls, with the whole library of the Uni-
versity with its manuscripts, its collections, the largest part of
the scientific institutions and the town theatre were at the mo-
ment being consumed by flames.

"The commission deems it necessary, in the midst of these
horrors, to insist on the crime of lese-humanity which the de-
liberate annihilation of an academic library — a library which
was one of the treasures of our time — constitutes.

"Numerous corpses of civilians covered the streets and
squares. On the routes from Louvain to Tirlemont alone one
witness testifies to having seen more than fifty of them. On
the threshold of houses were found burnt corpses of people,

THE THINGS THAT MADE MEN MAD. 123

who, surprised in their cellars by the fire, had tried to escape
and fell into the heap of live embers. The suburbs of Louvain
were given up to the same fate. It can be said that the whole
region between Malines and Louvain and most of the suburbs
of Louvain have been devastated and destroyed.

BASE INDIGNITIES TO CLERGYMEN.

"A group of 75 persons, among whom were several not-
ables of the city, such as Father Coloboet and a Spanish priest,
and also an American priest, were conducted, during the morn-
ing of Wednesday, August 26, to the square in front of the
station. The men were brutally separated from their wives
and children, after having received the most abominable treat-
ment after repeated threats of being shot, and were driven in
front of the German troops as far as the village of Campen-
hout. They were locked, during the night, in the church. The
following day, at 4 o'clock, a German officer came to tell them
that they might all confess themselves and that they would be
shot half an hour later. When, finally, they were released, the
report continues, they were recaptured by another German bri-
gade and compelled to march to Malines, where they were
finally liberated.

".An eye witness testified that he met nothing except
burned villages, crazed peasants, lifting to each comer their
arms, as mark of submission. From each house was hanging a
white flag, even from those that had been set on fire, and rags
of them were found hanging from the ruins. The fire began
a little above the American College, and the city is entirely
destroyed, with the exception of the town hall and the depot.
Today the fire continues and the Germans, instead of trying
to stop it — seem rather to maintain it by throwing straw into
the flames, as I have myself seen behind the Hotel de Ville.
The Cathedral and the theatre have been destroyed and fallen
in, and also the library. The town resembles an old city in
ruins, in the midst of which drunken soldiers are circulating,

124

THE THINGS THAT MADE MEN MAD.

carrying around bottles of wine and liquor; the officers them-
selves being installed in arm chairs, sitting around tables and
drinking like their own men.

"In the streets dead horses are decaying, horses which are
completely inflated, and the smell of the fire and the decaying
animals is such that it has followed me for a long time."

And the policy which developed such outrageous conduct
on the part of the Kaiser's soldiers in the early days of the war,
against which Belgium protested to the world, inspired brutal
acts, ruthlessness and cruelty at every stage and during every
period of the war. Nowhere is there written a single line which
tells of the humanitarian acts of the German soldiers. Those
who fight against them acknowledge their stoical bravery, the
efficiency of the army, the navy and the people as a whole, but
there is no reflection of refined instincts in any of the acts of
Germany or the Germans.

THE AMERICAN MINISTER'S REPORT.

Of «those conditions which existed in Belgium when the
German soldiers overran the country, America's own minister
to the devastated country, Brand Whitlock, sent a report to
the State Department in the beginning of 1917, when Presi-
dent Wilson was protesting against the treatment accorded the
helpless people of Belgium by the Germans.

Mr. Whitlock tells how the Germans determined to put
the Belgians thrown out of employment to work for them. "In
August," says the report, dealing with the treatment of the
helpless Belgians, "Von Hindenburg was appointed supreme
commander. He is said to have criticised Von Bissing's policy
as too mild, and there was a quarrel ; Von Bissing went to Ber-
lin to protest, threatened to resign, but did not. He returned,
and a German official said that Belgium would now be sub-
jected to a more terrible regime, would learn what war was.
The prophecy has been vindicated.

"The deportations began in October in the Etape, at

THE THINGS THAT MADE MEN MAD. 125

Ghent and at Bruges. The policy spread; the rich industrial
districts at Hainaut, the mines and steel works about Charleroi
were next attacked, and they seized men in Brabant, even in
Brussels, despite some indications and even predictions of the
civil authorities that the policy was about to be abandoned.

"As by one of the ironies of life the winter has been more
excessively cold than Belgium has ever known it and while
many of those who presented themselves were adequately pro-
tected against the cold, many of them were without overcoats.
The men, shivering from cold and fear, the parting from weep-
ing wives and children, the barrels of brutal Uhlans, all this
made the scene a pitiable and distressing one.

RAGE, TERROR AND DESPAIR. '

"The rage, the terror and despair excited by this measure
all over Belgium were beyond anything we had witnessed since
the day the Germans poured into Brussels. The delegates of
the commission for relief in Belgium, returning to Brussels,
told the most distressing stories of the scenes of cruelty and
sorrow attending the seizures. And daily, hourly almost, since
that time, appalling stories have been related by Belgians com-
ing to the legation. It is impossible for us to verify them, first
because it is necessary for us to exercise all possible tact in
dealing with the subject at all, and secondly because there is
no means of communication between the Occupations Gebiet
and the Etappey Gebiet.

"I am constantly in receipt of reports from all over Bel-
gium that tend to bear the stories one constantly hears of bru-
tality and cruelty. A number of men sent back to Mons are
said to be in a dying condition, many of them tubercular. At
Molines and at Antwerp returned men have died, their friends
asserting that they have been victims of neglect and cruelty, of

| cold, of exposure, of hunger.

"I have had requests from the burgomasters of ten com-

i munes asking that permission be obtained to send to the de-

126 THE THINGS THAT MADE MEN MAD.

ported men in Germany packages of food similar to those that
are being sent to prisoners of war. Thus far the German au-
thorities have refused to permit this except in special instances,
and returning Belgians claim that even when such packages
are received they are used by the camp authorities only as an-
other means of coercing them to sign the agreements to work.

A MORTAL BLOW TO BELGIANS.

"By the deportation of Belgians to work in Germany,"
says Mr. Whitlock's report, "they have dealt a mortal blow to
any prospect they may ever have had of being tolerated by the
population of Flanders; in tearing away from nearly every
humble home in the land a husband and a father or a son and
brother; they have lighted a fire of hatred that will never go
out; they have brought home to every heart in the land, in a
way that will impress its horror indelibly on the memory of
three generations, a realization of what German methods mean,
not as with the early atrocities in the heat of passion and the
first lust of war, but by one of those deeds that make one de-
spair of the future of the human race, a deed coldly planned,
studiously matured, and deliberately and systematically exe-
cuted, a deed so cruel that German soldiers are said to have
wept in its execution, and so monstrous that even German offi-
cers are now said to be ashamed."

And if these acts were not sufficient to convince the world
that Germany "is without the pale" so far as civilized warfare
is concerned her conduct in wantonly destroying property in
Flanders while in retreat could permit of no other conclusion.

After the violation of Belgium and the destruction of the
Lusitania and the adoption of the policy of sinking neutral
ships on sight for military advantage, or "necessity," why
shouldn't the soldiers pollute wells, kill trees, carry off the
girls, smash the household furniture not worth taking away
and smear the pictures on the wall, just for revenge or in the
sheer lust of destruction?

THE THINGS THAT MADE MEN MAD. 127

It makes no difference, so far as the principles of human-
ity are concerned, whether the German army is in victory or
suffering defeat, advancing or retreating. The treatment ac-
corded the evacuated cities of the Somme district was foretold
by the treatment of the cities occupied early in the war. Here
is the wording of an order posted during the victorious invasion
of Belgium:

"Order — To the people of Liege. The population of An-
denne, after making a display of peaceful intentions toward
our troops, attacked them in the most treacherous manner.
With my authority the general commanding these troops has
reduced the town to ashes and has had 110 persons shot. I
bring this fact to the knowledge of the people of Liege in order
that they may know what fate to expect should they adopt a
similar attitude.

"GENERAL von BULOW.
"Liege, Aug. 22, 1914."

CRUEL EXTREME OF PUNISHMENT.

And yet this order shqwed only a cruel extreme of pun-
ishment where some punishment was to be expected. It was
left for the retreating Germans of 1917 to destroy, without
provocation and without purpose, motived by revenge and ob-
sessed by the Nietschean doctrine of "spare not."

Before Baupaume was evacuated it was deliberately con-
verted into a mass of muck. There is no Bapaume now. It is
perfectly understandable that the retreating soldiers should
destroy their trenches and, put up the question, "Tommy, how
do you like your new trenches?" But why smear filth over
the photograph of three little girls, a family treasure? All
around Bapaume the villages were looted and the night the
deliverers entered the destroyers made the sky lurid with the
fires of towns and hamlets. Some 300 in the evacuated region
were burned.

At Nesle, Roye and Ham there was not time enough to

128

THE THINGS THAT MADE MEN MAD.

destroy everything. The house of a doctor at Nesle, a spe-
cially attractive home, was not blown down for strategic pur-
poses, but some soldiers did find time to drive axes through the
mahogany panels of the beds and smash the clocks and mirrors.
They were angry at being compelled to leave the house.

Villages like Cressy, near Nesle, where a shell never fell
in the course of the war, have been completely destroyed.

PERONNE A HOPELESS RUIN.

There is not a habitable house left in Peronne. The six-
teenth century church of St. Jean is but a relic. W. Beach
Thomas wrote after the retreat that nothing was left that was
valuable enough to be worth collection by a penny tinker or a
rag-and-bone merchant. Foul what you cannot have, was the
motto.

The famous ruins of the Feudal Castle of Coucy, one of
the finest relics of architecture of its period, was wantonly
blown up by the Germans on retreat. It was built in the thir-
teenth century by Enguerrand III and passed to the French
crown in 1498, and was one of the great historic landmarks of
Northern France.

Cpucy was one of the noblest relics of the Middle Ages,
respected by the most barbarous wars of the past, whose don-
jon (greatest in all Europe) dates almost from Charlemagne,
harmless, time-wrecked, illustrious Coucy!

To give an idea of Coucy's importance, the French, in
their first astonishment and sorrow, proposed to make reprisals
on Hindenburg, should it take ten years. Of course, they
will not ; it is not their way.

Coucy is a mountain of blasted stones. Shoun Kelly,
American, owned one of the outer towers of the great castle
and the story of its ownership is the American antithesis of
German ravage. Americans were always faithful tourists to
Coucy ; but among them, one loved more than all the glorious
old ruin and its story which began with Enguerrand, the Sire

THE THINGS THAT MADE MEN MAD.

129

of Coucy, in the year 1210. This was the late Edmund Kelly,
of New York and Paris, international lawyer and for many
years counsel of the American Embassy in Paris. He medi-
tated on the motto of old Enguerrand: "I am not king, nor
prince, nor duke, nor even count: I am the Sire of Coucy!" In
fact, the Sire made a record for standing off local kings.

"He was a good American ahead of his time," said Law-
yer Kelly; and he took to reading up the ancient chronicles,
how Enguerrand's descendants stood off royalty for some 200
years, until finally bought out by the wealthy Louis of Orleans,
and all the later glories of the place. Mazarin dismantled
Coucy, but left it standing in its beauty; and Lawyer Kelly dis-
covered it to be a State museum, impossible to be purchased, in
these latter days, even by a millionaire. Not being one? he
preferred it so, loving Coucy more than ever, the cultured
American did the next best thing.

A LITTLE TOWN REDUCED.

The little town, once so rich, had dwindled since Mazarin.
On the castle side stood two massive towers of the inner de-
fense, belonging to the town. Mr. Kelly asked Mayor and
department legislature to make a price on the nearest. As soon
as he had bought his tower, he used loving care restoring it.
He pierced windows through walls 16 feet thick. He built
rooms in three stories, furnishing them in massive antique style.
The tower roof was his shady terrace, covered with a little
grove of century-old trees ! From it he dominated Coucy. All
its soul of beauty lay beneath his view.

All was systematically blown up, the town, the towers, the
castle, by retreating Germans in their rage. Just masses of
crumbled stones. The German papers boast that it took 28
tons of high explosives, and any one can see, this hour, the
plain of Coucy covered with a white layer of powdered lime-
stone, for miles around.

What for? To clear a battlefield, they say. It is not true.

130

THE THINGS THAT MADE MEN MAD.

Nothing is cleared. The masses of crumbled stone remained,
when they fled their "battlefield."

The donjon was very high. It stood on a kind of bluff
or elevation, overlooking the country, and before the days of
aeroplanes it might have been used for observation. The don-
jon walls were 16 yards thick, not feet, but yards! "No other
tower in Europe had those dimensions. They tell a story about
Mazarin. He deemed so strong a place, so near to Paris, might
be dangerous to the Crown ; so he dismantled Coucy militarily,
without destroying its architectural beauty. The donjon wor-
ried him in those days when artillery could make no impression
on its massive thickness. So Mazarin put 16 barrels of powder
inside the tower, and set them off. The tower just converted
itself into gun barrel ! The powder blew out all the stories and
the roof — shot them up like a gun pointed at the sky! But
the tower stood, exactly as before.

OF MASSIVE ARCHITECTURE.

The masonry was admittedly the heaviest achieved by the
Middle Ages. From the donjon extended three great vaulted
halls. Massive buildings continued. There was a Gothic
chapel, a Tribunal Hall, the Hall of the Nine Peers (whose
statues remained), the Hall of the Nine Countesses (whose
medallion-portraits were carved on the monumental chimney) .
There was a Romanesque chapel (relic from Charlemagne, like
the original donjon), the separate Fortified Chateau of the
Chatelain (the Sire's First Officer) , and so on, and so on.

The retreating Germans have not only blown up Coucy,
but that other priceless relic, the Tower of the Grand Constable
and the entire historic Chateau of Ham, and equally the Castle
of Peronne, a jewel of beauty — all in one corner of the Val-
lois! On the smoking wreck of Peronne, they left a humorous
placard :

"Nicht aergen! Tur wundern! Don't be angry, just
wonder!" Noyon and Peronne are sacked and ruined. At

THE THINGS THAT MADE MEN MAD.

131

Chauny 1800 houses out of 2500 were deliberately burned, and
at a distance they bombarded the remainder, full of old folks
and children whom they had parked there. All the public
buildings, churches, hospitals and poorhouse were blown up.
Three hundred towns and villages were burning at one time in
this small section of the Cradel of France. Hindenburg was
at Roisel when they rounded up the populations, went through
their pockets for their money (giving "receipts"), took their
clothes off their backs (so that all the American relief agencies
in Paris were overwhelmed with telegrams of appeal) and
burgled all the safes in banks and business houses before set-
ting fire to the town and blowing up the main street !

ACCORDING TO THE PRINCIPLE OF WAR.

The German official communique said that it was "all done
uniquely according to the technical principles of modern war."
At Berlin they caused an American correspondent to cable
these words to his papers: "The enemy will find great difficulty
to take shelter on a battlefield where everything has been com-
pletely razed. We regret the destruction of a beautiful region
of France, but it was necessary to transform it into a clear field
of battle before we quit it."

They blew up the precious Romanesque Church of Tracy-
le-Val (which dates before the Gothic). The church was sit-
uated in the midst of the great forest of Laigue ; they blew up
the church — and left the forest standing! No battlefield was
cleared, but they hacked the bark to kill great noble trees by
thousands. They made no effort to clear the forest ; but weep-
ing old French peasants told how half a German regiment was
occupied three days in barking trees to prevent the sap from
mounting. The crushed pearl of architecture lies in a dying
forest.

At Le Novion, torch in hand, they burned 223 houses; but
all the gutted walls are standing.

What technical principles of war command the wholesale

132 THE THINGS THAT MADE MEN MAD.

destruction of young fruit trees? In 20 orchards, by count,
in sweet Leury (hidden at the bottom of a valley) every peach,
plum, apricot and pear tree has been assassinated — hacked and
standing, when the trunks are thick, and sprawling, severed by
one blow of a sharp hatchet, young trees from the thickness of
your wrists to your thumb. The French, with loving care,
trained peach and pear trees against sunny walls, as if they
were grapevines. The slender trunks are cut — and the garden
walls left standing.

DESECRATION OF TREES.

The soldiers spared neither the orchards nor the single
trees that took a generation to grow, and would have borne
fruit for generations to come. Reapers and binders and other
farming machines were collected and broken to pieces. One
might see a measure of advantage that the deliverers would
gain from these things if not destroyed, but it is an awful war
doctrine that refuses to discriminate between the immediate and
the eventual, the direct and the indirect, the important and the
negligible advantage that would impoverish posterity to get a
dime in cash. No military advantage is sufficient motive for
such wanton ravishment. It is military fanaticism.

Ambassador Sharp, after a 100-mile trip through the
evacuated territory, declared that never before in the history
of the world had there been such a thorough destruction by
either a vanquished or victorious army.

One thing alone was left, after the red-brick villages had
been turned into heaps and the murdered fruit trees into black
fagots, on the hill outside of St. Quentin. This was the log
hut and shooting box of the Kaiser's son, Eitel Friederick. Its
white-barked beech was unburnt, its glass windows unbroken,
its inside adornments unlooted, the tables and chairs of its ter-
race beer garden remained. All around the works of man and
God were destroyed. The contrast made this destroyer's lodge
a sort of boast of his destruction.

THE THINGS THAT MADE MEN MAD.

133

The shocking ruin to human life in the evacuated region
is of even greater moment. The half-starved civilians of Ba-
paume were forced to make trenches there and later for the
defense of Cambrai also. All men and boys strong enough to
work were taken along with the retreating forces. Near Pe-
ronne some hundreds of old men, women and children were
found locked in a barn. One woman pathetically asked of an
English officer, "Are you many?" And he was able to answer,
"We are two millions now," and see her anxiety turned to re-
lief and joy. Children who had been slowly starving for a
year wandered about the ruins of their homes, but soon found
reasons for smiling at the soldiers who had rescued them.

NEITHER MEAT NOR MILK.

These children had had no meat for months and no milk
for a year and had almost forgotten the taste of butter. They
probably never received a quarter of the rations Americans
sent. Girls were compelled to attend the market gardens, and
then the Germans took all the produce. The region was deso-
lated and left inhabited by women and children moribund with
misery and starvation.

At Noyon, where the Germans had concentrated 10,000
Belgian refugees, they promised to leave the American Relief
Committee with sufficient supplies to feed them. But the last
patrols completely sacked the American relief storehouses of
all eatables and then dynamited the building. And it was from
this place that fifty young women, from 18 to 25 years of age,
were taken by the officers. Their distracted mothers were told
that they were to be used as "officers' servants."

At Ham, when a mother of six children, seeing her hus-
band and two eldest daughters being carried away, remon-
strated, she was told that as an alternative she might find their
bodies in a canal in the rear of the house.

Nothing could be more significant of the Government's
attitude than the incident told by James W. Gerard. The

134

THE THINGS THAT MADE MEN MAD.

people of a town were imprisoned or fined for their conduct
toward a delayed train of Canadian prisoners. When he heard
it he thought that at last the Government was going to put a
stop to the maltreatment of prisoners. But he learned on in-
vesigation that the townsfolk had been punished for giving a
little food and drink to the starving and fainting prisoners.

And yet the most singularly brutal phase of this destruc-
tion of nature and wealth and art and life is the German de-
fense of it. War is always hell and most of the awful things
in this war have had their counterparts in other conflicts, though
the Teutonic element has brought some peculiar refinements of
cussedness and has given a thoroughness and "pep" and "kick"
to the war business.

BETTER PREPARED NEXT TIME.

German writers, instead of making excuses for turning
the nation into a war machine for forty years, complain that
Germany was not prepared as she should have been and would
be better prepared next time. Her professors do not regret
that the soldiers at the front are so unrestrained in cruelty, but
urge that they are too soft and kind to make effective war. The
German correspondents all write enthusiastically of the devas-
tation of the country they are leaving and of the desert created
by German genius. Editors speak of the mercy which tem-
pered the necessary hardness towards this once beautiful stretch
of country and its inhabitants. The destruction of property
which can serve no military purpose is defended on the ground
that it is legitimate from a strategic point of view.

This all amounts to saying everything must give way to
the considerations of war. It is taking the argument in the
fable of the wolf and the lamb as serious philosophy and accept-
ing the position of the wolf. They fail entirely to see the humor
of the fable, and hence the fallacy of the wolfs argument.

The greatest hope of civilization, which trembled for a
time before the spectre of German barbarity, is that frightful-

THE THINGS THAT MADE MEN MAD.

135

ness cannot endure the long and full test. The great initial
advantages are more than offset by new opponents. The gain
of the invasion of Belgium was canceled by England coming
into the war. The advantage against England of the U-boat
campaign was more than canceled by the entrance of the
United States in the war.

Irvin Cobb says that the trouble with the Germans is that
they are not "good sports and lack a sense of humor. It is
impossible to conceive of a group of German officers playing
football or baseball or cricket and abiding by the rules of the
game. If Barbara Frietchie had said to a Prussian Stonewall
Jackson, ' Shoot, if you must, my gray old head/ he'd have
done it as a matter of course."

CHAPTER VII.

THE SLINKING SUBMAKINE.

A Voeacious Sea Monster — The Kuthless Destructive Policy of Germany-^
Starvation of Nations the Goal, — How the Submarines Operate — Some
Personal Experiences.

ALMOST the entire story of the world war is written
around the development of the submarine. One can
scarcely think of the terrible conflict without bringing
to mind the wonderful "underseas" boat which has made in-
famous Germany famous. The truth is that, in so far as Amer-
ica is concerned, the conflict was precipitated by the ruthless
submarine warfare which Germany waged as part of her plan
to starve out England, France, Belgium — and all nations
which opposed her.

The slinking submarine proved an efficient instrument,
whose activities clearly indicated the diabolical intent and pur-
pose of Germany to make the whole world suffer, if necessary,
to the end that she might gain her point and perpetuate the
Hohenzollern dynasty. It was not so much that her subma-
rines wrought havoc — for death and disaster stalk always with
war — but the methods by which Germany waged their warfare
and disregarded all the rules which had been laid down for the
guidance of civilized countries at war proved conclusively that
even the innocent could expect no quarter from her.

The story of the sinking of the brave ocean steamship
Lusitania on May 7, 1915, contains in its brief recital a typical
illustration of Germany's lack of humanitarian instincts. The
vessel, torpedoed off the coast of Ireland, went to the bottom
of the ocean, carrying to death more than 1150 persons, many
of them prominent Americans. With an audaciousness which
has no counterpart in the history of civilized warfare, German

130

THE SLINKING SUBMARINE.

137

agents in the United States had caused advertisements to be
printed in the public press, warning citizens against sailing
on the vessel, and advised that she was in danger of being
destroyed.

The world stood aghast and believed it impossible that
Germany should carry out her threat, but they were soon to be
disillusioned. Because the handsome vessel passed through a
zone of the seas which the Teuton war lords declared block-
aded, they sent a torpedo from an underseas boat into her
bowels. The horrors of that event are still fresh in the minds
of millions. No such ruthless and wanton destruction of inno-
cent human beings had been accomplished by a so-called civili-
zation at war.

THE DUTIES OF WAR CAST ASIDE.

Articles of The Hague agreement defining the rights and
duties of nations at war, and which Germany had accepted,
were thrust aside and disregarded by Imperial Germany. The
Hohenzollern dynasty was above rules and regulations. Inter-
national law and the rights of non-combatants at sea were as
nothing. That all nations had agreed that the enemy ship must
give the captain of the vessel attacked opportunity to land
innocent passengers was forgotten. There had not been a
word of warning.

And Germany, and the adherents of the Imperial Govern-
ment, expressing regret that Americans should have been sac-
rificed, professed deep sorrow on one hand and on the other
shouted with glee. America protested vigorously, quoting the
laws and demanding that Germany recognize them — not mere-
ly that she leave American vessels alone — and give assurance
that no such further acts would be committed.

Contending 'that the sinking of the ship was justifiable, in
the exigencies of war, Germany ceased for a short time her
wanton sinking of boats without warning. For almost a year
her underseas crafts had been preying upon the small British

138

THE SLINKING SUBMARINE.

coasting vessels, and sunk hundreds of fishing boats, trawlers
and steamships. England's mercantile marine was the object
of the Teuton's attacks, and no one had anticipated any danger
to Americans or American interests.

Germany had no reasons for desiring to attack American
boats and she promised to mend her ways. There followed a
brief period in which no vessels were sunk on which were Amer-
icans, and then without warning the campaign against all ves-
sels was renewed. A dozen were sunk on which were Ameri-
can seamen or non-combatant passengers, none of whom was
given warning or time to land before a torpedo sent the boat to
the bottom of the ocean. Threats on the part of President
Wilson to take action against Germany finally brought another
cessation.

GROWING DISTRESS AND AMAZEMENT.

"The sinking of the British passenger steamship Fabala
and other German acts constitute a series of events which the
Government of the United States has observed with growing
concern, distress and amazement," said President Wilson in a
note on the submarine warfare. "This Government cannot
admit the adoption of such measures or such a warning of
danger as in any degree an abbreviation of the rights of Amer-
ican shipmasters or American citizens, bound on lawful errands
as passengers on merchant ships of belligerent nationality. It
must hold the Imperial German Government to a strict ac-
countability for any infringement of those rights, international
or incidental.

"The objection to their present method of attack lies in
the practical impossibility of employing submarines in the de-
struction of commerce without disregarding those rules of fair-
ness, reason, justice and humanity which all modern opinions
regard as imperative.

"American citizens act within their indisputable rights in
taking their ships and traveling wherever their legitimate busi-
ness calls them upon the high seas*

THE SLINKING SUBMARINE.

"No warning that an unlawful and an inhuman act will be
committed can possibly be accepted as an excuse or palliation
for that act, or as an abatement of the responsibility for its
commission. * * *

"The Imperial German Government will not expect the
Government of the United States to omit any word or any act
necessary to the performance of its sacred duty or the inalien-
able rights of the United States and its citizens, and of safe-
guarding their free exercise and enjoyment."

WHOLESALE DESTRUCTION OF VESSELS.

Apparently Germany modified her submarine policy for a
period of upward of a year, or until in February, 1917, when
to the astonished world she threw aside all pretense and de-
clared her intention of destroying any vessel which attempted
to cross or sailed into a zone which she established along the
English coast and around English and French ports. Amer-
ica's further protests availed not; her citizens, many of them,
went to the bottom of the seas, and some of them suffered
almost unbelievable cruelties or neglect, when the captain of a
German sea raider with some humanitarian instincts permitted
these innocent passengers or seamen to be rescued from the
torpedoed vessels on which they were.

Even the Red Cross vessels and Belgian relief ships carry-
ing supplies and food to the maimed or sick at war and the
starving children of Belgium did not escape the torpedo from
the submarine. English hospital ships were attacked, and men
unable to protect themselves were subjected to danger because
the Germans feared that something might be carried on the
boat which would prove valuable to the Allied forces in making
i war.

Dozens — even hundreds of vessels of all sorts — were sunk
from week to week. Food and supplies for the Allied forces
were destroyed, until both England and France were threat-
ened with starvation.

140

THE SLINKING SUBMARINE.

All this was the work of the submarine.

One smiled twenty-five years ago when he read that highly
imaginative story of Jules Verne, "Twenty Thousand Leagues
Under the Sea/' and wondered if it would ever be possible for
man to create such a marvelous underseas craft as that which
the famous French writer described. Today the imaginative
detail of the submarine which the novelist described has been
crystallized, and the world has learned that dreams sometimes
come true.

Marvelous things have been developed by the war which
is involving the peace and security of the world, but no single
device has had such an effect upon the warfare and upon the
methods of waging it as the diabolical submarine, which, like
an assassin in the night, sneaks upon the great ships along the
water highways of the world and sends them with their human
freight to the bottom of the ocean.

TORPEDO'S DEADLY WORK.

A giant cigar-shaped missile, whose nose is pointed with
guncotton and filled with high explosives — and which the
world knows as the torpedo — launches forth from the subma-
rine, and speeding under the drive of a propeller at the stern
steers its way into the side of the battleship or great steamship.
The torpedo plunges into the bowels of the vessel. There is a
tremendous explosion, and the watertight compartments of the
vessel are torn open; the boat fills, and the pride of the seas is
no more.

Had the vessel's master and her crew any warning? No;
unless the vigilant officer on the bridge should note a thin pole
with a hooked end projecting above the surface of the ocean
some miles away, and turning his glasses upon it discover that
it is the "eye" of a submarine — the periscope — which is pro-
truding above the surface. Then he may turn his larger vessel
and ram the submarine, or change the course of his craft so that
the torpedo launched by the submarine will miss its mark, or

THE SLINKING SUBMARINE.

141

perhaps expert gunners may turn the muzzles of their rapid-
fire guns upon the underseas craft and riddle it before it can
get far enough below the surface of the water to make the
attack upon it futile.

EFFICIENCY OF THE SUBMARINE.
The enormous inroads on the world's shipping made by
German submarines during the war shows the efficiency of this
diabolical device. In the first two years and a half of the war
statistics were compiled to show that more than 10 per cent of
the world's merchant marine was destroyed by Germany's
underseas craft of the U-boat type. Incidentally, the name
U-boat as applied to submarines developed because Germany,
instead of naming these slinking boats, as is the custom with
surface-cruising vessels, painted upon the conning tower or
nose of the craft the letter U, representing the word "under-
seas," coupled with the numeral denoting the number of the
boat. Thus those who sail the ocean highways came to recog-
nize the fact that a conning tower or low, sharp-nosed craft
bearing the mystic characters U-9 was a German underseas
boat No. 9.

The statistical records at the end of April, 1917, showed
that nearly 3000 vessels of almost 5,000,000 gross tons were
destroyed by the U-boats in the war. More than half of the
vessels sunk belonged to England. Norway and France were
the next greatest sufferers from the submarine warfare. In
one week after Germany announced her intention to give no
quarter, but to sink any vessel which came within the range of
the U-boat torpedoes, the toll of ships lost was more than
400,000 tons.

At the beginning of the war the submarine was to all in-
tents and purposes a novelty — a boat of recognized possibili-
ies, but existing very largely in the experimental stage. Its
use was very largely ignored by naval men, although it was
conceded that when properly developed it would prove a won-

142

THE SLINKING SUBMARINE.

derful agency of destruction. The proud commanders of the
great battleships, with their 10, 12 and 14 inch guns, which sent
great shells miles across the ocean, looked down upon the little
underseas boat, and applied to it the sobriquet of "tin sardine."

But the "tin sardine" has grown up, and the commander
of the monster war vessel is at the mercy of the little craft
which he ridiculed. A short time ago Holland, the American
inventor of the modern submarine, died of a broken heart. His
type was necessarily an experimental one. He built five boats
before he was able to sell one to the United States Government,
and this latter one, after being bought by a junk dealer, who
intended to break it up for its metals, was finally rescued from
such an inglorious end by the city of New York, which has
placed it in her municipal museum.

PRINCIPLE OF THE SUBMARINE.

Germany has developed the highest type of submarines,
which she has used to the fullest advantage. The principle of
the submarine is that of a floating bottle. An empty bottle, as
every one knows, will float on the surface, but submerges as
soon as it is filled with water. The submarine has, as part of
its constructive features, a number of compartments which, as
they are filled or emptied of water, enables the craft to sub-
merge or rise.

At the bow and stern, respectively, there are two hori-
zontal rudders, and as these are manipulated at various angles
so the bow points either upward or downward, and with a
steady gliding motion the submarine slides under or is brought
to the surface.

This, in brief, is the story of the submarine. Its history
is another matter ; its radius of action and results achieved one
of the marvels of the ages. A long-sheathed body, the shape
of a cigar with the butt end to the fore, the inside filled with
machinery and compactness the order of the day, might be re-
garded as a fair description from a physical standpoint. It

THE SLINKING SUBMARINE.

143

has spread terror to all corners of the earth, and, taken in pro-
portion to its size and steaming radius, may well be said to be
the superior of the superdreadnought.

The manner in which the submarine is operated is difficult
to describe. It leads a sort of dual existence. When cruising
along the surface "awash," it is propelled like a motorboat, the
power being provided by a gasoline engine ; but when it dives
or submerges it is operated underwater by electric motors, and
the steering, pumping, handling, loading and firing of the tor-
pedoes is done pneumatically and electrically. The interior of
the submarine is a marvel of mechanical complexity and scien-
tific detail. There are gauges to show the water pressure, to
indicate the speed, to show the depth; sensitive devices by
which the commander can tell of the approach of vessels;
wheels, cranks, levers and instruments which are used in driv-
ing and controlling this almost human mechanical agency of
the seafighter.

SUBMARINE AN ANOMALY IN WARFARE.

The submarine is the sudden and amazing problem of the
naval world. While naval men assert with confidence that it
can never win the mastery of the seas, in the same breath they
will admit that it may easily prevent the older and better
known types of ships from establishing the mastery that was
once theirs. It is an anomaly in warfare.

Many are the tales of horror told by survivors of ships
which have been torpedoed by the undersea boats of the Teu-
tons. The lordly Lusitania, on board of which were some of
the leading lights of literature and some of the world's wealthy
men, was sent to the bottom without the least warning. Neu-
tral shipping has been devastated, and men, women and chil-
dren have been murdered by the hand of the Kaiser, as exempli-
fied in the lurking submarine.

One of the dastardly tragedies of the war was the sinking
of the Lars Kruse, a ship flying the Danish flag and which had

THE SLINKING SUBMAKINE.

been chartered by the Belgian Relief Commission. This was
sunk in the early part of February, 1917, and the crew of nine-
teen men, together with the captain and other officers, with the
exception of the first mate and Axel Moeller, the first engineer,
perished in the bitter cold sea. No warning was given by the
attacking submarine; indeed, no sight of it was had by the
crew. Delivering its torpedo as it lay submerged, it silently
stole away into the night after the murders had been done.

In the maritime court in Copenhagen Mr. Moeller tells of
the sinking of the ship. Dressed as the regulations of the Ger-
man autocrat demanded, with the balloon, flag and bunting dis-
played at each of the mastheads, together with other marks of
identification, the ship was steaming along in the bright moon-
light when she was struck, according to the testimony of the
engineer.

SHIP NOT STRUCK BY A MINE.

The fact that the ship was hit near the fourth hatch alone
combats the theory that she was struck by a mine. In this latter
case the mine would have struck her nearer the bow. The ship
was near the mouth of the English channel when hit. In an
instant she started to settle, and the crew at once lowered away
the single lifeboat.

The boat had hardly started over the side, however, before
the ship lurched, and with a mighty heave went down stern first.
She seemed to turn a back somersault, according to the engi-
neer, and because of the fact that the lifeboat was not clear it
was dragged under. The men succeeded in cutting the ropes,
however, and the lifeboat came to the surface, although bottom
side up. Engineer Moeller was struck on the head as the boat
came to the surface, but, although he was momentarily stunned,
the icy water quickly revived him.

Striking out for the lifeboat, the engineer soon had a tight
grip on her side. A man struggling in the water grasped his
wrist, but by a quick movement he wrenched himself free, and

THE SLINKING SUBMARINE.

145

then, climbing upon the boat, reached out and caught the man
by the hand. Then began a slow struggle to get him aboard,
but the men were unequal to the task, and the man in the water
sank. Part of the skin and flesh of his hand remained in the
fingers of Moeller, showing the desperation with which he had
clung to the man's hand.

Three other men, who were fast becoming exhausted, were
assisted upon the boat, where they lay sprawled across its bot-
tom. Four others were in the water, making a total of seven
who were alive.

Water and air were freezing cold, and Moeller, who was
in the water, together with three others, held to the gunwales
with stiffened fingers. Within the hour one of the sailors gave
up the struggle, and with a farewell to the others slid quietly
into the depths.

PASSENGERS' AGONIZING SUFFERINGS.

Finally Moeller climbed upon the upturned boat, where
he lay listening to the shrieks of his companions. He said that
their cries were most pitiful. The cabin boy was the next vic-
tim. He cried pitifully for a time, but finally became silent
and slid into the water. One after another, the men died of
exposure and slipped into the peaceful sea.

After a time the only persons remaining, besides the third
mate, were the two who had thrown themselves across the bot-
tom of the boat. Finally one of them gave up the struggle,
and the other, in an effort to combat the cold, pulled the clothes
from his dead body and wrapped them about himself. The
boat settled a little, and finally both were corpses, lying with
feet and hands dipping into the sea. The engineer said that he
did not have the heart to push their bodies into the water,
although he knew they were dead.

Finally the third mate was the only other man alive. The
clothes of the engineer were frozen fast to his body, and he felt
that he was dying of cold. The third mate started to get a sort

146

THE SLINKING SUBMAKINE.

of bluish black from the cold, and with a gasping cry he at-
tempted to sit up straight. Then reason left him, and for a
couple of hours he shouted and shrieked, and, as the sun began
to streak the sky and dawn brought slight comfort, the dement-
ed man raved and swore.

Then a flash of reason seemed to return to him and he
spoke to Moeller.

"I'm going," he said. "Give my love to my wife."

The man had been married just before starting on this ill-
fated voyage. With this farewell message on his lips he died.
When Moeller returned to his home he found that it was impos-
sible to deliver the message to the wife of the dead man, because
of the fact that worry had driven her insane.

TROUSERS USED AS SIGNAL.

Shortly after the death of his companion Moeller saw
the smoke of a steamer on the horizon. Summoning all his
strength, he tore the trousers from the limbs of one of the dead
men, and, using them as a means of signaling, swung them
about his head to attract attention. As the engineer made
every effort to attract the attention of those aboard the steam-
ship, he saw a sneaking submarine slowly edging toward her.
This made him shout all the louder, thinking thereby to warn
the captain of the ship of his danger. His efforts were vain,
however, and in a short time the ship had gone to the bottom
and the crew was adrift in the lifeboats. 3?he sunken ship
proved to be a Russian steamer.

In his efforts to attract the attention of the intended vic-
tim of the U-boat, the drifting man had attracted the attention
of the captain of the submarine, and it was this boat to which
his cold-stiffened body was hauled a few minutes later. It was
a time before his numb body could be thawed out.

Seeming to know from which ship he had been cast off,
the engineer was closely questioned by the captain of the sub-
marine. As the captain talked he made motions, as though to

THE SLINKING SUBMARINE.

147

shut out from before his eyes a horrible sight. He told Moeller
afterwards that the most horrible sight he had ever seen was the
overturned boat with the two corpses laying on it, and the lone
man signaling for help. The victim was black from cold, and
his legs were rubbed by members of the crew. Port wine was
given him, and later food and coffee.

Then the captain continued his questioning. He knew
the name of the boat on which Moeller had been engineer, and
from his intimate knowledge of the sinking of her, the engineer
felt sure it was his submarine that had done the work.

SUBMARINE TOWS RUSSIAN SHIP.

Turning his attention to the lifeboats of the Russian ship
which he had just torpedoed, the captain of the submarine
promised to tow them to the French coast. He had been tow-
ing them but two hours, however, when he came below and told
Moeller that he had sighted a French destroyer, and that he
would have to make his escape. He gave the engineer his
choice of staying on the submarine, in which case it would be
fourteen days*before he touched port, after which he was prom-
ised his freedom, or the privilege of getting aboard one of the
lifeboats, and taking his chances of rescue by the destroyer.

Electing to take his chances in the lifeboat, Moeller was
fitted out with new clothing, the outfit being topped off with a
fur-lined overcoat. It turned out, however, that the captain
had taken this clothing from the stores of the Russian steamer
before sinking her, and the engineer learned when he got into
the lifeboat that he was wearing the greatcoat of one of the
shivering Russians.

Just before submerging the U-boat set off a couple of red-
light bombs, for the purpose of attracting the attention of the
crew of the destroyer, and submerged. The drifters were
picked up by the destroyer, which steamed for France. The
captain of the U-boat had promised Moeller that he would not
attack the destroyer, although he had been trailing her for two

148

THE SLINKING SUBMARINE,

weeks. The U-boat was sunk before she reached port, and all
perished.

An American importer who, because of his German name
and the intimate relations he enjoyed with certain important
men in Berlin, had been taken to the hearts of some of the
leaders, became a factor in pro-German activities in Cuba. He
wras taken into the confidences of many of the officials and
learned the plans of the Tirpitz group.

Deciding that his allegiance was American, he returned to
the United States. In his possession were many of the inner
secrets of the German Government, and these were given to
the officials in Washington. His information with reference to
the submarine has been of great value to the government.

For the sake of convenience we will call the man Johann
Schmidt. This is his story :

THE U-BOAT TYPE OF SUBMERSIBLE.

Germany's most successful and highly developed class of
submarine has been, of course, the U-boat type of submersible.
These are the terrors of the sea which have succeeded in cross-
ing the Atlantic, and have been developed both as the fighting
and as the commercial U-boat.

Herr Schmidt reported that Germany was constructing
submarines 25 per cent larger than anything the United States
had ever seen or heard of. His information was to the effect
that Germany had a building capacity for ten submarines a
week. The ability to produce these boats with such rapidity is
due to the process of standardization — the practice of modern
efficiency which has made it possible for American factories to
turn out such big quantities of automobiles in a limited period.

All parts of the German U-boats are made in standard
sizes and from the same original pattern. Consequently, these
parts are turned out by machinery in replica, and the building
of the finished boats is merely a matter of assembling them at
points to which the various parts have been shipped. The

THE SLINKING SUBMARINE.

149

Diesel oil engine, which is regarded as the ideal power-pro-
ducing engine for submarines, has been developed to its highest
state of efficiency by Germany, and is made at the famous
Krupp gun works, the great engine works in Augsburg,
Emden and Nuremburg, and other less well-known places in
Germany.

It has been estimated that Germany has anywhere from
250 to 500 submarines, and it is said that the aim is to produce
1000 of these craft, to absolutely destroy the commerce of the
seas and starve into submission England and France.

HOW SUBMARINES WORK.

According to Herr Schmidt, the submarines work in
groups of four. Because of the limited capacity of the boats
for carrying provisions, supplies and fuel, it is necessary for
them to have supply bases, to which they can return and secure
torpedoes. In operation each group consists of four subma-
rines, traveling along in a diamond-shaped formation, one in
front, one on either flank and one in rear. Eight miles sepa-
rate the boats. The leading submarine carries the extra gaso-
line and supplies and acts as a scoutship; she sights a vessel,
reports its speed and direction and then submerges — her task
is done.

The twro torpedo carriers on either flank immediately
change their courses so as to converge on the prey, and they
arrive one on either side of her — they get her in between them.
The boat in the rear keeps them informed as to the doomed
ship's progress, and submerges at the last moment. She car-
ries the extra crews for the fighting pair. The U-boats are
fairly well protected against the onslaught of the light torpedo-
boat destroyers and chasers, because the decks are protected by
several feet of water at almost all times, while the commanding
tower is covered with from two to three inches of the best steel
armor plate.

It is related that at the outset of the U-boat menace, Eng-

150

THE SLINKING SUBMARINE.

land ordered its commanding officers to ram the U-boats on
sight. The length to which the Germans will go in an effort to
win is illustrated by the fact that, in consequence of this order,
a Von Tirpitz council presented this answer: Attacking sub-
marines were equipped with explosive mines containing 300 to
400 pounds of nitroglycerin or guncotton. To the top of this
mine was fastened a fake periscope. This devilish device svas
attached to the submarine by a light cable, and towed along
the surface of the water 1000 feet or more behind the subma-
rine. The result that would follow any attempt on the part of
a commander to run down one of these decoys is readily
imagined.

DESCRIPTION OF A PERISCOPE.

The periscope is distinctly a submarine device which is
worthy of brief description. It is, in effect, a long tube, with
an elbow joint at the top and a similar one at the bottom. At
the elbow joints at both ends are arranged reflectors. The re-
flector in the upper end catches the object which comes within
the range of vision, and reflects the image down the tube to the
mirror at the lower elbow, where the pilot sees it. The prin-
ciple of the periscope is the same as that of the * 'busybody,"
familiar to householders, and which is placed on the sill of an
upper window, so that a person inside the house may see who
is at the front door.

The Germans have recently devised a new form of peri-
scope, designed to make the device invisible to the lookout of
approaching boats. This device consists of two mirrors, put
together like a "Y" lying on its side, the wide part in front.
These skim through the waves and converge the image upon
the low periscope's lens, which shoots the light down the tube
to the receiving apparatus below. When looked at from a dis-
tance the mirrors reflect the surface of the sea, so that a look-
out sees nothing but the waves as they are reflected in the
mirror.

THE SLINKING SUBMAKINE.

151

The Germans use the bottom of the sea as regular "land"
for their supply bases, and when the submarines go to the sur-
face it is precisely like an aeroplane mounting the air. The
submarine fleet boasts also of "mother boats." They lie on the
bottom of the ocean, in designated places, and rise at night to
hand out their supplies. Crews are changed and tired men go
back to the bottom to rest up, while fresher comrades take their
places.

So, too, the submarine, with its ability to rest on the bot-
tom of the sea, has become an efficient boat for mine laying.
The mine layers work from the undersea boats without fear of
disturbance, the divers walking out from the submarines to the
floor of the sea without being seen or without ever coming to
the surface.

TALES OF REMARKABLE EXPLOITS.

American citizens landed from vessels sunk by German
submarines tell remarkable tales of the strenuous exploits of
the U-boats. In one case three undersea boats appeared simul-
taneously alongside the ship, one being a submarine cruiser,
300 feet long, and the others old-fashioned submarines, with a
length of about 120 feet.

In another case a German submarine wore an elaborate
disguise of a fishing boat. This submarine carried a gun which
had a range of nearly five miles.

In at least two cases the crews of vessels sunk by sub-
marines were rescued from open boats by passing ships, only
to suffer a repetition of disaster when the ship on which they
had taken refuge fell prey to an underwater boat.

A seaman from Pensacola, who was a member of the crew
of a Swedish sailing vessel, said :

"We were almost within sight of land late in the after-
noon when we observed a Norwegian sailing vessel in an en-
counter with a submarine eight miles away. Apprehending
that our turn would come next, we prepared a lifeboat. A

152

THE SLINKING SUBMARINE.

300-foot submarine came up to us in due course and fired three
warning shots from its heavy gun.

"We pulled our boat over to the lifeboat from the 'Nor-
wegian ship previously sunk, and a dozen hours later were
picked up by a British steamer. We had only a brief stay on
the British boat, as she was torpedoed the same morning.
After a few hours in the boats we were found by a British
patrol and landed."

A Baltimore seaman from a Danish sailing vessel said:

THE SHIP ABANDONED.

"We abandoned ship in response to three shots from a
submarine. Thereupon the submarine fired twenty-two shots
into the hull of the ship, sinking her. We tried to speak with
the submarine commander, but he told us he was in a hurry, as
he had to attend to a Norwegian bark which was waiting a
short distance off.

"We pulled for the nearest land, and all our twenty-five
men got ashore safe, although both lifeboats were badly
smashed up in the surf as we were beaching them."

A Philadelphian described the manner in which his
steamer escaped being sunk.

"We were attacked by a submarine disguised as a fishing
vessel," he said. "She opened fire on us at five miles, sending
fifteen shots at us, and smashing our wireless. She pursued us
for an hour. We did not use our gun. Finally a British patrol
boat appeared. The submarine submerged, disguise and all,
presenting a ludicrous sight as the carefully prepared equip-
ment simulating a fishing boat sank beneath the waves."

The captain of an American sailing ship which was sunk

said:

"Submarines are lying along the sea lanes in regular
nests. They keep well under the water most of the time, com-
ing up now and then for periscopic observations, or on hear-
ing the approach of merchant craft, which often can be iden-

THE SLINKING SUBMARINE.

153

tified readily by the sound of the engines. By thus conserving
fuel the submarines are able to remain away from their base a
long time, and also they find means of renewing their stores
from ships which they sink.

4 4 The U-boat which sank us had been out for six weeks.
She had one British captain on board. She renewed all her
supplies from our boat and took all the nautical instruments.
The submarine gave us a sharp signal to halt, with a shell from
a distance of two miles. It was good marksmanship. The
shot hit the ship squarely, but caused no casualties. We
stopped and took to the boats. The submarine came up in
leisurely fashion, sank the ship with bombs and passed the time
of day with our boats. She had a crew of thirty-seven, and
was 250 feet long.

"We were picked up by a Norwegian sailing vessel, on
which we spent six days. She was then attacked by a 120-foot
submarine. We all took to the Norwegian's boats. The sub-
marine commander declined to look at the Norwegian cap-
tain's papers. We had another twenty-four hours in open
boats, and then were picked up by a British patrol and
landed."

CHAPTER V11T.
THWARTING THE U-BOAT.

Nets to Entangle the Sea Sharks of War — " Chasers 99 or * Skimming-
dish " Boats — " Blimps " and Seaplanes — Hunting the Submarine with
" Lance," Bomb and Gun — A Sailor's Description.

THE advantage which Germany gained by the development
of what has been termed the supersubmarine placed the
other nations where it became absolutely necessary for
them to concentrate their energies in an effort to counteract
the devastation which the U-boats brought upon the seas.
England tried first to protect the English channel and many
of its ports with mines, floating bombs and submarine nets, and
while the latter served as barriers which prevented the sub-
marines penetrating into some of the important waters and
harbors, they could act merely in a protective sense.

The submarine net is a specially devised net with heavy
iron or wire meshes, similar to a fishing net. These nets —
miles in length — were born of the nets originally devised to
sweep harbors clear of mines. They are carried between two
boats described as trawlers, which are a form of sea-going tug
with powerful engines, that can draw a heavy load. A heavy
cable runs from trawler to trawler, and from this the chain net
is suspended in the water. It is heavily weighted at the bot-
tom so as to hold it in a perpendicular position. The trawlers
steaming along, side by side, sweep up with the net anything
which may be placed in the water for the purpose of blowing
up or injuring vessels.

The submarine nets in some places have been anchored to
form a regular barrier against the passage of submarine boats,
and in this way were effective, but their use could in no way re-
strict the underseas boats in their work upon the open seas.

The most effective plan of overcoming the dire conse-
quences of the U-boat warfare was found, therefore, to lie in

154

THWARTING THE U-BOAT.

155

the use of submarine chasers and airships, the two operating
together in conjunction with the battleships, cruisers and tor-
pedo boat destroyers.

The submarine chaser is a light-draught, high-powered,
skimming-dish type of husky motorboat, mounting rapid-fire,
3 or 4-inch guns. In order to prove effective against the sub-
marine it is necessary to have many of these boats, and it is a
matter of particular interest that the marvelous resources of
the United States at the time of her entrance into the war en-
abled her to immediately begin a campaign for the construction
of chasers, which would be able to guard the seas in the chan-
nels of traffic and along the ports into which the submarine
might attempt to sneak.

NO EXPERT NAVAL KNOWLEDGE REQUIRED.

The operation of the chaser does not require the degree of
technical skill and knowledge of naval strategy required in the
handling of ships of the naval type. A fleet of chasers is
manned largely by naval reserves, who have a certain amount of
training, but who are neither navigators nor experts in naval
affairs. The operations are, however, directed by the naval
authorities.

The submarine chaser is effective because it draws very
little water, has high speed, can be quickly turned and diverted
from its course and does not present any great depth of hull at
which the submarine can fire a torpedo. It would be possible
for a torpedo to pass under a chaser without hitting it — if the
submarine cared to waste such an expensive weapon on so small
an adversary. When the submarine attempts to come to the
surface and use the rapid-fire gun with which she is armed she
is at a disadvantage, because it takes her several minutes to
emerge. Additional time is required to swing the gun up
through its automatic hatch while the men scramble to the deck
to man it.

The chaser, with a speed of approximately 35 to 40 miles

156

THWARTING THE U-BOAT.

an hour, will travel somewhere between a mile and a half to
two miles in this period. Its gun has been ready from the start,
and the chaser has had half a dozen shots or so with onlv a
single hit needed to put the submarine out of commission. Even
if the submarine is at the surface and has her gun mounted
ready for action, she is at a disadvantage with the chaser. The
chaser, taking advantage of her speed and small size, goes
skimming across the water at the rate of 40 miles an hour, and
it takes a mighty fine gunner to be able to hit a small craft, go-
ing in a zigzag course over the water at such speed.

The chaser may continue to circle the submarine awaiting
her opportunity which will of necessity come when the U-boat
attempts to submerge. The submarine must go through the
regular form of running back her gun, and battening down the
water-tight hatches, before she can submerge, and the latter
process again takes several minutes. Therefore while the sub-
marine is preparing to dip, the chaser can run upon her and let
loose the fire from its rapid-fire gun.

A POOR SURFACE FIGHTER.

The submarine, by very virtue of the qualities which make
it a good submarine, is a poor boat for surface fighting.
It can carry no very heavy armament, and it is not heavily arm-
ored. The problem of stowing away all the heavy machinery,
supplies, torpedoes and devices necessary for her operations
and maneuvering has presented about all the difficulties the
constructors have been able to handle. The highest speed of
the submarine is not in execess of 20 miles an hour. The sub-
marine must be light and easy to handle. It gains in steadi-
ness and certainty of operation with increased size, but it loses
in capacity for quick and delicate maneuvering.

In addition the submarine has what is termed a strategic
vulnerability. A shot which might mean nothing more serious
than a hole in the side to a surface boat would end the sub-

THWARTING THE U-BOAT.

15?

marine's usefulness for underseas work and convert her into a
helpless hulk of surface craft.

The submarine is an easy quarry for a chaser, for even
when submerged and moving along, the U-boat creates a dis-
tinct wave on the surface of the water which can be followed by
the chaser. The little boats are just what their name implies —
chasers — and besides having the qualities already described
they may conceal themselves behind large steamers, and when
the submarine in preparing to launch a torpedo makes its pres-
ence known the chaser may speed from its hiding place and
drive the underseas craft away, even if it does not succeed in
injuring it.

OPERATING IN CONNECTION WITH AN AEROPLANE.

The chasers also have a special facility of operation in con-
nection with the aeroplane or seaplane, principally because of
their high speed ; and next to the chaser the aeroplane is one of
the submarine's worst enemies. Used in conjunction with the
regular torpedo boat destroyers of the navy, the chaser and the
aeroplane promise in future wrars to minimize the effectiveness
of the underseas craft. This is proven by the fact that imme-
diately after the United States naval forces joined those of the
Allies in European waters, the disasters resultant upon sub-
marine attacks were greatly reduced. The speedy destroyers,
while not actually sinking many submarines, by their vigilance
prevented the submarine from operating.

Large types of the chasers ordered in this country by the
Russian Government are 72 feet long by 11 feet 3 inches wide
and draw 3 feet 3 inches of water. Each boat carries three of
the 8-cylinder 6^x7% Duesenberg, 350 to 400 horsepower
motors. The boats carry an 18-inch torpedo tube amidships
and a 47-millimetre rapid-fire gun on the forward deck. They
are controlled from the bridge deck with a sheltered cabin for
the quartermaster, with controls from either the shelter or

158

THWARTING THE U-BOAT.

bridge deck. They have a guaranteed speed of twenty-eight
knots.

Deck arrangements consist of the following: A hatch to
the fo'castle, followed by the emplacement for the rapid-fire
gun. Following this is the steering shelter containing dupli-
cate controls, &c, for the engine room and for the steering.
Immediately aft of the steering shelter is the bridge deck, lo-
cated on top of the engine room trunk house. The entire after
half of the vessel is a clear sweep of deck with the exception of
a booby hatch to crews' quarters well aft.

The boats are arranged for wireless with foremast and
jigger mast. Rail stanchions in the way of the torpedo tube
are hinged down, giving clear sweep to the tube for firing pur-
poses.

PROVISION FOR OFFICERS AND CREW.

Below decks ample space has been provided for the crew
and officers. The forepeak is arranged for chain lockers and
bosun's gear lockers, followed by ship's galley, which has two
pipe berths. Next to the galley is located the officers' cabin
and wireless room, which is entered by a hatch from the steer-
ing shelter. This cabin accommodates two officers and includes
lavatory, officers' desks, wireless desk and folding mess table.

Next aft is the machinery space, in which are located the
three eight cylinder Duesenberg motors, a three k. w. universal
lighting set, the necessary oil tanks, batteries and a work bench.
The next compartment contains fuel tanks, with 1300 gallons
capacity. Aft of this compartment is located the crew's quar-
ters, berthing eight men, with lavatory attached. The hull is
divided into six watertight compartments by steel bulkheads.

The hull is of wooden construction, as developed for this
service by the builders.

The 72-footers develop a speed of twenty-eight knots and
have a cruising radius exceeding 1200 miles. The design of
the hull is the concave bottom, square bilge type, developed for
this particular service. It furnishes a steady gun platform,

THWARTING THE U-BOAT.

159

which, with the necessary speed, is the most vital feature of a
submarine chaser.

The demand for speed and stability was borne out by the
experience of the Russian and Italian navies in their active
work and no consideration at all is given propositions from
these two countries which do not range well about twenty-five
knots.

Exceptional success was attained by the Russian Black Sea
and by the Italian high speed fleets in actual use and their de-
mand for exceptional speed was based on experience.

It is a well known fact that the Russian government was
successful in patroling its shores and in protecting its harbors
and shipping. The Italian government also was exceptionally
successful in maintaining its mercantile fleet in comparative
safety and in protecting its harbors against the offensive work
of enemy submarines. The entire Italian fleet of submarine
chasers consists of high speed, high powered motor patrol boats,
most of which were equipped with American made motors.

CATALOGUED AS " PATROL BOATS."

In a general way the ' 'chasers" are catalogued in naval
circles as "patrol boats." England has thousands of them,
ranging from motorboats to naval auxiliaries, raking the Eng-
lish Channel, the North Sea and the waters all about the Brit-
ish Isles. iAs a rule the boats work in groups of five or six,
one boat serving as a flagship — and often there is a "blimp"
attached to the fleet. The armament of these small vessels is
distinctive. Each carries, besides a deck gun, a "depth
charge," half a dozen lance bombs and arms for each member
of the crew. The deck gun fires a shell that weighs about
thirteen pounds.

The "depth charge" is a submarine bomb, so constructed
that it is discharged at any determined depth of water when
thrown overboard. If the water is 100 feet deep the bomb
will explode at that depth. The bombs are used to drop in

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THWARTING THE U-BOAT.

places where the submarine has been located or is expected of
lurking in the bottom of the sea. While the exploding bomb
may not strike the underseas boat it will create havoc on board
the underwater craft if discharged in close proximity, the extra
water pressure exerted causing disarrangement of the delicate
mechanism, if not rendering the boat unfit for service.

Some of the patrol boats of the English have been armed
with "lance bombs." These are bombs of highly explosive char-
acter which are fastened to the end of a long pole or staff.
They are used just as a harpoon is used when by chance a sub-
marine may emerge from the water in too close proximity to
the chaser. It is not of record that any U-boats have been sunk
with these strange javelins, but official reports show that the
boats are armed with them for emergencies.

CHASER TROUBLES THE SUBMARINE.

What with dragging bombs through the water, and set-
ting traps and nests for the submarines, the chasers make great
trouble for the underseas craft, but the ingenious Germans are
constantly on the alert, and it has been proved that in one or
two instances at least the submarines cut their way through
the heavy chain nets which were set to catch them near Havre.
It was said that the submarine was provided with steel knives
or wire cutters, and shears operated by electricity or pneumatic
pressure, which enabled the boat to cut its way through the bar-
rier of chains and wires.

As a means of visualizing the operations of the "chaser"
and giving some idea of the excitement which attends the at-
tempt to run down the under-seas craft, the following descrip-
tion by an English sailor is interesting. The chase occurred
off the Isle of Wight:

"Offshore a short distance was a patrol boat lying very
low and flying distress signals. We had run over to her and
learned that about an hour before the periscope of a submarine
tiad been stuck up not far from her, then the craft had sub-

THWARTING THE U-BOAT. 161

merged, appeared again about a mile away, and fired four
shots, which let in enough water slowly to sink the patrol,
which before the war had been nothing but a dirty little trawler.

"Finding the crew of the patrol could take care of them-
selves in their small boats and learning that the submarine had
run over to the westward, where we knew chain net traps to be
laid, wre circled in that direction.

"Our powerful motors thrummed evenly. The water
seemed to part ahead of us, and the gunners squinted along the
surface, looking for the glimpse of a periscope or the first sign
of the hull of the U-boat if she should be proceeding awash.

CREW THRILLED WITH JOY.

"Suddenly, off to the west, we made out her periscope.
Intense joy thrilled our little crew. She was inshore from us.
She was between our circular course and the chain nets — in the
trap. The periscope we had seen might be a dummy, for a
submarine frequently casts loose a phoney periscope to draw
fire, but, at any rate, she must have been between us and the
nets if she cut it loose.

"Presently, probably after a look around, the periscope
suddenly disappeared, and we knew it was a real one with a
German U-boat on the end of it. Like a flock of falcons we
were swooping down on the prey.

"Abruptly the lead boat comes to a dead stop and lists
heavily to starboard. Evidently something is wrong. We see
men crawl out over the stern and fish around with boat hooks
and poles. Cold as it is, one man goes overboard and remains
under water so long we could not believe he would come up
alive. The boat had fouled the chain nets,

"Circling round in an ever smaller radius, we search the
water for a periscope, a shadow, or the conventional "streak
of dirty grease' or 'line of bubbles.'

"All of us have towing torpodoes out. These are bombs
on long cables which are towed astern and sink to a certain

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THWARTING THE U-BOAT.

specified depth. If the cable fouls anything at all, as the boat
goes ahead, the bomb pulls up to it, and, when it bumps, it
explodes.

4 4 We are in line. Suddenly there is a crash and a roar
just ahead of us. I am thrown off my feet. Barrels of water
splash down into our cockpit and roll off the decks. The bow
lifts itself clean for a second. !I think that the submarine has
blown us up. Perhaps I am dead already.

"Then we settle down again, and except for a scared look
on the faces of a couple of men and rather nervous, forced jests
on the lips of others, we are plowing ahead just as before.

"Nothing has happened except the towing torpedo of the
boat in front of us in the line fouled a submerged spar, or a bit
of wreckage, and exploded right under our bow. 'If we had
been a few yards closer we would never have been there any
more.'

FOULS A SUBMERGED SPAR.

"As we realized what had happened, our tongues were
loosened, and, if the crew of the boat ahead could have heard
what we said about them, we would have lost their friendship
most assuredly.

"Way inshore, after a circling chase of perhaps twenty
minutes, the submarine came up. She was in such shallow
water that she probably was having trouble in operating sub-
merged. She was gone then.

"What followed was very business-like. It illustrates the
attitude the British have come to take toward the submarines
because of their flagrant violations of every form of inter-
national law and decency. It is the attitude which any country,
obliged to fight against them, will assume. To the British
mind, submarines must be exterminated, just as one would ex-
terminate a nest of poisonous vipers, or a nest of hornets. Peo-
ple ask me how many submarines are being captured now.
Very few! Many are destroyed, but few captured.

"No sooner did the hull of the submarine show itself than

THWARTING THE U-BOAT.

163

we began to hammer her with our three-inch guns. She opened
fire, but her shots went wild, and, in a few seconds, she dis-
appeared.

"As fast as we could, we ran over to where she had gone
down. If the principles which obtain on land, in the air or in
the navy at large, existed in submarine warfare, we would have
gone over to see if we could rescue any of the wounded, but it
was a U-boat and we simply made sure that there was nothing
left of the craft.

"About where she went down, a quantity of gas and air
bubbles were rising, and the dirty patch of oil was once more
in evidence. That was a pretty certain sign the career of one
U-boat was at an end, for the sea must have been pouring into
her, and even though all her crew did not drown, once the salt
water reached the storage batteries, the chloride would do the
work.

WERE TAKING NO CHANCES.

"But we are taking no chances. We circle round and
round the spot and drop depth bombs — deadly machines.
These are powerful explosives which are set so they will de-
tonate at a certain depth. We first sounded the bottom and
then set our bombs for ten fathoms. Suddenly I hear a cry
from the boat behind us. One of the crew reaches out, grabs
the collar of a man who has just dropped a depth bomb over
the stern and yanks him unceremoniously into the cockpit. At
a glance I see what has happened.

"The engineer has stalled his motor — just as the bomb
was let go. It sinks slowly, and there is a slight momentum
left in the submarine-chaser. We hold our breath and watch
in suspense, expecting any second to see our comrades hurled
into the air among a mushroom of water and splinters.

"There is no way to help them. Suddenly there is a muf-
fled roar, a column of water rises to what seems a hundred feet,
and falls back, drenching every one who is near it. But our

164

THWARTING THE U-BOAT.

comrades are unhurt. The momentum of their boat has car-
ried them just far enough to save them from being blown to
atoms. That is the second narrow escape for our little squad-
ron in this chase after a single submarine.

"But our work is done. There is no doubt now about the
fate of the U-boat. It is not necessary for one of the depth
bombs actually to come in contact with the submerged craft
to destroy it. When under water, a submarine's rigidity is mul-
tiplied. Its elasticity is next to nothing. An explosion as
powerful as that of a depth bomb near it, is almost certain to
cripple it if not destroy it. It is the same principle as that
which kills fish in a pond when dynamite is exploded beneath
the surface of the water. The shock is sufficient to kill the men
in the U-boat, and so we glide along homeward, secure in the
knowledge that even if our gunfire did not finish the enemy,
the bombs have done the work. On the surface, we notice
swarms of dead fish."

THE HAWK-EYED AEROPLANE.

The last wrinkle developed for submarine hunting was
the aeroplane. Like a fish-hawk it can see its prey beneath the
water by flying high in air. Another step just a bit in advance
of aeroplane scouting for submarines is the use of a small
dirigible for the same purpose. But the cleverest development
of the aeroplane-submarine idea involved the use of seaplanes
for the purpose of launching submarine torpedoes at enemy
ships.

Here's how this is practiced. As most folks know, the
seaplane differs from the land-flying craft in that it rides on
floats instead of wheels. These floats permit the seaplane to
come to rest on the waves, and to launch itself again. Between
these floats, which resemble a pair of broad home-made sleds,
may be slung a torpedo. The same type of missile, this, that
is used by the submarine and the destroyer — a long, cigar-
shaped cylinder, operated by compressed air driving a pro-

THWARTING THE U-BOAT.

165

peller, and equipped with a warhead filled with guncotton.
The torpedo is held by slings, delicately adjusted so that they
can be released in an instant.

The great seaplane, swinging the missile of death between,
its giant floats, climbs the skies in search of an enemy ship.
From a distance of miles, perhaps, the seaplane looks like a
gull. To the observer in the plane, however, sweeping the
horizon with his binoculars, a ship is plainly and easily seen,

NOT TO BE OUT-DISTANCED.

Off in the distance is spied a ship suspected of being an
enemy transport. It isn't hard to determine — the ship can-
not steam away from them, no matter how swift its engines.
A seaplane can go so fast that it makes the fastest torpedo
boat destroyer look as if it were standing still. The attacked
transport may try to bring its anti-aircraft guns to bear, if
luckily it is equipped with them. Failing this, the soldiers will
man the decks with their rifles ready. Then there is a duel of
skill and daring between the men on the cruiser and the lone
fighters in the seaplane.

The seaplane must swoop sufficiently close to the water
to release the torpedo and let it drop without damage. And
this must be done from a sufficient distance to safeguard the
seaplane from the vessel's guns. The superior speed and mo-
bility of the seaplane gives it a great advantage over the ship
attacked.

Another of the weapons or instruments of warfare de-
vised largely for use in destroying the evil submarine is the
"blimp." This is nothing more nor less than a small dirigible
balloon, hundreds of which the United States government
started to build when it entered the war.

The blimp is an aerial sea-scout. Its principal employ-
ment is for observation. It is a watcher of enemy movements
on the water. But it is also serviceable for attack, and espe-
cially for assailing submarines.

166

THWARTING THE U-BOAT.

The British used blimps for the latter purpose, and to
great advantage. The dirigible sausage-balloon, when a sub-
marine is descried, can hover over it (as an aeroplane cannot),
remaining as nearly stationary as may be desired, and waiting
for an opportunity to drop a bomb with accurate aim.

If the submarine be under water, and its presence be-
trayed by the peculiar surface-ripple that marks its wake, a
bomb with a delay-action fuse can be dropped upon it, the
projectile not exploding until it reaches a depth of fifty feet
or so. In case the first bomb does not score a hit, there are
others to follow, with better luck perhaps.

THE IMPORTANCE OF THE " BLIMP."

Thus, it will be seen that the blimp is an important aux-
iliary of the flying-machine in the pursuit of the submarines.
Both together, in this exciting sport, supplement the swift
power-boats called "submarine-chasers."

For some time the Navy Department has trained enlisted
men and officers for this work, chiefly at a Gulf port, where
a school — it is no war secret — of aviation and ballooning has
been maintained. Six officers and 40 men are required for
each coast station.

The Navy Department adopted for the blimp a standard-
ized pattern, with definite published specifications, in accord-
ance with which contractors turned them out in numbers. It
is a sausage-shaped balloon 160 feet long, with a great di-
ameter of 311/2 feet, and containing, when inflated, 77,000
cubic feet of hydrogen gas.

The fabric of the "envelope" — that is to say, of the gas-
bag— is coated both outside and inside with rubber. It is re-
quired that the balloon shall not lose more than 1 per cent of its
gas-content in 24 hours. When inflated it must be able to
carry (including its own weight) a total of 5275 pounds.

If the "Zeppelin" be excepted, the blimp is the most
highly-developed and scientific heavier-than-air flying machine

THWARTING THE U-BOAT.

167

ever devised. It has a cruising speed of 35 miles an hour,
but at a pinch can travel ten miles an hour faster. At the
"cruising" rate, it carries enough gasoline to keep going for
sixteen hours; at 45 miles, its load of "petrol" will suffice for
ten hours.

Even the best war balloons of a few years ago were at the
mercy of the winds. It is not so with the blimp. Barring
storms, it is able to navigate the air as it wishes. It can rise
safely to an altitude of a mile and a half. To furnish fuel for
its engine of 100 horsepower it carries, in two tanks, 100 gal-
lons of gasoline.

DESCRIPTION OF THE " BLIMP."

In effect, the blimp is a combination of balloon and aero-
plane. Like the latter, it is provided with "skids" (resembling
sled runners and made of ash wood) , or sometimes with bicycle
wheels, for safe landing on terra firma. When designed for
sea scouting, floats — cylinders of waterproof fabric stuffed
with vegetable fibre — are attached to the skids, or to the wheels,
so that the airship, in calm weather, may be able to rest, like a
sea bird, on the waves, if desired.

The blimp's balloon envelope must contain two smaller
balloons, together holding 19,250 feet of hydrogen gas. The
idea, of course, is that if anything happens to the major bal-
loon— puncturing by gunfire or by other mishap — the "bal-
loonets" inside of it will keep the machine afloat.

The wingless aeroplane is suspended from the balloon by
cables of galvanized wire. There is a special arrangement by
which the "pilot" — the man who steers and operates the air-
ship— can at any time measure the pressure of hydrogen in
the balloon, thus knowing what he has to count on in the way
of carrying power.

The front part of the blimp's car is occupied by the engine
and radiator, behind which is a bulkhead of sheet steel. In
the rear of this bulkhead sits the pilot, and behind him the

168

THWARTING THE U-BOAT.

"observer," who makes sketches and takes notes of anything
important that he sees. Behind the observer are the tanks for
fuel oil and 800 gallons of water ballast. The body of the car
is covered with aeroplane linen, save for the engine, which is
sheathed with sheet aluminum.

In order to hold whatever position in the air may be de-
sired, the blimp is equipped with two horizontal fins and three
vertical fins. Not every blimp, that is to say, but the pattern
approved and required of contractors by the Navy Depart-
ment. These fins are made of wood and light steel tubing, re-
inforced with wire, covered with aeroplane linen rubber
painted and finished with varnish.

THE " BLIMP " WELL EQUIPED.

There are also two horizontal rudders and two vertical
rudders, for steering up and down or side wise. They work on
ball bearings. A blimp, one should understand, is a fish in the
ocean of air, a swimmer — just as the aeroplane is a flyer, like
the bird.

The blimp's "car" carries an electric storage battery to
furnish lights. The same battery energizes a searchlight for
night scouting. A wireless apparatus, for transmitting infor-
mation to the shore station, is part of the equipment.

The blimp, as already stated, is a sea scout. It is meant
to be operated from a base on shore — which base is in constant
communication by telegraph and wireless with the great radio
stations that are strung all along our coasts at intervals of 200
miles. These stations, in turn, are in communication with the
huge wireless outfit at Arlington (across the Potomac from
Washington), whose "antennae," uplifted on tall steel towers,
receive instantaneous war news from half the world.

Thus if (just for illustration) a blimp spies a hostile sub-
marine, the news is instantly transmitted to the Navy Depart-
ment. The department orders its "chasers" and warplanes
nearest to the scene to go after the undersea boat. Within a

THWARTING THE U-BOAT. 169

few minutes the pursuit has started, and the U-boat finds itself
in much the same situation as a fox hunted by hounds. In this
case, however, the hounds are in the air, as well as "quartering"
the aqueous terrain.

The United States' blimps are modeled on European pat-
terns. But they are to have special improvements of their own.
To make sure of their efficiency and structural correctness,
each contractor, in offering bids to furnish them, was required
to exhibit' a model, exactly like the sausage balloons he pro-
posed to make, but of toy size — one-thirtieth the length of the
full-sized, completely equipped aerial sea scout.

CHAPTER IX.
THE EYES UF BATTLE.

Aeroplanes and Aibships — They Spy the Movements of Forces on Land ok
Sea — Lead Disastrous Bomb Attacks — Valuable in " Spotting " Sub-
marines— The Bombardment at Messines Ridge.

JUST as the submarine has revolutionized warfare on the
seas and presented new problems for the naval experts to
solve, so the aircraft of the last decade has had its effect
upon the operation of land forces. Probably the aeroplane
and the dirigible balloonA have had a greater influence on the
conduct of battles and military campaigns as a whole than any
other device utilized in connection with the war.

It is significant, too, that just as America produced the
first submarine, and then failed as a nation to develop it to its
highest state of efficiency for military use, so American in-
ventors were pioneers in the construction and successful opera-
tion of aeroplanes, or airplanes, which were first developed to
their greatest efficiency and utility by the French and Ger-
mans. * ' _

Some of the most striking events of the war centre around
the use of the airplanes or dirigibles, and aside from the pic-
turesqueness and thrilling atmosphere that seem to surround
their use, the operator of the aircraft has proved himself one
of the most valuable servants in modern warfare. He has re-
duced the proudest cavalry to second place in the matter of
reconnoissance, and has rendered services which have hereto-
fore been impossible.

The air-man sails out over the lines of battle, so far above
the earth when necessary as to be out of range of the most
powerful guns, and with glasses looks down upon the whole
country. His machine, whether it be a dirigible balloon or
airplane, is equipped with a wireless telegraph instrument with

170

THE EYES OF BATTLE.

171

which he is able to send brief messages back to his own line
or military headquarters. He can and does mark the changed
positions of the contending forces, note the entrenchments and
reinforcements, follow movements, and last but not least, as
was noticeable in one of the desperate attacks upon the Ger-
man position in June, 1917, swoop down upon the enemy, at-
tack the lines and forces with bombs, and rain bullets upon
them from rapid-fire guns.

No longer can the enemy mask its heavy batteries or con-
ceal them beneath earthen mounds, plant them in corners of the
forests or in clumps of bushes without their being located.
The "eyes of the sky," as the planes are now termed, can spy
them out. And when the airman has communicated to his mili-
tary commanders the positions of the opposing batteries, he
acts as a director in instructing the friendly gunners in finding
the range and cleaning out the enemy.

THE AIR SCOUT'S USEFULNESS.

The air scout can detect the enemy's lines of communica-
tion and raid it with bomb attacks. Even when the land forces
cannot reach the enemy with gunfire he can rain missiles of
all sorts upon them. Sometimes the airman flies over the
enemy lines and drops glittering tinsel or bright metal de-
vices, which falling to the ground serve as marks for the artil-
lerymen in finding the range.

Where the cavalry scout or creeping scout of days gone
by could never have proved successful, the airman has easily
accomplished his purpose. He has carried messages from one
frontier to another in hours, when it would have taken days for
a scout on horseback or on foot to have rendered the service,
if they could have accomplished it at all. He has eliminated
distance.

Trench warfare developed in the world- war in a way that
has never before been deemed necessary or possible, but the
miles of trenches which conceal the men from the fire of the

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THE EYES OF BATTLE.

enemy are plainly visible to the airmen. And armed with
cameras having powerful telescopic lenses they can photo-
graph the entire scene and send to their own military head-
quarters not mere indicated plans of the battle lines, but exact
photographs.

The war has shown conclusively that once the formation
of the battle line has been decided upon it is, in a measure, a
fixture. It may be subject to rearrangement, but this is when
the force of battle demands, or for strategic purposes, but
such an arrangement requires a great deal of time and much
work. The battle fronts on the borders of France and Bel-
gium have ranged from 10Q to nearly 300 miles in length, with
nearly 3,000,000 strung out in opposing lines along the entire
distance.

LIKE AN IMMENSE GRIDIRON.

The ground has been dug up and trenched until the sur-
face of the earth looks like an immense gridiron. The sol-
diers almost live within the trenches and dug-outs beneath the
ground. Telephone and telegraph wires run through the
trenches and even railroad tracks are laid so that small engines
go whirring through the ditches like "dinky" locomotives in a
coal mine.

And the "eyes in the skies" make it possible for the com-
manders to know each other's strength and the disposition of
the forces at all times.

Particularly has the air scout proved valuable in enabling
commanders to execute their final orders without grievous
error. There is danger of possible mis judgment because of
the great length of the firing lines. The airmen verify posi-
tions and make last minute reports, taking minutes to perform
services that cavalry forces or other scouting parties would
have taken hours or days to render.

Operated in conjunction with cavalry scouts, and motor
and cycle squads, the airplane is a destruction-directing and

THE EYES OF BATTLE.

173

defensive force. And it was the large fleet of aircraft that
aided Germany in making such rapid advance in its drive
toward Paris in the early days of the war. The scouts recon-
noitering in the early dawn were able to report the situation
and give the commanders time to move their forces before the
Belgians and French were aware of what was being done.

Germany had probably the largest fleet of airplanes at
the beginning of the conflict and is said to have possessed up-
ward of 500, of various sorts, and this does not include the
famous Zeppelins or dirigible balloons. She also had some-
thing like two dozen factories which could turn out flying
machines, and had been at work on the development of her air
craft long enough to have her patterns and methods of manu-
facture somewhat, if not entirely standardized. During the
third year of the war it was estimated that she had more than
quadrupled her force of flying machines.

GERMANY'S PREPAREDNESS.

Germany's preparedness in this as well as in other direc-
tions was what enabled her to obtain such a tremendous ad-
vantage in the beginning of the war. Later England and
France concentrated on the development of aeroplane squads
or corps, and when the United States entered the war one of
the first detachments sent into France consisted of 100 aviators.
How rapidly the aeroplane forces were developed is indicated
by the statement made in the beginning of 1916 that the air
forces of the Allies were represented by 3380 aeroplanes of
various types and 64 dirigible balloons, while Austria and Ger-
many had 2000 aeroplanes and 70 dirigibles.

The dirigibles — the type of airship commonly referred to
as Zeppelins — have the advantage over the heavier-than-air
machines of being almost silent in their operations, while at
the same time they can remain for a longer time suspended in
air over a camp or battleground without being detected. The
Zeppelin is the development of the old balloon, made, however,

174

THE EYES OF BATTLE.

in a conical shape with a long basket or car attached. They
are driven by propellers similar to those used with aeroplanes,
but as the power generated by the engines is merely used to
drive the machines and has nothing to do with maintaining
their position in the air, the motors do not have to be so power-
ful. They are steered by rudders.

Some of the largest Zeppelins which have been leading
factors in night raids conducted by the Germans on London
and English coast resorts are capable of maintaining a speed
of 60 miles an hour. One of these immense Zeppelins was
reported to have covered 1300 miles in less than forty hours,
covering the German bordeVs, and still keeping in touch with
its base. The Zeppelins, because of their large size, can carry
large quantities of bombs, wireless apparatus, signals and elec-
tric searchlights. They can rise to a height that places them
fairly beyond the range of the aerial guns used for fighting
the air forces of the army.

MANY KINDS OF BOMBS.

The bombs used are as diversified as the crafts on which
they are carried. The French aviators at one time dropped
long steel billets or arrows which had swedged heads and
sharpened points. These missiles, dropped from the height of
a thousand feet or more, attained a velocity and force which
made them dangerous weapons of the minor sort.

The bombs, in the main, however, consist of jacketed
shells containing high explosives, some of which are con-
structed on what is called the delayed-action principle. Such
bombs explode after penetrating the fort or object which they
strike, instead of going off by contact. Germany is said to
have developed some of these that were of such size and power
as to penetrate an armored ship. As much as 50 pounds of
explosives or chemicals is declared to have been carried in
some of the larger ones.

The big dirigibles mount machine guns of superior range.

THE EYES OF BATTLE.

175

Some of them have been armored to an extent, and to make
them less easily detected they have been painted tints and col-
ors to harmonize with the clouds and sky. Special kinds of
gas have been used to fill the envelopes or bags, and instead of
one large bag they consist of a series of bags enclosed in an
envelope or casing, so that if a bullet would penetrate the
envelope it would only destroy one of the gas bags, and not
cause the whole thing to collapse.

Besides having proved of great value in the land cam-
paigns, the aircraft has shown itself to be one of the most ef-
fective devices of warfare for use against the submarine, and
all manner of naval craft. From the heavens they can see the
submarine under the water, and as either the dirigible or the
aeroplane can develop a speed greater than that of any battle-
ship or cruiser, it is not difficult for it to soar over the vessel
and drop bombs upon it. Even gas bombs have been used in
the raids by the aircraft.

ACCURACY THE GREAT DIFFICULTY.

The difficulty in the use of bombs has been in accurately
directing the death-dealing devices when the airship or aero-
plane is in motion. To assist in this work aerial range finders
have been devised. These are constructed on the principle of
the finder on a camera, with graded scale markings to indi-
cate the allowance that must be made for speed and motion.
Complete apparatus has been built up for launching the pro-
jectiles from the large dirigibles, and to insure the missiles
traveling properly vanes have been attached to some of them.

In a test made under the auspices of the French Govern-
ment and the Aerial Club of France, a few years ago, one of
the bomb-launching machines on an aeroplane scored eleven
bull's-eye shots in a target ten yards in diameter, from an alti-
tude of more than 2000 feet, while the aeroplane was going at
a speed of more than 65 miles an hour.

Though there has not been any widespread use of the plan

176

THE EYES OF BATTLE.

the air has been "mined" in an experimental way to protect
certain sections against night raids by the airmen. Mining the
air consists of locating small balloons over an area, each bal-
loon being attached to the other with wires. The small bal-
loons have attached to them explosive bombs which would
destroy the larger aircraft if it was to run into this nest of air
vessels in the dark.

Reverting to the use of aircraft in naval warfare it may
be said that to the aeroplane the relatively fast fleet is virtually
stationary. About the only case parallel to the aeroplane look-
ing over the hill and down on concealed enemy positions would
be in rising above the smoke screen thrown out by destroyers.

THE ^MOKE SCREEN.

The smoke screen, by the way, which has been used by the
British with marked success in many instances, is an Ameri-
can invention. The low, swift craft are equipped with special
oil burners which throw off dense volumes of heavy smoke,
which float low over the surface of the water, concealing the
maneuvers of the larger boats and protecting them from the
skill of enemy gunners. Its effectiveness, of course, is influ-
enced by the direction and strength of the wind. Used gen-
erously by small craft convoying a ship through a submarine
area, it should be of great value.

A battleship can see about as far as it can shoot, anyhow.
Except for smoke screen, or the famous "low visibility," which
means foggy weather or darkness, no enemy within range can
be concealed.

What the fleet commander wants to know is how those
enemy vessels beyond the horizon, which may be within range
of his guns tomorrow, the day after, or next week, may be
distributed, and how many of them there are. This is where
the speed of the airplane comes in.

A machine which can travel 100 miles an hour covers a
thousand miles in 10 hours. Locating an approaching enemy

THE EYES OF BATTLE.

177

fleet this distance away, it brings back the news of the approach
in 10 hours. It takes the fleet, traveling at 15 miles an hour,
two days and 18 hours to cover this distance. The aeroplane
can beat it by two days and eight hours.

But the aeroplane flying high enough to give it the widest
practical range of vision is able to see only over a path 75 miles
wide under the most favorable weather conditions. Haze will
cut this down considerably. This means that for anything like
complete scouting work a fleet must be equipped with a large
number of them.

PROPORTION OF FIGHTING PLANES.

Then, too, there must be a generous proportion of fight-
ing planes to spread out in a very wide circle beyond the fleet.
It will be appreciated that this circle must be a mighty wide
one if the enemy planes be kept far enough away to prevent
their counting the number and type of ships in the command.
There is required also a large detail to guard against the sub-
marines. While an aeroplane can see quite deep in the sea,
this penetrating vision is limited to the water directly beneath
it. It can see straight down in the water, but not off to the side
at an angle.

If such a thing is possible, air control at sea is more im-
portant than over the land, and of first value is the fighting
plane. In this connection there is an aeroplane gun which
works well. It is a double-ender. That is, there is a breech in
the middle, and the two ends are muzzles. In air fighting it is
seconds and fractions of seconds that count, and the advantage
of this gun lies in that it can be fired in opposite directions,
thus cutting down the length of the arc through which it has
to be swung to be brought to bear on the enemy.

Of exceptional value to the United States navy is the
super- American type of planes which the Curtiss factories have
developed and which have done such wonderful service for the
British. In this type the fuselage is entirely enclosed, built

178

THE EYES OF BATTLE.

with a hull much along the lines of the motorboat or hydro-
plane. The 'plane may thus come to rest safely in the open sea.

It weighs nearly 6000 pounds and can carry a useful load
of more than 2000 pounds. The boat is slung well below the
planes, eight feet below the lower one, which has a span of 66
feet. Eight feet above this is the upper plane, which overlaps
the lower plane by 13 feet on each side. The complete span
of the upper plane is 92 feet. It can carry six to eight men, if
necessary, altogether a huge, sfr^dy, dependable machine with
two powerful motors.

And what was done to give America the equipment of
'planes which we needed? .

RESOURCES AT GOVERNMENT'S COMMAND,

Fifteen aeroplane manufacturers, with a combined capi-
tal of $30,000,000 and a total capacity of 175 machines a week,
organized and placed all their resources at the command of the
government. The organization provided for the interchange
of ideas and plans and for the standardization of manufacture,
which resulted in a material increase in output.

One hundred and seventy-five machines a week should
give us, in a year, 9100. And there are other conditions which
may modify the estimate both favorably and unfavorably.
There is, for instance, a limit to the amount of seasoned lum-
ber available in this country of the peculiar type and quality
needed for airplane construction. Provision must be made for
the future in this respect. All-steel machines have been made
and used in Europe to some extent, but no metal alloy has
been developed which is likely to take the place of wood in
general construction. The manufacturers developed some
interesting things along these lines which were not given to
the public.

In the Spring of 1917 the fighting in the air took on an
entirely new interest abroad, because of the German policy of
painting their machines most grotesque patterns. They seemed

THE EYES OF BATTLE.

179

to have taken this idea from the old American Indian custom
of painting their faces to frighten their opponents, or else the
fancies of the German airmen were allowed to run riot with
vivid color effects.

British pilots daily brought home from over the lines new
reports of fantastic creations encountered amid the clouds. The
gayest feathered songsters that came north with the Spring did
not rival the variegated hues of the harlequin birds that rose
daily from the German airdromes. The coming of this fan-
tastic order of things in the air was first heralded by a squadron
of scarlet German planes. It then was noticed that some of
the enemy machines were striped about the body like yellow-
jackets.

GAUDY TASTES OF AIRMEN.

Nothing appeared too gaudy to meet the tastes of the
enemy airmen, who seemed to have been given carte blanche
with the paint brush. There were green planes with yellow
noses, silver planes with gold noses, khaki-colored planes with
greenish-gray wings, planes with red bodies, green wings and
yellow stripes, planes with red bodies and wings of green on
top of blue, planes with light blue bodies and red wings. Virtu-
ally all the gaudiest machines were in red body effects, with
every possible combination of colors for their wings. Some
had one green wing and one white ; some had green wings tip-
ped with various colors.

One of the most fantastic met had a scarlet body, brown
tail and reddish-brown wings, with white maltese crosses
against a bright green background. One machine looked like
a pear flying through the air. It had a pear-shaped tail and
was painted a ruddy brown, just like a large ripe fruit. One
of the piebald squadrons encountered was made up of white,
red and green machines. There still were others palpably
painted for what became known as "camouflege" purposes,
as guns, wagons and tents often are painted to blend with the
landscape and thus avoid detection.

180

THE EYES OF BATTLE.

This lavish use of paint, however, did not reduce the heavy-
daily loss inflicted on the Germans by the British flyers. But
it must not be imagined that the Germans did not put up a
stalwart fight. Just as their resistance was strengthened on
land, so it was increased in the air. Just as the Germans threw
in new divisions of infantry and new batteries of artillery to
check the Allies' offensive, so they sent aloft hundreds of new
machines to contest for the mastery of the air, an important
phase of modern war.

The manner in which the British flying corps dominated
the air during the battle of Messines Ridge in June, 1917, and
completely smothered the German aviation service for the time
being is one of the most thrilling and remarkable stories of the
entire war.

Hundreds of British planes were well behind the German
lines when the battle broke into its fury at dawn. They had
stolen over during the darker intervals of the brief night when
the moon was hidden by storm clouds. Other hundreds went
aloft with the first faint streaks of coming day and, guided by
the flashes of the guns, flew into the thick of the fighting.

COMBED BY MACHINE GUNS.

During the night British machines combed enemy railway
stations, trains, ammunition dumps and troops coming up on
the march. Others hovered above German airdromes and
circled low among airplane sheds and fired hundreds of rounds
from machine guns into them and prevented the enemy ma-
chines from coming out. Later in the day, while the fighting
was most intense, British airmen dropped about three tons of
bombs on the German flying grounds as a further deterrent,
which proved highly effective.

In addition to shutting the German airmen out of any
early participation in the battle, the British airplanes were in
a large degree responsible for the fact that the Germans could
not launch a counter attack of appreciable strength until forty

THE EYES OF BATTLE.

181

hours after the battle for the ridge began and every bit of
ground desired by the British in this particular operation had
been taken and secured. -

Far back of the German lines the British planes seached
out troops in every hamlet, town and village. In several places
they saw them gathering or marching in the main streets,
whereupon they flew down low at times and opened a fire
which scattered the gra^-clad soldiers in all directions. All
pilots report that their accurate fire had a most demoralizing
effect upon the hostile troops. Convoys and ammunition and
supply columns were attacked while on the march and the dis-
organized men left their teams and automobiles on the roads
while they sought shelter in nearby ditches.

AIRPLANES ATTACK TROOPS.

Airplanes attacked troops in the support trenches and
sent them scurrying to the cover of their dugouts. One pilot
made so many of these attacks that he finally ran out of ammu-
nition, but he delivered his last stroke by letting go his signal
rockets at a platoon of soldiers who, evidently mistaking this
for some particularly horrible new style of war f rightfulness,
fled in all directions.

German troops were fired upon in the more distant back
areas as they were entraining for the front. Many of the
enemy retreating from the British attack and hiding in shell
holes were seen by the low-flying airmen and pelted with
bullets.

One British pilot patrolled a road for half an hour before
he saw anything to shoot at. Then a German military auto-
mobile with three officers sitting in the back seat came along*
The Britisher dived at them from a height of three hundred feet,
firing at them as they came. He flew so low eventually that
the wheels of his under carriage barely missed the automobile,
which swerved into a ditch while going at about forty miles
an hour and crashed into a tree.

182

THE EYES OF BATTLE.

This same pilot later came across an active field gun bat-
tery and charged it, scattering the gun crew and hitting a num-
ber of them. Still further along he attacked a column of Ger-
mans marching in fours. The column broke when he opened
fire, scattering to both sides of the road. At no time during
his stay inside the German lines was this pilot more than 500
feet from the ground.

ON CONTACT PATROL WORK.

Large numbers of British machines were on contact patrol
work, flying low over the advancing lines of infantry, con-
stantly watching their movements, their progress, any tem-
porary reverse, any attempt to form counter-attacks and all
the while sending detailed reports back to corps and army
headquarters.

Of the fourteen planes lost during the day of the battle,
a majority were those contact machines. They had to fly
through a frightful storm of their own as well as the enemy's
artillery fire, and they succumbed to chance blows from these
exploding missiles.

Late on the day of the battle, when the enemy machines
had finally arrived from more distant airdromes, there was
some good fighting in the air, some of it at close quarters with
collisions barely avoided. Twenty enemy machines were ac-
counted for in the fighting, some flopping about until they
broke up in the air and others being driven down on their noses
in yellow buttercup fields so far back of the fighting line that
no shell had ever marred the symmetry of the landscape.

Some of the most marvelous work was done by artillery
airships. One squadron of these alone, acting with several
batteries of British heavies, succeeded in silencing seventy-two
German batteries before six o'clock on the morning of the
attack which began at 3.10 o'clock in the morning. These
planes also directed the firing on the enemy's guns en route
to the front, some of the big weapons being drawn by cater-

THE EYES OF BATTLE.

183

pillar tractors. Wherever a thousand or more troops were
observed forming for possible counter-attacks the artillery
planes directed "shoots" upon them.

So complete was the British domination of the air along
the front of attack that not a single one of the British artillery
observing aeroplanes was lost during the week that the intense
bombardment wras going on. During the battle British aero-
planes also attacked and silenced a number of enemy machine-
gun positions.

The growth of the aeroplane industry has developed as
many makes of machines as there are makes of automobiles,
but in a general way aeroplanes are divided into four classes —
monoplanes, biplanes, triplanes and hydroplanes. About 90
per cent of all designs are monoplanes and biplanes, and the
types are distinguished by their single set of wings or planes
or the double planes or wings. Both types have their advan-
tages in use, the biplane being regarded as more stable for cer-
tain scouting purposes than the monoplane. It can carry
heavier weights — has greater lifting power — but is not capable
of as great speed or as easily maneuvered.

MACHINE ON PRACTICAL BASIS.

The War has placed the machine on an intensely practical
basis. The manufacturers have learned that machines con-
structed along certain lines will travel at such and such a speed
and have a certain lifting capacity, will rise under a particular
speed and may be expected to do certain things under certain
circumstances, but with all the advance which has been made
in the construction of the air machines, the designers do not
yet understand all the "factors" that enter into the "why" of
the case.

The makers have, however, succeeded in standardizing
their machines to a degree. The story of how the aeroplane
flies is a highly technical and scientific one, but the basic prin-
ciple is the reaction of air and an inclined surface in motion.

184

THE EYES OF BATTLE.

It might be likened to a stone skipping across the surface of
a pond, if the imagination can conceive of the water as being
air. It is simplicity itself to drive an inclined plane against
the air with such force that the impact will produce a lifting
power. In raising an ordinary kite, for instance, the boy runs
into the teeth of the wind. His kite is so attached to a string as
to stand at an angle, and as he runs the pressure against the
air drives the kite upward. In the aeroplane the propellers
drive the machine into the air with such force that the planes,
standing at an angle, guide the machine upward.

There are innumerable problems to be solved — those of
buoyancy, delicacy of balance and many others — but the de-
signers themselves have not been able to determine upon a
precise formula for their solution. It is sufficient that the
aeroplane has reached a degree of practicability in construction
and use which insures its permanent existence, and has given
the military and the naval forces one of the greatest agencies
in the world for protecting themselves and watching their
enemies.

CHAPTER X.

WAK'S STRANGE DEVICES.

Chemistry a Demon of Destruction — Poison Gas Bombs — Gas Masks — Hand
Grenades — Moetars — " Tanks " — Feudal " Battering Rams '* — Steel ELel-
mets — Strange Bullets — Motor Plows — Eeal Dogs of War.

THINGS new and passing strange — thousands of them —
have been brought into being by the great world war.
Human minds have developed things undreamed of by
science or fiction — things that a few years ago would have
been considered too strange and fantastic for even the profes-
sional romancer to weave into the tissues of his stories.

Every known science has been called upon to produce its
quota of new things which might be used for the destruction
or the protection of men at war. The wonders of chemistry
have always lent descriptive inspiration to the pen of writers,
but mankind to get a vivid conception of the horrors of chem-
istry has had to wait for the great w^orld war.

The conflict which has involved the entire world might
almost be termed a warfare of chemists. Without their dia-
bolical products, ranging all the way from high explosives to
poison gases, it would have few of the characteristics of ultra-
frightfulness that render it unique in the history of inter-
national struggles.

But of all the instruments of destruction used in this war,
there is none more horrifying than the so-called "incendiary
bomb," which sets instant fire to whatever it touches and which
spreads flame in a manner so terrific that three or four such
gravity-projectiles dropped from an aeroplane burned up the
whole of a peaceful Dutch village in a few minutes.

Now, what is the fearsome stuff with which such bombs
are loaded? A new chemical compound? Not at all. What
they contain is simply the mixture of two of the most harmless

185

186

WAR'S STRANGE DEVICES.

things in the world — oxide of iron (which is simply iron rust)
and powdered aluminum.

When these two innocent substances are mixed together
the result is a compound truly infernal in its potentialities for
mischief. It is not an explosive but if set on fire it burns with
an intensity that is positively appalling. Nothing will put it
out ; no quantity of water has any effect upon the raging flames
it engenders.

This is the material used for loading incendiary bombs.
It is ignited in such projectiles by a mercury-fulminate cap
that sets off a fuse containing" powdered magnesium — the stuff
photographers employ for flashlights.

THIN SHELLS OF STEEL.

These bombs are thin shells of steel or iron — mere con-
tainers for the mixture before described. They are so con-
trived that the fuse is instantly ignited when they strike.

Whereupon the shell is melted by the heat generated
within it and a flood of fiercely burning metal is scattered in
all directions. All of this seems rather extraordinary, and it
is worth explaining.

Oxygen has an affinity for iron, readily combining with
the latter — which is the reason why iron is liable to rust. This
rust is a chemical compound of iron and oxygen ; in other words,
oxide of iron. But oxygen has a much greater affinity for
aluminum. And so, when the two metals are powdered and
mixed together and heat is applied the oxygen flies out of the
iron rust and combines with the aluminum.

The process is started in the bomb by the burning mag-
nesium. And then the oxygen passes out of the iron and into
the aluminum so rapidly that an enormously high temperature
is developed. It runs up to 3500 or 4000 degrees Fahrenheit —
which means, of course, a tremendous combustion. The mix-
ture of aluminum and iron burns like so much tinder — though
such a way of putting it is absurdly feeble.

WAR'S STRANGE DEVICES.

187

The present war has been conspicuously marked by rever-
sions to ancient methods of fighting. In this line the incendiary
bomb offers an excellent illustration. It is in effect merely an
adaptation of an idea utilized by the Saracens — we should call
them Turks nowadays — in their warfare with the Crusaders
of the Middle Ages.

DREAD INSTRUMENT OF WAR.

The instrument of war most dreaded by the Crusaders, as
they found it in the hands of the Turks, was the incendiary
bomb — a projectile that flew through the air "like a fiery;
dragon" as they described it, and set fire to whatever it touched.
Sometimes it was provided with iron barbs, by which it clung
to buildings.

This was one of the ways in which the Saracens employed
the celebrated "Greek fire" — an inflammable compound that is
understood to have been a mixture of petroleum, saltpeter and
pitch. The chief horror of it, from the Crusaders' point of
view, was that it was unquenchable. Mere water had no effect
upon it. Hence they were sure that it must be of diabolical
origin.

But the up-to-date incendiary bomb is a great improve-
ment on its original of the Middle Ages. The modern con-
trivance is thoroughly scientific, and it does its destructive busi-
ness wTith certainty and dispatch.

No less effective are the gas bombs which were introduced
by the German soldiers at Rheims, and which when exploding
near the trenches occupied by the French and English threw
off vapors and poisonous gases which killed or overwhelmed
thousands of brave men. These devices used in violation of all
rules of civilized warfare sent hundreds to the hospitals. Sev-
enty-five victims were taken at one time from the trenches to
the hospital at Zuydcoote, north of Dunkirk, where it was
found that some of those who had inhaled the fumes turned
a violet tinge.

188

WAR'S STRANGE DEVICES.

Altogether it was estimated that from 3000 to 5000 men
were affected by the gas fumes in this first onslaught and at
least 10 per cent of those who were overcome succumbed to
the deadly fumes. Many of those who inhaled the poisons
expectorated blood and for days afterward were racked by ter-
rible coughing. Iln many cases fever developed in a few days
ending with pneumonia. When the men were not sufficiently
poisoned to cause death they wTere so affected that their use-
fulness as soldiers was ended for all time. The poison made
them confirmed invalids. ,

INTRODUCTION OF GAS MASK.

Naturally human ingenuity was called into play to pro-
tect men against the poisons and the gas mask came into being.
These were of many types. The early creations consisted
primarily of a nose and mouth covering with a receptacle for
inclosing a sponge or gauze soaked writh a chemical which pos-
sessed the power to neutralize the gas fumes. Such devices
have been used by fire fighters in large cities the world over
where the men battling to save buildings have been compelled
to enter smoke-filled rooms and cellars. Other types which
have proven more effective are designed after the fashion of
the diving apparatus, and having a small tank of compressed
oxygen with feeding tubes running to the mask. The oxygen
combines with the contaminated airbreathed through absorbent
cotton or sponge and provides the wearer with the proportion
of oxygen necessary to existence. And even the horses have
been provided with such masks.

But to go back to bombs. All through France and Bel-
gium, and wherever the Prussian soldiers found their way,
there was evidence of the use of hand grenades which were
thrown against the sides of or into buildings to set them in
flames. Some of these devices, made of sheet metal, were in
their action similar to the "Fourth of July torpedoes" familiar
to every American school boy. When thrown they exploded

WAR'S STRANGE DEVICES.

189

throwing oil and chemicals over walls and floors. Some of
them seem to have been loaded with bullets and were in effect
hand shrapnel.

Then there developed from the primary use of these nefar-
ious weapons the recognized hand grenade, which is actually
hand-shrapnel, plied by men at close quarters. Thousands of
these have been thrown by the armies in their charges on the
trenches. And then, to offset the use of these devices in the
offensive, there came into being also the smoke bombs. These
when exploding throw up great clouds of black smoke which
hang over everything.

EFFECTIVE IN A HUNDRED WAYS.

The use of such bombs has proved effective in a hundred
ways. They have been used to create a perfect shield of smoke
to conceal the movements of troops, or prevent the enemy from
finding the range with their long distance guns. Similarly
bombs which contained burning chemicals have been used to
hold in check the approaching enemy forces.

Half way between the great gun and the hand grenade
stand among war weapons the trench mortars. The first of
these were used by the Japanese in their war with Russia. The
Japanese mortars were mere logs hollowed out and strength-
ened by wrappings of bamboo rope. The projectiles fired
from these were empty provision tins filled with high explosives,
scraps of metal, bits of stone or whatever, in the emergency,
could be found to fill them.

The mortars are pitched at an angle and the projectiles
are shot with a skyrocket effect, to land in the trenches or camp
of the enemy. The Germans developed the idea and the per-
fected mortars are of steel, and capable of throwing bombs
weighing several hundred pounds.

And then the great moving fort which has been called
"the tank!" Those snorting, fire-spitting dragons which were
depicted for us in childhood can scarcely bring to our mind a

190

WAR'S STRANGE DEVICES.

greater element of the fanciful, the horrible, and the powerful
than the steel hulks which came into being in this war under
the name of "tanks."

We see them in our mind's eye spitting fire as they crossed
No Man's Land, amid the smoke and dust of bursting shells.
Keeping steadily on their courses they dived into huge craters
made by exploding shells ; stretched themselves across trenches,
brushed trees and boulders aside, and kept steadily on their
courses. German wire entanglements were as so many pieces
of string before their huge frames. Nothing deterred them.
They moved forward into the face of the enemy, reaching the
first line of German trenches. There the soulless devices sat
complacently astride the trenches, and turning their guns along
the ditches swept them in both directions.

THE TANK DEFIES ALL OBSTACLES.

The tanks which were introduced by the English, move
along on revolving platforms, so to speak. These platforms
enable the tank to overcome all obstacles as the caterpillar
tread is curved up in the arc of a huge circle at the front which
gives the vehicle its wonderful tractive powers. This large
curvature acts as a huge wheel with a tremendously long lever-
age equal to the radius of the circlet or the spokes of the
imaginary wheel of the same diameter. Only that portion of
the assumed wheel which would come in contact with the
ground acts as the lever, and it is just this portion that is repro-
duced in the front end of a caterpillar belt.

Although varying in size and details, all tanks have the
common characteristic of being divided into three main com-
partments between the two side caterpillar frames. The first
is the observation compartment in which the driver and his
helper are perched high above the ground to direct the move-
ments of the huge steel beast.

In the middle is the ammunition room from which the guns
carried in the two side turrets are fed. At the rear is the

WAR'S STRANGE DEVICES.

191

engine room. From two or four gasoline engines are used — >
these driving the rear axle and its integral sprockets over which
the caterpillars run. The latter run an idler pulley or sprock-
ets at the extreme front ends and are supported by means of
rollers attached to the upper portion of the frame on each side
when passing over the top. This movement of the caterpillar
belts is exactly analogous to that of the ordinary variety of
garden insect with the same name which similarly lays down
his own track by humping his back continuously and regard-
less of the land surface.

The tanks are steered by a pair of small ordinary wheels
at the rear. These are supported in a pivot on a frame extend-
ed from the rear. They are merely for steering, and support
none of the weight of the tank except when bridging wide
trenches or dips in the surface. Steering can be accomplished
by making one caterpillar go faster than the other by manipu-
lating clutches on the driving mechanism.

TANK'S "CATERPILLAR" FEATURE.

The "caterpillar" feature of the tank had its origin in the
caterpillar belts or shoes which were first used on the great
field guns and mortars — those tremendous weapons which
shoot bombs and shells weighing tons and containing 500 or
more pounds of gun-cotton or explosive which on contact is
discharged, rending everything for yards around.

These guns, as well as the smaller field guns, have had
attached to them great shields of steel behind which the gun-
ners stand, so that they are protected against the old-fashioned
sharpshooters whose duty it was to pick off the gunners.

The caterpillar or wheel belts on the big guns consist of
flat blocks, or shoes, wider than the tires of the wheels. They
are hinged and fastened together so as to form a great chain,
and when placed on the wheels present broad surfaces to the
ground and keep the gun carriages from sinking into the soft
earth. With a set of tljese shoes a heavy gun can be drawn

192

WAR'S STRANGE DEVICES.

over soft and irregular ground, which would be almost impass-
able where the gun is mounted on wheels of ordinary width.

Before these belts were devised it was necessary for every
gun crew to carry a supply of beams, jackscrews and devices
to be used in extricating the heavy guns when they got fast in
the mud. Now every gun has these belts which can be put on
or detached in a few minutes.

Paradoxically, this is the day of the big gun's greatest
effectiveness, and the day of its greatest limitations. The war
has taught us more in two years about gunnery and the effect
of various types of ordnance under varying conditions than
could have been learned in twenty years of theoretical research
— for actual experience proves where theoretical research
merely gives ground on which to base an opinion.

NATIONAL RESOURCES TO DISLODGE A MAN.

One of the things that we have learned is that when man
takes unto himself the humble pick and shovel and proceeds
to dig a hole for himself in the ground, we can get him out of
that hole only by drawing on the combined resources of a
nation, by constructing one of the most complex and expensive
instruments in the world, and with it hurling at man dug-in
a projectile weighing a good part of a ton.

The blunder, perhaps unavoidable, which stands out with
equal emphasis among the prehminary preparations of all the
nations engaged in the struggle was the underestimation of
the artillery power required for the conduct of a successful
military campaign under modern conditions of warfare. It
was an underestimation so great that in the light of develop-
ments it will some day prove ridiculous.

At the opening of the war two opposed theories of artil-
lery effectiveness were held by the combatants. The French
swore by the medium calibre, rapid-fire, low-trajectory field
piece. The Teutons had devoted their best efforts to the de-
velopment of guns so big that their opponents were tempted,

WAR'S STRANGE DEVICES.

193

before they learned better, to regard them as too unwieldy for
effective field service. Both were right, the French in the full
sense and intention of the term, the Teutons by pure accident.

It should be explained here that the word Teuton is used
advisedly, for in reality it is to the Austrians before the Ger-
mans that the development of the 11-inch and bigger field
gun, with its special carriage and caterpillar-tread wheels owes
its existence. It was Austrian guns and Austrian gunners
that first made the heavy artillery of the Teuton armies
famous.

The French field piece performed all that was expected
of it, but it was handicapped by unforeseen conditions of war-
fare. The heavy Teuton guns performed their mission in the
very introductory stages of the war, then failed, and later, by
the irony of fate, proved to be the very things required when
the unforeseeen war conditions developed.

A WONDERFUL GUN.

The Germans and Austrians believed that they could
develop a big gun which could be given sufficient mobility for
use in the field, and with commendable and methodical applica-
tion they proceeded to do so. The theory was, first, that it
could batter down any permanent fortifications that man could
build, and when it was pitted against the concrete ramparts
of Liege and Namur it blew them out of existence in a few
hours. The Teutons had scored, and scored so heavily that
the Allies barely escaped the fate the Germans had prepared
for them in an overwhelming sweep on Paris. That they did
escape this fate is no doubt in a large measure due to the fact
that the second effectiveness claimed by the Teutons for their
heavy ordnance failed in its full accomplishment. Used in
open fighting, the great explosive shells hurled by these guns
did not do the damage expected to the wide, open firing lines
of the Allies, nor did they produce the moral effect expected.
The great shells tore tremendous craters in the ground, from

194

WAR'S ST1IANGE DEVICES.

which the force of the explosion was expended upward in a
.sort of cone-shape, shooting above the heads of any troops in
the vicinity except those immediately adjacent to the explo-
sion. In the meantime the field pieces of the French, with
their extreme mobility and rapidity of fire, were scattering
death and destruction with their straight shrapnel fire in the
solid formations which were so popular with the Germans in
the early stages of the war, and which today they do not seem
to be able to drop entirely.

So far the French pieceLdid all expected of it. The Ger-
man piece had proved its ability only to blow up permanent
fortifications, and this was nullified immediately by the action
of the French in abandoning the concrete shelters and moving
their own guns into newly and quickly-constructed trench forts.

A THING UNDREAMED OF.

But the thing that neither side had dreamed of was the
settling down of the war on the west front into an eternal line
of opposing trenches to face each other for years. That it did
so was due to the monumental blunders on the part of the
German staff in allowing itself to be outmaneuvered and beaten
back from the gates of Paris by numerically inferior forces, and
still further outmaneuvered in the extension of the lines north-
ward in that famous series of flanking movements which finally
reached the sea.

It was their success in driving the German army to earth
when it was stronger than they were that saved the Allies and
gave them the breathing time required in which to further their
preparations and train new troops, and likewise it is this same
mode of trench warfare which has made their task so difficult
when they have taken the offensive.

Against ordinary trench lines, as known in the early
stages of the war, the French field pieces were more effective
than the heavy cannon of the Teutons, just as they had been in
the open. Shooting in flat trajectory across the trench, and

WAR'S STRANGE DEVICES.

195

exploding just above it, the shrapnel scattered more death
downward than the heavy projectile could scatter upward after
it had buried itself in the soft earth.

But with the continuous line of trenches stretching from
Switzerland to the sea, with consequent impossibility of out-
flanking, demonstrated by the Germans to their sorrow in
repeated repulses of their drives to cut through to Calais, each
side felt justified in replying to the artillery of the other by
digging deeper and more permanently, with many feet of
shelter overhead. This ended the effectiveness of shrapnel
except for the repulse of attacks, and again the heavy guns
swung into the position of pre-eminence.

A SITUATION ALMOST BEYOND CONTROL.

It was at this stage, however, that both sides realized how
totally inadequate the supply of these heavy guns and ammuni-
tion was to cope with the situation. While the heavy gun was
more effective in blasting out the enemy from his dug-outs
than the field piece, it required many times the artillery power
which either side possessed to handle the job.

Then commenced the race of the ammunition and gun
factories to turn out their products by the ton where they had
been turned out by the pound before; a race in which the
Allies took and held the lead.

With the greatly increased number of heavy guns it be-
came possible to develop the famous curtain of barrage fire,
also known as drum fire, with this type of ordnance, as well as
with shrapnel.

It is with this form of attack that the Allies blasted their
way slowly but steadily through the strongest networks of
trenches which the Germans were able to build.

Along a given section of the front, or rather just behind
it, the guns were placed singly or in pairs, widely scattered,
some close to the line and some well back from it, all concealed
as far as possible from enemy aviators. There were also many

196

WAR'S STRANGE DEVICES.

dummy batteries, so that if the enemy air scout saw a gun or
group of guns, he had no way of telling whether they were
real or imitation.

In such an instance before the actual advance of the troops
the fire of all these guns is concentrated along parallel lines
to the enemy trenches, first, second and sometimes third. Each
gun has its work mapped out for it in advance on a map cov-
ered with tiny squares. The actual point may be well beyond
view of the gunners. The shell is landed in its appointed
square solely on mathematical calculation. The commander
of each gun knows, for instance, that he must fire into this, that
or the other square for so many minutes or hours, and exactly
at a given minute change his fire to another source.

RAIN OF SHELLS LIKE STREAMS OF WATER.
In effect on the enemy a continuous rain of shells, com-
parable to streams of water from hundreds of hoses is poured
in a line right down the trench. At the same time a parallel
line of fire is concentrated at a given distance back of the
enemy's first trench and in front of the second, or in it. This
means that the troops in the first line must not only take their
bombardment without hope of retreat or escape, but that it
is impossible to get reinforcements to them through the second
curtain.

When it is calculated that the first line has been destroyed
or demoralized, the troops leap from their trenches and advance
strictly according to schedule over the ground between the
opposing trenches. Their arrival at the enemy's first trench
is timed to the second, and just as they are on the verge of
plunging into their own curtain of fire this latter is gradually
thrown forward, forming a screen between the newly captured
trench and the enemy's second line. This means two curtains
of fire through which the enemy would have to advance to coun-
ter-attack.

Time is given to rout out what remains of the enemy from

WAR'S STRANGE DEVICES.

197

the first line dug-outs, and then the troops advance again. In
the meantime the curtain of fire has preceded them as before,
moving up to the line of drum fire which has been playing on
the second line of trenches or just in front of it. If any of the
enemy have attempted to flee before the attack from the first
line they are caught between these two barrages which are
gradually brought together.

When the first and second lines of fire have been brought
together they are poured with redoubled fury into the second
line of the enemy trenches, and then moved forward again just
as the advancing troops reach this line.

DEPENDING ON LOCAL CONDITIONS.

The performance is made continuous so far as possible
under the conditions peculiar to the given section in which the
attack is being made. Sometimes it is possible to advance over
three, four or five trenches in a single attack. At others it is as
much as can be accomplished to capture one, which must be
consolidated before further advance is made. It depends on
the strength of the trenches, the nature of the ground, the dis-
tance apart that they are, and, of course, the amount of artil-
lery fire which the enemy is able to concentrate in return.

When a sufficient advance has been made, it also becomes
necessary to suspend operations for a time while the guns
behind the lines are moved forward to new positions.

This is always the period of the counter-attack in force by
the enemy, who seizes the opportunity when a certain propor-
tion of the artillery is unable to fire because it is being moved.
And it is during this period that the infantry have to do their
hardest fighting, which consists, not in making the advance
over no-man's land to the enemy trench, but in holding that
trench afterward when the bringing up of their own artillery
behind them to more advanced positions robs them of some of
the support of the drum fire.

Still another factor of delay at this period is the time

198

WAR'S STRANGE DEVICES.

required by the air scouts to find the rearranged positions of
the enemy guns after the advance, for these must be taken
care of also before a new advance can be made.

An explanation of this form of attack shows why news
dispatches have told first of an advance of the British, followed
by a period of quiet, during which an attack by the French in
some other section of the line was in progress. Then suddenly
the scene of action switched back to the British lines again while
the French were consolidating their new positions preparatory
to pushing the general advance a step farther.

GERMAN EQUIVOCATION.

It also explains just what has happened when the Ger-
mans state that the "enemy penetrated our first trenches in a
small sector, but his attack broke down before our second line."
When the next attack is ready, of course, the former second
German line is referred to as the "first," and so, on paper, as
far as the uninitiated are concerned, the German publicity
office is able to build up a continuous series of enemy attacks
which "break down," and somehow never, never "penetrate our
invincible line." Actually an advance of this nature is
extremely slow, but it is sure, and it is made at the expense of
tons upon tons of ammunition rather than at the expense of
lives, for ammunition can be made faster than soldiers.

Even the old battering ram of feudal times with which the
ancestors of Kaiser William used to knock down the castles
of the baron robbers has been approximated b}$ his warring
tribes. With the retreat of the German troops from Flanders
the Allied forces found crude battering rams such as have been
shown in the stirring "movies" when the ancient warriors
stormed the gates of the city.

One of such devices was in the form of an upright frame
made of heavy timbers. An immense log was suspended from
the cross-piece by a heavy chain. An iron band circled one end
of the log which was used for battering purposes and at the

WAR'S STRANGE DEVICES.

199

opposite end were handles, used by the operators in their
nefarious work. The ram was used to batter in the doors of
houses which had been locked or barricaded against the Ger-
man soldiers. In their most destructive moods, it is charged
that they used these devices to destroy the standing walls of
houses and cottages after they had been gutted by fire. The
Germans would not permit even so much as a wall to stancj
which might be used by the poor peasant in rehabilitating him-
self and building a new home.

NEW METHOD OF WARFARE.

The new method of warfare, with men working in tBenches
and dug-outs and millions of shells breaking over head, while
missiles rain all about, necessitated the development of some
device to protect the heads of the fighters. Therefore the steel
helmet.

It has been shown that, due to trench warfare, about
seventy-five per cent of the wounded on the western front had
been hit with shrapnel or pieces of shell traveling at a low
velocity and therefore had torn wounds and in many cases
smashed bones. About three per cent of the wounds were in
the head and about fifteen per cent in the face or neck. This
led to the adoption by the French of a steel helmet called
after its inventor, Adrian. The helmets were first used in
May, 1915. That their use is justified is shown by statistics.
Among fifty-five cases of head wounds, forty-two happened
to soldiers without helmets.

Twenty-three of these had fractured skulls, while the
remaining nineteen had bad scalp wounds. Of the thirteen who
wore helmets, not one had a skull fracture. Five had slight
wounds only, while none of those who had worn a helmet died.
Quite a number of those who had not did.

In the Academy of Medicine Dr. Roussey brought up
the point that due to the helmet the number of cases of
sudden death from wounds in the head had been so decreased

200

WAR'S STRANGE DEYICES.

that the number of wounded with head injuries treated in the
hospitals had materially increased.

The French helmet proved such a success that Belgium,
Serbia, Russia and Roumania equipped their troops with the
same model. The French helmet has a bursting bomb as insig-
nia on its front and is light blue or khaki color, depending on
whether it is worn by the metropolitan, the French home army
or the French colonial army.

THE BELGIAN HELMET.

The Belgian helmet is khaki-colored, with the Belgian lion
on the front; the Italian, greenish blue, with no insignia; the
Serbian, khaki-colored, with the Serbian coat of arms; the
Russian, khaki-colored, with the Russian coat of arms, and
the Roumanian, blue-gray, with the Roumanian coat of arms.

The French have made more than 12,000,000 helmets,
using about 12,000 tons of steel. In other words, a ton of
steel will make 1,000 helmets. The British also equipped their
troops with a steel helmet, which has no ridge running from
front to rear, as has the Adrian, no decorations, and a rather
wide brim, which runs all the way round, lit is of a khaki
color.

The Germans issued to a certain number of their men,
generally those most exposed in trench fighting, a steel helmet
considerably heavier than any of the allied helmets. It has a
much higher crown, and comes down more over the eyes and
the sides and back of the head.

All these helmets are supported by means of a leather
skull cap inside, which fitting closely to the head, distributes
the weight over the whole of the skull, instead of simply
around the edge of it, as is the case with ordinary headgear.

Of course, these helmets will not protect against high
velocity projectiles. However, as they do protect the wearer
from low velocity projectiles, and as these are, because of

WAR'S STRANGE DEVICES.

201

infection, often as fatal as severe wounds, it can easily be seen
how much good has been accomplished.

A French writer in La Nature shows that 332 out of 479
abnormal wounds were caused by shrapnel and pieces of shell
having a low velocity.

In 13 out of 15 cases of lung wounds, the projectiles did
not have velocity enough to completely traverse the body and
come out.

In 71 cases of joint wounds, 66 were due to low velocity
shrapnel and only 5 to high velocity bullets. Practically every
one of these wounds could have been prevented by breast and
body pieces and knee and elbow caps of armor.

LOW VELOCITY MOST EFFECTIVE.

As for every man who afterward dies from a wound made
by a high velocity bullet there are about ten who die from
wounds made by the low velocity shrapnel and shell frag-
ments, the importance is seen of protection against these low
velocity wounds if it can be had.

The wearing of armor means the lessening of the mobility
of the soldier. In the open field lessening of mobility means a
decrease in efficiency, which cannot be tolerated. However, in
trench warfare the mobility of the individual does not count
for so much, as even during an attack he does not have to go
far, and generally does it at a walk in the rear of the barrage
fire of his own artillery.

Efficiency in warfare, as indicated by the keeping of such
records, has set the brains of the world at work, and armor is
used to a limited degree for the protection of men in greatly
exposed fronts or open positions.

The Japanese in modern times were first to resort to the
forerunner of armor. They used shields of steel and in the
siege of Port Arthur such shields were strapped to the front
of the body. The Germans in the charges have frequently
used double shields, advancing in groups of four behind a steel

202

WAK'S STKANGE DEVICES.

protector carried by two men, leaving the other two free to
fire at the enemy through port holes in the armor shields.

None of the armors has, however, proved its resistance to
the high velocity bullets which the powerful field guns rain
against it. Experiments are being made continuously along
these lines, and Guy Otis Brewster, of New Jersey, has devel-
oped a bullet-proof jacket and headgear which it is said ap-
proximates perfection.

In the presence of ordinance officers from the Picatinny
Arsenal he invited an expert military marksman to fire at him
from a distance of 60 yards. A Springfield rifle was used,
with regulation ammunition. The steel bullet had a velocity of
2740 feet a second. Only one shot was fired, but it failed to
penetrate the armor.

COMPOSITION A SECRET.
The composition of the latter is a secret, beyond the fact
that it consists in part of steel. Jacket and headgear weigh
30 pounds ; but the material is so flexible that the soldier wear-
ing such an outfit can kneel, lie down, rise and run, charge from
the trenches, use the bayonet, or throw hand grenades, without
impediment to his movements.

It has been denied that dum-dum bullets, placed under ban
by all civilized nations, have been used by the Germans, but
there is no doubt that explosive bullets have been used. The
report of the Belgian Commission, which investigated the hor-
rors when the Germans first invaded King Albert's country,
contains testimony which proves conclusively that such missiles
were used. These bullets were, in effect, small shells contain-
ing an explosive chemical which was set off by contact. Pho-
tographs taken of wounds show the effect which these bullets
produced.

More than that, the Russians charged that along the north-
ern frontier the Germans fired glass bullets, although there is
nothing to sustain the belief that such missiles were generally

WAR'S STRANGE DEVICES.

203

used. The dum-dum bullet is a soft-nosed missile which, when
it strikes a bone, flattens out and splatters, creating a jagged
wound which it is almost impossible to treat or heal. The Ger-
mans, in ordinary, use a steel jacketed bullet which possesses
high penetrative powers, while the French at the beginning of
the war were using the ordinary lead bullet.

AN AMERICAN BULLET.

Among the recent developments is a bullet which had its
origin in one of the United States arsenals for manufacturing
ammunition. This is a steel bullet covered with lead. The
effect of such a combination on the penetrating quality of the
bullet may be readily understood by anyone who has ever tried
the experiment of driving an ordinary needle into a board
through a cork. If the cork is placed on the board and the
needle pressed down through the cork until it touches the board,
a powerful blow from a hammer will force the needle into the
board without breaking. In the application of this principle
to the manufacture of the bullet, experiments proved that the
soft lead acted as a guide or sustainer which permitted the inner
steel to penetrate without deviation.

And just as these oddities of warfare have been created
to meet arising situations, others have been created to care for
the sick and injured — those who have fallen victims of the
agencies of destruction. Who ever heard of a sand sled?

Such sleds have been used effectively on the Eastern fronts
to carry wounded soldiers to the hospitals. They are long,
staunchly constructed sleds similar to those used on the farms
in America for hauling plows, cultivators and other agricul-
tural implements across the fields which have been furrowed.

The sleds have broad runners which do not sink into the
sands and can be drawn easily. In winter these same sleds
have served to haul the wounded and sick over miles of snow
and ice on the Russian frontier.

Then, though it is not a weapon of offense, there is the

204

WAR'S STRANGE DEVICES.

tractor plow which works at night. It is a war device to the
extent that as England's need for food has been great and con-
stant the tractor plow has been used to solve the problem of
working the ground. On the estate of Sir Arthur Lee, the
director-general of food production in England, great agricul-
tural motors equipped with acetylene searchlights were kept
at work in the fields day and night.

Dogs too have been ushered into the arena. No longer
may the old English expression, "Let Slip the Dogs of War,"
be regarded as a mere figure of speech. The war dogs, and par-
ticularly the animals used by the Red Cross on the battlefields,
have assumed a regular status in the armies of the world. In
the European armies are thousands of dogs which have been
trained to act as messengers or spies, or to seek out on the bat-
tlefields the wounded. The Germans use a canine commonly
known as "Boxers." These animals are a cross between the
German mastiff and the English bulldog, and on the fields of
Europe they have proved to be "kings" among the Red Cross
dogs. The animals are first taught to distinguish between the
uniforms of the soldiers of their own country and those of the
enemy. Then they learn that the principal business in life for
them is to find and aid wounded soldiers.

The animals are trained to search without barking and to
return to headquarters and urge their trainers to follow them
with stretcher bearers. Sometimes the dogs bring back such
an article as a cap, tobacco pouch or handkerchief. The dogs
of the Red Cross carry on their collars a pouch containing a
first aid kit, by means of which a wounded soldier may staunch
the flow of blood or help himself until assistance arrives.

It is reported that one of these dogs rescued fifty men on
the Somme battlefield in France. The animal known as Filax
of Lewanno, is a typical German sheepdog. Such dogs weigh
from 50 to 65 pounds and are very powerful, but the Irish ter-
riers and Airedales have also been trained to do effective work,
as have the Great Danes and St. Bernards.

CHAPTER XL

WONDERFUL WAR WEAPONS.

The Terrible Rapid-fire Gun — Armored Automobiles and Automobile
Artillery — Howitzers — Mounted Forts — Armored Trains— Observa-
tion Towers — Wireless Apparatus — The Army Pantry.

IT is a long step from the old, smooth bore, flintlock rifle of
the Revolutionary days to the modern magazine gun, with
its long-pointed cartridges ; and it is almost as great a step
from the crude iron cannons and smooth bore mortars of the
Civil War, with their canister and grape shot, down to the
huge, 42 centimeter guns which have boomed their way through
France and Belgium.

The patriotic citizen who is unfitted for military service
no longer sits at home and aids the armed forces of his country
by melting pewter spoons into bullets, or cutting patches of
cloth to serve as wads to pack down into the muzzle of guns.
The powder horn and the bullet mould are devices of the past.
The whole world working in the old-fashioned way could not
have in the course of the "war-of -nations" made sufficient bul-
lets to supply the forces for a single week.

Those who must sacrifice in the stress of war now turn
their silverware and precious metals into nuggets that may be
sold to produce revenue, so that the armed forces may pur-
chase the machine-made cartridges and weapons required to
fight the enemy.

Modern warfare has developed the climax in armament
and the world has learned more within the last few years about
the devilish instruments of destruction which human ingenuity
has devised than was known in all the ages before. Since Ger-
many and Austria were the first into action — actually precipi-
tated the great conflict — and as by their years of preparation
they were ready for the emergency, it best serves the purposes
of those who seek enlightenment on the subject of armaments

205

206

WONDERFUL WAR WEAPONS.

and weapons to deal with the equipment of the Teuton forces,
Other nations — England, France and the United States
in particular — have, in some directions, surpassed the Germans
in developing efficient weapons, but in the main, when Germany
plunged into the war, she had all around what was conceded to
be the best equipment that science and mechanics could supply.

INFANTRY AND FIELD ARTILLERY.

While stories told o /the awful havoc wrought by the Ger-
man siege guns in reducing the forts and fortifications in
France and Belgium are true, it is also true that the bulwark
of the military organization is the infantry and field artillery.
The big guns may level the forts and reduce them to powder,
driving off the opposing forces, but the infantry must advance
and the small arms and rapid-fire guns must keep the oppos-
ing forces from resuming the position which they had aban-
doned.

The difficulty of handling the big guns has always been a
problem, except in fortifications and at fixed points of defense,
and it has only been within a few years that a solution of the
trouble has been found. The solution lay in the use of tractors,
or the tractor principle, which every person familiar with farm-
ing and the "traction engine" can recognize.

Germany and Austria, as in many other matters, solved
the problem by building mortars for field service which out-
classed the heaviest artillery of the old type, and mounting them
on tractors. It would require a team of probably forty horses
to pull one of the German 42-centimeter guns over the rough
ground, and then a relay would be required every few hours.
An immense number of horses would be required and the trans-
portation would be slow, and not certain at best.

Early in the war Austria sent to the front a battery of
30-centimeter howitzers, and from the famous Krupp gun
works there were 21 and 28-centimeter howitzers. Later came
the 42-centimeter guns, which are classed as automobile field

WONDERFUL WAR WEAPONS.

207

artillery. These are the weapons which leveled the forts at
Liege and were used to bombard Fort Maubeuge.

The immense howitzers, with their caterpillar wheels, are
taken apart and transported to the scene of action in sections,
or units. An automobile tractor carries the artillery crew and
tools and furnishes the motive power. The second car carries
the platform and turntable on which the gun is mounted, and
the third hauls the barrel, or gun proper.

THE MOVING OF HEAVY WEAPONS.

The weapons can be moved anywhere, though they weigh
as much as forty tons in some cases. Sometimes it is necessary
to build special roads where fields must be crossed, but on the
highways there is little trouble. The big howitzers are built on
the principle of the large caliber guns used on battleships —
that is, there is a system of recoil springs and air cushions to
take up the shock when the gun is fired, so that the terrific
energy, when the charge is exploded, shall not be borne by the
breech of the gun. The howitzers can be turned in any direc-
tion, and the gearing attached to the mounting is such that the
barrels can be pitched at any angle.

Such guns fire an explosive shell weighing from 500 to
1000 pounds, and because of their form of construction — they
have shorter barrels than the naval guns — which reduces the
surface of the barrel subject to erosion, they are longer lived
than the long guns. The endurance of the guns is a factor
because it is difficult to get repairs for such great weapons on
the field of battle.

At the outbreak the contending forces are said to have had
4,000 guns in the field artillery. Among the devices of inter-
est identified with the artillery is the armored automobile, which
has been described as the "cavalry" of motor driven artillery.
The advent of the armored automobile in the war changed many

208

WONDERFUL WAR WEAPONS.

methods. The armored automobile is an ordinary chassis with
a body made of chilled steel.

Many types have been devised, including turreted auto-
mobile, mounting one or two rapid fire guns which can be
turned in any direction. The armored motors have high-
powered engines, and the chassis chosen for these new instru-
ments of war are of the> heaviest types. Some have been con-
structed especially for the purpose. One of these, used by the
Germans, had a "barbette" top, which looked like the shell of
a tortoise, fitted down over the chassis. Guns protruded from
holes in the front, back and sides.

VALUE OF ARMORED CARS.

The armored cars have proved extremely valuable for
scouting purposes. They can sneak through and complete
scouting where mounted men would be detected, and besides,
are better able to protect themselves against attack. The cars
also possess the ability to speed away out of range of enemy
detachments.'

The army officer, too, has taken to the armored automobile,
and put aside his horse. You cannot kill an automobile; and
the armor laughs at the bullets from small caliber guns. The
officers can, with the high-speed armored cars, travel from one
end of a line to the other and in a few hours make surveys and
complete observations which would take days were horses used.

Very few of the light-armored cars used by the officers are
armed, the attache or aide of the officer carrying a rifle. Some
of the armored cars used for scouting and by the officers have,
in the case of Germany, been provided with sharp knives at-
tached to the front of the machine. These are steel blades
vertically attached to the frame and hood, and are designed to
cut wires which the enemy may have stretched across highways
or passages to hinder progress.

The armored covering on some of these cars is little more
than a steel box, with "port" holes all around. There is no

WONDERFUL WAR WEAPONS.

209

hood, dome or cupola, and the men are supposed to protect
themselves by keeping their heads below the sides of the box.
Besides the driver, some of the cars carry two or three men,
who are further protected against the bullets of the enemy and
the chance missile from the sharpshooter by steel headpieces or
helmets.

The Belgians have a type of car of heavy design, equipped
with huge headlights, as well as a searchlight to operate at
night. The car has a rapid fire gun mounted in a cupola-
formed revolving turret. In the matter of automobiles in the
army, Italy outranked Germany at the beginning of the war.
While Germany had Mercedes and Opel trucks, mounting five
to seven rapid fire guns, which, with their steel armor and solid
tire disc wheels, were actually miniature forts, the Italians had
more formidable mounted creations of the same sort.

ITALY'S SINGULAR POSITION.

As a matter of fact, Italy's position in regard to motors is
unique among the other countries in the war. Not only are the
transportation conditions different, but the motorcar industry
in the country is on a different basis. It is said to have been the
only one of the countries which was able to meet the demand
put upon it for motors without going into some other land to
augment its supply. Italy did not buy a single American
motor vehicle for war purposes. There are cars of foreign
makes in the army and with the Red Cross, but these vehicles
were in the country — purchased for private use — when the war
broke out and were requisitioned.

The big guns of the army are handled by motor tractors,
95 per cent of the army mail service is motorcar service and 95
per cent of the drinking water for the fighting forces is deliv-
ered by motortruck. Profiting by the lessons of the other
countries called to war, Italy had time in which to prepare for
emergencies, and when the order for mobilizing forces was
issued the motorcar factories were speeded up and the workers

210

WONDERFUL WAR WEAPONS.

were permitted to stay on the job, instead of being called out to
fill up the ranks of the army.

Compared with the resources of America, the Italian motor
industry is not large ; but the product is uniform and practically
all of the factories are conveniently located for distributing the
machines to the army on the frontier and readily providing
repairs and parts. ^The physical conditions of the country
necessitated the use of certain types of trucks and motors and
the dropping of some of the practices of other countries in
motor usage.

The rugged, irregular country, with its narrow roads,
makes impracticable the use of trucks larger than three and
one-half tons, and "trailers," largely employed by the French,
German and Belgian armies, were found not satisfactory.
What is described as the Isotta Fraschini heavy model armored
artillery car of Italy is considered one of the most effective of
the "motor forts" or "land cruisers" developed during the war.

THE WHEELED FORT.

The wheeled fort has a battery of four rapid fire guns and
a revolving turret. Besides being full armored and turreted,
the car has steel wheels of the disc type, and is as formidable in
appearance as it has proven in practice. France has a type of
the completely enclosed armored motorcar which affords its
crew unobstructed view on all sides through lattice panels.
Even the windshield is made on this plan. This car also has a
revolving turret and carries a 5-centimeter rapid fire gun and
possesses high speed.

All of the powers have armored automobiles, and in Ger-
many, England and France the exigencies of conflict impelled
the Governments to practically commandeer all of the auto-
mobiles in the countries for war purposes. Many of these cars
were turned into armored cars of the lighter type, and the num-
ber of such automobiles in use runs far into the thousands. The

WONDERFUL WAR WEAPONS.

211

United States has not made much fuss about it, but has had
armored cars in the regular army for several years.

The experience gained in the campaign in Europe indi-
cates that the military authorities believe the high-powered,
speedy cars, clad with armor of medium weight and mounting
one or two machine guns, are the most valuable of all the
"sheathed" cars. They can appear < suddenly, maintain a
withering fire for a short period and then disappear suddenly.

As an instance of what the armored car accomplishes, it is
recited that when the German troops sought to invade the Bel-
gian town of Alost a detachment was sent through the streets
in armored cars. The houses were barricaded and the Germans
feared snipers. There were no snipers when the motorcars
returned. More than a thousand Belgians were mowed down
in the streets by the rapid fire guns of the armored cars.

IMPORTANCE OF THE AUTOMOBILE.

Evidence of how greatly the automobile is appreciated in
its relation to the modern army service is found in the fact that
when America entered the war and began the mobilization of
its forces and resources, the Quartermaster at Chicago was
ordered to obtain bids for the delivery of 35,000 motortrucks of
one and one-half tons capacity and 35,000 trucks of three tons
capacity. Bids were also asked on 1000 five-passenger auto-
mobiles, 1000 runabouts, 1000 automobiles, in price 'ranging
from $1500 to $2000, several hundred motortrucks of half,
three-quarter and one ton capacity and 5000 motorcycles, and
the same number of motorcycles with auxiliary passenger
capacity, or side cars.

The motortruck, too, in modern warfare is a shoeshop.
The care of the feet is an important matter in the army, and
the men, besides being provided with good footwear, must have
that footwear kept in serviceable and comfortable condition.
It is some job to keep the shoes of half a million or more men
in repair, and the United States Quartermaster Department,

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WONDERFUL WAR WEAPONS.

in connection with their mobilization, included in its equipment
portable motor-power machines to nail on half soles for troops
in garrison and campaign. Such a machine will nail on a pair
of soles in five minutes. It weighs but 27 pounds and can be
transported with the troops on a motorcar, and may be used
anywhere to keep the shoes in serviceable shape until the troops
can reach permanent camps, where new footwear can be
provided.

FRANCE'S TRANSPORTATION RESOURCES.

At the outset of the war France is said to have had 100,000
passenger cars, 25,000 motorbuses, taxicabs and motorcycles
and 10,000 motortrucks available for military use, and was able
to give the various departments of her military organization
excellent transportation service. Besides this, she had squads
of automobile aeroplane cannon, and about 84 12-centimeter
and 15 5-centimeter Rimaiiho howitzers of the armored artillery
type. Russia is said to have been weak in automobile equip-
ment, having less than a thousand trucks in the Empire avail-
able for military use; but this number was rapidly increased,
upward of half a thousand having been purchased within a short
time.

Austria and Germany together are said to have had some-
thing like 1500 trucks and about 20,000 passenger cars avail-
able for army use. At the start Germany alone had 250
armored automobiles, several score of searchlight automobiles,
or night scout cars, probably 8000 motorcycles and more than
500 motor-driven field guns, besides the big tractors used to
draw the heavy howitzers. Aside from this, practically all the
motor vehicles in the country were commandeered, numbering
upward of 75,000.

While they are stationary devices, the forts which were
stormed by the Germans at Liege and Antwerp are properly
part of the military equipment used in the war. These forts,
known as turret forts, are described on preliminary inspection

WONDEKFUL WAR WEAPONS. 213

as looking like a row of huge tortoise or turtle shells rising a
few feet above the ground, The shell is, however, a shell of
chilled steel. Through it the guns protrude and are operated
very much like the guns on a battleship, the turret revolving.
Under the dome are vaults and the compartments of concrete,
containing the mechanism for moving the turrets, operating
the guns, lifting the big shells and handling the ammunition
generally.

The fortifications, which at Antwerp included nine in-
trenched sections, were regarded as almost impregnable; but
when they were built there were no such field guns as the
famous 42-centimeter guns which the Germans brought to the
atack. The forts themselves had no guns larger than a 7-inch
caliber.

FRANCE'S ARMORED FIGHTING MACHINES.

In the matter of movable guns, the French and Germans
both had them mounted on armored trains. One such train
used by the French included armored locomotive, flat cars on
which were mounted the guns in ' 'barbettes," or steel turrets,
and completely protected armored cars, used to transport
troops or detachments of men.

A feature of the train was the observation tower. It was
mounted upon what would ordinarily be the cab of the locomo-
tive. Such towers have in one form or another become very
common in the war. One type resembles the motortruck ladder
and platform devices used by the man who repairs electric lights
and wires in our city streets. Another is patterned after the
hook and ladder truck of the fire department. The tower, or
ladder, is raised after the fashion of the ladders in fighting a
fire. A couple of soldiers turn a crank, and the ladders are
raised to a perpendicular position and extended high into the
air on the sliding or telescope principle.

The German and Austrian engineers also utilize observa-
tion ladders of a less complicated mechanical nature. In use,

214

WONDERFUL WAR WEAPONS;

and with a soldier perched on top of them, they remind one of
the toy devices with which we played as children, using the
slotted acrobats to do wonderful things atop the "ladders."
The ladders are carried in short sections, which may be fastened
together in a variety of ways, but a good idea of the manner in
which the ladders are used may be obtained if you can imagine
a letter Y made of ladders ^nd turned upside down, with a
soldier standing on top of it.

THE IMPORTANCE OF OBSERVATIONS.

And making observations is a highly important matter in
modern warfare; more important than it was in the old days.
The long-range guns are aimed and their fire directed by obser-
vation and calculation. The gunner cannot see the target he
is required to hit. His job is a mechanical one — perhaps it
would be better to say scientific — for lie must read mathematical
calculations and interpret them into accurate gun action. The
guns may be on one side of a hill and the enemy on the other,
and they may be miles apart, yet the gunner must be able to
get the range. His efforts are directed by observers in aero-
planes or balloons, and the range is established by calculations,
so that the gunner must be proficient in geometry, trigo-
nometry and mathematics generally.

Not all the great guns in the war when it started were
owned by the Germans, for England had 100-ton Armstrong
pieces which were capable of hurling a 2,200-pound projectile;
but it was the modification of the design of the large caliber
guns and the method of mounting them, which permitted them
to be drawn wherever needed, that gave Germany such an
advantage.

Most of the big guns are in the navy — on the huge dread-
noughts and batleships — and therefore the fortifications at
Helgoland, which are designed to resist the bombardment of
the heaviest naval guns, must be regarded as equipment. Hel-
goland is the protecting fort of Germany's most vulnerable

WONDERFUL war weapons.

215

point. It is the Gibraltar of Germany, and protects the
entrance to the Kiel Canal from the North Sea. If the British
could get past the fortifications to the Kiel Canal, it could
establish a close-in blockade which would render Germany help-
less in a short time.

Helgoland is an island fortress in the North Sea, in the
center of which is a mortar battery mounting 11-inch and
16-inch guns, capable of puncturing the decks of the battleship
which comes within range ; and these batteries have a range of
from six to eight miles. The batteries are ranged in tiers, one
above the other, to a height of almost 180 feet above the sea
level, the heavy guns and pieces being placed below and the
lighter ordnance in the upper tiers. The guns range from
17.7-inch caliber down to 8.2-inch. Germany calls Helgoland
the "fortress impregnable," and the developments of the war
seem to indicate that the description fits.

SMALL GUNS OF VARIED INTERESTS.

In the smaller guns used in warfare there are many varie-
ties of interest. The United States prior to and with their
entrance into war, particularly during the period of the trouble
along the Mexican border, experimented with almost every
known make of rapid fire machine and field gun, and there
was for a time much criticism because the government did not
adopt for army use the Lewis gun, which was adopted by some
of the foreign countries.

The German army rifle carried by all the infantry is of the
Mauser type, first introduced in 1888 and gradually improved
until 1898. The weapon, because of the adoption of the im-
proved model in 1898, has come to be known as the ' 'ninety -
eight gun." It is a quick-firing weapon, from which 20 to 30
shots a minute may be projected by the soldier. The gun is
universally used and has a caliber of 7.9 millimeters, which pro-
vides for the use of the smallest bullet which will work suffi-
cient injury on the enemy to make its use profitable.

216

WONDERFUL WAR WEAPONS.

Experience in the Russian-Japanese war proved to the
military authorities that the use of a smaller caliber was not
advisable. It was found that the smaller bullet could, and in
many cases did, pass through a man's body without actually
rendering him useless, and that in a large percentage of cases —
more than one-third — the wounded were back with their troops
within a few months.

In the United States all of the forces are now provided
with standard arms or weapons. The army, the Marine Corps
and the organized militia of the States, absorbed into the body
proper of national troops, have the same firearms — the same
service rifles, the same machine guns and field guns and the
same automatic pistols. One kind of cartridge — containing a
cylindro-conical bullet of copper-nickel, with a lead core —
serves for all rifles and for the machine guns as well.

OLD FLINTLOCK IN WAR.

Many people, perhaps, will be surprised to learn that the
Mexican war was fought mainly with the antiquated flintlock
muskets. When the trigger was pulled the flint came down
hard upon a piece of steel, and the resulting spark was thrown
into the "pan," igniting a pinch of powder. The fire ran into
the powder charge and the gun went off. Round balls were
used, and the loading was done with the help of a ramrod.

There were already percussion rifles in those days, but
General Winfield Scott, who bossed the Mexican war, declared
that he would have nothing to do with those new-fangled
weapons. The old smooth-bore flintlock was good enough for
him. In truth, the percussion gun of that period was not as
reliable as might have been wished. The cap was liable to get
wet and to fail to go off, whereas a good flint could be counted
upon to yield a spark every time.

It was not until 1858 that the percussion rifle, still a muz-
zle-loader, was generally used by the United States army. The
Springfield, which was the first breech-loader (one cartridge

WONDERFUL WAR WEAPONS. 217

inserted at a time) came along in 1870. In 1892 it was re-
placed by the first of our magazine rifles, the Krag, and simul-
taneously we adopted smokeless powder, a European invention.

The regulation United States service rifle is a great im-
provement on the Krag. It is loaded with "clips," holding five
cartridges each. The velocity of the bullet is greater, and the
accuracy and rapidity of fire are superior.

FIGHTING RANGE 800 YARDS.

In the Mexican war the ordinary fighting range, with the
smooth-bore flintlock, was about 250 yards. In the Civil War,
with the percussion muzzle-loader, it was 350 to 400 yards.
With the new service rifle, the fighting range is 700 to 800
yards, and the infantryman is able to fire at least twenty times
as many shots in a given number of minutes as was possible
fifty years ago.

The field artilleryman carries no rifle, but is provided with
a 45-caliber automatic pistol and twenty-one cartridges. The
men who compose the machine-gun platoons have no rifles, but
each one of them is armed with the same sort of service pistol
and a bolo. The latter is a weapon new to our army, adopted
as a result of military experience in the Philppines. It is in
effect a machete (a sugar cane chopping knife) , shortened and
made heavier. At close quarters it is a formidable weapon.

The bolo embodies the best principles of the various razor-
edged fighting blades of the Filipinos, and was first adopted as
a side arm of the Marine Corps officers. The bolo, which is
much heavier than an ordinary sword, measures 24 inches from
tip of handle to tip of blade- and is forged from a piece of file
steel.

For many years the Marine Corps, except upon dress
occasions, has had no cutting weapon. It is not strange, there-
fore, that many of the officers of the corps, while on duty in the
Philippines, adopted for use in the field that weapon of the
Moro tribesmen.

218

WONDERFUL WAR WEAPONS.

The introduction of the bolo as the field arm of the Marine
Corps — the sword having given place to the pistol several years
ago in this branch of the service — robs the time-tried and tradi-
tional Mameluke saber of the corps of the distinction of being
the only cutting weapon in the equipment of this division of the
Government's sea fighters.

The Mamelukes are inseparably associated with the mili-
tary history of Egypt, the first country in which a regular mili-
tary organization was established, and a country in which the
fighting element was the most honored and powerful of all
classes. This type of blade was adopted by our Marine Corps
in 1825, and later by the officers of the Royal Horse Artillery
of England.

Until recently the allowance of machine guns in our army
has been two to a regiment, but aboard four to six are used.
AUTOMATIC MACHINE RIFLES.

These guns are automatic machine rifles, firing ordinary
rifle cartridges, which (in the Benet-Mercie weapon, a French
invention which we have adopted) are supplied in brass clips of
thirty. A small part of the gas generated by the explosion of
the individual cartridge operates the mechanism, discharging
the bullet, throwing out the empty shell and making ready for
the next shot.

A machine gun is designed to enable one man to fire the
equivalent of a volley, or series of volleys, discharged by an
entire platoon (one-third of a company) of infantrymen. As
at present developed, it represents a step toward the evolution
of a shoulder-rifle that will throw a continuous stream of
bullets.

The latest government rifle — the weapons of the individual
soldiers — are manufactured at the Springfield (Mass.) Arm-
ory, which is the government's great small-arms factory, and at
the Rock Island (111.) Arsenal — the facilities of the latter hav-
ing hitherto been held in reserve for emergency purposes. The

WONDERFUL WAR WEAPONS.

219

rifle cartridges are turned out at the Frankford Arsenal, in
Philadelphia, and at private plants in Lowell, New Haven,
Bridgeport and Cincinnati. These concerns and another near
St. Louis also make the cartridges for the automatic pistols.

At the outbreak of the world war we had 150 batteries of
light field guns and 45 batteries of heavy artillery (four guns
to each battery), including cannon provided for by Congress,
and since then delivered. There was an inadequate supply of
ammunition for the heavy guns.

MUNITION SUPPLY AUGMENTED.

The ammunition supply was immediately augmented and
field guns of various calibers turned out as fast as possible,
including 9-inch howitzers.

A 3-inch field gun fires projectiles weighing 15 pounds,
with a muzzle velocity of 1700 feet per second.

A 4.7-inch field gun fires projectiles weighing 60 pounds,
with the same velocity.

A 6-inch howitzer fires projectiles weighing 120 pounds,
with a muzzle velocity of 900 feet per second.

The principal difference between the field gun and the
howitzer is that the latter can be pointed at a high angle, to
assail infantry protected by intrenchments, or for other pur-
poses.

While reference has been made to siege guns, which were
used by the Germans in their attacks on the Belgian and
French forts, the fact is that the large caliber mortars and
howitzers are what wrought the havoc.

The large caliber howitzers and mortars throw shells con-
taining huge charges of explosives, and are more adaptable in
their application than the ordinary siege guns or cannons.

One novelty which had not been used up to the entrance of
the United States into the war is a device invented by a Los
Angeles man, which makes a "periscope gun" of any ordinary
service piece.

220

WONDERFUL WAR WEAPON8

In trench warfare, as developed abroad, the periscope has
been used by the men in the trenches to observe the movements
of the opposing forces and watch for scouts without exposing
themselves to the fire of "snipers" or sharpshooters, who are
always looking for a head or mark to aim at.

The new device comprises two mirrors attached to the gun
by a metal frame in such manner that one mirror is above the
range of vision and reflects the image to be fired at upon the
other mirror below the stock or butt of the gun. The attach-
ment enables the soldier sitting in a trench or shelter to ac-
curately aim his gun and conveniently shoot while his head is
kept below the safety line, or top of the parapet, or properly
built trench.

THE TRENCH PERISCOPE.

With this attachment, approved by the United States
Ordnance Department, a rifleman, from his concealed point of
vantage, can survey a 30-foot field at 200 yards. The attach-
ment can be removed at will and the metal bars and parts can
be easily carried. The device adds about one and one-half
pounds to the weight of the gun.

In the same category with the aeroplane, the automobile,
the submarine, the torpedo, in their effect upon the method of
waging modern warfare are the telephone and the wireless
telegraph. There were no telephones and no wireless instru-
ments in the days of our own Civil War, and the stories re-
lated of the bravery and astuteness displayed by orderlies, mes-
sengers and scouts of those days will not be repeated.

Today the army carries a complete telephone system and
wonderful wireless apparatus. The commander sits in his
headquarters and communicates with his officers in all parts of
the field, reaching points miles distant. Wires are strung
through trenches, along fences and wherever needed, and tele-
phone "booths" are set up wherever it is found necessary.
Switchboards are mounted on motor cars and encased in armor

WONDERFUL WAR WEAPONS.

221

plate. The "repair" wagons are motor vehicles, and lines cut
or destroyed are quickly repaired or replaced.

Aerial stations for the wireless are carried, and are of
many varieties. Some of them are similar to the observation
towers and ladders. The French army regulations provide for
wireless service between the general staff headquarters and the
army corps, connecting these with the heavy cavalry divisions
and lines of communication. The wireless companies in the
French army are made up of 10 officers and 293 men.

Nearly all of the other nations have patterned their wire-
less companies after the French. The company carries 302
miles of wire and cable and about 96 sets of instruments. The
rate of operation is more than 400 words a minute. The mast
for the aerial station is made in sections, on the telescope plan,
and can be erected by a trio of men in a few minutes. The
whole outfit for a station weighs about 750 pounds and the
range of service is about 200 miles.

" KNAPSACK " STATIONS.

There are, in addition to the field stations, "knapsack"
stations, which are divided into sections so that four soldiers
can carry an outfit. The sections weigh about 20 pounds each.
The small station set up with this apparatus has a range of
from 5 to 10 miles and in service replaces the orderlies and such
visual signs and signalling, as was used before the wireless
came into existence. Such an outfit can forward more informa-
tion in a few minutes than a whole squadron of orderlies could
riding at full speed.

The aeroplanes carrying a wireless outfit can communicate
with the field stations, and have rendered wonderful service on
the battlefields. The cavalry also carry wireless outfits, and
in the Allied armies the second regiment of every cavalry bri-
gade has a wireless detachment of 4 troopers, 1 cyclist and 3
horses, besides a wagon. There is also a division with tools and
material for both destroying and repairing lines.

222

WONDERFUL WAR WEAPONS.

The French army also has automobile wireless stations.
The automobile outfit is complete in every particular and is not
augmented. It carries its own crew and has a traveling radius
of several hundred miles. The car containing the station is
completely enclosed and the walls are deadened so that the
noise made by the apparatus may not betray the presence of the
station to the enemy scouts.

The practical application of portable wireless outfits to
military usage is probably less than four years old, but the
portables can transmit messages over a radius of 200 to 250
miles. Expressed in technical terms, the portable stations have
a capacity of about 200 mile wave-lengths.

The one weakness of the wireless is that the enemy can
purloin secrets, though adroitness in manipulation can over-
come some of this difficulty.

A WORD ABOUT " HEAVY ARTILLERY."

It would not do to mention armaments and weapons with-
out a word about the "heavy artillery" of the commissary de-
partment, for this branch of the army service is represented by
formidable field kitchens, which are again carried on trucks or
motor cars. The officers' field kitchen follows the advance of
the officers to the field of action. Some of these kitchens, par-
ticularly those of the Kaiser and the Crown Prince in the Ger-
man army, are described as almost luxurious. They contain
complete equipment — range, bake-oven, pantry, ice-box, china
closet and every device needed for preparing a complete meal.

Supplies are hurried after the troops in motor trucks from
stations where the supplies are delivered by rail and soups and
sturdy meals are prepared which were lacking in the cam-
paigns through which the soldiers of the Civil War passed.
The pioneer mobile military field kitchen which has been the
subject of widespread comment was developed by the German
army.

(It consists of a four-wheeled vehicle drawn bv two horses,

WONDERFUL WAR WEAPONS.

223

though motors have supplanted the horses in some cases. The
front carriage is detachable from the rear and is actually a
separate contrivance. On the rear truck is a 200-quart copper,
double, or jacketed vat. Also a 70-quart coffee tank. Both
receptacles have separate fireboxes and ash pits. One section
carries extra rations for the men, the daily quota of provisions,
extra rations for horses, folding canvas water pails and
utensils.

The actual food is cooked within the vat or caldron inside
the water jacket, so that the heat does not come in contact with
the food direct, thus preventing burning. The food will cook
slowly for hours when once the water is heated, and will remain
hot for a long time. The men can get water in an emergency
and hot coffee is always ready for the sentries and men on
guard duty to carry with them at night. Of course a bottle
of the thermos type is used by these men so that they can have
hot coffee when on the line of duty. The kitchen outfits are
complete and so arranged that they can be rushed over rough
ground without spilling their contents.

Electric flash lights, batteries for setting off dynamite and
other explosives used for blowing out trenches and other forti-
fications, searchlights, mirror signaling devices, illuminating
bombs, which are shot high in the air to explode and illuminate
the field for hundreds of yards, signal bombs, and many in-
genious contraptions never dreamed of are part of the army's
equipment used on the battlefields of the greatest war that the
world has ever known.

CHAPTER XIX.
THE WORLD'S ARMIES.

The Efficient German Organization — The Landwehr and Landsturm—
General Forms of Military Organization — The Brave French Troops—
The Picturesque Italian Soldiery — The Peace and War Strength —
Available Fighting Men — Fortifications.

O one scoffs at the military organization which Germany

1 \| has developed through the years — yes, almost centuries
— of moulding and training, for Germany has proved
herself efficient, even if egotistical and domineering. She built
up what at the beginning of the war was recognized as the
most powerful, most efficient and well balanced military or-
ganization the world has ever known. And it was not an army
in the sense that America has been taught to think of armies.
It was a trained nation for war — a nation armed — rather than
a small, compact fighting machine.

The strength of the German army on October 1, 1913,
has been given in fairly authentic reports as 790,788 men and
157,916 horses. Of the men 30,253 were officers and 2,483
sanitary officers. There were 104,377 non-commissioned offi-
cers and 641,811 common soldiers. The general divisions were
515,216 infantry and 85,593 cavalry, 126,042 artillery, and the
rest in the general service, including the commissary and quar-
termasters' departments, as these are known in America. The
estimated army on a war footing is more than four times this
number and approximates about 4,000,000, while the entire
available force was given at probably 8,000,000.

The infantry is designated as the main body of the army.
The infantrymen carry the "98" gun, already referred to,
which is an improved Mauser, and the non-commissioned offi-
cers and ambulance drivers carry revolvers. There are several
classes of infantrymen, a distinction being made between the

224

THE WORLD'S ARMIES.

22*>

sharpshooters, and some of the others, variously known as
grenadiers, musketeers and fusileers.

The cavalry is armed with lance, saber and carbine. There
are distinctions in this branch of the service, too, among the
cavalry units being cuirassiers, hussars, uhlans and dragoons.
The field artillery carries batteries of cannon and light howit-
zer, and the drivers are armed with a sword and revolver.
The cannoneers have a short knife or dagger as well as the
revolver.

The communication troops are what parallel the engineers
in the United States army. They build the roads, put up the
telegraph lines and telephone service, construct bridges and
make the travel possible.

STRENGTH OF GERMAN ARMY.

While the full strength of the German army is given at
4,000,000 on a war footing, the total availables from the na-
tion's reserve is double that sum. These forces are gathered
from three sources: the first line, with an estimated strength of
1,750,000; the Landwehr 1,800,000, and the Landsturm
4,500,000.

All who enter the service pass into the Landsturm after
19 years and remain until they are 45. The cavalry service is
three years with the colors and four years in the army reserve.
The horse artillery are subject to the same service, while those
in other branches serve two years with the colors and five with
the army reserve. The soldier passes from the army reserve
into what is described as the Landwehr, where artillerymen and
cavalrymen remain three years; those of other branches of the
military five years. The soldier passes from the first division
or class of Landwehr to the second, where he remains until his
39th birthday.

The Landsturm of the first class includes those between
the ages of 17 and 39, who have not reached the age of service,
and those who have not been called into active service because

226

THE WORLD'S ARMIES.

the ranks were full and there was no room for them in the reg-
ular army. The second class includes those who have passed
through the other branches and whose ages are between 39 and
45.

There is a wide difference between the military organiza-
tions of the different countries. Whereas the United States
army regiment approximates 1500 men, the German army
regiment contains almost 3000. In the German army six bat-
talions form an infantry regiment. Two regiments form a bri-
gade, two brigades a division, and two divisions an army corps.
There are 10 divisions composed of 3 brigades each, but of
course the whole organization was augmented when war broke
out. Adding the necessary auxiliary troops, viz: an artillery
brigade of 12 batteries composed of 6 guns each — or 4 in the
case of the horse batteries — a regiment of cavalry of 4 squad-
rons, an engineer battalion, sanitary troops, etc., a German
3-brigade division at war strength numbers about 21,000, and
an army corps — to which are further attached 4 batteries of
howitzers and a battalion of rifles — about 43,000 combatants.
The cavalry division is composed of 3 brigades of 2 regiments
each and 2 or 3 batteries of horse artillery, a total of 24 squad-
rons and 8 to 12 guns.

In a general way it may here be interpolated that the or-
ganization of an army is given in the military manuals as
follows :

INFANTRY.

A squad is 8 men unpler the command of a corporal.
A section is 16 men under the command of a sergeant.
A platoon is from 50 to 75 men under a lieutenant.
A company is 3 platoons, 200 to 250 men, under a captain.
A battalion is 4 or more companies under a major.
A regiment is 3 or more battalions under a colonel, or a
lieutenant-colonel.

A brigade is 2 or 3 regiments under a brigadier-general.

THE WORLD'S AEMIEfc.

227

A division is 2 or more brigades under a major-general.

An army corps is 2 or more brigades, supplemented by
cavalry, artillery, engineers, etc., under a major-general or
lieutenant-general.

CAVALRY.

A section is 8 men under a corporal.

A platoon is 36 to 50 men under a lieutenant, or junior
captain.

A troop is 3 to 4 platoons, 125 to 150 men, under a captain.
A ^uadron is 3 troops under a senior captain, or a major.
A regiment is 4 to 6 squadrons under a colonel.
A brigade is 3 regiments under a brigadier-general.
A division is 2 or 3 brigades under a major-general.

ARTILLERY.

A battery is 130 to 180 men, with 4 to 8 guns, under a
captain.

A group or battalion is 3 or 4 batteries under a major.

A regiment is 3 or 4 groups (battalions) under a colonel.

When regiments are combined into brigades, brigades into
divisions, and divisions into army corps, cavalry, artillery, and
certain other auxiliary troops, such as engineers, signal corps,
aeroplane corps, etc., are joined with them in such proportions
as has been found necessary. Every unit, from the company
up, has its own supply and ammunition wagons, field hospitals,
etc.

THE UNITED STATES ARMY.

Prior to 1915 the regular United States army was a mere
police body as compared with the armed forces of other coun-
tries. It was concededly highly efficient, but for the purpose of
entering into conflict with such forces as those presented by
Germany, France and some of the other European countries it
was admittedly inadequate.

The entire force consisted of 5,004 officers and 92,658 men.
The forces were divided into 15 regiments of cavalry and 765

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officers and 14,148 men; 6 regiments of field artillery, with
252 officers and 5,513 men; the coast artillery with 715 officers
and 19,019 men, and 30 regiments of infantry, with 1,530 offi-
cers and 35,008 men. The Philippine scouts had 182 officers
and 5,733 men; the Military Academy 7 officers and 6,266 men
and the Porto Rico regiment of infantry with 32 officers and
591 men.

The signal corps had 106 officers and 1,472 men, and the
engineer corps 237 officers and 1,942 men. There were also
about 6000 recruits in the various branches of the service under
training.

The marine corps, under the direction of the Secretary
of the Navy, had 346 officers and 9,921 enlisted men.

THE REGULAR ARMY.

The regular army was supplemented by the National
Guards of the various States which had 7,578 regiments with
9,103 commissioned officers and 123,105 enlisted men, or a
total organization of 132,208. The "reserve militia," which was
in fact little more than a name, consisted of the availables for
service between the ages of 18 and 45 years, and estimated on
the basis of population, numbered about 20,000,000.

Before there was any real indication that the country
would become actively involved in the world war steps were
taken to reorganize and develop an efficient army, and under
the Act which became effective on July 1, 1916, and which pro-
vides for the establishment of basic units for the army, the War
Department orders and regulations fixed the basis of the or-
ganization as follows:

Sixty-four infantry regiments, 25 cavalry regiments, 21
regiments of artillery, a coast army corps, the brigade division,
army corps, and army headquarters, with their detachments
and troops. A general staff corps, adjutant general's depart-
ment, inspector general department, judge advocate general
department, quartermaster corps, medical department, corps

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229

of engineers, and ordnance department, signal corps, officers
of the bureau of insular affairs, militia bureau and detached
officers.

The law specifies that the total armed force shall include
the regular army, volunteer army, officers' reserve corps, en-
listed reserve corps, and the National Guard of the various
States, subject to call for duty within the borders of the United
States.

The reorganization of the army was being effected at the
time Uncle Sam was called to fight for humanity, and only an
approximation of the condition can be made, for about two-
thirds of the National Guard had been taken into the regular
service incident to the trouble with Mexico, when the Guards-
men were summoned to the border to protect the country, and
recruiting was proceeding in all branches of the service to bring
all the regiments up to a war footing.

UNITS ON WAR FOOTING.

The various units, on a war footing, are: Infantry regi-
ment, 1,800 men; cavalry regiment, 1,250 men; field artillery,
light regiment, 1,150; field artillery, horse regiment, 1,150;
field artillery, heavy regiment, 1,240; field artillery, mountain
regiment, 1,100; engineers, pioneer battalion, 490; engineers,
pioneer battalion, mounted, 270 ; engineers, pontoon battalion,
500; signal troops, field battalion, 160; signal troops, field
(cavalry) battalion, 170; signal troops, aero squadron, 90 men.
Trains — infantry division; ammunition, 260; supply, 190; sani-
tary, 530; engineer, 10. Cavalry: ammunition, 60; supply,
220; sanitary, 300.

A division of infantry consists of 3 brigades of infantry,
1 cavalry regiment, 1 artillery brigade, 1 regiment of engi-
neers, 1 field signal battalion, 1 aero squad, 1 ammunition
train, 1 supply train, 1 engineer's train and 1 sanitary train,
and comprises approximately 22,000 men and 7,500 horses and
mules, and 900 vehicles, including guns. The latter figures

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THE WORDD'S ARMIES.

are, however, changed by reason of the introduction of motor
trucks, and automobiles, there being a consequent reduction in
the number of horses and mules and a slight increase in the
number of men.

A cavalry division consists of 3 cavalry brigades, 1 regi-
ment of field artillery, 1 battalion of mounted engineers, 1 field
signal battery, mounted; 1 aero squadron, 1 ammunition, 1
supply, 1 engineer and 1 sanitary train.

A brigade, in the main, consists of three regiments, the
infantry having 5,500 men, cavalry brigade 2,500 and artillery
brigade 2,500 men.

Under the reorganization plan the United States army
would have about 293,000 in the service, but with the advent of
the country's entrance into the conflict of world powers Con-
gress passed the Conscription bill authorizing the drafting, for
military purposes, all young men between the ages of 21 and 31
in the country.

MILLIONS NOT IN THE COUNTRY'S SERVICE.

The registration of those subject to call under this bill
showed that there were about 11,000,000 men in the country,
not in the army, navy or supporting branches, available. The
bill designed to produce, within a year from the time of the
signing of the law by President Wilson, of a national army of
more than 1,000,000 trained and equipped men, backed by a
reserve of men and supplies and by an additional 500,000
under training.

Meantime the State authorities were authorized to fill up
the National Guard units and regiments to full war strength,
so that with the regular army there would be a total of 622,954
— 293,000 regular and 329,954 guardsmen, to be taken over by
the War Department. This was the physical state of the army
when the country found it necessary to ship men into France
to assist the Allies in their fight against the German and Aus-

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231

trian forces, and General Pershing was sent to command the
American troops.

The United States army and all of the military branches
are armed with the Springfield magazine rifle, which holds five
cartridges. It shoots a pointed bullet of tin and lead and is of
.30 inch caliber. The Colt automatic pistol is used as the serv-
ice weapon by officers and those requiring this sort of arm,
It is a .45 caliber pistol with a magazine holding seven cart-
ridges, which can be fired successively by simply holding the
trigger back.

THE FRENCH ARMY.

Military spirit in France has had an almost incredible
resurrection within the past few years. The increase in the
standing army of Germany was watched closely, and as new
units were added to the standing army of the latter country
France retaliated by lengthening the term of military service
from two to three years. This accomplished practically the
same purpose without causing a ripple of excitement, and as
France determined to recover her lost provinces of Alsace and
Lorraine her fight is to the limit of her endurance.

There were, at the outbreak of war, 869,403 men in the
National Army of France, which was composed of the Metro-
politan army, having a total of 753,403 men, of the Colonial
army, numbering 116,000 men. These figures do not include
the personnel of the Gendarmerie, or military police, which
numbered 25,000 men.

Military service is compulsory in France and all males be-
tween the ages of 20 and 48 years must serve three years in the
army, the only cause for exemption being physical disability.
Following the active service the soldier passes to the reserve
for 11 years, after which he is seven years in the Territorial
army and seven years in the Territorial reserve. The training
in the active reserve consists of two periods of training and
maneuvers which last for four weeks each, in the Territorial

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THE WORLD'S ARMIES.

army one period of two weeks, and in the Territorial reserve, no
fixed period. There are more than 2,000 reservists per bat-
talion produced by the length of the reserve service* and when
the troops are mobilized the active units can be easily main-
tained at full war strength. The number available in this way
gives enough men for each battalion and regiment in the field
with enough men left over for routine home guard work.

FRENCH MILITARY DIVISIONS.

There are two infantry regiments, composed of from six
to eight battalions, to the brigade, in the French army, with two
brigades to a division and two divisions to an army corps. A
field artillery regiment, consisting of nine batteries of four
guns each, is attached to each division. With nine field and
three howitzer batteries and six reinforcing batteries added
under mobilization, each corps on a war footing has 144 guns.
There is also added to every army corps in the field one cavalry
brigade of two regiments, one cavalry battalion, engineer com-
panies and sanitary and service troops. The cavalry divisions
are composed of three brigades of two regiments each — to-
gether with three batteries of horse artillery. There is in an
army corps, when mobilized, approximately 33,000 combatants,
and in a cavalry division 4,700 men. An aeronautical corps in
the French army consists of 334 aeroplanes and 14 dirigibles.

In the Reserve army at the time of mobilization there were
two divisions in each region, corresponding to those in the active
army. When they were mobilized the 36 reserve divisions con-
tained virtually the same organization and strength as the
troops of the line. There were a large number of troops for
garrisoning the various fortresses when the regional regiments,
engineers and foot artillery were utilized for this work.

The Territorial army also consists of 36 divisions and
garrison troops. When the remaining men of the Reserve and
Territorial armies were summoned to the depots they were
available to maintain the field army at full strength.

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233

In the French field army there were 20 army corps, a bri-
gade consisting of 14 battalions, and 10 divisions of cavalry;
when war was declared. When this was raised to its full war
strength the active army numbered 1,009,000 men, the re-
serves and depots 1,600,000, the Territorial army 818,000,
and the Territorial Reserve 451,000, a grand total of 3,878,000
soldiers. At this critical time, therefore, France had at her
command about 5,000,000 trained men.

Lebel magazine rifles of .315 inches caliber are used by the
infantry, while the cavalry uses the Lebel carbine. The field
piece is a rapid-fire gun of 7.5 centimeters, or 2.95 inches, of
the model of 1907, and is provided with a shield for the pro-
tection of the gunners. A howitzer of 12i or 15.5 centimeters
is the type used by the French army.

The French artillery is generally admitted to be in a class
by itself, and the commissariat is excelled by none other. The
infantry is most deceptive in appearance, but the ability of the
French to march and attack has never been surpassed.

THE RUSSIAN ARMY.
There are 1,284,000 men in the Russian army in times of
peace, while the war strength is 5,962,306. The young man of
Russia is compelled to enter the army at the age of 20 years,
the military service being compulsory and universal, terminat-
ing at the age of 43 years. The period of service in the active
army is three years in the case of the infantry and artillery,
and four years in other branches of the service. The soldier
then passes to the reserve, where he serves for 14 or 15 years,
during which period he receives two trainings of six weeks
each. After 18 years in the active and reserve armies he is
transferred to the Territorial army for five years. There also
exists a modified system of volunteers for one year who sup-
ply the bulk of officers required for the reserve upon mobiliza-
tion.

The Russian army is divided into three forces, the army

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of the European Russia, the army of the Caucasus and the
Asiatic army. There are 1,000 men in a Russian battalion,
4 battalions constituting a regiment, 2 regiments a brigade
and 2 brigades a division.

RUSSIAN FIELD BATTERIES.

The field batteries are composed of 8 guns, the horse bat-
teries of 6. The ordinary army corps is made up of 2 divisions,
a howitzer division and one battalion of sappers, and has a
fighting strength of approximately 32,000 men. The rifle
brigades form separate organizations of 8 battalions with 3
batteries attached. The Cossacks, who hold their lands by
military tenure, are liable to service for life, and provide their
own equipment and horses. At 19 their training begins; at 21
they enter the active regiment of their district; at 25 they go
into what is termed the "second category" regiment, and at 29
the "third category" regiment, followed by 5 years in the re-
serve. After 25 years of age, their training is 3 weeks yearly.
In European Russia the field army consists of the Imperial
Guard and Grenadier Corps, 27 line army corps and 20 cav-
alry divisions ; in the Caucasus of 3 army corps and 4 cavalry
divisions. The Asiatic army is composed of Russians with a
few Turkoman irregular horse, and is mainly stationed in East
Siberia. Since the Russian- Japanese war these forces have
been increased and re-organized into a strong army which, at
the outbreak, was capable of mobilizing, together with aux-
iliary troops, more than 200,000 men.

The small-arm of the infantry is the "3-line" rifle of the
1901 model. It has a magazine holding five cartridges, a
caliber of .299 inches, a muzzle velocity of 2,035 foot seconds,
and is sighted to 3,000 yards. The arm of the cavalry and
Cossacks has a barrel 2% inches shorter, but uses the same
ammunition, and is provided with a bayonet which no other
mounted troops use. The field piece is a Krupp rapid-fire,

THE WORLD'S ARMIES.

235

shielded gun, of the 1902 model, with a muzzle velocity of
1,950 foot seconds, the shell weighing IS1^ pounds.

AUSTRIA-HUNGARIAN ARMY.

There are 472,716 men in the army of Austria-Hungary
during times of peace, with a war strength of 1,360,000 sol-
diers. Military service L universal and compulsory, begin-
ning at the age of 19 years, and ending at the age of 43 years.
The term of service in the common or active arm of the serv-
ice is for two years in the case of the infantry and three years
in the cavalry and horse artillery.

There is a Landwehr, or first reserve, in which the term
of service is 10 years in the infantry, and seven for the cavalry
or horse artillery, which service is followed by that in the Land-
sturm, or second reserve, in which the soldier serves until his
forty-second birthday. Hungary possesses a separate and dis-
tinct Landwehr and Landsturm, which constitute the Hun-
garian National army. There is also a supplementary reserve
intended to maintain the units of the common army at full
strength.

The Empire is divided into 16 army corps districts, each
presumed to furnish a complete army corps of two divisions to
the active army. Every infantry division is composed of two
brigades of 8 battalions each, 1 artillery brigade and 10 bat-
teries of six guns, a regiment of cavalry, and a rifle battalion.
The army corps also contains a regiment of field artillery or
howitzers, a pioneer battalion and a pontoon company, and
numbers about 34,000 combatants.

There are 6 permanent cavalry divisions, each made up of
2 brigades — 24 squadrons, 3 batteries of horse artillery and a
machine-gun detachment numbering about 4,000 men. It is
estimated that the war strength is, active army, 1,360,000;
Austrian Landwehr, 240,000; Hungarian Landwehr, 220,000;
Landsturm, 2,000,000 and reserve of 500,000, or a grand total
of 4,300,000.

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THE WORLD'S ARMIES.

The infantry carries the Mannlicher magazine rifle, .315-
caliber and a cavalry carbine of the same make. The field gun
is a Krupp which uses a 14%-pound shrapnel and the field
howitzer is a 10.5 centimeter piece which fires a 30-pound shell.
The Hungarian cavalry is accounted fine, but the main force
is not regarded as efficient as the German or French.

THE ITALIAN ARMY.

The army of Italy on a peace footing is only about 250,-
860 men, exclusive of the troops in Africa, but the country is
able to mobilize a large force, and some of its branches of serv-
ice are the most efficient in the world. Service is compulsory
and general, beginning at the age of 20 years. After two
years in the standing army there are six years in the reserve,
four years in what is known as the mobile militia and seven
years in the territorial militia.

There is compulsory training in both the reserve and the
territorial militia, ranging from two weeks to six weeks. In
organization each division of the army consists of 2 brigades
composed of 2 regiments, comprising 3 battalions, together
with a regiment of field artillery, with 5 batteries. The division
has a war strength of 14,156 officers and men and 30 guns.
The cavalry division comprises 2 brigades of 4 regiments and
2 horse batteries. Each army corps has two divisions in which
are included a regiment of field artillery, 3 heavy batteries, a
regiment of cavalry and one of light infantry.

There is available for army service the military police,
known as the Carabinieri, besides the aeronautical corps, with
half a dozen or more companies, 30 aeroplanes and a dozen
airships. There are also the frontier troops organized for de-
fense of the mountains, and which troops waged heroic and
picturesque warfare in the mountain passes. There are in these
troops 8 regiments of Alpine infantry, comprising 26 bat-
talions, and 2 regiments of 36 mountain batteries.

The army strength approximates 2,600,000, made up of

THE WORLD'S ARMIES.

237

700,000 active army, 400,000 mobile militia, which is the sec-
ond line of defense, and the territorial militia, about 1,500,000.
The infantry is armed with a magazine rifle of 6.5 millimeters
caliber known as the Mannlicher Carcano, but up to the begin-
ning of the war the territorials used a different type.

GREAT BRITAIN'S ARMY.

The military establishment of Great Britain consists of
the Regular army and the Territorial army, aside from the
Indian army and the local forces in the various colonies. These
armies are recruited from youth between the ages of 18 and 25
years, who are recruited by voluntary enlistment. The enlist-
ment period is for 12 years, although it can be prolonged under
certain circumstances to 21 years.

Three to nine years is the period with the colors, and the
remainder of the enlistment is with the Army Reserve. Many
men elect to serve seven years with the colors and five writh the
reserve. Recruits are subjected to five months' training, and
each year are called out for six weeks, supplemented by six
days' musketry practice for the infantry.

The Home army consists of 9,740 officers and 172,610
men, the Army Reserve of 147,000 and the Special Reserve of
80,120, and the Territorial army of 313,485, a total of 724,955
men. Raised to war strength, these forces would number 29,-
330 officers, 772,000 men and 2,072 guns, the batteries being of
six guns, except the heavy batteries and those of the Territorial
army, which have four. During the Boer War England put
more than 1,000,000 men in the field.

The United Kingdom is divided into seven "commands,"
and the London district, all of which include from two to three
territorial divisions, and one to four territorial cavalry bri-
gades, in addition to detachments of varying size from the
Regular army. Two nearly full divisions are stationed at Al-
dershot and in Ireland, one complete division in the Southern

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THE WORLD'S ARMIES.

and one in the Eastern "command." There are also six aero-
plane squadrons, each with 18 aeroplanes.

The Lee-Enfield rifle, caliber .303, is the arm of the in-
fantry and cavalry. In the Regular army the field artillery
has an 18 -pounder Armstrong gun, the horse artillery a 13-
pounder, the field howitzers are 40-pounders, and the heavy
batteries are armed with 60-pounders.

The Territorial army was organized along the lines of the
American militia, and could scarcely be expected to distinguish
itself when pitted against the German regulars.

BELGIAN ARMY PEACE FOOTING.

The Belgian army peace footing is 3542 officers and
44,061 men, with a war strength estimated at from 300,000 to
350,000. The infantry is armed with the Mauser rifle, the artil-
lery with a shielded Krupp quick-fire piece of 7.5-centimeter
caliber.

In 1913 the Netherlands had in its standing army 1,543
officers and 21,412 men and 152 guns. On a war footing it
could probably be raised to 270,000 men. The small arm is the
Mannlicher rifle and carbine, the field gun is the same as that
of Belgium.

Servia has 10 divisions, divided into 4 army corps. The
peace footing is 160,000, and the war strength about 380,000.
The rifle is the Mauser model of 1899, and the field piece a
quick-firing gun of the French Schneider- Canet system.

Bulgaria has a peace army of about 3,900 officers and
56,000 men. It is armed with the Mannlicher magazine rifle,
the Mannlicher carbine, the Schneider quick-fire gun and a
light Krupp for the mountain batteries. On a war footing the
country musters 4 army corps and 550,000 men.

Roumania's army is about 5,460 officers and 98,000 men.
On a war footing it has 5 army corps and 580,000 men. The
infantry uses the Mannlicher magazine rifle and the cavalry

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239

the Mannlicher carbine. The field and horse batteries are armed
with the Krupp quick-fire gun of the model of 1903.

In 1912 Greece had a peace establishment of 1,952 officers
and 23,268 men, but the recent war has caused her to augment
them to 3 army corps, and her war footing is not far from
250,000 men. The infantry is armed with the Mannlicher-
Schonauer rifle of the 1903 model and the field artillery with
Schneider-Canet quick-fire guns.

Japan has a peace strength of 250,000 men, with a reserve
of 1,250,000, and a total war strength of 1,500,000 men, out of
a total available force capable of fighting of approximately
8,239,372 men.

SPAIN'S STANDING ARMY.

The standing army of Spain is 132,000 men. The reserves
are estimated at 1,050,000, and the total war strength at 1,182,-
000. The total available unorganized force is 2,889,197 men.

The army of Denmark on a peace footing is 13,725 men,
with a reserve of 71,609. The total war strength is a little more
than 85,000 men, and the total fighting population is approxi-
mately 470,000.

Sweden has a peace strength in excess of 75,000 men, and
a reserve of more than 500,000, giving an estimated war
strength of 600,000 men. The total available unorganized
force is about 500,000.

Norway has a standing army a little larger than that of
Denmark — about 18,000 men — with 90,000 reserves, giving a
total war strength of about 110,000 men. The unorganized
force available is about 360,000 men.

Portugal has a peace strength of 30,000 men, with a re-
serve of 225,000, making a total war strength of more than
one-quarter of a million. The unorganized fighting material
is more than 800,000.

Turkey, which reorganized its forces within recent years,
has a peace strength of 210,000 men, about 800,000 reserves,

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THE WORLD'S ARMIES.

giving a war strength of over a million, and has a total avail-
able unorganized force to call upon of more than 3,000,000.

The little army of Montenegro is a permanent body of
about 35,000 men. There are no trained reserve forces, but
there is an available fighting population of 68,000, outside of
the army, to call upon.

CHINA'S MILITARY RESOURCES.

Recent events throw some doubt on the figures regarding
China's military resources, but the last available figures cred-
ited the great Republic of the East with a force of 400,000
men, augmented by 300,000 reserves. With this total war
strength of 700,000 soldiers, estimates of the available unor-
ganized fighting material reaches the stupendous figure of
63,000,000.

Brazil has a peace strength of 33,000, with more than
500,000 reserves, with more than 4,000,000 unorganized avail-
able material.

As relating to the armed strength of the nations abroad,
some reference to the system of fortifications which protect the
various countries is interesting at this point. Following years
— in fact, centuries — of study, Central Europe has been
strongly fortified with a system of embattlements which have
reached the limits of human ingenuity.

In the east of France, along the frontier where France,
Switzerland and Germany meet, there are the first-class fort-
resses of Belfort, Epinal, Toul and Verdun in the first line,
reinforced by Besancon, Dijon, Langres, Rheims, La Fere and
Maubeuge in the second line, with smaller fortifications close
to the German frontier at Remirement, Luneville, Nancy and
other points. Along the Italian frontier the fortresses are situ-
ated at Grenoble, Briancon and Nice, with Lyons in the rear.
There are strong forts at all naval harbors, the defense of
Paris consisting of 97 bastions, 1.7 old forts and 38 forts of an

THE WORLD'S ARMIES.

241

advanced type, the whole forming entrenched camps at Ver-
sailles and St. Denis.

On that line of the German frontier which faces France
there are the fortresses of Neu-Breisach, Strassburg, Metz and
Diedenhofen, in the first line, with Rastatt, Bitsch and Saar-
louis in the second line, and Germershein in the rear. Situated
opposite Luxemburg is Mainz, with Coblentz and Cologne
opposite Belgium and Wesel opposite Holland.

All along the northern coast, from Wilhelmshafen to
Memmel, the German coast is strongly fortified. Memmel is
the pivot point of the northern and eastern frontier, the latter
frontier being protected by Konigsberg and Allenstein, of the
first line, and Danzig, Dirschau, Graudenz, Thorn and the Vis-
tula Passages, of the second line. South of this point are
Posen, Glogau and Breslau, which face Poland, while begin-
ning at Xeisse the strong defense against Austria consists of
fortifications at Glatz, Ingolstadt and Ulm, the approaches to
Berlin being guarded by Magdeburg, Spandau and Kustrin.
POLISH QUADRILATERAL.

Along the line of the Russian frontier which guard that
country from attacks by the Germans are the fortresses of
Libau, on the Baltic ; Kovna, Ossovets and Ust-Dvinsk, in the
Vilna district, and in Poland there are situated Novo-Geor-
gievsk, Warsaw and Ivangorod, on the Vistula, and Brest-
Litovsk, on the Bug — four strongholds known as the Polish
Quadrilateral. Guarding Petrograd are the smaller fortifica-
, tions of Kronstadt and Viborg, with Sweaborg midway down
the Gulf of Finland near Helsingfors. Sebastopol and Kertch,
in the Crimea, and Otchokov, near Odessa, are the fortifications
which guard the Black Sea.

Along the Austrian frontier are the strong embattlements
of Cracow and Przemysl, on the road to Lemberg in Galicia.
These forts face Poland. In Hungary there are Gyula-Feh-
ervar and Arad, on the Maros River, and which guard the

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THE WORLD'S ARMIES.

approach from the angle of Roumania. On her frontier facing
Servia there are Alt-Orsova and Peterwardein, on the Danube,
and Sarajevo, in Bosnia, with Temesvar and Komorn blocking
the approach to Vienna from the southeast. On the Adriatic
are Cattaro, on the edge of Montenegro, and the naval arsenals
of Pola and Trieste. All the Alpine passes of the Tyrol are
fortified, but neither Vienna nor Budapest has any defenses.

The fortifications of Italy, aside from those on her coasts,
extend in a line from Venice, through Verona, Mantua and
Piacenza to Alessandria and Casale, which face the French
frontier.

CHAPTER XIII.

THE WORLD'S NAVIES.

Germany's Sea Strength — Great Britain's Immense War Fleet — Immense
Fighting Craft — The United States' New Battle Cruisers — The Fastest
and Biggest Ocean Fighting Ships — The Picturesque Marines: the
Soldiers of the Sea.

JUST as Germany at the outset of the war had the most
efficient and, broadly speaking, the greatest army in the
, world, so England had the greatest navy in the world.
As a matter of fact, Great Britain's domination of the seas was
very largely responsible for the development of the super-
submarine by Germany, and the putting into effect of the sub-
marine warfare which proved so disastrous to the Allies. This
for the reason that Germany, having sought for means to offset
Great Britain's power and control of the seas, turned to the
underseas craft.

Up to the accession of Emperor William II — the Kaiser
— Germany's navy was little more than a joke. In 1848 the
National Parliament voted six million thalers for the creation
of a fleet, and some boats were constructed. But the attempts
to weld Germany, then little more than a federation, into a
nation having failed, the fleet was put up at auction, and actu-
ally sold in 1852. Prussia, a separate state, had started a fleet
of her own and purchased the German boats.

This fleet, just before the American Civil War, consisted
of four cruisers, carrying 28 cannon, and one cruiser having 17
cannon, besides which there were 21 "cannon boats," carrying
two and three cannons each. The Prussian fleet merged into
the North German Confederation in 1867, and in turn became
part of the fleet of the new German Empire in 1871.

In the war with France the German fleet played no part.
There were one or two clashes between French and German
small boats, but that was all. Even the successful outcome of

243 171

244

THE WORLD'S NAVIES.

the war did not inspire Germany to build up a navy. Plans
for the greater navy were first outlined about 1882, but for a
period of seven years not a battleship was built, concentration
being placed upon the torpedo boat. The idea of developing
the torpedo boat fleet belong to the present Grand Admiral
von Tirpitz, then a young officer. The fleet became the best in
the world, but its usefulness was soon checked by the new
inventions, searchlights, gatling guns, etc.

Germany's fleet legislation of 1898 for the first time
looked ahead and established rules for future building. The
Spanish- American and the Boer wars disquieted Germany, and
about 1900 the fleet was doubled by legislation. !In 1906 the
campaign of submarines, torpedo boats and greater battleships
began. Part of the program required that 12 torpedo boats be
built each year. Additional legislation for the construction of
cruisers and battleships was effected in 1908, and in 1912, until
at the beginning of the war, Germany had 38 ships of the line,
14 armored cruisers, 38 protected cruisers, 224 torpedo boats
and 30 submarines. There were no torpedo-boat destroyers,
the small cruisers taking their places. The naval organization
contained 73,000 officers and men. The largest boats are the
dreadnoughts, which are divided into several classes. One of
the last of these built by Germany was the Derfflinger, which
had a displacement of 28,000 tons.

The personnel of the German navy prior to the war was
79,197 officers and men.

THE BRITISH NAVY.

Because of the fact that the territory of Great Britain is
scattered over the face of the globe and that it is necessary to
use the highways of the sea for reaching her various posses-
sions, the navy of that country is undoubtedly the greatest
collection of fighting ships ever gathered together under one
flag.

THE WORLD'S NAVIES.

245

In order to take care of her population of 1,625,000,000
she has gathered together a navy consisting of 60 modern bat-
tleships, 9 battle cruisers, 34 armored cruisers, 17 heavy pro-
tected cruisers, 70 light cruisers, 232 destroyers, 59 torpedo
boats of the latest type, 75 submarines, together with 50 sea-
going auxiliaries of the fleet, which are used as mother ships to
destroyers, mine-layers, distilling ships, oil ships, repair and
hospital ships, with 145,000 officers and men.

The first group, completed between 1895 and 1898, in-
cludes six battleships, all of 14,900 tons displacement, 12,000
horsepower and 2,000 tons coal capacity. The speed is 17.5
knots, the armor belt being from 10 to 14 inches at the big guns
and with a mean armor belt of 9 inches. The armament con-
sists of 4 12-inch guns, 12 6-inch rapid fire, 16 3-inch rapid fire,
12 3 -pounder rapid fire, 2 light rapid fire and 2 machine guns.
They have one torpedo tube above water and two under water.
MONSTERS OF THE SEA.

A later group of six was built in 1900 and 1902. These
monsters of the sea are of 12,950 tons displacement, 13,500
horsepower and have 2,300 tons coal capacity. They have a
speed of 18.25 knots, 6 inches of armor belt and from 8 to 12
inches protection for her big guns. The armament consists of
4 12 -inch rapid fire guns, 12 6-inch rapid fire, 10 3-inch rapid
fire and 2 light rapid fire and 2 machine guns. There are four
torpedo tubes.

Gradually England developed larger and larger vessels
from this point, increasing the displacement in each group
from 16,350 tons in 1906 to 20,000 in 1911, and finally to
25,700, when the Queen Elizabeth and Warspite were com-
pleted in 1915. These boats — England's superdreadnoughts —
are of 58,000 horsepower (turbine), 4,000 tons oil capacity.
They have a speed of 25 knots, 13.5 inches of armor belt and
from 8 to 13.5 inches protection for the big guns. The arma-
ment consists of 8 15-inch, 16 6-inch and 12i 3-inch rapid fire

246

THE WORLD'S NAVIES.

guns. They have five torpedo tubes. There were 150,609
officers and men in the navy when England entered the war.

THE FRENCH NAVY.

At the beginning of the war the French navy ranked
fourth among the navies of the world. She had 18 battleships
of the older types, and which ranged in date of launching from
1894 to 1909. There were building at that time eight ships of
about 23,095 tons displacement. Although France had no
battle cruisers, she had 19 armored cruisers. The heavier of
these ships had a designed speed of 23 knots, and carried from
2100 to 2300 tons of coal. Their main batteries consisted of
2 7.6-inch rapid fire and 8 6.4-inch rapid fire guns.

Two protected cruisers, the D'Entrecasteaux and the
Guichen, and 10 light cruisers of no fighting importance com-
pleted the list of French ships.

France was, however, strong, so far as numbers go, in
destroyers, torpedo boats and submarines, there being 84 de-
stroyers, with displacements of 276 to 804 tons and speeds of
28 and 31 knots. She possessed 135 torpedo boats and 78 sub-
marines, but many of these were of small size. One hundred
and one of her torpedo boats had displacements of about 95
tons, and 20 of the submarines had displacements of 67 tons.

Of the submarines, there were 33 which had a displace-
ment of 390 tons, 2 of 410 tons, 6 of 550 tons, 2 of 785 tons
and 7 of 830 tons. This displacement, which was surface, is
usually 70 per cent of the submerged. The larger submarines
carry from six to eight torpedo tubes. In the early part of
1916 the French Government had 12 submarines building,
these latter having surface displacement of 520 tons and having
Diesel motors of 2000 horsepower. The speed of these sub-
marines is 17% knots on the surface and 8 knots submerged.

Attached to the French fleet are 16 auxiliaries, used as
mine-layers, submarine destroyers and aeroplane mother ships,
of from 300 to 7,898 tons.

THE WORLD'S NAVIES.

247

There were 61,240 officers and men in the navy of France
when war was declared.

THE RUSSIAN NAVY.

With the ending of the Russo-Japanese war the Russian
navy was given an overhauling. There were but three of the
old battleships of the Russian navy left after this fateful strug-
gle, these being the Tri Sviatitelia, the Panteleimon and the
Czarevitch. The Russian Government labored diligently to
build up her navy, and is still doing her utmost to readjust that
branch of her service.

With the outbreak of the great war she had six armored
cruisers, none of which was in the Black Sea. These averaged
in tonnage from 7,900 to 15,170 tons displacement. There
were eight cruisers of from 3,100 to 6,700 tons, and of no fight-
ing value whatever.

Russia had but 14 torpedo boats, all small and of little
value. She had a fairly good fleet of destroyers and subma-
rines, having 91 of the former and 55 submarines.

There were 36,000 officers and men in the service when
hostilities opened.

THE AUSTRIAN NAVY.

When the war was declared Austria, Germany's sup-
porter, had nine battleships ready. These were completed
since 1905, as follows: In 1906 and 1907 there were finished
three battleships which displaced 10,433 tons, had 14,000 horse-
power and 1315 tons coal capacity. They had a speed of 19.25
knots, 6 to 8.25 inches of side armor and 9.5 inches protection
for the big guns. The armament consisted of 4 9.4-inch, 12
7.6-inch rapid fire, 14 3-inch rapid fire and 16 smaller guns.
They had two torpedo tubes.

In 1910 three other ships were added to the navy. These
were slightly larger than those described just above, having a
displacement of 14,268 tons, with engines of 20,000 horse-
power. They had three torpedo tubes.

248

THE WORLD'S NAVIES.

Three ships of 20,000 tons displacement were launched in
1912 and 1913. They had a speed of 20 knots and four tor-
pedo tubes. Three other battleships had been built up until
1906, and these, together with 10 light cruisers, were in the
Austrian navy at the breaking out of hostilities.

The torpedo boat destroyers, of which there were 18, must
not be forgotten. Twelve of these were of 384 tons, capable
of making 28% knots. These carried 4 12-pounders and 2
21-inch torpedo tubes. They were built for oil fuel.

There were six submarines in this navy, these being of
moderate size, ranging from 216 to 235 tons displacement on
the surface.

THE JAPANESE NAVY.

There were 9 first-class battleships in the Japanese navy
at the beginning of the world war. Of battle cruisers there
were 5, while of the older battleships 13 were ready for orders.
Twelve first-class cruisers were ready for duty, and there were
9 second-class cruisers and 9 third-class cruisers. Of gunboats
there were 5, 60 destroyers, 37 torpedo boats and 15 subma-
rines. The personnel of the Japanese navy consisted of 47,000
officers and men.

THE ITALIAN NAVY.

Italy was ready for her part on the seas with 7 first-class
battleships, 8 of the older type, 9 first-class cruisers, 5 second-
class cruisers, 10 third-class cruisers, 5 gunboats, 46 destroyers,
75 torpedo boats and 20 submarines. There were 36,000
officers and men to handle these ships.

THE TURKISH NAVY.

When hostilities were declared Turkey had a navy con-
sisting of 2 first-class battleships, 3 battleships of an older type,
2 first-class cruisers, 2 second-class cruisers, 4 third-class
cruisers, 8 gunboats, 2 monitors, 10 destroyers and 8 torpedo
boats. The officers and men in the Turkish navy numbered
30,000.

THE WORLD'S NAVIES.

249

UNITED STATES NAVY.

The United States navy, which has made an enviable
reputation for itself wherever and whenever the boats and men
have been engaged, ranked third at the beginning of the war.
While not of the heaviest type, the boats were of the most
improved models, and maintained on a basis that justified the
belief that they would stand up in the face of the severest
opposition.

There were 12 modern battleships, 30 of an older type,
10 armored cruisers, 5 first-class cruisers, 4 second-class
cruisers, 16 third-class cruisers, 30 gunboats, 9 monitors, 74
destroyers, 19 torpedo boats and 73 submarines, manned by
55,389 officers and men. The California, Idaho, Arizona, Mis-
sissippi and Pennsylvania are the latest battleships of the navy,
and are of the super-dreadnought type. All of these battle-
ships have a displacement of more than 31,000 tons, and have
the most complete equipment that it is possible to command.
The batteries consist of 4 13-inch and 14 6-inch guns, 4
6-pounders, together with 4 21-inch torpedo tubes. There is a
variation in the batteries, but all have approximately the same
kind of armament.

One of these huge vessels is about 625 feet long, and has
a speed of from 21 to 23 knots. The Pennsylvania, one of the
largest, is of 31,500 horsepower, and cost approximately
$7,250,000. In addition to this, Congress had authorized the
construction of what is designed to be the supreme type of
fighting vessel. The plans for these vessels call for the con-
struction of vessels aproximately 875 feet long and nearly 90
feet wide. Some idea of what enormous vessels these must be
may be gained when it is seen that the cruisers are 250 feet
longer than the super-dreadnought.

The battle cruisers have six decks, extending from end to
end, and are so extensive that they almost constitute a battle-
front.

250

THE WORLD'S NAVIES.

This comparison to a battlefront on land becomes interest-
ing when consideration of it is further pursued. There are
even railroads to fetch ammunition to the guns, though they
run vertically instead of horizontally. The general headquar-
ters is in the conning tower, to which all lines of "field com-
munication" lead — telegraphs, telephones, etc.

The "observation posts," for directing and correcting the
range and aim of artillery, are at the tops of the two wire
"bird-cage" masts. This work is helped (as on land) by kite
balloons and aeroplanes, which, as part of its righting equip-
ment, the battle cruiser carries. To blind the enemy ships,
under suitable circumstances, the big guns create a "barrage"
of water, by directing their fire at the sea in front of the hostile
vessels, throwing over them a mass of spray.

AMPLE PROVISION FOR THE WOUNDED.

On board the battle cruiser is a fully equipped field hos-
pital, supplemented by battle dressing stations near the guns,
for the emergency treatment of the wounded. To the musi-
cians of the ship's band is assigned the duty of carrying wound-
ed men to the dressing stations and the hospital, the latter
being on one of the lower decks, beneath the water level.

The battle cruiser, built long and narrow, has a great
speed. The four monster propellers are driven by electricity,
which is generated by engines fed with fuel oil. The speed
attained is 35 knots an hour, which means the same speed as a
train traveling at the rate of 40 miles an hour, since the sea
mile, or knot, is longer than the land mile.

In order to obtain this enormous speed it was necessary
for the designers of the battle cruisers to sacrifice armor pro-
tection. The armor on these ships is but an eight-inch belt.
The real object of the battle cruiser is to use its superior speed
and overwhelming gun power to overtake and destroy the
enemy's ships of the second line, the auxiliaries and scouts.

Each of these vessels has a displacement of 34,800 tons —

THE WORLD'S NAVIES.

251

meaning, in plain language, that they weigh that much, hence
displace that much water when launched. The biggest British
battle cruiser, which is the largest battle cruiser afloat, is the
British Tiger, which has a displacement of 28,500 tons, and is
less in length by 150 feet than these mighty battle cruisers.
The Tiger is much less formidably armed, carrying eight
13^2-inch guns. The largest German battle cruiser is the
Derfflinger, of 26,200 tons, and armed with eight 12-inch rifles.

Our latest commissioned dreadnought, the Arizona, has
engines of 31,400 horsepower. The engines of that monster
passenger steamship, the ill-fated Lusitania, were of 70,000
horsepower. Those of the Tiger boast 120,000 horsepower.
But each of our six battle cruisers has 180,000 horsepower to
drive her through the water.

HUGE FIGHTING CRAFT.

These huge fighting craft are the most expensive ships
ever built. Each of them cost about $20,000,000, the money
outlay being something like $16,500,000, exclusive of armor
and guns. And for each battle cruiser must be provided, in
the way of personnel, 1,153 enlisted men, 64 marines and 58
officers.

While the American Navy had but 55,389 men when the
war opened it was quickly increased, and under the Army bill,
which provided for the reorganization and increasing of the
land forces, the naval forces were also increased.

The bill increasing the authorized enlisted strength of the
navy to 150,000 did not provide for any additional officers
above the rank of lieutenant. The increase in the enlisted force
amounts to 57,000, the authorized strength at the time of the
law's passage being 93,000. Based on the increase, the allow-
ance of officers would be 747 lieutenants and 954 lieutenants
junior grade and ensigns.

The increase in the enlisted strength of the Marine Corps
from 17,400 to 30,000, or by 12,600, also gives an additional

252

THE WOKLD'S NAVIES.

allowance of 504 officers to the corps, which, under the bill, are
distributed among the grades of major, captain, first lieuten-
ant and second lieutenant.

The Marine Corps is one of the most picturesque military
organizations in the world. There is, probably, no other such
body of trained soldiery. While they are under the control of
the Navy Department, they can be detached from that branch
of the service and assigned for duty with any other branch of
the military forces of the country.

POLICEMEN OF THE SEA.

They are the policemen of the sea ; they are artillerymen,
infantrymen, cavalry, engineers, and soldiers, first, last and all
the time. They are the first troops in action, and there is no
restriction as to the kind of military duty they are called upon
to perform.

The Marines served on shore and on board vessels of the
navy throughout the Revolutionary War, two battalions hav-
ing been authorized by the Continental Congress November
10, 1775. The present organization really dates from July,
1798, when Congress passed an act approving the establish-
ment of an organization to be known as the Marine Corps,
consisting of 1 major, 4 captains, 16 first lieutenants, 12 second
lieutenants, 48 sergeants, 48 corporals, 32 drums and fifes and
720 privates.

Every one of the 15,000 men who composed the more than
a century old Marine Corps when the war broke out was ready
and on his toes when the call for action came. There was noth-
ing in the way of scientific preparedness that got by them. In
the matter of trench helmets, for instance, when it was time for
the American nation to come to the front in the great world
war, the Marines had a helmet so much of an improvement on
the one used by the Allies that there was no comparison.

Armored motorcars, likewise, of the most improved type,
belonged to the Marine Corps when the call for action came.

THE WORLD'S NAVIES.

253

These cars are capable of making 45 miles an hour, and there
were plenty of them for service in the Marine Corps. Some
interesting equipment never used before the big war composed
part of the quartermasters' stores in the Marine Corps.

It's a marvel what these chaps can do with a big naval
gun — one of those big brutes which are bolted down to the deck
of a warship. It doesn't look like a thing to be picked up and
carted around the country. That's precisely what the heavy
artillery companies do, however. It takes them but a few min-
utes to sling one of these five-inchers over the side of a ship,
land it, and take it wherever it is needed. They do this with
the aid of a single-spar derrick, some little narrow-gauge
trucks and a portable narrow-gauge railroad.

TRANSPORTATION OF BIG GUN.

The method is to lay down the railroad — it can be done
very swiftly by men carefully trained in the art of laying tracks
over all kinds of ground — put the gun and its mount, with a
specially prepared base of extremely heavy timbers, on the
tracks, and trundle it to the place where it is needed to pour
a rapid fire into the enemy.

Here a pit has been dug, in which is laid down the heavy
timber base, riveted together with heavy steel bolts. Then it
is well packed with dirt and stone, and the gun carriage made
fast ingeniously. The single-stick derrick has been erected
alongside, guyed out in four directions with heavy ropes, which
are made fast to the ground by means of "dead men," and
manipulated by very live gangs of husky marines. A chain
block of powerful type is used to pick up the gun carriage and
put it in place, and afterwards to swing the gun into its sockets
on the carriage.

Later the breech locks and sights are added, and the big
five-inch, 40-caliber naval gun is ready to go into action. These
big and heavy guns, suitable for long range work with high
explosive shells, can be taken a quarter of a mile or so from the

254

THE WORLD'S NAVIES.

ship which carried them, over rough ground, set up and put in
operation in a few days' time.

But the heavy artillery base is only one of the Marines'
work. They have big howitzers, of the more modern type,
most of which are kept at Annapolis, where they can be loaded
aboard ship in short order. Men and machines can be mobilized
at the strategic points in a very short time.

EVERY MAN S SERVICE.

The Marine service is unique in many respects. For one
thing, it is every man's service. The proportion of officers who
have risen from the ranks or who have been commissioned
from civilian life is higher in the Marine Corps than in either
the Army or the Navy. This, of course, makes for democracy
in the corps. An enlisted man, who does not wait until he is
too far up in the 20's to enlist, has a very fair chance of earning
his commission. Another thing — and this is of prime import-
ance to the ambitious fellow — promotion goes by merit. In the
army and navy the young officer is promoted by seniority.

Things are a bit different in the Marine Corps. In this
organization a man doesn't absolutely have to wait for his num-
ber to come around. If he distinguishes himself above his fel-
lows, he may be promoted without much regard for age or
length of service. He goes up as he is able to, by his active
ability and his readiness to work hard and effectively for Uncle
Sam. There are advocates, of course, of both systems. There
are merits which both systems can justly claim. But it goes
without saying that this possibility of promotion keeps every-
body in the Marine Corps on the jump.

Even the enlisted men who are too old to get commissions
have something to work for. Not very long since Congress
authorized the appointment of "warrant officers" in the Marine
Corps. The Navy had this grade for many years. It is new
in the Marine Corps, and is an added incentive to hard work.

Another incentive — and perhaps the strongest one — that

THE WORLD'S NAVIES.

255

draws young fellows of the up-and-doing sort into the Marine
Corps is that of active service. The Marines boast that they
are always on the job; that no matter how peaceful the time,
the Marines are sure to see "something stirring" right along.
It is a saying — and a true one — in the Marine Corps that every
marine who* lias served the ordinary enlistment in the corps
since the Spanish- American war has smelt powder. Ever since
the fuss with Spain the marines have been covering themselves
with glory. In that little war of 1898 the Marines were the
first to land in Cuba. They held Guantanamo for three
months. In 1890 they saw service in the Philippines; the next
year in China. In 1902 the Marines took part in the fighting
against Aguinaldo, the wily Filipino leader. In 1903 they put
down the rebellion in Panama, captured Colon and opened up
the Panama railroad. In 1906 they helped quiet the uprising
of that summer in Cuba. They were in Nicaragua in 1909.
From 1911 to 1913 they did more duty in Cuba, with a whirl
in Nicaragua again in 1912. They helped hold Vera Cruz
for three months in 1914. Next year they went to Haiti, where
they have been moderately busy from time to time since. Santo
Domingo saw them in 1916.

AN UNAPPROACHABLE RECORD.

Neither the army nor the navy can claim anything to beat
it — you couldn't tell a marine that the rival branches of the
service can claim anything to equal it. And as for the modern
implements of warfare — the European armies have no advan-
tage over the marines for testing out new devices. They had
armored cars, for instance, as far back as 1906; they began to
use motor trucks for military purposes as early as 1909. Every
marine expedition is equipped with its quota of armored trucks.
They would as soon think of voyaging over the seas to put
down an incipient revolution without their armored cars and
motor trucks as they would of going to meet the enemy without
their rifle.

256

THE WORLD'S NAVIES.

There used to be an old joke about "Horse Marines." A
sailorman on a horse is an incongruous thing — a sight to make
you hold your sides. But the marines are not plain sailormen.
They are "soldier and sailor, too," and as soldiers they have
turned the joke on the old saw about "horse marines." There
are "horse marines" these days, and mighty good cavalry they
make.

The marine can ride with the best of the cavalrymen. And
in the fracas in Domingo there were two cavalry companies of
marines organized.

THE MANY-SIDED MARINE.

It takes a bit longer to make an efficient marine than to
make an infantryman. This because the marine is a man of
many specialties. He is, of course, in season and out of season,
an international policeman. That's his job in time of peace.
But when he fares abroad to fight his country's battles he may
be called upon to do almost any kind of work. He may be an
artilleryman; a signalman; an airman. He may be, and
usually is, anything that his country needs at that particular
time. And he is trained to meet the emergency.

The new recruit, in ordinary times, is sent for his first in-
struction to Port Royal, down in Georgia. There he has
nothing to do but drill, drill, drill, until he can do the infantry
evolutions in his sleep. He learns to drill, he learns to keep
clean — the Marines are something of a dandy corps — and he
learns to take care of himself no matter what happens. He is
taught to be a soldier and a man. He learns to walk straight,
shoot straight, think straight. And then he goes for a spell to
sea — for after all, he needs sea legs as well as land legs.

But these two tricks of duty by no means end the marine's
schooling. When he has become an efficient all-around man he
may specialize. He may, if he chooses, go into the signal corps
and learn the multitude of details connected with this ultra-
modern arm of the service. He learns to send messages by

THE WORLD'S NAVIES.

257

every possible means. He learns to operate a radio. And, it
might be mentioned in passing, the Marine Corps is equipped
with the very finest of radio apparatus. They have big trucks
which carry the outfit and suppfy the power for either sending
radio messages or operating huge electric searchlights. Or he
may go into aviation.

Reproduced by permission of N. Y. Evening Post.
INTERNATIONAL BOUNDARIES BEFORE THE WAR.
This map shows the boundary lines between nations as they were at the
beginning- of the war, as also the coast lines of Europ'e. The latter are brought
out in bold relief.

258

CHAPTER XIV.
THE NATIONS AT WAR.

Unexpected Developments — How the War Flames Spread — A Score of Coun-
tries Involved — The Points of Contact — Picturesque and Rugged BUL-
GARIA, ROUMANIA, SERVIA, GREECE, ITALY AND, HISTORIC SOUTHEAST EUROPE,

THE real history of the greatest war of all times is the
history of the entire world, touching every phase of
existence in a manner that has never been approxi-
mated by any other conflict. The motives and ramifications
are so great that it is almost impossible for the human mind to
grasp the significance of many things of importance which, at
a glance, seem to be but incidents.

The world looked on expectantly when the war started,
because there was a general knowledge of the conditions exist-
ing in Europe and the undercurrent was felt by students of
international affairs. But that Russia would revolt and the
Czar abdicate, as he did in March, 1917, and the iron-ruled
country would set up a government of its own — would join
the circle of democracies — was not even hinted at. Neither
was it intimated that Constantine I, King of Greece, would
abdicate in favor of his son, Prince Alexander, as he did in the
following June, under pressure, because of his sympathy for
Germany.

Neither was there a suspicion that the fire started by the
flash of a pistol and the bursting of a bomb in Bosnia would
spread until sixteen countries were arrayed against Ger-
many and Austria, supported by the Bulgarians and the
Turks. And to these must be added the entrance into the con-
flict of Canada, Australia, New Zealand, possessions of Great
Britain, and smaller possessions of other countries. The flames
swept over the face of the earth in this fashion:

Starting with the movement of Austria against Servia,
after the assassination of the Archduke Ferdinand, there lined

259

260

THE NATIONS AT WAR.

up as a consequence of the alliances formed between the pow-
ers, the countries referred to in preceding chapters. The triple
alliance was originally an agreement between Germany, Aus-
tria-Hungary and Italy, to strengthen their positions, and the
Triple Entente consisted of agreements between France, Eng-
land and Russia.

INVASION OF BELGIUM.

Briefly, the invasion of Belgium by Germany, and her
ambitions in the southeast, where Russia had what amounted
to protectorate relations, drew first France, England and
Russia into the strife, and step by step there became involved
nation after nation. The steps, marked by the declarations of
war, were as follows: On July 28, 1914, Austria declared war
on Servia, and on August 1 Germany made the declaration
against Russia. Next Germany turned upon France, on the
third day of August, and also on Belgium, whereupon, on the
following day, Great Britain declared war on Germany ; a day
later Austria-Hungary issued the mandate against Russia,
and two days later, or on August 8, Montenegro declared war
on Austria. Austria accepted the challenge, and then Servia
took up the cudgel against Germany. France made formal
declaration of war on Austria-Hungary and by the end of
August Montenegro had declared against Germany; Great
Britain on Austria; Japan on Germany; Austria on Japan;
Austria on Belgium. Later, or early in November, Russia
declared herself against Turkey, as did France and Great
Britain.

For six months the battle raged and the rest of the world
regarded the result with grave concern until in May of 1915
Italy, having renounced her alliance with Germany and Aus-
tria, declared war first on Austria, then on Turkey. In the
fall of 1915 Servia took up arms against Bulgaria, as did
Great Britain, France, Italy and Russia. Then Germany de-
clared against Portugal, whose government replied in kind;

THE NATIONS AT WAR.

261

Austria followed Germany in the alignment and finally, in
August, 1916, there were exchanges of sharp "courtesies" —
the complete severance of all diplomatic relations and open
warfare — between Roumania and Austria-Hungary; then be-
tween Bulgaria and Roumania, with the consequent alignment
of the Central Powers. Italy had also made her declaration
against Germany specific. So for nine months the war waged
with terrible bitterness until on April 6, the Ufnited States, by
the proclamation of President Wilson, was finally at war with
Germany.

IN THE NATURE OF MERE FORMALITIES.

These steps were, in many instances, in the nature of for-
malities, for the relationships of some of the countries involved
placed them in the position of practically being at war before
formal announcement was made. The position then, was that
Germany, Austria-Hungary and Turkey were supported by
Bulgaria, who was anxious to get redress for having been
cheated out of what she regarded as her rightful possessions in
the settlement of the Balkan war question. Those aligned on
the other side were England, France, Russia, Montenegro,
Italy, Belgium (which had been making defensive warfare in
keeping with her desire to be true to her neutral pledges) ;
Servia, Roumania, Japan, Portugal, the United States, the
little principality of Monaco, which is best known as the seat
of Monte Carlo, the great gambling center of Europe, and
San Marino, a similar "patch" on the map of Europe. Brazil,
Guatemala, and the little Republic of Cuba also aligned them-
selves against Germany in support of the Allies, though there
was no actual engagement of their forces. Thus there could
be counted as at war against the Central Powers in June, 1917,
sixteen countries.

Most interesting of all the countries involved were those
belonging to the Balkan group and centering in southeastern
Europe. The Balkan nations, Bulgaria, Servia, Montenegro,

THE NATIONS AT WAR.

with Greece, paved the way for their entrance into the conflict
when they formed an alliance, in 1912, for common protection,
particularly for the enforcement of one of the provisions of
the Berlin Treaty, guaranteeing local government to the Bul-
gar and Serbian colonies in Macedonia. Montenegro began
war on Turkey in October, and Bulgaria, Servia and Greece
joined and drove the Turks out of many of their strongholds.

" COMIC OPERA " SOLDIERS.

In a month of fighting the little countries, in the pictur-
esque southeastern section, whose soldiers have been depicted
as "comic opera" soldiers, had rent Turkey; Greece had cap-
tured the famous Macedonian city of Salonica, once known as
Thessalonica, where was located the church in which was ad-
dressed St. Paul's Epistle to the Thessalonians ; while the
Servians had captured Monastir, one of the most important
centers in Macedonia, and the Bulgarians had driven the Turks
almost to the famed city of Constantinople. The Servian sol-
diers finally marched to the Adriatic sea, and Albania raised
a flag of its own and asked Austria-Hungary and Italy to
recognize its independence and grant it protection.

Within little more than two months Turkey had been de-
prived of the greater portion of her possessions in Europe and
a treaty of peace was signed between the allied countries and
the Turks. By this agreement Albania became in effect a su-
zerainty, protected by Austria. But the agreement between
Germany, Austria-Hungary and Italy — the Triple Entente —
gave those countries a combined power which, when it came to
fixing the terms of peace, left the small allied countries of
victory at a disadvantage, and while Montenegro and Greece
gained some territory, as did Servia, Bulgaria lost what she
had gained in the war. Turkey lost 90 per cent of her Empire
in Europe, which so aroused the country that the rising of
the young Turks followed and the government was, reorgan-

264

THE NATIONS AT WAR.

ized. The enforced terms of settlement, however, set the little
countries at each other's throats.

The field of the Balkan battles is the very center of the
world's history. Along the Adriatic, Ionian and Agean seas
are lands and territories peopled with races that mark their
ancestry back to the very darkest ages. The protected country
of Albania, with its rocky surface, numbers among its peoples
descendants of the Arnauts, whose very origin is a mystery.
They were present before the days of Greece and Rome. The
Ottoman Turks, the Bulgars from the plains of the Volga and
the Ural Mountains, the Serbs, the Roumanians, Russians,
Italians, the Slavs, Tartars.

A REGION OF MOUNTAINS.

Albania is a mountainous region along the Adriatic coast,
peopled with descendants of the ancients who maintain their
characteristics. They are said to be descendants of the Pelas-
gian races, which inhabited the territory before the Greeks
builded their Athens.

The Albanians are wild, daring mountaineers, and though
the people have, to all intents and purposes, been under Turk-
ish rule for centuries, they have never recognized the sov-
ereignty of the Sultan. It was originally part of the Turkish
Empire in Europe, having been taken by Turkey, in 1467, and
is a fertile, but wild country.

The same picturesque people that make up the popula-
tion of Albania constitute the populace of the little country
of Montenegro, which was once part of the Turkish posses-
sion. Montenegro contained about 3486 square miles of terri-
tory before its acquisitions in the Balkan wars. Aided by
Russia, the country obtained its independence from Turkey in
1878, and in 1910 became a kingdom. Its present area is about
5650 square miles and the population 520,000. The capital is
Cettinje.

Bulgaria was also once a part of the Turkish possessions,

THE NATIONS AT WAR.

265

and under the Treaty of Berlin, in 1878, became a suzerainty.
It is a famous pastoral country, inhabited by a people for
years held under the Ottoman heel. They are racially Tura-
nians, and kin of the Tartar and Huns, who came into their
present fertile country from the vast plains of eastern Russia.
They made their way thither more than a thousand years ago,
and battling at the very gates of Constantinople, by their fierce
crusades, secured the grants from the Byzantine Empire of
the territory, which constitutes the Bulgaria of today. The
population is nearly 5,000,000, and the country contains about
43,000 square miles.

WHY ITALY ENTERED THE WAR.

Italy's reasons for entering the war, aside from her de-
mands for territory, in exchange for continuance of neutrality,
have to do with matters of years gone by, when she began the
struggle for her liberation from the Austrian domination.
Italy desired, among other things, to acquire Trentino, Goritz,
and other adjacent territory controlled by Austria, but Italian
in every attribute. Trentino is a rocky region, and strategically
valuable to the country . possessing it, which was proved by the
terrible struggle which the Italians were forced to make in
their attacks against the Austrian forces.

The city of Trent is the capital of Trentino, famous in
history, and the seat of the long church council in 1545-46. 1%
was in turn controlled by Roman, Goth, Hun, Lombard and
Holy Roman Empire. It is the site of many historic buildings,
notably the cathedral of Trent, which is a fine example of
Lombard architecture, and the church of Santa Maria Mag-
gorie, where the famous Council of the Roman Catholic
Church was held. There are old towers, and libraries rich in
manuscripts.

Trentino is famous for its mountain passes, over which
the Italians have been compelled to drag their heavy artillery
and implements of war. The Alpini, the mountaineer soldiers

E k— 13

Z6Q

THE NATIONS AT WAR.

267

of Italy, are among the most picturesque in the world. They
have scaled the almost perpendicular faces of the Alps, climb-
ing from crag to crag with their bodies roped together, drag-
ging machine guns in pieces strapped to their shoulders. Tol-
mino, Trieste, Istria, Dalmatia, Avlona, the prime harbor of
Albania (seized by Italy in the fall of 1916) . These are little
spots in the territory logically Italian, which Italy covets.

DIVIDED INTO SIXTEEN DEPARTMENTS,

Italy, since its consolidation into one kingdom in 1870>
has been divided into sixteen departments comprising sixty-
nine provinces. The country has a total area of 110,623 square
miles, and a population of a little more than 35,000,000. The
Roman Catholic Church is irrevocably linked to the history of
Italy and Rome, its capital, marked the farthest advance of
civilization in the ancient days. It possesses four distinct zones,
ranging from the almost arctic cold of the mountain belts to an
almost tropical heat in the southern lowlands. It is one of the
picturesque countries of the world, a center of art, industry
and travel.

Servia, which is separated from Austria-Hungary by the
Danube, is of precisely the same character as the other rich,
mountainous region. The country was subjugated by the
Turks, who retained possession of it until 1717. Austria then
wrested control from the Turks, and held it until 1791, when
Turkey again dominated it. In 1805 the Servians revolted,
and secured temporary independence, only to again come un-
der the Ottoman rule. Again it secured freedom in 1815, and
by the Treaty of Paris, independent existence was secured for
it. Turkey became only a nominal authority. It became a
kingdom in 1882, after having become absolutely independent
with the Berlin Treaty.

The people are Slavonic, and kin to the Croats of ancient
history. They are described as having come from Poland and
Galicia, moving down the Danube, into what is the present

268

THE NATIONS AT WAR.

kingdom. In the fourteenth century the Servian empire com-
prised the whole Balkan peninsula, from Greece to Poland,
and from the Black Sea to the Adriatic. But Servia warred
with Turkey, and her troops were defeated in the great battle
at Kossovo, and the Ottoman powder became supreme. The
country has an area of about 34,000 square miles and a popula-
tion of 4,600,000.

LITTLE BOSNIA'S FUTURE.

Bosnia, where was assassinated the Archduke Francis
Ferdinand, of Austria, was a Turkish province, west of Servia,
and under the treaty of Berlin was to be administered for an
undefined period by the Austrian government. The little sec-
tion contains about 16,000 square miles and has a population of
about 1,750,000, largely of Slavonic origin. They are partly
Mohammedans, partly Roman Catholics and Greek Catholics.
In the middle ages Bosnia belonged to the Eastern Empire.
Later it became a separate kingdom, dependent upon Hun-
gary, only to be conquered by the Turks. It is the mountain-
ous, rugged country of the Julian and Dinaric Alps, but has
many fertile valleys, and is well watered by the river Save, and
its numerous tributaries.

Greece, the modern kingdom, is one of the countries that
for centuries were politically included within the limits of the
Turkish Empire. In its present form it represents but a por-
tion of that country, famous in history, as the Greece of the
Ancients — that classic land which holds the most conspicuous
place in the pages of ancient history — but still it is inclusive of
the greatest names belonging to the glorious past. It is the
country of Athens, Sparta, Corinth, Thebes and Argos. It is
separated from Turkey by a winding boundary, extending
from the Gulf of Arta on the west to the Gulf of Salonica on
the east.

The earliest settlers were the Pelasgi, who were in course
of time replaced by the Hellenes. They, in turn, were sue-

THE NATIONS AT WAR.

269

ceeded by the Phoenicians, who swayed the country. Athens,
Sparta, Thebes and Corinth came into existence and became
the centers of political government, of the most progressive
advancement in civilization. Civil discords brought on first
the Peloponnesian War, about 434 B. C, and made them prey
to the Macedonians. Successively invaded by Goths, Vandals
and Normans the country came into the possession of the Turks
in 1481, though for two centuries the power of the Turk was
questioned by the Venitians. Revolt was had from the Otto-
man yoke in 1821, and independence was secured by the inter-
ference of foreign powers after the defeat of the Turk at the
Navarino, in 1827. Through the succeeding years it has been
a protected monarchy.

ONE OF THE BALKAN GROUP.

Roumania, the largest of the Balkan group, lying be-
tween Russia on the north, and Bulgaria on the south, is the
home of the Gacians, descendants of the warlike tribes who for
years held their own against Greek and Roman. After the
fall of Rome the province became a melting pot, through which
the hordes of invaders, passing from Russia to Asia, were in a
sense made one people. The Goths, the Huns, the Lombards,
the Bulgars and the Magyars traversed the region, leaving
many settlers. It became divided into two provinces, Moldavia
and Wallachia, known as the Danubian provinces.

Both provinces were conquered by the Turks in the fif-
teenth and sixteenth centuries, and under Peter the Great the
Russians attempted the conquest of the provinces. In 1859
the two provinces were united under a prince whose indepen-
dence both Turkey and Russia recognized, and in 1881 the
country declared itself a kingdom. The province of Wallachia
derives its name from the people who early settled there, the
Wallachs. The Roumanians claim descent from VlachL
a colony of Romans, who settled in Thrace, and, in the twelf th
century, emigrated to the Danube. The name Roumania is

270

THE NATIONS AT WAR.

derived from the word Roman, the country having originally
been "the Land of the Roumani." Roumania has a population
of about 7,600,000 and comprises 64,000 square miles.

Macedonia, famous country of Greece in the time of
Philip, father of Alexander the Great, embraced the entire
region from the Scardian Mountains to Thessaly, and from the
Epirus and Iliyria to the river Nestos, taking in what is now
part of Salonica. It was reduced by the Persians and 'subse-
quently Alexander the Great made it the nucleus of a vast and
powerful empire along with Greece. Ultimately it passed
under Roman sway, until it was ceded, in 1913, to Greece.

AN OBJECT OF CONTENTION.

Alsace-Lorraine is worthy of note, as comprising one of
the territories which for centuries have been the cause of con-
flict between Germany and France. It is pointed to as the
physical evidence of the humiliation of France at the hands of
the Germans, in 1870, and has for nearly one-half a century
been a German imperial territory. The surrender of Alsace
and part of Lorraine was made the principal condition of peace
on the settlement of the war of 1870. Bismarck, it is said,
might have been content with a language boundary, taking
only that portion of the country in which lived those who spoke
the German tongue.

For strategic purposes, however, Alsace and Lorraine,
with the exception of one district, were taken. The strip or
country was to be governed by the power of the German Em-
peror until the constitution of the German Empire was estab-
lished. Many of the inhabitants opposed the Prussian domi-
nation, and a vote was taken on who would declare themselves
Germans and remain in the territory, or French and leave.
More than 40,000 left the country and went into France.

The German language was made compulsory in the
schools, the courts and the legislative body. The French never
forgot their loss, and revenge for that loss has been a subject

271

272

THE NATIONS AT WAR.

of consideration in their foreign policy ever since the war of
1871. Alsace and Lorraine contain about 5600 square miles,
and together have a population of about two million. About
85 per cent of the people speak German.

PICTURESQUE TURKEY.

Turkey, one of the picturesque and ancient countries
which is aligned with the Germans, is a Mohammedan state of
the Ottoman Empire in southeastern Europe and western
Asia, whose holdings in Europe have been steadily decreasing,
especially during recent years. The immediate possessions of
Turkey, or those directly under the Sultan's rule at the time
this country became involved in the great world war, extended
from Montenegro, Bosnia, Servia and eastern Roumelia on the
north, to the Agean Sea and Greece on the south, and from
the Black Sea to the Adriatic, the Straits of Otranto and
the Ionic Sea. In September, 1911, the Italian government
sent a long list of claims made by Italy against Turkey for
economic and commercial discrimination against Italian com-
merce, and the person of Italian citizens all over the world.
A reply was demanded within twenty- four hours, and failing
to receive a reply considered satisfactory, Italy immediately
sent warships to Tripoli, bombarded and captured the city.
This meant that Turkey has lost one of her most important
seaports, consequently weakening her position.

The immediate possessions of Turkey in Europe, at this
time, had an area of 65,350 square miles, with a population of
6,200,000. In Asia Turkey had possessions of 693,610 square
miles, with a population of 16,900,000, while in Africa about
398,000 square miles belonged to the Turkish Empire, on which
lived 1,000,000 persons. This gave Turkey an area of about
1,157,860 square miles, with a population of 24,100,000. A
number of islands in the Agean Sea belong to Turkey, and
Egypt is also nominally part of the kingdom of the Sultan.

The population is a motley assortment of races, nationali-

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September 11, 1918, to December 17, 1918. Saint Mihiel Sector from June 21,
1918, to July 3, 1918. Argonne Forest from July 16, 1918. to August 15, 1918.
Battles for Mont des Sign°s September 16 to September 30, 1918. Oise-Aisne
offensive September 30 to November 11, 1918. Awarded the French Croix de Guerre
(Division Citation for meritorious service covering the period September 11 to November
11, 1918.

THE NATIONS AT WAR. 273

ties and creeds. About 38 per cent being Ottomans or Turks.
The Slavic and Rouman races come next in importance, then
the Arabs, the remaining population consisting of Moors,
Druses, Kurds, Tartars, Albanians, Circassians, Syrians, Ar-
menians, and Greeks, besides Jews and Gypsies.

PHOENIX OF THE GREEK EMPIRE.

The Ottoman Empire arose from the ruins of the old
Greek Empire, early in the fifteenth century, Constantinople
being made its capital in 1453, after its capture by Mohammed
II. At the accession of Mohammed IV, in 1648, the Turkish
Empire was at the zenith of its power. Internal corruption
caused loss of power, and in 1774, a large slice of territory was
ceded to Russia. In 1821 Greece became independent. The
Crimean War, in 1854-56, checked Russia for a while, but in
1875 the people of Herzegovina rebelled. A year later the
Servians and Montenegrins revolted, and in 1877 Russia be-
gan hostile operations in both parts of the Turkish Emipre.
At this time Roumania declared her independence. After the
fall of Kars and of Plevna, the Turkish resistance completely
collapsed, and in 1878 Turkey was compelled to agree to the
Treaty of San Stefano.

Within the year the Treaty of Berlin declared Roumania,
Servia and Montenegro independent; Roumanian Bessarabia
was ceded to Russia, Austria was empowered to occupy Bosnia
and Herzegovina ; and Bulgaria was made a principality. The
main events in the history of the Ottoman Empire since the
Treaty of Berlin were the French invasion of Tunis in 1881,
the Treaty with Greece, executed under pressure of the Great
Powers in 1881, by which Greece obtained Thessaly and a strip
of Epirus ; the occupation of Egypt by Great Britain in 1882 ;
the revolution of Philippopolis in 1885, by which eastern Rou-
melia became united with Bulgaria. In 1908 Bulgaria de-
clared its independence and the Young Turk Party extorted a
constitution and a parliament from Abdul-Hamud II, who

274 THE NATIONS AT WAK.

was deposed in 1909 by the unanimous vote of the national
assembly. Mohammed V, eldest brother of the deposed Sultan
succeeded to the throne.

Russia, "the Great Bear," whose part in the war brought
on internal strife and revolution which robbed Czar Nicholas
of his throne, traces its history back for more than ten cen-
turies, when the Norse invaded the territory and founded
Veliki Novgorod, for many years one of the chief Russian
cities. The Norse, to use the modern vernacular, "put Russia
on the map" when the Russian army fought its way to the very
walls of Constantinople. Much of the early history of the
country is legendary, and one of the famous stories is that after
Igor, who commanded the great armies, was put to death by
rebellious subjects, his widow sought out the territory where
her husband had lost his life and pretending to make peace
with them, requested every householder to give her a pigeon.

WINGED FIREBRANDS.

When they gladly complied with her request she sent the
tame birds back home with flaming firebrands tied to their
tails, and they entered their lofts or rests and started fires
which destroyed the city of Korosten. The ascendancy of the
Romanoff dynasty, which maintained in Russia through the
centuries, was established through the atrocities of Ivan the
Terrible, who is said to have absolutely destroyed the descen-
dants of the Rurik, the first Norse chieftain. Ivan the Ter-
rible was the first Czar of Russia. He conquered Servia and
his domestic infamies and intrigues are among the historical
scandals of the country.

Through every reign in Russian history there ran stories
of terrible crime, cruelties, infamies, immoralities and degra-
dation. Following the death of Ivan the Terrible came Fedor,
one of his sons, who was a weakling in the hands of the Duma
of five, one of whom was Boris Godounoff. Fedor reigned but
a few years, and Godounoff was elected Czar. He was am-

OUTLINE MAP OF THE BALKAN STATES.

This drawing* shows the boundary lines as they were at the beginning
of the war. It also shows the location of the principal city of each country.
This part of the world has always been of great importance since the earliest
history of man and nations — a continuous struggle between nations to con-
trol this gateway into southwestern Asia.

275

276

THE NATIONS AT WAR.

bitious, and was founder of the system of serfdom, and also of
the Russian State Church, and like many of the other rulers of
Russia, met death through infamy, supposedly having been
poisoned.

BASE IMPOSTER SLAIN.

Boris Godounoff was succeeded by his son Feodor, but he
was seized by a pretender, and with his mother, thrown into
prison, where they were murdered. The discovery of the plot
which was laid at the door of the King of Poland, produced an
uprising and Czar Dimitry the Impostor, was slain. Vasili
Shouyskie, leader of the mob that slew Dimitry, was pro-
claimed Czar, but pretenders sprang up, and one of these, who
posed as a false Dimitry, invaded Russia from Poland, and
established a rival imperial court at Toushin, and some of the
Russian cities swore allegiance to him.

Vasili Shouyskie held out at Moscow, and after a time
Dimitry's cause failed, whereupon Sigsmund, ^of Poland, in-
vaded Russia, and put forward his son Vladislav. Vasili,
roused to anger, committed acts which provoked Moscow, and
in 1610 he was compelled to abdicate, and a council of nobles
was formed to run the government until a Czar could be •
chosen. Vladislav was finally selected, but, Feodor Romanoff
sought to prevent his being crowned. There was a period of
anarchy, cities were burned, and chaos was complete.

The dignitaries of the church and state finally set to work
and supported the candidacy of Mikhial Feodorovitch Roman-
off, who was the first Romanoff Czar. He reorganized the
empire, and reigned for thirty-three years. His successor,
Alexis, the direct heir, reigned for thirty-one years, and culti-
vated friendly relations with Ukraine and the Cossack coun-
try. He was followed by Feodor II, and then came Peter the
Great. There were two claimants to the throne, Ivan and
Peter, both sons of Alexis by separate wives, and the difficulty
was settled by letting the two reign jointly under the regency
of Sophia, a sister of Ivan.

THE NATIONS AT WAK.

277

When Ivan died Peter assumed the reins, and it was he
who gave Russia a frontage on the Black Sea, and on the Bal-
tic, and built St. Petersburg. He did much for the develop-
ment of Russia, creating a navy and a merchantile marine.

Catherine the First, his widow, followed him in reign, and
at her death, Peter II occupied the center of the stage. At his
death there was chaos again and counter claims. Anna of
Courtland, a daughter of Ivan, brother of Peter the Great,
was finally elected sovereign, but she was a mere puppet, vest-
ing her authority in a High Council.

FAMILY'S WRETCHED CAREER.

During her reign her lover, named Biren, held sway and
distinguished himself by sending thousands of political exiles
to Siberia. At the death of Anna, Ivan IV, her grandnephew,
reigned, but was deposed and sent to prison for life, while
Elizabeth, youngest daughter of Peter the Great, succeeded
him. She permitted the government to be run on compari-
tively honest lines by favorites, and while they ruled she drank
herself to death.

Her nephew, Peter III, succeeded her. He was incom-
petent and a tool in the Prussian hands. His wife was a
German princess, and led a movement which ended in his being
deposed, imprisoned and murdered.

Catherine, widow of the murdered Peter, succeeded. She
was known as Catherine the Great, and is credited with having
been the most infamous of women in all history. Catherine
was succeeded by Paul, who was assassinated by his own
couriers when he was on the point of joining Napoleon Bona-
parte in his conquest of India.

His son wras Alexander I, who added Finland and Poland
to Russia, and founded the Holy Alliance. He was followed
by his son Nicholas, who ruled for 30 years, and crushed the
Poles and Hungarians, but died of a broken heart in the
Crimean War.

278

THE NATIONS AT WAR.

Next came Alexander II, who gained fame as liberator
of the serfs, and died the victim of a Nihilist bomb thrower.
Alexander III succeeded him, and then came Nicholas II, the
last Czar, whose reign lasted 22 years. The beginning of the
end was marked by the request of the workingmen in 1905 for
an increase in civil rights. They were fired upon, and there
was general disorder, until the Czar proclaimed a constitution,
and established a Duma, or national parliament, which met for
the first time in 1906.

BETRAYAL OF RUSSIA'S MILITARY PLANS.

The outbreak of the war was marked by the personal
decree of the Czar to change the name of the capital, St. Peters-
burg, to Petrograd, but his evident intent to eliminate evidences
of German influence did not stop the betrayal of Russia's
military plans by German spys within the court circles, and
it was charged that supplies were withheld from the Russian
army by those within the charmed circle, who were friendly
to Germany.

Russia was a party to the Franco-Russian and Anglo-
Russian agreement, which constituted the basis of the Triple
Entente, but conditions were such that the soldiers refused to
fight, and the situation culminated in the uprising which ended
with the abdication of the Czar, in behalf of his brother, who,
however, declined to accept the throne, unless he should be
elected by the votes of the Russian people. The Duma there-
upon decided to organize a republican form of government,
and so the Russian Republic came into being in March, 1917.

Spain, a fertile country in the southwestern part of
Europe, has played a prominent part in the development of
the world. She has a coastline extending nearly 1500 miles,
and there are about 200,000 square miles included in her terri-
tory. The coastlands and the southern section of the country
are especially rich in fruits and agriculture. Although

THE NATIONS AT WAR.

279

watered by many rivers, the land, for the most part, is artifici-
ally irrigated.

Up until 1898 Spain held possession of magnificent colo-
nies in Cuba and Porto Rico and the Philippines, but now her
colonial possessions are confined to a strip on the west coast of
the Sahara, and the island of Fernando Po, with some smaller
possessions on the Guinea coast iri Africa. Their total area is
about 434,000 square miles, the total population being
10,000,000.

SPAIN, PAST AND PRESENT.

Spain formerly composed the ancient provinces of New
and Old Castile, Leon, Asturias, Galicia, Estremadura,
Andalusia, Aragon, Murcia, Valencia, Catalonia, Navarre and
the Basque Provinces. These, since 1834, have been divided
into 49 provinces. The capital of Spain is Madrid, and the
present constitution dates from 1876. There is a Congress,
which is composed of deputies, each one representing 50,000 of
the population.

The Roman Catholic faith is the established form of
religion, and the priesthood possesses considerable wealth and
power, although the dominant influence once possessed has
been curtailed of recent years. The peace strength of the
army is about 83,000, and what navy she has is practically
new, as the Spanish navy was annihilated in the war with the
United States in 1898.

During recent years the republican tendencies among the
people have found vent in socialism. The Spanish socialist
leaders belong mostly to the intellectuals, and here again is
the weakness of the movement, whether considered as a means
of giving Spain a republic or of liberating her political system
undejr monarchical form. Some of the intellectual leaders
among the socialists headed straight for philosophic anarchy,
while others expended their energies in building castles in the
clouds.

280

THE NATIONS AT WAR.

The substantial socialism of the recent period was, how-
ever, based on the workingmen's movement. Before the out-
break of the great war the tendency was to affiliate with the
groups in other countries of Europe which advocated socialism
as an international creed. But when the German socialists
placed their country above internationalism, and the French
socialists did the same, and the Italian socialists joined in the
agitation to force the government into war to get back terri-
tory lost to Austria, the international basis of Spanish socialism
disappeared.

CHAPTER XV.
MODERN WAR, METHODS,

Individual Initiative as Against Mass Movements — Trench Warfare a Game
of Hide and Seek — Rats and Disease — Surgery's Triumphs — Changed Tac-
tics— Italian Mountain Fighting.

WARFARE such as carried on in the Great World War
is so different from that of any other of the great wars
which the world has seen, that it might be described as
a method of fighting distinctively unique. Undoubtedly, more
ancient methods, and even ancient weapons, have been em-
ployed than were used in any of the wars which have changed,
from time to time, the boundary lines of nations. The fighting
of mass against mass has been practically obliterated, and mod-
ern evolutions where the plan is man to man have developed
a mode of fighting where terrible execution has resulted.

Undoubtedly this means of fighting has developed the per-
sonal initiative of . the soldiers, and the modern fighting ma-
chine of the nations is of a high standard, which, together with
death-dealing weapons, has resulted in terrible havoc.
Massed movements, such as carried on in the War of the Re-
bellion, have been practically done away with, and although
there have been long and costly sieges, they have been carried
on by tedious trench fighting, airships, hand grenades, and
massive shells fired from guns of great caliber, and with a
range which is really marvellous.

Shells are fired, shrapnel in some cases, explosive shells in
others, which are timed to the second, so that when fired from
guns many miles from the objective point, they explode at a
measured distance from the earth. They are exploded within
a gauged distance of the target, and the execution is done over
a measured area. On the shells are indicators. Within the
shrapnel shells are hundreds of small shot. As the shell ex-

281

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MODERN WAR METHODS.

plodes the shots are scattered over the enemy, and death and
destruction are unavoidable.

With bomb shells, fired from guns of the largest caliber,
there are also indicators which are timed to the second. The
range and time of explosion previously figured out by officers,
the shell explodes where it is intended that it shall, and the
work of the great explosive is done with resultant damage.

WAR'S MANY DEVELOPMENTS.

The war has developed many of the new methods of fight-
ing and revived many of the old means of warfare. Cavalry
has not been as active in the relation in the great war as in any
of the wars of comparatively recent date, because of the ex-
tensive trench warfare which has formed so much of the fight-
ing plan. Fighting has been a question of trench raids, and
barrage fire, followed by the infantry charge through shell
holes. The impression brought home to the modern observer
is that the older recognized methods of warfare are .gone for
good.

The thing which war changed in the work of the cavalry-
man is in the nature of an addition, rather than a subtraction
from his duties and the training he must have. The day of
cavalry — as cavalry and nothing else — has passed. For today
the cavalryman must be familiar not only with the sword, lance
and revolver, but with the rifle as well. It has been demon-
strated that such long periods of trench warfare may develop
that it becomes necessary for him to dismount and make him-
self valuable in the scheme of military economy by fighting as
infantry until such time as the enemy line is broken and he can
again take to his horse and the work of harrying the retreat-
ing foe.

The war has been full of surprising results as regards cav-
alry. It was popularly supposed that in facing such terrible
modern weapons as the repeating rifle of long range, the ma-
chine gun and the automatic field pieces which have become so

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283

well known as the French "75s," any body of cavalry which
attempted to charge the enemy would be annihilated.

CAVALRY'S SUCCESSFUL CHARGES.

Yet all through the early stages of the war one reads of
desperate, and, what is more to the point, successful charges
made by British cavalry against batteries of German field
pieces. There was one instance in France, just back of the
Belgian frontier, where a charge of British lancers against a
German battery, which had a commanding position, saved the
day for a greatly-outnumbered allied detachment, which was
conducting that most difficult of all maneuvers, a rear guard
action, covering the retreat of the body of the army. The
charge of the lancers took the Germans so by surprise, and was
executed with such speed, that despite the heavy fire they
poured into the advancing horsemen the latter were at work
among them with spear and saber before reinforcements could
be brought up. Then the cavalry, dismounting and unslinging
their carbines, defended the position with such tenacity that the
German advance was delayed several hours, sufficient for the
rest of the allied forces to make good its withdrawal and the
consolidation of the new lines chosen for defense.

This idea of cavalry serving in the double role of infantry
and cavalry is a distinctly American development, a trick which
the Federal and Confederate armies taught the world during
the Civil War, and of which the British made excellent use in
South Africa against the Boers. The fact which this war has
established, however, is that the older use of cavalry, in the
charge against infantry, artillery and even entrenched posi-
tions is still of great value. The idea had developed from the
tactics so largely employed in the Civil War of using the cav*
airy as mounted infantry, that the increased deadliness of
modern weapons would make this us? of cavalry the sole use.

Now, however, it seems that not even the lance is to be
discounted. Given the opportunity to reach his objective, the

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MODERN WAR, METHODS.

lance becomes a terrible weapon in the hands of the horseman.
In hand-to-hand fighting the man with the rifle and bayonet
has some chance against the mounted man with the saber.
While fighting upward from a lower level he has a pretty long
reach, and the advantage of being completely in control of his
own movements, whereas even the most expert horseman can-
not control the step and movement of his mount as well as a
man can control his own. Barring fire, however, the infantry-
man has no chance against the lance, with the speed and mo-
mentum of the mounted man behind it.

So, for this reason, though they are cumbersome weapons
under ordinary circumstances, and make a detachment equip-
ped with them much more likely to be seen, lances were re-
tained by many of the British cavalry regiments, just as the
German Uhlans retained them.

CAVALRY'S IMPORTANT SERVICE.

One of the most important services which cavalry fulfills
in modern warfare is that of drawing the enemy's fire at the
time his positions are being approached. This is done to ob-
tain some idea of his force and the disposition of his guns.

Cavalry detachments are sent scurrying across the front,
as though threatening an attack, deliberately furnishing a mark
for the enemy gunners that this object of ascertaining his
strength may be attained.

The more ordinary work of scouting, advance guard work,
and riding wide on the flanks of an advancing force are parts
of the cavalryman's work which are more familiar.

In the European conflict with tremendous concentration of
troops and continued occupation of the same territory the for-
aging feature of cavalry work disappeared. It is no longer
possible for an army to "live on the country as it goes." Pood
and supplies must be brought up from depots in the rear
through an entirely separate and specialized department of the
military organization, which does its work with a celerity cer-

MODERN WAR METHODS.

285

tainly undreamed of in former days, even as late as our own
war with Spain.

In the modern campaign trenches have been developed to
such an extent that it is really marvellous how the soldiers live,
and to what an extent the "underground fortresses" have been
used for living as well as fighting purposes.

In a letter written by a French soldier who took part in a
successful raid upon a German trench, he adequately describes
the luxuries enjoyed by the German soldiers in the front line
trenches in the Marne. The letter was written by a youth who
had been wounded in the fight, and was mailed in April, 1917.

LUXURIOUS DUGOUTS.

"We are now living in German lines and dugouts — a mag-
nificent work we have just now taken — cement and steel are
used with profusion, and electricity in every dugout, even in
their front lines. Unharmed casements and machine guns in
cemented shelters and light railways and immense reserves of
food — thousands of bottles of claret.

"But also, at the middle of each staircase, in the wall, a
box with about seventy pounds of cheddite — to blow the shelter
up in case of retreat. They knew they might have to go back,
as they are doing now. America will gain victory, as until the
present moment only the bravery of our soldiers can put them
back, with much exertion and frequent loss.

"Our men are magnificent in spite of death. We hope
your help may be quick and decisive. I think your flying corps
especially may be useful, the more as yesterday, with four fel-
lows, I was run through the field, and in a destroyed trench by
a German Albatross shooting a machine gun, and flying very
low, he missed us quite near. On the other hand, we have just
a few days hence seen a sausage balloon destroyed by our men.
Anyhow your help may be decisive.

"I believe your joy is great about the Russian revolution.

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MODERN WAK METHODS.

At home they are happy, too — only let us hope the Russian
army may attack this summer — to help us.

"I need not tell you the impression made by your Ameri-
can decision here. We now know victory is sure. Let us hope
it may be this year — though you may easily guess such is not
my belief — next year.

"I hope my next letter be <sent from farther in the Ger-
man lines — perhaps from a place they have not had time to
destroy."

Shorn of all technicalities, the plain method of warfare
which has developed as the result of the trench building is that
each force establishes lines along miles of front with trenches
in rows, one after the other, at measured intervals. The sol-
diers are thus "entrenched." One force seeks to drive the other
from its position.

MANY DEADLY DEVICES.

The force of batteries is directed against the entrench-
ments, hand grenades, bombs, shells, gases and every device
which has fallen to the use of armies is projected at the ditches
in which are hidden the enemy soldiers. When, by the con-
centration of attack the trenches are destroyed or the soldiers
driven from their first position, the opposing force has gained
if it has succeeded in advancing its own soldiers to occupy and
reconstruct the trenches or defences from which the enemy was
driven.

The soldiers carry, in addition to the ordinary weapons,
a trench spade, and in most cases large knives, which are used
to cut away brush or dig in the earth when emergency demands.
The close confinement in the trenches tends to develop disease,
and the sanitary force of the modern army is a thing that was
undreamed of in the olden days. More men died from disease
during the Civil War than were killed by bullets or in hand-to-
hand encounter.

The percentage of those who die from camp fever has been

MODEKN WAR METHODS.

287

reduced to a minimum. Napoleon said that armies travel on
their stomachs, but the European War and the Russian-Jap-
anese War have proven, as did our campaigns in Cuba and
Mexico, that soldiers live by reason of the health which they
are permitted to maintain. Some idea of the conditions which
developed in the trenches may be gained from a study of the
various hospital reports, and investigations which have been
made by physicians. *

INFECTED WITH ASIATIC JAUNDICE.

Dr. Hideyo Noguchi, of the Rockefeller Institute for
Medical Research, completed a series of experiments which
showed that apparently healthy wild rats in the European war
zone became infected with Weil's disease, or "infectious jaun-
dice," common in Asia. Weil's disease is characterized by sud-
den onsets of malaise, often intense muscular pain, high fever
for several days, followed by jaundice, frequently accompanied
by complications. It becomes more virulent as it is successively
transmitted from one victim to another. This is supposed to
explain the much greater mortality, about 38 per cent, in
Japan, as compared with from 2 to 3 per cent, among Euro-
pean soldiers.

The study of the disease was made possible by the suc-
cessful importation from Japan and Flanders of guinea pigs
and rats which had been inoculated with the causative organism
in those two countries. Experiments previously made showed
that the germ of the disease was carried in the kidneys of a
large percentage of apparently healthy wild rats caught near
the districts where the disease had been epidemic. Experi-
ments in Europe demonstrated the presence of the germ in
rats not only near the infected zones, but also in captured lo-
calities some distance from trenches.

For purposes of comparison Dr. Noguchi collected a num-
ber of rats in this country and removed their kidneys. His
report states that by inoculating the emulsion made of the kid-

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MODERN WAR METHODS.

neys of 41 wild rats into 58 guinea pigs during a period of
three months, he had been able to produce in three groups of
guinea pigs typical cases of infectious jaundice altogether iden-
tical with the findings in the guinea pigs which died of the
injection of the Japanese and Belgian strains of the disease.
The germs taken from wild rats caught near New York pro-
duced death in guinea pigs within nine to twelve days.

AMERICA'S GRfiAT SERVICE IN WAR ZONE.

In studying the conditions and helping to fight the dan-
gers encountered in the battlefields and camps of Europe, no
country in the world rendered a greater service than America.
Long before the country entered the war hundreds of Ameri-
can nurses, ambulance drivers and surgeons were on the battle-
fields and in the hospitals of Belgium, France and England.
Men who were leaders in the medical and surgical world gave
their services to the Allies, and almost every hospital in the
United States sent some of its staff.

Through the efforts and study of Dr. Alexis Carrel, of
New York, deaths from wounds received in battle were re-
duced almost 90 per cent, by a system of treatment which he
devised. Dr. Carrel began his work in 1914, at Compiegne,
in connection with the military hospital, and in collaboration
with the Dakin Research Laboratory, under the auspices of the
Rockefeller Foundation.

Using a solution of sodium hypochlorite, the plain method
of treating wounds which proved such a great boon, was de-
scribed at the Congress of Surgeons in Philadelphia in 1916,
where many of the wonders of war surgery were described.
By means of a rubber tube, which is run through or into the
wound, the injury is flushed continuously by the solution, for
a period of hours or minutes, according to the nature and char-
acter of the wound.

The inflammation is reduced, the wound cleaned, and
blood poisoning is averted. Under fhe treatment the soldier's

MODERN WAR METHODS.

289

stay in a hospital is reduced weeks and even months, and, as
has been stated with authority, where in the old days twenty
operations would have been necessary, the modern methods
have reduced the percentage to a point where the twenty has
become as one.

The story of surgery itself and what it has done in mod-
ern warfare would make a wonderful volume. The shattered
bones of the legs and arms have been spliced, and laid side by
side in open wounds, to knit together and practically form a
new limb. Artificial hands, feet, and legs have been made by
ingenious mechanics, which are so perfect that those who have
been deprived of their natural facilities can use them with a
degree of facility never before believed possible.

RESULT OF SCIENTIFIC SURGERY.

Armless men and legless men have worked in the munition
factories of both France and of England, and the fact that they
are able to do so is due to the genius of surgeons and of scien-
tists. Thoroughness and preparation, coolness in execution
and scientific accuracy in all directions is the modern necessity
in warfare.

What this means in modern battle, as demonstrated in the
last important conflict in the clearing of German East Africa
by British forces, was decribed by Reuters' correspondent in
an account of the battle of Rufiji River.

This was the last campaign personally commanded by
Major General Jan Christian Smuts, the former Boer com^-
mander, and resulted in giving the British control of all the
coastline and the inhabitable portion of German East Africa.

For two weary months the army lay upon its weapons,
consolidating, reorganizing, rebuilding railway lines and pil-
ing up great dumps of food and ridding itself of its sick and
wounded. Then it moved forward from Morogoro. The ob-
ject of the advance was the ejection of the enemy from his

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MODERN WAR METHODS.

trenches on the Mgeta River and the seizure of the passages
of the Rufiji River.

The battle was directed and controlled from an observa-
tion hill at Dathumi, but General Smuts spent little time on
the hill. He had made all the dispositions and issued his orders.
Nothing remained for him to do and he was back in his camp
calmly reading a book.

In the straw hut the brigadier general sat at a table on
which was an oriented map showing the strategic and geo-
graphical points of the plans which lay before us, at his elbow
the telephone and just below the hut the wireless instrument
incessantly emitted sparks. Higher up the slope of the hill
were the observing stations of the battery commanders.
SIGNALED BEGINNING OF BATTLE.

The burning of huts at Kiruru signaled the beginning of
the battle. The brigadier general, a polite little man who has
lectured at the staff college for twenty years and who knows
the last word in the science of warfare, especially of artillery,
called the howitzer battery by telephone.

"Open fire a little to the right of the palm tree," he said.
"You have the elevation and direction. The Nigerians will be
on the move." Just behind the palm tree and a little to the
right a great brown cloud of mud and smoke rose high in the
air. From the plain came the boom of heavy guns and all
along the river branch rose clouds of smoke, mud and dust.

The staff officer handed in a telegram reading: "The in-
fantry are now about to advance; they ask artillery support."

"Bring the field guns into action," said the general.

It was all so very matter of fact. This little man, who
was about to let loose upon the German trenches a hell's broth
of fire and disaster, acted as if he were in his own drawing
room, deciding how many lumps of sugar he would take with
his tea.

Down below on the plain the howitzers were lobbing1 60-

MODERN WAR METHODS.

291

pound shells into the German Askaris, the Nigerians were ad-
vancing by sharp rushes and the rat-tat of the machine guns
and the crackle of musketry broke very faintly. Airplanes
sailed above us. A message came from the Nigerians, "We
are going to take the enemy's trenches; please lift gunfire."
The order was passed along, "All guns lift two degrees."

Little black dots, like tiny ants, are running wThere the
shells are bursting. The Nigerians are rushing the trenches.
The forward observing officer reports that the enemy is re-
tiring. The 15 -pounders, man-killing guns, shower shrapnel
on the German line of retreat.

SUGGESTS A CUP OF TEA.

The infantry report having occupied the German first line
trenches, halting for one hour to consolidate. The brigadier-
general commented on the difficulty of observation in the hu-
mid atmosphere and suggested a cup of tea. It seemed that
nothing more would happen until after lunch, so I visited the
commander-in-chief. He was occupied for the moment with
a volume by George Gisslog and wras satisfied with the reports
he had received. By dark the whole of the German entrench-
ments were in our hands.

A volume could be written alone on the changes in tactics
which have been developed and practiced by the military
geniuses of the contending forces. In the European War the
range of artillery and infantry fire was three times what it was
in the Franco-Prussian War. The flattening of the trajec-
tory, which means making the bullets go more nearly on a
straight line instead of traveling in an arc, has made the fire
so effective as to compel the soldiers to "travel on their stom-
achs." To crawl along the ground like alligators, or advance
like moles digging their way into the earth.

The tremendous range of the modern rifle, single arm, or
rapidfire gun, and the development of more powerful explo-
sives for ammunition have wrought this change. The bullet will

292 MODERN WAR METHODS.

travel a longer distance at a horizontal position than in the old
days when ordinary black powder and a smooth-bore gun were
used, and so at hundreds of yards distance the soldiers can aim
direct to kill, without making elevation allowances.

The machine gun has made it possible for the men to fire
from four to five shots for every one that was fired in the
Franco-Prussian War and probably ten for every one that was
fired in the Civil War„ The only time the soldiers exposed
themselves on the army frontiers were when they were storm-
ing trenches, and this was not attempted until the trench had
suffered bombardment so it was made untenable.

DIFFICULT MOUNTAIN FIGHTING

Probably nothing in the warfare of nations has been more
colorful and replete with ourprises than the campaign waged
by the Italian soldiers on the Alpine passes between Italy and
the Austrian strongholds, and in the discussion of modern war-
fare, a brief description of some of the work of these intrepid
mountain fighters is interesting.

Much of this fighting has been the most difficult known
in the annals of modern warfare, save, perhaps, that done by
the famous Younghusband British Expedition to Thibet. And
that, by comparison, w^as a very small matter.

The mere height — altitude — at which the Italian warfare
against the Austrians was carried on has been sufficient to en-
tail enormous difficulties and a great additional strain, due act-
ually to difficult breathing in a rarefied atmosphere.

The warfare in the clouds which has characterized the
struggle along the Isonzo front has been conducted at an alti-
tude seldom less than 8,000 and often rising to 12,000 feet,
which is well within the realm of eternal snow.

Naturally, therefore, most of the fighting was done in
bitter cold. To this fact add the other that the Italian soldiers
who carried it on were almost exclusively men who had not
been accustomed to the cold. They had been drawn from

MODERN WAR METHODS.

293

among dwellers in a semitropical climate, and one gets an idea
of the immense accomplishments of this army which struggled
in the skies.

The average American knows the Italian as immensely
industrious, but perhaps is disinclined to credit him with great
constructive ability or engineering genius. He would change
his estimate of him if he could see him fight and study his bat-
tlefield. The Italian warfare of the mountain peak and
gorges has been a warfare of construction, even more than it
has been a warfare of destruction, and has been rendered pos-
sible only by the exercise of engineering genius comparable
with that which sent our world-beating American railways
through the famous Rocky Mountain passes!

HALTED BY INTIMIDATION.

The fact that Italy's warfare has been invariably against
positions stronger than her own is the result of the fact that
while, since 1866, Austria continually strengthened her frontier
with fortifications, most of them of ferro-concrete, the Italians
were not able to fortify at all. Every step in that direction
brought forth threats of war. These began at a time when
Italy was in no condition to fight, before, as a unified nation,
she became a world-power.

Being weak, she was prevented from making any prepa-
rations for defense against a foe which continually was ob-
viously getting ready for attack upon her. The mere com-
mencement of preparations might have precipitated war. But
Austria continually prepared. Besides, the Italians ever have
been a peace-loving nation.

As a natural and inevitable consequence of all these con-
ditions all the dominating positions along the Austro-Italian
frontier were strongly fortified by the Austrians. They have
long occupied the crest of every mountain in such a way that
their guns could rake any Italian approach from below, along
a front of 450 miles — about the distance from New York to

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MODERN WAR METHODS.

Buffalo, and almost the same as that of the whole French-
British-Belgian eastern front in this war.

During the winter of 1916, one of the most exceptionally
hard winters known in the annals of the Italian Weather Serv-
ice, the Italians not only have been fighting for their sunny
homeland, but have been fighting in a region of eternal snow.

This snow was an obstacle extremely hard to overcome.
It may be said never to have been less than six yards deep on
the Isonzo front, so the task of the consolidation of positions,
enabling troops at once to resist attack and protect themselves
from assault from the rear, was highly difficult.

TYPICAL ROAD BUILDERS.

The Italians were ever road-builders, descendants, as they
are, of those Romans who built roads for all Europe. While
the Austrians were fully supplied with roads of the best and
most modern character, there wrere hundreds of miles on the
Italian side where there were not even mule-tracks.

Here was a vast problem.
, Literally millions of soldiers were not free to fight, but
had been drafted for the road-building work. Carrying picks
and shovels, managing steam-shovels, working electric hoists,
stringing supporting cables, they were as truly fighting men,
however, as any who ever bore rifles or worked machine-guns.

Miles of the roads were rebuilt under Austrian fire, by
men who built them well enough, even in the great 8,000-foot
heights, that they could bear heavy artillery of vast weights
without suffering damage. They built them in such easy gra-
dients that heavy artillery could be moved speedily, the guns
and motor-lorries that passed over them frequently weighing
as much as fifteen tons.

Nor did the problem end with the construction of these
marvel-roads. It was necessary to transport very heavy war
material across stretches where the building of any roads what-
ever was a sheer impossibility. Often it was necessary to take

MODERN WAR METHODS.

295

heavy guns as far as might be upon sleighs and then drag them
for considerable distances by hand ; quite as often it was impera-
tive that across chasms great cables should be rigged on which
the guns might be swung, sometimes hundreds or even thou-
sands of feet above the valleys beneath, from one height to
another.

The "wireways" by which much of this unique transporta-
tion was accomplished are of Italian invention, as were other
notable and essential engineering devices of this great war of
mountain transportation.

Such contrivances, known as "teleferrica," were intro-
duced for the first time during the winter of 1916, and by sum-
mer there were about 200 along the mountainous front. They
not only supplied very advanced positions with armament,
ammunition and food, but transported men back and forth
between them and lower points.

SYSTEM ONE OF TACKLES.

The system was one of tackles (where guns and other
heavy freight were to be moved) or cars (like cradles, where
men were to be moved), operated by motor-pulleys directly
connected up with great electric power. One of the most aston-
ishing and picturesque uses to which these aerial wireways were
put was the movement downward of men wounded at the
advanced posts with which the teleferrica communicate.

To see wounded men going down these wireways, mere
dots, each representing a suspended stretcher upon which a
suffering human being is strapped securely, was described as
one of the most amazing spectacles of the whole war. The
experience, to some wounded men, swinging sickeningly, dizzy-
ingly alone in midair, was probably more terrifying than actual
fighting, although there were few, if any, accidents connected
with the wireways.

Not infrequently these wireways were within direct range
of the enemy fire, and that complicated matters. So far as is

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MODEEN WAK METHODS.

known, there has been no instance of a cable cut by gunfire, but
in several districts it was necessary that the men, going to their
duty and the wounded going backward, having done theirs,
must needs be protected in armored baskets, somewhat like
those which often are swung beneath observation balloons on
the various fronts.

PROBLEMS OF TRANSPORTATION.

The problems of transportation, great as they are, are by
no means the only unique difficulties presented to these brave
mountain fighters. In this extraordinary warfare mining by
means of high explosives was carried on upon a hitherto un-
equaled scale. Such work with high explosives was not only
continually necessary in the construction of roads and fortifi-
cations in a region of solid rock, but sometimes proved the only
effective means of attack upon the enemy.

The mine was used as an offensive weapon by both sides,
and often with very terrible results.

Perhaps the most extraordinary of the campaign was the
mine laid by the Italians after infinitely difficult and very ex-
tensive tunneling in solid rock at the Cima del Col di Lana.

This immense effort with explosives blew off the whole top
of a mountain — and that mountaintop was thickly occupied by
Austrians at the time of the explosion of the mine. None on
the Italian side knows exactly what the Austrian casualties
were, but it is certain that through this one explosion more than
an entire company — that is, more than 400 — of the enemy's
soldiers were destroyed.

An interesting detail of this operation is the fact that
while the Italians were tunneling for this great mine they were
perfectly aware that the Austrians also were at work upon a
similar effort. It amounted to a race with death, and the
Italians won it.

Correspondents agree that the thing which most impresses
the visitor to the mountain fronts of the Italian army is the

MODERN WAR METHODS.

297

immense patience which it has shown in the face of the difficult
tasks of this astonishing campaign. Italians usually are re-
garded as temperamental creatures, but "dogged" has been the
word which has meant most in this campaign.

Some of the movements of troops across exposed snow-
covered spaces have been marvels of incredible patience. To
escape observation the soldiers have been clad in white clothing,
but in addition to this it has been necessary for them to lie flat
upon their faces in the snow, moving very, very slowly, accom-
plishing their transfers from point to point literally at snail
speed.

With regard to such work, as with regard to the Italian
wounded, one thing is remarked by all the officers and those
who have been privileged even for a short time to share the
hardships of the Italian "common soldier." He never com-
plains. Healthy or hurt, weary or fresh, he takes war with a
smile full of flashing teeth and with eyes glittering with interest
and good nature.

CHAPTER XVI.
WOMAN AND THE WAR.

She has Won " Her Place in the Sun " — Rich and Poor in the Munitions
Factoeies — Nurse and Ambulance Driver — Khaki and Trousers — Organ-
izer and Farmer — Heroes in the Stress of Circumstances — Doinq Men's
Work for Men — Even a " Bobbie."

IF IT were ever really necessary for woman to "win a place
in the sun" she has done so by her activities with relation
to the war. We have regarded woman with a high degree
of sentimentality, and to her pleas for recognition in world
affairs have shrugged our shoulders and intimated that she was
fit to bear children, nurse the sick, do household chores and
cook, cook, cook ; but physically, mentally and by training she
was unfit to perform the greater world duties.

But the world war has proved that all the tasks which men
claimed women were unfitted to perform can as well be done by
what we have been pleased to term the "weaker sex."

The war has proved a truism that old saying, "The hand
that rocks the cradle rules the world," and also that the burden
of war falls upon women. It is they who give up their sons to
their country and send their husbands and boys to the front to
serve as fodder for the cannon.

In England the work of women in the war secured for
them a degree of recognition in Parliament which all of their
agitation and militant tactics failed to produce.

National extremity was woman's opportunity; frank in-
vitation to new lines of work was followed by hearty apprecia-
tion on the part of the men ; and a proposition to extend suf-
frage to 6,000,000 English women was based avowedly upon
the general gratitude felt for their loyal and effective service in
the war. And it is war service, for modern warfare has greatly
enlarged the content of that term. In the modern conception

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WOMAN AND WAR.

those who make munitions or in other ways release others for
the front are doing war service as truly as those who bear arms.

Instead of yielding to fame a few isolated Mollie Pitchers,
the war brought a largely neglected half of the nation's mili-
tary strength into practical service. Indeed, though woman
dreads war more than man does, if it comes to actual defense
of land and home and young, we find, with Kipling, that "the
female of the species is more deadly than the male."

THE WORK OF WOMEN.

The work of the women in the munitions factories in Eng-
land has deservedly attracted large attention, and, doubtless,
British historians will for centuries tell how, when England
found herself utterly at a loss before her enemies because of a
lack of effective ammunition, the women responded "as one
man" to meet the need and save the Union Jack from being
forced to the shore. It was a repetition, multiplied 10,000
times, of the Presbyterian parson at Springfield, N. J., supply-
ing Washington's army with Watts hymn books when it was
retreating to serve as paper wadding for the rifles.

The innovation of the task, the large scale on which it was
carried out and the striking success of it make it a major event
of the war, even to be compared with the battle of the Marne.
And shall not American historians ascribe to the scores of
young girls who lost their lives in an explosion at Eddy stone,
Pa., making munitions, the honor of being the first martyrs of
the German- American War ?

It was not alone the working girls of England who tired
their arms and calloused their hands on the heavy shells. When
the work was at its full capacity, a proposition was sent to the
women of leisure to undergo three weeks of training in a muni-
tions factory and then take up the work at the week-ends to
relieve the regular workers, the women shell machinists, whose
strength and skill could best be maintained by saving them
from Saturday and Sunday overtime.

300

WOMAN AND THE WAR.

There was a strange incongruity in paying them less than
the men for the same work. They worked in eight-hour shifts
and were required to stand, except during a single half -hour
interval. The prospectus of instruction suggested short skirts,
thick gloves and boots with low heels, adding that evening
dress would not be necessary.

Hotel accommodations were attempted for these "lady"
Workers, but this proved inadequate, and part of them went to
the lodgings with the regular workers. Short skirts were only
the first step that promptly led to overalls, and when these
English ladies, whom the girls called "Miaows," got well
grimed with dust and grease, utterly tired out with handling
12-pound shells and hungry enough to prefer coarse food, they
understood the workgirls as never before, and the men, too, and
they had a new birth of patriotism. One lady said she found
great relief and enthusiasm by thinking of the shells as so many
dead Bodies or live Tommies.

VARIED OCCUPATIONS OF WOMEN.

Making ammunition and hospital supplies, handling lug-
gage and trunks in baggage rooms, driving motors, conducting
trolley cars, carpentry work on wooden houses for the front,
are but a few of the occupations in which European women
engaged in war service. They have served as lift attendants,
ticket sellers, post office sorters, mail carriers, gardeners, dairy
lassies, grocery clerks, drivers of delivery wagons and vans,
commissionaires. More than a million were added to the in-
dustrial workers in England during the first two years of war.

America coming later into the war, its women naturally
followed the lead of the English and French along many lines
tried and proved to be worth while, but our matrons and maids,
famed for their independence and initiative, developed also new
lines of patriotic effort. As soon as it was evident that German
ambitions included designs upon America, the strong feminine
instinct for preservation began to assert itself. Pacifism had

WOMAN AND THE WAR.

301

no special appeal to the gentler sex at such a time. She got
behind the recruiting as if it were her own job, and much of the
success of it was due to her efforts.

The Woman's Section of the Navy League may well be
described by quoting from its own statement of motive and
purpose. "Every mother with sons, every wife with husband,
every sister with a brother, feels her heart stand still with the
horror of what war may bring to her."

WOMAN'S MANY SERVICES.

These women spread information to arouse interest in the
condition of the United States naval forces, aided recruiting
for the Naval Reserve, assisted in procuring enrollments for
the Naval Coast Reserve, and drawing on their resources pro-
vided many needed articles of clothing, equipment and comfort
not furnished by the Government. A knitting committee
makes sleeveless jackets, helmets, wristlets and mufflers. Com-
fort kits, games, blankets, underwear, rubber hats, coats
and boots are made or bought by the Comfort and Supplies
Committee.

The two poles of patriotic service are the production of
food and fighting at the front; a world of activity bulges be-
tween them. European women are accustomed to farm labor.
Millions of peasant women, serfs, all but in name, under the
late Russian regime; Balkan women, German and French
wives and girls, and, to some extent, the mothers and daugh-
ters of the English poor, would have understood Markham's
poem better if he had called it, "The Woman With the Hoe."

In the war food crisis the women of America matched the
women of the enemy and vied with those of their own allies in
persuading mother earth to yield her bounty. In heavy shoes,
trousers of jean, rolled-up sleeves and a straw hat, the girls of
America here and there turned to the land and took hold of the
tasks of the farm.

So far we have mentioned only the work at home that

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WOMAN AND THE WAR.

women took up for the war, but this is only a part; the other
pole finds them near. The invaluable service of Red Cross
nurses, their zeal and sacrifice and sometimes martyrdom, from
Elizabeth Fry and Florence Nightingale to Edith Cavell, have
been women's glory for more than half a century. This war
multiplied the need many times and veritable regiments of
them responded. Their emblem became the symbol universal
of mercy, charity and good will.

In addition to the 50 trained nurses for a base hospital,
there are 25 hospital aids, who serve without pay. America
has 8000 registered Red Cross nurses and scores of thousands
are in training for aids.

The effective and helpful work of women in all lines of
endeavor, aside from home and family life, has never before
been shown so impressively as now. Their energy, willingness,
faithfulness and capability in every activity are unsurpassed.

WOMAN BENT ON DOING HER UTMOST. •

But woman shares the lot of mankind on earth, and in the
issues of life and death, land and home, she fears to do less than
her most, and we would fear to have her do less.

The woman for ages has been the war nurse, but the Amer-
ican woman has gone a step further and qualified as the war
physician. When the war clouds first hovered over America
more than 200 women physicians formally offered their serv-
ices to the Government. At the graduation exercises of a
women's medical college, when America first entered the war,
a prominent official made the statement that 3,000 women
physicians could find unlimited work of mercy behind the first
line of firing in Europe.

The surgeon general of the United States army did not
await an actual call to arms to notify a physician that the
proffer of the services of women physicians would be accepted
when the need came.

WOMAN AND THE WAR.

303

"When I spoke to the women," said this physician, "I
asked them this question :

" 'Can I tell the Government that it may count upon each
and all of you for any work within your power?'

"Their answer was unanimous. It was 'Yes.' "

There is a law prohibiting women from going aboard bat-
tleships when they are under way, but such an obstacle has not
stood in the way of woman's desire to help where she can when
her country calls, and so Miss Loretta Walsh became a mem-
ber of the United States navy — the first woman enlisted in that
branch of the service, with the exception of the nurses' corps.
Her title was chief yeoman.

Women announced their readiness to assist in another way
— in economizing — one organization having adopted the fol-
lowing resolutions:

RESOLUTION ON ECONOMICS.

"Resolved, That all patriotic women be urged to use their
influence on fashions in dress to keep them as economical as
possible, and to register their disapproval of such styles as the
melon and peg-top skirt, or any other styles that imply ex-
travagant changes in the wardrobe, to the end that the time and
money thus saved from clothes may be devoted to the needs of
the nation."

How often have we heard: "When war comes, when our
homes are threatened, when peril stalks abroad in the land,
who shoulders the musket and goes out to fight? The man!
The man!"

But woman, knowing better than man the impulses of her
own heart, only awaited the opportunity to show what she could
do, though, much more than man, she loves peace, detests strife.
But she did not await an actual call to arms to show the patri-
otic spirit with which her soul was fired. Whatever her Gov-
ernment was willing she should do, to that was she prepared to
give her best efforts.

304

WOMAN AND THE WAR.

Lady Frances Balfour, president of the London Society
of National Union of Women Suffragists and president of the
Travelers' Aid Society, worked as hard to win the war as any
Tommy in the trenches.

A daughter of the eighth Duke of Argyll and the widow
of a soldier, she played an important part in Scotch and Eng-
lish public life for many years, and has done much to advance
the cause of British women.

An authentic view of the situation as it developed with
reference to the reception of women into the everyday work
and what American women might do is contained in the follow-
ing interview with Lady Balfour:

WOMAN AS WAGE EARNER.

"We are doing everything," she said. "We are filling
nearly every post. If the House of Lords had not vetoed the
bill we would be solicitors, but that must wait for a time.
British women are now meeting with success because for the
first time they are receiving a proper wage and are able to live
in a way to do their best work. The old sweat shop wage has
gone, and I hope never to return. Women will never return
to the conditions which existed before the war.

"American women start with a great advantage. They
have already the entree in the business world and fill many
clerical places, whereas our women and girls had to break down
the barriers of conservatism existing in a great number of
banks. There was the same objection to women workers among
the farmers of the South of England, though in Scotland the
woman has always done her part on the farm.

"Girls are beginning on the farm at 18 shillings ($4.50)
a week; before the war men farm hands worked for 11 shillings
($2.75) . Our women are milking cows, running steam plows,
digging in the fields and giving complete satisfaction. I dare
not venture to predict what will happen in the future, but we
can face it with confidence, I am certain. Now we are inspired

From Underwood & Underwood, N. Y. (c) Committee on Public Information.

THE GUN WITH THE PUNCH.
Huge American railway artillery of 16-inch calibre for the U. S. Army. This big
gun can be put into position in 15 minutes and will fire all around the horizon. The am-
munition car for shell and powder is attached.

GROUP OF RUSSIAN SAILORS.
They are the first to come to New York since the United States entered the war.

t wf

I ; ^ . ■

©American Press Association.
SERBIAN CORPS ORGANIZED IM THE UNITED STATE3.
Hundreds of Serbians organized an army and went to Prance and joined the offensive. The
photo, shows the men leaving San Francisco, where they were mobilized. The United States,
paid for the transportation ot the men,

WOMAN AND THE WAR.

305

with the spirit of patriotism; we feel we owe our best to our
country; we are ready to suffer hardship just as our brave men
are doing in the trenches.

BRITISH WOMEN'S PATRIOTISM.

"The patriotism of British women had stood a hard test;
I hope American women have an easier trial. Lloyd George
says he hopes America will profit by the mistakes of Britain.
For more than a year the government of this country snubbed
and discouraged our women. The government does not pay
women at the same rate as men ; it does not give them the same
war bonus. There came a time when the government realized
the war could not be won without the women. Then it issued
frantic calls for help, and the women responded nobly, just as
they would have done months before. I hope your American
Government will recognize the value of woman's help from the
very start.

"Unfortunately I must judge your women largely by
those who come over here for the season in peace days. As I
remember they spent a great deal of time and money at the
hairdressers, manicures, dressmaking establishments and hotels.
But I am certain the great majority of Americans care more
for their homes and country and less for display. I feel that
they should concentrate on the production of food. We need
all we can get and then we shall not have as much as we require.
Money, food and ships are the things most needed.

"Your women have been wonderfully generous in giving
us money, supporting hospitals and sending us supplies. We
can use some of your nurses and women doctors. We have a
hospital here in London holding nearly 1000 soldiers and it is
run entirely by women. Our Scottish women's hospitals have
done grand work in the various theaters of war. Not only the
nurses, but the doctors and ambulance drivers are women. We
have supplied about 72,000 women for this work alone."

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WOMAN AND THE WAR

"How have women regarded the discipline of army life?"
was asked.

"Wonderfully!" said Lady Frances. "It has been good
for them. Just see our women 'bus conductors. They work
hard, handle all kinds of people, but I never heard them say
they are unable to meet the emergencies which arise. And for
the most part they are women who come from very humble
surroundings. You hear that women have broken down in
health under their work, but it seems to me I have read fre-
quently about American business men suffering from nervous
breakdowns and overwork."

SUCCESS BUILT ON RUINS OF FAILURE.

No great victories, either in war or in the ordinary relations
of life, are attained without initial blunders. Many a splendid
success is built upon the ruins of failure, and this is a fact that
the women of Europe learned after the first hysteria occasioned
by the marching soldiers, the beat of drums and all the excite-
ment incident to real warfare. American women, when thev
joined hands with the Allies against Prussianism and all that it
meant, builded splendid records of their usefulness upon the
mistakes that these women made.

In the summer of 1914 every girl and woman clamored to
be a nurse. Women with a great deal of money and no experi-
ence opened "hospitals" that were about as fit for the reception
and treatment of wounded men as a henroost is capable of hous-
ing an eagle. They all wanted to be in the "Red Cross" or "V.
A. D." (Voluntary Aid Department) and wear caps and
bandage wounds.

Then there were the amateur nurses who didn't know much
about nursing, "but would love to try." The daughter of a duke
tried to go through a probationary course at St. Bartholo-
mew's Hospital because she thought the uniform "perfectly
sweet." But of course this element of "fluffiness" exists on
the outside of any great movement. It has to be blown away

WOMAN AND THE WAK.

307

so that the hard surf ace of genuine and practical endeavor can
be seen and felt. And that is what happened to England. The
"fluff" disappeared and women knew where they were, and men
realized that women possess a force, a firm and splendid resolve,
that gives them the right to step beside men in the march toward
victory.

Another craze that amounted to a vice was the furious and
ill-considered efforts of totally unskilled women to make shirts
and hospital garments for soldiers. If some of the results had
not been pathetic one could almost be overcome with the comi-
cality of the whole business. Soldiers' shirts wrere turned out by
a circle of busily sewing ladies that would not fit a dwarf, while
probably the next batch of garments dispatched with patriotic
fervor to a regimental depot might have been designed for a
race of giants.

NATIONAL SERVICE FOR WOMEN.

National service for women as well as for men proved a
very substantial portion of Great Britain's strength, but before
national service had been generally thought of an organization
called the Women's Service Bureau had been formed by a
group of influential and intelligent women who were imbued
with the idea that only by careful and systematized registration
and selection could the matter of feminine war work be success-
fully arranged.

Lady Frances Balfour was the first president of the
Women's Service Bureau, which with the London Society for
Suffrage established 62 branches in the city of London and
its suburbs.

What the women at the head of this society realized was the
necessity for giving the right women the most suitable employ-
ment and also to give every applicant for work helpful and
practical advice. The need for women's labor in the many
trades and professions hitherto closed to them, and for their
increased co-operation in those in which they already took part,
has been forced home even to unwilling minds.

308

WOMAN AND THE WAR.

Here and there on the battlefields of Europe — in Bulgaria,
Servia, Roumania, France, Belgium and Russia — have been
noted occasionally the presence of a woman warrior, a modern
Joan of Arc. It was not expected, however, that in America
woman would do more than perform the service work which fell
to the lot of the Red Cross nurses and the women practicing
conservation and effecting organization in England.

But the women of America were not satisfied with "petti-
coat preparedness." They rushed to the khaki suits and to the
colors with unexpected enthusiasm. One khaki-clad woman
walked from San Francisco to New York, making recruiting
speeches on the way.

The infantry, the cavalry, the navy, the marines could
all point to their girls in khaki.

ALL* KINDS OF WOMEN ENLISTED.

As the women enlisted for all kinds of service, so it may
be said all kinds of women enlisted — that is, women of all ranks
of life — some from society, some from the mills, others from the
offices, the shops, the stage, the restaurants and the colleges.

Many years ago the country rang with the name of Tippe-
canoe, and one of the men who bore arms on the western frontier
was William Henry Harrison. The years went by and Ben-
jamin Harrison came to the White House as President.

The Harrison blood showed in the preparedness work, and
Old Tippecanoe's great granddaughter helped to make the
women of the country fit for the burden of war.

There isn't anything on earth that shows so strongly in the
blood as the soldier element, and Elizabeth Harrison, whose
great ancestor faced the perils of the frontier warfare, was a
leader by force of her inherited ability as a leader. She was
elected drill sergeant for the college girls of the New York
University.

When the war clouds came she was following inherited
bent. All of the Harrison men had beeSi among the country's

WOMAN AND THE WAR.

309

greatest lawyers and Miss Harrison was studying for the bar.

But just as the wTarwhoop of the West called Tippecanoe
from his books and briefs to bullets and battles, so the daughter
of the former President dropped Blackstone and Kent to take
up the Drill Regulations and the elementary text books of the
army.

She knew that the way to make women fit for their part of
war service was to make them strong and healthy and to give
them an idea of the things that men-at-arms have to do.

NOTED WOMEN IN THE WORK.

So Miss Harrison was one of the first workers in the move-
ment to teach women the elements of war. Many women of
importance in the social and financial world took up the task
with a will, and there was a girl for every signal flag, a maid for
every wireless station, and an angel for every hospital ward in
the making as the men pursued the task of providing guns and
the men behind the guns.

Miss Harrison and the girls she drilled at the University
wore regulation field service uniform, khaki breeches, coat,
heavy shoes and puttees, and a large hat of military cut.

The American Woman's League for Self -Defence and
Preparedness was the first woman's military organization in
America, according to its president, Mrs. Ida Powell Priest,
who is descended from an old Long Island family, Thomas
Powell being one of her ancestors.

The first cavalry troop, of which Ethel M. Scheiss was first
senior captain, drilled regularly. Their first appearance
mounted caused a mild sensation on Broadway. They were
most impressively stern soldierettes as they trotted and galloped
their horses.

Everywhere the girl in America strove with helpful
earnestness to do "her bit." Every strata of society called out
its members in a wonderful plan of feminine preparedness.
Besides the thousands of women members of the Red Cross

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WOMAN AND THE WAE.

some of the most prominent organizations officered and planned
by women include The National League for Women's Service,
which has branches in every large city in the United States.
They enrolled women as motor car drivers, telegraphers, wire-
less operators, agriculturists and skilled mechanics.

Miss Anne Morgan, as head of this organization, devoted
an enormous amount of energy to the success of the work.

OTHER SOCIETIES ORGANIZED.

Other societies organized were the National Special Aid
Society, Service of Any Kind, Militia of Mercy, which sends
and provides bandages and other necessities and comforts for
the soldiers ; Girl Scouts of America, first aid, signalling and
drills; Daughters of the American Revolution; the Suffrage
Party and the Anti- Suffrage Society; the International Child
Welfare League and the Girls' National Honor Guard. The
Federation of Women's Clubs all over the United States also
organized for any patriotic service that women could perform.

A practical way of doing something to help France and
Servia was offered early in the war by the splendid initiative
of Dr. Elsie Inglis and the Scottish Federation of Women's
Suffrage Societies, who organized hospitals for the wounded,
the staffs of which were all women, and called on other societies
for their support.

The London society responded first by subscriptions from
individual members, then by giving beds, then (in February,
1915) by offering itself as London agent for the hospitals and
undertaking all the practical work, in the sending out of per-
sonnel and equipment, which had to be transacted in London.

It is only by carefully systematized organization that great
work of this kind can be carried on. The slapdash, haphazard
of hysterical excitement can have no legitimate place in a move-
ment that provides stepping stones toward the salvation of the
civilized world.

One of the things which will live long in the history of

WOMAN AND THE WAR

311

womankind was the wonderful work done by the magnificently
courageous units of Lady Paget's nursing force, which went
out to Servia, when that country was laid waste not only by the
German beasts, but also by disease.

It was not the fault of those brave women and men that
things happened at Uskub and in other Servian towns that do
not bear repeating.

It was just the lack of thorough preparedness for a war
which was much worse than humanity had thought possible that
deepened the tragedy of their situation. In Servia, in fact, the
career of the hospitals was quite checkered and the service
rendered proportionately more vital.

LONDON-WALES UNIT.

At the time of the Austro-German invasion in the autumn
of 1915, the London- Wales Unit was at Valjevo, one of the
five Scottish women's hospitals working in the country. It was
under the command of Dr. Alice Hutchinson and was very
highly organized. Doctor Inglis had herself gone on to Servia
to take general charge of the hospitals there in the spring of
1915. From the time that a typhus epidemic was overcome by
women doctors early in the year to the time of the invasion all
seemed to be going well. Then came three weeks of great pres-
sure of work and of rapid moves from place to place as the
enemy advanced into the country. Finally, it became a necessity
for the personnel of the different units either to retreat with the
Servian army over the mountains into Montenegro or to fall
in the hands of the enemy.

The story of the retreat is now very generally known. The
journey was one long series of forced marches. Mountains 7000
feet high had to be traversed in blinding snow, almost the whole
journey had to be made on foot and it was six weeks before the
little band reached the coast. Doctor Inglis meanwhile, with
her group of nurses and orderlies, and Doctor Hutchinson, with
the London- Wales Unit, had gallantly stayed behind and con-

312

WOMAN AND THE WAR.

tinued to attend to their Servian wounded and to organize help
for them till the work was forcibly stopped by the advancing
Austrian army.

UNIT TAKEN PRISONERS.

After being ordered out of Valjevo, Doctor Hutchinson
made several attempts to organize hospitals in the line of
retreat. She was at Vrnyachka Banja when the Austrians
entered the town on November 10, 1915. She and her unit
were taken prisoners and interned, first near the Servian fron-
tier and then in Hungary for three weary months. The cheer-
ful courage with which the members of the unit bore hardship
and uncertainty and hope deferred has been related by Doctor
Hutchinson in a memorable narrative. Their conditions would
have been still more intolerable and their release would have
been still longer delayed if Doctor Hutchinson herself had not
known a great deal more about the Geneva Convention than
the Austrian authorities had ever dreamed. She was thus able
to assert herself on behalf of those under her in a way which
taught her captors something new about British women. At
the beginning of February the unit was at last allowed to cross
the frontier into Switzerland. It reached England on Feb-
ruary 12. It was only the perfection of its organization that
carried this brave body of women through amazing hardships.

Abroad women chauffeurs became almost as common in
the war as men; the public in Paris and London refused to
regard the appearance of a woman on the streets in cap,
"knickers" and puttees or heavy boots as unusual, and in need
they in many instances not only drove "taxi," but guided ambu-
lances in the hospital service.

The Red Cross in America, in the matter of preparedness,
organized a class for women chauffeurs. One of these, started
in Philadelphia, had among its instructors Mrs. Thomas Lang-
don Elwyn and Miss Letitia McKim, both of whom drove
ambulances for the Allies in England.

WOMAN AND THE WAR.

313

The National League for Woman Service, working in
conjuction with the Council of National Defense, canvassed the
country through its Bureau of Registration and Informa-
tion to provide statistics for mobilizing the entire woman-force
of the Nation ; all of which was done with the approval of the
Secretary of Labor.

Perhaps the outstanding incident of industrial employ-
ment among women was that of several women in France as
locomotive engineers. It is true that they operated only the
shunting engines about the yards at the military camps, but
it was noted in dispatches in every quarter of the globe that
Mesdames Louis Debris and Marie Viard, whose husbands
were killed in the war, were piloting the engines which their
husbands had formerly driven.

WOMAN'S INGENUITY.

And woman has proved her ingenuity. In the damp
trenches of the battlefields abroad the men need protection
from the dampness and cold, which ordinary clothing will not
provide. It was found that the leather-lined huntsmen's coats,
and the sort of garments worn by the chauffeur, the aviator
and the mountaineer served the men in the trenches well, and
particularly along the Russian frontier and in the cold moun-
tainous regions.

But the price of leather soared, with the demand for mil-
lions of pairs of shoes, saddles, harness, headgear, and what-
not, and leather-lined coats were at a premium. The women
were not to be denied, and through the Suffrage organizations
which turned in to prepare America for the struggle and to
render assistance to the Allies, the unique plan was adopted
of making linings for the airmen and soldier's coats of old kid
gloves.

One group of women in a single section of Philadelphia
gathered a thousand pairs of old gloves in a canvass. The
seams were ripped and the gloves cut down one side and laid

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WOMAN AND THE WAR.

open. The fingers of one glove so treated were dovetailed
between the fingers of another glove so cut, and stitched
together. Thus one glove was sewed to another until a section
of leather was formed sufficient to make a lining for a coat.
And many such were devised and incorporated in the garments
sent to the front by the various agencies dominated by the
women of the land.

WOMEN AS POLICEMEN.

While women to a limited degree were rendering service
as "policemen" in certain sections of the United States and on
Continental Europe the war was responsible for the develop-
ment of an organized force in London, which will probably
remain a permanent organization to the end of time. Miss
Darner Dawson is chief of the London woman "bobbies," and
M. S. Allen is chief superintendent.

The force was organized in 1914, shortly after the out-
break of the war and has relieved the men of a large amount
of responsibility. The force is uniformed, the women wearing
military costumes with visored caps. They operate under the
supervision, or with the authority of Sir Edward Henry, Chief
Commissioner of the Metropolitan police, and serve for duty
at the munition plants where women workers are employed,
besides doing regular patrol duty and welfare work.

The service, in London is in the nature of a training for
special service and the women after sufficient experience are
sent to suburbs and small towns to do police duty. They are
highly spoken of and declared to be very efficient, rendering
service in the barrooms and looking after women in a manner
that the regular "bobbies" cannot approximate.

It was declared in England, by way of closing the com-
ment on this phase of the war that no one thing so stimulated
the enlistments for service as the execution of Miss Edith
Cavell, the English nurse who was shot as a spy by Germany.

WOMAN AND THE WAR.

315

That her name will go down in history as a martyr to the cause
of liberty and humanity goes without saying.

Miss Cavell had been a nurse in Brussels, and after the
occupation of the Belgian capital by the Germans, she remained
where she used her private hospital for the nursing of wounded
soldiers; not excluding the Germans. It had been intimated
that she had better cross the border, but she insisted on remain-
ing at her post. Ultimately she was accused of being one of
the instigators of a plot to smuggle English, French and
Belgian soldiers across the lines, and of serving the enemies of
Germany.

To the German mind she was more than a spy; her con-
duct was reprehensible, because in the capacity of nurse she
had won a degree of confidence. She was therefore held as a
spy and traitor. And though Brand Whitlock, America's
Minister to Belgium, and other diplomats sought to save her,
she was shot by the ruthless Germans.

CHAPTER XVII.
THE TERRIBLE PRICE.

A Nation of Men Destroyed — Millions in Shipping and Commerce Destroyed —
World's Maps Changed — Billions in Money — Immense Debts — Nation's
Wealth — The United States a Greai Provider.

HE human tongue seems almost devoid of power to con

1 vey to the human mind what the war has actually cost
the wrorld in lives, money, property, ideals and all that
is dear to humanity. In all the world there is not a human
being who has not contributed something to the awful cost
and the loss due to the destruction of property, the stopping
of industry, the waste of energy and the curtailment of human
endeavor in the interest of civilization, and the effects which
the struggle has had upon the world cannot even be approxi-
mated in dollars and cents.

We have been taught to regard war as a terrible thing
and to realize that thousands must be slain, but in no war in
the history of the world has there been as many troops engaged
as have been killed in the European war on the battlefields of
Belgium and France.

At the beginning of the year 1917 it was estimated that
the total casualties of the war were 22,500,000. In a report
based on figures compiled in Washington it was stated: The
human estimated waste and financial outlay are staggering.
The combined casualties of the war, partly estimated because
all belligerents do not publish lists, are 22,500,000. The figures
included killed, permanently injured, prisoners and wounded
returned to the front. Of this number the Central Powers
were estimated to have suffered permanent losses in excess of
4,000,000, and the entente perhaps twice that number, Russia
being by far the heaviest loser.

The financial outlay, based in part on official reports and

THE TERRIBLE PRICE.

317

statements and in part on estimates, was placed at approxi-
mately $80,000,000,000, divided $50,000,000,000 to the entente
and $30,000,000,000 to the Central Powers. The entente lost
more than 3,500,000 tons of merchant shipping and approxi-
mately 800,000 tons of naval vessels. On the other side the
loss of naval tonnage was approximately 250,000 tons, and
merchant ships aggregating 211,000 tons were reported cap-
tured or destroyed.

IMMENSE LOSS TO COMMERCE.
Of the foreign commerce the Central Powers had lost
$10,000,000,000 in the two and a half years of war, including
imports and exports. The loss of commerce of Great Britain
and her allies with the Central Powers probably was in the
neighborhood of $7,000,000. This was largely made up at
least on the import side by increased trade with the United
States and other neutral countries and enlarged trade with the
colonies.

Germany lost virtually all her African colonies and all
her possessions in the Pacific Ocean, an aggregate of more
than 1,000,000 square miles. Turkey also lost a large area of
territory held at the outbreak of the war, while Austria lost
most of Bukowina and Galicia. To offset the territory losses
of the Central Powers, the entente have lost in Europe approxi-
mately 300,000 square miles. Of this large area, all of it
thickly populated in normal times, 175,000 square miles were
wrested from Russia on the eastern battlefield.

The staggering losses in men include the vast number on
both sides wounded in such a way as not to permanently cripple
them and render them unfit for military service. The figures
are based on official reports and estimates by military experts.

Germany's permanent losses were placed at 1,500,000
men, including about 1,000,000 in killed. The permanent
losses of Austria-Hungary were placed at about 1,000,000
more than those of Germany, owing to the fact that so much

318

THE TEBBIBLE PEICE.

of the hard fighting on the eastern front was in the Austro-
Hungarian theater. The losses of the Austro-Hungarians
during the drive of General Brusiloff in 1916 were frightful.
Large numbers of Austrians were taken prisoner by Brusiloff.

Russia's casualties for the first year of the war were esti-
mated by military experts at more than 3,500,000 men, and
these were doubled in the succeeding year, according to esti-
mates by American military experts. Russia returned to the
fighting line a smaller percentage of wounded than any of the
other great Powers.

GREAT BRITAIN'S CASUALTIES.

Great Britain's casualties were placed in excess of 1,250,-
000 despite the limited front of British operations in France
in the early stages. The aggregate of Italy's casualties was
estimated at 1,500,000, while Belgium's were placed at 200,000,
Servia's at 400,000, Montenegro's at 150,000 and Rumania's
at more than 300,000.

While the area of the territorial losses of the Central
Powers was nearly four times as great as that of the entente
group, with the exception of the occupied portions of Buko-
wina and Galicia, the value of the territory included in them
is comparatively small. For example, Germany's African
colonies were sparsely settled, largely by natives, with virtually
all development in the future. Despite this fact, their loss
was a severe blow to Germany.

The territorial losses of the entente covered all but a small
corner of Belgium, a highly developed, thickly populated
industrial country; a large slice of northern France, virtually
all of Servia, all of Montenegro, more than three-fourths of
Rumania and 175,000 square miles of Russia, the major part
of it in the grain-growing section.

According to military experts on the "war map" of
Europe as it stood at that time, the Central Powers had won the
war. But when their enormous loss of foreign commerce and

THE TERRIBLE PRICE.

319

territory is considered, their 'Victory" was shown to have most
decided limitations, especially because of their admission that
they eventually would have to give up all occupied territory in
view of the frightful cost in men and money.

FIGURES POSITIVELY STAGGERING.

Supplementing these statements, as showing the progress
of the war, it was stated just before the United States took
its memorable step to break off diplomatic relations with
Germany, members of the National War Council estimated the
total casualties of the war at that time as in excess of the
population of the United Kingdom, which in 1911 was more
than 45,000,000. This of course included those maimed,
injured or so stricken that they were unfit for future service.
The number actually killed was estimated at more than
7,000,000.

Staggering as these figures are they are easily conceivable
when it is remembered that the German front lines covered
more than 500 miles with Allied troops opposing them, and
that in a single battle millions of shells were fired by one side
or the other. In one battle it was officially reported that
4,000,000 shot and shell were used, and in another the English
mined the German trenches for a distance of several miles and
blew out the strongholds, using more than 1,000,000 pounds
of high explosives.

One of the great 42-centimeter guns of the Germans is
said to have used a charge of guncotton involving the use of
a full bale of cotton to make the explosive — and a bale of
cotton contains 500 pounds. The shrapnel of the heavy field
artillery of the United States contains 717 balls or bullets about
the size of a common marble, and the shell, so timed that it
explodes just before it touches the ground, scatters the bullets
or balls over an area estimated at one yard for every bullet, or
more than 700 yards. With thousands of such shells being

THE TERRIBLE PRICE.

rained over the entrenchments is it any wonder that the list of
wounded and killed was great?

Thousands were killed by poisoned gases, and where they
were not killed a very large percentage of those affected
suffered consequences which rendered them unfit for battle —
turned them into invalids. The gas bombs produced hemor-
rhages of the lungs and bowels in thousands of cases and left
those who inhaled the fumes in an anemic and permanently
disabled condition. And what of the thousands who suc-
cumbed to fevers, and who because of the terrible shock became
mental and physical wrecks and were made unfit for further
duty on the actual firing lines?

A MATTER OF DOLLARS AND CENTS.

When it comes to the cost in dollars and cents it is possible
to tell something of what they mean with reference to war
construction and maintenance, although no one can estimate
what it represents in destruction. No one has yet devised ail
accounting system to determine the percentage of "deprecia-
tion" through wear and tear on guns and devices that cost
thousands of dollars each, but everybody knows that guns wear
out and that some of the larger ones have a very decided limit
on the number of times they can be fired without being rebored
or rifled.

Railroads which have taken years to build and develop
have been destroyed, telephone and telegraph lines put out of
commission, great castles and temples razed, works of art
burned, whole cities devastated, green fields turned into great
craters torn up by bombs and shells, factories dismantled, herds
of cattle fed into the maw of the armies, and the ruthless
Germans even went so far as to wantonly cut down and destroy
whole forests and magnificent shade trees which it took genera-
tions to grow.

How the indebtedness of the nations grew during the
progress of the war is shown in the following statement issued

THE TERRIBLE PRICE.

321

by some of the financial institutions of the country in the
Spring of 1917:

"Indebtedness of the seven principal nations engaged in
the European war has crossed $75,000,000,000. In the middle
of 1914 the indebtedness of these seven nations was $27,000,-
000,000."

Financing on an extensive scale followed this state of
affairs. France issued a second formal war loan, Germany a
fifth loan and Russia a sixth loan. Great Britain issued tem-
porary securities in enormous sums.

The war cost $105,000,000 every twenty-four hours, ac-
cording to the statistics, expenditures of the Entente Allies
being fully double those of the Central Allies.

COMPARATIVE WAR EXPENSES.

Without for one moment taking into consideration the
billions which were thrown into the war-pot by America the
figures are staggering. An interesting comparison is found
in the cost of the previous great world wars. The American
Civil War, the greatest conflict in prior history cost $8,000,-
000,000, a sum equalled every three months in the conduct of
the European war.

Approximate cost.

Napoleonic Wars, 1793-1815 $6,250,000,000

American Civil War, 1861-1864 8,000,000,000

Franco-Prussian War, 1870-1871 3,000,000,000

South African War, 1900-1902 1,250,000,000

Russo-Japanese War, 1904-1905 2,500,000,000

European War, 1914-1917 (3 years) 75,000,000,000

It was further estimated that after the year 1917, the
payment of $3,800,000,000 a year would be required to pay the
interest on the debt, and that the total Government expendi-
tures in Europe for bond interest and support of the various
branches of the Governments would require in the neighbor-
hood of 20 per cent of the people's income.

322

THE TERRIBLE PRICE,

POPULATION AND WEALTH OF COUNTRIES,
Another comparative table that is important to any; one
desiring to study the costs and their effects is that relating to
population and wealth of the principal countries. The latest
available figures are:

Taxes have been the main sources for raising money to
carry on the war. In Germany taxes on all incomes from the
Kaiser to the ordinary business man were kept at the highest
rate, the Kaiser paying $500,000 on his fortune of $35,000,000
during the early part of the struggle. This was in addition
to his income tax which amounted to $440,000, making a total
annual tax of nearly $1,000,000. The Krupps are said to have
heen assessed at $3,000,000.

When the new military service laws were approved in
Paris, which was about the middle of July, 1913, the French
Cabinet was at its wit's end to provide the financial end of the
tremendous military budget. Investment markets were slug-
gish, and there were thousands of notes whose values were
rapidly depreciating. The French Government was unable
to float a loan of $200,000,000 which was necessary for making
preparations.

Then in her desperation Paris closed her doors to all

Population Wealth

United States . . ,
British Empire . .

Germany

France

Russia

Austria-Hungary

Spain

Belgium

Portugal

Italy

101,577,000 $187,739,071,090

394,930,000 130,000,000,000

67,810,000 80,000,000,000

39,700,000 50,000,000,000

187,379,000 40,000,000,000

53,000,000 25,000,000,000

20,000,000 5,400,000,000

7,500,000 9,000,000,000

5,958,000 2,500,000,000

37,048,000 20,000,000,000

THE TERRIBLE PRICE.

323

foreign loans. The Viviani Ministry practically duplicated
the plan of its predecessor in proposing an issue of $360,000,000
8% per cent bonds, which were redeemable in 25 years.

One year previously to this financial struggle the Belgian
Government had started to raise $62,800,000 in order that the
people of this country might prevent its being used as the
battleground for the world war which they had seen away off
in the future. This money was raised for the purpose of mak-
ing Antwerp an impregnable fortress.

IMMENSE SUM FOR ARMY AND NAVY.

Russia had taken steps to raise $3,700,000,000 which the
Russian Minister of Finance had informed the Budget Com-
mittee must be spent in the next five years on the army and
navy. During the first year of the war there was $500,000,000
spent by this country in military and naval defence. This does
not include the cost of those strategic railroads of which so
many were constructed by the Russian Government, and
which cost so many hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Previous to the time Great Britain declared war on Ger-
many the House of Commons had voted $525,000,000 for
emergency purposes, and within a couple of days of this appro-
priation an additional $500,000,000 was granted by the British
Parliament.

One of the things accomplished by war was to bring out
the fact that the resources of individuals are far greater than
is ordinarily suspected. In 1870 Bismarck imposed an indem-
nity of $1,000,000,000 on France, never believing that country
could meet the great debt, but with the help of all the inhabi-
tants the debt was lifted within a few months.

When countries are at war the cost of continuing fighting
does not stop with those actually engaged. The trade of the
world is affected, and this means loss in all quarters of the
globe. Of the import trade of the United States more than
$500,000,000 was directly with those nations engaged in the

324

THE TERRIBLE PRICE.

war at the opening of hostilities. This was out of a total of
$1,850,000,000. A great part of this commerce is classed as
among that which yields the greatest import tax, which means
that internal taxes must be imposed on the people to make up
for the money necessary to meet with the yearly loss occasioned
during the continuance of the war.

ANNUAL NATIONAL INCOME.

In the United States there is an annual national income
of $50,000,000,000, the total bank resources being $35,000,-
000,000, the individual deposits being $24,000,000,000, with
cash held by the banks totaling $2,500,000,000, total gold stock
in the country being $3,000,000,000, and available additional
commercial credits on the basis of cash holdings totaling
$6,000,000,000.

The borrowing power of the American Government does
not total less than $40,000,000,000, from domestic sources, and
this does not disturb the ordinary financial and economical
affairs of the nation.

During the first five months in 1917 the Government of
the United States reached a record for expenditures never
before equalled in American history. The total amount
expended was $1,600,000,000.

The chief item of the increase — $607,500,000 — was the
purchase of the obligations of foreign Governments in exchange
for loans advanced to the Allies. The sum did not represent by
approximately $140,000,000 the total amount authorized in
loans. An increase of approximately $245,000,000 in the
ordinary disbursements of the Government, chiefly due to
military and naval needs, also was recorded and another item
going to swell the grand total of expenditures was the payment
of $25,000,000 for purchase of the Danish West Indies.

War loans of the six chief European belligerents, early in
1917, aggregated approximately $53,113,000,000.

Loans of the chief Entente nations, Great Britain, France,

THE TERRIBLE PRICE.

325

Russia and Italy, were placed at about $36,300,000,000 ; those
of Germany and Austria-Hungary, not including the sixth
German loan reported to have yielded about $3,000,000,000, at
$18,800,000,000.

The amounts of the various loans were placed at:
Great Britain, to March 31, 1917, $18,805,000,000;
France, to February 28, $10,500,000,000; Prussia, to December
31, 1916, $7,896,000,000; Italy, to December 31, 1916, $2,520,-
000,000; Germany, to December, 81, 1916, $11,226,000,000;
Austria, to December 31, 1916, $5,880,000,000; Hungary,
$1,730,000,000.

The total included the advances made by the United King-
dom and France to the smaller belligerent countries allied with
them.

SOME IDEA OF NATIONAL FINANCING.

Some idea of what all this financing means to a country
may be judged by the statement of the Chancellor of the
Exchequer, who in October, 1916, replying to questions
regarding the English loans in the House of Commons,
declared that England was paying at that time about $10,000,-
000 a day in the United States, for every working day in the
year.

When the English mission visited the United States in
May, 1917, after the country had entered the war, there was
handed to Arthur James Balfour, ex-Premier of England, a
check for $200,000,000, said to have been one of the largest
single checks ever paid in this country. It was a loan for war
purposes. In the month of June it was stated that the total
advance made to the Allies was $923,000,000, among the loans
made then was one of $75,000,000 to Great Britain, and $3,000,-
000 to Servia. The Servian loan, the first made by the United
States to that country, was mainly for the improvement of rail-
way lines. A small portion was used for the relief of the
distressed population, and Red Cross work.

C26

THE TERRIBLE PRICE.

It was stated that the allied countries would spend in
America, in the neighborhood of $200,000,000 a month for
the year; which brings attention to the resources which America
turned in against Germany when she joined the allied forces.
To meet the demands made upon it the Government borrowed
at once $3,000,000,000 by popular subscription — a matter of
history of which the nation is proud.

From its funds the country loaned Russia $100,000,000,
which was the first loan made by the United States to that
Government. A credit of $45,000,000 to Belgium was also
established by the Secretary of the Treasury. This also was
Belgium's first participation in the loan of the Allies.

COUNTRY'S NATURAL RESOURCES.

Aside from the financial resources of the United States,
the country is undoubtedly the richest in agricultural, mineral
and other natural resources. It annually produces more than
3,500,000,000 bushels of corn, wheat touching the high point of
1,500,000,000 bushels; 1,600,000,000 bushels of oats; 250,000,-
000 bushels of barley; 40,000,000 bushels of rye; 22,000,000
bushels of buckwheat; 425,000,000 bushels of potatoes; 77,000,-
000 tons of hay; 30,000,000 bushels of flaxseed; 7,000,000,000
pounds of cotton; more than 1,000,000,000 pounds of tobacco;
2,000,000 long tons of sugar and 275,000,000 pounds of wool.

There are nearly 70,000,000 swine, and as many cattle,
more than 25,000,000 head of horses and mules, and 62,000,000
sheep. Coal is mined at the rate of more than 500,000,000 tons
yearly, and the copper mines yield 1,250,000,000 pounds of
metal. Petroleum wells yield 225,500,000 barrels yearly.
There are 270,000 manufacturing plants with a yearly output
of more than $25,000,000,000. The products of the farm total
more than $11,000,000,000 annually.

As to Germany's position, economists all over the world
have considered her position as not only lacking soundness,
but as crazy — crazy in that no attention whatever has appar-

THE TERRIBLE PRICK

327

ently been paid to what are recognized as firmly fixed economic
laws. The world has been at a loss to understand Germany's
attitude, and it can only be explained by assuming that Ger-
many was perfectly well aware of the entire unsoundness of
her commercial and financial position, and was willing, or, in
fact, had to risk everything with the hope of acquiring sufficient
indemnity, resulting from the war, to bring her financial affairs
to a sound basis. Germany's entire structure from the close of
the Franco-Prussian war evidently was built upon rotten
foundations.

CHAPTER XVIII.

THE WORLD RULERS AT WAR.

Woodbow Wilson, the Champion of Democracy — The Egotistical .Kaiser — ■
The German Crown Prince — Britain's Monarch — Constantine Who Quit
Bather than Fight Germany — President Poincaire — And Other National
Heads.

NO matter what the human frailties may be there are al-
ways men who rise in the stress of circumstances to unex-
pected heights. They thrive upon difficulties and in the
emergencies become protectors and saviors of men. In the
world's greatest melting-pot — the burned and blood-stained
battle-fields of Europe — there were tried and tested millions
of men of all nationalities and characteristics, and though the
experience was one of bitterness, there was found in it the
satisfaction that in their own way millions of men proved
themselves great.

Out of the hordes that rode over mountains, sailed the
seas or picked their way through trenches and across the
scarred surface of the earth there looms the figures of some
whose names will go down in history for all time. Their names
will be written indelibly upon the pages of life and they will be
known for ages after the evidences of the great strife have
been obliterated and the peace for which the world struggled
has been made a permanent thing.

Among those whose names will be forever linked with the
terrible war as a leader of men — whose figure stands out
against the mass of humanity — is Woodrow Wilson, Presi-
dent of the United States of America. Though he neither
faced bullets nor tramped the historic byways of Europe in
the terrible struggle, he was to all intents and purposes the
commander-in-chief of all the world forces seeking to break
the autocratic domination of the Hohenzollerns of Germany

328

THE WORLD RULERS AT WAR. 329

and give democracy its place among the nations of the world
which its character justifies.

President Wilson, when he was elevated to the highest
position in America which the Nation could bestow, was
recognized as one of the greatest essayists and students of
history, political economy, constitutional law and government
in the country. And those who made light of his "book-
learning" and referred to him as "the school-master president,"
came to know that his training and the very character of his
life's work fitted him better than probably any other man in
America to deal with the great national and international
problems which confronted, which culminated with or grew
out of America's entrance into the great war.

WILSON'S MANY HONORS.

He was born in Staunton, Va., in 1856, the son of Rev.
Joseph Woodrow Wilson, and received his early education at
Davidson College, N. C. Subsequently he received a degree
at Princeton University and graduated in law at the Univer-
sity of Virginia, later practicing law at Atlanta. After this
he received degrees at Johns Hopkins, Rutgers, University of
Pennsylvania, Brown, Dartmouth, Harvard and Yale Col-
leges, and was professor of history and political economy, first
at Bryn Mawr College and later at Wesleyan University, and
finally professor of jurisprudence and political economy, then
jurisprudence and politics and afterward president at Prince-
ton University, from which post he was elected Governor of
the State of New Jersey in 1913. He resigned from the
Governorship and was elected President of the United States
for a term beginning March, 1913, and was re-elected in
November, 1916, for a second term beginning March, 1917.
both times on the Democratic ticket.

As against the figure of President Wilson there stands
that of the Emperor William of Germany, whose policies indi-
rectly precipitated the war and impelled the alignment of

330

THE WORLD RULERS AT WAR.

nations to defend themselves against his autocratic domination.
For years the head of the House of Hohenzollern, descendant
of the ancient margraves of Germany who have battled with
the old Romans, made it manifest in speech and by action that
his ambition was to create a world empire.

GERMANY MUST BE RECKONED WITH.

Once at the launching of one of the great German war-
ships he said: "The ocean teaches us that on its waves and
on its most distant shores no great decision can any longer be
taken without Germany and without the German Emperor.
I do not think that it was in order to allow themselves to be
excluded from big foreign affairs that, thirty years ago, our
people, led by their princes, conquered and shed their blood.
Were the German people to let themselves be treated thus, it
would be, and forever, the end of their world-power; and I do
not mean that that shall ever cease. To employ, in order to
prevent it, the suitable means, if need be extreme means, is my
duty and my highest privilege."

In a famous interview in the London "Daily Mail" in
1908, discussing the attitude of Germany toward England, the
Kaiser was quoted as follows :

"You English," he said, "are mad, mad, mad as March
hares. What has come over you that you are so completely
given over to suspicions quite unworthy of a great nation?
What more can I do than I have done? I declared with all
the emphasis at my command, in my speech at Guildhall, that
my heart is set upon peace, and that it is one of my dearest
wishes to live on the best of terms with England. Have I ever
been false to my word? Falsehood and prevarication are alien
to my nature. My actions ought to speak for themselves, but
you listen not to them but to those who misinterpret and dis-
tort them. That is a personal insult which I feel and resent.
To be forever misjudged, to have my repeated offers of
friendship weighed and scrutinized with jealous, mistrustful

THE WORLD RULERS AT WAR.

331

eyes, taxes my patience severely. I have said time after time
that I am a friend of England, and your Press — or at least a
considerable section of it — bids the people of England refuse
my proffered hand, and insinuates that the other holds a
dagger. How can I convince a nation against its will?"

And then as if to impress upon the world the belief that
he was chosen of God, the Kaiser repeatedly gave voice to such
bombastic utterances as when to his son in Brandenburg, he
declared: "I look upon the people and nation handed on to
me as a responsibility conferred upon me by God, and that it
is, as is written in the Bible, my duty to increase this heritage,
for which one day I shall be called upon to give an account;
those who try to interfere with my task I shall crush."

THE " GOD-APPOINTED " HOHENZOLLERNS.

Again he expressed the same sentiment when he said:
"It is a tradition of our House, that we, the Hohenzollerns,
regard ourselves as appointed by God to govern and to lead
the people, whom it is given us to rule, for their well-being
and the advancement of their material and intellectual
interests."

And finally in his address to the people in August, 1914,
he said at the beginning of war: "A fateful hour has fallen
for Germany. Envious peoples everywhere are compelling
us to our just defence. The sword has been forced into our
hands. I hope that if my efforts at the last hour do not suc-
ceed in bringing our opponents to see eye to eye with us and
in maintaining the peace, we shall, with God's help, so wield
the sword that we shall restore it to its sheath again with
honor.

"War would demand of us an enormous sacrifice in prop-
erty and life, but we should show our enemies what it means
to provoke Germany. And now I commend you to God. Go
to church and kneel before God, and pray for His help for
our gallant army."

332

THE WORLD RULERS AT WAR.

This is the picture of "Kaiser Bill" whose egotism gave
expression to itself in 1910 when in a speech he said: "Con-
sidering myself as the instrument of the Lord, without heed-
ing the views and opinions of the day, I go my way."

EMPEROR WILLIAM'S CHILDREN.

William II, Emperor of Germany and King of Prussia,
was born January 27, 1859, succeeding his father, Emperor
Frederick the III, in June, 1888. He married the Princess
Augusta Victoria, of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Augus-
tenburg, and had the following issue: Frederick William,
Crown Prince, born May 6, 1882; William Eitel-Frederick,
born 1883; Adalbert, born 1884; August, born 1887; Oscar,
born 1888; Joachim, born 1890, and Victoria Louise, born
1892.

Crown Prince Frederick William is one of the remark-
able figures of the war. A profound admirer of Napoleon he
has always made a close study of that great French soldier,
and has long been one of the leaders of the war-seeking element
in Germany. The Crown Prince, who was born in 1882, is
tall, slim and impulsive. The late Queen Victoria, his great
grandmother, was his godmother.

After he had completed a military course he attended
Bonn University, and on the completion of his college course
he set out on extensive travels. After his return he was placed
in the offices of the Potsdam provincial government so that
he might study local administration. After completing this
study he was given a course in the intricate routine through
which two-thirds of the German people are governed, by being
placed in the Prussian Ministry of the Interior. Naval
administration has also been a part of the studies of the Crown
Prince, in fact he was deeply engrossed in that study when
the war was declared.

The Crown Prince married Duchess Cecilie of Mecklen-
burg-Schwerin, in 1905.

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333

King George V, of Great Britain, the only surviving son
of the late King Edward, was born in 1865. He was the
second son of the king, his brother Prince Albert, the heir to
the throne, dying suddenly in 1892 and bringing the second
son, who had been destined for the navy, into direct succession.
In 1893 Princess Mary of Teck, who was to have married
Prince Albert, was married to Prince George, and there is
one daughter, Princess Mary, and five sons — Edward, Prince
of Wales, and Princes Albert, Henry, George and John.
THE DUKE OF CONNAUGHT.

Prince Arthur, the Duke of Connaught, who is now
Governor General of Canada, is an uncle of the King. He
was married to Princess Louise-Margaret of Prussia, the
daughter of Prince Frederick-Charles of Prussia and Princess
Marie- Anne of Anhalt. He has three children; Margaret,
the oldest, is the Crown Princess of Sweden; Prince Arthur
is married to his cousin, Princess Alexandra, Duchess of Fife,
and Princess Victoria-Patricia, who is unmarried.

King Edward had three brothers and five sisters, two
brothers falling heir in turn to the Duchy of Saxe-Coburg-
Gotha.

King George V is uncle by blood to Olaf , Crown Prince
of Norway, and by marriage with Queen Mary, to three
Princes and three Princesses of Teck. He is brother-in-law to
King Haakon VII of Norway and Prince of Denmark, Duke
Adolph of Teck, and Prince Alexander of Teck. He is a first
cousin on his father's side to Emperor William II of Ger-
many, and his brothers and sisters, among whom, principally,
is the Queen of Greece; to Ernst-Louis, Grand Duke of
Hesse, and his four sisters, one of whom is the wife of Prince
Henry of Prussia, and another is Alice, former Czarina of
Russia. The first and second cousins of the King run well up
into the hundreds.

The Royal Family of Belgium was founded when, in

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1831, the people elected King Leopold I to rule the destinies
of that country. The king was married to Princess Louise
of Orleans, after which practically all the marriages of the
family were with the southern group of royal houses.

There were three children born to the couple, the oldest
son succeeding to the throne as King Leopold II. The latter
married Archduchess Marie Henriette of Austria. One son,
and three daughters were born, the son dying when he was 23
years old. The oldest of the daughters became the wife of
Prince Philip of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, the second wedding
Crown Prince Rudolph of Austria-Hungary, who died in
youth, and the third becoming the wife of Prince Napoleon
Bonaparte. The daughter of Leopold I is the widow of the
ill-fated Emperor Maximilian of Mexico, who was executed
there in 1867.

SECOND SON OF LEOPOLD I.

The second son of Leopold I was Philip, the Count of
Flanders, who was married to Princess Marie of Hohen-
zollern, sister of the Prince Leopold of Hohenzollern and
King Charles of Roumania. The son to this marriage is King
Albert of Belgium, who succeeded his uncle, Leopold II, in
1909. The Queen of Belgium is Princess Elizabeth of the
Ducal House of Bavaria. Through her King Albert is allied
to the Crown Prince of Bavaria, the Grand Duchess of Lux-
emburg, the Duke of Parma, the late Pranz Ferdinand of Aus-
tria, and the present heir-apparent, Archduke Charles Francis
Joseph. The King and Queen have two sons, Leopold, born in
1902, and Charles Theodore, who is two years younger. There
is also a daughter, the Princess Marie-Josephine, born in 1906.

King Nicholas I, ruler of the picturesque little country
of Montenegro, which was the scene of much bitter fighting,
was born October 7, 1841, and proclaimed Prince of Monte-
negro, as successor to his uncle Danilo I, in 1860. He became
king in 1910. Nicholas I married Milena Petrovna Vucotic.

THE WORLD RULERS AT WAR.

335

The children are Princess Militza, who married the Russian
Grand Duke Peter Nikolaievitch; Princess Stana, who mar-
ried George, Duke of Leuchtenberg, but which marriage was
dissolved, the Princess subsequently marrying the Russian
Grand Duke Nicholas Nikolaievitch. The other children are
Prince Danilo Alexander, heir-apparent; Princess Helena,
who married Victor Emmanuel, King of Italy; Princess Anna,
who married Prince Francis Joseph of Battenberg; Prince
Mirko, who married Natalie Constantinovitch ; Princess Zenia,
Princess Vera and finally Prince Peter, who was born in 1889.

KING OF SERVIA.

Peter I, King of Servia, one of the figures of the war, is
the son of Alexander Kara-Georgevitch. He was born in
Belgrade in 1844, and was proclaimed King after the murder
of King Alexander and Queen Draga. He ascended the
throne on June 2, 1908. He was married in 1883 to Princess
Zorka, of Montenegro, who died in 1890. He has two sons
and a daughter; George, who was born in 1887, and who
renounced his right to the throne in 1909; Alexander, born in
1889, and Helen, who was born in 1884. Because of his ill
health King Peter, for a long time, delegated authority to his
son Alexander for the purpose of government.

Nicholas II, the last Czar of Russia, who abdicated in
June, 1917, was born May 18, 1868, and succeeded his father,
Emperor Alexander III, on November 1, 1894. He married
Princess Alexandra Alice, daughter of Ludwig IV, Grand
Duke of Hesse, and has four daughters and one son: Olga,
Tatinia, Marie, Anastasia and Alexis.

The family is descended in the female line from Michael
Romanof, first elected Czar in 1613, and, in the male line,
from Duke Karl Frederick of Holstein-Gottorp. As the
result of intermarriages and connections with the royal houses
of Germany, they are practically Germans by blood.

336

THE WORLD RULERS AT WAR.

It was in fact the German influence, which is said to have
been the immediate cause of the revolt in the great country.

The revolution may be said to have had its inception
when a small group of men opposed to the German influence
at court assassinated the monk Gregory Rasputin, who had a
great influence over the Czar.

A REACTIONARY CABINET INSTALLED.

Czar Nicholas in anger dismissed Premier Trepoff and
installed a thoroughly reactionary Cabinet. Trepoff had been
in office only a short time, having followed M. Sturmer, who
had bitterly fought the Duma. It had been commonly
reported that the real power in the Russian Government after
Sturmer went out was in the hands of the Minister of the
Interior, M. Protopopoif. Sturmer had been called to the
premiership to succeed M. Goremykin, who was in office when
the war began.

The fact that Michael Rodzianko, president of the Duma
and one of the leading advocates of liberalization of the
Government, was named as the chief figure in the provisional
government, showed that the movement is in the hands of the
same forces which had demanded the overthrow of the bureau-
cracy and a more energetic prosecution of the war.

There were many changes in the Russian Government
during the war, although the censorship was enforced so
rigidly that the significance of the rapid shifts was apparent.
Vague reports reached the outside world of high councilors of
State who were obstructing instead of assisting the work of
carrying on the war, and the strength of German influence at
Petrograd. The most conspicuous case of this sort was that
of General Soukhomlinoff, former Minister of War, who was
dismissed from office and imprisoned as a result of charges of
criminal negligence and high treason.

M. Sazonoff, Russia's Foreign Minister at the beginning
of the war and an ardent believer in the prosecution of the

THE WORLD KULEES AT WAR.

337

war, was deposed early in the reactionary regime and sent as
envoy to London. It was suggested that the motive for this
was not to honor an anti-German, but to get him out of
Russia.

MEMBERS OF THE RUSSIAN CABINET.

The members of the Russian Cabinet, as announced for
the Provisional Government, were :

Prince Georges E. Lvoff, well known as president of the
Zemstvos' Union, Prime Minister.

Alexander J. Guchkoff, Minister of the Interior.

Paul Milukoff, well known as a Constitutional Democrat
leader, Minister of Foreign Affairs.

M. Pokrovski, Minister of Finance.

General Manikovski, chief of the Artillery Department,
War Minister.

M. Savitch, Minister of Marine.

M. Maklakoff, Minister of Justice.

M. Kovalevski, Minister of Education.

M. Nekrasoff, Minister of Railways.

M. Konovaloff, Moscow merchant, Minister of Com-
merce and Industry.

M. Rodischneff, Secretary for Finland.

M. Kerenski, Minister without portfolio.

The executive committee of the Imperial Duma, as the
provisional Government styles itself, is composed of twelve
members, under M. Rodzianko, including two Socialists, two
Conservatives, three Moderates, five Constitutional Demo-
crats and Progressives.

Constantine I, King of Greece, wTho abdicated in favor
of his son, Prince Alexander, on June 11, 1917, under pressure
from the Allied countries, was born in 1868. His father, King
George, was assassinated at Salonica on March 18, 1913. The
abdication of King Constantine in June, 1917, was due to his
opposition to the forces in the government which desired to

338

THE WORLD RULERS AT WAR.

join the Allies in the war against Germany. The influence
in favor of the Germans in the royal family of Greece was
Queen Sophia, a sister of the Kaiser.

For a time Constantine was a veritable idol in Greece.
In 1896 when his country was drifting into war with Turkey,
he sounded a warning that the Greek army was unprepared
for a campaign. The infantry was armed with condemned
French rifles; the cartridges were 15 years old; there was no
cavalry ; the artillery was obsolete, and the officers few. When
the country went to war despite his warning, the result was a
disastrous defeat. A similar situation developed when King
George tried to oppose the popular clamor for the annexation
of Crete. The King knew that Turkey was waiting for another
opportunity to crush Greece, and there was a second uprising.

CON STANTINE BECOMES AN IDOL.

Constantine had been in command of the military forces,
and King George was obliged to dismiss him as Generalissimo.
In the Balkan war of 1912, however, when he led an army of
10,000 Greeks to the capture of Salonica, causing 30,000
Turks to lay down arms, he became an idol. On ascending
the throne, it was said that he aimed to restore the grandeur
of the ancient Hellenic Empire, and that he was a firm be-
liever in the old national prophecy that, under the reign of a
"Constantine and a Sophia," the Eastern Empire would be
rejuvenated and the cross restored on Saint Sophia in Con-
stantinople, supplanting the Crescent of the Turk. In fact,
after the Balkan war, when Greece added a section of Turkish
territory to her domain, and the islands of Crete were annexed,
King Constantine hoisted the ancient Hellenic flag over the
fort.

The climax in Grecian affairs was precipitated when Tur-
key entered the great World War on the side of Germany.
The question of intervention on the part of Greece arose, and
King Constantine insisted on strict neutrality being observed.

THE WORLD RULERS AT WAR.

339

The cabinet, headed by Premier Venizelos, which was for war
on the side of the Allies, tendered its resignation. When the
operations began against the Dardanelles the Government
believed that the time had come for Greece to enter the war.
The King refused to countenance the plan, arguing that the
sending of forces to the Dardanelles would dangerously
weaken the Greek defences on the Bulgarian frontier. Queen
Sophia was regarded as bitterly opposed to the country join-
ing the Allies, and was reported to have threatened several
times to leave the country.

The criticism directed against Constantine was severe be-
cause, under the terms of the treaty made in the Balkan war,
Greece was committed to ally herself with Servia if that coun-
try were attacked by another power. Austria did invade
Servia, but Constantine asserted that the treaty applied only
to an attack by another Balkan nation.

ACCUSED OF EVASION.

The occupation by troops of the Entente Powers of a
part of Macedonia, and the seizure of Salonica as their base,
involved the King of Greece in a long series of clashes with
the Entente commanders, and he was accused of evasion and
attempting to gain time in the interests of Germany. A tem-
porary understanding was obtained, but meantime the pro-
visional government, headed by Venizelos, had been growing
in strength, and obtained the recognition of the Entente
Powers.

The Allies laid an embargo on the supplies of Greece,
and Constantine was denounced by the people of Crete and
other territory, who demanded his dethronement. This was
the situation, in a general way, which led to his abdication
and his retirement to Berlin, with the Queen, in the summer
of 1917.

Alexander, who succeeded his father, was a second son,

340

THE WORLD RULERS AT WAR.

born August 1, 1893. He was a captain in the First Regi-
ment, artillery, in the Greek army.

Victor Emmanuel, King of Italy, who threw the weight
of his country with the Allies, repudiating the treaty with
Germany and Austria-Hungary which established what was
known as the Triple Entente, was born in 1869, the only son
of King Humbert, second King of United Italy, who was
murdered at Monza, in July, 1900. Victor Emmanuel married
Princess Elena, daughter of Nicholas, King of Montenegro,
and has four children: Princess Yolanda, Princess Mafalda;
Prince Humbert, heir-apparent, and Princess Giovanna. The
mother of King Emmanuel — Dowager Queen Margherita —
is a daughter of the later Prince Ferdinand of Savoy.

TRAGEDY THE PATHWAY TO THRONE.

Charles I, the Emperor of Austria and King of Hungary,
was born in 1887 and succeeded his grand uncle, Francis
Joseph I, in November, 1916. His way to the throne lay
through tragedy, for he came into the crown immediately
through the assassination of the Archduke Francis Ferdinand,
heir-apparent, and his morganatic wife Countess Sophie
Chotek, in Bosnia, and which crime was the signal for the war.
Nor would Charles have been entitled to succeed to the throne
but for the fact that the Archduke Rudolf, heir-apparent to
the throne, committed suicide in 1889.

The right of succession went with his death to the second
brother of the then Emperor Francis Joseph, or Archduke
Charles Louis, father of the assassinated Archduke Francis
Ferdinand. It passed then after the tragedies to Archduke
Otto, brother of Francis Ferdinand, Charles I, being the son
of the Archduke Otto. The young Emperor married Princess
Zita of Bourbon Parma in 1911. She is the daughter of Duke
Robert of Parma, and sister of the first wife of Czar Ferdi-
nand of Bulgaria. The Emperor has four children: Francis

THE WOULD RULERS AT WAR.

341

Joseph Otto, Adelaide Marie, Robert Charles Ludwig and
Felix Frederic August.

Ferdinand of Bulgaria, Czar, is son of the late Prince
Augustus of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha and late Princess Clem-
entine of Bourbon-Orleans, daughter of King Louis Phil-
ippe. He was born in 1861 and succeeded Prince Alexander,
who abdicated. He married Marie Louise, daughter of
Robert of Parma, and after her death married Princess Elea-
nore of Reuss-Kostritz. There are four children by the first
marriage : Prince Boris, heir-apparent ; Prince Cyril, Princess
Eudoxia, Princess Nadejda.

Alfonso XIII, King of Spain, was born May 17, 1886,
his father, King Alfonso XII, having died nearly six months
previous to his birth. Maria Christina, mother of the heir to
the Spanish throne, was an Austrian princess. In 1906 King
Alfonso XIII married the English Princess Victoria Eugenie,
daughter of the late Henry of Battenberg and Princess
Beatrice, a daughter of the late Queen Victoria.

KING ALFONSO'S SONS.

King Alfonso XIII has four sons: Alfonso, Prince of
the Asturias, heir to the Spanish throne; Prince Jaime, who
is deaf and dumb ; Prince Juan, and Prince Gonzalo. There
are two daughters, Princess Beatrice, and Princess Maria
Christina.

The King's sisters were Maria de las Mercedes, who mar-
ried Prince Carlos of Bourbon, in February, 1901, and died
in 1904, and Infanta Maria Teresa, who died suddenly from
the effects of childbirth. She was the wife of Prince Ferdi-
nand, who afterward remarried Dona Maria Luisa Pie de Con-
cha, who was created Duchess of Talavera de la Reina, and
given the courtesy title of Highness by Alfonso. Don Carlos,
who was born in 1848, and was the pretender to the Spanish
throne, was a second cousin to the King. He died in 1909, leav-

THE WORLD EULEES AT WAR.

ing a son, Prince Jamie, born in 1870, and who is the present
pretender, and four daughters.

The Spanish reigning family are the Bourbons, descend-
ants of King Louis XIV of France.

Ferdinand, King of Roumania, was born in 1865, and is
a nephew of the late King Carol, who died in 1914. In 1893
he married Princess Marie of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, and
two sons and four daughters were born to the royal couple as
follows: Charles, who was born in 1893, and who is heir-
apparent; Nicholas, Elizabeth, Marie, Ileana and Mircia, the
latter dying when four years old.

POINCAIRE'S VERSATILITY.

President Poincaire, of France, is a bearded, pale-faced,
short, and rather stout man, who leaves upon those who come
in contact with him, an impression of his mental ability. He
was born in 1860, and is regarded as one of the few strong
characters who have held the office of President since the war
which brought about the third Republic. He is an author of
widely read books, and has won a place in the French
Academy. As a lawyer he was a leader at the bar, and before
being chosen President, in 1913, he served as Minister of
Finance, and as Minister of Public Instruction. While serv-
ing as Minister of Finance he is credited with having put on
the statutes admirable laws regulating and equalizing the tax-
ations of millions. President Poincaire is a patron of art,
and has been counsel of the Beaux Art, of the National
Museum and President of the Society of Friends of the Uni-
versity of Paris.

The Sultan of Turkey, the outstanding nation in the
conflict, not Christian, was chosen ruler and took the Osman
sword on May 10, 1909, and was designated Mohammed V.
His name is Mohammed Eeshad Effendi, and he succeeded
Abd-ul-Hamid, who was deposed. The latter became Sultan

THE WORLD RULERS AT WAR.

343

in 1876, succeeding Abd-ui-Aziz, who was preceded by Abd-
ul-Mejid.

The history of the Ottoman Empire is rilled with mystery,
romance and stories of intrigue, cruelty and barbarities, involv-
ing internal wars, uprisings, almost continuous struggles with
practically all of the European countries and massacres that
aroused the whole world. Legend assigns Oghuz, son of Kara
Khan, father of the Ottoman Turks, whose first appearance
in history dates back to 1227 A. D.

The reign of Abd-ul-Aziz in the latter part of the last
century was marked by many massacres and the extravagant
conduct of affairs by the Sultan, who visited England in 1876
and was honored by Queen Victoria, who bestowed upon him
the Order of the Garter. He was deposed and Abd-ul-
Hamid succeeded. He made feeble attempts to reorganize
the Government, but his efforts were fruitless and following
wars and uprisings and further internal troubles and the loss
of territory he was deposed and the present Sultan was chosen.

CHAPTER XIX.
THE WAR'S WHO'S WHO.

Striking Figures in the Conflict — Joffre, the Hero of Marne — Nivelle, thk
French Commander — Sir Douglas Haig — The Kaiser's Chancellor — Ven-
izelosi — " Black Jack " Pershing.

XE of the most striking figures among those whose

names are irrevocably linked with the history of the
world fight for democracy, is that of Joseph Joffre,
Marshal of France, former Commander of the French forces
and victor of the famous battle of the Marne, who led the
French Mission to the United States, after America entered
the war.

The Commander-in-Chief of all the French armies, a man
of humble birth, saw the light of day at Perpignan, near the
Pyrenees, in 1852.

The future General early showed a deep interest in mathe-
matics and obtained the degree of Bachelor of Science at the
College of Perpignan at the early age of 16. He was a stu-
dent at the Polytechnic Institute when the Franco-German
War of 1870 broke out. Joffre was placed in charge of a
large part of the defense of Paris and drew the plans of the
fortifications in the direction of Enghein. At the age of 19
he was promoted to Captaincy in the presence of Marshal
MacMahon and his whole staff.

Marshal Joffre traveled much and spent a great many
years fighting France's colonial wars. He served in the
Formosa campaign of 1885; constructed a chain of forts at
Tonkin, Cochin-China ; was decorated for distinguished
bravery in leading his troops in action there in the eighties;
was Chief Engineer of the Engineering Corps at Hanoi, and
undertook the building of a railroad from Senegal to the Niger
River in 1892.

Joffre fought through the Dahomey Campaign in 1893;

THE WAR'S WHO'S WHO.

345

saved the day for the French in a brilliant rear-guard action
and entered Timbuctoo as a conqueror. Later he proceeded
to Madagascar, where he constructed fortifications and organ-
ized a naval station.

Recalled to France, General JofTre became a Professor
in the War College and obtained his stars in 1901. He later
entered the Engineering Department of the War Ministry;
then became Military Governor of Lille. Later he was pro-
moted to be a Division Commander in Paris and then com-
mander of the Second Army Corps at Amiens. He gained
the honor in 1911 of a unanimous vote of the Superior Council
of War making him Commander of all the military forces of
France.

A FAMOUS WAR RECORD.

His record in the World W ar is well known. Every one
has read of his masterly conduct of the retreat from the
Belgian border; of his work in regrouping the shattered and
retiring French forces; of his ringing appeal to the men to
strike back at the moment he had determined upon. At the
Marne he saved France and perhaps the world.

Jo fire is unsympathetic and grim when at work. He has
no patience for anything but the highest efficiency. At a
single stroke he cashiered a score of Generals who did not
measure up to his standards. He is a master builder, organ-
izer and strategist. Though rather taciturn he is loved both
by the officers and poilus. Among the latter he became known
as "Papa" Joffre.

He showed by his appointments and acts that a new
inspiration — an inspiration of patriotism — controlled the
Republic. Joffre's accession to supreme command symbolized
that France had experienced a new birth, that the army was
well organized and that the man who for three years had been
silently performing the regeneration of the land forces had
rightly been placed over the forces he had reformed.

346

THE WAR'S WHO'S WHO.

Almost unknown to the masses, Joffre was placed at the
head of the French troops in the summer of 1914. Among
his associates he was known as an authority on aeroplanes,
automobiles, telegraphs and the other details of modern war-
fare. Above everything else he stood for efficiency and pre-
paredness, and lacked the qualities of the French soldier of
literature. To be prepared for instant war had been his effort
for three years, and when that time came France found her-
self nearly as well prepared for the conflict as was Germany,
which had prepared for twenty-five years.

ADJURATION TO SCHOOL CHUMS:

One of his few published speeches, made to his old school
chums, is on this theme. "To be prepared in our days," he
said, "has a meaning which those who prepared for and fought
the wars of other days would have great difficulty in under-
standing. It would be a sad mistake to depend upon a sudden
burst of popular enthusiasm, even though it should surpass
in intensity that of the volunteers of the Revolution, if we do
not fortify it by complete preparation.

"To be prepared we must assemble all the resources of the
country, all the intelligence of her children, all their moral
energy and direct them toward a single aim — victory. We must
have organized everything, foreseen everything. Once hostil-
ities have begun no improvisation will be worth while. What-
ever lacks then will be lacking for good and all. And the
slightest lack of preparation will spell disaster."

What Joffre said to his chums he had done for the French
army, and President Poincare, after the Battle of the Marne,
summed up his qualities which made it a French victory in
this message to Joffre: "In the conduct of our armies you
have shown a spirit of organization, order and of method
whose beneficent effects have influenced every phase, from
strategy to tactics; a wisdom cold and cautious, which has
always prepared for the unexpected, a powerful soul which

THE WAR'S WHO'S WHO.

347

nothing has shaken, a serenity whose salutary example has
everywhere inspired confidence and hope."

These words of the President of the French Republic are
an epitome of the character and the military record of Joffre.
He is representative of the real France, not the France of
Paris and scandals. He is of the peasantry, and he and his
kind, men of character, brought about the glorious France of
the war.

Among those who accompanied Joffre on his visit to the
United States was Rene Viviani, ex-Premier of France and
Minister of Justice. He was born in Algeria in 1862, his
family being Corsican, and originally of Italian blood.

VIVIANI A SOCIALIST LEADER.

M. Viviani became a lawyer in Paris and built up a large
practice. In 1893 he entered the Chamber of Deputies as a
Socialist. Together with Briand, Jaures and Millerand he
was long a leader of the parliamentary delegation of Social-
ists. On June 1, 1914, one month before the outbreak of the
war, M. Viviani became Prime Minister. He showed himself
a brilliant leader and tireless worker. His speeches embodying
the spirit of fighting France were read and admired the world
over. Many persons consider Rene Viviani France's greatest
orator. Volumes of his speeches have had a wTide sale.

M. Viviani was succeeded in the Premiership by M.
Briand, and recently he became Minister of Justice in the
Ribot Cabinet. He is a man of great culture. Though an
excellent Latin and Greek scholar, he speaks no English.
Rene Viviani has had some experience as a newspaper man,
as a special writer and as managing editor of the Petite
Republique. His younger son, aged 22, was killed in the
war. His older son has been wounded but is back at the front.

Another member of the French mission was M. de Hovel -
acque, the French Inspector General of Public Instruction.

348

THE WAR'S WHO'S WHO.

He is well known in the United States because of his marriage
to Miss Josephine Higgins, of New York State.

The Right Honorable Arthur Balfour, ex-Premier of
England, who came to America to join in the conferences at
which the policies for carrying the war were outlined after
America became an Ally, is described as one of the most intel-
lectual statesmen in England, and one who, although he won
all the honors his country could give him, never realized his
own possibilities. At sixty-nine, at the height of his mental
development, he occupies a place in the English cabinet, a
place which was given him because of his great hold upon the
autocracy of England.

BALFOUR'S INTELLECTUAL ABILITY.
As the Premier of England, as Secretary of Ireland and
as the leader of the House of Commons Mr. Balfour displayed
great intellectual agility, but at no time was credited with
having displayed the industry which spurred on such men as
Lloyd George to success. He is of the aristocracy and his
position in English politics came to him as the nephew of Lord
Salisbury.

He was born in 1848 and educated at Eton and Cam-
bridge and entered the House of Commons at the age of 26.
Mr. Balfour was known in his early years as a philosophically
and religiously inclined young man, and it occasioned some
surprise when he followed the traditions of his family by enter-
ing politics.

Some years after taking his seat he joined what was
known as the Fourth Party, a conservative rebel faction, con-
sisting of three members, Lord Randolph Churchill, Sir Henry
Drummond Wolff and Sir John Gorst. This group consti-
tuted a sort of mugwump element that voted independently
on every party question and that tried to rouse the Conserva-
tives from their party prejudices and narrow leanings.

To Mr. Balfour belonged the distinguished honor of

THE WAITS WHO'S WHO.

349

attending the Berlin Conference of 1878 as private secretary
to Lord Salisbury. In 1885 he became President of the Local
Government Board. The Conservatives were thrown out of
power for a short time at this juncture, but when they were
restored in 1886 Balfour became Secretary for Scotland.
Shortly after he was promoted to be Chief Secretary for
Ireland.

Despite his gentle manners and quiet ways, the new Chief
Secretary ruled the then disturbed Ireland with an iron hand.
He was known as "Bloody Balfour" by the Irish agitators
until he began to show his milder ways upon the restoration of
peace. He remained in Ireland until 1891. He had endured
abuse and faced threats and had come away triumphant. From
Ireland Mr. Balfour went to England as First Lord of the
Treasury.

Arthur James Balfour showed his friendship for the
United States when, in 1897, as Acting Secretary for Foreign
Affairs, he refused to give England's consent to a continental
proposal that Spain be permitted to govern Cuba as she chose.

LIBERALS COME INTO POWER.

When Lord Salisbury died in 1902 Mr. Balfour succeeded
him as Prime Minister. He remained in that office until 1905,
when the Liberals came into power. In the coalition Ministry
formed since the outbreak of the European War, he was nomi-
nated First Lord of the Admiralty. He showed remarkable
ability in this office. Upon the resignation of Mr. Asquith's
Cabinet, Mr. Balfour became Secretary for Foreign Affairs.
He is an enthusiastic sportsman and has written a book on golf.

The other English envoys who accompanied Mr. Balfour
to Washington were Rear Admiral Sir Dudley Rawson
Stratford de Chair, and Lord Walter Cunliffe, Governor of
the Bank of England.

Rear Admiral de Chair was born August 30, 1864. He
entered the Royal Navy at the age of 14, and received his

350

THE WAR'S WHO'S WHO.

early training aboard His Majesty's Ship Britannia. He
served in the Egyptian war and was naval attache at Washing-
ton in 1902.

Admiral de Chair commanded the Bacchante, Cochrane
and Colossus successively in the years between 1905 and 1912.
From 1912 to 1914 he acted as Assistant Controller of the
Navy and subsequently he was the Naval Secretary to the
First Lord of the Admiralty. At the outbreak of the war he
became Admiral of the training services and of the Tenth
Cruiser Squadron. Admiral de Chair is a member of the
Royal Victorian Order and a Companion of the Bath.

LORD WALTER CUNLIFFE.

Lord Walter Cunliff e, Governor of the Bank of England,
is 52 years old. He received his education at Harrow and
at Trinity College, Cambridge, from which he graduated with
the degree of Master of Arts. He is a Lieutenant of the City
of London.

Lord Cunliff e has been active in the banking field for
many years and is a member of the firm of Cunliffe Brothers.
He is a Director of the North Eastern Railway Company and
has been a Director of the Bank of England since 1895. He
became Deputy Governor of the bank in 1911 and has been
Governor since 1913. Lord Cunliffe is the first Governor
of the Bank of England to receive the honor of re-election
after serving his term of two years. In 1914 he was created
the First Baron of Headley.

Among the dominating characters of the war and upon
whose judgment and ability the destinies of France and the
Allies depended for a long period is General Robert Nivelle,
Commander of the French armies, and who succeeded General
Joffre. General Nivelle is a man of silence; he speaks little.
General Nivelle is four years younger than Joffre.

As a boy of fourteen he could not take part as did Joffre
and Gallieni and Pau and Kitchener also, in the tragical war

THE WAR'S WHO'S WHO.

351

of 1870. Joffre studied at the Ecole Polytechnique, in Paris;
Gallieni, at Saint Cyr, without the walls; Nivelle studied at
both; he may claim to belong to all arms, artillery, infantry —
even cavalry. And, in his youth, he was not only a magnificent
all-round athlete, as indeed he still is, but also a headlong rider
of steeplechases, in which, had he been fated to break his neck,
his neck would infallibly have been broken. This is a trait
he shares with General Brussiloff, and, like the great Russian
General, he was famous for the skill with which he tamed and
trained cavalry mounts.

SERVES AS JUNIOR OFFICER.

As a junior officer Nivelle saw service in the French
General Staff; his part in the expedition to China we have
recorded; he also served in Northern Africa. So that, like
Joffre, Gallieni, Lyautey, Roques and so many leaders of
French armies, Nivelle gained an invaluable element of his
training in the out-of-the-way corners of France's vast col-
onial empire, which has outposts in every continent and meas-
ures nearly five million square miles.

At the outbreak of the World War Nivelle, with the rank
of Colonel, commanded the Fifth Regiment of Artillery, which
is the artillery element of the Seventh Army Corps, the corps
of Besancon and the old Franche-Comite, under the Jura
Mountains, at the corner of Switzerland and Alsace.

It was, in fact, in the section of Alsace invaded and re-
taken by the French army of General Pati — who lost an arm
in Alsace in the war of 1870 — that Nivelle struck the first of
many hard blows which made him Field Commander of the
splendid army of France. He directed the guns of his Fifth
Regiment with such deadly accuracy against a group of Ger-
man guns that he first scattered their gunners in flight and put
them out of action, and then led them off in triumph, twenty-
four guns in all, the first great trophy won by the arms of
France.

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THE WAR'S VvTHO'S WHO.

In the battle of the Ourcq, fought with superb tenacity
and dash by Manoury and his men, the first decisive blow of
the great battle, the first definite victory, was gained ; General
von Kluck's right wing was smashed in and out-flanked, with
the result that the whole German line was dislocated and sent
hurtling backward.

In that battle and victory Colonel Nivelle, as he then was,
had his part ; but it was on the Aisne, a few days later, that a
strikingly brilliant act brought him into especial prominence.
The Seventh Corps was attacked by exceedingly strong enemy
forces and forced backward over the Aisne. Colonel Nivelle,
commanding its artillery, saw his opportunity, and, himself
leading on horseback, brought his batteries out into the open,
right between the retreating Seventh Corps and the strong
German forces that were pursuing them, already sure of
victory.

VICTORY TURNED TO SLAUGHTER.

With that calm serenity which is his dominant character-
istic in action, he let the Germans come close up to his guns in
serried masses. Then he opened fire, at short range, with
deadly precision, so that the expected victory was turned into
a slaughter. Th^ broken German regiments, fleeing to the
woods beside the Aisne for safety, ran upon the bayonets of
the rallied Seventh Corps, inspired to splendid valor by the
magnificent action of their artillery. Of 6000 Germans who
made that charge few indeed returned to their trenches.

This was on September 16, 1914. Before the New Year
the Artillery Colonel had been made a General of Brigade,
and in January, 1915, the new General distinguished himself
by stopping the tremendous and unforeseen German drive
against Soissons. He was forthwith recommended for further
promotion, and on February 18 was gazetted General of
Division. Shortly after this be gained new laurels by captur-
ing from the Germans the Quenevieres salient.

THE WAR'S WHO'S WHO.

353

This great commander was the son of Colonel Nivelle —
and an English mother, a former Miss Sparrow, whose family
lived at Deal, on the English Channel. In his married life
General Nivelle has been exceedingly happy.

The dominating figure in the English army when America
entered the fray was Sir Douglas Haig. He succeeded Sir
John French.

Sir Douglas Haig was born under so favorable a star
that he has long been known as "Lucky" Haig. Not that he
has depended upon his luck to push him ahead in the army,
for his record as a student and a worker wholly disproves this.
But nevertheless fortune has showered many favors upon him.
Among these favors the first and by no means the least is his
very aristocratic lineage and the consequent high standing he
has had in royal and influential circles.

HAIG'S FAMILY TREE.

Haig's family tree dates back at least six centuries and
he comes of the very flower of Scotch stock. The virtues of
the "Haigs of Bamersyde" were extolled by the poets of the
thirteenth century. And to discuss this feature of his career
without giving due credit to the position and influence of his
wife would be ungallant as well as unfair. She was the Hon.
Dorothy Vivian, daughter of the third Lord Vivian, and maid-
of -honor to Queen Alexandra, and the pair were married in
Buckingham Palace.

He did not enter the army until after his graduation from
Oxford and then he took service in the cavalry, the usual choice
of the English "gentleman." When twenty-four years old, he
received his commission as a Lieutenant in the Queen's Own
Hussars, one of the ultra-fashionable regiments. Six years
later he was made a Captain and then decided to take a regular
military course at the Staff College.

In 1898 he took part in Kitchener's campaign up the Nile
and in the Soudan as a cavalry officer. He was then thirty-

354

THE WAR'S WHO'S WHO.

seven years old. He distinguished himself in several engage-
ments, was "mentioned in the dispatches," was awarded the
British medal and the Khedive's medal and was promoted to
Major.

His career in the Boer war, which followed that in Egypt,
was characterized by distinguished services and numerous
rapid promotions. It was during this latter war that Haig
became attached to the staff of Sir John French, whom he
succeeded in France and Flanders. He came out of the war
in South Africa a full-fledged Colonel, and with a fresh supply
of medals and "mentions." Then he was sent to India as
Inspector General of Cavalry.

DIRECTOR OF MILITARY TRAINING.

He remained in the Indian service three years, and theik
was given a post at the war office in London, with the title of
"Director of Military Training." He remained in London
three years, when he was sent to India as Chief of the Staff
of the Indian Army. Three years later he returned to Eng-
land and was given what was known as the "Aldershot Com-
mand," which, in fact, was the command of the real active
British army. He had this post when the war broke. His
assignment as Commander of the First Army Corps under
Sir John French soon followed.

The man, who next to the Kaiser had more to do with
Germany's plans for world domination, is Dr. Theobold von
Bethmann-Hollweg, Imperial Chancellor of Germany.

The elevation of Hollweg to the Chancellorship came when
Prince Bulow stood in the way of complete domination of
Germany's policies by the militarists, headed by the Kaiser.
Prince Bulow was dismissed and Bethmann-Hollweg became
Chancellor in 1909. From that time on he dedicated his life
to the achievement of a single aim — the completion of Ger-
many's plans of aggression.

Bethmann-Hollweg comes from an old Prussian family

THE WAR'S WHO'S WHO.

355

ennobled in 1840. He was born about 1855 and was a student
with the Kaiser at the University of Bonn. He studied law
at Gottingen, Strassburg and Berlin, and for several years
followed the law and was appointed a judge at Potsdam.
APPOINTED PRUSSIAN HOME SECRETARY.
In 1905 he was appointed Prussian Home Secretary, and
it was then that his name first became familiar to the man in
the street in Berlin. Shortly afterward he was appointed
Assistant Chancellor of Prince Bulow, who was then Chan-
cellor.

It was during his service as Home Secretary that Beth-
mann-Hollweg became largely converted to all that the most
advanced Prussian militarism stood for. Ultimately be became
a far more ardent Pan-German even than Prince Bulow. In
a speech at Munich in 1908 he declared that though Germany
was then happily free of all immediate anxiety so far as her
foreign relations were concerned, her present and future posi-
tion as a great Power must ultimately rest on her strong arn\
and though the strength of her arm was greater than it ever
had been it must grow yet stronger.

It was a speech after the Kaiser's own heart — provocative
and boasting to a degree. It had, as a matter of fact, it is said,
been prepared by the Emperor, and was delivered by the
Kaiser's order for the special benefit of Prince Bulow, who
had at that time fallen out of favor with the Emperor.

Grand Admiral Von Tirpitz is said to be the man who
made the German navy. Having won the recognition of the
Kaiser in 1894 he was promoted to Chief of Staff in the Ger-
man navy, and was placed in command of Kiel. He was made
Secretary of State in 1898 and immediately began the building
up of the navy. New and modern methods of engineering
were developed and finally he made such an impression with
the Kaiser that he was ennobled. Von Tirpitz was the prin-
cipal advocate of Germany's plans during a decade for having

356

THE WAR'S WHO'S WHO.

the navy powerful enough to equal the combined powers of
any three great naval powers.

Sir John Jellicoe, Vice Admiral and Commander-in-Chief
of the British Naval Home Fleet had served more than forty
years in the navy when the war broke out. He was a Lieuten-
ant at the bombardment of Alexandria and was a member of
the Naval Brigade which participated in the battle of Tel-el-
Kebir, for activity in which he was presented with the Khe-
dive's Bronze Star for gallant service. He was in command
of the naval brigade which went to China in 1898 to help sub-
due the Boxers and was shot at Teitsang, where he was deco-
rated by the German Emperor, who conferred upon him the
Order of the Red Eagle. He was Rear- Admiral of the Atlan-
tic Fleet in 1907-08, and Commander of the Second Home
Squadron in 1911-12. To Admiral Jellicoe is given credit for
having developed a high degree of efficiency among the gun-
ners in the English navy.

ADMIRAL HUGO POHL.

Admiral Hugo Pohl, of the German navy, was born at
Breslau in 1855. He became a Lieutenant in the Imperial
German navy when but 21 years of age. He gained rapid
promotion, and within a few years was Commodore in charge
of the scouting ships. He had charge of setting up the now
famous German naval stations from Kiel to Sonderberg in
Schleswig in 1908 and was afterwards made Vice Admiral.
He wears the medal of the Order of the Crown, bestowed upon
him by the Kaiser for admirable service.

One of the men whose names will be forever linked with
the war, particularly with relation to the adoption of new
methods of warfare, is that of Count Zeppelin, who died on
March 8, 1917, and who was the father of the Zeppelin or
dirigible balloon. The idea for the big airship did not origi-
nate with Count Zeppelin, but with David Schwartz, a young
Austrian, who built his first dirigible in 1893. He tried to

THE WAR'S WHO'S WHO.

357

arouse interest in his aircraft in Russia, but failed and finally
went to Berlin, where he interested the then Baron Zeppelin.
A balloon was made, but Schwartz fell ill and died. Zeppelin
was later accused of attempting to steal the young Austrian's
patents, and the courts made an award to Schwartz's widow of
$18,000.

Count Zeppelin's first airship came out about 1898. It
was 300 feet long and had an aluminum frame. Short cruises
were made in 1899 and 1900, and the craft maintained a speed
of &bout sixteen miles an hour. A second airship was com-
pleted in 1905, and later a third aircraft was finished. This
dirigible made a cruise of 200 miles at an average speed of
twenty miles. The success led Count Zeppelin to make his
most ambitious attempt and he tried to cross the Alps carrying
sixteen passengers.

IN THE AIR THIRTY-SEVEN HOURS.
He succeeded and passing through hailstorms, crossing
eddies and encountering cross-currents he traveled 270 miles
at an average speed of twenty-two miles an hour. Subse-
quently he made a flight to England, remaining in the air
thirty-seven hours. Fate played him false, however, in many
of his ventures and he returned home after making remarkable
voyages, only to have his craft destroyed at its very landing
place.

The German Government and the Kaiser joined in giving
him a grant of money to carry on his work, and a plant was
built at Frederichshafen. But while Count Zeppelin's name
will be forever identified with aeronautics the successes which
he attained were not enduring, for the Zeppelins proved not
entirely satisfactory in military warfare in competition with
the aeroplane.

In the counsels of Greece the outstanding figure from the
beginning of the war was JSJeutherois Venizelos, He is
credited with being responsible for the national revival in

358

THE WAR'S WHO'S WHO.

Greece when the country seemed doomed after the Turkish
war of 1897. He was the leader of the country in the move-
ment to join the Allies in the fight against German domination
and he swayed the nation and held them as few men have. He
was born in the Island of Crete in 1864, and according to tra-
dition, his family descended from the medieval Dukes of
Athens. He was educated in Greece and Switzerland and
became active in Cretan politics, and won recognition as the
strong man of the "Great Greek Island."

TRANSFORMS A NATION.

In less than three years after the distress in which the
country found itself in 1909 he transformed the nation into
one of solidarity. There had been meaningless squabbles of
corrupt politicians and a sordid struggle for preferment. The
army was degenerating and the popular fury became so great
that there was an uprising of the army, which under the title
of the "Military League," ousted the Government and took
control of the country. The heads of the League brought
forward Venizelos. The League dissolved and reforms were
instituted which started the country on a new path, and when
the Balkan war broke in 1912 Greece made a record and
emerged in many respects the leader of the Balkan states.

Sir John French is one of the English commanders who
have rendered yeoman service in the war. He is one of the
most striking military figures in England. He has seen serv-
ice in India, Africa and Canada, and was one of the uniformly
successful commanders in the Boer war. At the Siege of Kim-
berly he was shut up in Ladysmith with the Boer lines drawing
closer. He managed to secrete himself under the seat of a
train on which women were being carried to safety. Outside
the lines he made his way to the Cape, where he was put in
charge of cavalry and in a terrific drive he swept through the
Free State and reached Ladysmith in time to save the day.

He originally entered the navy, but remained for a short

THE WAR'S WHO'S WHO.

359

time. He commanded the 19th Hussars from 1889 to 1903
and then rose steadily in rank until he was made General
Inspector of the Forces and finally Field Marshal in 1903.

There should be no discrimination in naming those who
have represented America in the country's activities at war,
but because they came into the world's line of vision by being
sent abroad for service there are some American commanders
whose names will ever be remembered.

Vice-Admiral William S. Sims is one of these. He is
a Pennsylvanian who was born in Canada. His father was
A. W. Sims, of Philadelphia, who married a Canadian and
lived at Port Hope, where Admiral Sims first saw the light
of day. He went to Annapolis when he was 17 years of age
and was graduated in 1880. After this he secured a year's
leave of absence and went to France, where he studied French.
Subsequently he was assigned to the Tennessee, the flagship
of the North Atlantic Squadron and passed through all grades
of ships. He received promotion to a Lieutenancy when he
was about 30 years of age. For a time he was in charge of
the Schoolship Saratoga, and later was located at Charleston
Navy Yard, and also with the receiving ship at the League
Island Navy Yard, Philadelphia. After this he went to Paris
as Naval Attache at the American Embassy. He was simi-
larly Attache at the American Embassy at St. Petersburg.

Admiral Sims was relieved of his European assignment
in 1900 and joined the Asiatic fleet, and while abroad studied
the methods of British gunnery. When he returned to
America later he inaugurated reforms which increased the
efficiency of the gunnery in the service 100 per cent. His
successful efforts led to his appointment as Naval Aide to
President Roosevelt. He made a report on the engagement
between the British and German naval fleets at Jutland which
was startling, and declared that the British battle cruisers had
protected Great Britain from the invasion of the enemy.

360

THE WAR'S WHO'S WHO.

When he reached the European waters in command of
the United States naval forces, with a destroyer flotilla, and
the British officers who greeted him asked when the flotilla
would be ready to assist in chasing the submarine and protect-
ing shipping, Admiral Sims created a surprise by tersely
replying: "We can start at once." And he did. Admiral
Sims married Miss Anne Hitchcock, daughter of Former
Secretary of the Interior. The couple have five children.

Major General John J. Pershing, of the United States
Army, Commander of the forces in France and Belgium, is
one of the most picturesque figures in American military
circles. ' 'Black Jack" Pershing is what the officers call him,
because he was for a long time commander of the famous
Tenth Cavalry of Negroes, which he whipped into shape as
Drillmaster, and which saved the Rough Riders from a great
deal of difficulty at San Juan Hill in the Spanish- American
War. He was also at the battle of El Caney where he was
given credit for being one of the most composed men in action
that ever graced a battlefield. He served with signal results
in the campaign against the little "brown" men in the Philip-
pines ; was in charge of the expedition which chased Villa into
Mexico.

General Pershing was born in 1864 in Laclede, Missouri,
and is tall, wiry and strong. Every inch of his six feet is of
fighting material. He is a man of action and has a penchant
for utilizing the services of young men rather than staid old
officers of experience. Pershing is a real military man, and
has been notably absent from such things as banquets and other
functions where by talking he might get into the limelight.
It is true that he was jumped over the heads of a number of
officers by President Roosevelt, but he has carved his way by
his own efforts, and no man could have more fittingly been
sent to take charge of the American forces abroad than "Jack"
Pershing.

CHAPTER XX.
CHEMISTRY IN THE WAR.

Substitutes foe Cotton — Nitrates Produced from Air — Yeast a Real Sub*
stitute fob Beef — Seaweed Made to Give up Potash — A Gangrene Pre-
ventitve — Soda Made Out of Salt Water — America Chemically Indepen-
dent.

IT IS when men are put to the test that they develop initia-
tive and are inspired to great things. In the stress of
circumstances there were created through and in the great
war many unusual devices and much that will endure for the
benefit of mankind in the future, lit is probable that the
advancements made in many lines would not have been attained
in years but for the necessity which demanded the exertion
of men's ingenuity, and in no field was this advancement
greater than in that of chemistry.

Any struggle between men is, in the last analysis, a battle
of wits, but it remained for those planning and scheming to
defeat their fellow men or protect themselves in the world
conflict to make for the first time in history the fullest use of
the chemist's knowledge. Largely the successes of the war
have been due to the studies and activities of the chemists,
working in their laboratories far from the actual field of strife.

Not only has their knowledge been turned to the creation
of tremendously destructive explosives, the like of which have
never before been known in warfare, but the same brains which
have been utilized to assist man in his death-dealing crusades
have been called upon to thwart the efforts of the warring
humans and save the lives of those compelled to face the wither-
ing fire of cannon, the flaming grenade and the asphyxiating
gas bomb.

In the food crisis which confronted the nations, chemists
drew from the very air and the waters of the river and sea,

361

362

CHEMISTKY IN THE WAR.

gases and salts to take the place of those which became limited
in their supply because of the demands of the belligerents.

The chemist is one of those who fights the battles at home.
The resisting steel, the penetrating shell, the poisonous gas, the
power-producing oil, the powerful explosive — all these are his
contributions to the war's equipment, but he also is the magician
who waves the wand and out of the apparently useless weeds
and vegetable matter produces edibles. He turns waste prod-
ucts into valuable chemicals or extracts needed chemicals from
by-products.

GERMANY'S GREAT PRIVATION.

Germany, deprived of many imports by the sea power of
England, first transformed herself into a self-supporting
nation through the agency of the chemist. Substitutes had
to be provided for food products which the Germans could
not get, and it is said that the ability of the Kaiser and his
henchmen to withstand the attacks of the Allied forces was
due as much to the service rendered by the chemists a,s by the
army and navy.

Nbt only were artificial foodstuffs manufactured, but
natural food products previously neglected were prepared for
use. What had been regarded as useless weeds were found to
possess food value. A dozen wild-growing plants were found
that might be used as a substitute for spinach, while half a
dozen others were shown to be good substitutes for salads.
Starches were obtained from roots, and cheap grades of oils
and fatty wastes of all sorts were turned into edibles.

Up until the advent of the present war cotton formed the
base of most of the so-called propellant explosives used in
advanced warfare. Such terrible explosives as trinitrotoluene
occasionally mentioned in the published war reports, as well as
many others, have as the principal agent of destructive force
guncotton, which is ordinary raw cotton or cellulose treated
with nitric or sulphuric acid, though there are, of course, other

CHEMISTRY IN THE WAR.

363

chemicals used in compounding the various forms of deadly
explosives.

At the same time there are innumerable explosives which
are of a distinct class. Lyddite, mentioned occasionally as
one of the modern death-dealing explosives, has for a base
picric acid. Th'e Lyddite shells referred to occasionally in
various articles about the war are shells in which Lyddite is
used as the explosive. The largest percentage of explosives
used in modern gunnery are those formed of nitrated cellulose
— guncotton.

TWO GREAT FACTORS.

Therefore any shortage in the supply of cotton and cellu-
lose is a serious matter in war time, for the country which
has the most plentiful supply of ammunition is the one that
has the greatest relative advantage. It was^ for instance,
stated from Washington several times after the war started
and the United States commercial and industrial forces were
being mobilized, that America could make enough almost unbe-
lievably powerful explosives to blow Germany off the face of
the European map, were it possible to transport the dangerous
materials. Dozens of new explosive compounds were placed
before the Government for consideration and in application
for patents. One of the new ones, it was said, was so powerful
that little more than a pinch of it exploded beneath such an
immense structure as the Woolworth Building, New York,
would destroy the entire edifice.

The curtailment of the supply of cotton to Germany when
the war started, because of England's blockade, and later when
America entered the conflict, threatened disaster to the "Fath-
erland." The German chemists began working immediately
to supply substitutes for cotton, to be used both in the manu-
facture of explosives and fabrics. They developed the
processes of producing cellulose from wood pulp to take the
place of cotton for making guncotton, and certain forms of

364

CHEMISTRY IN THE WAR.

wood fiber and paper were used in the textile trades. Willow
bark was one of the substances utilized to a limited degree in
making fabrics.

Likewise synthetic — or artificial — camphor to take the
place of that secured from nature's own laboratory — the cam-
phor tree — was also produced of necessity, for camphor is an
ingredient largely used in making smokeless powder. Before
the war most of the camphor was obtained from Japan.

Compounds — alloyed steel, iron and aluminum — have also
been used in the industrial world to supplant copper. In
America we have been educated to regard copper as the ideal
metal for conducting electrical power, but in Europe aluminum
was used successfully in a large way, even before the war.
After the conflict started in all of the countries where there was
a scant supply of copper, substitutes were developed by the
metallurgists and chemists.

POTENCY OF MODERN CHEMISTRY.

The acids and salts used in powder making and the crea-
tion of explosives were also secured from new places. Nitric
acid, which is necessary to the manufacture of guncotton, for
many years was made principally with saltpeter and sulphuric
acid. Modern chemists, however, made it from nitrogen of
the very air we breathe, and in Germany it was made during
the war from ammonia and calcium cyanamide, both of which
may be obtained from the air.

Many such methods of obtaining acids were known and
tested before the war, but the processes had not been perfected
to such an extent as to make them commercially profitable.
However, the increased prices of chemicals, due to the exces-
sive demands of war, and the absolute necessity for producing
them inspired the chemists to get the required results, and
Germany by the development of these sources of supply found
the acids necessary for her own use in war, whether for explo-
sive making or medical purposes.

CHEMISTRY IN THE WAR.

365

Great quantities of sugar are used in making powder and
explosives, too, and when the supply became limited the Ger-
man chemists began producing in larger quantities the chem-
ical substitute — saccharine. Later even this sweet was denied
the population because the chemicals were needed for war
uses. So in every line Germany found use for everything
which its chemists and chemical laboratories could produce.

The terrible gas and liquid fire bombs which the Germans
were first reported using contained chemical compounds
invented for the purpose by the chemists. Some of the chem-
icals and the gases produced when the bombs exploded were
so powerful that men and animals in the range of the fumes
were killed instantly. The effect was to paralyze them in some
cases and it was reported that many of the soldiers were found
dead standing upright in the trenches or in the attitudes which
they had assumed at the moment they were overcome.

BASIC PRINCIPLE OF BOMBS.

Nitrous-oxide, or chlorine, in some chemical form is
supposed to have been the base of the bombs, and concerning
the liquid fire it was reported in connection with the dropping
of bombs on London from a Zeppelin, that some of the bombs
contained what is chemically known as Thermit, which is a mix-
ture of aluminum and iron oxide used in brazing and welding.
When ignited the oxygen is freed from the iron and combines
with the aluminum with great rapidity. During the chemical
reaction an intense heat is produced — a heat so great that it
almost equals that of an electric arc.

So in the world of agriculture and industry the German
chemists, recognized leaders of the world, actually made or
produced from the air and other unsuspected sources things
without which they could not have withstood the siege against
them for a single year. In the absence of concentrated foods
for cattle and humans, the chemists produced absolute substi-
tutes. They took the residue or waste from the breweries and

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CHEMISTRY IN THE WAR.

extracting the bitter hops taste from the dried yeast produced
a substitute for beef extract.

So also they secured ammonium sulphate by a direct
combination of nitrogen and hydrogen in the air. At the
same time they utilized other minerals than those usually avail-
able for the manufacture of sulphuric acid and placed the
country on an independent footing.

But Germany was not alone in its advancement. The
United States, which found itself without quantities of dye-
stuffs and many other chemically produced things when the war
came on, took the lesson unto itself and is today nearer self-
supporting than it ever was in the history of the nation. The
Department of Agriculture has experimented and produced
from yeast, vegetable boullion cubes, which taste like beef
extract and contain greater nutriment.

DOMESTIC DYE-STUFFS.

America, too, has extracted sulphate of ammonium from
the air and the dye-stuffs which we could not g£t from abroad
are being made at home. Two of the things which America
found lacking when war developed were potash and acetone,
both of which are factors in powder and explosive making.
The former is used in the ordinary black gunpowder, but the
latter is necessary in the making of the smokeless powder.
England wanted Cordite, one form of this powder which the
British think is the best propellant in the world. It is made of
guncotton and nitroglycerine and acetone is one of the chem-
icals required in its manufacture. England turned to the
United States for quantities of this explosive and also for the
acetone, but America did not produce anywhere near enough,
and England wanted this country to make something like
20,000,000 pounds of the explosive.

A number of mushroom chemical plants were developed
by the powder company to produce the desired acetone — one
very much like a vinegar plant near Baltimore, and another at

CHEMISTRY IN THE WAK.

367

San Diego, California, where the munitions maker's chemists
refined acetone and potash extracted from kelp, or sea weed,
and besides supplying the powder and the chemicals which the
English needed America developed a permanent industry.

RELIEVED BY AMERICAN INGENUITY.

Carbolic acid, too, was one of the badly needed chemicals
of the war, not only for medical purposes, but also for explosive
making. Again the ingenuity of America asserted itself and
Thomas A. Edison produced the plans for two benzol-absorb-
ing plants which were erected at great steel works and within a
few months these plants were turning out benzol and Mr.
Edison's carbolic-acid plant was being supplied with the raw
material.

And then it was believed that America could not make
dyes to take the place of those which came from Germany. All
the United States, it was said, would have to wear white stock-
ings. The country just could not produce the dyes necessary,
and the product of the American plants was inferior. But
America could make the same dyes. She is making them.
Right now she is making practically as great a variety as
Germany even sent over here.

A few miles outside of Philadelphia, at Marcus Hook, on
the busy Delaware river where the ships of the world are
being made, the Benzol Products Company turns out large
quantities of aniline oil. The aniline oil, the essential basis of
aniline dyes, is made into tints as fair and perfect as any the
wizards of Germany ever conjured out of their test tubes.

The tale about America's inability was proved to be a
fable. The Marcus Hook plant is one of three which sprang
up when the war began. Others are the Schoellkopf Aniline
and Chemical Works at Buffalo and a third is the Becker
Aniline and Chemical Works at Brooklyn. The three are now
merged into one great operating company and Germany will

368 CHEMISTRY IN THE WAR.

have some difficulty in getting back her dye trade when she is
ready to again fight for the world markets.

Moreover, the world-famous duPont Company, which
has made powder and chemicals for all the nations, turned in
and purchased the Harrison Chemical Works in 1917, and
besides making "pigments" has entered the coal tar dye
industry. The company made an intensive study of the dyeing
industries — cotton, calico printing, wool, silk, leather, paper,
paints, printing inks, &c, and made plans to meet the require-
ments of each. The Harrison plant is but one of the immense
group operated by the duPont Company and it has been
famous for the manufacture of white lead and acids.

A CHEMICAL DISCOVERY.

There is in fact no line in which the chemists of America
did not rise to the emergency,, and the "romances of the
industrial" world are not more entrancing than are those of
the medical and other fields. Chemistry, for instance, dis-
covered an anti-toxin for the deadly gangrene, or gas bacillus,
poisoning of the battlefields. The discovery was made by
research workers in Rockefeller Institute.

It is one of the most important discoveries in medical
research as applied to war, having an even greater bearing
on the treatment of war wounds than the D akin- Carrel treat-
ment of sluicing wounds previously referred to. The serum
works on the same principle as the anti-tetanus serum used
to prevent lockjaw. The gangrene antitoxin is injected to
prevent the development of gangrene poisoning.

The serum was developed by Dr. Carrel Bull and Miss
Ida W. Pritchett, of the Rockefeller Institute, by immunizing
horses by the application of the bacillus germs, then obtaining
the resultant serum from the horses. The new serum dis-
places, in a measure, the Dakin-Carrel method of treating
wounds. As soon as a soldier is picked up wounded, the plan
is to give him an injection of the serum so that he can be

CHEMISTRY IN THE WAR.

369

rushed to the rear ambulances with no fear that the deadly
gas infection will develop.

The use of the serum means the wiping out of the big
death rate from infection, with death resulting merely from
wounds that are in themselves fatal. The gas bacillus was
discovered by Dr. William H. Welch, of Johns Hopkins Uni-
versity, 25 years ago. The bacillus frequently is present in
soil and when carried to an open wound germinates quickly,
developing into bubbles of gaseous matter, whence comes the
name "gas bacillus." The bubbles multiply rapidly, a few
hours often being sufficient to cause death.

A WOUND-FLUSHING SYSTEM.

Possible gangrene poisoning has been offset by the D akin-
Carrel system of constantly flushing the open wounds, but
patients are requently too far off to be given the advantage of
the flushing method and this is where the serum is chiefly valu-
able. The ambulance or medical corps "shoots" the serum
into the wounded soldier even before they douse his wound
with iodine.

The progress that has been made along these lines is
indicated by the statement of Lord Northcliffe, who after a
visit to the front declared that the annual death rate in the
English army was 3 per cent of 1000 and that the average
illness, including colds and influenza, was less than in London,
despite the discomforts of the trenches.

In the past disease has been as destructive as battles.
Biology and pathology, to say nothing of surgery and thera-
peutics, have made such strides that disease has been virtually
eliminated as a factor in warfare. War takes medical science
into the field, where the control of large masses of men enables
it to develop the highest efficiency.

Even in normal peace conditions biological and patholog-
ical science has been accomplishing results not popularly under-
stood. Individual cures by surgery and medicine appeal to

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CHEMISTRY IN THE WAR.

personal interests, but these are negligible compared to the
prevention of plagues like smallpox, typhus and tuberculosis.
If such diseases had not been successfully combated by science
three out of four of the present civilized population would not
be in existence at all. The organized and intensive application
and developments of science, of preventive medicine, constitute
the strictly neutral work in this war by which all humanity will
profit for all time to come.

In passing it is interesting to note that the great power
supplied by Niagara Falls is being utilized to produce some of
the chemical marvels. One great industry there is making
soda by the electrolytic process. That is, salt brine is pumped
from the saline deposits in western New York and piped to the
works. This is run into electric cells and through these a
current of electricity is led. The salt, which is composed of
chlorine and sodium, decomposes under the electric attack.
The sodium goes to one pole and combines with water to form
caustic soda, whereas the chlorine escapes at the other pole.
Let us follow the chlorine, which is a yellowish-green gas, more
than twice as heavy as air, and has found a new use as poison
gas in the great war — for which all the world should be
ashamed.

It is collected and compressed to a liquid form and shipped
in containers under pressure for use in chemical works and
bleacheries and for the purification of drinking water. It has
been found above all things effective in destroying noxious
bacilli. A surprisingly small amount of the gas dissolved in
the water is enough. In New York city the water has been
chlorinated and no single case of typhoid fever has been traced
to the supply.

CHAPTER XXI.

QUE NEIGHBOEING ALLY.

Canada's Recruiting — Baise 33,000 Troops in Two Months — First Expedi-
tionary Force to Cross Atlantic — Bravery at Ypres and Lens — Meeting
Difficult Problems) — Quebec Aroused by Conscription.

HE world has marvelled at the achievement of Canada

1 at Valcartier camp near Quebec and the dispatch across
the Atlantic Ocean of a fully equipped expeditionary
force of 33,000 men within two months of the outbreak of war
between Great Britain and Germany. But the magnitude of
that feat cannot be appreciated properly until one considers
that on August 4, 1914, Canada had a permanent force of only
about 3500 men.

These soldiers, who for the most part were instructors and
men on guard duty, provided a nucleus for a training organiza-
tion. In addition to its "standing army," the Dominion had
an active militia numbering approximately 60,000 men. Their
training consisted of what has been aptly called "after-supper
soldiering." Members of city regiments drilled for one night
each week, participated in an annual church parade and spent
two weeks every year in summer camp.

The training of the rural regiments consisted almost
entirely of the two weeks in summer camp. Yet from these
militia units were drawn a large proportion of the men in the
first Canadian oversea contingent, while the militia regiments,
to a large extent, formed the basis of Canada's recruiting
organization after the outbreak of hostilities.

Enlistments during the first two years in the expeditionary
force numbered approximately 415,000, while probably 150,000
applicants were rejected as physically unfit.

Immediately upon the declaration of war Major General
Sir Sam Hughes, Minister of Militia, telegraphed the officers
commanding the militia regiments to commence recruiting for

371

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QUE NEIGHBORING ALLY.

oversea service. After the recruits were signed up and
accepted, they lived at home and drilled during the day at the
armories throughout the Dominion.

Meanwhile, Valcartier camp was being prepared for the
gathering army. The building of this great military center
almost overnight was an engineering feat of no mean magni-
tude. Two weeks after work was started, troops recruited by
the militia regiments began to arrive, and before the end of a
month Valcartier was a tented city of 25,000 soldiers.

There were some complaints, of course. They were inevit-
able in an encampment so hastily prepared. But the essentials
were there, and when the contingent sailed from Gaspe, on the
coast of Quebec, on October 3, it was a well-trained, efficient
body of soldiers, besides being the largest army that ever
crossed the Atlantic at one time.

AN EFFICIENT COMMANDER.

The contingent was in command of Lieutenant-General
Edwin Alfred Hervey Alderson. He was born at Ipswich
in 1859 and began his military career with the Militia, going
to the regular army in 1878. He joined the Royal West Kent
Regiment as Second Lieutenant and rapidly won promotion.
He served in the Transvaal, later in Egypt and participated in
actions at Kassassin and Tel-el-Kebir, receiving the Khedive's
bronze star. Service in South Africa and in India followed,
during which General Alderson successively became Captain,
Major and Lieutenant Colonel. He became a Colonel in 1903
and was placed in charge of the Second Infantry Brigade, and
in 1908 commanded the Sixth Division, Southern Army of
India, having meantime been given the rank of Major General.

After the departure of the first contingent recruiting was
continued by the militia regiments, and during the winter the
men were quartered in exhibition grounds, Y. M. C As., sheds,
etc. In the spring of 1915 existing camps were enlarged and
new ones opened.

OUR NEIGHBORING ALLY.

373

During this period the recruiting machinery developed
from the militia regiments. Through the latter officers were
recommended to command new battalions. These O. Cs.
selected most of their subordinate officers from their own militia
regiments and used the parent organization as a general basis
for recruiting operations, headquarters being located at the
regimental armories.

The keen competition existing between the militia units
was maintained between the new oversea formations, and
battalions were raised in a few weeks. For months enlist-
ments all over Canada averaged more than 1000 men daily,
and with recruits coming forward at this rate, there was no
necessity of protracted delay in bringing battalions up to
strength.

DIFFICUTY OF RECRUITING.

There was a disposition, especially in military circles, to
attribute the increasing difficulty of the recruiting situation
during the winter of 1915-16 and since to a change of system
and the introduction of the so-called "political colonels." The
change, however, was rather the result of new conditions than
the cause of it. Recruiting had slowed down — largely from
natural causes.

A new appeal was needed to reach a class of eligible men
who had not yet enlisted. The recruiting problem apparently
had outgrown the facilities of the militia organizations.
Rightly or wrongly, the government commissioned a number
of well-known men, without military experience, to raise
battalions. Their popularity and local confidence in them were
the excuses for their appointment — and the experiment was
in the main successful.

Perhaps there was a suggestion of politics about it,
although it may be stated emphatically that politics had not
been a serious influence in connection with the recruiting,
training or leadership of Canada's oversea forces. That such

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OUR NEIGHBORING ALLY.

is the case stands to the enduring credit of Major General
Hughes. ■

The attempt to "popularize" recruiting was soon found
to entail serious evils. Competition for recruits in an already
well-combed field became very keen. The new political
colonels realized that their reputations were at stake, and in
the effort to fill up their battalions various undignified and
regrettable expedients wrere employed. Cabarets, bean-count-
ing contests, lotteries and callithumpian methods generally
marked a period in Canada's recruiting history not pleasant
to review, and which brought discredit upon the entire vol-
untary enlistment system as a permanent method of filling
up armies.

TRAINING SERIOUSLY DELAYED.

Besides the moral influence of such schemes to get men in
khaki, the recruiting efforts of the political colonels had a
serious effect in delaying the training of new men. With their
personal reputations as organizers involved, the commanding
officers were reluctant to admit inability to fill up the ranks of
their units, and repeatedly pleaded for more time.

For months partly recruited battalions made little or no
progress with their training, while the officers devised new
recruiting "stunts" and while men were being sought in the
highways and byways.

The situation was complicated by allowing a number of
infantry battalions to recruit in the same area at the same time,
with the result that the new men came in driblets, valuable time
Was lost and much money wasted. In some cases it has taken
well over a year from the date when they were authorized before
battalions were dispatched oversea — due very largely to
ineffective recruiting methods. Battalions were allowed to
Continue the heart-breaking quest for recruits long after they
should have been amalgamated and sent to England. Such
amalgamations came ultimately, battalions retaining their iden-
tity when leaving Canada only when 600 or more strong.

OUR NEIGHBORING ALLY.

375

The high cost of recruits was a direct consequence of com-
petition among battalions recruiting independently in the same
territory at the same time. The government allowance was not
adequate to maintain the pace and had to be supplemented by
private funds.

There was in Toronto a certain group of fifty recruits
referred to as the "$10,000 squad/' because it is estimated that
the cost of recruiting them averaged nearly $200 each, the
money coming from private funds of officers and their friends.
Perhaps the estimate involves some exaggeration, but many
units added to their ranks only at a cost of $50 or more per
recruit.

Some idea of the waste of such a system may be secured
when it is stated that, with men coming forward freely, the cost
of recruiting is considerably less than $10 per man, even after
allowing a generous bonus to the recruiting sergeants. More
serious than the cost in money was the delay in training men
needed at the front.

A POLITICAL IMPOSSIBILITY,

Canada's experience constitutes a severe indictment of the
voluntary system of recruiting, although sterner measures at
the outset were a political impossibility. The free-will enlist-
ment plan had to be given a thorough test, and its inadequacy
demonstrated and repeatedly emphasized before public opinion
would support resort to compulsion.

English-speaking Canada at least learned that lesson, and
it is extremely doubtful whether the United States would
have adopted the selective draft system at the commencement
of its participation in the war, if it had not been that the experi-
ence of Canada and the United Kingdom established the weak-
ness inherent in the voluntary system.

Besides the camp at Valcartier, a great artillery camp was
set up at Petewawa, where the best facilities existed for long
range gun practice. Ontario saw two camps at Niagara and

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OUR NEIGHBORING ALLY.

Camp Borden ; Manitoba saw one on the plains, Alberta another
in the picturesque district near Calgary, while British Columbia
had its camp at Vernon.

INADEQUATE RECRUITING.

The volunteer recruiting in Canada, in its incipiency, while
resultf ul, was soon found to be not adequate. Under it, how-
ever, there was a widespread response that stirs the blood, for
men hurried to the lines from the Yukon and the Peace Rivers ;
from Hudson's Bay and the farther hinterlands, from prairie
and mountain; white men and the red men; cowboys and city
chaps, harvesters and hunters, mechanics and mountaineers,
backwoodsmen and frontwoodsmen. And also among the en-
listers were thousands of Americans who fought side by side
with Canadian, Briton and Frenchman.

Canada has large German settlements, including 300,000
German and Austrian settlers in the western provinces. Prompt
action was taken on the outbreak of the war to deal with the
alien element that might prove dangerous and disloyal. Nearly
10,000 were speedily interned, from Nova Scotia to British
Columbia. A large proportion were Austrian laborers who
had been railway navvies. These were placed in western camps
and used in building trails and roads in national parks, or in
clearing the forest for future settlement in Northern Ontario.

Many individuals of known pro-German sympathies were
also put out of harm's way, and some famous trials were held
which served to give salutary warnings to all others that free-
dom of speech has its limitations in times of waj, and that the
rumors that the sinking of the Lusitania was being celebrated
behind closed doors was hardly palatable.

Others, again, were caught in attempts to destroy prop-
erty and it is to the credit of police and military vigilance that
few succeeded in their nefarious designs. The ' internment
camp proved a wholesome example, and the pro-German in
Canada took the advice of the United States Government to its

OUR NEIGHBORING ALLY.

377

German subjects "to keep their mouths shut." It is also a fact
that the occupants of the detention camps in the Dominion were
well fed and treated, in striking contrast to the disturbing
reports that leaked through as to the way Canadian war
prisoners in Germany fared.

CANADA'S WAR FINANCIERING.

Next, the story of how Canada is financing her share of
the war, for it is a costly business. Three domestic war loans,
totaling $450,000,000, were voluntarily subscribed, each in fact
being doubly underwritten, and yet the savings of the people in
the banks is (1917) the highest on record — over a billion and a
quarter. Part of the war revenue is being raised by war taxes
on letters, checks, legal documents and some articles of import.
Happily the normal revenue of the country was never so large
nor the trade of the Dominion so buoyant. All these factors
are helping to carry the war burden.

The generosity of the people, under the heavy strain, was
most marked. Many millions were given to the various war
help funds, chiefly to the Red Cross and the Canadian Patriotic
Fund, of 700 branches, which supplements the Government
separation allowance to soldiers' dependents by other grants.
Canada had, up to that time, by the way, the highest paid sol-
diery in the world, privates getting $33 a month.

It is interesting to note that there are several branches of
the Canadian Patriotic Fund in the United States, which looked
after the families and dependents of Americans who enlisted in
the Canadian ranks.

Canadian total givings in cash and kind to their own, as well
as to the Belgians, French, Servian, Armenian and other funds
and Governmental grants of grain and provision, would repre-
sent a very much larger figure than that here mentioned.

The orders placed in Canada averaged $1,500,000 worth
for every day in the year.

The women of Canada in every way render practical

378

OUR NEIGHBORING ALLY.

patriotic service. Hundreds of nurses were placed in overseas
and home hospitals. The farmers' wives raised large sums of
money as did the school children. Organizations of all kinds
came into existence, not alone collecting money, but contribut-
ing vast quantities of war material and soldiers' comforts, and
sending packages of food and clothing regularly to Canadian
prisoners in German camps.

Still another war problem was the care of the returned
wounded soldiers, and a serious problem it was. The proces-
sion of the disabled was a pathetic one. Military convalescent
hospitals were set up in many centres, in addition to the open-
ing of private homes for the same beneficent purpose.

CANADA PART OF AMERICA.

Canada may be an English possession, but to us it is part
of America, and certainly no two countries have rested side by
side in greater friendship than the * 'Dominion'' and the United
States. You can find no great fortifications along the 3000
odd miles of border between Canada and the United States*
The countries have lived in peace and harmony and together, or
side by side they have battled for peace on the fields of
Flanders.

All the world knows what Canada has done on the battle-
fields abroad, fighting with those troops from Australia, New
Zealand, India and lesser English territory, to drive the ruth-
less Germans back and crush the Empire to wEich they swear
allegiance.

/The Canadian troops were taken after landing in France
to a point within the country between St. Omer and Ypres,
where they served with honor to themselves, their presence
having a salutary effect on the British soldiery, who had been
facing the German forces. At the battle of Neuve Chapelle
the Canadians held part of the line allotted to the first army,
and while not engaged in the main attack, rendered valuable

OUR NEIGHBORING ALLY.

379

help, their artillery being very active, and at the battle of Ypres
in April, 1915, they took a notable part.

In the latter part of April, the Canadian division held a
line of about 5000 yards, connecting with that of the French
troops, and faced the memorable gas attack of the Germans,
which was the first noted in the war. The asphyxiating gas was
projected into the trenches by means of force pumps and pipes
laid under the parapets, the German sappers having carefully
placed these conductors. The bulk of the gas was directed
against the French, largely made up of Turcos and Zouaves,
who were driven back, suffering agonies.

POSITION BRAVELY HELD.

The Canadians suffered to some extent from the poison,
and though there were in the commands lawyers, college pro-
fessors, business men, clerks and workers of all sorts, who had
been turned into soldiers within a few months, and without pre-
vious military experience, they held their position bravely. The
Canadians w^ere, of course, compelled to change their position
after the French fell back, and the Allied troops were, to all
effects and purposes, routed. But when the Germans, recog-
nizing the weakened position of the Canadians, attempted to
force a series of attacks, the Canadian division, as a matter of
record, fought through the day and through the night, for
forty-eight consecutive hours, and finally, in a counter attack,
drove the Germans back and regained a position which had been
lost by the British troops in the earlier conflict.

Later, in the face of a devastating fire, in which many
officers were killed, battalions of the Canadians carried warfare
to the first line of German trenches, and in a desperate hand-to-
hand struggle won the trench! This attack, it is said, secured
and maintained during the most critical moment of the cam-
paign the integrity of the Allied line.

In connection with the experience of the Canadians with
the gas fumes, it is necessary to note that at that time they were

380

OUR NEIGHBORING ALLY.

unprovided with gas masks, or means of protecting themselves
against the fumes, and the best thev could do was to stuff wet
handkerchiefs in their mouths. The fumes, although extremely-
poisonous, were not so effective with the Canadians as on the
French lines, largely because of the position of the Canadians,
and the direction of the wind, but in the several attacks a num-
ber of the Canadians were asphyxiated.

HEROES WIN RECOGNITION.

So, all through the Ypres campaign, the Canadians faced
the shot, shell and poisonous gases of the Germans, and won
recognition for their heroic conduct which will stand to the
credit of Canada for all time. At Festubert, Givenchy, and,
last but not least, Lens, the Canadians, step by step, kept pace
with the Allied advances.

In their general advance on Lens the Canadians occupied
the strongest outpost in the defense of that place, and pushing
their troops on toward La Coulotte, entered that village. The
Germans withdrew in this neighborhood from a line about one
and three-quarters miles long.

The task of the Canadians was to capture German out-
posts southwest of Reservoir Hill. The attack was evidently
expected. The Germans scuttled, abandoning ground upon
which machine gun fire was immediately turned by Germans
located on the hill. This was speedily followed by heavy artil-
lery fire, which continued during the night in the vicinity of the
Lens electric station.

The enemy's dugouts were searched, found to be empty,
and wrecked.

The German retirement ceased during the night. Patrols
sent out opposite Mericourt and to the south found the enemy's
front line strongly held. The Germans made huge craters at
all cross roads in Avion and leading towards Lens.

Patrols which were sent out reached the summit of Reser-
voir Hill without opposition and pushed on down the eastern

OUR NEIGHBORING ALLY.

381

slope and the strong Lens outpost was effectively occupied.
Meanwhile, south of the Souchez River the Canadians drove
forward on the heels of the retiring Germans. Railway em-
bankments east of Lens electric station were occupied. The
advance was then continued toward La Coulotte. As night fell
strong parties were sent out to consolidate the positions occu-
pied, while patrols were sent forward to keep in touch with the
Germans.

WANTON DESTRUCTION.:

Several days previous the Germans were known to be
destroying houses in the western part of Lens, with the object
of giving a wider area of fire for their guns. It was their inten-
tion of clanging to the eastern side of the city and prolonging
the struggle by house-to-house fighting.

Under a protecting concentration of artillery fire, Cana-
dian troops successfully stormed and captured the German
front line before Avion, a suburb of Lens. By the advance the
British line was carried forward to within one mile of the centre
of Lens.

The Canadians, heartened by successes gained in a few
days at a relatively small cost, decided to attack across the open
ground sloping upwards to Avion and the village of Leauvette,
near the Souchez River. They met with opposition of a serious
character at only one point, where a combination of machine
gun fire and uncut wires delayed the advance. The attack was
not intended to be pressed home at this particular spot, as the
ground specially favored the Germans, so that the delay did no
harm. The assaulting troops comprised men from British
Columbia, Manitoba, Central Ontario and Nova Scotia.

The attack was made along a two-mile front. On the
extreme left, Nova Scotians pushed their way up the Lens-
Arras road to the village of Leauvette. Here they took a num-
ber of prisoners. At the other end of the line, east of the rail-
way tracks, enemy dugouts were bombed. Their occupants

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OUR NEIGHBORING ALLY.

belonged to the crack Prussian Guards Corps, the Fifth Guard
Grenadiers, who refused in most cases to come out and sur-
render.

At daybreak, Canadian airplanes, flying low over Avion,
saw few Germans there. Craters which had been made by mine
exposions at the crossroads, seriously hindered them in bring-
ing up troops from Lens for counter attacks.

GERMAN AVIATIK DEFEATED.

In an air duel fought at probably the highest altitude at
which aviators, up until that time, had met in combat, nearly
four miles, a Canadian triplane pursued and defeated a
German two-seated Aviatik. The German machine had sought
safety by climbing upward and the triplane pursued. At a
height of 20,000 feet the pilot of the German craft either fell
or jumped from it and disappeared at the moment of the first
burst of fire from the gun on the Canadian. The German
observer then was seen to climb out upon the tail of the machine,
where he lost his hold and plunged headlong. The Aviatik
turned its nose down and fell.

It is meet that some note be taken of the fact that while
the Canadian soldiers were battling for humanity and the
preservation of the British Empire in Flanders there was
being celebrated in their native land the fiftieth anniversary of
the founding of the Dominion. All Canada took part in the
celebration on June 1, 1917, as did large numbers of men from
the United States officers' training camp at Niagara, where
recruits were preparing to receive Commissions in Uncle Sam's
Army.

Up until 1867 Canada had been the scene of bitter strife
between the French and British. At that time the provinces
were brought quite closely together, and commenced a new era
of prosperity. The foundation was then laid for a wonderfully
prosperous country, one filled with almost limitless possibilities.

The confederation of Canada had its birth in a meeting of

OUR NEIGHBORING ALLY.

383

delegates from all over British North America, which was held
in 1864, and these delegates, after deliberating for nearly three
weeks, passed a large number of resolutions which formed the
basis of what eventually became the Act of Union. In the f ol-
lowig January these resolutions were submitted to the Legis-
lature of Canada and after due debate there was passed in both
chambers of Parliament a measure for the purpose of uniting
the provinces in accordance with the provisions of the Quebec
resolutions. The meeting was in Quebec.

PLAN OF UNION PASSED.

A number of difficulties were encountered, so that it was
1867 before the plan of union was submitted to the Imperial
Parliament, where it was warmly received and passed without
alteration of any description within a few days. The royal
assent was given on March 29, and the act constituting the new
Canada went into effect on July 1, which day has since become
known as Dominion Day, and is the chief of all Canadian holi-
days.

The federal Constitution of Canada is contained in an
Imperial Act of Parliament, known as the British North
America Act, and it is based very largely upon that of the
mother country. The ministry of the day holds office at the
pleasure of the House of Commons, the members of which are
elected by the people. At the head of the affairs is a Governor-
General, who is appointed by the crown and paid by the people
of Canada. As is the case with the British sovereigns, he acts
;with and on the advice of the ministers for the time being, and
also like the King, he can dissolve the Parliament.

The number of members of the House of Commons is
regulated by the following clauses of the act: "On the comple-
tion of the census in the year 1871, and of each subsequent
decennial census, the representation of the four provinces shall
be readjusted by such authority in such a manner, and from

384

OUR NEIGHBORING ALLY.

such time as the Parliament of Canada from time to time pro-
vides.

Previous to the passing of the British North America Act,
the great Dominion had consisted of a conglomeration of
provinces, some of them of almost fabulous extent, into which
the white man from the West had penetrated. Tradition has
it that some thousand years ago a Norseman, by name Leif
Ericson, coming in his great beaked galley, through the
northern seas, from Greenland, was the first white man to
stand on Canadian soil.

Another five centuries were, however, to pass before John
Cabot, sailing from Bristol, in the days of Henry Bolingbroke,
brought the first British ship into a Canadian port. After him
the fishermen of Europe came in increasing numbers to the
great banks, with the result that little by little, as their tiriy
vessels touched the American shores, the great continent began
to be known to the people of Europe.

DOMINION'S FOUNDATIONS LAID.

It was not realty, however, until the year 1534 that the
foundations of the Dominion may be said to have been sunk.
In that year Jacques Cartier sailed from the port of St. Malo,
with two little ships, intending to attempt the northwest
passage to Japan, Francis the First was then ruling in Paris,
and there was great adventure in the air of France. Cartier
did not make the northwest passage, but he did touch the coast
of Canada, or, to be more exact, the coasts of Labrador and
Newfoundland. It was then the 10th of May, and having
sailed around the island, he steered south, and crossing the gulf
entered the bay which, by reason of the great heats of midsum-
mer, he named Des Chaleurs. Holding along the coast, he
came to the little inlet of Gaspe, and here, at the entrance to
the harbor, he erected a huge cross surmounted by the arms and
lilies of France. He could find no passage, however, to the

OUR NEIGHBORING ALLY. 385

northwest, and so he turned his ship, and sailed back to St.
Mala

The Court in Paris heard his story with interest. His
cause was taken up by the King; and, as a result, in the suc-
ceeding May, he sailed again to the new world with three well
found ships. On the day of Saint Lawrence he entered the
great bay, to which he at once gave the name of the Saint, and
passing on came, in September, to anchor in the Isle of Orleans.

REAL FOUNDER OF CANADA.

The man, however, with whose name the early history of
Canada is most fully connected, had not as yet been born. Nor
was it until the year 1567 that, at Brouage in Saintonge,
Samuel de Champlain came upon the scene. In the year 1603,
when Elizabeth was ruling in England, and Henry of Navarre
in France, Champlain came to Canada. He had been a soldier
of le Bearnais, in the great wars with the League, an officer of
marine, and a man with no little knowledge of natural science,
as knowledge was then accounted. He came now in command
of an expedition, fitted out by the merchants of Rouen, with
the idea of forming a Canada company, as England had her
Barbary Company, her Eastland Company, her Muscovie
Company, or her Turkey Company. And in this way the
French came into Canada.

Thus there began those American wars between the two
countries, divided at home only by the English Channel, which
went on century by century, largely through the employment
of the Indian tribes, until that September night when Wolfe's
boats drifted in, from the fleet to the shore, and the battle on
the Plains of Abraham permanently settled the question of
domination in favor of the British.

The British conquest of Canada did not, however, mean the
cessation of fighting. There came, presently, the war between
Great Britain and the American colonies, one of the most amaz-
ing exploits of which was the marvelous march of Arnold and

386

OUR NEIGHBORING ALLY.

Montgomery through the forests of Maine to the St. Law-
rence, ending in the wonderful siege, of the year 1775, and the
heroic failure to storm the defenses by scaling the rocks from
the river bed. Eventually the boundary between the United
States and the British possessions was settled by the Treaty of
Paris, in 1783, just twenty years after an earlier Treaty of
Paris had recorded the surrender of Canada by France to Great
Britain.

CANADA, FROM COLONY TO DOMINION.

For the last century and a half the story of Canada has been
the story first of a British colony and then of a British
Dominion. A great flood of new colonists had come into the
country after the victory of the States in the War of Independ-
ence, when many of the royalists of New England crossed the
border. As a result, there had grown up the two new provinces
of Upper Canada, now known as Ontario, and New Bruns-
wick. The relations between all the provinces were, however,
far from harmonious, with the result that what between quar-
rels among themselves and risings against the British author-
ity, the condition of Canada was anything but promising, when,
after the Rebellion of 1837, Lord Durham was sent over to try
to evolve order out of chaos.

He found the "habitant" still unreconciled to the British
rule; he found a condition of many little Pontiacs, all very
much as was that famous village on the summer evening when
Valmond threw the hot pennies to the children, as the auctioneer
and monsieur le cure came down the street; he found another
Canada of British colonists with so little sympathy for the
habitant, that, he declared, the two never met save in the jury
box, and there only to obstruct justice.

It was then that Lord Durham, by a great stroke of states-
manship, brought peace to Canada. A democratic form of
representative government was bestowed on the people. The
division of Quebec into two provinces, which the habitant had

OUR NEIGHBORING ALLY.

387

desired when they were one, and resented when they were two,
was annulled, with the result that the ground was prepared for
the union which was to come just thirty years later.

Lord Durham made history and made a nation, for the
confederation, when it came, was the inevitable superstructure
built upon the foundations of his laying, but he ruined a repu-
tation. His contempt for the conventions of politics, the radi-
calism of his methods, his failure to make any obeisance to the
governmental deities, official or ex-official, combined with his
almost superhuman tactlessness, gave his enemies every oppor-
tunity they could desire.

He was viciously attacked, and finally throwing up his
mission, returned to England and gave up politics.

REPORT NOT TO BE DISPOSED OF.

The good, however, men do lives after them. Lord Dur-
ham's report, drafted for him by two master hands, those of
Charles Buller and Edward Wakefield, could not be disposed
of by perfervid orators or ill-informed editors. It passes into
the category of historic and illuminating state papers. And,
though Lord Durham fell, when, on the first of July, 1867, the
British North America Act became operative, it was the handle
of his trowel that struck that great cornerstone of liberty and
empire, and declared it well and truly laid: the first of the
Dominions, now having a population of approximately
8,000,000.

Thrown upon their own resources, when Great Britain
began to draw in its loans of 1911-12, the people of Canada
were temporarily at a loss as to how to meet the situation ; the
hardships which followed, however, prepared them to meet,
with resolute determination, the greater problems that crowded
upon them in 1915-16. Canada, through all the past, had been
a dependent and a debtor nation; the war made it self-reliant,
spurred its people on to the development of natural resources,
and assured them, not only that the Dominion could stand

388

OUR NEIGHBORING ALLY.

alone, but that, throughout all the future, it can be a pillar of
strength to the Empire and to democracy.

There were times when she was threatened by more than
the ordinary difficulties which come to a nation, as when it
became necessary in 1917 to pass a Conscription Act, the Pro-
vince of Quebec threatened to secede. Quebec is a French ter-
ritory, and it was a matter of world-wide comment that the
volunteer enlistments for the Canadian army from the province
were insignificant.

While the French Canadians were proud of France and
their cousins across the seas, they were opposed to being com-
pelled to fight for England, and the proposal to secede was
largely advocated by the French- Canadian clergy.

RECIPIENTS OF UNSTINTED HONORS.

Among the heroic troops that faced the Germans in
Flanders none was more honored in all Canada and England
than the Princess Patricia's Light Infantry. Out of this bat-
talion, which sailed away from Canada's shores with the first
expeditionary force, scarcely one-fourth of the proud number
lived through the terrible campaigns of Flanders, in which the
Dominion forces participated.

The battalion constituted what was regarded as one of the
most efficient military units in Canada, and in August, 1914,
had been presented with colors wrought by the fyand of Princess
Patricia, daughter of the Governor General of Canada, the
Duke of Connaught. The Princess, standing beside her
mother, the Duchess of Connaught, in Lansdowne Park,
Ottawa, presented the colors to the little force, wishing them a
safe return, while thousands applauded and the spirit of patri-
otism ran high.

The "Princess Pats," as they came to be known, had with-
in the organization a large portion of men of military experi-
ence who had seen service in South Africa and elsewhere, and
consequently when they landed in France they were the first to

OUR NEIGHBORING ALLY.

389

be sent into the trenches and to action. In the winter and
spring of 1914-15 they had some bitter experiences and parti-
cipated in several desperate attacks and defenses, but it was
not until the campaign at Ypres that the organization was
almost annihilated, when it faced one of the most terrific bom-
bardments of the war, and fought in a section largely cut off
from the main line. Here Lieutenant-Colonel Farquhar, com-
mander of the battalion, lost his life and nearly all of the officers
were wounded.

CHAPTER XXII.
THE HEROIC ANZi.C.

Forces that Stieeed the World in the Gallipoli Campaigns — Famous as Sap«
pers — The Blasting of Messines Ridge — Two Years Tunneling — 30,000
Germans Blown to Atoms — 1,000,000 Pounds of Explosives UsEi> — Troops
that were Transported 11,000 Miles,

HEN the final history of the war is written, and the

V V years have passed into ages, the story of the Anzac will
form a brilliant passage in the book of nations. The
Anzac in the campaigns at Gallipoli, the Dardanelles, and in
Flanders served England with a loyalty and heroism not excel-
led by any other force. And what were the Anzacs? They
were the soldiers of Australia and New Zealand. Xet A repre-
sent Australia, N. Z., New Zealand, and A. C, army corps,
and you have the basis of the word Anzac.

Generally in the news dispatches, the Anzacs have been
referred to as Australians. They are described as fearless, dar-
ing and fierce fighters, whose presence added pep to every
engagement in which they participated. No more picturesque
group has ever been written into the history of armies. Com-
posed of men who were bushrangers, cattlemen, miners and
hardy outdoor workers, many of whom served in Egypt, India
and wherever the British flag floats, their character is indicated
by the. fact that they have been at times called the "Ragtime

The description of the landing of these troops at the Dar-
danelles, where in a rain of artillery fire, they dashed into the
Turkish trenches, is one of the most thrilling of the war. With
the shells from the ships falling upon the Turkish forces the
Anzacs chased the Turks step by step inland, engaging in the
most desperate hand-to-hand encounters.

Perhaps the story of that first battle might have been dif-
ferent had not Turkish reinforcements appeared upon the

Army.:

390

THE HEROIC ANZAC.

391

scene. As it was the British men of Anzac were temporarily
driven back, retiring with terrible loss. For hours the Austra-
lians engaged in solid fighting through a broken and hilly
country, digging at night to establish entrenchments, with a
renewal of the defense at daybreak, and then repeating the
program. This is what the Australians and New Zealanders
did, living upon short rations the while.

In all of the campaigns in which the Angacs have parti-
cipated their work as sappers has been a feature. Sappers, by
the way, are those men who, in modern warfare, burrow in the
earth, planting mines, digging trenches, dugouts and fortifica-
tions. The Australians are fitted for this work for a large per-
centage of them had civil experience in the mines, and on
extensive contract and excavation work.

AUSTRALIAN AND NEW ZEALAND SAPPERS.

Probably one of the most effective attacks of the English
against a German stronghold in Belgium was made possible
through the work of the Australian and New Zealand sappers.
That was the blowing up of the Messines Ridge in June, 1917.
In this action the Anzac shone in a manner that can never be
forgotten.

On June 7, 1917, the British, with one terrible stroke, tore
asunder the strong German position south of Ypres. This
stroke was in a little corner of Belgium, where the armies of the
Allies had successfully outgeneralled the enemy for two and a
half years.

During almost two years of this time several companies
of Australian, New Zealand and British sappers were busily
but silently engaged in mining the hills of the Messines-
Wytschaete Ridge, on which were the guns of the Germans
which had been raking the troops of the Allies all this time.
Nineteen great mines which contained a total of 1,000,000
pounds of ammonite upon their completion, had been dug into
the vitals of these hills. Great charges of this new and power-

392

THE HEROIC ANZAC.

ful explosive had been placed in the mines nearly one year
before their completion, yet no one except those actually
engaged in the work knew of it. The secret was kept and the
troops of Australia and New Zealand worked directly beneath
the great German fortifications.

Then came the crucial moment. At exactly 3.10 o'clock
in the morning of June 7, the whole series of mines were dis-
charged by electrical contact, and the hilltops were blown high
in the air in one terrific burst of flame, which poured forth as
from craters of volcanoes. The ground for miles around was
rocked as in an earthquake, and the roar emitted was distinctly
heard in England by Lloyd George, the Prime Minister, listen-
ing for it at his country home 140 miles away.

A PRE-ARRANGED SIGNAL.

The explosion of the mines was a pre-arranged signal for
the beginning of a heavy shell fire by the artillerj^. The whole
section affected by the mines was subjected to a most intense
shellfire, and following up this death-dealing storm came the
troops of General Haig, under Sir Herbert Plumer, who fin-
ished the work of the great mines and big guns with a brilliant
charge of men, who used rifle and bayonet most effectively.
Within a few hours the whole of the Messines Ridge was
securely in the hands of the British, and they had captured 7000
prisoners and many guns. The German casualties were esti-
mated at 30,000, those of the British being about 10,000.

Rushing the whole sector south of Ypres, from Observa-
tion Ridge to Ploegsteert Wood, north of Armentieres, the
British forces succeeded in capturing that position with little
loss. Then came the assault of the rear defenses, which were
formed by the ridge itself. The natural formation of the land
greatly helped the Germans in arranging their defenses, and the
fighting was very fierce. The work of British troops, in which
were many Australians and New Zealanders, together with
English and Irish, all under the command of General Sir

THE HEROIC ANZAC.

393

Herbert C. O. Plumer, was given great credit in the reports of
the commander to the War Office.

The British War Office summarized the attack as follows
in its report of June 8 :

"The position captured by us yesterday was one of the
enemy's most important strongholds on the western front.
Dominating as it did the Ypres salient and giving the enemy
complete observation over it, he neglected no precautions to
render the position impregnable. These conditions enabled the
enemy to overlook all our preparations for attack, and he had
moved up reinforcements to meet us. The battle, therefore,
became a gauge of the ability of the German troops to stop our
advance under conditions as favorable to them as an army can
ever hope for, with every advantage of ground and preparation
and with the knowledge that an attack was impending.

GERMAN FORWARD DEFENSE.

"The German forward defenses consisted of an elaborate
and intricate system of well-wired trenches and strong points
forming a defensive belt over a mile in depth. Numerous
farms and woods were thoroughly prepared for the defense,
and there were large numbers of machine guns in the German
garrisons. Guns of all calibers, recently increased in numbers,
were placed to bear not only on the front but on l!&e flanks of an
attack. Numerous communicating trenches and switch lines,
radiating in all directions, were amply provided with strongly
constructed concrete dugouts and machine-gun emplacements
designed to protect the enemy garrison and machine gunners
from the effect of our bombardment. In short, no precaution
was omitted that could be provided by the incessant labor of
years, guided by the experience gained by the enemy in his
previous defeats on the Somme, at Arras, and on Vimy Ridge.

"Despite the difficulties and disadvantages which our
troops had to overcome, further details of yesterday's fighting
shew that our first assault and the subsequent attacks were car-

KB— 21

394 THE HEROIC ANZAC.

ried out in almost exact accordance with the timetable pre-
viously arranged. * * *

"Following on the great care and thoroughness in prepara-
tions made under the orders of General Sir Herbert Plumer,
the complete success gained may be ascribed chiefly to the
destruction caused by our mines, to the violence and accuracy
of our bombardment, to the very fine work of the Royal Flying
Corps, and to the incomparable dash and courage of the infan-
try. The whole force acted in perfect combination. Excellent
work was done by the tanks, and every means of offense at our
disposal was made use of, so that every arm of the service had a
share in the victory."

A good description of the Australian soldier, as he follows
up his victory, was given in a story of an American war corre-
spondent, who wrote concerning Flanders :

NEW LAND OF WARFARE.

"After these many months of trench warfare there is keen
delight for the Australian soldier in this new land of warfare
which the German retirement has opened up. The fighting is
in open country now, over gently rolling downs of what looks
like grass land. It is really most of it wheat or turnip land
which has not been cultivated for a year or two. The country is
as open as the Australian central plains.

"It is quite a new sort of battlefield for the Australians.
They march down to it through valleys almost exactly like the
valleys in the peaceful parts of France. There are whole acres
in which one cannot see a single shell hoje. Back across the
green country or down the open roads come men in twos or
threes occasionally, sauntering as one might find them on a
country road. They are the wounded helping one another
back to the dressing station. The walking wounded have to
help each other back in these modern battles. It is no longer
looked upon as meritorious for an unwounded combatant to
leave the field and help a wounded comrade to the rear.

THE HEROIC ANZAC.

395

"Nearest the front the country becomes more feverish.
Angry bursts of tawny color are seen in a haphazard sort of
way dotting the horizon and the countryside. Here and there
are Australians standing behind mounds of earth with their
rifles pointed over the top, bayonets always fixed. Frequently,
when there is no other shelter there are hastily scooped trenches.
A quarter of a mile away another party is lining a roadside, fiat
on their stomachs in the ditch, bayonets peeping over the top.
Shells are whizzing by at the rate of two or three a minute, high
explosives bursting on contact behind their backs about as far
away as the other side of a cottage parlor.

PRISONER AND ESCORT.

"Frequently one meets a prisoner being escorted to the
rear. There is something very impressive about these little pro-
cessions of two men, prisoner and escort. The prisoner, usually
a young German private in neat gray uniform and steel helmet,
walks in front. After him, grasping his rifle with both hands
across his chest, his weatherbeaten brows puckered as he picks
his way over the tumbled stones, comes the living embodiment
of the Australian back country. Nine cases out of ten, some-
how, the soldier who escorts a prisoner seems to be that bit of
pure Australian, either Western Australia or South Australia,
the Warrego or the Burdskin.

"He is an earnest man, intent on executing his errand with
dispatch and exactitude. 'Can you tell me the way to head-
quarters?' he asks as he passes. Then he disappears slowly up
the street on the heels of his silent companion.

"These Australians are just as good fighters in this new
warfare as they were at Gallipoli or in the trenches, perhaps
even better. They had their first encounter with German
cavalry the other day, but it was only a feint at a flank and
lasted but a few minutes."

"Australia is ambitious, some might even say self -centered,
and Germany undoubtedly made the mistake of considering

396

THE HEROIC ANZAC.

that Australia was awaiting a chance to become unfriendly to
Great Britain when she started to fight. But no nation ever
made a greater mistake. As soon as the House of Ilohenzol-
lern placed the mother country in a perilous position Australia
was at the command of Great Britain. Notwithstanding the
fact that the Australians are primarily peace-loving, most in-
tent on attending to their own affairs, the response to the call
was immediate and whole-hearted.

AUSTRALIA'S COMMENDABLE PROMPTNESS.

The Australian centers buzzed with activity, and within
two months after war was declared the Australian fleet, which
consisted of five unarmored cruisers, three torpedo-boat
destroyers, and three light gunboats, which had been built and
manned at the expense of the Australians, were in possession of
the German Pacific Islands — Samoa, Marshall, Carolines5
Pelew, Ladrones, New Guinea, New Britain — had broken the
wireless system of the Germans, and had captured eleven of the
vessels of Germany. She also forced twenty-five other ships
to intern, and prevented the destruction of a British ship in
Australian waters.

Then came the scouring of the seas by the German ship
Emden, and her trip to Australian waters, with the object of
carrying on the work of destruction which had marked her
career in South American waters. She lay in wait for Aus-
tralian transports, with the result that the Australian warship
Sydney sent her to the bottom but three months after war had
been declared. Shortly after this the Australian fleet drove
von Spree's squadron from the Pacific directly into the trap set
by Admiral Sturdee at the Falkland Islands.

The fact that all the troops of Australia must be trans-
ported to London — a distance via the Suez route of approxi-
mately 11,000 miles, and through the Panama Canal of 12,734
miles — did not keep back these brave men from quickly enlist-
ing. The great distance made fighting extremely expensive.

THE HEROIC AJNZAC.

307

but the task was loyally assumed by the military of the far con-
tinent. Universal military service was inaugurated for the first
time by an English-speaking community, and war loans were
offered and quickly accepted. Transports were immediately
constructed out of seventy steamers which were requisitioned.

At the declaration of war in November, 1914, the entire
Australian army, which consisted of 20,000 men, left Australia
for Egypt, and at the end of the first year of the conflict there
were 76,000 men in the field. By July, 1916, nearly 300,000
volunteers had been recruited and had crossed the seas. The
creation, equipment, and supplying of this army by the people
of Australia, a task involving enormous cost and personal sac-
rifice, constitutes a thrilling chapter in the history of loyalty.

GEOGRAPHICALLY ALIKE.

To those who think that Australia is a little island situated
in the Pacific ocean it might be interesting to know that this
continent, in size and shape, is almost the exact duplicate of the
United States. There are also outlying provinces, that of
Papua, a tropical land, offsetting Alaska. Then there is the
rich little Lord Howe Island, and Norfolk Island. The sur-
face of Australia is the most level in surface and regular in
outline of all the continents, and is the lowest continent, with
an average elevation of Ohio.

There are 2,974,581 square miles in Australia, while the
land area of the United States is 2,973,890 square miles, a dif-
ference of 691 square miles. This, of course, is only the con-
tinental United States. Only about one-twentieth of the total
area of Australia lies in a latitude farther removed from the
Equator than Chattanooga, Tennessee; Clarendon, Texas; and
Albuquerque, New Mexico, and there is less than one-third of
the area of this unique continent which lies in a cooler latitude
than the sugar-cane lands of Louisiana.

The streams of Australia are fewer and carry less water
than those of any other continent. The heart of this great

398

THE HEROIC ANZAC.

island is dry and barren and thinly populated. Most of the
inhabitants are found within easy reach of the coastline. The
population of this great land, at the census of 1911, was 4,568,-
707 persons.

New Zealand is situated a little more than 1200 miles to
the east of Sydney, which is in the southeastern section of
Australia. It consists of three fairly large islands, together
with a number of small adjacent islands. The area is 105,340
square miles, the population being, in 1911, 815,862. The
surface of the principal islands is diversified, being mountainous
in some parts, and undulating in others. The best harbors
are in the northern district.

CHAPTER XXIII.
AMERICA STEPS IN.

President Wilson's Famous Message to Congress — The Wab Resolution —
April 6, 1917 Sees the United States at War — Review of the Negotia-
tions Between Germany and America1 — The U-Boat Restricted Zone An-
nouncement of Germany — Premier Lloyd George on America in the Con-
flict.

HE hoisting of the American flag to the top of the staff

1 as the emblem of world-wide Liberty followed the action
of Congress in authorizing President Wilson to declare a
state of war existed between Germany and the United States.
What the conditions were which developed during the months
in which Germany to all intents and purposes "laughed up her
sleeve" at the United States, ignored our protests against her
wanton disregard of human rights on land and sea, can no bet-
ter be told than in the words of President Wilson himself in
his message stating the position which the Government took.

His message to Congress will go down in history, not only
as an instrument of world-wide importance, but as a classic in
literature. Its effect on the Nations was greater than that of
any other message issued by any one country, probably in the
history of the world, and while there were critics who regarded
some of President Wilson's utterances as too idealistic, time
proved that his vision was greater than that of those who criti-
cised him, and within a short time the eyes of the entire world
were turned toward Washington, which became the active
centre from which the campaign for world-wide democracy was

The hands of Liberty stretched out to Russia^ Serbia,
Italy, France, Belgium, England, little Montenegro, and they
were given help in the most critical periods of their careers.
The President's message was presented to Congress on April
3, 1917, as follows :

"I have called the Congress into extraordinary session be-

waged.

S27

399

400

AMERICA STEPS IN.

cause there are serious, very serious, choices of policy to be
made, and made immediately, which it was neither right nor
constitutionally permissible that I should assume the responsi-
bility of making.

"On the third of February last I officially laid before you
the extraordinary announcement of the Imperial German Gov-
ernment that on and after the first day of February it was its
purpose to put aside all restraints of law or of humanity and
use its submarines to sink every vessel that sought to approach
either the ports of Great Britain and Ireland or the western
coasts of Europe or any of the ports controlled by the enemies
of Germany within the Mediterranean.

COMMANDERS UNDER RESTRAINT,

"That had seemed to be the object of the German sub-
marine warfare earlier in the war, but since April of last year
the Imperial Government had somewhat restrained the com-
manders of its undersea craft in conformity with its promise
then given to us that passenger boats should not be sunk and
that due warning would be given to all other vessels which its
submarines might seek to destroy when no resistance was of-
fered or escape attempted, and care taken that their crews were
given at least a fair chance to save their lives in their open boats.

"The precautions taken were meager and haphazard
enough, as was proved in distressing instance after instance in
the progress of the cruel and unmanly business; but a certain
degree of restraint was observed.

"The new policy has swept every restriction aside. Vessels
of every kind/ whatever their flag, their character, their cargo,
their destination, their errand, have been ruthlessly sent to the
bottom without warning and without thought of help or mercy
for those on board, the vessels of friendly neutrals along with
those of belligerents.

"Even hospital ships and ships carrying relief to the sorely
bereaved and stricken people of Belgium, though the latter

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401

were provided with safe-conduct through the prescribed areas
by the German Government itself and were distinguished by
unmistakable marks of identity, have been sunk with the same
reckless lack of compassion or of principle.

"I was for a little while unable to believe that such things
would in fact be done by any government that had hitherto
subscribed to the humane practices of civilized nations. Inter-
national law had its origin in the attempt to set up some law
which would be respected and observed upon the seas, where
no nation had the right of domination and where lay the free
highways of the world,

"By painful stage after stage has that law been built up,
with meager enough results, indeed, after all was accomplished
that could be accomplished, but always with a clear view, at
least, of what the heart and conscience of mankind demanded.

SWEEPS RIGHT ASIDE.

"This minimum of right the German Government has
swept aside under the plea of retaliation and necessity and be-
cause it had no weapons which it could use at sea except those
which it is impossible to employ as it is employing them with-
out throwing to the winds all scruples of humanity or of respect
for the understandings that were supposed to underlie the in-
tercourse of the world.

"I am not now thinking of the loss of property involved,
immense and serious as this is, but only of the wanton and
wholesale destruction of the lives of noncombatants, men,
women and children, engaged in pursuits which have always,
even in the darkest periods of modern history, been deemed
innocent and legitimate. Property can be paid for; the lives
of peaceful and innocent people cannot be.

"The present German submarine warfare against com-
merce is a warfare against mankind. It is a war against all
nations. American ships have been sunk, American lives taken,
ill ways which it has stirred us very deeply to learn of, but the

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ships and people of other neutral and friendly nations have
been sunk and overwhelmed in the waters in the same way.
There has been no discrimination. The challenge is to all man-
kind. Each nation must decide for itself how it will meet it.

"The choice we make for ourselves must be made with a
moderation of counsel and a temperateness of judgment be-
fitting our character and our motives as a nation. We must
put excited feeling away. Our motive will not be revenge or
the victorious assertion of the physical might of the nation, but
only the vindication of human right, of which we are only a
single champion.

ARMED NEUTRALITY IMPRACTICABLE.

"When I addressed the Congress on the twenty-sixth of
February last I thought it would suffice to assert our neutral
rights with arms, our right to use the seas against unlawful
interference, our right to keep our people safe against unlaw-
ful violence. But armed neutrality, it now appears, is imprac-
ticable.

"Because submarines are in effect outlaws when used as
the German submarines have been used against merchant ship-
ping, it is impossible to defend ships against their attacks as
the law of nations has assumed that merchantmen would defend
themselves against privateers or cruisers, visible craft giving
chase upon the open sea. It is common prudence in such cir-
cumstances, grim necessity, indeed, to endeavor to destroy them
before they have shown their own intention. They must be
dealt with upon sight, if dealt with at all.

"The German Government denies the right of neutrals
to use arms at all within the areas of the sea which it has pro-
scribed, even in the defense of rights which no modern publicist
has ever questioned their right to defend. The intimation is
conveyed that the armed guards which we have placed on our
merchant ships will be treated as beyond the pale of law and
subject to be dealt with as pirates would be.

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403

"Armed neutrality is ineffectual enough at best; in such
circumstances and in the face of such pretensions it is worse
than ineffectual ; it is likely once to produce what it was meant
to prevent ; it is virtually certain to draw us into the war with-
out either the rights or the effectiveness of belligerents.

"There is one choice we cannot make, we are incapable
of making ; we will not choose the path of submission and suffer
the most sacred rights of our nation and our people to be
ignored or violated. The wrongs against which we now array
ourselves are not common wrongs; they cut to the very roots
of human life.

A CONSTITUTIONAL DUTY.

' 'With a profound sense of the solemn and even tragical
character of the step I am taking and of the grave responsi-
bilities which it involves, but in unhesitating obedience to what
I deem my constitutional duty, I advise that the Congress
declare the recent course of the Imperial German Government
to be in fact nothing less than war against the Government and
people of the United States ; that it f ormally accept the status
of belligerent which has thus been thrust upon it and that it
take immediate steps not only to put the country in a more
thorough state of defense, but also to exert all its power and
employ all its resources to bring the Government of the Ger-
man Empire to terms and end the war.

4 'What this will involve is clear. It will involve the utmost
practicable co-operation in counsel and action with the Govern-
ments now at war with Germany, and as incident to that, the
extension to those Governments of the most liberal financial
credits, in order that our resources may, so far as possible, be
added to theirs. It will involve the organization and mobiliza-
tion of all the material resources of the country to supply the
material of war and serve the incidental needs of the nation in
the most abundant and yet the most economical and efficient
way possible.

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"It will involve the immediate full equipment of the navy
in all respects, but particularly in supplying it with the best
means of dealing with the enemy's submarines. It will involve
the immediate addition to the armed forces of the United States
already provided for by law in case of war at least 500,000
men, who should, in my opinion, be chosen upon the principle
of universal liability to service, and also the authorization of
subsequent additional increments of equal force so soon as they
may be needed and can be handled in training.

WELL-CONCEIVED TAXATION.

"It will involve, also, of course, the granting of adequate
credits to the Government, sustained, I hope, so far as they can
equitably be sustained by the present generation, by well-con-
ceived taxation. I say sustained so far as may be equitably
by taxation because it seems to me that it would be most unwise
to base the credits which will now be necessary entirely on
money borrowed. It is our duty, I most respectfully urge, to
protect our people so far as we may against the very serious
hardships and evils wilich would be likely to arise out of the
inflation which would be produced by vast loans.

"In carrying out the measures by which these things are
to be accomplished we should keep constantly in mind the wis-
dom of interfering as little as possible in our own preparation
and in the equipment of our own military forces with the duty
— for it will be a very practical duty — of supplying the nations
already at war with Germany with the materials which they
can obtain only from us by our assistance. They are in the
field and we should help them in every way to be effective there.

"I shall take the liberty of suggesting, through the several
executive departments of the Government, for the considera-
tion of your committees measures for the accomplishment of the
several objects I have mentioned. I hope that it will be your
pleasure to deal with them as having been framed after very
careful thought by the branch of the Government upon which

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405

the responsibility of conducting the war and safeguarding the
nation will most directly fall.

* 'While we do these things — these deeply momentous
things — let us be very clear, and make very clear to all the
world, what our motives and our objects are. My own thought
has not been driven from its habitual and normal course by the
unhappy events of the last two months, and I do not believe
that the thought of the nation has been altered or clouded by
them.

FIRM STAND FOR VINDICATION.

"X have exactly the same things in mind now that I had in
mind when I addressed the Senate on the twenty-second of
January last ; the same that I had in mind when I addressed
the Congress on the third of February and on the twenty-sixth
of February. Our object now, as then, is to vindicate the
principles of peace and justice in the life of the world against
selfish and autocratic power and to set up among the really
free and self -governed peoples of the world such a concert of
purpose and action as will henceforth insure the observance of
those principles.

"Neutrality is no longer feasible or desirable where the
peace of the wrorld is involved and the freedom of its peoples
and the menace to that peace and freedom lies in the existence
of autocratic governments backed by organized force which is
controlled wholly by their will, not by the will of their people.
We have seen the last of neutrality in such circumstances.

"We are at the beginning of an age in which it will be
insisted that the same standards of conduct and of responsi-
bility for wrongdoing shall be observed among nations and
their Governments that are observed among the individual
citizens of civilized States.

"We have no quarrel with the German people. We have
no feeling toward them but one of sympathy and friendship.
It was not upon their impulse that their Government acted in

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entering this war. It was not with their previous knowledge
or approval.

"It was a war determined upon as wars used to be deter-
mined upon in the old, unhappy days when peoples were no-
where consulted by their rulers and wars were provoked and
waged in the interest of dynasties or of little groups of am-
bitious men who were accustomed to use their fellow-men as
pawns and tools.

"Self -governed nations do not fill their neighbor States
with spies, or set the course of intrigue to bring about some
critical posture of affairs which will give them an opportunity
to strike and make conquest. Such designs can be successfully
worked out only under cover and where no one has the right to
ask questions.

PRECONCEIVED DECEPTION.

"Cunningly contrived plans of deception or aggression
carried it may be from generation to generation, can be worked
out and kept from the light only within the privacy of courts
or behind the carefully guarded confidences of a narrow, privi-
leged class. They are happily impossible where public opinion
commands and insists upon full information concerning all the
nation's affairs.

"A steadfast concert for peace can never be maintained
except by a partnership of democratic nations. No autocratic
Government could be trusted to keep faith within it or observe
its covenants. It must be a league of honor, a partnership of
opinion. Intrigue would eat its vitals away; the plotting of
inner circles who could plan what they would and render ac-
count to no one would be a corruption seated at its very heart.
Only free peoples can hold their purpose and their honor steady
to a common end and prefer the interests of mankind to any
narrow interest of their own.

Does not every American feel that assurance has been
added to our hope for the future peace of the world by the

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wonderful and heartening things that have been happening
within the last few weeks in Russia? Russia was known by
those who know it best to have been always in fact democratic
at heart in all the vital habits of her thought, in all the intimate
relationships of her people that spoke their natural instinct,
their habitual attitude toward life.

POLITICAL AUTOCRACY.

"The autocracy that crowned the summit of her political
structure, long as it had stood and terrible as was the reality
of its power, was not, in fact, Russian in origin, character or
purpose ; and now it has been shaken off and the great, gener-
ous Russian people have been added in all their native majesty
and might to the forces that are fighting for freedom in the
world, for justice and for peace. Here is a fit partner for a
league of honor.

' ' One of the things that have served to convince us that
the Prussian autocracy was not and could never be our friend,
is that from the very outset of the present war it has filled
our unsuspecting communities and even our offices of Govern-
ment with spies and set criminal intrigues everywhere afoot
against our national unity and counsel, our peace within and
without our industries and our commerce.

"Indeed, it is now evident that its spies were here even
before the war began ; and it is unhappily not a matter of con-
jecture, but a fact proved in our courts of justice, that the
intrigues which have more than once come perilously near to
disturbing the peace and dislocating the industries of the coun-
try have been carried on at the instigation, with the support,
and even under the personal direction of official agents of the
Imperial Government accredited to the Government of the
United States.

"Even in checking these things and trying to extirpate
them, we have sought to put the most generous interpretation
possible upon them because we knew that their source lay, not

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in any hostile feeling or purpose of the German people toward
us (who were, no doubt, as ignorant of them as we ourselves
were) , but only in the selfish designs of a Government that did
what it pleased and told its people nothing. But they have
played their part in serving to convince us at last that that
Government entertains no real friendship for us and means to
act against our peace and security at its convenience. That it
means to stir up enemies against us at our very doors the
intercepted note to the German Minister at Mexico City is
eloquent evidence.

"We are accepting this challenge of hostile purpose be-
cause we know that in such a Government, following such
methods, we can never have a friend ; and that in the presence
of its organized power, always lying in wait to accomplish we
know not what purpose, there can be no assured security of the
democratic Governments of the world.

NATURAL FOE TO LIBERTY.

"We are now about to accept gage of battle with this
natural foe to liberty, and shall, if necessary, spend the whole
force of the nation to check and nullify its pretensions and its
power. We are glad, now that wre see the facts with no veil
of false pretense about them, to fight thus for the ultimate
peace of the world and for the liberation of its peoples, the
German peoples included; for the rights of nations great and
small and the privilege of men everywhere to choose their way
of life and of obedience. The world must be made safe for
democracy. Its peace must be planted upon the tested founda-
tions of political liberty.

"We have no selfish ends to serve. We desire no con-
quest, no dominion. We seek no indemnities for ourselves, no
material compensation for the sacrifices we shall freely make.
We are but one of the champions of the rights of mankind.
We shall be satisfied when those rights have been as secure as
the faith and the freedom of the nations can make them.

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409

" Just because we fight without rancour and without selfish
object, seeking nothing for ourselves but what we shall wish to
share with all free people, we shall, I feel confident, conduct
our operations as belligerents without passion and ourselves
observe with proud punctilio the principles of right and of fair
play we profess to be fighting for.

UNDISGUISED WARFARE.

"I have said nothing of the Governments allied with the
Imperial Government of Germany because they have not made
war upon us or challenged us to defend our right and our honor.
The Austro-Hungarian Government has, indeed, avowed its
unqualified indorsement and acceptance of the reckless and
lawless submarine warfare adopted now without disguise by
the Imperial German Government, and it has, therefore, not
been possible for this Government to receive Count Tarnowski,
the Ambassador recently accredited to this Government by the
Imperial and Royal Government of Austria-Hungary; but
that Government has not actually engaged in warfare against
citizens of the United States on the seas, and I take the liberty,
for the present at least, of postponing a discussion of our rela-
tions with the authorities at Vienna. We enter this war only
where we are clearly forced into it because there are no other
means of defending our rights.

"It will be all the easier for us to conduct ourselves as
belligerents in a high spirit of right and fairness because we act
without animus, not in enmity toward a people or with the
desire to bring any injury or disadvantage upon them, but only
in armed opposition to an irresponsible Government which has
thrown aside all considerations of humanity and of right and
is running amuck.

"We are, let me say again, the sincere friends of the Ger-
man people, and shall desire nothing so much as the early re-
establishment of intimate relations of mutual advantage be-
ll E — 22

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tween us, however hard it may be for them, for the time being,
to believe that this is spoken from our hearts.

' 'We have borne with their present Government through
all these bitter months because of that friendship, exercising a
patience and forbearance which would otherwise have been im-
possible. We shall, happily, still have an opportunity to prove
that friendship in our daily attitude and actions toward the
millions of men and women of German birth and native sym-
pathy who live among us and share our life, and we shall be
proud to prove it toward all who are in fact loyal to their neigh-
bors and to the Government in the hour of test.

TRUE AND LOYAL AMERICANS.

"They are, most of them, as true and loyal Americans as
if they had never known any other fealty or allegiance. They
will be prompt to stand with us in rebuking and restraining
the few who may be of a different mind and purpose.

"If there should be disloyalty it will be dealt with with a
firm hcind of stern repression; but if it lifts its head at all it
will lift it only here and there, and without countenance except
from a lawless and malignant few.

"It is a distressing and oppressive duty, gentlemen of the
Congress, which I have performed in thus addressing you.
There are, it may be, many months of fiery trial and sacrifice
ahead of us. It is a fearful thing to lead this great, peaceful
people into war — into the most terrible and disastrous of all
wars, civilization itself seeming to be in the balance.

"But the right is more precious than peace, and we shall
fight for the things which we have always carried nearest our
hearts — for democracy, for the right of those who submit to
authority to have a voice in their own government, for the
rights and liberties of small nations, for a universal dominion
of right by such a concert of free peoples as shall bring peace
and safety to all nations and make the world itself at last free.

"To such a task we can dedicate our lives and our fortunes,

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411

everything that we are and everything that we have, with the
pride of those who know that the day has come when America
is privileged to spend her blood and her might for the princi-
ples that gave her birth and happiness and the peace which
she has treasured. God helping her, she can do no other."

While all the world knew that an actual state of war had
existed between the two countries for months, the resolution
declaring war as adopted by Congress on the plea of Presi-
dent Wilson and signed by the President shortly after 1 o'clock
on the afternoon of April 6, 1917 — Good Friday — was as fol-
lows :

"Whereas, The Imperial German Government has com-
mitted repeated acts of war against the government and the
people of the United States of America; therefore, be it

A WAR RESOLUTION.

"Resolved, By the Senate and House of Representatives
of the United States of America, in Congress assembled, that
the state of war between* the United States and the Imperial
German Government which has thus been thrust upon the
United States is hereby formally declared ; and that the Presi-
dent be, and he is hereby authorized and directed to employ
the entire naval and military forces of the United States and
the resources of the government to carry on war against the
Imperial German Government ; and to bring the conflict to a
successful termination all of the resources of the country are
hereby pledged by the Congress of the United States."

Immediately President Wilson issued a proclamation in
which he called upon the people of the country to co-operate
and give their support, pointing out the necessity for doing
things other than putting men upon the firing line. And in
his brief proclamation he outlined the entire comprehensive
plan which, within a few months, wTas well under way.

The placing of the navy upon a war footing; the creating

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and equipping of an adequate army; the supplying of ships;
creating of loans ; the financing of the Allies ; the conservation
of food products; the development of food and material re-
sources; the providing of munitions and supplies for the fight-
ing forces abroad — all of these things were pointed to as neces-
sary in the President's proclamation.

Thus America, which had endeavored to remain neutral
during months when Germany was arrogant and insulting, be-
came aligned with the Allies in the struggle which for nearly
three years had been waged in Europe.

NEGOTIATIONS CARRIED ON.

The negotiations between this country and Germany
over the question of submarine warfare as affecting the lives
of non-combatants and the rights of neutrals on the high seas
in time of war had been carried on for two years. They had
their origin on February 10, 1915, when, following the Ger-
man announcement of February 4 that ' 'the waters around
Great Britain and Ireland, including the whole English Chan-
nel, are declared a War zone on and after February 18, 1915,"
William J. Bryan, then Secretary of State, sent the "strict
accountability" note to Berlin.

Through successive stages the exchange of diplomatic
papers continued, with growing feeling on both sides, because
of the acts of German submarines, until the torpedoing of the
cross-Channel steamer Sussex, on March 24, 1916, when the
lives of twenty-five American citizens were imperiled and sev-
eral suffered bodily injuries or shock. This attack resulted in
the "Sussex note," or so-called "ultimatum" to Germany.

The Sussex note, signed by Secretary Lansing, and sent
to Germany April 19, 1916, concluded with the following
declaration :

"Unless the Imperial Government should now imme-
diately declare and effect an abandonment of its present meth-
ods of submarine warfare against passenger and freight-carry-

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413

ing vessels, the Government of the United States can have no
choice but to sever diplomatic relations with the German Em-
pire altogether."

QUESTIONS GERMANY'S RIGHT.

The first American note to the Imperial Government, of
February 10, 1915, disputed the right of Germany to declare
such a war zone as it had announced the week before, and con-
tended for the international procedure of "visit and search' '
before attack on or capture of a neutral vessel. It embodied
this phrase:

"If such a deplorable situation should arise (wanton de-
struction of an American ship) the Imperial German Govern-
ment can readily appreciate that the Government of the Unit-
ed States would be constrained to hold the Imperial German
Government to a strict accountability for such acts of their
naval authorities and to take any steps it might be necessary
to take to safeguard American lives and property and to se-
cure to Americans the full enjoyment of their acknowledged
rights on the high seas."

In reply the German Government sent a note under date
of February 16, 1915, setting forth that the war zone procla-
mation was in reprisal for the "blockade" of Great Britain and
that if "at the eleventh hour" the United States should prevail
upon Germany's enemies to abandon their methods of mari-
time warfare, Germany would modify its order. It charged
misuse of neutral flags and the arming of merchant ships by
Great Britain.

On February 20, in an identic note to Germany and Great
Britain, the American Government suggested that both Powers
cease their illegal activities. Such an agreement this Govern-
ment proposed as a "modus vivendi" giving opportunity for
further discussion of the points in controversy. Berlin accepted
this note as "new evidence of the friendly feelings of the Amer-
ican Government," but reserved a "definite statement" of the

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position of the Imperial Government until it learned "what
obligations the British Government are on their part willing to

assume."

Subsequently, on March 28, the British steamship Falaba
was sunk, with the loss of 163 lives, including one American.
On April 28 the American steamship Gushing was attacked by
an aeroplane, and on May 1 the American tanker Gulflight wras
attacked by a submarine and three United States citizens were
lost.

On May 1, also, the German Embassy at Washington
caused to be inserted in many of the leading American news-
papers the now famous advertisement warning Americans and
others from taking passage on the Cunard liner Lusitania,
intimating that it would be attacked. This was the day the
Lusitania sailed on her ill-fated voyage. A number of the
prominent passengers received personal notes when they
reached the pier, advising them not to go, but most of them
scouted the thought of danger.

SUBMARINE ISSUE AND DIPLOMACY.

After the sinking of the Lusitania, on May 7, off Fastnet,
Ireland, with the loss of more than 1100 persons, among them
115 Americans, the submarine issue assumed a large and
gravely important place in the realm of diplomacy.

The accumulation of cases affecting Americans was taken
up in the first "Lusitania note" to Germany, which was dis-
patched May 15, 1915. It characterized the attacks on the
Falaba, Cushing, Gulflight and Lusitania as "a series of events
which the United States has observed with growing concern,
distress and amazement." It pointed to Germany's hitherto
expressed "humane and enlightened attitude" in matters of
international right, and expressed the hope that submarine
commanders engaged in torpedoing peaceful ships without
warning were in such practice operating without the sanction
of their Governmnet. The note closed with these words:

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415

"The Imperial German Government will not expect the
Government of the United States to omit any word or act
necessary to the performance of its sacred duty of maintaining
the rights of the United States and its citizens and of safeguard-
ing their free exercise and enjoyment."

On May 28, 1915, Germany replied with a note which cov-
ered a wide range of argument and was in every respect unsatis-
factory. It alleged that the Lusitania had masked guns aboard ;
that she in effect was a British auxiliary cruiser ; that she carried
munitions of war; that her owning company, aware of the dam-
ages she risked in the submarine war zone, was in reality respon-
sible for the loss of American lives, and referred to the f^ct
that the British Admiralty had offered large rewards to ship
captains who rammed or destroyed submarines.

PROMISED TO PAY DAMAGES.

The note met none of the contentions of the United States
so far as the Lusitania and Falaba incidents were concerned,
although a supplementary note did acknowledge that German}^
was wrong in the attacks on the Gushing and the Gulflight,
expressed regret for these two cases and promised to pay dam-
ages. While the American reply to the note was being framed
dissension in the Cabinet resulted in the resignation of Secre-
tary Bryan, who contended for a policy of warning Americans
off belligerent ships. He resigned because he thought he could
not sign the next note to Germany, which he feared would lead
the United States into war.

Meanwhile several sensational incidents cropped up in con-
nection with the negotiations, chief of which was the sending of
a message to the Berlin Foreign Office by Doctor Dumba, the
Austrian Ambassador, afterward recalled at the request of
President Wilson, which was represented as stating substan-
tially that Mr. Bryan had intimated to the Ambassador that
the vigorous tone of the American notes should not be regarded
in Berlin as too warlike.

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Secretary Lansing took office as Mr. Bryan's successor,
and his reply to the German note took issue with every conten-
tion Germany had set up in the Falaba and Lusitania cases,
denied flatly the contention that the Lusitania was armed or
was to be treated as other than a peaceful merchant ship.

The note averred that the declaration of a submarine war
zone could not abbreviate the rights of Americans on lawful
journeys, and added: "The Government of the United States
therefore very earnestly and solemnly renews the representa-
tions of its note transmitted to the Imperial German Gov-
ernment on May 15, and relies in thsse representations upon
the principles of humanity, the universally recognized under-
standings of international law and the ancient friendship of
the German nation."

JAGOW'S EVASIVE ANSWER.

To that note Germany did not reply until July 8, and
the German rejoinder was preponderately characterized by
American newspapers not as a note, but as an address by For-
eign Minister von Jagow to the American people. In official
circles it was said to come no nearer to meeting the American
contentions than did the former German note.

The nature of the reply was regarded officially as con-
vincing evidence that Germany was holding the submarine war-
fare negotiations as a club over the United States to force
this Government into some action to compel Great Britain to
relax the food blockade. President Wilson steadfastly refused
to permit the diplomatic negotiations of the United States
with one belligerent to become entangled with the relations with
another.

To that the United States replied on July 21 that the
German note was "very unsatisfactory," because it failed to
meet "the real differences between the two Government s." The
United States, it declared, was keenly disappointed with Ger-
many's attitude. Submarine attacks without warning, endan-

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417

gering Americans and other neutrals, were characterized as
illegal and inhuman and manifestly indefensible. The German
retaliation against the British blockade, it maintained, must
not interfere with the rights of neutrals, which the note declared
were ' 'based upon principles, not expediency, and the prin-
ciples are immutable." It declared that the United States
would continue to contend for the freedom of the seas "from
whatever quarter violated, without compromise and at any
cost." The American note concluded with these words of
warning:

"Friendship itself prompts it (the United States Govern-
ment) to say to the Imperial Government that repetition by
the commanders of German naval vessels of acts in contra-
vention of those rights must be regarded by the Government
of the United States, when they affect American citizens, as
deliberately unfriendly."

"INFORMAL CONVERSATIONS."

The negotiations at this point seemed to have come to
such an impasse that the exchanges of notes between Washing-
ton and Berlin were stopped and the controversy was brought
into the realm of "informal conversations" between Secretary
Lansing and Count von Bernstorff, the German Ambassador.
It was thought that much could be accomplished by personal
contact which was lost in a cold exchange of documents.

Meanwhile the Arabic was sunk on August 19. Coming
close on the unsuccessful Lusitania negotiations and a continu-
ation of submarine attacks in which Americans had suffered,
it seemed that the United States and Germany had at last
reached the point of a break. Then, on September 1, came
the first rift in the threatening situation. Count von Bern-
storff presented this written assurance to Secretary Lansing:

"Liners will not be sunk by our submarines without warn-
ing and without safety of noncombatants, provided that the
liners do not try to escape or offer resistance."

418

AMERICA STEPS IN.

The United States had agreed all along that ships hailed
for visit and search by a war vessel took a risk if they attempted
to flee, but it contended not for the safety of "liners" alone,
but for the immunity of all peaceful merchant vessels. The
word "liners" was the perplexing point in Germany's assur-
ances and a complete agreement on what it actually meant
never was finally reached.

More hopefulness was added to the situation when, on
October 5, the Arabic case was disposed of by Germany dis-
avowing the sinking and giving renewed assurances that sub-
marine commanders had been again instructed to avoid repeti-
tion of the acts which provoked American condemnation.
Count von Bernstorff delivered to Secretary Lansing this com-
munication:

BERNSTORFF'S COMMUNICATION.

"The orders issued by his Majesty the Emperor to the
commanders of submarines — of which I notified you on a
previous occasion — have been made so stringent that the re-
currence of incidents similar to the Arabic case is considered
out of the question. The Imperial Government regrets and dis-
avows this act and has notified Commander Schneider accord-
ingly."

With that the negotiations reverted to the Lusitania case.
Germany already had agreed to pay indemnity for American
lives lost, but the negotiations were delayed by a seeming dead-
lock over the words in which Germany should acknowledge the
illegality of the destruction of the liner. Germany, unwilling to
use the word "illegal," substituted a declaration that "reprisals
must not be directed at others than enemy subjects." A formal
communication, including such a declaration and expressing re-
gret for loss of American lives, assuming liability and offering
reparation in the form of indemnity, was submitted to Secretary
Lansing.

A favorable settlement of the long and threatened con-

AMERICA STEPS IN.

419

troversy seemed to be in sight when all the progress that had
been made was reduced to nothing by Germany's declaration of
a new submarine policy of sinking without warning all armed
merchant ships. That precipitated a new situation so vitally
interwoven with the whole structure of the Lusitania case that
President Wilson declined to close the Lusitania settlement
while the other issue was pending, and there the whole matter
rested while German submarine warfare was contained and new
cases involving loss of American lives piled up.

Finally the accumulation of evidence reached such propor-
tions with the torpedoing of the Sussex that President Wilson,
convinced that assurances given in the Lusitania and Arabic
cases were being violated, dispatched another note to Ger-
many, and went before Congress, reviewed the entire situation
from the beginning, and made this declaration:
PRESIDENT'S DECLARATION.

"I have deemed it my duty to say to the Imperial German
Government that if it is still its purpose to prosecute relentless
and indiscriminate warfare the Government of the United
States is at last forced to the conclusion that there is only one
course it can pursue; and that, unless the Imperial German
Government should now, immediately, declare and effect an
abandonment of its present methods of warfare against pas-
senger and freight-carrying vessels this Government can have
no choice but to sever diplomatic relations altogether."

It will be noted that the President went further than
"liners," and said "passenger and freight-carrying vessels."

In the note sent at this time the President said :

"No limit of any kind has in fact been set to the indis-
criminate pursuit and destruction of merchantmen of all kinds
and nationalities within the waters constantly extending in
area where these operations have been carried on, and the roll
of Americans who have lost their lives on ships thus attacked
and destroyed has grown month by month until the ominous

420

AMERICA STEPS IN.

toll has mounted into the hundreds. Again and again the Im-
perial German Government has given this Government its
solemn assurances that at least passenger ships would not be
thus dealt with, and yet it has again and again permitted its
undersea commanders to disregard those assurances with entire
impunity."

OPPOSED TO SUBMARINE WARFARE.

During all the negotiations the Berlin Foreign Office
looked to Count von Bernstorff to prevent a break. His atti-
tude was represented as propitiatory from the viewpoint of the
United States and opposed to the submarine warfare of Von
Tirpitz. On several occasions he is said to have warned his
Emperor personally that a continuance of the warfare against
which the United States protested would surely lead to a
break. Meanwhile the Ambassador's own position was embar-
rassed by the operations of German sympathizers in the United
States plotting against American neutrality. Some of these
operations were traced directly to the military and naval at-
taches of the embassy, who were withdrawn.

Germany's final note in the Sussex case, received in Wash-
ington on May 5, said that "the German naval forces have re-
ceived the following order" :

"In accordance with the general principles of visit and
search and the destruction of merchant vessels recognized by
international law, such vessels, both within and without the
area declared a naval war zone, shall not be sunk without warn-
ing and without saving human lives, unless the ship attempts
to escape or offers resistance."

Contending that the Imperial Government was unwilling
to restrict an effective weapon if "the enemy is permitted to
apply at will methods of warfare violating the rules of inter-
national law," the note expressed the hope that the United
States would "demand and insist that the British Government

AMERICA STEPS IN. 421

shall observe forthwith the rules of international law." The
communication added :

"Should the steps taken by the Government of the United
States not attain the object it (the German Government) de-
sires, to have the laws of humanity followed by all belligerent
nations, the German Government would then be facing a new
situation in which it must reserve to itself complete liberty of
decision."

To any such reservations the United States demurred in
no uncertain terms.

PRESIDENT WILSON'S REPLY.

"The United States feels it necessary to state," said Presi-
dent Wilson's reply, "that it takes it for granted that the Im-
perial German Government does not intend to imply that the
maintenance of its newly announced policy is any way contin-
gent upon the course or result of diplomatic negotiations be-
tween the Government of the United States and any other
belligerent Government, notwithstanding the fact that certain
passages in the Imperial Government's note might appear to be
susceptible of that construction."

In completing the declaration that there must be no mis-
understanding that rights of American citizens must not be
made subject to the conduct of some other Government, the
note concluded by saying: "Responsibility in such matters is
single, not joint; absolute, not relative."

The climax came on February 1, 1917, when Count von
Bernstorff, German Ambassador at Washington, handed to
Secretary Lansing a note from Germany on the U-boat policy,
supplemented by the "order" and declaration that the Imperial
Government proposed to stop sea traffic in the "zones" which it
marked as prohibited, by every means at its command. This is
the restricted zone order:

"From February 1, 1917, sea traffic will be stopped with
every available weapon and without further notice in the fol-

422

AMERICA STEPS IN.

lowing blockade zones around Great Britain, France, Italy and
in the Eastern Mediterranean.

"In the North: The zone is confined by a line at a distance
of twenty sea miles along the Dutch coast to Terschelling fire-
ship, the degree of longitude from Terschelling fireship to
Udsire (Norway), a line from there across, the point 62 de-

THE BLOCKADE ZONES.

grees north 0 degrees longitude to 62 degrees north 5 degrees
west, further to a point three sea miles south of the southern
point of the Farve (Faroe?) Islands, from there across a point
62 degrees north 10 degrees west to 61 degrees north 15 degrees
west, then 57 degrees north 20 degrees west to 47 degrees north
20 degrees west, further to 43 degrees north, 15 degrees west,

AMERICA STEPS IN.

423

then along the degree of latitude 43 degrees north to 20 sea
miles from Cape Finisterre and at a distance of 20 sea miles
along the north coast of Spain to the French boundary.
"In the south (Mediterranean) :

"For neutral ships remains open: The sea west of the line
Pt des' Espiquette to 38 degrees 20 minutes north and 6 de-
grees east, also north and west of a zone 61 sea miles wide along
the North African coast, beginning at 2 degrees longitude west.
For the connection of this sea zone with Greece there is provided
a zone of a width of 20 sea miles north and east of the following
line: 38 degrees north and 6 degrees east to 38 degrees north
and 10 degrees west to 37 degrees north and 11 degrees 30
minutes east to 34 degrees north and 22 degrees 30 minutes
east. From there leads a zone 20 sea miles wide west of 22 de-
grees 30 minutes eastern longitude into Greek territorial
waters.

NEUTRAL SHIPS' RISK.

"Neutral ships navigating these blockade zones do so at
their own risk. Although care has been taken that neutral ships
which are on their way toward ports of the blockade zones on
February 1, 1917, and which have come in the vicinity of the
latter, will be spared during a sufficiently long period, it is
strongly advised to warn them with all available means in order
to cause their return.

"Neutral ships which on February 1 are in ports of the
blockade zones can with the same safety leave them.

'The instructions given to the commanders of German sub-
marines provide for a sufficiently long period during which the
safety of passengers on unarmed enemy passenger ships is
guaranteed.

"Americans en route to the blockade zone on enemy freight
steamships are not endangered, as the enemy shipping firms
can prevent such ships in time from entering the zone.

424

AMERICA STEPS IN.

''Sailing of regular American passenger steamships may
continue undisturbed after February 1, 1917, if

" (a) The port of destination is Falmouth.

" (b) Sailing to or coming from that port course is taken
via the Scilly Islands and a point 50 degrees north, 20 degrees
west.

"(c) The steamships are marked in the following way,
which must not be allowed to other vessels in American ports :
On ship's hull and superstructure three vertical stripes one
meter wide each to be painted alternately white and red. Each
mast should show a large flag checkered white and red and the
stern the American national flag. Care should be taken that
during dark national flag and painted marks are easily recog-
nizable from a distance, and that the boats are well lighted
throughout.

"(d) One steamship a week sails in each direction, with
arrival at Falmouth on Sunday and departure from Falmouth
on Wednesday.

"(e) United States Government guarantees that no con-
traband (according to German contraband list) is carried by
those steamships."

Immediately after the signing of the Congressional reso-
lution declaring America at war, President Wilson ordered the
mobilization of the United States Navy, and the Senate voted
an emergency war fund of $100,000,000 for the use of the
President. The forces of the United States on land and sea and
in every country under the sun were notified that a state of war
existed.

The entrance of America was regarded throughout the
world as one of the most significant moves in the history of
nations, and it filled the Allied forces with enthusiasm. Typical
of the expressions on the part of the representatives of the
Governments at war with Germany was that of Lloyd George,
Premier of England, who said :

AMERICA STEPS IN.

425

"America has at one bound become a world power in a
sense she never was before. She waited until she found a cause
worthy of her traditions. The American people held back
until they were fully convinced that the fight was not a sordid
scrimmage for power and possessions, but an unselfish strug-
gle to overthrow a sinister conspiracy against human liberty
and human rights.

"Once that conviction was reached, the great Republic of
the West has leaped into the arena, and she stands now side by
side with the European democracies, who, bruised and bleeding
after three years of grim conflict, are still fighting the most
savage foe that ever menaced the freedom of the world.

"The glowing phrases of the President's noble deliverance
illumine the horizon and make clearer than ever the goal we
are striving to reach.

DEMOCRACY, FREEDOM AND PEACE.

"There are three phrases which will stand out forever in
the story of this crusade. The first is that 'the world must be
made safe for democracy,' the next, 'the menace to peace and
freedom lies in the existence of autocratic governments backed
by organized force, which is controlled wholly by their will and
not by the will of their people,' and the crowning phrase is
that in which he declares that 'a steadfast concert for peace
can never be maintained except by the partnership of demo-
cratic nations.'

"These words represent the faith which inspires and sus-
tains our people in the tremendous sacrifices they have made
and are still making. They also believe that the unity and
peace of mankind can only rest upon democracy, upon the
right to have a voice in their own Government ; upon respect
for the right and liberties of nations both great and small, and
upon the universal dominion of public right.

"To all of these the Prussian military autocracy is an im-
placable foe.

H "ft— 23

426

AMERICA STEPS IN.

"The Imperial War Cabinet, representative of all the
peoples of the British Empire, wish me on their behalf to rec-
ognize the chivalry and courage which call the people of the
United States to dedicate the whole of their resources to the
greatest cause that ever engaged human endeavor,"

CHAPTER XXIV.
UNCLE SAM TAKES HOLD.

Makes World's Biggest War Loan — Seize German Ships — -Intrigue Exposed —
General Pershing and Staff in Europe — The Navy on Duty in North Sea
— FipksT United States Troops Eeach France — Germany's Attempts to
Sink Troop Ships Thwarted by Navy's Guns.

SCARCELY had the ink had time to dry on the Nation's
command to begin war than Congress voted an appropria-
tion of $7,000,000,000 for war purposes. This, the largest
single appropriation ever made by a government in the world,
was passed without a dissenting vote. Still later, a deficiency
bill of $2,827,000,000 for war expenses was passed. Other
legislative measures provided for the increase of the army and
navy and for "selective conscription," although the latter was
passed in the face of considerable opposition on the part of
many who believed that in a democracy armies should be raised
by volunteer recruiting. Many felt that compulsory service
was not in accordance with the ideals of liberty.

The Conscription Act provided for the registration of
every male citizen or resident in the United States between the
ages of 21 and 31 years, and was enacted on May 19, 1917-
Registration of these military available was made on June 5,
when 10,000,000 names were entered on the rolls as subject to
draft by the Government. The principle of "selective con-
scription'? is that the authorities shall have the right to exempt
from military duty among those registered such persons whose
employment in civil life is necessary to the maintenance of the,
industries and business of the country, as well as those who,
though physically fit, have others dependent upon them for
support.

One of the first acts of the Government after the declara-
tion of war was the seizure of the German merchant vessels
interned in United States ports. These vessels had a ton-

427 355

428

UNCLE SAM TAKES HOLD.

nage of upward of 629,000 tons and were estimated as being
worth in the neighborhood of $100,000,000. The seizure was
notable in that it was the largest ever made by a country at
war.

When the Government went to take charge of the vessels
it was found that the German officers Iiad destroyed parts of
the machinery in many of them in an attempt to put them out
of commission. The condition of the boats was such that all
of them had to be put in drydock, and it was several months
before some of them could be put in condition for use.

SIXTY RINGLEADERS ARRESTED.

Immediately the ships had been seized an order was issued
by Attorney General Gregory for the arrest of sixty alleged
ringleaders in German plots, conspiracies and machinations
throughout the United States. The Department of Justice,
which had long been gathering evidence in connection with the
suspects, had complete reports about their activities. They
were all German citizens, had participated in German
intrigues, and all were regarded as dangerous persons to be
at large.

They were all arrested, bail was refused them, and they
were locked up for safekeeping. This was the first step in the
general rounding up of the conspirators throughout the coun-
try. The men were placed in three groups: Those having
previously been arrested charged with violation of American
neutrality in furthering German plots of various sorts and
who were at liberty under bond awaiting the action of higher
courts; those who had been indicted by Federal Grand Juries
for similar offenses and were at liberty under bond awaiting
the action of the higher courts, and persons who, although they
had never been indicted or convicted, had long been under
surveillance by the Secret Service, or the investigators of the
Department of Justice.

These arrests were the first of alien enemies made in

UNCLE SAM TAKES HOLD.

429

this country in more than a century, under the direct order of
the Attorney General without reference to the courts or obtain-
ing warrants. Under an act of Confess passed in 1798 the
President is empowered to adopt this course. The right had
not been invoked, however, since the war with Great Britain
in 1812.

ARREST OF GERMAN PLOTTERS.

The arrests were only the beginning of the work of the
Secret Service Department in a complete investigation of the
activities of the thousands of German reservists, stationed in
the United States, and suspected of being connected with plots
which daily were cropping out. These plots were being
exposed constantly. Some were abandoned before being
completely worked out, owing to the fact that the Gerrnans
suspected they were being shadowed. It was estimated that
there were in the United States at the time of the discoveries
of conspiracies between 15,000 and 18,000 German reservists
in the prime of life, whose energies were undoubtedly Being
employed in the spreading of the German propaganda. It
was upon this army that the Secret Service men kept a close
watch, and who were generally found to have within their
ranks the men wanted at various times in connection with the
advancement of German plans.

Many of the Germans arrested were quasi-officials of the
German government. Some of them, it is alleged, were the
instrumentalities through which Captain Boy-Ed and Captain
von Papen had carried out their activities in this country
against the Allies. A number of those arrested were prop-
erly classed as spies. Camps were established for the sailors
taken from the interned German vessels, and many of them
were sent to Fort Oglethorpe, Georgia, where they were held.

The far-reaching influence of the German spy system
was at this time laid before the American public, with all of
its startling ramifications. For months there had been stories

430

UNCLE SAM TAKES HOLD.

of German intrigue and conspiracies, and the Secret Service
had unearthed innumerable plots to destroy ammunition
plants and industrial establishments, which would have the
effect of making it difficult for America to supply ammu-
nition to the Allies.

The most insidious scheme unearthed by the government
was that which had to do with the attempt of Germany to
secure the alliance of Mexico and Japan to make war on the
United States.

Japan, through Mexican mediation, was to be urged to
abandon her allies and join in the attack on the United States.

Mexico, for her reward, was to receive general financial
support from Germany, reconquer Texas, Ntew Mexico and
Arizona — lost provinces — and share in the victorious peace
terms Germany contemplated.

MACHINATIONS OF GERMAN MINISTER.

Details were left to German Minister von Eckhardt in
Mexico City, who by instructions signed by German Foreign
Minister Zimmerman, at Berlin, January 19, 1917, was di-
rected to propose the alliance with Mexico, to General Car-
ranza, and suggest that Mexico seek to bring Japan into the
plot.

These instructions were transmitted to von Eckhardt
through Count von Bernstorff, former German Ambassador.

Germany pictured to Mexico, by broad intimation, Eng-
land and the entente allies defeated, Germany and her allies
triumphant and in world domination by the instrument of
unrestricted submarine warfare.

A copy of Zimmerman's instructions to von Eckhardt,
sent through von Bernstorff, is in possession of the United
States government, ilt is as follows:

"Berlin, January 19, 1917.
"On the first of February we intend to begin submarine

UNCLE SAM TAKES HOLD.

431

warfare unrestricted. In spite of this, it is our intention to
endeavor to keep neutral the United States of America.

"If this attempt is not successful we propose an alliance
on the following basis with Mexico : That we shall make war
together and together make peace. We shall give general
financial support, and it is understood that Mexico is to re-
conquer the lost territory in New Mexico, Texas and Ari-
zona. The details are left to you for settlement.

"You are instructed to inform the President of Mexico
of the above, in the greatest confidence, as soon as it is cer-
tain that there will be an outbreak of war with the United
States, and suggest that the President of Mexico, on his own
initiative, should communicate with Japan, suggesting adher-
ence at once to this plan; at the same time, offer to mediate
between Germany and Japan.

"Please call to the attention of the President of Mexico
that the employment of ruthless submarine warfare now prom-
ises to compel England to make peace in a few months.

"ZIMMERMAN."
BETHM AN N - HOLLWEG' S FALSE STATEMENT.

This document was in the possession of the government
at the very time Chancellor von Bethmann-Hollweg was de-
claring that the United States had placed an interpretation
on the submarine declaration "never intended by Germany,"
and that Germany had promoted and honored friendly rela-
tions with the United States "as an heirloom from Frederick
the Great."

Of itself, if there were no other, it is considered a suffi-
cient answer to the German Chancellor's plaint that the
United States "brusquely" broke off relations without giving
"authentic" reasons for its action.

The document supplies the missing link to many sepa-
rate chains of circumstances, which until then had seemed to
lead to no definite point. It shed new light upon the fre-

432

UNCLE SAM TAKES HOLD.

quently reported but indefinable movements of the Mexican
government to couple its situation with the friction between
the United States and Japan.

It added another chapter to the celebrated report of
Jules Cambon, French Ambassador in Berlin before the war,
of Germany's world-wide plans for stirring strife on every
continent where they might aid her in the struggle for world
domination, which she dreamed was close at hand. It added
a climax to the operations of Count von Bernstorff and the
German Embassy in this country, which had been colored with
passport frauds, charges of dynamite plots and intrigue, the
full extent of which never had been published.

And last but not least, it explained in a very large de-
gree the attitude of the Mexican government toward the
United States on many points.

UNCLE SAM NOT BOTHERED.

But the efforts of the German enthusiasts, which carried
them beyond the bounds of reasonable safet}^ in the United
States, did not bother Uncle Sam much in the prosecution of
his war plans. Within a short period after the declaration of
war the country had written a chapter in national achieve-
ment unrivalled in the history of the world.

American destroyers were mobilized, outfitted and sent
to the North Sea within a few days after the nation entered
the conflict. With them went their own supply vessels and
numerous converted craft adapted to naval use. Their num-
ber and the exact duty they have assumed never have been re-
vealed, but that they have been recognized as a formidable part
of the grand allied fleet was evidenced by the designation of
American Vice Admiral Sims to command all the forces in the
important zone off Ireland.

The fleet began actual duty in the European waters on
May 4, and the presence of the vessels and the American sail-
ors was the subject of official correspondence. The British

UNCLE SAM TAKES HOLD.

433

Admiralty announced the arrival of the American destroyers
as follows:

"The British Admiralty states that a flotilla of United
States destroyers recently arrived in this country to co-oper-
ate with our naval forces in the prosecution of the war.

"The services which the American vessels are rendering
to the allied cause are of the greatest value and are deeply
appreciated."

Vice Admiral Sir David Beatty, commander of the
British Grand Fleet, sent the following message to Admiral
Henry T. Mayo, commander of the United States Atlantic
Fleet:

"The Grand Fleet rejoices that the Atlantic Fleet will
now share in preserving the liberties of the world and main-
taining the chivalry of the sea."

Admiral Mayo replied:

"The United States Atlantic Fleet appreciates the mes-
sage from the British Fleet and welcomes opportunities for
work with the British Fleet for the freedom of the seas."

GENERAL PERSHING IN ENGLAND.

Less than a month later Major General John J. Persh-
ing, with his staff, were safely in England ready to take com-
mand of the first expeditionary force that ever set foot on the
European shores to make war. General Pershing's personal
staff and the members of the General Staff who went to per-
form the preliminary work for the first fighting force, num-
bered 57 officers and about 50 enlisted men, together with a
civilian clerical force.

The party landed at Liverpool on June 8, after an un-
eventful trip on the White Star liner Baltic. The party was
received with full military honors and immediately entrained
for London, where it was welcomed by Lord Derby, the Min-
ister of War; Viscount French, commander of the British
home forces, and a large body of American officials.

434

UNCLE SAM TAKES HOLD.

In London General Pershing was later received at Buck-
ingham Palace by King George.

He was presented to the King by Lord Brooke, com-
mander of the Twelfth Canadian Infantry Brigade. General
Pershing was accompanied to the palace by his personal staff
of twelve officers. After the audience the officers paid a for-
mal call at the United States embassy.

PERSHING RECEIVES ROYAL GREETING.

After the formal reception the King shook hands with
General Pershing and the members of his staff, and expressed
pleasure at welcoming the advance guard of the American
army. King George chatted for a few moments with each
member of General Pershing's staff. In addressing General
Pershing the King said :

"It has been the dream of my life to see the two great
English-speaking nations more closely united. My dreams
have been realized. It is with the utmost pleasure that I
welcome you, at the head of the American contingent, to our
shores."

Major General Pershing's staff has been characterized as
"one of live wires." Most of the officers are West Pointers,
but there are among them some who rose from the ranks, in-
cluding Major James G. Harbord, chief of staff.

General Pershing reached France on June 13, where he
was given a tumultuous welcome. He landed at Boulogne in
the morning and was met by General Pelletier, representing
the French government and General Headquarters of the
French army; Commandant Hue, representing the Minister
of War; General Lucas, commanding the northern region;
Colonel Daru, Governor of Lille; the Prefect of the Somme
and other officials.

Among the latter were Rene Besnard, Under Secretary
of War, representing the Cabinet; Commandant Thouzellier„

UNCLE SAM TAKES HOLD.

435

representing Marshal J offre, and Vice- Admiral Ronarch, rep-
resenting the navy.

The scene in the harbor as General Pershing set foot on
French soil was one of striking beauty and animation. The
day was bright and sunny. The quays were crowded with
townspeople and soldiers from all Entente armies, with
French and British troops predominating.

The shipping was gay with flags and bunting, many mer-
chant craft hoisting American flags, while along the crowded
quays the American colors were everywhere shown as a token
of the French welcome.

PERSHING RECEIVES AN OVATION.

A great wave of enthusiasm came from the crowds as
General Pershing stepped upon the quay and as the band
played the "Marseillaise" he and the members of his staff
stood uncovered. M. Besnard, in greeting the American
commander in behalf of the government, said the Americans
had come to France to combat with the Allies for the same
cause of right and civilization. General Pelletier extended
a greeting to the Americans in behalf of the army.

General Dumas, commandant of the region in which
Boulogne is located, said:

"Your coming opens a new era in the history of the world.
The United States of America is now taking its part with
the United States of Europe. Together they are about to
found the United States of the World, which will definitely
and finally end the war and give a peace which will be endur-
ing and suitable for humanity."

General Pershing stood at parade as the various ad-
dresses were delivered and acknowledged each with a salute.

British soldiers and marines lined up along the quays had
rendered military honors as the vessel flying the Stars and
Stripes, preceded by destroyers and accompanied by hydro-
planes and dirigible balloons, steamed up the channel. Mili-

436

UNCLE 8AM TAKES HOLD.

tary bands played "The Star-Spangled Banner" and the
"Marseillaise" as General Pelletier and his party boarded the
boat to welcome General Pershing.

After the representatives of the French authorities had
been presented to the American officers, the party landed and
reviewed the French territorials. The Americans then entered
motor cars for a ride around the city. All along the route
they were followed by crowds of people who greeted General
Pershing with the greatest enthusiasm. •

PERSHING IN PARIS.

The General and his staff were taken in a special train to
Paris, where General Pershing was received by Marshal
Joffre, Ambassador Sharp and Paul Painleve, French Min-
ister of War. In the French capital General Pershing and
staff were received by the populace with wild enthusiasm, and
for several days they were feted and entertained.

There were, during the short period of entertainment,
several incidents which will long be noted in history, as when
General Pershing visited the Tomb of Napoleon and when he
took from its case the sword of the world conqueror and kissed
it, and again when he placed a wreath on the grave of
Lafayette.

Within a few days General Pershing had established the
army headquarters in the Rue De Constantine and began the
work preliminary to the campaign on the firing line.

Second only to the enthusiastic reception tendered Gen-
eral Pershing and his staff was that accorded the first United
States Medical Unit, which reached London in June. The
vanguard of the American army, composed of 26 surgeons
and 60 nurses, in command of Major Harry L. Gilchrist, was
received by King George and Queen Mary, the Prince of
Wales and Princess Mary, at Buckingham Palace.

The reception to General Pershing and the Medical
branch was, however, nothing as compared to the popular

UNCLE SAM TAKES HOLD.

437

demonstration which marked the arrival of the first of the
American armed forces on European shores to participate in
war. The vanguard of the army reached France on June 27.
No official announcement was ever made of the number of
men in the first expeditionary force, but it is an incident of
modern history that the United States made a record for the
transportation of troops across the seas scarcely equalled by
that of any other country.

ABSOLUTE SECRECY OBSERVED.

All America knew that troops were being sent to France,
but no information had been given as to the time of departure
or as to their destination. The world was, therefore, fairly
electrified when the announcement was made that in defiance
of the German submarines, thousands of seasoned regulars
and marines, trained fighting men, with the tan of long service
on the Mexican border, in Haiti, or Santo Domingo still on
their faces, had arrived in France to fight beside the French,
the British, the Belgians, the Russians, the Portuguese and
the Italian troops on the Western front.

Despite the enormous difficulties of unpreparedness and
the submarine dangers that faced them, the plans of the army
and navy were carried through with clock-like precision.

When the order came to prepare immediately an expe-
ditionary force to go to France, virtually all of the men who
first crossed the seas were on the Mexican border. General
Pershing himself was at his headquarters in San Antonio.
There were no army transports available in the Atlantic. The
vessels that carried the troops were scattered on their usual
routes. Army reserve stores were still depleted from the bor-
der mobilization. Regiments were below war strength. That
was the condition when President Wilson decided that the plea
of the French high commission should be answered and a force
of regulars sent at once to France.

At his word the War Department began to move. Gen-

438

UNCLE SAM TAKES HOLD.

eral Pershing was summoned quietly to Washington. His
arrival created some speculation in the press, but at the re-
quest of Secretary Baker the newspapers generally refrained
from discussion of this point.

There were a thousand other activities afoot in the de-
partment at the time. All the business of preparing for the
military registration of 10,000,000 men, of providing quarters
and instructors for nearly 50,000 prospective officers, for find-
ing arms and equipment for millions of troops yet to be or-
ganized, of expanding the regular army to full war strength,
of preparing and recruiting the National Guard for war was
at hand.

PERSHING SETS UP HEADQUARTERS.

General Pershing dropped quietly into the department
and set up the first headquarters of the American expedition-
ary forces in a little office, hardly large enough to hold him-
self and his personal staff. There, with the aid of the general
staff, of Secretary Baker and of the chiefs of the War De-
partment bureaus, the plans were worked out.

Announcement of the sending of the force under Gen-
eral Pershing was made May 18. The press gave the news
to the country and there were daily stories.

There came a day when General Pershing no longer was
in the department. Officers of the general staff suddenly were
missing from their desks. 'N;o word of this wras reported.
Then came word from England that Pershing and his officers
were there. All was carried through without publicity.

Other matters relating to the expedition were carried out
without a word of publicity. The regiments that were to go
with General Pershing were all selected before he left and
moving toward the seacoast from the border. Other regiments
also were moving north, east and west to the points where
they were to be expanded, and the movements of the troops
who were to be first in Prance were obscured in all this hur-
rying of troop trains over the land.

UNCLE SAM TAKES HOLD.

439

Great shipments of war supplies began to assemble at
the embarkation ports. Liners suddenly were taken off their
regular runs with no announcement. A great armada was
made ready, supplied, equipped as transports, loaded with
men and guns and sent to sea, and all with virtually no men-
tion from the press.

The navy bore its full share in the achievement. From
the time the troop ships left their docks and headed toward
sea, responsibility for the lives of their thousands of men rested
upon the officers and crews of the fighting ships that moved
beside them or swept free the sea lanes before them. As they
pushed on through the days and nights toward the danger
zone, where German submarines lay in wait, every precaution
that trained minds of the navy could devise was taken.

A BRILLIANT CLIMAX.

The brilliant climax to the achievement was made public
when it was announced that not only had the last units of the
expeditionary force been landed on July 3, but that the
American navy had driven off two German submarines, prob-
ably sinking one of them, when the transport ships and con-
voys had been attacked.

The last units of the American expeditionary force, com-
prising vessels loaded with supplies and horses, reached
France amid the screeching of whistles and moaning of sirens.
Their arrival, one week after the first troops landed, was
greeted almost as warmly as the arrival of the troops them-
selves.

Many of the American soldiers crowded down to the
wharf to greet the last ships of the expedition and the Ameri-
can vessels in the harbor, which had made up previous con-
tingents of the force, joined in the welcome. The late arrival
of the supply ships was due not only to later departure from
America, but also to the fact that the vessels were slower than
those which had come before. The delay caused little anxiety,

440

UNCLE SAM TAKES HOLD.

although it worked temporary inconvenience to the troops,
who had been waiting for materials with which to work.

Probably the happiest man in port was Rear Admiral
Gleaves, commander of the convoy. From the bridge of his
flagship he watched the successful conclusion of his plans with
characteristic modesty and insisted upon bestowing the lion's
share of credit for the crossing on the navigating officers of
his command.

ADVANCE PLANS BRIEFLY SKETCHED.

Sketching briefly the advance plans whereby all units of
the contingent had to keep a daily rendezvous with accom-
panying warships, he said, that, thanks to his navigating offi-
cers and despite overcast skies, which made astronomical
observations impossible, each rendezvous had been minutely
and accurately kept by each unit. The orders he issued at the
outset, which comprised scores of details, were observed, the
Admiral declared, with such exactness that the contingent
units and convoying warships invariably met each other with-
in half an hour of the appointed time.

A big contributing factor in the crossing, according to
officers of both branches of the service, was the hearty co-
operation between the army and navy. From the time of the
departure until the landing there was not the slightest sugges-
tion of friction, and co-ordination played its part distinctively
in the success of the expedition.

The startling fact of the entire journey across the sea was
that the Navy had won its first victory in driving off attack-
ing submarines. The news of the fight was given out by the
Navy Department and the Committee on Public Information,
with the announcement of the final landing of the troops and
the safe arrival of the supply ships.

The announcement, sponsored by Secretary Daniels, of
the Navy, shows beyond the shadow of doubt that the Berlin
Admiralty had been "tipped off" that the American expedi-

UNCLE SAM TAKES HOLD.

441

ionary force was on its way, and had carefully planned to
send the transports to the bottom of the Atlantic.

Realizing that an attack might be expected in the war
zone, and that every precaution would be taken to ward it off,
the Germans moved far out from land, in the hope of catch-
ing the American gunners napping. They were fooled.
Uncle Sam's jackies were at the guns when the fleet of sub-
marines stuck their periscopes above the waves and trained
their torpedo tubes on the lines of transports.

WAVES COVERED WITH SHELLS.

The torpedo boats and other craft opened up and cov-
ered the waves with shells. The Germans soon lost at least
one submarine and, having had enough of the fight, they dis-
appeared. As the little destroyers dashed straight at the sub-
marines and shot under water explosives in their wake as they
submerged, the transports dashed through the night at top
speed without having been scratched.

The extreme degree to which the Germans had prepared
to destroy the American force is shown by the second part of
the official announcement, which tells how another section of
the transport fleet was waylaid under cover of darkness, but
how the American gunners were too quick for the Germans.

The text of Secretary Daniels' announcement was:

"It is with the joy of a great relief that I announce to
the people of the United States the safe arrival in France of
every fighting man and every fighting ship. Now that the
last vessel has reached port, it is safe to disclose the dangers
that were encountered and to tell the complete story of peril
and courage.

"The transports bearing our troops were twice attacked
by German submarines on the way across. On both occasions
the U-boats were beaten off with every appearance of loss.
One was certainly sunk, and there is reason to believe that the
accurate fire of our gunners sent others to the bottom.

442

UNCLE SAM TAKES HOLD.

"For purposes of convenience, the expedition was divided
into contingents, each contingent including troopships and a
naval escort designed to keep off such German raiders as
might be met. ^

"An ocean rendezvous had also been arranged with the
American destroyers now operating in European waters in
order that the passage of the danger zone might be attended
by every possible protection.

"The first attack took place at 10.30 on the night of June
22. What gives it peculiar and disturbing significance is that
our ships were set upon at»a point well this side of the ren-
dezvous, and in that part of the Atlantic presumably free
from submarines. The attack was made in force, although
the night made impossible any exact count of the U-boats
gathered for what they deemed a slaughter.

HIGH SEAS CONVOY.

"The high seas convoy, circling with their searchlights,
answered with heavy gunfire, and its accuracy stands proved
by the fact that the torpedo discharge became increasingly
scattered and inaccurate. It is not known how many tor-
pedoes were launched, but five were counted as they sped by
bow and stern.

"A second- attack was launched a few days later against
another contingent. The point of assault was beyond the ren-
dezvous and our destroyers were sailing as a screen between
the transports and all harm. The results of the battle were in
favor of American gunnery.

"Not alone did the destroyers hold the U-boats at a safe
distance, but their speed also resulted in the sinking of one
submarine at least. Grenades were used in firing, a depth
charge explosive timed to go off at a certain distance under
water. In one instance, oil and wreckage covered the surface
of the sea after a shot from a destroyer at a periscope, and the
reports make claim of sinking.

UNCLE SAM TAKES HOLD.

443

"Protected by our high seas convoy, by our destroyers
and by French war vessels, the contingent proceeded and
joined the others in a French port.

"The whole nation will rejoice that so great a peril is
passed for the vanguard of the men who will fight our battles
in France. No more thrilling Fourth of July celebration
could have been arranged than this glad news that lifts the
shadow of dread from the heart of America."

Upon receipt of the announcement, Secretary Baker
wrote the following letter to Secretary Daniels, conveying the
army's thanks to the navy :

"Word has just come to the War Department that the
last ships conveying General Pershing's expeditionary force
to France arrived safe today. As you know, the navy assumed
the responsibility for the safety of these ships on the sea and
through the danger zone. The ships themselves and their
convoys were in the hands of the navy, and now that they have
arrived, and carried, without the loss of a man, our soldiers
who are the first to represent America in the battle for democ-
racy, I beg leave to tender to you, to the Admiral and to the
navy, the hearty thanks of the War Department and of the
army. This splendid achievement is an auspicious beginning
and it has been characterized throughout by the most cordial
and effective co-operation between the two military services."

CHAPTER XXV.
A GERMAN CRISIS.

The Downfall of Bethmann-Hollweg — The Crown Prince in the Lime Light
— Hollweg's Unique Careers — Dr. Georg Michaelis Appointed Chancellor
— The Kaiser and How He Gets His Immense Power.

HE active participation of the United States in the war,

1 as distinctly marked by the sending of troops to France,
aside from giving needed inspiration to the Allied forces,
may be said to have had a decided effect in Germany. While
the German subjects are loyal, there has developed in the
country, as in every other country, a large element of Social-
ists and progressives.

Something of a climax was reached in the affairs of the
Hohenzollern dynasty just when the United States troops
were preparing to take their places on the battle line in France
and when the first of the conscripted forces of the country
were being summoned to the colors.

With a suddenness that startled the entire world, Dr.
von Bethmann-Hollweg, the German Imperial Chancellor,
resigned on July 14, thus ending his career as the spokesman
of the Kaiser, which he had maintained for a surprisingly long
period. At the same time Dr. Alfred Zimmermann, Foreign
Minister, who was responsible for the correspondence which
revealed the fact that Germany was trying to induce Mexico
and Japan to form an alliance against the United States, also
quit his post.

The resignation of the Chancellor came quite unexpect-
edly, for von Hollweg, in the prolonged party discussion and
heated debates of the main committee of the Reichstag which
had been in progress, seemed to have triumphed over his
opponents.

His opponents had been clamoring for his head, but he

372

444

A GEKMAN CRISIS.

445

made concessions, and by the declaration that Germany was
fighting defensively for her territorial possessions evolved a
formula which for a time seemed satisfactory to both those
who clamored for peace by agreement and those who demand-
ed repudiation of the formula, "no annexation and no indem-
nities." In this position Dr. von Hollweg was backed by the
Emperor.

The advent o* the Crown Prince upon the scene — sum-
moned by his imperial father to share the deliberations affect-
ing the future of the dynasty — seems to have changed entire-
ly the position with regard to the Imperial Chancellor. The
Crown Prince at once took a leading part in the discussions
with the party leaders, and his ancient hostility toward Dr.
von Bethmann-Hollweg, coupled with his notorious dislike for
political reform, undoubtedly precipitated the Chancellor's
resignation.

APPOINTMENT OF DR. GEORG MICHAELIS,

The resignation of Dr. von Hollweg was followed by the
appointment of Dr. Georg Michaelis, Prussian Under Secre-
tary of Finance and Food Commissioner.

The fall of Theobald von Bethmann-Hollweg removed
the last of the statesmen who were in charge of the great
Powers of Europe at the beginning of the war, and brought
to an end a career which in successful plajang of both ends
against the middle was almost without parallel in recent
history.

Chancellor von Bethmann-Hollweg, an aristocrat and
personal friend of the Emperor, stood out strongly against
democratic agitation before the war, and at times was sharply
outspoken in his defiance of socialism and his rejection of any
move toward making the Chancellor and his subordinates, the
other Ministers, responsible to the Reichstag. Yet in the early
stages of the war he became known as a moderate, and it has
been generally accepted that his influence was usually em-

446

A GERMAN CRISIS.

ployed against the breaking of relations with America and
ruthless submarine warfare.

PRESERVES A JUDICIOUS BALANCE.

When the opposition of the parties favoring the most des-
perate measures became too strong for him, he conceded a little
ground, taking up a middle position in which he balanced him-
self for a long time against both the Conservative Junkers and
the National Liberal trust magnates on the one side ?nd the
radical Socialists on the other. Neither side could claim hmr
neither could interpret his ambiguous utterances as support of
its policies, and between the antagonisms of the two he main-
tained his position until at last he was overthrown by the attack
of Erzberger, leader of the more liberal wing of the Catholic
party, the traditional holders of the middle ground.

Bethmann-Hollweg's agility was demonstrated by the
fact that he survived Asquith and Grey, Viviani, Sazonoff,
Berchtold, Salandra, Jagow, and all the rest of the statesmen
who were in power in Europe in August, 1914.

In personality the Chancellor was studious, scholarly and
pleasant, lacking the brilliance of his predecessor, Von Bue-
low, but generally regarded as one who was if anything too
mild rather than too severe.

Dr. Georg Michaelis, the successor to Hollweg, was the
first commoner to be appointed to that high office, without even
a "von" before his name.

The son of a Prussian official, he was born on September
8, 1857, in Haynan, Silesia. He received a university educa-
tion, making the law his profession. In 1879 he became a court
referee in Berlin, and in 1884 was attached to the District At-
torney's office in that city. Several years later he went as pro-
fessor of law and political economy to the University of Tokio.

Returning to Germany in 1889, he was chosen District
Attorney for Berlin. His services won much praise and he
was afterward sent by the government as an official in the pro-

A GERMAN CRISIS.

447

visional government at Trevas, Germany. In 1897 he Was
transferred to Westphalia, where he was Chief Councilor for
the government there.

In 1900 he was made Provisional President of Liebnitz
and in 1902 First Privy Councilor in Breslau. His work
there won him an appointment as Under Secretary of State in
the Department of Finance, which post he held in connection
with his work as Food Commissioner.

Doctor Michaelis was selected for the post of Prussian
Food Commissioner in February, 1917, after all efforts of
Adolph von Batocki's organization — the food regulation board
— had failed to lay hands on large supplies of grain, potatoes
and other produce which the Prussian landlords were holding
for the fattening of cattle and swine instead of making them
available for general consumption.

GOVERNMENT ORDERS DISREGARDED.

The orders of Herr Batocki and the Central Government
for the surrender of these supplies were disregarded or evaded
at least, if not, as charged in Germany, with the actual assis-
tance and support of the reactionary Prussian Minister of
Agriculture, Baron von Schorlemer.

Doctor Michaelis was eventually selected as Food Con-
troller as the result of an agreement between von Bethmann-
Hollweg and the military authorities as a fearless, determined
official, who would execute his mission without fear or favor
and produce results if such were possible. The selection was
justified.

The conditions in Germany which marked the ascendancy
of the Crown Prince in the deliberations of the Imperial Gov-
ernment and brought about the upheaval in the Ministry are
the logical result of the system under which the country is
ruled.

There is, in the mind of the public generally, a theory that
Germany with its Bundesrath and Reichstag has a govern-

448

A GERMAN CRISIS.

ment akin to that of England and even the United States, but
the impression is an erroneous one. It is true that Germany
has a dual system of government and independent state sov-
ereignties. There is, however, nothing democratic about the
system.

To begin with, the Kaiser is a constitutional monarch in
his capacity as German Emperor, but as King of Prussia he is
a self-appointed and arrogant ruler — all that he advertises
himself to be in the way of a God-chosen ruler.

STATUS OF GERMAN SOVEREIGNTY.

To understand the difference in relationship between the
King of Prussia and the German Emperor it is necessary to
realize that the German constitution describes the Emperor
thus: "The presidency of the Union belongs to the King of
Prussia, who bears the title of German Emperor.'' On the
other hand the King of Prussia, who happens to be the Kaiser,
has his right to rule by birth. When the first king was crowned,
about 1701, he placed the crown upon his own head, and that
right has descended to King William. But as German Em-
peror the duties of the Kaiser are as clearly defined as those
of the ruler of a modern democracy.

The difference between the Kingdom and the Empire is
that the German Empire is a creation of sovereign states, ruled
over by German Grand Dukes, Princes, and whatnot, who
trace their lineage back to the days when might was right, and
who won their power to rule by defeating their fellow men.
At one time there were several hundred of these ruling princes.
When Napoleon got through in Germany there were about
twenty-two left. The German Empire today consists of these
twenty-two states, and three free cities, comprising in all a
group of twenty-five communities. It is a bond or association.
It consists, in fact, of the twenty-five communities, of which
it is composed, and represented by twenty-five kings, dukes,
princes, etc., and not by the 65,000,000 population of the com-

A GERMAN CRISIS.

449

munities themselves. The sovereignty rests with the princes
of the several states, who have bestowed a fixed power upon
the Kaiser. As Emperor his office dates back to 1871.

The legislative machinery which has been devised for the
use of these German sovereigns consists of the Bundesrath and
the Reichstag. Sometimes the Bundesrath is likened to our
Senate, or to the hereditary English House of Lords, while
the Reichstag is compared to the House of Representatives or
the House of Commons. But comparisons are odious.

THE BUNDESRATH.

The Bundesrath is an assembly in which the German
kings, grand dukes, dukes, princes, etc., come together (by
proxy) to direct the affairs of the Empire. Each of these sov-
ereigns sends a specified number of delegates, in accordance
with the provisions of the constitution. Thus the Kaiser, as
the King of Prussia, sends seventeen delegates, while the King
of Bavaria sends six. The 'total number of delegates is fifty-
eight, so right in the beginning the Kaiser has a pretty good
representation.

The delegations in the Bundesrath vote en masse — that is
the "unit rule" prevails. The seventeen delegates from Prus-
sia must vote as instructed by the Kaiser, and if there chanced
to be but one member present he still would cast seventeen
votes for the delegation. The members of the Bundesrath are
referred to quite frequently as ambassadors. There is no need
for discussion in the body since the delegations vote, in any
event, as a unit.

The power of the German Bundesrath is, however, aston-
ishing. Usually the lower house is supposed to be the one in
which originates legislation, such as finance, affecting the peo-
ple. But in Germany it is the Bundesrath which has the power
to tax, and the lower chamber, the Reichstag, merely has the
vetoing power.

450

A GERMAN CRISIS.

This makes the taxing power in Germany primarily the
privilege of the crown.

The financial program is prepared by the Chancellor, who
is the direct representative of the Kaiser, and responsible only
to him. In other governments members of the ministry are
appointed by the legislative bodies, but the Chancellor is per-
sonally named by the Kaiser, and is not even a member of the
Reichstag. He has the right, however, to address this body, as
the privilege of a member of the Bundesrath of which, as the
personal representative of the Kaiser, he is the presiding
officer.

Since the Bundesrath, as already shown, practically con-
trols the German Empire, and the King of Prussia, with his
seventeen votes in the Bundesrath holds sway in that body, it is
easy to see how the Kaiser is the dominating figure in the Ger-
man Empire.

THE KAISER'S DUAL, PREROGATIVE.

A unique provision of the German constitution is that
fourteen votes in the Bundesrath can defeat any proposed
amendment, and since the Kaiser controls seventeen votes, as
King of Prussia, besides several others, he has a voting
strength which can block any attempt to change the regime.
Also, as King of Prussia, he can instruct his Chancellor to
prepare laws to be introduced in the Bundesrath.

It is the power which the Kaiser possesses, as the King of
Prussia, which gives him his control as the German Emperor.
Prussia is the largest of the German states, and when the
Kaiser, as King of Prussia, says that he is master in Prussia,
he speaks the truth.

There is a ministry in Prussia, and the head of this body
is usually the same person who occupies the position of Im-
perial Chancellor, and the Kaiser appoints this Minister as well
as his associates, whom he can remove without reference to the
Ministry as a body. There are two chambers in Prussian Min-

A GERMAN CRISIS.

451

istry commonly known as the House of Peers, and the House
of Representatives.

Just to give the King of Prussia a little more control, he
has the right to appoint all the members of the House of Peers,
and also to designate the number. The House of Represen-
tatives, on the face of it, is a popular body, because the members
are supposed to be elected by universal suffrage. The tax-
payers vote for representation in this chamber, but they do not
vote directly nor on equal terms.

Members of the House of Representatives are chosen by
an electoral college, and several hundred of these colleges are
selected at each election. Though taxpayers vote for the elec-
tors, all the votes do not have the same relative value. The
taxpayers whose combined taxes represent one-third of the
whole amount of taxes in an electoral district choose one-third
of the members from that district to the House. Those who
pay the next one-third of the taxes choose another third of the
electors, and the remaining body of voters choose the last third.

CHAPTER XXVI.
UNCLE SAM AND THE NEUTRALS.

President Wilson Puts Embargo on Food Shipments — Scandinavian Countries
Furnishing Supplies to Germany Inspires Order — The Difficult Position
of Norway, Denmark, Holland and Switzerland.

HEN America first declared its intentions there were in

V V the United States thousands who held to the theory that
"America in War" simply meant that we should shut
ourselves within our borders, perhaps furnish supplies to the
Allied forces, lend money to England, France, Belgium and
Russia, use ^ur navy to protect our merchant shipping and go
about our business, leaving the fighting to the forces joined in
conflict against Germany.

They were disabused when the English and French Com-
mission and the representatives of Belgium and Russia made
it apparent that it would be necessary for America to actually
raise a fighting army and General Pershing was sent to France.
But they learned, too, that mobilizing the forces of the country
and waging warfare were not simple matters. The truth was
brought home that the whole nation must fight ; that it must
use its brains, its money, its resources of every sort, its whole
power, both in an offensive and in a defensive way.

Not only must its soldiers and sailors face the guns of the
Teutons, but the machinery of government must be used to
bring the arrogant Hohenzollerns to their knees. Some start-
ling things were discovered, and the brains of the diplomatic
force of the government were put to the test. International
problems arose which were never before encountered in the
history of nations.

England, with its blockade against Germany, and Ger-
many with its submarine warfare against British and neutral
shipping, developed problems which had to be solved relative

452

UNCLE SAM AND THE NEUTRALS.

453

to keeping Germany from getting supplies which would en-
able her to withstand the siege, and also as to the sending of
supplies to England, Belgium, France and Russia, and par-
ticularly to our own forces fighting with the Allies in France.
A BIG FACTOR IN WAR.

Unfortunate as it may seem, one of the biggest factors in
waging successful war is to prevent the enemy from getting
food supplies. It is a frequently repeated truism that "an
army travels on its stomach," and in the pleas for conservation
and efficient management the leaders in every country declared
frequently that "the war would be won by the last loaf of
bread," or that it was not a question of ammunition, but of
wheat.

One of the serious problems which the government was
therefore called to face within a very short period after the
American troops were first landed in France was that of deal-
ing with the food situation, both at home and abroad. At that
time the German U-boats had sunk merchant ships having a
total of more than 5,000,000 tonnage, and the food situation
was precarious in the Allied countries. Germany, on the other
hand, because of long preparation for the struggle, coupled
with efficient management and practices, was more largely
independent of other countries,

At this time it was learned that Germany was securing
large quantities of foodstuffs through the medium of some of
the neutral countries. America was, therefore, called upon to
take steps to prevent the Germans getting supplies from this
country, through the intermediary of Holland and the Scandi-
navian countries. As a result the government placed an em-
bargo on a long list of articles including fuel, oils, grains,
meats and fodder. The embargo, which was made effective by
a proclamation of President Wilson, forbade the carrying of
such supplies as were mentioned from the United States or its
territorial possessions to neutral countries.

454

UNCLE SAM AND THE NEUTRALS.

The purpose of the embargo was not to prevent the neu-
tral countries from securing foodstuffs from America for their
own consumption, but to prevent their reselling such supplies
at a profit to Germany. The position of the government was
made plain in the statement of President Wilson, who said:

DOMESTIC AND FOREIGN NEEDS.

"It is obviously the duty of the United States in liberating
any surplus products over and above our own domestic needs
to consider first the necessities of all the nations engaged in
war against the central empires. As to neutral nations, how-
ever, we also recognize our duty. The government does not
wish to hamper them. On the contrary, it wishes and intends,
by all fair and equitable means, to co-operate with them in their
difficult task of adding from our available surpluses to their
own domestic supply and of meeting their pressing necessities
or deficits. In considering the deficits of food supplies, the
government means only to fulfill its obvious obligation to as-
sure itself that neutrals are husbanding their own resources,
and that our supplies will not become available, either directly
or indirectly, to feed the enemy."

While the conservation of our resources had a great deal
to do with the issuing of the embargo, the action was partly
taken as the result of information lodged by England that
Holland, Sweden and Norway had been supplying Germany
and her allies with food, despite the latter's hostile action in
sinking ships owned by the neutrals. The government made
an investigation and discovered that the shipment to these neu-
tral countries' had become abnormally large. It was reported,
particularly, that many Holland business men had become
fabulously wealthy by trading in the supplies which came from
America, and which they resold to Germany.

The embargo became operative under a method of license
procedure, so that all shipments could be watched by the gov-
ernment authorities. The order compelled all persons seeking

UNCLE SAM AND THE NEUTRALS.

455

to export goods to make application for a license to the Secre-
tary of Commerce, or bureaus designated in various parts of
the country.

In support of the contentions that the neutral countries
were supplying Germany, Great Britain furnished the Gov-
ernment with the following table as representing the minimum
of food exports from Scandinavia and Holland to Germany
in 1916: Butter, 82,600 metric tons; meat, 115,800 tons; pork
products, 68,800 tons; condensed milk, 70,000 tons; fish, 407
tons; cheese, 80,500 tons; eggs, 46,400 tons; potato meal, 179,-
500 tons; coffee, 58,500 tons; fruit, 74,000 tons; sugar, 12,000
tons; vegetables, 215,000.

These figures are most impressive, it is asserted, in rela-
tion to fats, the scarcest thing in Germany. Fat, it is claimed,
is the only food seriously lacking now in the diet of the Ger-
man people. Imports of this food, the British declare, furnish
one-fourth of the daily German fat ration.

NATIONS WHO SUFFER FROM EMBARGO.

There are five neutral countries whose positions were any-
thing but enviable during the war, and it is perhaps worth
interpolating a little something about them at this particular
point. Norway, Sweden, Holland, Denmark and Switzerland
were the neutrals at the time the embargo was placed on
foodstuffs.

Switzerland, as all the world knows, is one of the most
picturesque countries in Europe, and is a republic in the west
central part of the continent, bounded on the north by Baden,
Wurtemburg and Bavaria; on the east by the Tyrol, on the
south by Italy and on the west by France. There is no na-
tional tongue, three languages being spoken within the bound-
aries of the republic. Where it comes in contact with the
French frontier, the French language is largely spoken; while
Italian is the language spoken in the southern part, where it
is bounded by Italy. In the northern section the German

456 UNCLE SAM AND THE NEUTRALS.

language is spoken. The country has an area of 15,992 square
miles.

In the main, Switzerland is mountainous, the chief val-
ley being that of the Rhone, in the southern part. The most
level tracts are in the northwestern section, where there are a
number of mountain-locked valleys. Mountain slopes com-
prise about two-fifths of the area of the country, and prac-
tically all of the rivers are rapid and unnavigable. The forests
are extensive and consist of large trees. Cereals, along with
hemp, flax and tobacco, are raised, and the pasture lands are
fertile and abundant. Hence, the dairy products, as well as
hides and tallow, are produced in profusion. Fruits of the
hardier varieties grow well and profitably.

A FEDERAL UNION.

The republic consists of twenty-two States or Cantons
which form a Federal Union, although each is virtually inde-
pendent in matters of politics. The Swiss Constitution, re-
modelled in 1848, vests the ruling executive and legislative
authority in a Diet of two houses — a State Council and a
National Council. The former consists of 44 members — two
from each Canton — and corresponds in its functional action
with the United States Senate. The National Council is the
more purely representative body, and is composed of 128 mem-
bers elected triennially by popular suffrage. Both chambers
combine and form what is called the Federal Assembly.

The chief executive power is exercised by the so-called
Federal Council, or Bundesgericht, which is elected trienni-
ally. Its governing officers are the President and Vice Presi-
dent of the republic. International and inter-cantonal ques-
tions are discussed before and adjudicated by the Bundes-
gericht, which serves as a high court of appeal. The army
consists of 142,999 regulars and 91,809 landwehr; total, 231,-
808 men of all arms. Every adult citizen is de facto liable

UNCLE SAM AND THE NEUTRALS.

457

to military service, and military drill and discipline are taught
in all the schools. The Protestant faith forms the ruling form
of religion in 15 of the cantons, Roman Catholicism prevailing
in the rest. Education is well diffused by numerous colleges
and schools of a high grade ; and its upper branches are cared
for at the three universities of Berne, Basle and Zurich.

Denmark, whose home possessions comprise 14,789 square
miles, is, by the way, barely one-half the size of Scotland. It
consists of a peninsular portion called Jutland, and an exten-
sive archipelago lying east of it. It has a number of territorial
possessions in the Atlantic ocean, among them the islands of
Iceland, Greenland and the Faroe islands in the north.

GERMAN AMBITION FRUSTRATED.

One of its possessions in the West Indies was purchased
by the United States almost at the time America entered the
war, and created a situation which was not calculated to inspire
the friendship of Germany for the little country, since it was
intimated that Germany would liked to have had the island
for a base. The islands cost the United States about $25,000,-
000. Including the colonial possessions, the total area of the
Danish possessions is 80,000 square miles, the population be-
ing 2,726,000 persons.

Copenhagen is the capital, the other chief cities being
Odense, Aarhuus, Aalborg, Randers and Horsens. For ad-
ministrative purposes Denmark is divided into 18 provinces
or districts, besides the capital, nine of these making up Jut-
land and the other nine comprising the island possessions. On
the south Denmark is bounded by Germany and the Baltic,
on the west it is washed by the North Sea; while to the north
lies Norway, separated by the Skagerrack, and on the east
lies Sweden, separated by the Cattegat and the Sound.

The line of seaboard is irregular and broken, and the low,
flat nature of the country necessitates the construction of dykes,
in many places, in order to prevent the ocean from making

458 UNCLE SAM AND THE NEUTRALS.

inroads. There are few rivers, and these are small and not
of value commercially. Timber is not abundant, and minerals
are scarce and of little value. The climate is generally moist
and cold, fogs are frequent and the winters generally severe.
Cereals, potatoes, wool and dairy products are the principal
products. Cattle raising is carried on extensively, much of
the beef being exported.

The Danes, physically, are sturdy, and represent the
truest physical characteristics of Scandinavian types. The
people are brave, sober and industrious, and the sailors from
this country are among the leading navigators of the world.
The government is a constitutional monarchy, with the execu-
tive power vested in a king and a ministry, who are held
responsible to the Rigsdag, which is the parliament.

LANDSTHING AND FOLKSTHING.

This parliament consists of a Senate, or Landsthing, and
a lower house, or Folksthing. The Evangelical Lutheran
Church is the State religion, but all other persuasions are fully
and freely tolerated. Education is compulsory, and is largely
disseminated. The army consists of 60,000 men, while the
navy is quite small, having a personnel of about 4000 officers
and men.

The authentic history dates from 1385, the year of the
accession of Margaret, the "Semiramis of the North," and
wearer of the triple Scandinavian crowns. The latest mon-
arch, Frederick VIII, came to the throne in 1906.

Holland, the most picturesque of the neutral countries,
aside from Switzerland with its wonderful scenery, is credited
with having profited very largely by the war. It rests along
the North Sea and adjoins the German Empire on the east
and borders Belgium on the South. It contains about 11 prov-
inces, with a total area of 12,582 square miles and a popula-
tion of about 6,000,000.

Always one thinks of windmills, dykes, fat cattle, butter,

UNCLE SAM AND THE NEUTRALS.

459

eggs, ducks and green farms when Holland is mentioned, and
it is in many respects one of the most highly developed com-
mercial countries in the world. The country manufactures
many articles of world-wide distribution, including chocolate,
linens, fine damasks, pottery, chemical and pharmaceutical
products, and Amsterdam is a center of diamond-cutting.

It has a large mercantile marine and was at one time a
termendous maritime power, doing an immense trading busi-
ness in many waters. It still has rich and extensive colonies,
including the Dutch possessions in the East Indies, compris-
ing the Sunda Islands, except a portion of Borneo and Eastern
Timor, and New Guinea. Java and Madura are two of the
richest of the group and have a population of more than
30,000,000. There are also possessions in the West Indies and
in South America.

A SMALL BUT EFFICIENT ARMY.

The Dutch army has approximately 40,000 officers and
men and is regarded as one of the most efficient armies in the
world of its size. There is also a colonial army in the East
Indies with 1300 officers and 35,183 men. Its navy has 4000
officers and men and has about 200 vessels of all sorts, none
of them of the modern dreadnought or super-dreadnought type.

The history of the rich little country is one of the most
interesting in literature. It was originally part of the Empire
of Charlemagne. Subsequently, it became divided into a num-
ber of petty principalities, and by heritage became a posses-
sion of the Austrian monarchy. In the long struggle against
the Spanish power it became one of the Seven United Prov-
inces. The country made rapid progress, and during the 17th
century withstood the power of Louis the XIV of France,
but later was overrun by the French, and finally in 1806 was
made a kingdom by Napoleon, in favor of his brother Louis.
Under the Treaty of Paris Belgium and Holland were united
to form the Kingdom of the Netherlands, and this arrange-

460 UNCLE SAM AND THE NEUTRALS.

ment remained until 1830, when Belgium broke away. Hol-
land attempted to reduce the revolting province by force, but
the powers intervened and an adjustment was made. The
last King was William, III, who died in 1890, leaving his
daughter Wilhelmina, then but 10 years old, Queen.

Of the neutral countries none endured more than heroic
Norway. With a long coast line practically undefended and
with the full force of the German navy anchored but a few
hours away, and a none too friendly country on her land bor-
der, possessing an army greater than her own, Norway's posi-
tion was extremely difficult.

Had she flung herself into the war with the Allies when
the breach came she would have been of little help to them,
for she would have placed them in the position of being called
upon to help defend her long coast line. It is probable also
that a break with Germany would have let loose the Swedish
army on the side of the Teutons.

BETWEEN TWO FIRES.

The little country was between two fires, and she suffered
great strain. In the first place, while Norway attempted to
maintain her export trade and her shipping, the Allies in-
spected her import invoices and subjected her to much an-
noyance, while Germany, without provocation^ ruthlessly at-
tacked her merchant ships and sent many of them to the bot-
tom of the ocean.

There were intimations that Germany's real intent was
to precipitate a rupture which would justify her attack on the
little country, which she would be able to subdue with ease
and seize the rugged coast and ports of vantage. But Nor-
way remained neutral, and was not at all pleased with the
embargo placed upon shipments by the United States, though
it developed that the restrictions would not prevent the coun-
try from getting its share of grain and other supplies from
America.

UNCLE SAM AND THE NEUTRALS. 461

Norway is the western portion of the Scandinavian penin-
sula, and has an area of about 125,000 square miles. Its
northern coast is washed by the cold waters of the Arctic
Ocean, and against the northeast is Lapland, while Sweden
bounds it on the east and the famed North Sea on the south
and the broad Atlantic on the west.

The rugged country is separated from Sweden by the
Kiolen, or the Great Scandinavian chain of mountains, and
in the hills and mountains are found the wonderful Norway
Spruce and fir trees familiar in commerce. Its fisheries and
shipbuilding industry are also of great importance in the world
of business.

DEMOCRACY OF NORWAY,

The constitution of Norway is one of the most Democratic
in all Europe. Although a monarchy, its executive and legis-
lative power is vested in the parliament, called the Storthing,
and the King has merely a nominal command over the army
and navy, with power to appoint the governor-general only.
The latter has a limited right to veto acts of the parliament.
Hereditary nobility was abolished in 1821.

Under the treaty of Vienna in 1814, and following the
defeat of Napoleon, it was arranged that Denmark must give
up Norway, and the two countries were united under the
Swedish Crown. Norway demanded a separate consular ser-
vice in 1905, and the Storthing declared the union with Sweden
at an end. Prince Charles of Denmark then became King,
reigning as Haakon VII.

The country has a population of 2,340,000, and her full
military force mobilized for war is only 110,000 men.

Sweden, Norway's next-door neighbor on the Scandina-
vian peninsula, in contradistinction to the latter, is a consti-
tutional monarchy, with extraordinary powers vested in the
King, who is assisted in the administration of affairs by a
council of ministers. The Diet, or legislature, consists of two
chambers, or estates, both elected by the people.

462 UNCLE SAM AND THE NEUTRALS.

Like Norway, the country is very rugged. Lapland and
Finland are at the northeast, and on the east is the Gulf of
Bothnia and the Baltic, and on the south the Baltic, the Sound
and the Cattegat. It joins Nbrway on the west. Its area is
172,875 square miles, and its coast line is more than 1400 miles
long.

Sweden, while it does not have a first-class navy, possesses
a score of armored vessels of small displacement, besides tor-
pedo boats, destroyers, etc., and has an army of 40,000 at
peace strength. The country is particularly rich in minerals,
and some of the finest iron ore in the world comes from its
mines. Nickel, lead, cobalt, alum and sulphur are also pro-
duced in large quantities; while it gives to the world, too,
immense quantities of lumber and larger quantities of hemp,
flax and hops.

The reigning monarch is King Gustavus V, who suc-
ceeded his father, Oscar II, who died in 1907. The population
of the country is about 5,000,000.

Of these neutrals, both Holland and Switzerland did a
great deal for the suffering Belgians when Germany pounded
through the country of King Albert, sending money for the
relief of the sufferers and offering refugees shelter.

CHAPTER XXVIl.

THE ACTIONS OF THE WAR.

From Bosnia to Flanders — Marne the Turning Point of the Conflict — The
Conquests of Servia and Rumania — The Fall of Bagdad — Russia's
Women Soldiers — America's Conscripts.

HE end of August, 1917, found twenty-one nations in a

1 state of war and five in what might be termed a condition
of modified neutrality, with nearly 40,000,000 sum-
moned to arms and 5,000,000 killed in bitter warfare.

This was the fiery reflection of the shots which caused the
death of the Archduke Francis Ferdinand, of Austria, in the
quiet little town of Serajevo, the capital of Bosnia, in June,
1914. And so, with their backs to the wall, Austria-Hungary,
Germany, Turkey and Bulgaria faced Servia, Russia, France,
Belgium, Great Britain, Montenegro, Japan, Italy, Portugal,
Rumania, the United States, Cuba, Brazil, Greece, Siam,
China and little Liberia, while Guatemala, Panama, Haiti,
Uruguay and Bolivia stood by in a position of neutrality, but
for the most part indicating a willingness to help the Allies.

And in those elapsed three years after the Bosnia tragedy
an Emperor of Austria had died; a Czar had stepped from his
throne, and a King had been compelled to toss aside his crown.
Prime Ministers and Ministers of War in all of the principal
countries, who held the confidence of their peoples when the
war started, were no more.

Cabinets had/ been dissolved and new ones set up, states-
men brushed aside and commanders of the war forces com-
pelled to step out that others might carry on the battles.

Though it was Austria's ultimatum to Servia which pre-
cipitated the world-wide struggle, it was Germany that took
the first step and crossed the French frontier with its armed
forces. After Servia refused to accede to all of the demands

«8

464

THE ACTIONS OF THE WAR.

of Austria-Hungary and war had formally been declared by
the latter country, Russia began a partial mobilization of her
armed forces, since she had given warning that she would
extend protection to Servia. Germany retaliated by calling
together her warring forces and declaring war on the Czar;
France came to Russia's aid. Then when Belgium refused to
permit the German army to pass through the country and
Germany disregarded international treaties and invaded the
territory, Great Britain declared war upon the Kaiser, and
Montenegro aligned itself with the Allies.

GERMANY'S DESIGNS ON PARIS.

Germany's action and subsequent events prove that the
war lords had planned to capture Paris by a swift attack from
the north, before France could gather her forces to resist and
before Russia was prepared to assist. Belgium, however,
proved a stumbling block. The natives, battling like demons
for the protection of their homes and honor, held the Teuton
hordes at Liege for several weeks, or until the famous forti-
fications there were reduced, and then the terrible machine of
the Germans swept forward until the soldiers were within fif-
teen miles of the French capital.

It was here, within a few hours' march of Paris, that the
French and Allied troops showed their real metal. General
Joffre met the German hordes beside the River Marne and
with his troops began the battle which was to guarantee the
security of the French capital and result in the routing of the
army of Von Kluck, regarded as the pick of the Prussian
forces. In the famed battle of the Marne there were fought a
number of separate engagements, which have been termed the
battles of Meaux, Sezanne, Vitry and Argonne.

The German forces were driven back step by step to the
north bank of the Aisne, where the army was able to entrench
itself and the Germans and the Allied forces began digging

THE ACTIONS OF THE WAR.

465

themselves into the ground in a manner that had never before
been practised in warfare.

While Germany was striking at France, the Russians had
invaded Austria, capturing Tarnapol and Lemberg and in-
vesting the great fortress of Prezemsyl. Austria was com-
pelled to call upon Germany for assistance and four German
army corps, under Von Hindenburg, were drawn from East
Prussia and went to the rescue. Instead of trying to stem the
progress of the Russians, he made a counter offensive with
Warsaw as the objective. Russia was compelled for a time
to abandon its positions and retreat, and Von Hindenburg got
within seven miles of Warsaw before the Russians rode down
upon his forces with 100,000 horsemen and compelled retreat.
Von Hindenburg' s strategy had, however, been successful, and
his action on the Eastern front at this time marked the first
step toward his pre-eminence as a military commander.

BRITISH AND GERMAN FORCES COMPARED.

During 1915 the Allied forces were able to do little more
than hold their positions. Lord Kitchener had builded up a
British volunteer army in which great hopes were placed, but
in the matter of offensive military tactics they could not cope
with the formidable German forces, nor had the Allies devel-
oped an offensive which would win without terrible sacrifice,
and in the encounters the very flower of Great Britain's man-
hood, as well as thousands of the best fighting men of France,
were lost to the world forever. It was in this year, when Ger-
many made use of asphyxiating gas for the first time, that
Canada received its most stinging blow. The famous Princess
Pats, the finest military body of the Dominion, was practically
annihilated, and in the final formidable attack of the year made
by the French against the Germans in September, the latter
were driven back several miles, but at a cost of more than
100,000 French lives.

466

THE ACTIONS OF THE WAR

In this year, too, the Germans succeeded in capturing
much territory and a number of valuable positions which had
been taken by the Russians, and the combined forces of Von
Hindenburg and Von Mackensen finally conquered Poland.
Warsaw was evacuated in July, and in August Prince Leopold
led the Bavarian into the Polish capital. On August 19 the
great stronghold of Kovno fell, and the conquest was made
complete with the surrender of Brest-Litovsk.

CONQUEST OF SERVIA.

The conquest of Servia by the Teutons also marked the
year 1915. Among the first shots of the war were those fired
by the Austrians when they bombarded Belgrade, the capital
of Servia, and made an attempt to invade the country. The
Servians and Montenegrins almost annihilated Austrian troops
which attempted to cross the Danube into Servia, and the Aus-
trian invasion fell. But the combined Austro-German forces
invaded the country later as part of the Prussian program to
conquer all the territory from the Baltic to the Bosporus. The
Entente Allies made an effort to save the little country by land-
ing troops at Salonica, but it was too late. Just before winter
set in, the Austro-German forces and the Bulgarian forces,
invading from opposite sides, met, and the conquest of the
country was complete.

It was in 1915, too, that what is conceded to have been
one of the most disastrous and futile campaigns of the war was
attempted by England. Constantinople was to be captured
and the Turks crushed, with a view of opening communication
with Russia by way of the Black Sea. The British fleet was
sent out to bombard the Dardanelles, and the now famous
Anzacs — Australian and New Zealand troops — were landed
on the peninsula of Gallipoli to strike at the Turkish capital
from behind. The campaign was waged through the summer,
but with little hope of success, and finally abandoned after the

THE ACTIONS OF THE WAR,

467

British had lost more than 100,000 of its most daring, hard-
fighting and loyal Colonial soldiers.

After this came "Verdun'' — that conflict in which France
won immortal glory and the German's attack upon the French
fortress town of Verdun was successfully repulsed. The battle
raged for four months, beginning in February, 1916. The
German troops, with the German Crown Prince in command,
captured two forts close to Verdun, but little by little the
French troops drove them back, and finally, in command of
General Nivelle, with General Petain looking after the de-
fense of Verdun, the French, co-operating with the British,
made an attack on the Somme, and the Germans were com-
pelled to abandon the Verdun offensive. In the Verdun cam-
paign the Germans lost more than 500,000 men, while the
French lost not half the number.

RUSSIA'S CONQUEST OF ARMENIA.

Russia's conquest of Armenia was one of the features of
1916. The troops under General Brussiloff renewed their en-
deavors in Galicia and for several months made great progress ;
then Rumania entered the war and the Russian forces in Galicia
slowed down. In Caucasus, however, Russian troops gained
Erzerum, one of the Turk fortresses, and captured the seaport
of Trebizond, practicallv gaining Armenia. Like the Germans
in retreat from Flanders, the Turks practiced unspeakable
horrors. Their cruelties were such as to almost exterminate
the race.

The tragedy of the Balkans in 1916 was Rumania. With
an army of more than half a million men, she entered the war
with the approval of the Entente and entered Transylvania.
But the Germans began a counter-attack in Dobrudja, and the
Rumanians were compelled to withdraw some of their forces
from Transylvania. The German commander then threw his x
forces across the remaining Rumanians and drove them across
the border, after which he swung his own troops through the

468

THE ACTIONS OF THE WAR.

mountain passes into Rumania. The two German forces in-
vading Rumania met at Bucharest, and the Rumanian capital
was occupied.

Another fiasco was that of the British expeditionary force
wThich was sent from India by way of the Persian Gulf and up
the Tigris river to Bagdad. General Townsend succeeded in
getting within 15 miles of Bagdad, but he was defeated by a
superior Turkish force and compelled to fall back to Kut-el-
Amara. Here his inadequate force, lacking medical and trans-
port facilities, was fairly starved out before he was relieved.
He was finally compelled to surrender the last week in April,
1916.

Little more than a year after the collapse of this expedi-
tion, however, the famous old city of Bagdad was captured by
the English after a well-directed campaign under General
Maude.

ITALY S HELP TO THE ALLIES.

Italy, having begun active warfare with the Allies in 1915,
waged war along the Austrian border, compelling the Austro-
German forces to concentrate a larger body of troops for duty
on the Italian frontier, and to that extent materially assisted
the Allies. At the same time the Italians fought their way
up over the mountains and won more than 500 square miles
of territory and took nearly 90,000 prisoners.

The final alignment of the Greeks with the Allies marked
the progress of affairs in the middle of 1917, when Constantine
was forced from his throne in favor of his second son, and
Venizelos was returned as Premier. But the entrance of the
Greeks did not materially alter the situation.

The two most important events of 1917 were the entrance
of America into the conflict and the revolt in Russia, which
caused the abdication of the Czar and turned the great country
into a republic. The ultimate in Russia's history is still to be
written, but the change was fraught with disaster. The people

THE ACTIONS OF THE WAR.

469

let free, and unaccustomed to self-government, could not be
controlled, and the army became demoralized.

The element which had been loyal to the Romanoffs re-
fused to fight for liberty, and the Germans, taking advantage
of the situation, drove the Russian troops back over the fron-
tiers and gained all that the Russians had once taken in conflict.
And out of this grew one of the most picturesque incidents of
the entire war. Russian women and girls, filled with ideals
and with a deep sense of the responsibilities which rested upon
the nation, formed a corps, and, dressed in full military cos-
tume, went to the front and attacked the German troops. No
soldiers of any nation have shown more heroism, or more capa-
bility, for the women faced the bullets, and, while they were
being mowed down by the German guns, they urged their men
to face the enemy and fight — fight — fight.

BRITISH NAVY AN EFFECTIVE ASSET.

While there have been few of the picturesque battles on
the seas, which the world has long regarded as a necessary
adjunct to a successful war, the work of the British Navy has
proved through the period of the conflict to be one of the most
powerful and effective assets of the Allied forces. Through
the operation of the British fleet, later augmented by an Ameri-
can war fleet, the German ships have been corked up in their
home ports and chased from the seas.

The first naval battle of the war was an engagement be-
tween portions of the British squadron in the Pacific and a
superior German force. The engagement occurred off the
coast of Chili in November, 1915. Two British vessels were
lost and a third badly damaged. However, a few months later,
the German squadron, in command of Admiral von Spee, was
met off the Falkland Islands by a second British squadron, and
in the engagement four of the German vessels were sunk and
a fifth damaged. This vessel was later sunk.

The most important naval engagement was the battle of

470

THE ACTIONS OF THE WAR.

Jutland in May, 1916, when Admiral Beatty met a German
fleet in the North Sea. The German boats made a dash from
the Kiel canal and engaged the British off the coast of Den-
mark. Both England and Germany claimed victory, the for-
mer declaring that Germany lost eighteen ships, while the
German Government claimed that the British lost fifteen ves-
sels. Berlin admitted a loss of 60,720 tons and 3966 men,
while England conceded a loss of more than 114,000 tons and
5613 men. But the English fleet which engaged the German
fighting ships was but a small portion of the force on guard
outside of Helgoland and the Kiel Canal, and the effect was
to keep the German navy from venturing forth again.

These are the main events which had punctuated the action
of the world's fighting machines at the close of August, 1917,
when America was preparing to thwart the German U-boats
in their destruction of the world's shipping, and had under
actual call to arms more than 1,000,000 men, a minor part of
which had been safely landed in France.

WORLD'S AWFUL MARITIME LOSS.

In the three months prior to August the German under-
seas boats had sunk 464 vessels, or an average of 426,000 tons
of shipping a month, while America, working with her fleets
in conjunction with the British Navy to foil the submarine
in its endeavors, was also building more than 12,000 cargo-
carrying craft and submarine chasers with which to flood the
traffic lanes of the sea.

Likewise, contracts had been awarded for 10,000 flying
machines with which to drive the "eyes of the German army,"
as the air machines are called, from the heavens. Finally, as
the Allies in the closing days of August were driving the Ger-
man hordes back under avalanches of shells, 629,000 of the
youth of America, called to fight under the conscript act, were
preparing to move to camps in a dozen different sections of the
country to train themselves for invading foreign countries and

THE ACTIONS OF THE WAR.

471

facing the brutal Teutons. Likewise, some 20,000 picked men
were training to officer these civilian forces, and half a million
men of the National Guards of the various States, formally
mustered into the service of the country, were moving by orders
of the Government to points whence they would find their way
to the side of the loyal French soldiers and the sturdy English,
Scotch, Canadian, Australian and virile Italian fighters.

The records of three years show that the American ambu-
lance drivers ; daring thousands of our countrymen who fought
with the French and English because they believed the war was
a just one, and without compulsion; scores of Red Cross nurses,
and aviators who hunted the Teutons in the air, all Americans,
have had their names written high in the roster of heroes.
Americans have always been pioneers and history makers, and
they are making history now.

With the approach of cold weather, and following months
of intensive training under the direction of French and English
soldiers, the American expeditionary forces began actual par-
ticipation in the great world war as a unit. Previously their
achievements were principally in connection with the French
aviation corps and ambulance sections. *

SINKING OF FIRST AMERICAN WAR BOAT.

The first untoward incident involving America's forces on
land or sea was the sinking of the transport Antilles on October
27, 1917, by a German submarine, when 67 men — officers, sea-
men and soldiers — were lost. The vessel was returning from a
French port after having landed troops and supplies. This
was the first loss sustained by the United States, and the event
brought home the seriousness of the country's participation in
the war as no previous event had done.

Almost immediately following this the world awoke one
inorning to learn that silently and unheralded the American
soldiers had marched from their quarters in a French village
to the "front" and in a slough of mud had entered the trenches,

472

THE ACTIONS OF THE WAR.

and for the first time in history United States troops launched
shells against the forces of Germany.

The initial shot was fired by artillerists at the break of day
on October 24, and America was formally made an active agent
in the horrors of warfare on "No Man's Land." Ten days
later the brave Americans, occupying a position in the trenches
for instruction, early on the morning of Saturday, November 3,
received their baptism of fire, and in the cause of Democracy 3
soldiers were killed, 5 wounded and 12 captured by the Boche
forces.

Cut off from the main line of the Allied forces, the Ameri-
cans were stormed under the protection of a heavy barrage fire
by a German raiding party and engaged in a desperate hand-
to-hand encounter. The 20 Americans, with several French
instructors, according to official report, were pitted against
210 picked Germans. A rain of shells from Boche guns was
laid back of the American section so that there was no retreat.
The lieutenant in command made a heroic attempt to reach
the main fighting line, but was caught in the barrage fire and
rendered unconscious from shell-shock.

Previously American scouts had captured a German pris-
oner— a mail runner; Lieutenant de Vere H. Harden, of the
Signal Corps had been wounded by a bursting German shell,
and a German gunner was reported killed by an American
sharpshooter, as opening incidents of the skirmish.

And so at the beginning of November, 1917, with the whole
United States giving support to the Government in subscribing
upwards of five billions of dollars to the second Liberty Loan,
and all forces working to conserve food, furnish men, ships,
ammunition, clothing and supplies to her own troops and to her
Allies, the world found America true to traditions, battling for
the right and giving her best that liberty might endure and the
burden of Prussianism be lifted from humanity.

CHAPTER XXVIIL

AMERICAN FORCES BECOME FACTOR.

United States Soldiers Inspired Allied Troops — Russian Government Col-
lapses— Italian Army Fails — Allied War Council Formed — Foch Com-
mands Allied Armies — Pershing Offers American Troops — Under Fire —
U-Boat Bases Raided by British.

THE influence exerted by the actual presence of the
American troops on the western front was soon appar-
ent. The spirits of the English, French and Canadian
troops were raised and the presence of the Americans was
heralded to the world as an evidence of complete unity on the
part of the Allies that meant ultimate death to Kaiserism.

The advent of Uncle Sam's fighting men on the firing
line had, however, one serious effect, viewed from the Allied
standpoint. Germany realized that every day she delayed in
making attack meant the strengthening of the Allied forces
by the arrival of additional United States troops, and it was
seen by the English and French leaders that the Kaiser would
make an early drive to annihilate, if possible, the stubbornly
resisting, though somewhat tired and weakened, lines opposing
his brutal soldiery. Not for months, therefore, was it per-
mitted the world to know anything about the numerical
strength of the American troops sent into France.

Simultaneously with the action of American troops in
entering the resisting line of Allied troops on the western
front the Austro-German troops had swept into the Italian
plains, capturing 100,000 prisoners and upward of 1,000 guns,
taking several towns and compelling the retreat of the Second
and Third Italian armies. The Italian forces were opposed
by four times their number, but it was also said that the unity
of the Italian forces was broken by the spreading of German
propaganda.

473

474 AMERICAN FORCES BECOME FACTOR.

The failure of some of the troops was shown in an official
dispatch from Rome, in which it was stated:

"The failure to resist on the part of some units forming
our second army, which in cowardice retired without fighting
or surrendered to the enemy, allowed the Austro-German
forces to break into our left wing on the Julian front. The
valiant efforts of other troops did not enable them to prevent
the enemy from advancing into the sacred soil of our father-
land. We now are withdrawing our line according to the plan
prepared. All stores and depots in the evacuated places were
destroyed."

ITALIAN HEADQUARTERS CAPTURED.

These troops were compelled to fall back along a front
almost 125 miles long and Undine, the Italian headquarters,
was captured. Germany had found the weakest spot in the
Italian line and occupied about 1,000 square miles of territory
before General Cadorna's forces were able to establish a line
of strong defense.

The retirement of the Italian troops was one of the most
picturesque in the history of the war, and Germany made her
gains at terrible cost.

The retirement was accompanied by shielding operations
of the rear guard, which poured a deadly fire into the advanc-
ing columns and at the same time destroyed powder depots,
arsenals and bridges with the double purpose of giving time
for the withdrawal of the Italian heavy guns and of preventing
military stores falling into the hands of the enemy.

The Germans encountered stubborn resistance on the
Bainsizza plateau, and heaps of enemy dead marked the lines
of their advance. Around Globo ridge a bersaglieri brigade,
outnumbered five to one, held back the enemy while the main
line had an opportunity to get its retreat in motion. In one
of the mountain passes a small village commanding the pass

AMERICAN FORCES BECOME FACTOR. 475

was taken and retaken eight times during desperate artillery,
infantry and hand-to-hand fighting.

Before the Italians were able to establish a line of resist-
ance they were compelled to fall back to the Piave, and at some
points to a much greater distance. Meantime the Allies rushed
assistance to the retiring forces, and while the collapse of
,Cadorna's line was unfortunate, it had the effect of making it
more obvious that there should be more unity of operation
between the Allied forces.

Russia's republic, under the leadership of Premier Keren-
sky, collapsing at the same moment, intensified the serious-
ness of the Allied situation, and largely at the suggestion of
America an Inter- Allied War Council was formed.

REVOLT IN PETROGARD.

Premier Kerensky called upon the United States to help
Russia bear the burdens of conflict until the forces could be
reorganized by the new government. Almost immediately there
was revolt in Petrograd, and the radicals under the leadership
of Leon Trotsky, president of the Executive Committee of the
Petrograd Council of Soldiers' and Workmen's Delegates,
seized the telegraph wires, the State bank and Marie Palace,
where the preliminary parliament had suspended proceedings
in view of the situation.

The Workmen's and Soldiers' Delegates assumed control
of the City of Petrograd and Kerensky was compelled to flee.
The Winter Palace was bombarded. A General Council of the
Soldiers' and Workmen's Delegates announced the taking over
of government authority:

"We plan to offer an immediate armistice of three months,
during which elected representatives from all nations and not
the diplomats are to settle the questions of peace," said Nikolai
Lenine, the Maximalist leader, in a speech before the Work-
men's and Soldiers' Congress today.

"We offer these terms," M. Lenine added, "but we are

476 AMERICAN FOECES BECOME FACTOR.

willing to consider any proposals for peace, no matter from
which side. We offer a just peace, but will not accept unjust
terms."

Meantime General Cadorna was relieved of command of
the Italian armies and General Diaz put at the head of the
Italian forces, while General Foch, chief of staff of the French
War Ministry, and General Wilson, sub-chief of the British
Staff, were made members of an Inter- Allied Military Com-
mittee serving with General Cadorna to straighten out the
Italian situation. This was the first step looking to the unify-
ing of the Allied forces which was brought about shortly there-
after by the formation of the Inter-Allied War Council at
Versailles. It was chiefly at the suggestion of President Wilson
that the War Council was called, the President issuing a stir-
ring appeal in which he pointed out the necessity of unity of
control, if the resources of the United States were to be of the
greatest value to the Allied interests.

SUPREME WAR COUNCIL.

The Supreme War Council, which was made a permanent
body, was composed of the Prime Minister and a member of
the Government of each of the Great Powers whose armies
were fighting at the front. Each Power delegated to the Su-
preme Council a permanent military representative whose func-
tion was to act as adviser to the Council. As the result of the
deliberations of the War Council, and following the suggestion
of General Pershing, General Foch was made Commander-in-
Chief of the Allied Armies. General Foch was Commander
of the French troops at Verdun and a recognized authority on
military strategy.

While the problem of solving the military phases of the
situation was being considered by the Allied War Council the
Russian forces under Kerensky and those under Trotzky,
known as the Bolsheviki, clashed again and again at Petrograd,
Moscow and other points, and the hope of the Allies as to any

AMERICAN FORCES BECOME FACTOR.

477

help from Russia sank, Germany entered into a peace compact
with Ukrainia, and the hand of the Kaiser was seen in the
Russian situation when officers of the German Army were
reported in Petrograd in conference with the representatives
of the various Russian factions. Russia suggested a separate
armistice, or a separate peace, against which both the IT. S. and
France protested.

The failure of the Russian Government to assume any
degree of stability made it possible for the Germans to with-
draw many troops and transfer them to the Italian and West-
ern Fronts.

One result of the Allied War Council deliberations was to
show the necessity of rapid action on the part of the United
States and get troops into France so that they might take over
a definite sector. While it was estimated that several hundred
thousand Americans were in France, the necessity for a larger
force was made apparent by the statement that 90 reserves are
required for every 400 fighters on the line.

DROPPED THEIR TOOLS FOR RIFLES.

The first bitter attack in which American troops figured
was when a company of United States engineers, caught be-
tween crossfires, dropped their tools for rifles and joined the
English troops in helping to repulse the Germans near
Cambrai.

A notable event in the progress of the war was the declara-
tion of war upon Austria by the U. S. on Dec. 8, 1917, Con-
gress adopting a resolution of war with but one dissenting vote.

Events which brought the seriousness of the war home
to America began at this point to occur rapidly. First the Tor-
pedo Boat Destroyer Jacob Jones was sunk in the war zone
when nearly 30 men were reported lost. This was followed
shortly by a report to the War Department that 17 Americans
caught in the crossfire by the Germans at Cambrai were missing
or killed. The report of the sinking of the Alcedo, a patrol

478 AMERICAN FORCES BECOME FACTOR.

boat, with the loss of several officers, was also received, as was
that of the sinking of the U. S. Destroyer "Chauncey" rammed
in a collision, when two officers and eighteen men were lost.

One of the high spots of the war and one of the notable
events in the history of the world, was the surrender of the City
of Jerusalem to the British on Saturday, December 8, 1917.
Gen. Allenby entered the famed city and established his troops
on the ancient Jerico Road.

The capture of Jerusalem by the British forces marked the
end, with two brief interludes, of more than 1200 years' posses-
sion of the seat of the Christian religion by the Mohammedans.
For 673 years the Holy City had been in disputed ownership of
the Turks, the last Christian ruler of Jerusalem being the Ger-
man Emperor, Frederick, whose short-lived domination lasted
from 1229 to 1244.

THE FALL OF JERUSALEM.

Apart from its connection with the campaign being waged
against Turkey by the British in Mesopotamia, the fall of
Jerusalem marked the definite collapse of the long-protracted
efforts of the Turks to capture the Suez Canal and invade
Egypt. Almost the first move made by Turkey after her
entrance into the war was a campaign against Egypt across the
great desert of the Sinai Peninsula. In November, 1914, a
Turkish armv, variously estimated at from 75,000 to 250,000
men, marched on the Suez Canal and succeeded in reaching
within striking distance of the great artificial waterway at sev-
eral points. For several months bitter fighting took place, the
canal being defended by an Anglo-Egyptian army aided by
Australians and New Zealanders and French and British
forces.

For the greater part of 1915 conflicting reports of the sit-
uation were received from the belligerents, but in December
of that year definite information showed that the Turks had
been driven back as far as El Arish, about eighty-five miles east

AMERICAN FORCES BECOME FACTOR.

479

of the canal. A lull occurred then which lasted for six months,
and in June, 1916, the Turks again advanced as far at Katieh,
about fifteen miles east of the canal. Here they were decisively
defeated, losing more than 3000 prisoners and a great quantity
of equipment.

Another period followed in which the situation was greatly
confused through the vagueness and contradictory character of
the official statements, but in December, 1916, the British
stormed El Arish and a few days later severely defeated the
Turks at Maghdabah, about sixty miles to the south on the
same front. Two weeks later the invaders had been driven out
of Egypt and the British forces crossed the border into Pales-
tine. On March 7 they captured El Khulil, southeast of Gaza.

By November 22 the British had pushed within five miles
of Jerusalem, on the northwest, and on December 7 General
Allenby announced that he had taken Hebron. Jerusalem thus
was virtually cut off on all sides but the east.

HISTORICAL INTEREST TO CHRISTIANS.

In sentimental and romantic aspect the capture of Jeru-
salem far exceeds even the fall of fable-crowned Bagdad. The
modern City of Jerusalem contains about 60,000 inhabitants,
and is the home of pestilence, filth and fevers, but in historic
interest it natually surpasses, to the Christian world, all other
places in the world. Since the days when David wrested it
from the hands of the Jebusites to make it the capital of the
Jewish race Jerusalem has been the prize and prey of half the
races of the world. It has passed successively into the hands
of the Assyrians, Babylonians, Greeks, Romans, Persians,
Arabs, Turks, the Crusaders, finally to fall before the descend-
ants of that Richard the Lion-hearted who strove in vain for
its possession more than 700 years ago.

Early in January, 1918, evidence was forthcoming that
Germany was preparing to make a final drive on the West-
ern Front to break through and capture some English and

4^ AMERICAN FORCES BECOME FACTOR.

French channel ports before America could be of any great
assistance to the Allied forces. As a result Great Britain deter-
mined to call 500,000 more men to hold the Huns, and Premier
Lloyd George issued a stirring appeal to Labor affected by
the Man-Power Bill, which provided for the increase taken
largely from the labor forces.

The German intent to launch an offensive was indicated
by the withdrawal of German lines north of Italy when im-
portant defensive positions were abandoned, and dummy sol-
diers were left in trench to conceal movement to the rear.
Warnings of a great submarine offensive on American boat-
lines to France, to be joined with a big drive on land, were re-
ceived by Secretary of War Baker, and on February 2, the
American troops occupying a sector of the Lorraine front in
France faced the first big bombardment in what was prelim-
inary to the most bitter drive Germany had attempted in four
years of warfare.

SINKING OF THE TUSCANIA.

True to their promise the German submarines started
their portion of the offensive and sunk the U. S. troopship
"Tuscania" a few days later off the coast of Ireland. The
liner carried 2,179 U. S. troops of various divisions besides a
crew of 200. TJie total number of persons lost was 113. The
troops included engineers, members of the aero-squadron, and
regulars.

The Tuscania was the first troopship to be sunk en route
to France, though the Antilles was sunk in October, 1917.
This boat, however, it must be noted, was returning from
France. At this time 70 lives were lost. The comparatively
small loss of life on the "Tuscania" was accepted as evidence
of the efficient training and bravery of American troops under
all conditions.

The Tuscania was torpedoed when entering what until
that time were considered comparatively safe waters. The

AMERICAN FORCES BECOME FACTOR. 481

ships were within sight of land, which was just distinguish-
able in the dusk of evening when the torpedo hit the Tuscania
amidships. This was at about 7 o'clock.

When the crash came the khaki-clad young heroes of the
American army lined up as though on parade, and sang the
"Star Spangled Banner" at the top of their voices as the
Tuscania sank by inches under them. Across from them
their British cousins of the crew came back with the echo-
ing "God Save the King," which too cool-headed exponents of
what occurred in a crisis of a sea disaster say accounts for

the fact the Germans took only a toll of 113 lives out of the
2,897 souls on board the Cunarder when she met her fate.

AMERICAN COURAGE PRAISED.

If the singing man is a fighting man, he also is hopeful,
and in the combination of fight and hope there came the baf-
fling of the German attempt to reduce the American war forces
by almost a full regiment. Taking stock after the disaster,
the officers of both the army and navy praised the courage of
the Americans as the chief reason for the saving of more than
90 per cent of the men on board.

No submarine was seen until the torpedo struck the Tus-
cania fairly amidships. A moment later another torpedo
passed astern of the vessel. There was a terrific explosion, and
it is believed most of the casualties were caused by this and by
subsequent difficulties in lowering the boats.

The vessel immediately took a heavy list and the men
were called to their lifeboat stations, but the list prevented the
boats from being properly lowered, some of the upper-deck
boats falling to the lower deck. Many of the men jumped
into the water, and the difficulty in lowering the boats was re-
sponsible for many casualties.

The survivors of the Tuscania landed at points in Ireland
were received with great honor in the various communities, and

482 AMERICAN FORCES BECOME FACTOR.

great tribute was paid to the surviving soldiers by the Mayor
of Dublin.

The American troops on the Tuscania were part of the
forces being hurried to France to hold the Germans in check,
and at the time American troops were holding a sector with
the French in Lorraine, northwest of Toul, while American
artillery were supporting the French in Champagne. The
date set for the big German drive was announced as January
28, and the fact that Germany made an open proclamation of
the fact that they proposed to wage offensive warfare was
somewhat puzzling to the minds of those studying the situa-
tion. Making her position more impregnable, Germany halted
her armies in Russia upon the acceptance of peace terms by
the Russian delegation at Brest-Litovsk, which were con-
cluded on March 1, 1918, and daily the activities of the German
forces on the Western Front grew in intensity. On March
6, in anticipation of the drive, it was for the first time publicly
stated that 81,000 troops of American soldiers were holding
an eight mile line on the Lorraine front, with three full divi-
sions in the trenches. The gathering together of this force
and other American troops in France drew Secretary of War
Baker to the scene of activities. He was the first American
Cabinet officer to cross the ocean after America entered
the war.

SEIZURE OF ALL DUTCH VESSELS.
Holland having proved herself unwilling to come to a
satisfactory agreement at this time on the British- American
demand regarding the use of ships, President Wilson ordered
the seizure of all Dutch vessels within the territorial juris-
diction of the United States ; the Allies ordered a similar seiz-
ure abroad. The President's proclamation authorized the navy
to take over the vessels to be equipped and operated by the
Navy Department and the Shipping Board. A total of 77
ships were added to the American Merchant Marine.

AMERICAN FORCES BECOME FACTOR.

483

Holland's failure to act was on the propositions that the
United States and the Allies should facilitate the importation
into Holland of foodstuffs, and other commodities required to
maintain her economic life, and that Holland should restore
her Merchant Marine to a normal condition of activity.

On March 21 the greatest German offensive of the war
actually began on a front 50 miles long, running west and
southwest of Cambrai. The preliminary German bombard-
ment covered a front from the River Serre below St. Quentin,
and the River Scarpe east of Arras.

FIERCEST BATTLE IN WORLDS HISTORY.

Field Marshal Haig's report from British headquarters
in France described the German offensive as comprising an
intense bombardment by the artillery and a powerful infantry
attack on a front of more than fifty miles. Some of the British
positions were penetrated, but the German losses were excep-
tionally heavy.

It was reported at the end of the first day that the fiercest
battle of the world's history was in progress, and that 80,000
Germans were lost in battle ; while Berlin reported the capture
of 16,000 Allied prisoners and 200 guns.

The Associated Press correspondent reported that at least
forty divisions of German soldiers were identified as actively
participating in the attack. No such concentration of artillery
had been seen since the war began. The enemy had 1?000
guns in one small sector — one for every twelve yards. The
Germans in many sections attacked in three waves of infantry,
followed up by shock troops. As a result they suffered very
heavy casualties.

The German massed artillery was badly hammered by the
British guns.

In the first stage of their offensive the Germans failed
badly in the execution of their program, as was attested by

484

AMERICAN FORCES BECOME FACTOR.

captured documents showing what they planned to do in the
early hours of their offensive.

By March 24 the attacks of the Germans had been re-
doubled, and it was estimated that more than 1,000,000 Huns
had been thrown into the struggle against the British forces
on which the attack was concentrated.

The most notable feature of the attack from the spectacu-
lar viewpoint was the bombardment of Paris by monster Ger-
man cannon, located in the forest of St. Gobain, west of Laon,
and approximately 76 miles away from Paris.

BIG GUN ONE HUNDRED FEET LONG.

Though no official description of the big gun was ever
given, it was stated by military authorities that it was approxi-
mately 100 feet in length, and that several were in use, and
more being built by the Germans. At first the statement that
a gun could shoot such a distance was doubted, but when 75
persons were killed in Paris and one of the shells hit a church
doubt no longer existed. It also developed that the gun was
originally an American invention, and that similar weapons
Were being built by the United States.

The use of the big gun was in the nature of a "side-issue"
to bring terror to the French, and in line with the policy of
frightfulness instituted by the German militarists. Its use
was continued daily. Meantime the German hordes swept on
marching in close formation into the very mouths of the rapid-
fire guns and against the strongly fixed British lines.

For ten days the hostilities continued, without cessation,
with fighting along a whole front such as had never been known
before.

The Germans continued to hurl great forces of infantry
into the conflict, depending largely on weight of numbers to
overcome the increasing opposition offered by the heroically
resisting British.

The battle on the historic ground about Longueval was

AMERICAN FORCES BECOME FACTOR.

485

perhaps the most spectacular of any along the front. It was
a battle of machine gunners and infantry. The Germans were
pursuing their tactics of working forward in massed formation,
and the British rapid-firers' squads and riflemen reaped a horrid
harvest from their positions on the high ground. Notwith-
standing their terrible losses, the Germans kept coming on, fill-
ing in the places of those who had fallen and pressing their at-
tack. The British artillery in the meantime poured in a perfect
rain of shells on the enemy, carrying havoc into their ranks.
In this section the Germans operated without the full support
of their guns, because of their rapid advance.

ENEMY LOSES HEAVILY.
A fierce engagement was also waged about Le Verguier,
which the Germans captured, but not until the British infan-
try holding the place had fought to the last man and inflicted
extremely heavy losses on the enemy. The British again fell
back, this time to a line through Hervilly, just east of Roisel
and Vermand.

The work of the British airmen during the battle was one
of the brightest pages. Bitter battles in the air were fought
by scores of aviators and the service proved fully its ability to
smother the German airmen at a crucial time.

Within a few days it was stated that at least 130 German
airplanes were brought down. This compilation of losses has
reference to only one section of the battle front, comprising
perhaps two-thirds of the line affected.

An official statement regarding British aerial operations
said their airplanes were employed in bombing the enemy's
troops and transport massed in the areas behind the battle-
front, and in attacking them with machine-gun fire from low
heights. Twenty-two tons of bombs were dropped in this
work, and more than 100,000 rounds were fired from the ma-
chine guns.

By March 28 the German losses were estimated at 400,000.

486 AMERICAN FORCES BECOME FACTOR.

The forces of the Germans were almost overwhelming, the
Kaiser sacrificing the man-power of his nation in a last desper-
ate attack.

In consequence no greater stories of heroism have ever
been told than are related of the English, French and American
troops. The Germans were set for a drive against the English
and French channel points with Amiens as an objective, with
the idea of breaking through the British lines where they join
the French.

AMERICAN FORCES OFFERED TO FRANCE.

The earnestness of the Americans in the situation was
proclaimed to the world by the English and French, and Gen-
eral Pershing placed his name and that of his country and men
high on the wall of fame by unselfishly offering to France at
the most critical period the use of his entire force, to be disposed
of and assigned wherever General Foch and his staff decided to
use them. Within a few days thereafter the American troops
which had been in training were marched in to relieve the
stressed English and French.

Everywhere the raging battle was marked by spectacular
features not the least of which were provided by a corps of
thirty tanks, which waded into the German hordes near Ephey
and other points, recovering positions which had been lost by
the British.

Canadian armored motorcars also played an important
part in checking the Huns, the cars armed with rapid-fire guns
being rushed up to support weakening troops.

The progress of the Germans was halted on April 3, and
in the following days the British regained several lost positions
and the French made gains. But after a pause, during which
several hundred thousand new troops were brought in, the
Huns renewed the offensive, delivering an attack against the
French near Montdidier on a front about 15 miles long. An

AMERICAN FORCES BECOME FACTOR. 487

attack along a front of similar length was made against the
British on the Somme.

The first battalion of American troops answering to the
call of the French for support reached the British front-line in
France, on April 10, on the very anniversary of the entrance
of the United States into the war, and within a few days the
Americans began to bear the brunt of battle, holding the Ger-
mans like veterans.

The first big attack of the Germans launched directly
against an American line occurred on April 30, in the vicinity
of Villers-Bretonneaux, below the Somme, where the Huns
were repulsed with heavy losses. The German preliminary
bombardment lasted two hours and then the infantry rushed
forward, only to be driven back, leaving large numbers of dead
on the ground in front of the American lines.

AMERICANS BOMBARDED.

The German bombardment opened at 5 o'clock in the af-
ternoon and was directed especially against the Americans, who
were supported on the north and south by the French. The
fire was intense and at the end of two hours the German com-
mander sent forward three battalions of infantry. There was
hand-to-hand fighting all along the line, as a result of which
the enemy was thrust back, his dead and wounded lying on the
ground in all directions. Five prisoners remained in Ameri-
can hands.

"Tell them back home that we are just beginning," said
an American lad who was in the thick of the fight and severely
wounded with shrapnel. "It was fine to see our men go at the
Huns. All of us, who thought baseball was the great American
game, have changed our minds. There is only one game to keep
the American flag flying — that is, kill the Huns. I got sev-
eral before they got me."

Details of the engagement show the Americans stuck to
their guns while the Germans were placing liquid fire, gas and

488 AMERICAN FOKCES BECOME FACTOR.

almost every other conceivable device of frightfulness on them.
One of them, who lay wounded in an American hospital, had
kept his machine gun going after the chief gunners had been
killed two feet away and he himself had been wounded, thus
protecting a turn in the road known as Dead Man's curve, over
which some of the American couriers passed in the face of a con-
centrated enemy fire.

As indicating the violence of the offensive, French ambu-
lance men who went through the famous battle of Verdun
declared today that, comparatively speaking, the German artil-
lery fire against the Americans was heavier than in any single
engagement on the Verdun front at any time.

The German barrage began just before sunrise. In an
attempt to put the American batteries out of action the Ger-
mans used an unusually large number of gas shells, but the
American artillery replied vigorously, hurling hundreds of
shells across the Teuton lines. Though successful in resisting
the German attack, the Americans lost 183 men captured by
the Huns, according to the British report.

Nothing in the history of naval warfare is more pictur-
esque than the story of the raid made by English ships on the
German submarine bases at Ostend and Zeebrugge, on the
Belgian coast, on April 22. Obsolete cruisers filled with con-
crete were run aground and blown up in the harbors. An old
submarine filled with explosives was used to blow up the piling
beside the Mole at Zeebrugge.

One German destroyer was torpedoed, and the British
lost a destroyer, two coastal motorboats and two launches.

A fortnight later the old cruiser Vindictive was taken into
the submarine base at Ostend and sent to the bottom, blocking
the channel, making the attack thoroughly effective.

CHAPTER XXIX.

AMERICANS TURN WAR'S TIDE

Brilliant American Fighting Stops Hun Advance — French and British Inspired
— Famous Marines Lead in Picturesque Attack — Halt Germans at
Chateau-Thierry — Used Open Style Fighting — Thousands of Germans
Slain — United States Troops in Siberia — New Conscription Bill Passed —
Allied Successes on All Fronts.

ALL history contains no greater story of bravery and
heroism than that which echoed around the world con-
cerning the exploits of the American soldiers in France
as the war entered its fifth year.

Casting aside all precedent, ignoring the practices which
had been developed by the English, French and German com-
mands during four years of stubborn fighting, a little force of
Americans — barely a handful, led by the picturesque Marines
4 — brought the Huns to a standstill in their drive upon Paris
and turned the tide of war.

Once again history repeated itself, for the Germans were
turned back at the beautiful river Marne, where the brave
Americans and heroic French smashed their lines. The spec-
tacular event in which the Americans participated was a mere
incident of the great conflict raging across France, but the
story must ever be one of the outstanding features of the war
because of the effect it produced upon the whole situation.

In the struggle against the Huns the Belgian army had
been reduced to its lowest ebb; the manpower of France and
England had been sapped by constant call for reserves, and
the Allied forces, while resisting and fighting heroically, were
without reserves to draw upon to effect a decisive blow when
the opportunity presented.

The German hordes had swept forward with hammer-
like blows toward Paris in what was a continuation of the giant
offensive started in March. The second movement was

4*9

490

AMERICANS TURN WAR'S TIDE

launched under the personal command of the German Crown
Prince on May 27, and was directed against four divisions of
the British troops and the Sixth French Army. Concentra-
tion was on a front stretching from Soissons to Rheims, a dis-
tance of about 30 miles.

The Huns were driving on the entire front, but the Crown
Prince with crack troops was to have the honor for which he
had long been striving— that of crossing the famous Marne
and taking Paris. His troops had reached the river between
Dormans and Chateau-Thierry at the very spot where the
Third German Army had swept across the stream on August
25, 1914. Paris was less than 50 miles away.

Here and there at other points the Germans had been held
by the French and English, but as part of the strategy of the
French command the enemy had been permitted to advance at
this point through lines which would cost him a terrible toll of
lives. The French meantime were concentrating on the
enemy's flank with the hope of breaking through and pocketing
part of the Crown Prince's advancing forces.

Whatever the intent, the; Germans were resisting the ef-
forts to, stop them. The question was, where would the ad-
vance end? The answer was furnished by America.

The enemy had attempted to broaden his Marne salient
and had stretched as far south as Chateau- Thierry. It is sup-
posed his purpose was to compel General Foch tQ meet shock
with shock by throwing in his reserve forces, since the German
advance had then almost reached shelling distance of Paris.

But the German command had not taken the Americans
into their calculations, for here the Prussians met Uncle Sam's
fighting men and their French supports and were smashed and
thrown back.

Fighting in their own way, in the open, against superior
forces, the Marines and troops of the National American Army
fought their way to victory, routing the enemy and wresting

AMERICANS TURN WAR'S TIDE

491

from them positions absolutely necessary to their further
advance.

Immense forces of Germans had been thrown into the
fray when the American division, to which the Marines were
attached, was ordered into the breach. The bulk of the forces,
called to help halt the Huns, were hours away from the
righting front and were being brought up for the purpose of
holding a secondary position where they would take up the
fighting when the French fell back.

They had captured Cantigny after elaborate preparations
under the direction of the French, but here there were no
preparations. The American commanders wanted to attack
the advancing enemy. The Allied leaders doubted the ability
of the Americans to stop the Boche in open combat.

The American commanders pleaded to make war in their
own way. Doubting, yet hopeful, the Allied commanders gave
consent. The Americans were moved into position. There
was no time for rest and they came forward under forced draft,
so to speak. Infantry, machine gun companies and artillery
swung into position and faced the enemy which aimed a blow
at the line where it was supported by the French on the left.

The Boche hordes swarmed across fields. The American
gunners raked them with hell's fire. The reputation of the
Americans as sharpshooters and marksmen was sustained.
Under the most stressful circumstances and while the French
observers stood amazed, the Americans took careful aim and
shot as though at rifle practice. Every possible shot was made
to tell.

The Germans wavered, then halted under the withering
fire of machine guns and rifle. On again they came, only to
again be repulsed. The ground was strewn with their dead and
wounded. Then they began to break and to crawl back to
safer positions.

The enemy had been stopped but not driven. They had

492

AMERICANS TURN WAR'S TIDE

fallen back to strong positions, the names of which must go
down in history as scenes of terrific fighting — Bouresches and
Bois de Belleau — the latter a wooded, rocky parcel of land on
which German machine guns were hidden — hundreds of them
i — while more than a thousand of the enemy's best men were
concealed in the thicket and underbrush and in the rocky
fissures.

The Americans drove into the wood and charged the
stronghold. Sacrifice! Yes, hundreds of brave young Ameri-
cans died fighting, but not in vain. American artillery swept
the woods ; little companies of men charged the enemy machine-
gun nests, silencing the guns and killing the operators or tak-
ing them prisoners. There was no going forward in mass
formation under barrage or protecting curtain of fire, but out
in the open the Marines and infantrymen rushed on facing
terrific fire.

Bois de Belleau was cleared of the Boche. Bouresches fell
to the Americans. The capture of the town was a repetition
of the taking of the first position. Machine guns protected
the town everywhere. In cellar windows, doorways and on
roofs the Germans had set up their weapons. But it was the
old story — no hail of shot could stop the Americans. Almost
without sleep, unable to bring up supplies, the Americans
had fought four days with, only canned foodstuffs to sustain
them.

Stories of the fights are reminiscent of those in which
American troops engaged the Indians qn the plains in the
frontier days. Indeed American Indians — children of the
famous old Sioux and Chippewa tribes of Eed Men — acted
as scouts for Uncle Sam in many of his troops' activities in
France, and the methods of the old Indian fighters proved
too much for the Germans.

It is estimated that 7000 were kitted or wounded by the
Americans in this action, and that their prisoners numbered
more than 1000. How privates took command of squads and

AMERICANS TURN WAR'S TIDE

493.

continued to outbattle the enemy when officers were killed ; how
lone Americans or small groups of them captured squads of
Huns or annihilated them, are common stories of heroism writ-
ten into the official war records' of the American Expeditionary
Forces in France, and sealed by medals of honor presented to
young Americans or confirmed by official words of commenda-
tion.

Let the words of General Pershing in an official order to
his troops on August 27, stand as part of the record:

"It fills me with pride to record in General Orders a
tribute to the service achievements of the First and Third
Corps, comprising the First, Second, Third, Fourth, Twenty-
sixth, Twenty-eighth, Thirty-second and Forty-second Divis-
ions of the American Expeditionary Forces.

"You came to the battlefield at a crucial hour for the
Allied cause. For almost four years the most formidable army
the world has yet seen had pressed its invasion of France and
stood threatening its capital. At no time has that army been
more powerful and menacing than when, on July 15, it struck
again to destroy in one great battle the brave men opposed to
it and to enforce its brutal will upon the world and civilization.

"Three days later, in conjunction with our Allies, you coun-
ter-attacked. The Allied armies gained a brilliant victory that
marks the turning point of the war. You did more than to
give the Allies the support to which as a nation our faith was
pledged.

"You proved that our altruism, our pacific spirit and our
sense of justice have not blunted our virility or our courage.

"You have shown that American initiative and energy are
as fit for the tasks of war as for the pursuits of peace. You
have justly won unstinted praise from our Allies and the
eternal gratitude of our countrymen.

"We have paid for successes with the lives of many of our
Brave comrades. We shall cherish their memory always and

494

AMERICANS TURN WAR'S TIDE

claim for our history and literature their bravery, achievement
and sacrifice.

"This order will be read to all organizations at the first
assembly formations following its receipt."

Aside from being largely responsible for stopping the
Huns once again at the Marne, the exploits of the Americans
filled the French and English with confidence, aroused their
spirits and gave them renewed hope. Incidentally their efforts
and methods made apparent the value of surprise attacks and
quick blows in dealing with the stolid Huns.

The Allied commanders, quick to take advantage of the
situation, gave the enemy no chance to consolidate their posi-
tions. The unified forces of Allies attacked with renewed
energy all along the line, and the Huns were forced back with
a sweep that astonished the world.

By September 1, the Germans had lost practically all that
they had gained in their drive from March 21, and in many
places they had been driven back across the famous Hinden-
burg line, the furthest point of retreat of the Germans in 1914,
when they were forced back by General Joffre from the Marne,
and dug themselves into pit and trench. Dozens of towns were
taken and more than 120,000 prisoners were bagged.

Almost as spectacular in its effect on the minds of the
French and English, as was the demonstration of American
fighting, was the work accomplished in France in providing
for the transportation and care of the incoming troops. Here
great docks, storage plants, training camps, aviation schools,
motor assembling plants, base hospitals and reclamation es-
tablishments and railroads, built in less than a year and still
growing, represented an investment of $35,000,000 on the
part of the United States Government in August, 1918.

Early in May the number of Americans in France was
about 500,000. That this number should have been sent across
the ocean within the space of one year after America entered

AMERICANS TURN WAR'S TIDE

495

the war was regarded as a distinct achievement, but by Sep-
tember it was officially announced that the number had in-
creased to 1,500,000.

Some of these were sent to the Italian front to help in
the drive against the Austrians, and about 15,000 troops from
the Philippines were sent by the United States into Siberia to
give moral support to the Czecho-Slovaks.

The decision to send troops to Siberia was by agreement
with the Japanese, and followed a statement issued by the
United States on August 4, in which it was stated that "mili-
tary action was admissable in Russia only to render such pro-
tection and help as possible to the Czecho-Slovaks against
armed Austrian and German prisoners who were attacking
them, and to steady any efforts at self-government or self-
defense in which the Russians themselves may be willing to
accept assistance." It was stated that the troops were for
guard duty, and under the agreement with Japan, the only
other country in a position to act in Siberia, each nation sent
a small force to Vladivostok.

The British, French and United States Governments gave
recognition to the Czecho-Slovaks as an Allied nation — a
geographical, political and military entity— with three armies,
one in Siberia, one in Italy and one in France, where they had
been fighting with the Allies to crush the Huns. The territory
which the Czecho-Slovaks claim as their own to govern inde-
pendently comprises Bohemia, Moravia, Silesia and Slavonika,
which lie between and are part of Austria-Hungary and
Germany.

With the facilities for handling the troops abroad thor-
oughly organized and the obvious necessity for furnishing
greater manpower to bring about an early defeat of Germany,
the United States decided to increase the scope of its conscrip-
tion and to raise an army of 3,000,000 for immediate service
and adopted a new manpower bill which was passed by Con-

AMERICANS TURN WAR'S TIDE

gress the last week in August and signed by President Wilson
on August 30.

The measure provided for the registration and drafting
of all male citizens between the ages of 18 and 45 years, allow-
ing for deferred classification of those engaged in essential
work or having obligations which made it impossible for them
to render active military service.

Not only the Allied successes on the western front, but
also those on the Italian front and in the Balkans, where the
French, Italians and Greeks in Albania, with a million troops,
advanced against the Germans, Austrians and Turks, made
apparent the necessity for further concentration of manpower.

While losing ground on the western front and rapidly
being forced to the wall, Germany gave another spectacular
twist to her military program by carrying the war to America's
doors. With her submarines she sank nearly two score of ships,
schooners, barges, tugs, and even a lightship, within a few
miles of New York, Boston, Norfolk, Charleston and the Del-
aware Capes.

But while the U-boats were harassing, no effective as-
saults were made against the ships which carried American
troops abroad. In this connection it should never be forgotten
in the glamour of war that while America performed wonders
in getting her soldiers overseas, England provided most of the
ships, and that it was England's Navy which kept the German
Navy in check while America's war vessels and destroyers con-
voyed the troopships and protected them from the submarines.

CHAPTER XXX.

Victory — Peace.

The German Empire Collapses — Foch's Strategy Wins — American Inspiration
a Big Factor — Bulgaria, Turkey and Austria Quit War — Monarchs Fall-
Kaiser Abdicates and Flees Germany — Armistice Signed — November 11,
Peace.

Victory ! Peace !

With a crash that echoed around the world the
autocratic governmental structure builded by the Kaiser
and his forebears gave way and came tumbling to the earth
in ruins on Monday, November 11, 1918.

The most momentous event in ages had come to pass
and victory was perched upon the banner of democracy.

Out of the sacrifice of millions of lives, the desolation
of homes and countries, the expenditure of untold energy
and incomprehensible billions of dollars in money, there
came everlasting, glorious peace.

The great German Empire lay a wreck, given into the
hands of the people for remaking, and the arrogant Em-
peror William Hohenzollern had fled into Holland, and
his example was imitated by the Crown Prince.

The end came swiftly and with dramatic action.
Beaten back by the Allied forces, which gathered strength
and inspiration from the irresistible American troops, the
German army weakened all along the line from Holland
to the Swiss border. The press of power exerted against
the German strongholds on every side was felt within the
domains and produced internal strife and dissension which
undermined and weakened the military organization.
Taking full advantage of this situation, the Allied forces
on every side quickened and intensified their blows.

HEN came the fall of autocracy—

THE COMING OF THE END.

497

498

VICTORY— PEACE.

The brilliant strategy of Marshal Foch, generalissimo
of the Allied armies, brought defeat to the Germans in less
than four months. After bringing to an end the German
advance of March 21 to July 18 with the second battle of
the Marne, he compelled a hurried retirement to the Hin-
denburg line with the evacuation of practically all the ter-
ritory conquered by the Huns.

Finally, in what may be termed the last phase of the
war, he absolutely demoralized the German forces. The
thrust in this phase was started by the Anglo-Belgian
forces in Flanders and the Franco-American armies in
Lorraine on September 26.

The British also made a gigantic and brilliant drive
between Cambrai and St. Quentin. The whole colossal
defense system of the Germans was shattered and in less
than three months more than 100,000 German prisoners and
5,000 guns were taken and 8,000 square miles of French and
Belgian territory liberated.

VICTORIES ON OTHER FRONTS.

Not only was there great victory on the west, but in
Syria the British army broke the power of Turkey and
liberated Syria, Mesopotamia and Arabia. In Macedonia,
too, an army made up of soldiers of many nations under a
French command compelled the surrender of Bulgaria and
her withdrawal, and swept the last vestige of German con-
trol from the Balkans.

On the Austrian front likewise the Italian army,
strengthened and heartened by the presence of Ameri-
can and Allied forces, swept the Austrians before them in
one of the most picturesque offensives of the war, capturing
more than 300,000 prisoners and great quantities of guns
and supplies.

VICTORY — PEACE.

499

This in brief is the way the German command was
driven to a point of seeking peace to prevent the invasion
of their territory.

The brilliant assaults of the various units and com-
mands of the Allies at points along the entire 200 miles of
western front will go down in history a wonderful military
achievement.

AMERICAN VICTORIES ON THE EAST FRONT.

One of the wonderful attacks was that of the American
First Army under General Pershing, when St. Mihiel
salient was annihilated. This salient for four years resisted
all efforts to penetrate it and stood a guardian to great iron
fields running through the Basin de Briey to the Belgian-
Luxemburg frontier. It formed a strong outpost to the
fortified city of Metz, with its twenty-eight forts, and made
impossible the invasion of German Lorraine from the west.

The offensive of General Pershing was one of the most
carefully planned of the war. More than 1,000 tanks were
operated to open the way for the infantry and cavalry. A
greater force of airplanes than were ever concentrated in
a single attack menaced the Germans overhead and in a
week the Americans encompassed a territory of 200 square
miles and threatened the mining center and the forts of
Metz, capturing 20,000 prisoners and hundreds of guns and
great quantities of ammunition. Moreover, the Verdun-
Nancy railway was released.

Support was brought to the Germans and they stub-
bornly resisted, but many points were gained and held by
the Americans.

AMERICAN VICTORIES ALONG THE MEUSE-AISNE

RIVERS.

Another corps of the First American Army, in com-
mand of General Hunter Liggett, also made a brilliant

500

VICTORY— PEACE.

attack between the Meuse and Aisne rivers east of Eheims
on a front twenty miles long, where the crack Prussian
Guards were routed. Here in one of the most bitterly con-
tested battles of the closing days the Americans made an
important advance, capturing half a dozen villages.

As at Chateau-Thierry, the Americans in the face of
withering fire and against all the instruments of modern
warfare handled by the best soldiers in Germany, fought
their way through with a bravery that won for them the
praises of the highest commands in the French and British
armies, as well as from General Pershing.

At the very close of the struggle the Americans arose
to the heights of sublime heroism in crossing the river
Meuse, capturing the town of Dun and later the town of
Sedan, famous as one of the scenes of bitter fighting in the
Pranco-Prussian War.

GREAT VICTORY AT SEDAN.

The Americans forced their way across a 160-foot
river, a stretch of mud flats and a 60-foot canal in the face
of terrible fire. Men who could swim breasted the stream
carrying ropes, wdiich were stretched from bank to bank
and along which those who could not swim made their way
over the river. Some crossed in collapsible boats, others
on rafts and finally on pontoon and foot bridges, which
were constructed under the enemy fire.

This difficult feat accomplished, the men waded
through mud to the canal, fighting as they went, and again
plunged into the water, swimming the canal, at the far side
of which they were compelled to use grappling hooks and
scaling irons to mount the perpendicular banks of the
canal, along which were the resisting Germans. And
finally, when the German Empire fell, famed Sedan was m

VICTORY— PEACE.

501

the bands of tHe Americans. With the last forward move-
ment they took possession of Stenay when hostilities ceased.

The part the American soldiers played in winning the
war, merely as a matter of increased man power, is indi-
cated by the fact that when the end came there were
2,900,000 men in the forces abroad.

COLLAPSE OF THE TEUTONIC ALLIES.

The failure of the German submarine warfare and the
ability of the British, French and American naval forces
to protect troop ships and permit the landing of as high as
200,000 soldiers in France in a single month, had much to
do with discouraging the German command.

The withdrawal of Bulgaria on September 27 and her
unconditional surrender to the Allies was a distinct blow
to Germany. The abdication of King Ferdinand in favor
of Crown Prince Boris was shortly followed by the sur-
render and withdrawal of Turkey, which further weakened
Germany's position, and peace offers were made by both
Austria and by Germany.

Austria sought a separate peace, but Germany, seeing
the handwriting on the wall, asked for an armistice through
Prince Maximilian of Baden, who had succeeded Count
Von Hertling as Chancellor. But while agreeing to accept
as a basis of peace the points established by President
Wilson as necessary to an agreement, Germany's military
forces continued their ruthless and barbaric warfare.

President Wilson submitted a set of questions to the
German Government to ascertain the sincerity and pur-
pose of the request and finally brought the matter to an
issue by declaring that nothing short of a complete sur-
render would suffice and that further negotiations must be
taken up with the Allied command.

Meantime King Beris of Bulgaria abdicated and the

502

VICTORY— PEACE.

Government was taken over by the people. This was f ol-
lowed by the surrender of Austria on November 8 and the
abdication of the Emperor Charles.

THE END.

Austria in her surrender agreed to the immediate sus-
pension of hostilities, the demobilization of the army of
Austro-Hungary and the withdrawal of all forces from the
North Sea to Switzerland, the evacuation of all territories
invaded, the evacuation of all German troops from Austro-
Hungarian territory and the Italian and Balkan fronts, as
well as the surrender of fifteen submarines and all German
submarines in Austro-Hungarian territorial waters, to-
gether with thirty-four warships, and also the repatriation
of all prisoners of war.

With her forces demoralized and Bulgaria, Turkey
and Austria out of the war and her power broken in Russia,
Germany was driven to the necessity of accepting terms
submitted by the Allies as the basis of peace as outlined by
President Wilson.

SUMMARY.

Thus came peace after fifty -two continuous months of
fighting, in which it is estimated that nearly 10,000,000
were killed and that there were about 27,000,000 casualties,
while $200,000,000 were expended by the combined
nations.

America's casualties were 236,117, divided as follows:
Killed and died of wounds, 36,154 ; died of disease, 14,811 ;
died from unassigned causes, 2,204; wounded, 179,625;
missing, 1,160, and prisoners, 2,163.

England by contrast had 658,665 killed, 2,032,122
wounded and 359,145 missing and prisoners during the four
years, while Italy had about 1,600,000 casualties; France,
3,500,000; Belgium, 400,000; Rumania, 200,000, and Rus-

VICTORY— PEACE.

503

sia, 6,000,000. All told, twenty-eight nations, with a total
population of approximately 1,600,000,000, or nearly
eleven-twelfths of the human race, were involved in the
world struggle at the close.

TERMS OF THE ARMISTICE ACCEPTED BY GERMANY.

I. Military Clauses on Western Front:

One — Cessation of operations by land and in the air six hours after the signa-
ture of the armistice.

Two — Immediate evacuation of invaded countries: Belgium, France, Alsace-
Lorraine, Luxemburg, so ordered as to be completed within fourteen days from
the signature of the armistice. German troops which have not left the above-
mentioned territories within the period fixed will become prisoners of war. Occu-
pation by the Allied and United States forces jointly will keep pace with evacuation
in these areas. All movements of evacuation and occupation will be regulated in
accordance with a note annexed to the stated terms.

Three — Repatriation beginning at once and to be completed within fourteen
days of all inhabitants of the countries above mentioned, including hostages and
persons under trial or convicted.

Four — Surrender in good condition by the German armies of the following
equipment: Five thousand guns (two thousand five hundred heavy, two thousand
five hundred field) thirty thousand machine guns. Three thousand minenwerfers.
Two thousand airplanes (fighters, bombers — firstly D. Seventy-three's and night
bombing machines). The above to be delivered in situ to the allies and the United
States troops in accordance with the detailed conditions laid down in the annexed
note.

Five — Evacuation by the German armies of the countries on the left bank
of the Rhine. These countries on the left bank of the Rhine shall be administered
by the local authorities under the control of the Allied and United States armies
of occupation. The occupation of these territories will be determined by Allied
and United States garrisons holding the principal crossings of the Rhine, Mayence,
Coblenz, Cologne, together with bridgeheads at these points in thirty kilometre
radius on the right bank and by garrisons similarly holding the strategic points
of the regions.

A neutral zone shall be reserved on the right of the Rhine between the
stream and a line drawn parallel to it forty kilometres (twenty-six miles) to the
east from the frontier of Holland to the parallel of Gernsheim and as far as prac-
ticable a distance of thirty kilometres (twenty miles) from the east of stream from
this parallel upon Swiss frontier. Evacuation by the enemy of the Rhine lands
shall be so ordered as to be completed within a further period of eleven days,
in all nineteen days after the signature of the armistice. All movements of
evacuation and occupation will be regulated according to the note annexed.

Six — In all territory evacuated by the enemy there shall be no evacuation
of inhabitants; no damage or harm shall be done to the persons or property of
the inhabitants. No destruction of any kind to be committed. Military establish-

504

VICTORY— PEACE.

ments of all kinds shall be delivered intact as weil as military stores of food,
munitions, equipment not removed during the periods fixed for evacuation. Stores
of food of all kinds for the civil population, cattle, etc., shall be left in situ. Indus-
trial establishments shall not be impaired in any way and their personnel shall
not be moved. Roads and means of communication of every kind, railroad, waterways,
main roads, bridges, telegraphs, telephones, shall be in no manner impaired.

Seven — All civil and military personnel at present employed on them shall
remain. Five thousand locomotives, fifty thousand wagons and ten thousand motor
lorries in good working order with all necessary spare parts and fittings shall be
delivered to the associated powers within the period fixed for the evacuation of
Belgium and Luxemburg. The railways of Alsace-Lorraine shall be handed over
within the same period, together with all pre-war personnel and material. Further
material necessary for the working of railways in the country on the left bank of
the Rhine shall be left in situ. All stores of coal and material for the upkeep of
permanent ways, signals and repair shops left entire in situ and kept in an effi-
cient state by Germany during frhe whole period of armistice. All barges taken
from the Allies shall be restored to them. A note appended regulates the details
of these measures.

Eight — The German command shall be responsible for revealing all mines
or other acting fuses disposed on territory evacuated by the German troops and
shall assist in their discovery and destruction. The German command shall also
reveal all destructive measures that may have been taken (such as poisoning or
polluting of springs, wells, etc.) under penalty of reprisals.

Nine — The right of requisition shall be exercised by the Allied and the United
States armies in all occupied territory. The upkeep of the troops of occupation in
the Rhine land (excluding Alsace-Lorraine), shall be charged to the German Govern-
ment.

Ten — An immediate repatriation without reciprocity according to detailed
conditions which shall be fixed, of all Allied and United States prisoners of war.
The Allied powers and the United States shall be able to dispose of these prisoners
as they wish.

Eleven — Sick and wounded, who can not be removed from evacuated terri-
tory will be cared for by German personnel who will be left on the spot with
the medical material required.

II. Disposition Relative to the Eastern Frontiers of Germany:

Twelve — All German troops at present in any territory which before the
war belonged to Russia, Rumania or Turkey shall withdraw within the frontiers
of Germany as they existed on August 1, 1914.

Thirteen — Evacuation by German troops to begin at once and all German
instructors, prisoners and civilian as well as military agents, now on the terri-
tory of Russia (as defined before 1914) to be recalled.

Fourteen — German troops to cease at once all requistions and seizures and
any other undertaking with a view to obtaining supplies intended for Germany in
Rumania and Russia (as defined on August 1, 1914).

Fifteen — Abandonment of the treaties of Bucharest and Brest-Litovsk and
of the supplementary treaties.

Sixteen — The Allies shall have free access to the territories evacuated by

VICTORY— PEACE.

505

the Germans on their eastern frontier either through Danzig or by the Vistula in
order to convey supplies to the population of those territories or for any other
purpose.

III. Clause Concerning East Africa:
Seventeen — Unconditional capitulation of all German forces operating in
East Africa within one month.

IV. General Clauses:

Eighteen — Repatriation, without reciprocity, within maximum period of one
month, in accordance with detailed conditions hereafter to be fixed, of all civilians
interned or deported who may be citizens of other Allied or associated states than
those mentioned in clause three, paragraph nineteen, with the reservation that any
future claims and demands of the Allies and the United States of America remain
unaffected.

Nineteen — The following financial conditions are required: Reparation for
damage done. While such armistice lasts no public securities shall be removed by
the enemy which can serve as a pledge to the Allies for the recovery or repatriation
for war losses. Immediate restitution of the cash deposit, in the National Bank
of Belgium, and in general immediate return of all documents, specie, stocks, shares,
paper money, together with plant for the issue thereof, touching public or private
interests in the invaded countries. Restitution of the Russian and Rumanian gold
yielded to Germany or taken by that power. This gold to be delivered in trust to
the Allies until the signature of peace.

V. Naval Conditions:

Twenty — Immediate cessation of all hostilities at sea and definite informa-
tion to be given as to the location and movements of all German ships. Notification
to be given to neutrals that freedom of navigation in all territorial waters is
given to the naval and mercantile marines of the allied and associated powers,
all questions of neutrality being waived.

Twenty-one — All naval and mercantile marine prisoners of war of the Allied
and associated powers in German hands to be returned without reciprocity.

Twenty-two — Surrender to the Allies and the United States of America of
one hundred and sixty German submarines (including all submarine cruisers and
mine laying submarines) with their complete armament and equipment in ports
which will be specified by the Allies and the United States of America. All other
submarines to be paid off and completely disarmed and placed under the super-
vision of the Allied Powers and the United States of America.

Twenty-three — The following German surface warships which shall be desig-
nated by the Allies and the United States of America shall forthwith be disarmed
and thereafter interned in neutral ports to be designated by the Allies and the
United States of America and placed under the surveillance of the Allies and the
United States of America, only caretakers being left on board, namely:

Six battle cruisers, ten battleships, eight light cruisers, including two mine
layers, fifty destroyers of the most modern type. All other surface warships ( includ-
ing river craft) are to be concentrated in naval bases to be designated by the Allies
and the United States of America, and are to be paid off and completely disarmed
and placed under the supervision of the Allies and the United States of America.
All vessels of auxiliary fleet (trawlers,' motor vessels, etc.), are to be disarmed.

506

VICTORY — PEACE.

Twenty-four — The Allies and the United States of America shall have the
right to sweep all mine fields and obstructions laid by Germany outside German
territorial waters, and the positions of these are to be indicated.

Twenty-five — Freedom of access to and from the Baltic to be given to the
naval and mercantile marine of the Allied and associated powers. To secure this
the Allies and the United States of America shall be empowered to occupy all
German forts, fortifications, batteries and defense works of all kinds in all the
entrances from the Cattegat into the Baltic, and to sweep up all mines and ob-
structions within and without German territorial waters without any question
of neutrality being raised, and the positions of all such mines and obstructions
are to be indicated.

Twenty-six — The existing blockade conditions set up by the Allies and asso-
ciated powers are to remain unchanged, and all German merchant ships found at
sea are to remain liable to capture.

Twenty-seven — All naval aircraft are to be concentrated and immobilized
in German bases to be specified by the Allies and the United States of America.

Twenty-eight — In evacuating the Belgian coasts and ports, Germany shall
abandon all merchant ships, tugs, lighters, cranes and all other harbor materials,
all materials for inland navigation, all aircraft and all materials and stores, all
arms and armaments, and all stores and apparatus of all kinds.

Twenty-nine — All Black Sea ports are to be evacuated by Germany, all
Russian war vessels of all descriptions seized by Germany in the Black Sea are to
be handed over to the Allies and the United States of America; all neutral merchant
vessels seized are to be released; all warlike and other materials of all kinds seized
in those parts are to be returned and German materials as specified in clause
twenty-eight are to be abandoned.

Thirty — All merchant vessels in German hands belonging to the Allied and
associated powers are to be restored in ports to be specified by the Allies and the
United States of America without reciprocity.

Thirty-one — No destruction of ships or of materials to be permitted before
evacuation, surrender or restoration.

Thirty-two — The German Government will notify neutral Governments of
the world, and particularly the Governments of Norway, Sweden, Denmark, and
Holland, that all restrictions placed on the trading of their vessels with the
Allied and associated countries, whether by the German Government or by private
German interests, and whether in return for specific concessions such as the export
of shipbuilding materials or not, are immediately cancelled.

Thirty-three — No transfers of German merchant shipping of any description
to any neutral flag are to take place after signature of the armistice.

VI. Duration of Armistice:

Thirty-four — The duration of the armistice is to be thirty days, with option
to extend. During this period, on failure of execution of any of the above clauses,
the armistice may be denounced by one of the contracting parties on forty-eight
hours' previous notice.

VII. Time Limit for Reply:

Thirty-five — This armistice to be accepted or refused by Germany within
seventy-two hours of notification.

THE NEGiRO IN THE WORLD WAR.

BEFORE THE WAR.

Civilization evolves destructive forces of change. War
is change in explosive form. World notions, points of view,
and general ideas of 1914 have spun the cycle of years with
accelerated speed. At that time the public mind gained its
concept of the Negro from encyclopaedic information. He
was regarded as a " sub-species of mankind, dark of skin,
wooly of hair, long of head, with dilated nostrils, thick lips,
thicker cranium, flat foot, prehensible great toe and lark
heel."

He was described as a creature with "mental constitu-
tion very similar to that of the child, on a lower evolution-
ary plane than the white man, and more closely related to
the highest anthropoids." His brain weight, we were told,
was 35 ounces as compared with the gorilla's 20 ounces and
the Caucasians 45.

In America, conception of the Negro has ever fluctu-
ated in direct ratio to the rise and fall of military domina-
tion of the affairs of the republic. Whenever the military
agencies of the government have been exalted, the Negro
has been benefited by reaction of the public mind. From
1865 to 1870 exaltation of the military element of American
life brought along not only emancipation of the black man,
but that conception of him which resulted in the conferring
of manhood rights and privileges. In this short space of
five years, so highly had the Negro come into public estima-
tion that, with the protection of the military arm of the
government, there were actively engaged in his interest an
Emancipation League, a Freedmen's Pension Society, a

507

508 THE NEGRO IN THE WORLD WAR

Preedmen and Soldiers' Belief, a Freedmen's Aid Society
of the M. E. Church, a Society of Friends of Great Britain
and Ireland for the Eelief of Emancipated Slaves of Amer-
ica, an American Missionary Association, a Preedmen 's
Bureau, a Freedmen's Bank, a British and Foreign Anti-
Slavery Society, an American Negro Aid Commission, and
other organizations, too numerous for mention. So im-
portant, however, was military organization and predomi-
nance to the success of any one of these organizations, that
Carl Schurz, reporting to Congress the condition of the
South, declared: "If the national government firmly and
unequivocally announces its policy not to give up the con-
trol of free labor reform until it is firmly accomplished, the
progress of the reform will be far more rapid and far less
difficult than it will be if the attitude of the government is
such as to permit contrary hopes to be indulged in."

In 1870, as the military power of the United States
weakened its control over the nation, forces of opposition
arose to pull down to the depths the black man, who had
been exalted by the agencies of military government. The
Ku Klux Klan, headed by the Grand Wizard of the Invi-
sible Empire, and the Grand Dragon of the Realm, with
malignant fanaticism worshipped the lost cause. Hatred
of white man for Negro, accentuated and embittered by
hatred for the Yankee carpet-bagger and the southern
scalawag, resulted in the rise of a powerful southern par-
tisanship, stunned only so long as military power held sway.
Peonage took place of colored free labor. Disproportion-
ate appropriation of taxes between blacks and whites low-
ered the Negro measurably year by year. With- the com-
plete removal of military supremacy, the Ku Klux courted
publicity which it had hitherto shunned. A leader, the
statesman of the new era, in the person of the late Benja-
min R. Tillman, of South Carolina, appeared. He split the
loose organization of southern aristocracy with the blacks

THE NEGRO IN THE WORLD WAR

509

with lily white wedge, and trampled into dust every
agency which favored the black man. He deprived the
black of all weapons of offence or defence, disfranchised
him, shunted him off into the ghetto, and called the world
to mock him in his lowly position. This southern states-
man lived to see the Solid South come into national power
in 1912. Prom that time, until the beginning of the world
war in 1914, the American negro reached the lowest point
of his political and social status.

Compared with Anglo-Saxon, Frenchman, Italian,
Austrian, German or Russian, he was of an order and de-
gree reputed farthest down. No celebrity attached to his
menial state. No distinction might be his as an award from
the courts of nations. Dignity, grandeur and majesty ap-
plied to Guelphs, Hapsburgs and Hohenzollerns. Theirs
was all arrogation of supereminence. And to them all, the
Negro, throughout the world, was, if a man at all, pre-
eminently the mere Man Friday.

From such a status of debasement, existing in an in-
tolerable atmosphere of derogation and disrepute, the hum-
ble and humiliated American Negro sought the exaltation
of international honor. Denied and disavowed at home,
through vicissitude of international war, he hoped for
affirmation of a new world dictum in acknowledgment of
his human qualities and worth. He did not, like Toussaint,
long for the high honors of the continental emperor. He
sought democratic equality, and he would as lief think of
bringing the Kaiser to his level as exalting himself to the
plane of that immortal celebrity.

He wanted to make good in public. He wanted to
demonstrate both efficiency and initiative. He desired that
popular belief conceive him as a man, not a monkey. He
wished the Caucasian world to take into its head that he
might function as a valuable and serviceable element of
twentieth century civilization. He yearned to reveal his

510 THE NEGEO IN THE WOELD WAR

powers in every field of endeavor. And he expected that
when the Caucasian had arrived at a fair judgment in his
behalf, he would issue to him the warrant certifying that
he was four-square with the dominant opinion of mankind,
and, therefore, entitled to the honors of superior status.

He aimed to compensate the world by presenting a con-
cept of beauty in place of a general notion of repellent ugli-
ness. Instead of being regarded as a "Hottentot with click-
ing palate, whom the meanest of the rest look down upo»
for all his glimmering language and spirituality,' 9 he wished
the world to find in him fitness for survival, conformity
with civilization's ideal, example of the world philosophy
of forbearance, human relationships, symmetry and poise
in adaptation to the world's tasks, and moderation in respect
of the higher laws, whose harmonies order and rectify all
creation.

He sought to neutralize the misteachings of Adam
Smith, of Darwin and Defoe. Smith's "Wealth of Na-
tions" presumed the material debasement of darker
peoples of colonial populations, or, in lieu thereof, such
debasement of Slav, Serf or Serbian as would compensate
the vanity of the superior people. Indirectly, Darwin
taught, that the Negro closely approached the missing link
between the savage beast and the human. Defoe delighted
the world with a picture of the ideal economic status for
the maintenance of white superiority over black man. These
ideas the Negro wished to topple over.

He felt it necessary to repudiate the indoctrination of
racial hatred proclaimed throughout the world by "The
Birth of a Nation." He set over against it the reception by
all civilization of the Booker T. Washington life story. He
wished to substitute recognition of worth in place of the
thing;s that debase and make ashamed.

His great puzzle was the Anglo-Saxon, cold, austere
and uncomplaisant. This Caucasian, fair of skin, with

THE NEGEO IN THE WOELD WAK

511

smooth and wavy hair, small cheekbones and elevated fore-
head, appeared a worshipful master whose station, under
God, was of preordained and predestined eminence. Occu-
pying Eurasia from the Channel to the Ganges, together with
the most favored portions of Africa and America, he was
the author and agency for law and order for the world. St.
Augustine, first archbishop and lawgiver of Canterbury,
himself of African descent, the son of Monica and Patri-
cius of Carthage, had left the Anglo-Saxon from semi-
barbarism to his position of world renown. Would this
Anglo-Saxon ever degrade the sons of women of Africa?

The Negro's next puzzle was the French, urbane,
amenable and suave. Negro emotions and French sensibili-
ties mingled even without recourse to the vehicle of lan-
guage. Imbued with all the finer Latin qualities and char-
acteristics, the French ever invited the black man to a social
world which the Anglo-Saxon denied him. E. W. Lightner,
writing as a war correspondent, says :

' ' Long previous to the war thousands of blacks from
various States of Africa were in France, most especially
Paris, at the universities, in business and in the better
ranges of service. Everywhere and by all sorts and condi-
tions of whites, they were treated as equals. During sev-
eral visits to the French capital I, an American, knowing
full well the prejudices of whites of this country against
the race, was amazed to see the cordial mingling of all
phases of the cosmopolitan population of the French capi-
tal. Refined white men promenaded the streets with re-
fined black women, and the two races mingled cordially in
studies, industries and athletic sports. White and black
artists had ateliers in common in the Latin quarter. , ,

Thus, at hob and nob with the civilities and honors and
embraces of this social life, the Negro felt an unaccustomed
giddiness seize him. This giddiness was not caused by lack
of social poise, nor incited by the French, but it arose from
the dilemma, or rather peril, in which the French inter-

512

THE NEGKO IN THE WOELD WAR

course placed him with relation to the adjustment of darker
races to Anglo-Saxon civilization.

Nevertheless in 1914, the approach to this court of
honour and equality must be made by the Negro — and
made under restraint sufficient to assure Anglo-Saxon ap-
proval. This was, indeed, a complex problem. Traducers
proclaimed his undeveloped capacities ; he answered with a
claim of long repressed aptitudes. They spoke of intoler-
able coalescence ; he claimed that the times demanded im-
perative coexistence. They said he had no soul ; he claimed
the over-soul. They asserted his lecherous character; he
referred to statistics. But when they claimed he was pro-
German, he stripped for action. World war, and France,
prostrate amid its terrors, offered the Negro the great op-
portunity of the centuries to refute the broadcast propa-
ganda of his enemies.

Beyond the French appeared the German, ungainly,
acrimonious and obdurate. Part Saxon, part Hun, part
Vandal and Visigoth,* a creature of blood and iron, he
utilized every force of nature to exterminate his enemies.
The Negro knew how to exploit none of nature's elemental
energies. But he did know that he could learn how by seiz-
ing and mastering the weapons of the enemy.

Of the energies of earth he lacked both scientific mas-
tery and the weapons which give them offensive power and
direction. Of the air he lacked all control. Fire he utilized
only for purposes of cooking food, but not for the develop-
ment of machinery of warfare. He has no vessel upon all
the seven seas. To seize and master and utilize these ener-
gies appeared a thankless job, albeit a necessary one. He
voted a grim "Aye."

In doing so, he accepted the challenge of no mere
enigma. Of his own volition, he entered upon the path that
led through untrod and dangerous ground. It was his
problem to cut the Gordian knot of Anglo-Saxon icy reserve

THE NEGRO IN THE WORLD WAR

513

that in the end fair England might assume as a policy
of world administration the award of citizenship rights to
the darker races in the sphere of influence of the league of
civilized nations. It was a part of this problem to enter the
equation with such deliberate caution as to upset no part of
the nicely calculated adjustments of white to darker
peoples. And it was also a part of his problem that he
should not relinquish his grasp upon the factors that led to
honor, recognition and equality.

Germany was indignant as the Negro sought entry to
the war. The South was sensitive. The North was quiz-
zical. The whole world was hesitant. The too ardent favor
which the Negro found in France gave offence to both
America and England. Indeed, for the Negro to lift him-
self too rapidly by his own bootstraps would have offended
England, whose law prohibited emigration of foreign Ne-
groes to South Africa. And it would also offend America,
strangely jealous of any sign of unwanted assertiveness the
Negro might display. The Negro accepted the challenge
to penetrate this maze and labyrinth, with no surety, save
God's good grace, of the fate that lay beyond.

To attain the goal of Recognition, it was necessary for
him to demand of the people of England, France and Italy,
that he be made subject to every test calculated to reveal
his worth or inferiority as an individual, business, political
or social equal of the allied peoples. The goal of Honor, he
had attained in every war waged by America. He was with
Jackson at New Orleans, a pioneer in the Mexican struggle,
200,000 strong in the great civil crisis, the acme of terror
to Geronimo in the later Indian wars, the hero of San Juan
in the Spanish- American combat, and at Carrizal in the
latest Mexican imbroglio. By 1914, however, he had lost
all rewards of honor which he had previously won. As for
Equality, since the Civil War, he had been guaranteed this

514 THE NEGEO IN THE WOELD WAR

goal by three amendments to the Constitution of the United

States. These forgotten amendments read in part :

' 'Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as
a punishment for crime, whereof the party shall have
been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States,
or any place subject to their jurisdiction. . . .

"All persons born or naturalized in the United States,
and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the
United States and of the State wherein they reside. No
State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge
the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United
States; nor shall deprive any person of life, liberty, or
property, without due process of law, nor deny to any per-
son within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the
laws. . . .

"Representatives shall be apportioned among the sev-
eral States according to their respective numbers, counting
the whole number of persons in each State. . . .

"The right of the citizens of the United States to vote
shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or any
State on account of race, color or previous condition of serv-
itude."

America of 1914 was prone to look upon this part of
the Constitution as a mere scrap of paper. Prom what
point of vantage might the Negro hope for Honor, Recog-
nition and Equality at the hands of the allied governments ?

Land of the free and home of the brave, America is
assumed to be so openhearted, munificent and princely, so
liberal and so generous that could she but behold a man, of
whatever hue, trampled in the mire, or hear his prEeous cry,
she would hasten to his aid and deliver Km. So much does
she admire genuine human worth that a man of heart and
spirit and fortitude cannot perish while she is nigh at hand.
Such, at least, is the assumption.

From the debasement of industrial serfdom, the black
workman wished the American people of 1914 to stop the
trend of their strenuous existence and behold him . • •

THE NEGRO IN THE WORLD WAR

515

and test him . . . and proclaim him. He not only wished
to be given a free field and a fair chance to work at the same
job, for the same wage, during the same hours, and under
the same conditions as the white workman, but he was
ready to contend for all of the industrial privileges.

The black man of business not only wished to enter into
business competition with members of the Caucasian race
under the same conditions as customarily pertain to such
arrangements, but he was eagerly hoping to insure adjust-
ment of this situation. The black social outcast wished
"jim-crow" railway accommodations and signs proclaim-
ing inequality of race to disappear. He wished sufficient
education to enable Em to develop his own society. He^
too, was willing for a world war, for he had come to the
point where he desired immediate and explosive change.
Looked down upon because of his despised blood, the black
American wished to elevate the status of his womankind,
too long disproved and betrayed, to the level of free and
brave womanhood of all the civilized world. Concerning
this situation he was grim. It required but a spark applied
here to explode with terrific outburst the sinister silence of
the volcano.

But in India, in South Africa, in Nigeria, and in all
countries where English rule held sway, England was com-
mitted to the policy of the white overseer or foreman for
the black exponent of industry. Nor could she, save
through war, adopt a policy of employing either Indians or
Africans at the same job and for the same wage as that
received by members of the British Labor Party. On the
other hand, France, whose political life was convulsed from
1894 to 1899 by principles of racial prejudice exhibited in
the Dreyfus case, offered every form of equality to the
darker races under her dominion. However, such equality
offered by France was not equal in the sum total of advan-
tage to the partial equality which the Negro received in

516 TILE NEGRO IN THE WORLD WAR

America. The French workman gave more hours of toil
for less monetary reward. The Negro wanted to bring the
French principle of equality to apply in American indus-
try. But the British in 1914 could not agree to industrial
equality for black men. Such agreement would upset the
nicely calculated economic adjustments of the English sys-
tem. America would take no step until forced to do so.

It was the problem of the Negro, alone and single-
handed, to grasp the opportunity afforded by world war to
bring America to this point of recognition and democratic
equality. The Negro, hitherto regarded as the monkey-
man, the baby race, the black brute, trained by such ruthless
propaganda to disrespect himself, hesitated.

There was no leadership. No ringleader arrayed the
mob. No chief appeared. No captain called the hosts. No
generalissimo marshalled the black phalanx. No statesman
sought entanglement in the meshes of the negro labyrinth.
But the Negro proposition for a test of Negro fitness, like
Topsy, "just growed." The young Negro possessed the
clear eye to see the situation. College trained, his vision
was not blinded by proximity to issues of the Civil War,
nor by financial dependence, nor by excessive spirituality.
The elder Negro possessed the oratorical and linguistic
powers to state the case. Also college trained, of long ex-
perience, possessing a widespread oratorical clientele, he
spoke with a voice that stirred and played upon the heart-
strings of all America. Never was such a proposition ad-
vanced where men, old and young, despised and rejected,
penniless and without credit, without acclaimed leadership
or champion, sought position of honor and recognition and
equality beside the best fighting forces of the world to help
defeat the greatest military machine that hell had ever
invented.

Capital and labor, in previous years, had found the
Negro wanting. State governments had utilized him for

THE NEGRO IN THE WORLD WAR 517

the purpose of increasing taxes and court fees. The na-
tional government always handled him in accordance with
political expediency, despite his unswerving loyalty. Capi-
tal, labor, State government and national government had
brought the Negro so low that he was ready in 1914 for any
form of relief.

The Negro was ready for change, for one reason, be-
cause he had lost the honor of ministership to Haiti, Henry
W. Furniss being succeeded by a white man. He was ready
for change because, as the continental war proceeded, it
became evident that though America might participate, her
black colonel, Charles Denton Young, a graduate of West
Point, and a distinguished soldier, might receive recogni-
tion as the leader of black forces on foreign soil. He was
ready for change because it appeared that there had been
agreement that no American Negro should participate in a
test of world equality upon the field of world honor and
renown.

In the American Navy Department, in 1914, time had
destroyed the wake of Negro tradition, and the log had been
deleted. The Negro has rendered honorable service in the
navy. He was with Perry, on Lake Erie. During the Civil
War, Robert Smalls, a Negro, single-handed, stole the
Union cruiser "Planter" from Charleston harbor and
brought her into a Union port. Half the men who accom-
panied Hobson into Santiago harbor were Negroes. Matt
Henson was the only man with Peary at the Pole. John
Jordan fired the first shot from Dewey's flagship "Olym-
pia," opening the battle of Manila. The Negro wanted
change because in 1914 the naval administration reluc-
tantly offered Negroes positions as messmen and cooks. No
seamen, no members of the merchant marine, no petty
officers, no lieutenants, might apply.

In the American Treasury Department, an ex-Senator
of the United States, a colored man, Blanche K. Bruce of

518

THE NEGRO IN THE WORLD WAR

Mississippi, was honored by having created for him the
office of register of the treasury. Subsequently the honor
was conferred as a political favor upon Judson W. Lyons,
of Georgia ; William T. Vernon, of Kansas, and J. C. Na-
pier, of Tennessee. The democratic executive was good
enough to offer this position, created as a direct result of
the Negro's activities during and after the Civil War, to
Adam E. Patterson, of Oklahoma. But so great was the
pressure from opposing political forces that the name was
withdrawn and another position of honor lost to the race.
Ralph W. Tyler, auditor of the navy, resigned his position
in 1912. A white man was appointed in his place. Screens
were erected in this department, shutting the Negro from
the view of his erstwhile fellow-clerk. He was sent down
in the cellar to emphasize his degradation as he attended
to his physical wants. The Negro cried aloud for change,
and in his heart he cared not how soon this change should
come, nor what form it should take.

The American Post-office Department, by 1914, had
taken over the bulk of the express service of the United
States. The Negro was f ound available as a clerk, but sel-
dom, if ever, as a foreman. The appointment of large num-
bers of Negroes to mere clerical positions did not mean to
the Negro recognition of merit. The Negro postmaster had
disappeared.

The American Department of the Interior is engaged
with domestic affairs of the nation. The Negro constitutes
one-tenth of the population and requires one-tenth of the
necessities of American life. In 1914, a definite attempt
was made in a bureau of this department to give the Negro
recognition, honor and near-equality by the policy of segre-
gating him into a Negro bureau. This policy had previ-
ously been worked out in Negro school systems and in the
army. But the Negro clerks of the Interior Department,
by unanimous vote, rejected the proposition for this sort

THE NEGRO IN THE WORLD WAR

of change. The kind of recognition, the kind of honor and
the kind of equality which thev desired had taken definite
shape in their minds.

The American Agricultural Department, it would ap-
pear, should be made up of a large percentage of Negroes.
The Negro was essentially an agriculturist before he came
to America. He was brought to Virginia for the specific
purpose of engaging in agriculture. His development of
agricultural conferences in the South in recent years has
been a great source of production. The Negro wanted
change because this department employed messengers and
clerks, but demonstrators seldom, if ever, of his color.
Agricultural strategy in 1914 might well have been exon-
erated if it had employed Negro chief demonstrators and
engaged them in interstate contest for quantity production.
In one Southern State the Negro operates the greater agri-
cultural area. In another he will operate the greater por-
tion of such districts at an early date. In still another
many of the communities of large Negro population have
hardly had a white foot set upon them in two decades. The
Negroes of these three states could have furnished surplus
food for any nation of the allies, but a Negro might receive
honor if put in charge of their development at the proper
salary and with full authority to act. In 1914, this honor
must not be.

In the American Department of Commerce the mas-
ters of barter and exchange are exhibited. America seeks
to develop the man who can strike a bargain and outbid his
competitors. The Negro wanted change because, since the
invention of salesmanship he has been declared out of the
scope of this department. His social status prevents him
from making the proper sales approach. The Negro of
1914 came to this department only as a depositor of funds,,
or as a beggar for charity. He was not seriously regarded.

Lastly, in the American Department of Labor, the

520

THE NEGRO IN THE WORLD WAR

Negro wanted change because he was regarded in 1914 as
the man requiring a boss of another color. He was not re-
garded as a master mechanic, manufacturer, artist or jour-
neyman, unless the labor union, to which he was ineligible,
so regarded him.

In these many ways, by capital and labor, by state and
national government, in every department, had the Negro
of 1914 been reduced to the state of man without honor in
his own country. If war be change, however explosive in
form, in 1914 the Negro wanted the world war to come to
America from whatever angle that promised him the great-
est advantage.

Equality in citizenship, for which the Negro yearned,
meant parity of adjustment to conditions of life. Equality
may be considered under three forms, industrial, business
and political. As the terms are understood in America, the
Negro was unanimous in 1914 in desiring industrial, busi-
ness and political equality. He eagerly watched the fuse
of war if perchance he might foresee from the consequent
explosion the termination of Anglo-Saxon prejudice. It is
but fair to say that he was not the only victim of discrimi-
nation at that time. The sub-dominant nations, including
the Jugo-Slavs, the Czecho-Slavs, the Serbs and the Serfs
of Eussia, were subject to discrimination and deprived of
the higher places of honor in the world's society.

But the Negro was not immediately concerned with
any one's status save his own. He was not concerned that
Mexicans, Chinese, Japanese, Filipinos, Porto Ricans or
South Africans did not enjoy the advantage of living on
American soil. He was only concerned with the fact that,
living in America, performing the full duties of American
citizenship, he was denied the advantages and privileges of
its possession, while Slavs and Serbs of Europe, with white
skins, were accorded the fullest measure of democratic
opportunity whenever and wherever they set foot on Amer-

THE NEGRO IN THE WORLD WAR

521

ican soil. The Negro wanted the world war to prove that
he, too, was a coalescent element in the civilization of the
world.

To summarize the burden of the Negro in 1914 we may
include Caucasian arrogance, hatred and prejudice of race,
injustice of attitude and treatment, personal fear for life
and property, improperly requited toil, unrewarded ambi-
tion, unmerited disfavor and debased self-respect. What
profound pathos in the love which he bore Old Glory!

THE WAR FOR DEMOCRATIZATION.

Germany of 1914 aimed to throw off the yoke which
she claimed England wished to fasten on her world rela-
tionships. She aimed to dominate the world with German
efficiency. She aimed to demonstrate German superiority
and expose what she called Anglo-Saxon hypocrisy and
cant. Already possessing the world's supply of potash,
she struck directly at the coal and iron region of Belgium
and Northern France. And she took them on the initial ad-
vance. With potash, coal and iron, this was a Teutonic
coup for industrial and commercial supremacy indeed.
Now well might she dictate who should boycott English
goods. Now well might she point to the political and military
dishonor of the easy defeat of Belgium and France. Now
well might she proceed to the disintegration of these coun-
tries by the weapons of poverty, disease, hunger and bitter
cold. Little did Germany dream what moral advantage she
gave these overrun lands in the hearts of the millions of
Negroes of the world. Germany felt assured that Negroes
from all Africa would gloat over the assassination of Bel-
gium. She was positive that American Negroes would re-
joice. She expected the blacks of the world would rise up
and hail her as the champion of a new day.

In the twinkling of an eye she reduced Belgium to in-
dustrial serfdom. She made the Belgian merchant a busi-

522

THE NEGRO IN THE WORLD WAR

ness pariah. She reduced the Belgian citizen to a political
Helot, and imprisoned the burgomaster of Brussels, who
refused to yield his citizenship honors. She made of Bel-
gium a desert. The Belgian woman she whistled at and
made a bye-word and reproach. And she called her treaty
of Belgian neutrality a mere scrap of paper. Namur fell,
and Charleroi and lovely Louvain. Liege succumbed in
those hot August days, and Malines and Tournai and Ant-
werp. Poor Belgian refugees, starved and naked, fled west-
ward. In remembrance of barbarities in the Congo under
the international commission which placed Belgium in con-
trol, the Ajnerican Negro quoted the poet: "The sins we
borrow two by two we pay for one by one." But there was
no disposition to gloat. The American Negro, be it said,
came to the Belgian relief with money and goods and pray-
ers and tears, and forgot the sins of the fathers of the suf-
fering little kingdom. The secret of this reaction is re-
vealed in the sympathy which the Negro bore toward an-
other people reduced to his American status, without honor,
recognition or equality.

On, on, precipitate, headlong came Germany with dia-
bolic efficiency, thrusting viciously at the heart of France.
Running amuck through St. Quentin and Arras, Soissons
fell and Laon. Eheims surrounded, astride the Marne,
France awaited her invader. Joffre at the gate ! Foch in
charge of the defence! On came the Germans! They
crushed his left ! They pulverized his right ! He dispatched
his courier to headquarters with the famous message: "I
shall attack with my centre. Send up the Moroccans!"
These black troops, thrown in at the first Marne, with the
British to their left, pushed the German right over the
stream. Continuing their action, the colonials won on the
Ourcq, and the Germans evacuatel Upper Alsace. Before
their terrific attack, with the British steadily pressing be-
side them, General Von Stein admitted his defeat by the

THE NEGRO IN THE WOULD WAB

523

white and black allies. Paris was saved and Foch discov-
ered to the allied world. How the hearts of black Ameri-
cans thrilled as slowly the news filtered through to them of
what the black colonials had done to hold the field for
France ! It was then that they took it into their hearts that
if the United States were ever called upon to participate in
this struggle, they would not be denied a place of glory
equal to that which their African brethren had achieved.

.But there was no time for resolve. The cataclysm in-
volved in the threatened overthrow of English law and or-
derly procedure throughout the world caused the American
Negro to tremble. Always conservative, if there be any-
thing to conserve, the Negro appreciated that English law,
when properly interpreted, meant freedom and life and
hope eternal to him. He was unwilling to take any chances
with a German substitute. The overthrow of English law
he looked upon as the impending crack of doom. On came
the Germans toward Calais and the Straits of Dover ! On
to Zeebrugge! On to Ostend! To Tpres! In her supreme
'desperation, England looked about the world for a force to
stay the invader until she could prepare to meet the full
force of the attack. She cared not whether aid be white or
black, or brown or yellow. She called for help, or else
Tpres should fall. Black men of Africa, brown men of In-
dia, white and red men of Canada, and yellow men of the
Par East heard her call. And while America lifted not a
finger, the American Negro lifted up his heart to God and
prayed that Anglo-Saxon justice, rigid and cold, so often
denied him, should not perish in triumph of the Hun, who
knew no law save his own lust and super-arrogation.

Aboard the "Lusitania" there were no known men of
color. But there were Caucasian women and children
aboard. At what moral disadvantage did Germany put her-
self with the black millions of America when she riotously

celebrated the horrible death her submarines had meted out
29— a. j.

524

THE XEGEO IN THE WOELD WAE

to these weak and helpless mortals. The " Belgian Prince, "
first of the vessels torpedoed without warning after Presi-
dent Wilson's manifesto on the subject, had one lone black
survivor to tell the tale of horror. He told it to his black
brethren and they chafed under the diplomatic restraint,
which relieved itself by polite letter writing.

Germany threatened the Panama Canal by disruption in
Mexico and Haiti. The Mole St. Nicholas gave command
of the canal to anyone of the great powers who might seize
it. German influence was at work in Port au Prince. There
occurred a riot involving both French and German Lega-
tions. The President of Haiti was assassinated. The
United States marines stepped in and took over the situa-
tion. The American Negro heart went out to little Haiti.
Hoping for the best, he feared the worst.

In the midst of this situation, Pancho Villa attacked
Columbus, New Mexico. Overnight Negro regiments of
regular army and of national guard received word to go to
the border. Black troopers of the 10th Cavalry were re-
ported near Casas Grandes on March 17. The 24th Infan-
try, colored, set out for Mexico, and another Negro com-
mand was sent to Columbus on March 22. Through storm
and dust and desert of alkali and cacti, the Negro troopers,
led by Colonel Brown, came to Aguascalientes. They had
passed through a terrible experience that must have
daunted all save those who refuse to accept defeat. Hunger
and thirst and mirage and exposure must all be overcome.
Because of hardships many cavalrymen deserted on May 1,
after three months' service in action. But every Negro
trooper with Colonel Brown held on and defeated the Vil-
listas in every skirmish.

On a day in June, 1916, a troop from the 10th Cavalry
approached the Mexican town of Carrizal. They were for-
bidden to enter the town for purposes of refreshment. Cap-
tain Boyd resolved to make the entry regardless of any

THE NEGRO IN THE WORLD WAR

525

regulations the Mexicans might seek to enforce. He was
called upon by General Gomez to advance for a parley. As
he advanced with his troopers, Mexicans spread out in a
wide circle around them. Gomez, himself, trained the ma-
chine gun which opened fire. The parley was a mere sham
and decoy. Captain Boyd with Lieutenant Adair and
eleven soldiers were killed. The rest of the troopers fell on
the Mexicans, seized their gun, turned it upon them, and
brought to death scores of their number, including Gomez
himself. Seventeen black Americans were interned in
Chihuahua, but were released eight days after upon demand
by the American government. Captain Morey reported
that his men faced death with a song on their lips. The
lesson which the Mexicans learned by turning a machine
gun on Negro troopers was of such force that no trouble
has arisen since in this section of the southern republic.
The Negro fell face forward in the scorching sand for his
honor's sake, and for the honor of all America. He knew
that his real enemy was not the Mexican, but the German
who had furnished Mexico the means and the will to create
disturbance on this side of the Atlantic.

It was not until April, 1917, that President Wilson pro-
claimed in Congress a state of war existing between the
United States of America and thp Imperial German Gov-
ernment. At the call for volunteers, Negro regiments of
guard, who had served in Mexico, were found at war
strength and ready to double themselves overnight. These
guard regiments represented the cosmopolitan Negro popu-
lations of New York, Chicago, Washington, Baltimore and
the State of Ohio. Everywhere the Negro dropped the mat-
tock, left the ploughshare, poised himself at erect stature,
passionately saluted Old Glory, answered "Here am I!" —
counted fours, and away! Pro-German cried: "White
man's war!" Propagandist yelled: "Cannon fodder!"
Reactionary declared : "It must not be." The Negro burst

526

THE NEGRO IN THE WORLD WAR

the gate and entered the arena of combat in spite of all op-
position to his service in honorable capacity under the
United States government.

The honesty of his purpose was discredited. The
Anglo-Saxon mind could not conceive any more than could
the German why a man downtrodden as the Negro should
rush to arms, save as a baser means of eking out a liveli-
hood better than his civilian state. The Anglo-Saxon little
dreamed that the Negro approached the war not only to
uphold his cherished tradition2 but also with definite ideas
of honor, recognition and equality as its outcome. Or rather
the Anglo-Saxon was too busy with his own affairs to ascer-
tain the reason why.

His loyalty impugned by those who did not wish to see
him uniformed, his fidelity the subject of bitter sarcasm,-
his trustworthiness disputed, the Negro for once kept his
own counsel. German agents were in his midst. They
came to his table. They mingled with him in all social in-
tercourse. They brought forward business propositions to
seek to make the interests of Negro and German one.
Southerners, noting this unaccustomed intimacy of black
and white, announced 'that the Negro had gone over to the
enemy. But the Negro kept his own counsel. He called
upon the nation to investigate him. And when his loyalty
was found untarnished, he called upon the nation to investi-
gate itself. It was through the influence of Eobert R. Mo-
ton, of Tuskegee, that, after careful investigation, Presi-
dent Wilson put the stain of pro-Germanism where it prop-
erly belonged. Said the President :

My Fellow-Countrymen :

I take the liberty of addressing you upon a subject
which so vitally affects the honour of the nation and the
very character and integrity of our institutions that I trust
you will think me justified in speaking very plainly about
it.

THE NEGRO IN THE WORLD WAR

527

I allude to the mob spirit which has recently here and
there very frequently shown its head amongst us, not in
any single region, but in many and widely separated parts
of the country. There have been many lynchings, and every
one of them has been a blow at the heart of ordered law and
humane justice. No man who loves America, no man who
really cares for her fame and honour and character, or
who is truly loyal to her institutions, can justify mob
actions while the courts of justice are open and the govern-
ments of the states and the nation are ready and able to do
their duty. We are at this very moment fighting lawless
passion. Germany has outlawed herself among the nations
because she has disregarded the sacred obligations of law
and has made lynchers of her armies. Lynchers emulate
her disgraceful example. I, for my part, am anxious to see
every community in America rise above that level, with
pride and fixed resolution which no man or act of men can
afford to despise.

"We proudly claim to be the champions of democracy.
If we really are, in deed and in truth, let us see to it that
we do not discredit our own. I say plainly that every
American who takes part in the action of a mob or gives it
any sort of countenance is no true son of this great democ-
racy, but its betrayer, and does more to discredit her by
that single disloyalty to her standards of law and of right
than the words of her statesmen or the sacrifices of her
heroic boys in the trenches can do to make suffering peoples
believe her to be their saviour. How shall we commend
democracy to the acceptance of other peoples, if we dis-
grace our own by proving that it is, after all, no protection
to the weak ? Every mob contributes to German lies about
the United States what her most gifted liars cannot im-
prove upon by way of calumny. They can at least say that
such things cannot happen in Germany, except in times of
revolution, when law is swept away.

I, therefore, very earnestly and solemnly beg that the
Governors of all the States, the law officers of every com-
munity, and, above all, the men and women of every com-
munity in the .United States, all who revere America and
wish to keep her name without stain or reioroach, will co-
operate— not passively merely, but actively and watch-

528

THE NEGRO IN THE WORLD WAR

fully, — to make an end of this disgraceful evil. It cannot
live where the community does not countenance it.

I have called upon the nation to put its great energy
into this war, and it has responded — responded with a
spirit and a genius for action that has thrilled the world. I
now call upon it, upon its men and women everywhere, to
see that its laws are kept inviolate, its fame untarnished.
Let us show our utter contempt for the things that have
made this war hideous among the wars of history by show-
ing how those who love liberty and right and justice and
are willing to lay down their lives for them upon foreign
fields, stand ready also to illustrate to all mankind their
loyalty to the things at home which they wish to see estab-
lished everywhere as a blessing and protection to the
peoples who have never known the privileges of liberty and
self-government. I can never accept any man as a cham-
pion of liberty, either for ourselves or for the world, who
does not reverence and obey the laws of our own beloved
land, whose laws we ourselves have made. He has adopted
the standard of the enemies of his country, whom he affects
to despise.

W oodrow Wilsoist.
The Negro braced himself, dismissed the German
coldly from his household and f orebade the pro-German
enter. Prom afar off the enemy propagandist could resort
but to derision and ridicule. What an attempt at laughter
he made when Haiti entered the side of the Allies ! How he
pretended to be choking with the ridiculousness of the thing
when Liberia offered her services ! He flouted the idea of
Negro expertness in handling weapons of modern warfare.
He ridiculed the idea of Negro discretion in ideas of likely
foreign origin. He questioned the potency of the Negro's
native talent to meet the European situation. It was the
black man's patriotic fervor, ardent in response to the call
of Old Glory, zealous with passionate love of fireside and
homeland, poignant with the throbbing and thrilling re-
action of public-spirited emotion toward France — which
overcame all.

THE NEGRO IN THE WORLD WAR

529

The South asked three questions :

First — Shall Negroes and whites of the South both re-
main in America while the North conducts the war ? Sec-
ond— Shall Negroes of the South remain at home while the
flower of southern chivalry, drafted for service, is far away
across the sea, annihilated in battle ? Third — Shall white
men of the South be left at home while southern Negroes
are drafted and go abroad to do distinguished service?
These questions were resolved into the conclusion that
southern Negroes and southern whites both must be drafted
and sent against the German foe. There was no alterna-
tive.

It was altogther becoming and proper that a man
whose race has suffered as the American Negro suffers to-
day, should point the way to this goal of recognition, honor
and equality which the Negro knew but as a tradition of
those days following the Civil War when Grant adminis-
tered the affairs of the triumphant party of freedom.

One of those New Yorkers of Hebraic origin, whose
Semitic qualities are of the highest ethical type, made the
play for partial equality, for partial recognition, for par-
tial honor for the Negro. Joel Spingarn suggested and
propagated the idea of a military training camp for
Negroes, where they might receive instruction in all
branches of military service, be commissioned up to the
grade of captain and receive the recognition, honor and
equality due to such military rank as they might qualify
f or. In addressing Negro America, he said :

i 4 It is of highest importance that the educated colored
men of this country should be given opportunities for
leadership. You must cease to remain in the background
in every field of national activity, and must come forward
to assume your right places as leaders of American life.
All of you cannot be leaders, but those who have the capac-
ity for leadership must be given the opportunity to tesf
and display it."

530

THE NEGRO IN THE WORLD WAR

Mr. Spingarn never realized what forces lie would set
in motion by mere presentation of this proposition. He
merely pointed out the gate. The young Negro brushed
aside the opponents among his own race of this policy of
segregation. He disregarded the moral principle which
had actuated the older Negroes of the Interior Department
in refusing to accept segregation, and seized the oppor-
tunity to produce some sort of change and readjustment
He must go up. He could go no lower than the policies of
previous generations had brought him.

Directly to the President of all the United States he
went. "Give us a lift!" he cried, "We want to fight!" To
the Secretary of War he shouted most unceremoniously:
* ' Give us place ! " " But, " was the indirect reply, * 6 we have
not the facilities at present. Por instance, we have no
bedding for the men whom you might muster." It was a
young Negro Harvard graduate, Thomas Montgomery
Gregory, of New Jersey, who advanced before Secretary
Baker. "No bedding, Mr. Secretary? We will sleep on the
floor — on the ground — anywhere — give us a lift!"

The Anglo-Saxon mind is subject to orderly reactions.
The Secretary of War was taken aback. He realized that
the young Negroes had not approached him to sell their
labor. He gleaned that it was not for the purpose of barter
and exchange they had come forward. Nor had they come
with dreams of political advantage and social eclat, nor
with vague glimmerings of spirituality. He was not ready
to anwer. He dismissed the audience with a little more
than the usual ceremony. One of the older Negroes of the
group, whose uncanny insight had often appeared beyond
the orbit of average intelligence, ventured this suggestion:
"He will put it up to Pershing."

And so the word got abroad that it would be left to
Pershing as to how the Negrr should be disposed of. It
would be left to John J. Pershing, who in his earlier days

THE NEGRO IN THE WORLD WAR

531

had been instructor in a Negro college under the American
Missionary Association. It would be left to the man who
in 1892 had been a First Lieutenant in the 10th Cavalry in
connection with the Sioux campaign in the Dakotas ; who
had been with the 10th Cavalry in the Santiago campaign in
1898 ; who had led Negro troops in the Philippines in 1899
till 1903, commanding operations in Mindanao against the
Moros ; and who had been in command of the Negro troops
sent into Mexico in pursuit of Villa in March, 1916. It
would be left to the man whose whole life had been spent in
close contact with darker races.

To this day the Negro does not know who was directly
responsible for the organization of the camp such as Spin-
garn proposed. It is probable that the honor belongs as
much to Henry Johnson and Needham Roberts as to any
one else. These black soldiers of Colonel Hay ward's 15th
New York Regiment, already in France with other regi-
ments of Negro troopers of the national guard, were
thrown across No Man's Land on a cold and foggy night as
a lookout, far in advance of the sleeping command of thou-
sands of white and colored American troops. The Hun
planned their capture for the purpose of psycho-analytic
research. It was Roberts who detected their stealthy ap-
proach. He called to J ohnson. In the twinkling of an eye,
the two were surrounded by German troopers. The Ne-
groes faced certain death, but they had lost all claim to
honor, recognition or equality, if they did not take with
them to eternity at least one German each. Surrounded
they resolved to fight it out with shot and gun. Too, too
slow! Around them the Germans swarmed like bees.
Bayonets then ! Too, too close ! Aye, butts ! Wounded and
winded, with knives, skulls, feet, teeth and nails, prehensile
toe and larkheel, Henry J ohnson and Needham Roberts
defeated ten times their number of Germans and held the
field of honor. This was a great self-revelation to the,

THE NEGRO IN THE WORLD WAR

Negro of his powers of more than rudimentary culture, and
a mighty incentive from the guard to the soldiery of the
92nd Division.

It settled forever, in the mind of the Negro, what
Pershing would say as to the advisability of training Ne-
groes to deliver their best service for their country. That
general's report electrified the entire nation. Said Persh-
ing:

" Reports in hand show a notable instance of bravery
and devotion shown by two soldiers of an American colored
regiment operating in a French sector. Before daylight
on May 15, Private Henry Johnson and Private Roberts,
while on sentry duty at some distance from one another,
were attacked by a German raiding party, estimated at
twenty men, who advanced in two groups, attacking at once
flank and rear.

' 4 Both men fought bravely hand-to-hand encounters,
one resorting to the use of a bolo knife after his rifle jam-
med and further fighting with bayonet and butt became im-
possible. There is evidence that at least one, and probably
a second, German was severely cut. A third is known to
have been shot.

" Attention is drawn to the fact that the colored sen-
tries were first attacked and continued fighting after receiv-
ing wounds, and despite the use of grenades by a superior
force. They should be given credit for preventing, by their
bravery, the capture of any of our men."

Whether this citation arrived May 19, 1917, by design
or by accident, it served the purpose of dissolving com-
pletely all opposition to the idea of training Negroes to halt
the Hun. Immediately thereafter the War Department
created a training camp for educated Negroes at Fort Des
Moines, Iowa.

THE NEGRO IN THE WORLD WAR

533

THE CRISIS OF THE WORLD.

Des Moines Camp was organized in J une, 1917, to train
Negroes to the military point where other military men
must recognize them, honor them and receive them on the
plane of equality due their rank. The camp was designed
to develop Negroid snap and vigor to the maximum of mili-
tary efficiency. For this purpose, as at all other camps,
there was created the background of the mother's urge, and
the sister's urge, and the sweetheart's urge, the Y. M. C. A.
spirit, the college fraternity spirit, and, in addition, the
spirit of the elevation of a Negroid order.

The change which came over the men was indicated by
their music. Their first group singing of a Sunday con-
sisted of Negro spirituals in spondaic and trochaic verse,
and phrased in many minors. The vigor of blood produced
by methodical training soon permitted of vocalization only
in iambics. "Over There," "The Long, Long Trail,"
"Sons of America," were songs they sung of hope and not
of sorrow. They connoted the Negro's reaction to the cos-
mic urge.

Over 1200 men took advantage of the experience of the
trip to Fort Des Moines for training. Theirs was the 17th
Provisional E. O. T. C, but the first of national propor-
tions. Its quota was drawn from every section of the
United States. The immediate destiny of the men selected
for commission from this camp would be the training of
colored draftees of African descent.

Mr. Baker, the Secretary of War, in late summer, re-
ferring to the Des Moines Camp, said :

"The work at Des Moines is progressing remarkably
well, and the reports I have from it are very good. The
spirit of the men is fine, and apparently this camp is going to
do a great deal of good, both to the country and to the men
involved."

534

THE NEGRO IN THE WORLD WAR

Colonel C. C. Ballou, of the War College, in charge of
the work at Des Moines, said on August 19, in a Sunday
interview:

4 4 The colored race constitutes more than ten per cent,
of our population, and has, since the Civil War, furnished
more than its quota of fighting men of the regular army.
At home or on foreign soil the ranks of colored regiments
are always full, while the white regiments have with diffi-
culty been maintained at peace strength. To question the
valor of the colored soldier is to betray ignorance of his-
tory. This is the first opportunity in his history to prove
on an adequate scale his fitness or unfitness for command
and leadership. At Fort Des Moines, Iowa, on June 16,
1917, there assembled the largest body of educated Negroes
ever brought together for a single purpose. The candi-
dates who survive are men of marked intelligence and abil-
ity. Let any man who doubts the colored men's patriotism
go to Fort Des Moines and see men who have given up pro-
fessions, business and homes in order to learn to defend
their country and merit a more considerate judgment of
their race. Let any man who doubts the colored man's
fidelity and loyalty come to Fort Des Moines and revise his
opinions on what he will there learn of the spirit that has
stood unswervinglv behind the commanding officer in every
decision that he has been called upon to make, even though
that decision involved sore disappointment and shattering
of hopes. These men have been started out on correct lines
and will have no false ideas to unlearn.' '

Hardly any one in America, black or white, believed
that 700 Negroes would be commissioned in the army of the
United States to receive positions of honor not only beside
her other troops, but on the field of battle with the flower
of French and English between veteran soldiery. Every-
thing possible to prevent, somehow or other, seemed to
arise. The men were put through the bitterest drill in the
hottest sun, under the most scorching orders the English
language might devise. They represented every section of

THE NEGRO IN THE WORLD WAR

535

the United States. Not once did they break. The acid test
came, when, already pricked by the numerous situations
which arose to flout them, East St. Louis broke forth in the
most savage pogrom Anglo-Saxon culture has ever revealed.

While 1200 Negroes, training for leadership, were un-
dergoing the terrific process of forced attrition, their
nerves turned raw by army usage, East St. Louis burst
forth. Tidings reached Bes Moines that the Illinois mili-
tia, called in to break up a race riot at East St. Louis, had
joined the rioters and slaughtered the Negro population of
the community. White women had joined in these attacks,
dragging out of their houses colored women, girls and chil-
dren, stoning and clubbing them to death. Aged Negro
mammies, afraid to come out of their homes, had been
burned to death by the mob which set fire to them. Black
men had been thrown into Cahokia Creek and stormed with
bricks each time they rose to the surface until drowned. A
crowd of whites had torn a colored woman's baby from her
arms, thrown it into the fire of a blazing dwelling, held the
mother from its rescue until she, herself, was shot nigh unto
death, and then allowed her to plunge into the fire to rescue
her little one. Nor was this all.

But out there in camp, isolated from the usual social
life, July 2 and 3 and 4, Independence Bay, was indeed a
test of nerve, already tried and sore and raw, for the young
Negroes in training. Why should men train to fight for a
country that permitted such barbarous atrocities against
their race with impunity. In savage Memphis charred re-
mains of Negroes burned at the stake before a gala mob of
15,000, were thrown from an automobile in the Negro quar-
ter of that city ! And the Negroes at Bes Moines held on.
It has not been recorded in history that there was Here
proposed any hostile demonstration, or that vengeance and
ruthless retaliation was planned. Wise counsel prevailed,
and the Negroes at Bes Moines held on.

536 THE NEGRO IN THE WORLD WAR

For three months they held on without audible mur-
mur. Negroes from civilian life, from the national guard,
from the regular army, destined for every branch of the
military service, defied any propaganda, by whomever in-
vented, to break their morale. For three months they held
on. And then word came they would not be graduated. A
number, in disgust, left the camp. But the great bulk of
them, although at the last moment learning that they could
be assigned to no military branch save infantry, remained
in camp for another month and were finally commissioned
as officers in tKe national army. It was the eleventh hour
of the eleventh day of the eleventh month of 1917 that they
received their commissions forwarded from the President
of the United States. The hour and day and month a year
later became famous not only in their history, but in the
history of the civilized world.

They were given a grade neither high nor low. The
rank of captain was granted to men who were to serve in
France and England. The former country proudly made
the Negro a general when he merited promotion ; the latter
was committed to the policy of white officers for colonial
troops. In assigning rank as high as the grade of captain,
America took the middle ground. In view of the interna-
tional situation, she could hardly be expected to do more.
She had granted partial recognition, partial honor, partial
equality. It was for the Negro to gain the rest.

Seven hundred American Negroes commissioned! A
baker's dozen of captains, six hundred odd lieutenants, and
five hundred who dropped by the way. German propa-
ganda had taken contrary suggestion and forced the Negro
to this point of moral advantage. Plunder, arson, lynch-
ing and burning at the stake were employed against him
to break his morale or incite him against America. But he
held on. Seven hundred of the "sub-species, dark of skin,
wooly of hair, long of head, with dilated nostrils, thick lips.

THE NEGRO IN THE WORLD WAR

537

thicker cranium, flat feet, prehensile great toe and lark
heel" had passed every physical, mental, moral and social
test and were commissioned in the American army. Doubt
existed in the minds of every American citizen, including
the Negro officers themselves, that they would ever see serv-
ice overseas.

Assigned to various camps, the problem of recognition
by white soldiers of colored officers immediately was raised,
and promptly settled. In only a few cases did open clashes
occur. In far more cases was the Negro received with full
merited honors of his status, and in some sections on the
basis of complete equality. The Negro of a northern local-
ity, accustomed to all immunities and privileges of his
home, experienced great difficulty when first assigned to
camps near Baltimore, Washington, Houston or Norfolk.
He would have passed through this state of his develop-
ment well enough, settling his difficulties himself as they
arose, had not some evil genius prompted the commanding
officer of the division in which he was finally to be assem-
bled to issue Bulletin 35, which follows :

' 'It should be well known to all colored officers a*nd men
that no useful purpose is served by such acts as will cause
the 'color question' to be raised. It J.S not a question of
legal rights, but a question of policy, and any policy that
tends to bring about a conflict of the races, with its result-
ing animosities, is prejudicial to the military interest of the
colored race.

"To avoid such conflicts the Division Commander has
repeatedly urged that all colored members of his command
and especially the officers and non-commissioned officers,
should refrain from going where their presence will be re-
sented. In spite of this injunction, one of the Sergeants of
the Medical Department has recently precipitated the pre-
cise trouble that should be avoided, and then called on the
Division Commander to take sides in a row that should
never have occurred had the Sergeant placed the general
good above his personal pleasure and convenience. The

538

THE NEGRO IN THE WORLD WAR

Sergeant entered a theater, as lie undoubtedly has a legal
right to do, and precipitated trouble by making it possible
to allege race discrimination in the seat which he was given.
He is strictly within his legal rights in this matter, and the
theater manager is legally wrong. Nevertheless, the Ser-
geant is guilty of the greater wrong in doing anything, no
matter how legally correct, that will provoke race ani-
mosity.

"The Division Commander repeats that the success of
the Division, with all that success implies, is dependent
upon the good will of the public. That public is nine-tenths
white. White men made the Division, and they can break
it just as easily if it becomes a trouble maker.

"All concerned are again enjoined to place the general
interest of the Division above personal pride and gratifica-
tion. Avoid every situation that can give rise to racial ill-
will. Attend quietly and faithfully to your duties, and
don't go where your presence is not desired.

"This will be read to all organizations of the 92nd Di-
vision.

"By command of Major-General Ballou:

"Allen J. Greer,
"Lifeutenant-Colonel, General Staff,
"Chief of Staff.

"Official:

"EDW. J. TURGEON,

"Captain, Assistant Adjutant,
"Acting Adjutant."

It was an altogether modern type of Negro that in-
formed the commanding general quietly, but firmly, that he
had seriously impaired his usefulness by the tone of his bul-
letin ; that he had proposed a principle which did not bode
good for the future of white people of the world when
seven-tenths of the world's population was of darker hue.
It is to General Ballou 's credit that he admitted the ques-
tion to debate, listened to reason, and capitulated.

But a certain type of southern statesmanship was not
amenable to reason. Despite the wishes of the President

THE NEGRO IN THE WORLD WAR

of the United States, there were published in the " Con-
gressional Record" articles describing the peril involved in
arming and training any black peoples for modern warfare.
What measure of offense these articles gave to Morocco, to
India, to Latin America, to J apan, to China, to Africa, loy-
ally supporting all the cause of France and England, can
only be judged by the rebuke which President Wilson gave
when his chance came.

It was in the Spring of 1918 when Germany struck
through the British forces in Picardy. Then came the
allies' "Hurry up !" call. The enemy opened a tremendous
drive against the British front, bombarding, storming and
attacking along fifty miles from Croiselles to La Fere. On
the first day, 16,000 British prisoners were taken. The
shelling might be heard across the Channel in Dover. The
German penetrated to the third British line, taking 25,000
more prisoners. William Hohenzollern, himself, directed
the drive from his headquarters at Spa. Peronne, Ham
and Chauny fell. Vast stores and war material was lost,
including tanks. At the Lotos club dinner, Lord Beading-
gave voice to a message from Lloyd George urging the
United States to rush men to fill the gap. Albert fell. The
real need of England and France became a question of re-
serves. John J. Pershing, drawing no color line, offered
the whole American army.

Germany separated France from her ally. Apprized
of America's preparations, she sought to destroy both
France and England before the new enemy might hold
place. Acceleration of all fighting forces to overseas serv-
ice became the imperative duty. Not a moment was to be
lost. The American Expeditionary Force must be expedi-
tious. Casting about to find those ready to answer the call,
America could not deny the preparedness of her 92nd Di-
vision of colored troopers.

On Germany came! On to Montdidier! To Amiens!
30— a. j.

540

THE NEGRO IN THE WORLD WAR

To Hazebrouck! To Paris! Montdidier gone! ' 6 Hurry!
Hurry!" cried Clemenceau. ' ' Hurry! Hurry!" pleaded
the aged Premier. He could no longer study the possible
effects of any action of his office upon the future. His con-
cern was the very present need. He wanted men, regard-
less of what adjustments their presence might upset in
future world relationships.

So came a day when the Negro troopers could no
longer be gainsaid. "Give me these men!" cried Joffre.
"I am ready for the 92nd," announced Pershing. "We
submit that they are men without honor, and of inferior
American status," warned some Americans. "We shall
test them," was Foch's laconic reply. "But they are black
men with but 35 ounces of brain — a sub-species of man-
kind," America warned again.

And all France cried: "Send us men — men without
fear of mortal danger — men of intrepid heart — men of
audacity — men of fortitude — men of resolution— men of
unquestioning, unreasoning, undying courage — men of
elan — men of morale! Send Jew or Gentile — white men,
yellow men, brown men, black men — it matters not ! Send
us men who can halt the Hun !"

So early in May of 1918 went up to sea, partly under
their own officers, 90,000 and more American Negroes,
registered as of African descent, and drafted to do battle in
France. It was sub-species against super-man, broad head
against long head, flat nose against sharp nose, thick cra-
nium against Hun helmet. It was this unprecedented syn-
thetic group of black men sailing the sea of darkness on a
mission concerning the vital interests of Englishmen and
Americans who had misused them for centuries, and con-
cerning beloved France, which laid the real claim for honor
and recognition and equality for the American Negro.

The American Negro, as he bade his black comrades
"Good-bye! Good luck! God bless you! Take keer o' yo'

THE NEGRO IN THE WORLD WAR 541

self!" felt in his heart that all America ought to forget her
prejudices. He felt that if she did not do so, she was indeed
only fit to be characterized as narrow-minded, mean-
spirited, illiberal and warped — entirely unfit for the posi-
tion of leadership in democratization of the world.

So taken up with this idea was the entire Negro race
that an editorial appearing in the " Crisis," the leading-
Negro magazine, from the pen of the Negro scholar, W. E.
B. Dubois, came as a dash of cold water from an upper win-
dow. This article set the whole race agog. There was
nothing in it about America's forgetting her prejudices, the
idea which filled the Negro heart and soul and mind. It was
entitled "Close Ranks!" and read as follows:

"This is the crisis of the world. For all the long years
to come men will point to the year 1918 as the great Day of
Decision, the day when the world decided whether it would
submit to military despotism and an endless armed peace —
if peace it could be called — or whether they would put down
the menace of German militarism and inaugurate the
United States of the World.

"We of the colored race have no ordinary interest in
the outcome. That which the German power represents to-
day spells death to the aspirations of Negroes and all
darker races for equality, freedom and democracy. Let us
not hesitate. Let us, while this war lasts, forget our special
grievances and close our ranks shoulder to shoulder with
our own white fellow-citizens and the allied nations that
are fighting for democracy. We make no ordinary sacri-
fice, but we make it gladly and willingly with our eyes
lifted to the hills." While many questioned his motive, all
accepted his advice.

While the grievance was not forgotten, it was not
allowed to jeopardize the success of the issue to weaken the
black man's allegiance. Every mother's son and father's
daughter remained loyal under stress and strain which
would have caused the white man to curse and die.

542

THE NEGRO IN THE WORLD WAR

THE FIELD OF ACTION.

Regiments of Negro stevedores, earlier in the year, had
been drafted and sent overseas. These men were drawn
from a specific locality, and did not represent the entire
nation. They were in command of white officers. They had
been destined for the Service of Supply, a service which
America performed so marvelously well that it is difficult
to tell, if not here, where her chief glory lies.

Black stevedores from Alabama, and Louisiana, and
Mississippi, Virginia and the Carolinas, numbering far
more than the entire black forces of the 92nd Division,
packed and unpacked the American Expeditionary Force in
a manner never attempted since Noah loaded the Ark. Rear
Admiral Wilson and General McClure cited several regi-
ments for exceptionally efficient work. The "Leviathan,"
formerly the German steamship " Vaterland," was unloaded
and coaled, in competition with other white and black steve-
dore regiments, by Company A, 301st Stevedores, young
American Negroes, in fifty-six hours, a world record.

What a cheer went up from the black stevedores of the
far South when there landed in their midst a mighty band
of black infantry, nearly 100,000 strong who, in a few short
months had learned the use of powder and shot, of sword
and broadsword, of bayonet and bludgeon, of trench knife
and battle-ax. Cold steel or blackjack, smooth bore or
sawed-off, machine gun or automatic, were all the same to
them. It was a great experience for stevedore and infantry-
man. And the stevedore's heart leaped to his throat as he
saw the black officers of the 92nd Division maneuver and
march away the men under their command.

The black stevedore wondered why America had
brought him so far under white officers to behold such a
sight. He beheld black quartermasters, ranking and out-
ranking captains, furnishing their men with provision and

THE NEGRO IN THE WORLD WAR

543

supply. The handling of purveyance and cutlery on a huge
scale by black commissioned officers was a revelation to the
black stevedore of the far South who had never seen such a
sight in all his days.

The stevedore beheld arrive Negro signal men, monitors
of their troops and of a million whites behind them, death
watch to the German enemy, destined to be sentinels and
patrolmen of No Man's Land. He saw pass by black Ameri-
can scouts and spies and lookouts and pioneers headed for
the frontiers of France to gain an immortal halo of glory.

The stevedore found in his midst elegantly groomed,
but speechless Negroes whom, his friends whispered to him,
belonged to the United States Intelligence Department.
They had come, so the wide-mouthed stevedore was told, to
pitt their 35 ounces of brain against the German's 45
ounces, and to prove that the Hun back brain is surplus
overweight and should be reduced to Negro proportions.
They had come to furnish G]eneral Pershing information,
news, tidings and dispatch, embassy and bulletin, report
and rumor. And the stevedore wondered if General Persh-
ing would expect these Negro men to report to him informa-
tion with precision and correctitude.

It was the Negro band, fresh from America, which
gave the stevedore his greatest delight. Preceding the
black troops everywhere, it produced a potpourri of full
and semi-scores, melodies and plantation arias, that came
as a refreshing novelty to weary English hearts and to the
souls of jaded Prance.

But there were no Negro "big gun" men. The steve-
dore wondered if the black boys of the 92nd Division would
have to get into the fight with Germany, depending upon
the kind of barrage which some of the men whom he knew
in America might lay down for him. True, the Negro artil-
leryman had been left behind in America. At Camp Taylor
he was spurned and rejected. But he refused to accept re-

544

THE NEGBO IN THE WOELD WAK

buff. He won his way into the heart of commanding
officer and subaltern, gained his training, made a superior
record, witnessed the outpouring of the entire white sol-
diery of the camp to present arms and salute him as he
went away to service, and arrived in France in breathless
haste in time to lay down a perfect barrage for his black
comrades as they advanced through the terrific fighting in
the Argonne and the Marbache. Long will stevedore tradi-
tion recite the story of how these black "big gun men"
came by.

The black stevedore represented a section of the United
States. That section was thoroughly well represented.
There was work done better than it ever had been done be-
fore. But, on the other hand, the 92nd Division had been
drawn from every possible corner of the United States
where a quota might be raised. It was the 92nd Division
especially, however great might be the deeds of local regi-
ments of guard, that would decide the great ultimate ques-
tion. Regiments of Negro guard troops from New York,
Chicago, Washington, Baltimore, and the State of Ohio,
and Negro pioneers from the mountain regions of the Caro-
linas, might cover their respective localities with the sur-
passing glory of their achievements. And every regiment
of them did. But the real issue was wrapped up in the
great 92nd Division, the Negro national army commanded
in large measure by Negro officers, which stepped into the
international arena on that fateful day in June, 1918.

They landed when the German had spent his third
offensive and was at the gates of Paris. Almost the first
news which they received after they had settled on foreign
soil was that Paris, the magic city which they had come so
far to see, was destined to fall into the hands of the Ger-
man. Albeit Chateau Thierry, the turning point of the de-
cisive struggle of 1918, was only achieved when, for the
war, a total of more than a million black men of four conti-

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THE ARREST OF THE ASSASSIN.
Scene immediately after the murder of the Archduke and Archduchess of Austria in the streets of
Sarajevo, Bosnia. The arrest of Gavrio Princip, the murderer.

NATIONAL GUARDSMAN WEARING COMPLETE EQUIPMENT, READY FOR WAR.
A soldier's equipment consists of a great numher of articles, skillfully packed so that they make a
small bundle, considering the number of articles. The kit includes a blanket, rifle, bayonet, kit
bag, cartridge belt, canteen, pan, plate, knife, fork, spoon, tent spikes, rubber blanket aud other
miscellaneous articles. The photo shows three views— side, front and back, with equipment
attached.

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Photo International Film Service.
CAPTURE OF BAPAUME BY BRITISH.
Scene on the day British troops entered Bapaume, a French city evacuated by the Germans in
their retreat to the Hindenburg line. Cheerful British soldiers are seen in a street.

Photo Underwood & Underwood.
FRENCH PASSING THROUGH RECAPTURED NOYON.
They are on the heels of the Germans. The photograph shows how the town was wrecked by the

German h before they evacuated.

THE NEGRO IN THE WORLD WAR

545,

nents had been annihilated, the 92nd Division was eager
for the fray — was anxious to tread the field of action for the
sake of honor, and recognition and equality. It was at
Chateau Thierry, on a day soon after the arrival of the 92nd
Division in France, that Foch, the eminent generalissimo,
but then an almost unknown quantity, again gave voice to
laconicism: "The offensive shall begin and shall continue.
Bring up the colonials!" America was thrown into battle
holding honored position beside Gouraud's invincible
Africanders. The Hun was halted in his tracks, thrown
back across the second Marrie, and hunted like a wolf over
the Hindenburg line and into his native lair.

Soissons, Rheims, Verdun, St. Dizier and Chemin des
Dames, all saw Negro troops of the United States in violent
action. In the Marbache, at Belie Farm, and in the Bois
de Tege d'Or, the Negro guard regiments and the Negro
92nd Division went over and at the Hun.

At Voivrette Farm and in the Bois de Frehaut, other
troops of this same division smote German superman hip
and thigh. In Voivrette Woods and in the Bois de Chemi-
not, at Moulon Brook and Seilie Bridge and Epley the 92nd
Division again victoriously contested the field of honor,
against the best soldiers Prussia might afford. From July
until November, their brothers of the Negro guard regi-
ments, of Negro pioneers and Negro casuals were within
earshot of the murderous rumble of contending artillery.
By November 8 every command in the Negro American di-
vision, including the units of guard, had more than once or
twice been at the front or over the top and at them.

Ralph W. Tyler, of Ohio, a Negro on the staff of Gen-
eral Pershing, representing the Bureau of Public Informa-
tion, says of Hill 304 :

"I have learned that Hill 304, which the French so
valiantly held, and which suffered such a fierce bombard-
ment from the Germans that there is not a single foot of it

546

THE NEGRO IN THE WOELD WAR

but what is plowed up by shells, and whose sides, even to-
day, are literally covered with the corpses of French sol-
diers who still lie where they fell, was later as valiantly held
by the colored soldiers from the United States, who fought
with all the heroism and endurance the best tradition of the
army had chronicled. The colored soldiers who held that
bloody and ever historical Hill 304 had the odds against
them, but like Tennyson's immortal 'Six Hundred/ they
fought bravely and well, firm in the belief 'it was not theirs
to reason why — it was theirs to do and die.' And like the
patriots they were, they did do, and this war's history will
so record.' 9

The Prussian, at last, sought safety in flight. Brit-
isher, Frenchman, Italian, Portuguese, Canadian, black
and white American were at his heels. Italy created a de-
bacle in Austria. And then, wonderful news came through
of what was happening in the Near East.

It had been impossible for the Negroes of America to
come to France and preserve the nicely calculated adjust-
ments which England had set up through the years. The
East Indian, the Arabian, the Egyptian could not but ob-
serve, and observing, fail to understand why American
Negroes could be entrusted in command of troops, if they
were not given the same recognition and honor and equal-
ity. Quietly England prepared them all. Under General
Allenby and dark-skinned officers of the East, the black
Caucasians and the brown Caucasians and the yellow Cau-
casians fell upon the Turk, until, regardless of his German
master, he cried aloud for terms. The horde of dark-
skinned captors of Turkey, under the British supreme com-
mand, threatened and attacked Bulgaria, who quickly suc-
cumbed. So came the Turkish armistice, and the Bulga-
rian armistice and the Austrian armistice.

The Prussian fled from the field of battle. He was not
swift enough. Brought to bay, he cried for mercy. All of
the Neirro American force was to be hurled at him in the

THE NEGRO IN THE WORLD WAR

547

greatest stronghold of the world, Metz. He pleaded with
the American President for armistice, and was referred to
Marshal Foch. It was the great war hero, with the Hohen-
zollern house of cards tumbled about him, who decided that
for three days, until November 11, fighting must continue,
and that in those last hours the Germans must feel at the
hands of all the allies the severest punishment that could
be meted within a limited time. Britishers, Frenchmen,
men of all allied nations sought the honor. The American
Negro could not be denied. Although regiments of Negro
guard and of the 92nd Division had but recently been in
action for a period of from three to five weeks, they craved
the honor of being out in front at the stern and bitter end.
It was practically the entire Negro fighting force of Amer-
ica which, under its own officers, went over the top at day-
break on the final morning of the great four years' strug-
gle, side by side with white men of various nationalities,
who, like them, were ready and most fit for sacrifice or serv-
ice. In the last hours, when life seemed sweeter than all
creation, there thousands of black men of all regiments
overseas fell in search of the coveted honor of being near-
est Berlin as the thunderous crash and din ceased, to roll
no more. Hours before the order came for the supreme and
final sacrifice, Negro signal men had caught from the air
the message which indicated what was to be their special
honor. There was not a man to desert or seek asylum else-
where. All went over the top together !

At the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the elev-
enth month of 1918, the order came to cease firing. The
92nd Division of Negro troops stood at Tharm and before
Metz, in advance of the progress of troops of all America.
The ground which they trod had not been occupied by other
than German troops in 40 years. It was the field of honor,
and recognition and equality, and must be theirs of neces-
sity,, Nature had ruthlessly perfected this type of black

548

THE NEGRO IN THE WORLD WAR

native-born American for the high duties of a soldier. The
war was over. Allies and Americans said to him :

"As brothers we moved together — as brothers — to the
dawn that advanced — to the stars that fled— rendering
thanks to God in the highest, that He, having hid His face
through one long night behind thick clouds of war, once
again will ascend above us in the vision of perpetual
peace."

The Negro felt that, as the ancient Eomans were too
faithful to the ideal of grandeur in themselves not to re-
lent, after a generation or two, before the grandeur of Han-
nibal, so he will not ever be the mere son of a peri.

The Negro knew that he could do one thing as well as
the best of men — a greater thing than Milton or Marlowe
or Charlemagne ever did — he could die grandly the death.
Face forward on the flats of Flanders, in Picardy and Lor-
raine he died grandly, to make the world safe for democ-
racy. For we of America must remember, in all our get-
ting on and up in the world, that, as a psychological
weapon, the bristling bayonet was incomplete until a stal-
wart, desperate black Negro American citizen got behind
it to fight, not for his gain, but for the uplift of the masses
of humanity.

The war was over. It was still a small voice within
that told the Negro hosts: "As this hath been no white
man's war, neither shall it be a white man's peace."

THE AFTERMATH.

But yesterday the nation tried to think of the Negro
as a southern problem, the solution of which belonged to
statesmanship of the South. Often we have endeavored to
think of him as a national problem, and have tried to per-
suade the national government to take in hand matters of
widespread national interest wherein he was involved. But
now we must of necessity think of the Negro as an interna-

THE NEGRO IN THE WORLD WAR

549

tional problem, ramifications of which are bound up in the
roots of aspiration and kindred feeling and powerful po-
tentiality of Frenchman and Britisher, of Asiatic and Slav,
and of the great bodies of darker peoples of all the world.

As the Negro becomes an international problem, no
single section of a country can be entrusted with the admin-
istration of matters pertaining to him. Such administra-
tion may be assigned by international conclave to a particu-
lar country as its national problem, but the proper chan-
nels of administration of international policy will be up
from sectional caucus, through national agency to the in-
ternational parliament, and down from such parliament or
league, through national agencies to the section involved..
And, furthermore, sectional caucus, unless it would fail in
policies of its advocacy, and suffer modification by the Con-
gress or parliament of its central governmental adminis-
tration, must henceforth regard the Negro not as an aggre-
gate all in a mass, but as a synthesis, composed of grada-
tions from lowest to superior. This is the new concept
which the war of 1918 has forced upon America, in spite of
the bias of 1914.

Civilization left the parting of the ways when Wood-
row Wilson's rallying cry for world democratization lead
America into the war. It decided to seek the path of Peace
not along the lin.es of permitted autocracy, but of firmly
and thoroughly well administered democracy. In adminis-
tering democratic government, Negro regiments, graded
from private to superior officer, came first as an academic
proposition, and, finally, as an actuality. They came four
hundred thousand strong. No group of that number can
longer be considered as a mere accumulation of black men.
One hundred thousand Negroes of the 92nd Division and
regiments of guard have been commanded on the field of
action by black headmen, with white headlight. They have
taken their objectives with speed and control and the man-

550

THE NEGRO IN THE WORLD WAR

agement of both of these elements of transfused morale has
been in the hands of colored college men or their military
equals.

The hour of decision to make the world safe for democ-
racy was the crisis of civilization. Victory on the fields of
France has been the satisfactory denouement. The ques-
tion naturally arises : Shall there be a happy ending of the
great drama for the white American and a tragic end-
ing for the Negro? Or, rather, as the American brother-
hood gathers about the charmed circle and smokes the pipe
of peace, shall the Negro report: "I see and am satisfied?''

In other words, shall the 92nd Division of Negro fight-
ers and the greater hosts of black war workers overseas, re-
turn to America with honor in theory, but not pursued in
fact to its logical finality ? Shall these black bulwarks of
the business of world war find the door of the business
world of peace slammed in their faces ? Shall these black
survivors of terrific struggle for world democracy return
home only to be declared unfit to vote an American ballot ?
Shall the black soldier hero be allowed to take his croix de
guerre into a jim-crow car? Shall the black Eed Cross
nurse, rushing to the aid of benighted humanity regardless
of color, be refused accommodation at places of public pro-
prietorship whither she may seek rest or refreshment?
Tragedy begets tragedy. Seventeen seventy-six begot 1861,
and 1861 begot 1914.

The times demand decisive action. Sociological error,
committed today, will cause malformation of an important
member of the American body politic. It will cause the
ship of state to ride an uneven keel. This ship of state must
be brought to her ancient moorings, the Declaration of In-
dependence, the Gettysburg Address of Lincoln, and the
Farewell of Old John Brown on the scaffold.

The tumult has died. Revelry and shouting fill every
program. Is the Negro to return unheralded to homeland,

THE NEGBO IN THE WOELD WAR

and with his eyes to the hills, undergo patting and pitying
and be given a place in the corner? Or are the colored boys
in khaki to announce their return by a vigorous knocking at
the gate? Shall they have cause to cry to America: "A
house divided against itself cannot stand!" And shall they
knock and knock and knock until America sets herself to
wonder what has this army Negro to do that he becomes so
unceremonious ? Or shall they find the gate wide open and
triumphal arches erected in every section of the country in
their honor to signify that defeat of German autocracy
means democratization of every section of the entire world ?
An international conscience demands for the Negro hero a
happy ending of it all.

The Negro looks to the military agencies of America
to produce a genuine peace wherein he may live happy ever
after. Regarded in America as the most alien of aliens be-
fore the war, he demands recognition today as the most
loyal of loyalists. But yesterday Anglo-Saxon prejudice
persisted in viewing him as a physical alien, a mental alien,
a moral alien and a social alien. The Negro is willing to
discuss no further this prejudicial conception of himself
forced home by libelous propaganda and by governmental
administration for hundreds of years, if the agencies of re-
construction will perfect and put in operation a vigorous
Americanization policy in his behalf.

Military life has taught the Negro the advantage de-
rived from the use of pure food and balanced ration. It
has taken him from the ghetto into the pure air of the open
country, and filled his lungs with deep draughts of the free
breezes of France. It has removed him from the tempta-
tion to imbibe the beverage that destroys human faculties
and has accustomed him in a measure to the beneficial use
of purified water. It has undertaken through carefully
selected work, exercise and recreation to perfect the habits
of digestion, assimilation and elimination. The result has

552

THE NEGRO IN THE WORLD WAR

been indeed marvelous. No America Negro who went to
fight for humanity will return to America as the same
physical being. No American will dare stand before the
returned Negro trooper and say: " Behold a sub-species of
mankind, wooly of hair, long of head, with dilated nostrils,
thick lips, thicker cranium, flat foot, prehensile great toe
and larkheel. Tea, behold him, dark of skin, whose men-
tality is like unto a child, and closely related to the anthro-
poid ape ; whose weight of brain is only comparable to that
of the gorilla." Where is the American who will dare
stand before any Negro trooper returned from France and
thus mock and deride him? Military agency has com-
pletely destroyed the physical concept which the white
world had of the Negro in 1914, by placing him in the focus
of Caucasian binocular vision, wherein his better attributes
become visible in their synthetic relation.

In addition, military life has sharpened the mental
powers of the Negro in command to meet the highest ex-
actions of modern warfare. Colonel Charles Denton Young,
Negro graduate of West Point, if we may trust the record,
is capable of the same high character of mental processes as
John J. Pershing. Military test has proven before the
world that the Negro is no mental alien, but heir to all the
ages of Anglo-Saxon, Roman, Greek and Egyptian culture.

In France the American Negro has produced no
notorious offenders against civil or military usage. He has
arisen to the moral concept of high responsibility for the
future of his race in the estimation of all mankind. There
is no story of moral degeneracy which has yet come from
abroad concerning him. Pitfall, temptation and oppor-
tunity for vice and crime have all been shunned in light of
preparation for the higher service. The Negro has proven
his power of moral restraint while guided by leadership of
his own color. As a social being he has sacrificed his life
for the highest form of social existence, democracy. Who,

THE NEGRO IN THE WORLD WAR

553

then, is there to call him alien ? Today he is no longer
Negro, nor Afro-American, nor colored American, nor
American of African descent, but he is American — simply
this, and nothing more.

He has been raised to erect stature and made a man by
the military branch of the United States Government, be-
cause of signal service to the American peoples. His
prayer is that this military government long may live as
such to train the great mass which he calls kin into a syn-
thetic whole.

As he evolved from a student in a military training
camp to military leadership, so he desires the great military
organization of America to continue to exist, that through
its agency he may attend the training camps which lead to
industrial, business, political and social success. Universal
military education for me and mine and all other Ameri-
cans is his slogan, and his aim is to recreate the America of
the early Seventies, which became hardened and callous
through the years by reason of resistance to the German
menace of autocracy, but now removed.

This American has made good in public. He has
demonstrated both efficiency and initiative. He has com-
pelled popular belief to conceive him as a man. The Cau-
casian world he has caused to perceive that he might func-
tion as a valuable and serviceable element of twentieth cen-
tury civilization. Will the Anglo-Saxon issue to him the
warrant of immunities and privileges certifying that he is
four-square with the dominant opinion of mankind, and,
therefore, entitled to superior status ?

To this dark-skinned American are attributed all ele-
ments of beauty and racial grandeur. Forever in survival
of the world's most fit, he goes on, blending readily with
civilization's high ideal, philosophically tolerating abuse
offered by the less refined, effecting a racial consciousness
of purity in inter-social relationships, adapting himself

554 THE NEGRO IN THE WORLD WAR

with symmetry and poise to the tasks of the world, and bow-
ing in humble respect before the higher laws whose harmo-
nies order and rectify all creation.

What will the black Eip Van Winkle behold as he
walks through the corridors of the American Department
of State twenty years hence ? Will he behold a great black
mass still at the veriest bottom of our governmental organ-
ization, or will he be caused to marvel at the synthetic
gradations of black American from lowest to superior ? As
he views progress in all departments of the government,
will he see this real American organized synthetically in all
branches of the service, or will he behold him still employed
as the boy or the mere high private ? Time and the great
heart of America will tell.

The center of gravity of world interest of 1914 has
shifted and come to rest at a spot most significant for
darker peoples. Victory to all participants in its glorious
achievement must be less disastrous than defeat. In order
to satisfy the liberal opinion of the world, some form of
autonomy must be devised for the newly organized man in
America. Durable peace requires that American prejudice
be utterly and forever stamped out ; first by the recon-
structed organization of % the American Expeditionary
Force, which beheld its organizations of every race and
creed under fire and in action ; second, by the American
people of every locality, who have forced upon them by
world war the new concept of a branch of the species once
considered inferior ; and, third, by the powers of the world,
who must prevent the upgrowths in America from offering
malignant germs of unrest to their own systems of national
government.

After the Negro has proved his value and worth in all
of these trying ways, when after this he asks for a full
measure of equal rights, what American will have the heart
or the hardihood to say him nay ?

THE NEGRO IN THE NAVY.

Achievements of the Negro in the American Navy — Guarding the Trans-
Atlantic Route to France — Battling the Surmarine Peril — The Best
Sailors in Any Navy in the World — Making a Navy in Three Months
from Negro Stevedores and Laborers — Wonderful Accomplishments of
Our Negro Yeomen and Yeowomen.

STRANGER than fiction, the story of the organization,
development and expansion of the United States navy
from a mere atom, as it were, to the present time, when
her electrically propelled men-of-war, equipped with the
most luxurious compartments and modern mechanism for
despatch and communication as wTell as her great merchant
marine, floating the emblem of freedom and democracy
in every civilized port of the world, is one of the most
fascinating pages in the history of human achievement.

And, as it were, the very culmination of wonder and
admiration, the chain of events reciting the deeds of valor
and unselfish devotion to duty upon the part of her black
sons, constitutes an illustrious record easily marking its
participants as conspicuous representatives of a people,
who have wron their tardily conceded recognition in every
phase of American public life.

The services of the Negro in the American navy very
properly begin with the stirring and thrilling events of
the American Revolution, which terminated in the inde-
pendence of the colonies and the establishment of the
United States.

THE NEGRO IN THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR.

The Negro in the navy was then and has been ever
since no less devoted to duty and as fearless of death as
Crispus Attucks, when he fell on Boston Commons, the
first martyr of American independence.

555

556

THE NEGRO IN THE NAVY.

In speaking of colored seamen, who showed great hero-
ism, Nathaniel Shaler, commander of the private armed
schooner General Thompson, said of an engagement be-
tween his vessel and a British frigate: "The name of one
of my poor fellows, who wras killed, ought to be regis-
tered in the book of fame, and remembered with rever-
ence as long as bravery is considered a virtue. He was
a black man by the name of John Johnson. A twenty-
four pound shot struck him in his hip, and took away all
the lower part of his body. In this state, the poor brave
fellow lay on the deck, and several times exclaimed to his
shipmates, 'Fire away, my boy! No haul color down!'
Another black by the name of John Davis was wounded
in much the same way. He fell near me, and several times
requested to be thrown overboard, saying he was only in
the way of others. When American can boats of such
tars she has little fear from the tyrants of the ocean."

British gold and promises of personal freedom served
as futile incentives among the Negroes of the American
navy ; for them, the proud consciousness of duty well done
served as a constant monitor and nerved their strong black
arms when thundering shot and shell menaced the future
of the country; and, although African slavery was still a
recognized legal institution and constituted the basic fabric
of the great food productive industry of the nation, it was
the Negro's trusted devotion to duty which ever guided
him in the nation's darkest hours of peril and menace.

NEGROES IN THE WAR OF 1812.

In the second period, the War of 1812, a second fight
with Great Britain, again made it necessary to call upon
the Negro for his assistance. Whether with Perry on
Lake Erie, Commodore MacDonough, Lawrence or
Chauncey, the black man played his heroic and sacrificing

THE NEGRO IN THE NAVY.

557

role, struggling and dying that American arms and valor,
the security of American lives and property, would suffer
no destruction at the hands of the enemy. The fine words
of Commodore Chauncey, commending their dauntless in-
trepidity and unswerving obedience and loyalty to the rig-
orous demands of duty, should be read and carefully
studied by all men, friendly to human excellence and
courage.

COMMODORE CHAUNCEY'S TRIBUTE.

The following is a statement of Commodore Perry,
expressing dissatisfaction at the troops sent him on Lake
Erie: "I have this moment received by express the en-
closed letter of General Harrison. If I had officers and
men,— and I have no doubt that you will send them,— I
could fight the enemy and proceed up the lake; but, hav-
ing no one to command the Majestic and only one com-
missioned officer and two acting lieutenants, whatever my
wishes may be, getting out is out of the question. The.
men that came by Mr. Champlin are a motley set,— blacks,
soldiers, and boys. I can not think that you saw them
after they were selected. I am, however, pleased to see
anything in shape of a man."

The following is the reply from Commodore Chauncey
to Commodore Perry in answer to the above letter: "Sir,
I have been duly honored with your letters of the 23d and
26th ultimo and notice your anxiety for men and officers.
I am equally anxious to furnish you; and no time shall
be lost in sending officers and men to you as soon as the
public service will allow me to send them from this lake.
I regret that you are not pleased with the men sent you
by Messrs. Champlin and Forest; for, to my knowledge,
a part of them are not surpassed by any seamen we have
in the fleet; and I have yet to learn that the color of skin,

558

THE NEGRO IN THE NAVY.

or the cut and trimmings of the coat, can affect a man's
qualifications and usefulness.

"I have nearly fifty blacks on board this ship, and
many of them are among my best men, and I presume
that you will find them as good and useful as any on board
your vessel; at least if you can judge by comparison; for
those which we have on board this ship are attentive and
obedient, and, as far as I can judge, are excellent seamen.
At any rate, the men sent to Lake Erie have been selected
with the view of sending a proportion of petty officers
and seamen and I presume upon examination, it will be
found that they are equal to those upon this lake."

THE COLORED MAN IN THE MEXICAN WAR.

In the Mexican War (1845-1848) we find him, in his
humble positions of service and usefulness, a positive fac-
tor in the final success and triumph of American ideals.
No insidious treacheries, no dark plots of poison, arson
and unfaithfulness characterized his conduct, and, in the
final and complete blockade of the Mexican ports, his con-
tribution of faithful and loyal service made effective the
terms by which Generals Scott and Taylor taught the ever-
observed lesson of American dominence upon the Western
Hemisphere and thereby preserved the Monroe Doctrine.

IN THE DAYS OF THE CIVIL WAR.

In the Civil War— when the violence of domestic strife
menaced the continuance of the National Union ; when the
preservation of slavery constituted the subject of angry
and stormy debate in every section of the country, it was
in the navy, no less than in the army, that the Negro
evinced that dauntless fidelity to duty which aided in sta-
bilizing the discipline of the field forces, thereby effectively
contributing to the success not alone of forcing the Miss-

THE NEGRO IN THE NAVY.

559

issippi, and intersecting the Confederacy, but also in her-
metically sealing all Southern ports and reducing to
imperceptible insignificance the possibility of foreign
trade with the South,— a factor which made it doubly sure
that Northern arms would ultimately triumph and the
Union be saved. It was a colored man, Robert Small, who
single handed, stole the Union cruiser Panther 'from
Charleston harbor, foiled the Confederate fleet, and navi-
gated her safely to a Union port. In all the annals of
courage and dazzling gallantry, this incident has been re-
cited; and it constitutes a commendable example, with
many others, however, of devotion to duty and undying
love for freedom. Mr. Small became a successful busi-
ness man, and was one of the few Negroes who served in
the Congress of the United States.

THE NEGRO IN THE SPANISH WAR.

The Spanish- American War (1898-1900) also has its
roll of honorable dead and surviving heroes— it was a
Negro who fired the first shot at Manila Bay, from the
cruiser Olympia, flag ship of the late Admiral Dewey,
commanding the American forces on the Asiatic station.
He was John Christopher Jordan, chief gunner's mate
(retired) U. S. N. His career is a fair example of the
Negro's ability. He was first enlisted in the United States
navy on June 17, 1877, as an apprentice of the third class,
the very lowest rating in which he could have entered. He
advanced, despite opposition, through the different grades
in direct competition with his white shipmates to the grade
of chief gunner's mate, the highest rating that could be
reached in the enlisted status.

It was not because of his lack of desire for further
advancement that he did not go higher, nor was it due to
his not being qualified, for it was conceded by all officers

560

THE NEGRO IN THE NAVY.

under whom lie served that he was thoroughly competent
and highly qualified for advancement. He was finally
recommended by his superior officer for the position of
warrant gunner, and the papers passed up for final ap-
proval by the commander-in-chief of the fleet, before being
sent to the secretary of the navy. There he encountered
the Negro's most formidable foe— prejudice. That offi-
cial very unceremoniously forwarded the papers to the
navy department with the following endorsement: " Re-
spectfully forwarded to the secretary of the navy— disap-
proved. The explanation of disapproval will be found in
the applicant's descriptive list."

However, this slur did not deter Jordan in his deter-
mination to go higher, for at the battle of Manila he was
a gunner's mate of the first class, and his record was so
conspicuous that it could not go unnoticed by the officials
in Washington.

FINAL RECOGNITION.

The following letter was then addressed to Jordan's
commanding officer by the bureau of navigation: The
Bureau notes that John C. Jordan, gunner's mate first
class, has served as such with a creditable service since
August 6, 1899. The chief of bureau directs me to request
an expression of opinion from the commanding officer as
to whether Jordan possesses that superior intelligence,
force of character and ability to command, necessary for
a chief petty officer and particularly as to whether he is in
all respects qualified for the position of chief gunner's
mate of a first-class modern battleship."

The reply to this letter was to the effect that Jordan
was in all respects qualified, and by order of the secretary
of the navy, he was advanced to the grade of chief petty
officer, filling this position with efficiency to the service
and with credit to his race, until December 1, 1916, at

THE NEGRO IN THE NAVY.

561

which time he was retired, after serving thirty years in
the navy of the United States. The following letter was
addressed to him by the secretary of the navy upon this
occasion :

"The department desires to congratulate you upon
the completion of thirty years' service in the navy. The
fact that you started as an apprentice and now retire as
a chief petty officer, your several honorable discharges and
good conduct medals, show that you were a valuable man
in the upbuilding of the navy, and w7hile the department
is glad to know7 that you will now enjoy the benefits of
the retirement law, yet it regrets very much to see you
retire from active life in the navy. The department hopes
that you will always take a lively interest in naval affairs,
and wishes you many years of good health and usefulness."

OTHER INSTANCES.

Another very interesting character of the navy during
this period wras Mr. C. D. Tippett of Washington D. C,
who enlisted in the navy in 1875, and who served honor-
ably and faithfully, until recently, when he wTas retired
for honorable service. Mr. Tippett enjoys the distinction
of having crossed the equator on two different occasions,
and holds a certificate from Neptune, a relic highly treas-
ured by all naval men fortunate enough to hold one.

It has been the object of the preceding paragraphs
to briefly recite some few instances of the Negro's activity
in the American navy from its beginning up to the present
struggle. Space and time will not permit a more detailed
and accurate exposition of the many other cases equally
as interesting, instructive, and illustrative of the superb
discipline and devotion to duty of this race whenever and
wherever called upon to serve.

562

THE NEGRO IN THE NAVY.

THE NEGRO SEAMAN IN THE WORLD WAR.

The extent of the Negro's work in the army and the
record of its brilliant achievements may in some degree
obscure the service rendered our country and its Allies
by the Negro in the navy, but the Negro was represented
in this branch of the military service almost in the same pro-
portion, and, just as with Perry on Lake Erie, Farragut on
the Mississippi, Dewey at Manila Bay, Hobson at Santi-
ago, and Peary at the North Pole, he rendered efficient
heroic and honorable service during the World War. It
must be remembered that our ships were a part of the great
war forces which kept open the highways of the deep and
made possible the final triumph of the Allied armies, for,
had the command of the ocean slipped from our hands
those armies would have languished and been beaten back
for lack of support in men and material. Had the sceptre
of the seas passed to our foes, our own black boys would
never have inscribed on their banner the imperishable
name of Chateau-Thierry, The Argonne, and Hill 304.
The one essential and indisputable element of victory was
the supremacy of the Allied fleet.

NEGROES IN THE GRAND FLEET.

The Negro's part in the organization of the Grand
Fleet is far from being inconsiderable, his services were
utilized in the complement of every vessel and shore sta-
tion and at this time as in the past, black blood was among
the very first to be gloriously shed in the American navy,
that free government should live imperishably among the
sons of men.

On November 4, 1917, the TJ. S. S. Alcedo proceeded to
sea from Quiberon Bay on escort duty to take convoy
through the war zone; she had as members of her crew

THE NEGRO IN THE NAVY.

563

two young Negroes, just in the prime of life and patriotic
to the core. It was the crew of this vessel that was first
called upon to make the supreme sacrifice. Robert McCray
and Earnest Harrison were their names, and the follow-
ing report fully indicates the manner in which they gave
their lives in order that democracy might not perish from
the earth: "At or about 1:45 A. M., November 5th, while
sleeping in emergency cabin, immediately under upper
bridge, I was awakened by a commotion and immediately
received a report from some man unknown, 'Submarine,
Captain. '

"I jumped out of bed and went to the upper
bridge, and the officer of the deck, Lieutenant Paul, stated
he had sounded ' General quarters,' had seen submarine
on surface about three hundred yards on port bow, and
submarine had fired a torpedo, which was approaching. I
took station on port wing of upper bridge and saw torpedo
approaching about two hundred yards distant. Lieutenant
Paul had put the rudder full right before I arrived on
bridge, hoping to avoid the topedo. The ship answered
slowly to her helm however, and before any other action
could be taken the torpedo I saw struck the ship's side
immediately under the port forward chain plates, the de-
tonation occurring instantly.

"I was thrown down and for a few seconds dazed by
falling debris and water. Upon regaining my feet I
sounded the submarine alarm on the siren, to call all hands
if they had not heard the general alarm gong, and to direct
their attention of the convoy and other escorting vessels.
Called to the forward gun's crew to see if at stations, but
by this time realized that the forecastle was practically
awash. The foremast had fallen, carrying away radio
aerial. I called out to abandon ship.

564

THE NEGRO IN THE NAVY.

THE SINKING SHIP.

"I then left the upper bridge and went into the chart
house to obtain ship's position from the chart, but, as there
was no light, could not see. I then went out of the chart
house and met the navigator, Lieutenant Leonard, and
asked him if he had sent any radio; he replied 'No.' I
then directed him and accompanied him to the main deck
and told him to take charge of cutting away forward dories
and life rafts. I then proceeded along starboard gang-
way and found a man lying face down in gangway. I
stooped and rolled him over and spoke to him, but received
no reply and was unable to learn his identity, owing to
the darkness. It is my opinion that this man was dead.
I then continued to the after end of ship, took station on
after gun platform.

"I then realized that the ship was filling rapidly and
her bulwarks amidships were level with the water. I di-
rected the after dories and life rafts to be cut away and
thrown overboard and ordered the men in the immediate
vicinity to jump over the side, intending to follow them.
Before I could jump, however, the ship listed heavily to
port, plunging by the head and sunk, carrying me down
with the suction.

STRUGGLE IN THE WATER.

"X experienced no difficulty, however, in getting clear
and when I came to the surface I swam a few yards to a
life raft, to which were clinging three men. We climbed
on board this raft and upon looking around observed Doyle,
chief boastwain's mate, and one other man in the whale
boat. We paddled to the whale boat and embarked from
the life raft. The whale boat was about half full of water
and we immediately started bailing and then to rescue men
from the wreckage, and quickly filled the whale boat to

THE NEGRO IN THE NAVY.

565

more than its maximum capacity, so that no others could
be taken aboard. We then picked up two overturned
dories which were nested together, separated them and
righted them, only to find that their sterns had been broken.

"We then located another nest of dories, which were
found to be seaworthy. Transferred some men from the
whale boat into these dories and proceeded to pick up other
men from wrreckage. During this time cries wTere heard
from two men in the water some distance away who were
holding on to wreckage and calling for assistance. It is
believed that these men were Earnest M. Harrison and
John Winne, Jr. As soon as the dories wTere available,
we proceeded to where they were last seen but could find
no trace of them.

" About this time, which was probably an hour after
the ship sank, a German submarine approached the scene
of torpedoing and lay to, near some of the dories and life
rafts. She was in the light condition, and from my obser-
vation of her I am of the opinion that she was of the TJ-27-
31 type. This has been confirmed by having a number of
men and officers check the silhouette book. The submarine
was probably one hundred yards distant from my whale
boat, and I heard no remarks from anyone on the sub-
marine, although I observed three persons standing on top
of conning tower. After laying on surface about half an
hour the submarine steered off and submerged. I then
proceeded with the whale boat and two dories searching
through the wreckage to make sure that no survivors were
left in the water. No other people being seen, at 4:30
A. M. we steered away from the scene of disaster. The
Alcedo was sunk, near as I can estimate, seventy-five miles
west true of north end of Belle He. The torpedo struck
ship at 1 :46 by the officer of the deck's watch and the same
watch stopped at 1:54 A. M. November 5th, this showing

566

THE NEGRO IN THE NAVY.

that the ship remained afloat eight minutes. The flare of
Penmark Light was visible, and I headed for it and ascer-
tained the course by Polaris to be approximately north-
east. We rowed until 1 :15, when Penmark Lighthouse was
sighted. Continued rowing until 5:15 P. M., when Pen-
mark Lighthouse was distant about two and one-half miles.
We were then picked up by French torpedo boat number
257, and upon going on board I requested the commanding
officer to radio immediately to Brest reporting the fact of
torpedoing and that three officers and forty men were pro-
ceeding to Brest. The French gave all assistance possible
for the comfort of the survivors. We arrived at Brest
about 11 P. M. Those requiring medical attention were
sent to the hospital and the others were sent off to the
Panther to be quartered. Upon arrival at Brest I was
informed that two other dories containing Lieut. H. R.
Leonard, Lieut. H. A. Peterson, P. A. Aurgeon, Paul O.
M. Andreae, and twenty-five men had landed at Pen March
Point. This is my first intimation that these officers and
men had been saved, as they had not been seen by any
of my party at the scene of torpedoing."

DISAPPEARANCE OF THE CYCLOPS.

The next contribution of life on the part of the Negro
in the American navy was made when the U. S. S. war
vessel Cyclops so mysteriously disappeared. Loaded with
a cargo of manganese, with fifty-seven passengers, twenty
officers, and a crew of two hundred and thirteen enlisted
men (twenty-three of whom were Negroes). The vessel
was due in port March 13, 1918. On March 4, the Cyclops
reported at "Barbadoes, British West Indies, where she
put in for bunker coal. Since her departure from that
port there has not been the slightest trace of the vessel,
and long continued and vigilant search of the entire region

THE NEGRO IN THE NAVY.

567

proved utterly futile, as not a vestige of wreckage has
been discovered. No responsible explanation of the strange
and mysterious disappearance of this vessel has ever been
given by the officials of the Navy Department. It was
known that one of her two engines was damaged, and that
she was proceeding at reduced speed ; but, even if the other
engine had become disabled, it would not have had any
effect on her ability to communicate by radio.

Many theories have been advanced, but none seems to
account satisfactorily for the ship's complete vanishment.
After months of search and waiting, the Cyclops was fin-
ally given up as lost and her crew officially declared dead.
This vessel was under the command of a German-born
officer, who, prior to his connection with the Navy Depart-
ment, was an officer of the merchant marine. Many accu-
sations were made reflecting upon his loyalty. Some even
going as far as suggesting that he had intimidated the
crew and delivered the vessel into the hands of the enemy;
but, it is strange to note that none of these insinuations
was directed to the loyal and ever true Negroes who formed
a part of its crew and presumably went to their watery
graves in order that German militarism might be crushed.

What a strange episode if , indeed, these are the facts
in this most unfortunate incident. In intelligent circles,
it should and will mark the beginning of a period of racial
justice and equity. When one's deeds and character will
invariably constitute the exponent of one's appreciation.

THE NEGRO TRUE AND LOYAL.

Caucasion treachery in some of our national perils
presented no charms for the Negro whose proven fidelity
everywhere and on every occasion marks him the great
American advocate in fact as well as in profession.

If these accusations should in the end prove true,

568 THE NEGRO IN THE NAVY.

which is highly possible, would it not have been wiser on
the part of the directors of our naval policy, when the
urgent pressure for man-power to officer the expanding
navy of the United States asserted itself, to have recog-
nized the ability and merit of scores of black men, whose
years of faithful and efficient service in the navy of the
United States and unquestioned fidelity to duty justly en-
title them to the command of a vessel of this character,
instead of utilizing the services of men of questioned loyalty
and doubtful allegiance to command our naval vessels?
For such an act of base and unpardonable treachery is
unthinkable to a Negro. Rather would he most willingly
have seen his last drop of rich loyal blood flow in torrents
of effusion than to leave to his progeny such a record of
shame and infamy.

THE JACOB JONES.

Another incident in which the Negro displayed his
constant willingness to die for the cause of America and
its ideals was when the United States torpedo boat de-
stroyer Jacob Jones wras destroyed by a torpedo fired from
a German submarine. This ship was one of six of an
escorting group which was returning independently from
Brest, France, to Queensland, Ireland. The following ex-
tract from the report of its commanding officer gives in
brief detail the manner in which the majority of its crew
met their death in an effort to uphold the principles of
democracy. On this vessel, as well as all others that were
lost, the Negro served, bled, and died, side by side with
white men in a desperate struggle to subdue the German
U-boat.

"I was in the chart house and heard some one cry
out, 'Torpedo.' I jumped at once to the bridge and on
the way up saw the torpedo about eight hundred yards from
the ship approaching from about one point abaft the star-

THE NEGRO IN THE NAVY.

569

board beam headed for a point about amidships, making
a perfectly straight surface run (alternately broaching and
submerging to approximately four or five feet), at an esti-
mated speed of at least forty knots. No periscope was
sighted. When I reached the bridge, I found that the
officer of the deck had already put the rudder hard left
and rung up the emergency speed on the engine room
telegraph. The ship had already begun to swing to the
left. I personally rang up the emergency speed again
and then turned to watch the torpedo. The executive offi-
cer left the chart house just ahead of me, saw the torpedo
immediately on getting outside the door, and estimates that
the torpedo when he sighted it was one thousand yards
away, approaching from one point, or slightly less, abaft
the beam and making exceedingly high speed.

"After seeing the torpedo and realizing the straight
run, line of approach, and high speed it was making, I was
convinced that it was impossible to manouver to avoid it.
The officer of the deck took prompt measures in man-
euvering to avoid the torpedo. The torpedo broached and
jumped clear of the water at a short distance from the
ship, submerged about fifty or sixty feet from the ship
and struck approximately three feet below the water-line
in the fuel oil tank between the auxiliary room and the
after crew space.

THE SLOWLY SINKING SHIP.

"The ship settled aft immediately after being torpedoed
to a point at which the deck just forward of the after deck
house was awash, and then, more gradually, until the deck
abreast the engine room hatch was awash. A man on watch
in the engine room attempted to close the water-tight door
between the auxiliary room and the engine room, but was
unable to do so against the pressure of water from the

570

THE NEGRO IN THE NATY.

auxiliary room. The deck over the forward part of the
after crew space and over the fuel oil tanks just forward
of it was blown clear for a space athwartships of about
twenty feet from starboard to port, and the auxiliary room
was wrecked. The starboard after topedo tube was blown
into the air. No fuel oil ignited and apparently no am-
munition exploded.

"The depth charges in the chutes aft were set on ready
and exploded after the stern sank. It was impossible to
get to them to set on safe as they were under the water.

"As soon as the torpedo struck, it was attempted to
send out an S. O. S. message by radio, but the mainmast
was carried away and antannae falling and all electric
power had failed. I then tried to have the gun sight lighting
batteries connected up in an effort to send out a low power
message with them, but it was at once evident that this
would not be practicable before the ship sank. There was
no other vessel in sight, and it was therefore impossible
to get through a distress signal of any kind. Immediately
after the ship was torpedoed every effort was made to get
rafts and boats launched. Also, the circular life belts from
the bridge and several splinter mats from the outside of
the bridge were cut adrift and afterwards proved very
useful in holding men up until they could be got to the raft.

STRUGGLING MEN IN THE WATER.

"The ship sank about 4:29 P. M. (about eight min-
utes after being torpedoed). As I saw her settling rapidly,
I ran along the deck and ordered everybody I saw to jump
overboard. At this time, most of those not killed by the
explosion had got clear of the ship and were on rafts or
wreckage. Some, however, were swimming and a few
appeared to be about a ship's length astern of the ship,

THE NEGRO IN THE NAVY. 571

at some distance from the rafts, probably having jumped
overboard very soon after the ship was torpedoed.

" Before the ship sank, two shots were fired from No. 4
gun with the hope of attracting the attention of some near-
by ship. As the ship began sinking I jumped overboard.
The ship sank stern first and twisted slowly through nearly
one hundred and eighty degrees as she swung upright.
From this nearly vertical position, bow in the air, to about
the forward point, she went straight down. Before the
ship reached the vertical position the depth charges ex-
ploded, and I believe them to have caused the death of a
number of men. They also partially paralyzed, stunned, or
dazed a number of others, some of whom are still disabled.

SAFEGUARDING THE SURVIVORS.

" Immediate efforts were made to get all survivors on
the rafts and then get the rafts and boats together. Three
rafts were launched before the ship sank and one floated
off when she sank. The motor dory, hull undamaged but
engine out of commission, also floated off and the punt
and wherry also floated clear. The punt was wrecked be-
yond usefulness and the wherry was damaged and leaking
badly, but was of considerable use in getting men to the
rafts. The whale boat was launched but capsized soon
afterwards, having been damaged by the explosion of the
depth charges. The motor sailor did not float clear, but
went down with the ship.

" About fifteen or twenty minutes after the ship sank,
the submarine appeared on the surface about two or three
miles to the westward of the raft, and gradually ap-
proached until about eight hundred or one thousand yards
from the ship, where it stopped and was seen to pick up
one unidentified man from the water. The submarine then
submerged and was not seen again.

572

THE NEGRO IN THE NAVY.

BY MOTOR DORY TO THE SCILLY ISLANDS.

"I was picked up by the motor dory and at once began
to make arrangements to reach the Scillys in that boat
in order to get assistance to those on the rafts. All the
survivors then in sight were collected and I gave orders to
one of the officers to keep them together. The navigating
officer had fixed the position a few minutes before the
explosion and both he and I knew accurately the course
to be steered. I kept one of the officers with me and four
men who were in good condition to man the oars, the
engine being out of commission. With the exception of
some emergency rations and a half bucket of water, all
provisions, including medical kit, were taken from the
dory and left on the rafts. There was no apparatus of
any kind which could be used for night signalling.

" After a very trying trip, during which it was neces-
sary to steer by stars and by direction of the wind, the
dory was picked up about 1 P. M. by a small patrol vessel
about six miles south of St. Mary's. The commander in-
forming me that the rest of the survivors had been picked
up. I deeply regret to state that out of a total of several
officers and one hundred and six enlisted men on board
at the time of the torpedoing, two officers and sixty-four
enlisted men were killed in the performance of duty. The
behavior of the men under the most exceptional and trying
conditions is worthy of praise, and the following cases
are a sample of the spirit of the men under these conditions.

INSTANCE OF RARE SELF-DENIAL.

"One man removed parts of his clothing (when all
realized that their lives depended upon keeping warm),
to try to keep alive men wl^o were more thinly clad than
himself. Another man at the risk of almost certain death,
remained in the motor sailor and endeavored to get it clear

THE NEGRO IN THE NAVY.

573

for floating from the ship. While he did not succeed in
accomplishing this act (which would have undoubtedly
saved twenty or thirty lives) stuck to his duty until the
very last. He was drawn under the water with the boat,
but later came to the surface and was rescued."

"Wallace Simpson, a young Negro, was a petty officer
aboard this vessel. Young Simpson was a graduate of the
high school, Denver, Colorado, and at the call of his coun-
try, when but in the prime of his life, made the supreme
sacrifice in order that the world might be made safe for
democracy.

NEGRO FIREMEN AND COAL PASSERS.

It seems that fate always throwTs the Negro in a line
of service wherein he can by some method, peculiarly his
own, have an opportunity to display his ability, loyalty
and usefulness, in spite of prejudice and opposition. I
particularly refer here to the positions of firemen and coal
passers, because of the physical strength required for wrork
of that kind. The Negro can serve better in the American
navy in this capacity than in any other, with the possible
exception of the messman branch of service; but, never-
theless, in the former positions he has a decidedly better
opportunity to bring into play originality and foresight,
for the fire-room is the life of the ship and especially so
when attacked.

When one of the vessels of our navy had been hit with
one torpedo from an enemy submarine and was about to
be hit with a second, the commanding officer had the fol-
lowing statement to make : "I realized that the immediate
problem was to escape a second torpedo. To do so, two
things wTere necessary, to attack the enemy, and to make
more speed than he could submerged. The depth charge
crew jumped to their stations and immediately started

574

THE NEGRO IN THE NAVY.

dropping depth bombs. A barrage of depth charges was
dropped, exploding at regular intervals far below the sur-
face of the water. This work was beautifully done. The
explosidns must have shaken the enemy up, at any rate
he never came to the surface again to get a look at us.

"The other factor in the problem was to make as much
speed as possible, not only in order to escape an imme-
diate attack, but also to prevent the submarine from track-
ing us and attacking us after nightfall.

"The men in the fire rooms knew that the safety of
the ship and our lives depended on their bravery and stead-
fastness to duty. It is difficult to conceive a more trying
ordeal to one's courage than was presented to every man
in the fire room that escaped destruction. The profound
shock of the explosion, followed by instant darkness, fall-
ing soot and particles, the knowledge that they were far
below the water level, practically enclosed in a trap, the
imminent danger of the ship sinking, the added threat of
exploding boilers— all these dangers and more must have
been apparent to every man below, and yet not one man
wavered in standing by his post of duty.

WONDERFUL DEVOTION TO DUTY.

"No better example can possibly be given of the won-
derful fact that with a brave and disciplined body of
American men, white or black, all things are possible.
However strong may be their momentary impulses for self-
preservation in extreme danger, their controlling impulses
are to stand by their stations and duty at all hazards.

"In at least two instances in this crisis below, men
who were actually in the face of death did actually forget
or ignored their impulse of self-preservation and endeav-
ored to do what appeared to them to be their duty. One
man was in one of the flooded fire rooms. He was thrown

THE NEGRO IN THE NAVY.

575

to the floor and instantly enveloped in flames from the
burning gases driven from the furnaces, but instead of
rushing to escape, he turned and endeavored to shut a
water-tight door leading into a large bunker abaft the fire
room. But the hydraulic lever that operated the door had
been injured by the shock and failed to function. Three
men at work at this bunker were drowned. If this man
had succeeded in shutting the door, the lives of these men
would have been saved as well as considerable bouyancy
saved to the ship. The fact that he, though profoundly
stunned by the shock and almost fatally burned by the
furnace gases, should have had presence of mind and the
courage to endeavor to shut the door is a great example
of heroic devotion to duty as is possible for one to imagine.
Immediately after attempting to close the door he was
caught in the swirl of inrushing water and thrust up a
ventilator leading to the upper deck.

STRANGE EFFECT OF THE EXPLOSIONS.

"The torpedo exploded on a bulkhead separating two
fire rooms, the explosive effect being apparently equal in
both fire rooms, yet, in one fire room not a man was saved,
while in the other fire room two of the men escaped. The
explosion blasted through the outer and inner skin of the
ship and through an intervening coal bunker and bulk-
head, hurling overboard seven hundred and fifty tons of
coal. The two men saved were working the fires within
thirty feet of the explosion and just below the level where
the torpedo struck.

"It is difficult to see how it was possible for these men
to have escaped the shower of debris, coal and water that
must instantly have followed the explosion. However, the
two men were not only saved but seemed to have retained
full possession of their faculties. Both of them were

576

THE NEGRO IN THE NAVY.

knocked down and blown across the fire room. Their sensa-
tions were at first a shower of flying coal, followed by an
overwhelming inrush of water that swirled them round and
round and finally thrust them up against the gratings of
the top of the fire rooms."

THE ATTACK UPON THE TORPEDO BOAT CASSIN.

Another instance of self-sacrifice and unparalleled
heroism is contained in the account of the attack upon the
torpedo boat Cassin by a German submarine, while on
patrol duty off the coast of Ireland. The following is the
story briefly related in the official report of her command-
ing officer:

"When about twenty miles south of Minehead, at 1:30
P. M., a German submarine was sighted by the lookout
aloft four or five miles away, about two points on the port
bow. The submarine at this time was awash and was made
out by officers of the watch and the quartermaster of the
watch, but three minutes later submerged. The Cassin
which was making fifteen knots continued on its course
until near the position where the submarine had disap-
peared. When last seen the submarine was heading in a
southeasterly direction, and when the destroyer reached the
point of disappearance the course was changed, as it was
thought the vessel would make a decided change of course
after submerging. At this time the commanding officer,
the executive officer, engineer officer, officer of the watch,
and the junior watch officers were all on the bridge search-
ing for the submarine.

THE ATTACK.

" About 1 :57 P. M., the commanding officer sighted a
torpedo apparently shortly after it had been fired, run-
ning near the surface and in a direction that was esti-

THE NEGRO IN THE NAVY.

577

mated would make a hit either in the engine or fire room.
When first seen the torpedo was between three or four
hundred yards from the ship, and the wake could be fol-
lowed on the other side for about four hundred yards.
The torpedo was running at high speed, at least thirty-
five knots. The Cassin was manoeuvering to dodge the tor-
pedo, double emergency full speed ahead having been sig-
nalled from the engine room and the rudder put hard left
as soon as the torpedo was sighted. It looked for the
moment as though the torpedo would pass astern. When
about fifteen or twenty feet away the torpedo porpoised,
completely leaving the water and sheering to the left. Be-
fore again taking the water the torpedo hit the ship well
aft on the port side about frame one hundred sixty-three
and above the water line. Almost immediately after the
explosion of the torpedo the depth charges, located on the
stern and ready for firing, exploded. There were two dis-
tinct explosions in quick succession after the torpedo hit.

"But one life was lost. Osman K. Ingram, gunner's
mate, first class, was cleaning the muzzle of number 4 gun,
target practice being just over when the attack occurred.
With rare presence of mind, realizing that the torpedo
was about to strike the part of the ship where the depth
charges were stored and that the setting off of these ex-
plosions might sink the ship, Ingram, immediately seeing
the danger, ran aft to strip these charges and throw them
overboard. He was blown to pieces when the torpedo
struck. Thus, Ingram sacrificed his life in the perform-
ance of a duty which he believed would save his ship and
the lives of the officers and men on board."

TORPEDOING THE PRESIDENT LINCOLN.

One of the most spectacular and thrilling incidents of
our naval warfare in which more than a score of colored

578

THE NEGRO IN THE NAVY.

men bravely and heroically participated, was the attack
and sinking of the U. S. 8. President Lincoln, the com-
manding officer of which reports as follows:

"On May 31, 1918, the President Lincoln was return-
ing to America from a voyage to France, and was in line
formation with the U. 8. S. Susquehanna, Antigone, and
Byndam, the latter being on the left flank of the forma-
tion and about eight hundred yards from the President
Lincoln. The ships were about five hundred miles from
the coast of France and had passed through what was con-
sidered to be the most dangerous part of the war zone.
*At about 9 A. M. a terrific explosion occurred on the port
side of the ship about one hundred and twenty feet from
the bow and immediately afterwards another explosion
occurred on the port side of the ship about one hundred
and twenty feet from the stern, these explosions being im-
mediately identified as coming from torpedoes fired by a
German submarine.

"It was found that the ship had been struck by three
torpedoes, which were fired as one salvo from the sub-
marine, two of the torpedoes striking practically together
near the bow of the ship and the third striking near the
stern. The wake of the torpedo had been sighted by the
officers and lookouts on watch, but the torpedoes were so
close to the ship as to make it impossible to avoid them;
and it was also found that the submarine at the time of
firing was only about eight hundred yards from the Presi-
dent Lincoln. There were at the time seven hundred and
fifteen persons on board, some of these were sick and two
men were totally paralyzed.

COOLNESS AND DISCIPLINE.

"The alarm was immediately sounded and everyone
went to his proper station which had been designated at
previous drills. There was not the slightest confusion and

THE NEGRO IN THE NAVY.

579

the crew and pasengers waited for and acted on orders
from the commanding officer with a coolness which was
truly inspiring. Inspections were made below decks and
it was found that the ship was rapidly filling with water,
both forward and aft, and that there was little likelihood
that she would remain afloat. The boats were lowered and
the life rafts were placed in the water and about fifteen
minutes after the ship was struck all hands except guns'
crews were ordered to abandon the ship.

"It had been previously planned that in order to avoid
the losses which have occurred in such instances by filling
the boats at the davits before lowering them, that only
one officer and five men would get into the boats before low-
ering and that everyone else would get into the water and
get on the life rafts and then be picked up by the boats,
this being entirely feasible, as everyone was provided with
an efficient life-saving jacket. One exception was made
to the plan, however, in that one boat was filled with the
sick before being lowered and it was in this boat that the
paralyzed men were saved without difficulty.

THE SHIP ABANDONED.

"The guns' crews were held at their stations hoping
for an opportunity to fire on the submarine should it ap-
pear before the ship sank, and orders were given to the
guns' crews to begin firing, hoping that this might prevent
further attack. All the ship's company except the guns'
crews and the necessary officers were at that time in the
boats and on the rafts near the ship, and when the guns'
crews began firing, the people in the boats set up a cheer
to show that they were not downhearted. The guns' crews
only left their guns when ordered by the commanding offi-
cer just before the ship sank. The guns in the bow kept
up firing until after the water was entirely over the main
deck of the after half of the ship.

580

THE NEGRO IN THE NAVY.

"The state of discipline which existed and the cool-
ness of the men is well illustrated by what occurred when
the boats were being lowered and were about half way
from their davits to the water. At this particular time,
there appeared some possibility of the ship not sinking
immediately, and the commanding officer gave the order
to stop lowering the boats. This order could not be under-
stood, however, owing to the noise caused by escaping steam
from the safety valves of the boilers which had been lifted
to prevent explosion, but by motion of the hand from the
commanding officer the crews stopped lowering the boats
and held them in mid air for a few minutes until at a
further motion of the hand the boats were dropped into
the water.

INSPECTED BY THE SUBMARINE.

"Immediately after the ship sank the boats pulled
among the rafts and were loaded with men to their full
capacity and the work of collecting the rafts and tying
them together to prevent drifting apart and being lost
was begun. While this work was under way and about
half an hour after the ship sank, a large German sub-
marine emerged and came among the boats and rafts,
searching for the commanding officer and some of the senior
officers whom they desired to take prisoners. The sub-
marine commander was able to identify only one officer,
Lieut. E. V. M. Isaacs, whom he took on board. The sub-
marine remained in the vicinity of the boats for about two
hours and returned again in the afternoon, hoping ap-
parently for an opportunity of attacking some of the other
ships which had been in company with the President Lin-
coln, but which had, in accordance with standard instruc-
tions, steamed as rapidly as possible from the scene of
attack.

"By dark the boats and rafts had been collected and

THE NEGRO IN THE NAVY.

581

secured together, there being about five hundred men in
the boats and about two hundred on the rafts. Lighted
lanterns were hoisted in the boats and flare-up lights and
signal lights were burned every few minutes, the necessary
detail of men being made to carry out this work during the
night. The boats had been provided with water and food,
but none was used during the day, as the quantity was
necessarily limited, and it might be a period of several
days before a rescue could be effected.

THE RESCUE.

"The ship's wireless plant had been put out of com-
mission by the force of the explosion, and although the
ship's operator had sent the radio distress signal, yet it
was known that the nearest destroyers were two hundred
and fifty miles away, protecting another convoy, and it
was possible that military necessity might prevent their
being detached to come to our rescue. At about 11 P. M.
a white light flashing in the blackness of the night,— it
was very dark— was sighted, and very shortly it was found
that the destroyer Warrington had arrived to our rescue
and about an hour afterwards the destroyer Smith also
arrived. The transfer of the men from the boats and rafts
to the destroyers was effected as quickly as possible and
the destroyers remained in the vicinity until after day-
light the following morning, when a further search was
made for survivors who might have drifted in a boat or on
a raft, but none were found, and at about 6 X M., the
return trip to France was begun.

"Of the seven hundred and fifteen men present all
told on board, it was found after the muster that three
officers and twenty-three men were lost with the ship, and
that one officer had been taken prisoner.

582

THE NEGRO IN THE NAVY.

CONDUCT OF THE SUBMARINE COMMANDER.

" Although the German submarine commander made
no offers of assistance of any kind, yet otherwise his con-
duct for the ship's company in the boat was all that could
be expected. We naturally had some apprehension as to
whether or not he would open fire on the boats and rafts.
I thought he might probably do this, as an attempt to
make me and other officers disclose their identity. This
possibility was evidently in the minds of the men of the
crew7 also, because at one time I noticed some one on the
submarine walk to the muzzle of one of the guns, appar-
ently with the intention of preparing it for action. This
was evidently observed by some of the men in my boat,
and I heard the remark, 'Good night, here comes the fire-
works.' The spirit which actuated remarks of this kind,
under such circumstances, could be none other than that of
cool courage and bravery."

CAPTURED BY SUBMARINE, NAVAL OFFICER ESCAPES.

(Condensed from report by Lieutenant Edouard Victor M. Isaacs on his capture
and escape from a German prison camp.)

"The President Lincoln went down about 9:30 in the
morning, thirty minutes after being struck by three tor-
pedoes. In obedience to orders I abandoned ship after
seeing all hands aft safely off the vessel. The boats had
pulled away, but I stepped on a raft floating alongside,
the quarter deck being then awash. A few minutes later
one of the boats picked me up. The submarine U-90, re-
turned and the commanding officer, while searching for
Captain Foote of the President Lincoln, took me out of
the boat. I told him my captain had gone down with the
ship, whereupon he steamed away, taking me prisoner to
Oermany. We passed to the north of the Shetlands into
the North Sea, the Skaggerak, the Cattegat, and the Sound

THE NEGRO IN THE NAVY.

583

into the Baltic. Proceeding to Kiel, we passed down the
canal through Heligoland Bight to Wilhelmshaven.

"On the way to the Shetlands, we fell in with two
American destroyers, the Smith and the Warrington, who
dropped twenty-two depth bombs on us. We were sub-
merged to a depth oi; sixty meters and weathered the storm,
although five bombs were very close and shook us up con-
siderably. The information I had been able to collect was,
I considered, of enough importance to warrant my trying
to escape. Accordingly in Danish waters I attempted to
jump from the deck of the submarine but was caught and
ordered below.

MADE A PRISONER OF WAR.

' ' The German navy authorities took me from Wil-
helmshaven to Karlsruhe, where I was turned over to the
army. Here I met officers of all the Allied armies, and
with them I attempted several escapes, all of which were
unsuccessful. After three weeks at Karlsruhe I was sent
to the American and Russian officers' camp at Villinen.
On the way I attempted to escape from the train by jump-
ing out of the window. With the train making about forty
miles an hour, I landed on the opposite railroad track
and was so severely wounded by the fall that I could not
get away from my guard. They followed me, firing con-,
tinuously. When they recaptured me they struck me on
the head and body with their guns until one broke his rifle.
It snapped in two at the small of the stock as he struck
me with the butt on the back of the head.

PLACED IN SOLITARY CONFINEMENT.

"I was given two weeks' solitary confinement for this
attempt to escape, but continued trying, for I was deter-
mined to get my information back to the navy. Finally,
on the night of October 6th, assisted by several army offi-

584

THE NEGRO IN THE NAVY.

cers, I was able to effect an escape by short-circuiting all
lighting circuits in the prison camps and cutting through
barbed wire fences surrounding the camp. This had to
be done in the face of a heavy rifle fire from the guards.
But it was difficult for them to see in the darkness, so I
escaped unscathed. In company with an American officer
in the French army, I made my way for seven days and
nights over mountains to the Rhine, which to the south of
Baden forms the boundary between Germany and Switzer-
land. After a four-hour crawl on hands and knees I was
able to elude the sentries along the Rhine. Plunging in,
I made for the Swiss shore. After being carried several
miles down the stream, being frequently submerged by the
rapid currents, I finally reached the opposite shore and
gave myself up to the Swiss gendarmes, wTho turned me
over to the American legation at Berne. From there I
made my way to Paris and then London and finally Wash-
ington, where I arrived four weeks after my escape from
Germany."

The accounts and incidents heretofore mentioned are
but a few of the exceptionally meritorious cases, of the
many, in which the devotion to duty and the unquestioned
heroism characterized the conduct of the Negro under the
galling fire of danger and death.

CAN NOT SPECIFY THE WORK OF THE NEGRO SEAMEN.

Primarily due to the difference in organization be-
tween the army and navy of the United States, it is well
nigh impossible to point out and record with any degree
of accuracy the signal and patriotic sacrifices of any great
body of Negroes as a unit in the naval service. While in
the army, where segregation and discrimination of the
rankest type force the Negro into distinct Negro units;
the navy, on the other hand, has its quota of black men on

THE NEGRO IN THE NAVY.

585

every vessel carrying the starry emblem of freedom on
the high seas and in every shore station. The operations
of the navy of the United States during the World War
has covered the widest scope in its history without a doubt.
It carried the Negro in European waters from the Medi-
terranean to the White Sea. At Corfu, Gibralter, along
the French Bay of Biscay, in the English Channel, on the
Irish coast, in the North Sea, at Murmansk and Arch-
angel, he was ever present to experience whatever of hard-
ships were necessary and to make whatever sacrifices de-
manded, that the proud and glorious record of the navy
of the United States should remain untarnished.

WORK OF COLORED SEAMEN.

He formed a part of the crew of nearly two thousand
vessels that plied the briny deep, on submarines that feared
not the under sea peril, and wherever a naval engagement
was undertaken or the performance of a duty by a naval
vessel, the Negro, as a part of the crew of that vessel,
necessarily contributed to the successful prosecution of that
duty; and, whatever credit or glory is achieved for Ameri-
can valor, it was made possible by the faithful execution
of his duty, regardless of his character. For, on a battle-
ship where the strictest system of co-ordination and co-
operation among all who compose the crew is absolutely
necessary, each man is assigned a particular and a special
duty independent of the other men, and should he fail in
its faithful discharge the loss of the vessel and its enter-
prise might possibly result.

TRAINING FOR SERVICE.

Far be it from the intention of this article to condone
the existing policy of the navy of the United States as
regards the Negro, where unwritten law prescribes and

586

THE NEGRO IN THE NAVY.

precludes him from service above a designated status. It
is well known that no Negro has ever graduated from the
United States Naval Academy, at Annapolis, Maryland,
which is primarily essential to receive a commission as a
line officer of the navy. It is true that some three or four
Negroes have attempted to complete the course of instruc-
tion at this academy, but, their treatment, as a result of
race prejudice, made their efforts futile, as well as their
stay there more miserable than a decade of confinement
in a Hun penitentiary. Intimidation, humiliation, and
actual physical violence, notwithstanding their determina-
tion, finally resulted in the conclusion to abandon the cov-
eted goal of becoming officers in the great navy of the
United States.

It is also known that notwithstanding the urgent pres-
sure for experienced men to officer the expanding navy
as a result of the World War, it became necessary to com-
mission hundreds of men, who as a result of their experi-
ence as enlisted men, are temporary officers. But none of
these commissions was given to a Negro, despite the fact
that scores of them had rendered honorable service of from
ten to twenty years and were exceptionally qualified as
stated by their commanding officers for these commissions.
During the war there were approximately eleven thousand
men commissioned as officers. A great majority of this
number were commissioned as pay clerks, paymasters, med-
ical officers, and other ranks, wherein no technical naval
knowledge or experience is required. And it is strange
to note that not a single Negro received one of these com-
missions.

INSUFFICIENT NUMBER OF OFFICERS.

In his annual report to the Congress of the United
States, the secretary of the navy department made the
following statement: "The regular navy personnel as it

THE NEGRO IN THE NAVY.

587

existed at the beginning of the war has been repeatedly
combed for warrant officers and enlisted men competent
for advancement to commissioned rank, and this source
furnished experienced and capable officers. But more were
needed and they came from new recruits. It early became
evident that as the new men came into the service they
should be tried out for officer qualifications and that those
having talent should receive special instruction to prepare
them for officer duty. Officer material schools were hastily
improvised in the various naval districts at the outbreak
of war to train the new men coming in, etc."

In the face of the above admission of the serious short-
age of qualified men, it can not be understood why the
awarding of commissions was made to inexperienced white
boys with no prior naval experience or demonstrated abil-
ity in preference to the Negro, who has demonstrated his
fitness and ability by years of faithful service in every
phase of naval activity to which he has been given access.

GERMAN PROPAGANDA EFFORT.

But, in spite of these outward and open acts of preju-
dice and oppression, the Negro never wavered in the loyal
performance of any duty, however humble or arduous with
which he was charged. And it might be mentioned that
these acts of oppression were brought to his attention and
emphasized by subtle German propagandists, who hoped
to alienate his affections and devotion from his native
country. As an example of this diabolical scheme, the
following letter, which was dropped from German balloons
over a sector held by Negro troops, in September, 1918,
is quoted:

4 4 To the Colored Soldiers and Sailors of the United
States: Hello, boys! What are you doing over here?
Fighting the Germans ? Why ? Have they ever done you

588

THE NEGRO IN THE NAVY.

any harm? Of course, some white folks and the lying
English- American papers told you that the Germans ought
to be wiped out for the sake of humanity and democracy.
What is democracy? Personal freedom, all citizens en-
joying the same rights socially and before the law. Do
you enjoy the same rights as the white people do in Amer-
ica, the land of freedom and democracy? Or, are you not
rather treated over there as second-class citizens? Can
you go into a restaurant where white people dine? Can
you get a seat in the theatre where white people sit? Can
you get a berth or a seat in the railroad car, or can you
even ride in the South in the same street car with white
people? And how about the law? Is lynching and the
most horrible crimes connected therewith, a lawful pro-
ceeding in a democratic country?

"Now, all this is entirely different in Germany, where
they do like colored people, where they treat them as gen-
tlemen and as white men, and quite a number of colored
people have fine positions in business in Berlin and other
German cities. Why, then, fight the Germans only for
the benefit of Wall Street robbers and to protect the mil-
lions they have loaned to the English, French and Italians ?
You have been made the tool of the egotistical and rapa-
cious rich in England and America and there is nothing
in the whole game for you but broken bones, horrible
wounds, spoiled health, or death. No satisfaction whatever
will you get out of this unjust war. You have never seen
Germany. So you are fools if you allow people to make
you hate us. Come over and see for yourself. Let those
do the fighting who make the profits out of the war. Don't
allow them to use you as cannon fodder. To carry a gun
in this service is not an honor, but a shame. Throw it
away and come over to the German lines. You will .find
friends who will help you along. "

THE NEGRO IN THE NAVY.

589-

THE PROPAGANDA FAILS.

Such a piece of infamous treachery scarcely deserves
comment; for, if the Negro had been the least inclined to
be a traitor, he could not forget the atrocious' treatment
accorded the black man in the African colonies controlled
by Germany. For the Negro well remembers the treach-
ery of von Trotha, who invited the Herero chiefs to come
in and make peace and promptly shot them in cold blood.
And the words of his cruel and inhuman " Extermination
Order" directing that every Herero man, woman, child
or babe was to be killed and no prisoners taken. All of
which had the sanction of Berlin.

But, aside from his intimate knowledge of German
treachery and duplicity, a still higher principle inspired
the Negro; for to forget the loyalty to his own native
country in this hour of trial and darkness would be scan-
dalous and shameful and would blacken the Negro in the
eyes of the whole world. Of this class of treachery, the
Negro is absolutely incapable. They have endured some
of the greatest sacrifices and humilations that could be
demanded of a people, but, they always have kept before
them ideals, founded on loyalty and devotion to duty, and
never, in their darkest days, have they sought to gain their
ends by treasonable means. For the path of treason is
still an unknown path to the Negro. Their duty and their
conscience alike bade them be faithful and true to their
government and their flag in this hour of darkness and
trouble.

NUMBER OF NEGROES ENGAGED.

During the World War, there were approximately ten
thousand Negroes who voluntarily enlisted in the navy of
the United States. They were distributed throughout the
various ratings of the enlisted status. Many of them were
chief petty officers who had rendered years of faithful

590

THE NEGRO IN THE NAVY.

service and were regarded as experts in their profession,
and, consequently, played an important part in the organ-
ization and function of the battle units. In the transport
service, his powerful physical endurance and strength made
him a determining factor in the Herculean efforts to sup-
ply men, munitions, and provisions for the battlefields of
France. In order to appreciate the magnitude of his serv-
ce, let us briefly note the following facts:

Two million American fighting men were safely
landed in France. To do this the transport force of the
Atlantic fleet of the United States had to be utilized. At
the outbreak of the war the transport force was small,
but it now comprises twenty-four cruisers, forty-two troop
transports, and scores of other vessels, manned by three
thousand officers and forty-one thousand enlisted men, two
thousand of whom are Negroes.

PERIL AND DANGER.

To think of the peril and dangers of this service at
best, even in peace times, seamanship is a comfortless and
cheerless calling. But in war, to the ordinary perils of
the sea are added unusual hardships which reach their
maximum in the dangers and perils of the war zone— the
attack without warning of the invisible foe whose presence
is too frequently known only by a terrific explosion, which
casts the hapless crew adrift on surging seas, leagues from
a friendly shore. Think of the terrific strain under which
these men perform their perilous tasks. Gun crews on
continuous duty, ever ready with the shot that might save
the ship; the black men below in the fire room, expecting
every moment to receive the fatal blast which would entrap
them in a hideous death; the watch, ceaseless in its vigil
by day and by night, peering through the darkness and
the mist, conscious that upon their alertness depended the

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591

lives of all. Yet under these conditions of unprecedented
hardships every black man performed his duty with the
highest degree of courage and self-sacrifice.

We will mention one of the many instance of the
matchless intrepidity of the men engaged in this hazard-
ous service. In September, 1918, a transport with sev-
eral hundred sick and wounded soldiers on board, was
torpedoed wThen a short distance out from Brest. Thirty-
six men of the fire room met their death in the fire and
steam and boiling water of the stokehold. With two com-
partments flooded, their comrades dead and dying, with
a seeming certainty that the attack would continue, which
would mean that every man in the compartment where the
torpedo struck would be drowned or burned to death. Yet
despite all, when volunteers were called for to man the
still undamaged furnaces to keep up steam for the run
back to port, every man in the force stepped forward and
said he was ready to go below.

HARD AND GRINDING WORK.

There was nothing spectacular about this grinding
duty. Winter and summer, by day and by night, in the
fog and in the rain and in the ice, it demanded constant
vigilance, unceasing toil, and extreme endurance. The
work of this dangerous service was endless and its hard-
ships and hazards are barely realized. During the winter
storms of the north Atlantic the maddened seas all but
engulfed these tiny but staunch transports, when for days
they breasted the fury of the gale and defied the very ele-
ments in their struggle for mastery. No sleep then for
the tired crew ; no hot food ; no dry clothes. Yet despite it
all, with each hour perhaps the last, with death stalking
through the staggering hulls, not a man— black or white —
to the everlasting glory of the American navy, not a man

592

THE NEGRO IN THE NAVY.

but felt himself especially favored in being assigned that
duty.

CEASELESS VIGILANCE.

Since this country entered the war practically all the
enemy's naval forces, except the submarines, have been
blockaded in his ports by the naval forces of the Allies,
and there has been no opportunity for naval engagements
of a major character. The enemy's submarines, however,
formed a continual menace to the safety of all our trans-
ports and shipping, necessitating the use of every effective
means and the utmost vigilance for the protection of our
vessels. Concentrated attacks were made by enemy U-boats
on the ships that carried the very first contingent to Europe,
and all that have gone since have faced this liability to
attack. Our destroyers and patrol vessels, upon all of
which Negroes served in addition to convoy duty, have
waged an unceasing offensive warfare against the subma-
rine. In spite of all this, our naval losses have been grati-
fyingly small. Not one American troop ship, as previously
stated, has been torpedoed on the way to France, and but
three, the Antilles, President Lincoln, and the Covington,
were sunk on the return voyage.

GRATIFYING RESULTS OF NAVAL ACTIVITY.

Only three fighting ships were lost as a result of enemy
action— the patrol ship Alcedo, a converted yacht sunk off
the coast of France, November 5, 1917; the torpedo boat
destroyer Jacob Jones, sunk off the British coast, December
6, 1917, and the cruiser San Diego, sunk off Fire Island,
off the New York coast, July 18, 1918, striking a mine sup-
posedly set adrift by a German submarine. The transport
Finland and the destroyer Cassin, which were torpedoed,
reached port and were soon repaired and placed back in
service. The transport Mount Vernon struck by a torpedo

THE NEGRO IN THE NAVY.

593

on September 5th, proceeded to port under its own steam
and was repaired.

The most serious loss of life due to enemy activity was
the loss of the coast guard cutter Tampa, with all on board,
in Bristol Channel, England, on the night of September
26, 1918. The Tampa, which was doing escort duty, had
gone ahead of the convoy. Vessels following heard the
explosion, but when they reached the vicinity there were
only bits of floating wreckage to show where the ship had
gone down. Not one of the one hundred and eleven officers
and enlisted men of her crewT were rescued ; and though it
is believed she was sunk by a torpedo from an enemy
submarine, the exact manner in which the vessel met its
fate may never be known. Among the number of men lost
on this vessel were at least a score of black men. Taking
into consideration all the dangers and difficulties attend-
ing this service of the transport force, the comparatively
light casualty list is eloquent testimony of an efficient per-
sonnel organized and trained under a wise administrative
command.

THE NEGRO IN THE MERCHANT MARINE.

Now let us briefly consider the contribution of the
Negro to the construction and development of the merchant
marine, a force vitally essential to the succesful prosecu-
tion of the war. When America entered the war, it is a
well-known fact that her merchant marine was insignifi-
cant; and, to respond to the urgent appeal of France and
her allies to hurry men, provisions and munitions, a gigan-
tic task of constructing the necessary ships stared her in
the face. For the Germans at this time were making a des-
perate effort to starve England, France and the other Allies
by destroying their commerce with America and the world,
by a resort, as was brazenly announced to the world, to a

594

THE NEGRO IN THE NAVY.

heartless campaign of ruthless submarine warfare. There-
fore, the very first efforts of the United States were to
use every power of the navy to destroy and neutralize the
effect of the lurking submarine and enter upon a policy
of ship construction, which in its gigantic magnitude and
comprehensiveness was unprecedented.

The manner in which the Negro generously contrib-
uted to the effectiveness of this policy is well known to
all the world. For the very first record breaking riveting
feat was won by a Negro crew at Sparrows Point, Mary-
land. His ability in this field of endeavor was ably dem-
onstrated in all of the great industrial plants in which his
services were so generously utilized. Heretofore, he had
been debarred from identification in the capacity as a la-
borer in these plants; but, now, that war in all of its des-
peration was threatening the very existence of the country,
the barriers of prejudice gave way and he again proved
the falsity of the statement that the Negro could not handle
machinery. The managers of great shipbuilding plants
along the Atlantic seaboard testified before the Federal
Shipbuilding Labor Adjustment Board that Negroes had
worked on machines, gauged to as fine a degree as one
one-thousandth of an inch with perfect satisfaction.

WONDERFUL ACHIEVEMENTS.

To the achievements of the navy, in erecting great
training camps, destroyer and aviation bases, hospitals, in
training thousands of men for oversea duty, the army of
merchant ships, the building of a vast fleet of smaller ves-
sels, the construction of great warehouses at home and
abroad, the manufacture of heavy guns and their mounts,
the production of powder and technical ordnance must be
added the most spectacular achievement of all— the repair
of interned German ships, in all of which the Negro par-

THE NEGRO IN THE NAVY.

595

ticipated with zeal and enthusiasm and in many instances
won the admiration and commendation of his superior
officers.

When these vessels, many of them of the largest type
of trans- Atlantic liners, were taken over by our govern-
ment, it was found that the machinery of several had been
seriously damaged by the maliciously planned and care-
fully executed sabotage of the crews. The principal injury
was to the cylinders and other parts of the engines, and,
as the passenger ships were potent factors in the trans-
portation of troops, their immediate repair was of vital
necessity. Nothing daunted by the magnitude of the past,
our navy undertook the repair of these broken cylinders
by employing the system of electric welding, and so suc-
cessful was this work, in which scores of black men were
utilized, that during all the months of service in which
these vessels have been engaged, not a single defect has
developed.

HONOR TO WHOM HONOR IS DUE.

All honor to the officers who risked their professional
reputations and carried forward to complete success and
accomplishment, which expert engine manufacturers con-
sidered impossible; and all honor to the patience, zeal,
industry and intelligence of the noble band of laborers
whose persistence and ceaseless endeavor made possible the
accomplishment of these world-renowned examples of con-
structive and inventive American genius.

Let us not forget the mighty and tireless work of those
in the department whose efforts were as assiduous as their
success was complete. From the humblest yeowoman up-
ward to the secretary of the navy, through the bureaus and
their chiefs, all were animated by the same spirit of energy,
of foresight, and determination to place the fleet on the
highest basis of efficiency and strength. In this generous

596

THE NEGRO IN THE NAVY.

and sacrificing spirit, black men and black women, work-
ing side by side, shared in proportion and never wavered
or faltered in the task of measuring up to the expectations
of those wThose confidence and regard are so highly
esteemed.

GENEROUS RECOGNITION OF SERVICE.

Another just and appreciated evidence of the generous
recognition with which the consistency and faithfulness of
his service was awarded, may be noted in the organization
and development of the muster roll section of the bureau
of navigation of the navy department. Owing to a wide-
spread demand upon the part of the citizens of the coun-
try shortly after we entered the war, for accurate and
specific information concerning the whereabouts of their
kinsmen in the naval service, a demand which it was prac-
tically impossible to comply with in view of the ancient
methods in vogue at the time in the file section of the
bureau of navigation, and in further view of the fact of
the unprecedented expansion of the enlisted personnel of
the navy, the secretary of the navy found it absolutely
necessary to convene a conference of all the officials who
had any positive and direct knowledge as to the details
and operation of the file section.

This was done in order to evolve out of the multiplicity
of seasoned counsel a competent and successful solution of
the very important and grave problem which so heavily
weighed upon the mind of the civil population of the coun-
try, when they were offering freely upon its altar their
most treasured blood, as a precious sacrifice. Indeed, so
important and so urgent became the necessity for an im-
mediate and satisfactory solution of this problem that there
was no evasion in a high browed manner of any creditable
source of needed information. Accordingly, the bureau of
navigation, in obedience to the inevitable expansion neces-

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597

sitated in all the bureaus of the navy by the exigencies
of war, determined to organize and operate a muster roll
section, charged primarily with the duty of apprehending
the present whereabouts of every man of the enlisted per-
sonnel in a systematic and scientific manner.

ORGANIZATION OF THE MUSTER ROLL SECTION.

The execution of the very essential duty of chief of
the muster roll section was entrusted to John T. Risher, a
colored man, to whom was given plenary power to engage
and select his corps of assistants. Of course, Mr. Risher
determined immediately in the face of all opposing prece-
dents, to fully utilize the services, abilities and talents of
the colored youth of the country, upon whose educational
development millions of dollars had been spent in the past.
In consequence, more than a dozen young colored women
have been engaged in the capacity of yeowomen in this
muster roll section. This is quite a novel experiment, as
it is the first time in the history of the navy of the United
States that colored women have been employed in any
clerical capacity. And it may be noted that while many
young colored men have enlisted in the mess branch of
the service, it was reserved to young colored women to
invade succesfully the yeoman branch, thereby establishing
a precedent. There are all cool, clear-headed and well-
poised, evincing at all times, in the language of a white
chief yeowoman: ' A tidiness and appropriate demeanor
both on and off duty which the girls of the white race might
do well to emulate." The work of this section has proven
highly efficient and satisfactory, as the plans in vogue
there under its modern management are both scientific and
accurate. Many of the superior officials have scrutinized
the experiment very closely and are a unit in the sincerity
of their admiration of its success and effectiveness.

598

THE NEGRO IN THE NAVY.

PERSONNEL OF THE MUSTER ROLL SECTION.

The personnel of the muster roll section is divided in
three classes, to wit:

(a) Civil service employes, who are Messrs. Albert
D. Smith of Texas; David C. Johnson of Texas; George
W. Beasley of Massachusetts, and W. T. Howard of Louisi-
ana. All of the above have had years of valuable experi-
ence and are considered expert in all matters pertaining
to the enlisted personnel of the navy of the United States.

(b) Yeowomen, who are as follows : Misses Armelda
H. Greene of Mississippi ; Pocahontas A. Jackson of Miss-
issippi; Catherine E. Finch of Mississippi; Fannie A.
Foote of Texas ; Ruth A. Wellborn of Washington, D. C. ;
Olga F. J ones, Washington, D. C. ; Sarah Davis of Mary-
land ; Sarah E. Howard of Mississippi ; Marie E. Mitchell,
Washington, D. C. ; Anna G. Smallwood, Washington, D.
C. ; Maud C. Williams of Texas ; Carroll E. Washington of
Mississippi; Joseph B. Washington of Mississippi; Inez
B. Mcintosh of Mississippi.

(c) Young men of the naval reserve force, who are:
Messrs. William E. Minor of Virginia ; L. D. Boyd, Brown
Boyd of Virginia ; Minter G. Edwards of Mississippi ; Fred
Jolie of Louisiana ; M. T. Malvan, Washington, D. C. ; U. S.
Brooks; Thomas C. Bowler; Albert L. Gaskins, Washing-
ton, D. C; Daniel Vickers of Alabama, and Mr. Fuller.

SIGNING OF THE ARMISTICE.

On November 11, 1918, there came that long expected
and welcome message announcing to an anxious and war-
weary world that an armistice had been concluded, by the
terms of which actual hostilities were to cease.

On November 21, 1918, five American dreadnaughts
were in that far-flung double line of Allied ships, through
which passed in surrender the dreadnaughts, cruisers and

THE NEGRO IN THE NAVY.

599

destroyers of the second most powerful navy in the world.
When Admiral Beatty sent his famous signal, "The Ger-
man flag is to be hauled down at 3:57 and is not to be
hoisted again without permission," the wrork of our navy
as a battle unit in the war zone was over. And the fol-
lowing tribute from Gen. John J. Pershing, Commander-in-
Chief of the American Expeditionary Forces in France,
was sent to the commander of the United States naval
forces: " Permit me to send to the force commander, the
officers, and men of the American navy, in European wa-
ters, the most cordial greetings of the American Expedi-
tionary Force. The bond which joins together all men of
American blood has been mightily strengthened and deep-
ened by the rough hand of war.

" Those of us who are privileged to serve in the army
and navy are to one another as brothers. Spaces of land
and sea are nothing where a common purpose binds. We
are so dependent one upon another that the honor, the
fame, the exploits of the one are the honor, the fame, the
exploits of the other. If the enemy should dare to leave
his safe harbor and set his ships in battle array no cheers
would be more ringing, as you and our Allied fleets move
to meet him, than those of the American Expeditionary
Forces in France. We have unshaken confidence in you
and are assured that when we stand on the threshold of
peace your record will be one worthy of your traditions."

Eloquent and memorable, indeed, are these beautiful
sentiments expressed in behalf of every man, black and
white who had the rare good fortune to be a participant in
the conflicts of these illustrious and ever memorable times.
They should be indelibly carved upon the heart and soul
of every loyal citizen, wrhose anxiety to serve his day and
generation easily outvies all other sentiments of which he
is capable.

600

THE NEGRO IN THE NAVY.

RETURN OF THE VICTORIOUS FLEET.

Out of the mist and the snow of the morning of
December 26, a great battle fleet entered the harbor of
New York and in the majesty of its power steamed past
the Statue of Liberty. It came as a messenger of a con-
flict won, a silent victory, but a triumph as complete and
overwhelming as any ever wron by the American navy.

Too high a tribute can not be paid the black men of
the American navy, who faced the dangers of war and the
perils of the sea with exalted courage and unfaltering de-
termination. Their loyalty and patriotism have never been
questioned, their valor and heroism never doubted. By
their deeds they have added new lustre to the glorious
annals of the American navy and have fully demonstrated
that the color of the skin is but a feeble indication of the
depth of love and affection with which the heart and soul
of every loyal black man of America beats in sympathy
with the loftiness of her ideals.

CHAPTER XXXIII

THE OLD ILLINOIS 8th REGIMENT
The Training Camp — The Black Devils — They Died
That Our Republic May Live — The Last Soldiers To
Cease Fighting — Taking The Bit Between Their
Teeth — The Hindenburg Line Could Not Stop Them
— They Cross the Ailette Canal — Desperate Deeds of
Daring — One Man Routs a Machine Gun Crew — The
Band Played On — Summary of Deeds of The Illinois
Eighth

At the beautiful city of Rockford, Illinois, was located Camp
Grant where thousands of , Negro recruits gathered from cities
and factories, farms and plantations of our country, were given
the needed intensive training to fit them to sustain the glorious
traditions of the American soldiers. We take pride in all our
soldiers — never once did they retreat but carried Old Glory ever
onward until the armistice of November 11, 1918.

"THE BLACK DEVILS"
The old Illinois 8th Regiment was one of these colored units
which henceforth will be referred to whenever the heroic deeds
of this war are mentioned. The Prussian guards gave them
a name which tells us of the respect and fear they inspire'd.
They were "The Black Devils.' 9 The guards were seasoned
veterans who had participated in the fiercest fighting of the
war, yet these Negro heroes of the West did not falter before
them. They were brigaded with the choicest troops of France
and fought by their side through the final stages of the war.
By them they were given a name indicative of the respect and
confidence, their soldierly bearing and actions inspired. To
the French they were the "Partridges," the proudest game bird

X 104 pages of unnumbered halftone pictures add to text should make this page 705.

705

706 THE OLD ILLINOIS 8th REGIMENT

of Europe, and when the decimated ranks of the regiment para-
ded before cheering thousands on their return, there marched
in their ranks, twenty-two men wearing the American Distin-
guished Service Cross while sixty-eight others were decorated
with the French " Croix de Guerre."

THEY DIED THAT OUR REPUBLIC MIGHT LIVE

The regiment went to France with approximately 2,500 men
from Chicago and Illinois; they came back with 1,260. Those
figures convey an eloquent story of suffering and death. Nearly
a hundred were killed in battle. They were sleeping on the shell
scarred fields of France. Many others are enrolled in the great
army of maimed heroes, who however, are facing the future with
calm courage, though many of them are deprived of arms or
limbs, or possess bodies cruelly disfigured by shot and shell, with
physical health wrecked as a result of hardship in trenches, or
deadly gas inhaled.

THE LAST SOLDIERS TO CEASE FIGHTING

The old 8th probably made the last capture of the war. The
morning of November 11, they were with their French comrades
in Belgium. The objective given them to attain that day was
not arduous and so, having achieved the same, the boys simply
kept on going. The French division commander sent a messenger
to the Colonel in command to cease firing at 11 a. m., but by5
the time the messenger caught up with the rushing troops it
was ten minutes after the Huns had ceased firing on the Western
front, and those colored boys were just putting the finishing
touches on one of the neatest captures of the war — a German
army train of fifty wagons.

TAKING THE BIT BETWEEN THEIR TEETH

Their commander had one criticism to make which, however,
will not be a mark against the old 8th : "My greatest difficulty
was in keeping my boys from going on after they had obtained
their objective," he complains. The boys had formed the habit

THE OLD ILLINOIS 8th REGIMENT

707

of "getting there" so strongly that inertia kept them going.
Discipline in this respect seems to have been lacking among the
American soldiers generally. We heard this same complaint
at Chateau Thierry, at St. Mihiel and in the Argonne. These
doughboys, like all genuine Americans, evidently believed it
good policy while getting, to get enough.

FIRST AS WELL AS LAST
It will be noticed the 8th was among the last to quit doing
things, but they were among the first to start things going. Laon
is an important city of France about eighty miles northeast of
Paris. For four long years it remained in German hands. Allied
troops recaptured the town October 13, 1918. At the head of
the column of troops entering the city was a colored sergeant
of this regiment carrying a French flag while, not to be outdone
in courtesy a French Sergeant walked beside him carrying the
Stars and Stripes. The French people of Laon knelt by the
roadside and kissed the hand of this colored sergeant of the 8th
regiment. The torture of four years was over and they saw in
this proud young soldier a representative of the Great Republic
of the West rescuing France from the rapacious soldiers of
Germany.

THE HINDENBURG LINE COULD NOT STOP THEM
The Hindenburg Line was the most celebrated battle line of
history. It passed through Laon, LaFere, St. Quentin, Cambrai
and Lille, a total distance of about ninety miles. Every foot of
that distance was fortified with such massive trenches, supporting
lines of trenches, and elaborate lines of wire entanglements that
it was supposed to be impregnable. Nothing known to warfare
ever equalled such strong defenses. Every avenue of approach
was defended by machine guns and heavy artillery, and in the
trenches and at easy supporting distances to the rear were
massed the best soldiers of Germany, yet that line was crossed

708 THE OLD ILLINOIS 8th REGIMENT

by the Allies September 29 and 30 and the Illinois Negro regi-
ment was among those that accomplished that feat.

THEY CROSS THE AILETTE CANAL
To accomplish this they traversed an open ground through
a German barrage fire. A barrage fire is such a focusing of
shot and shell that it forms a veritable descending curtain of
projectiles. Then when they crossed the open they came to
the Ailette Canal, in which wire entanglements had been placed.
Pontoon bridges were thrown across and so the Hindenburg Line
was reached and crossed. The regiment had two hundred cas-
ualties as a result of that frightful but victorious advance. The
smashing at that line was final notice to Germany that the end
was at hand. Colored soldiers of this great republic with but
a few months of training had forced their way up to and through
the most strongly fortified military line in all history, against
the desperate defense of veterans with years of experience, the
supposed unconquerable soldiers of Germany.

DESPERATE DEEDS OF DARING
Where all with calm courage faced death it is almost out of
place to mention individual cases, but some deeds of daring better
illustrate the desperate chances taken when duty called. One
regimental surgeon went out in No Man's Land amid a hail of
machine gun bullets — it seemed sure death to face guns sending
a spray of bullets searching the entire area — and calmly attended
wounded men where they lay knowing that probably every minute
would be his last. One D. S. C. was bestowed on a private whose
life had been sacrificed in the vain attempt to get a message
through the inferno of fire. He was off duty at the time, but that
did not matter. That message ought to go through. He was
1)1 own to pieces in the attempt. But when he failed another
volunteer stepped forward. He was a Negro lad only eighteen
years old. You would not have noticed him among the workers

THE OLD ILLINOIS 8th REGIMENT 709

of Chicago, but in his veins flowed the blood of heroes. He got
the message through but was killed trying to return.

ONE MAN ROUTS A MACHINE GUN CREW
The entire regiment was being held up because a machine
gun was so favorably located for defense that it could incapaci-
tate all who attempted to cross its line of fire. Then one lone
lieutenant concluded that gun had done enough mischief, anyway
what would one more life amount to! So he charged it single
handed, and kindly fate as if in admiration of his daring decreed
his safety. The gun was put out of action, the advance continued.
Victory came. But let it be understood these instances simply
illustrate the spirit that enthused all. The officers were in the
very thick of the fight, leading — not following — 'the men. In
that battle twenty-seven officers were wounded the first two
hours.

THE BAND PLAYED ON
The band of the " Black Devils' ' was justly celebrated. After
the regiment returned to the state — after their part in the great
victory was 'history — that band toured the United States, and
delighted citizens bore testimony to the inspiring nature of its
music. But the music amid the stern realities of war was no
less helpful. The Colonel testified: ' 1 That band was every-
where. In the final pursuit when we had the Germans running
back at the rate of thirty-five kilometers a day, that band with
all its pack and instruments would keep right up with the troops. ? ?
But if other duties seemed more pressing, the musicians were
ready to do what they could. 6 i Time and time again, " continued
the Colonel, "I asked its members to serve as stretcher bearers
and every time they went right out where the fighting was the
hottest and brought the wounded in. 1 9 After all the true criterion
of service is to do what ever seems necessary and right to do, at
the moment, not counting self. It is not so much great occasions
that prove men but faithfulness in duty.

710 THE OLD ILLINOIS 8th REGIMENT

BORROWING HIS ORDERLY'S EYES
One captain found that while trenches were real life saving
inventions, it required a good deal of time to traverse their wind-
ings when it was necessary to inspect his command. So he got
a bicycle and raced up and down in front of his trenches taking
short cuts across No Man's Land. Of course, the Germans in
the opposite line all went gunning for this daring rider. Ordin-
arily it was death to expose oneself on No Man's Land, but fate
made another exception in his case and they 6 ' never touched
him," though they did ruin his fine bicycle by shooting out the
spokes of its wheels. However, a mustard gas shell 6 1 got him"
one day. He was temporarily blinded in addition to suffering
excruciating pains. Did he temporarily retire? No. on the con-
trary, he borrowed his orderly's eyes, in other words had him
lead him around, report on what he saw while the disabled
captain issued necessary orders. No wonder this regiment ac-
quired appreciative names from friend and foe.
WHERE THE FATE OF CIVILIZATION WAS DECIDED
That part of France where the great battles of the World
War were fought has been the scene of battles in the past that
profoundly influenced civilization. In the valley of the Somme
nearly fifteen centuries ago, Clovis laid the foundation of French
history by defeating the Romans in a world deciding battle at
Soissons, and ten years later near the same place the German
forces were utterly defeated by the same king. More than five
centuries ago the great Battle of Crecy, between the English and
French was fought, ending in a great victory for the Black
Prince. But none of the ancient battles equalled in importance
the series of great victories won by the Allied force over those
of Germany in 1918. Modern civilization and mediaeval con-
ceptions of government then met in conflict. The point we wish
all to notice is, that Negro soldiers from America had a part in
these ^reat battles and so are entitled to recognition as among

THE OLD ILLINOIS 8th REGIMENT 711

those that saved the modern world when threatened with an
eclipse akin to the Dark Ages that supervened on the culture of
early centuries.

FIELDS OF GLORY

It is well to bear in mind some of the crucial fields of glory
where our Negro soldiers upheld the best traditions of our
armies, such as Chateau Thierry, Belleau Woods, St. Mihiel and
the Argonne. The Illinois 8th was conspicuous in many of these
battles. In the Argonne against superior forces, amid a baptism
of shell fire from hidden machine gunners, they advanced to
victory. They can tell us of scenes where their comrades fell,
torn by shrapnel, cruelly wounded, dying, yet with their last
breath singing a snatch of the 4 4 Hymn of Freedom. ' ' They can
tell of instances in which these dying heroes urged the survivors
on. "Go, get them" was their parting words.

RETURN TO THE UNITED STATES

Following the armistice the regiment went to Brest, France,
whence it sailed for the United States, February 2, 1919. Most
of our cities had become accustomed to the enthusiastic greetings
of returned soldiers. None were given a more enthusiastic wel-
come than the old 8th Illinois. Even New York, where most of
returning soldiers land, grown so accustomed to marching sol-
diers just from Europe, stopped to pay signal respect to these
Negro lads. On their arms were service stripes and in the pass-
ing ranks were many whom France had delighted to honor. In
Chicago the entire city paused in its business to shout words of
welcome to those who had earlier served them in many forms —
but had dropped all and faced death that Chicago, New York and
our galaxy of states might be among the great democracies
which "made the world safe for democracy."

THIS REGIMENT A REPRESENTATIVE OF ALL

We have mentioned the 8th Illinois especially because this
regiment was gathered principally from Chicago and the West.

712

THE OLD ILLINOIS 8th REGIMENT

Let it be understood, however, that it is simply a representa-
tive regiment of Negro soldiers. They deserve well of our
country. They too crossed the seas and faced death with a smile,
Why! Because their country called them. In the peaceful days
of progress ahead we are sure they will ever remember the ex-
periences of war and by acts and words continue to labor for
the good of our country.

SUMMARY OF DEEDS OF THE ILLINOIS 8th

Let us sum up in an easily remembered form the work of
this regiment in France :

Suffered 50 per cent casualties; lost ninety-five men and
one officer killed outright.

Lost only one prisoner to the Germans in all the months they
fought.

Captured many German cannon ana many German machine
guns.

Participated in the final drive against the Germans on the
French sector, advancing in the final stages of the war as far
as thirty-five kilometers in one day.

Were the first Allied troops to enter the French fortress of
Laon when it was wrested from the Germans after four years
of war.

Won twenty-two American Distinguished Service Crosses
and sixty-eight French War Crosses.

Fought the last battle of the war, capturing a German wagon
train of fifty wagons and crews, a half hour after the armistice
went into effect.

Refused to fraternize with the Germans even after the
armistice was signed.

THE TERMS IMPOSED ON GERMANY

With the signing of that armistice terms, November II, 1918, the
actual fighting in the world war came to an end but the statesmen of the
allied nations were faced by a task of extraordinary difficulty. We must
remember, that not until after the armistice was signed was any of
German soil exposed to invasion. Her cities and villages were intact,
her land had not been churned by exploding shells. Not only were her
factories in good working condition, but they were packed with costly
machinery stolen from French and Belgian factories. Her very churches
were adorned with masterpieces of art from plundered cathedrals of
Western Europe and innumerable private homes possessed articles of
furniture and bric-a-brac stolen from wrecked homes in France and
Belgium, before they were totally destroyed. War on the part of Ger-
many in the invaded territories of the allies had degenerated into brig-
ondage.

The task before the allied statesmen was' to frame conditions of
peace that would make it impossible for Germany to devote her energies
to preparations for another war of conquest. That in itself was a most
difficult thing to arrange. In addition, among the allied nations were
many cross currents of national interests that had to be taken into con-
sideration and compromises effected. Probably no gathering of states-
men ever had more momentous questions to consider. The allied nations
sent their premiers and most influential statesmen to the congress in
Paris. The president of the United States broke the customs that had
prevailed from the time of Washington to the present and was one of
the delegates from this country to the most important peace council
that the world had ever seen.

THE PEACE CONGRESS
The peace congress began its formal sessions January 12, 1918.
Mr. Clemenceau, premier of France, was elected chairman. The dif-
ficulties in the way of an agreement among themselves as to the terms
to be imposed on Germany were so great that it was almost exactly four
months before the terms of peace were laid before the delegates from
Germany. A singular coincidence is to be noticed. It was almost four
years to a day from the sinking of the Lusitania. That act of piracy
was one of the acts that roused America and led to our intervention. The
sinking of the ship was made the occasion for a school holiday in
Germany. The fourth anniversary of the sinking was a day of gloom

THE TREATY OF PEACE

and despair for the fallen nation. That country stood arrainged before
the highest tribunal in the world as the agressor in the mightiest war
of history and read the stern decrees of the allies that stripped her of
lands and powers. History knows of no more startling changes in
wealth and power than that experienced by Germany as a result of the
worlds war.

The treaty is the most voluminous one ever drawn. It contains
about 90,000 words, or sufficient to make a volume half as large as this
one. That gives us an idea of the immense number of points that
had to be considered. For our purpose it is only necessary to present
an analysis of its principal provisions. No one except delegates of the
nations expressly concerned care for the entire text, but all desire a
general understanding of what the treaty sets forth. It re-draws the
map of Central Europe, and contains stipulations that will profoundly
affect the future of the nations composing the Teutonic Alliance.

WHY TERMS ARE SO SEVERE
Before considering the terms themselves, let us make a general
observation. The terms are undoubtedly severe, perhaps the most
drastic ever imposed on a conquered people. We do well to reflect
that many wrongs in the past committed by Germany had to 'be righted.
Not to mention her colonial empire Germany loses nearly one-third
of'her territory in Europe. The part restored to France is simply a
return of territory wrongly taken from France in 1871. The larger
part of her lost territory goes to Poland from whom it was taken two
hundred years ago in the utterly unjust partition in the days of Fred-
erick the Great. But what the treaty seeks to safeguard is the safety
of the world. Germany record since the days of Bismark is that of one
continuous grasping after territory at the expense of surrounding nations.
It was absolutely necessary to impose such terms as would render her
powerless in this matter. It will be noticed that the terms imposed spell
the end of German militarism. That menace to the peace and safety of
the world is removed.

THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS
An attempt is made in this treaty to constitute a League of Nations
that will hence forth put an end to war. The curious student is reminded
of these difficulties that confronted the Constitutional Convention of 1787
when it met to form our National Constitution. In that case, however,

THE TREATY OF PEACE

the separate nations that united to form the United States were one in
blood and history and had been drawn together by common dangers.
Those who would form a League of Nations seek to draw into one
compact, of course with very loose restraining bonds, nations utterly ad-
verse in blood and history. The mere effort to form such a league is a
wonderful step in advance. It remains for the future to determine the
success of the movement.

THE COVENANT OF THE LEAGUE
The covenant of the League of Nations constitutes Section I of
the peace treaty, which places upon the league many specific, in addition
to its general duties. It may question Germany at any time for a viola-
tion of the neutralized zone east of the Rhine as a threat against the
world's peace. It will appoint three of the five members of the Saar
commission, oversee its regime, and carry out the plebiscite. It will
appoint the high commissioner of Danzig, guarantee the independence
of the free city, and arrange for treaties between Danzig and Germany
and Poland. It will work out the mandatory system to be applied to the
former German colonies, and act as a final court in part of the plebi-
scites of the Belgian-German frontier, and in dispute as to the Kiel
Canal, and decide certain of the economic and financial problems. An
international conference on labor is to be held in October under its direc-
tion, and another on the international control of ports, waterways, and
railways is foreshadowed.

MEMBERSHIP OF THE LEAGUE
The membership of the league will be the signatories of the cove-
nant and other natures invited to accede, who must lodge a declaration
of accession without reservation within two months. A new state,
dominion, or colony may be admitted, provided its admission is agreed
by two-thirds of the assembly. A nation may withdraw upon giving two
years' notice, if it has fulfilled all its international obligations.

HOW THE LEAGUE WILL ADMINISTER ITS TRUST
A permanent secretariat will be established at the seat of the league
which will be at Geneva. The assembly will consist of representatives of
the members of the league and will meet at stated intervals. Voting
will be by states. Each member will have one vote and not more than
three representatives. This assembly may be considered as the House

THE TREATY OF PEACE

of Representatives of the league. The council may be considered as the
senate. It will consist of representatives of the five great allied powers,
together with representatives of four members selected by the assembly
from time to time; it may co-operate with additional states and will meet
at least once a year. Members not represented will be invited to send a
representative when questions affecting their interests are discussed.
Voting will be by nation. Each nation will have one vote and not more
than one representative. Decision taken by the assembly and council
must be unanimous except in regard to procedure, and in certain cases
specified in the covenant and in the treaty, where decisions will be by
a majority.

REDUCTION OF ARMAMENT
The council will formulate plans for a reduction of armaments for
consideration and adoption. These plans will be revised every 10 years.
Once they are adopted, no member must exceed the armament's text
without the concurrence of the council. All members will exchange full
information as to armaments and programs, and a permanent commission
will advise the council on military and naval questions.

STEPS TAKEN TO PREVENT WAR
Upon any war, or threat of war, the council will meet to consider
what common action shall be taken. Members are pledged to submit
matters of dispute to arbitration or inquiry and not to resort to war until
three months after the award. Members agree to carry out an arbitral
award, and not go to war with any party to the dispute which complies
with it; if a member fails to carry out the award the council will propose
the necessary measures. The council will formulate plans for the
establishment of a permanent court of international justice to determine
international disputes or to give advisory opinions. Members who do
not submit their case to arbitration must accept the jurisdiction of the
assembly. If the council, less the parties to the dispute, is unanimously
agreed upon the rights of it, the members agree that they will not go to
war with any party to the dispute which complies with its recommenda-
tions.

INTERNATIONAL PROVISIONS FOR LABOR
Subject to and in accordance with the provisions of international
convention existing or hereafter to be agreed upon, the members of the

THE TREATY OF PEACE

league will in general endeavor through the international organization
established by the labor convention to secure and maintain fair conditions
of labor for men, women, and children in their own countries and other
countries, and undertake to secure just treatment of the native inhabit-
ants of territories under their control ; they will intrust the league with
the general supervision over the excution of agreements for the sup-
pression of traffic in women and children, etcetera, and in the control of
the trade in arms and ammunition with countries in which control is
necessary.

LABOR CONFERENCE

In order to accomplish these ends. "Members of the league ot
nations agree to establish a permanent organization to promote interna-
tional adjustment of labor conditions, to consist of an annual international
labor conference and an international labor office.

"The former is composed of four representatives of each state,
two from the government and one each from the employers and the
employed ; each of them may vote individually. It will be a deliberative,
legislative body, its measures taking the form of draft conventions or
recommendations for legislation, which, if passed by two-thirds vote,
must be submitted to the lawmaking authority in every state participating.

✓ THE FIRST MEETING OF THE CONFERENCE

The first meeting of the conference will take place in October, 1919,
at Washington, to discuss the eight-hour day or 48-hour week; preven-
tion of unemployment; extension and application of the international
conventions adopted at Berne in 1906, prohibiting night work for women
and use of white phosphorus in the manufacture of matches ; employ-
ment of women and children at night or in unhealthy work, employment
of women before and after child birth ; maternity benefits and employ-
ment of children as regards to minum age.

PRINCIPLES TO GUIDE THE CONFERENCE
Nine principles of labor conditions are recognized on the ground
that "the well-being, physical and moral of the industrial wage-earners
is of supreme international importance." Exceptions are necessitated
by differences of climate, habits, and economic development. They in-
clude the guiding principle that labor should not be regarded merely as
a commodity or article of commerce ; right of association of employers

THE TREATY OF PEACE

and employees ; a wage adequate to maintain a reasonable standard of
life; the eight-hour day or 48-hour week; a weekly rest of at least 24
hours, which should include Sunday wherever practicable; abolition
of child labor, and assurance of the continuation of the education and
proper physical development of children ; equal pay for equal work
as between men and women ; equal treatment of all workers lawfully
resident therein, including foreigners; and a system of inspection in
which women should take part.

NO MORE SECRET TREATIES
All treaties of international engagements concluded after the
institution of the league will be registered with the secretariat and
published. The assembly may from time to time advise members to
reconsider treaties which have become inapplicable or involve danger
of peace. The covenant abrogates all obligations between members
inconsistent with its terms, but nothing in it shall affect the validity
of international engagement such as treaties of arbitration or regional
understandings like the Monroe Doctrine for securing the mainten-
ance of peace. This last clause is of special interest to the United
States.

NEW BOUNDARIES OF GERMANY
After thus providing for the League of Nations, the treaty takes
up the provisions of special importance to the various belligerent nations.
It is well to notice the new boundaries of Germany. That nation
cedes to France, Alsace-Lorraine, 5600 square miles, and to Belgium
two small districts between Luxembourg and Holland and totaling
382 square miles. She also cedes to Poland the southeastern tip of
Silesia beyond and including Oppeln, most of Posen and West
Prussia, 27,680 square miles. She loses sovereignty over the north-
easternmost tip of East Prussia, 40 square miles north of the River
Memel, and the internationalized areas about Danzig, 729 square
miles, and the basin of the Saar, 738 square miles, between the west-
ern border of the Rhenish Palatinate of Bavaria and the southeast
corner of Luxembourg.

The southeastern third of East Prussia and the area between
East Prussia and the Vistula north of latitude 53 degrees. 3 minutes
is to have its nationality determined by popular vote, 5,785 square
miles, as is to be the case in part of Schleswig, 2,787 square miles.

THE TREATY OF PEACE

BETWEEN BELGIUM AND GERMANY
Germany is to consent to the abrogation of the treaties of 1839,
by which Belgium was established as a neutral state, and to agree
in advance to any convention with which the allied and associated
powers may determine to replace them.

Germany is to recognize the full sovereignty of Belgium over the
contested territory of Morenet and over part of Prussian Morenet,
and to renounce in favor of Belgium all rights of the circles of Eupen
and Malmedy, the inhabitants of which are to be entitled, within six
months, to protest against this change of sovereignty, either in whole
or in part, the final decision to be reserved to the league of nations.

A commission is to settle the details of the frontier, and various
regulations for change of nationality are laid down.

LUXEMBOURG SET FREE
Germany renounces her various treaties and conventions with
the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, recognizes that it ceased to be a
part of the German zollverein from Jan. 1, last, renounces all right
of exploitation of the railroads, adheres to the abrogation of its
neutrality, and accepts in advance any international agreement as to
it, reached by the allied and associated powers.

THE EAST BANK OF THE RHINE
Germany will not maintain any fortifications or armed forces
less than 50 kilometers to the east of the Rhine, hold any maneuvers,
nor maintain any works to facilitate mobilization. In case of viola-
tion, "she shall be regarded as committing a hostile act against the
powers who sign the present treaty and as intending to disturb the
peace of the world." "By virtue of the present treaty Germany shall
be bound to respond to any request for an explanation which the
council of the League of Nations may think it is necessary to address
to her."

ALSACE-LORRAINE
After recognition of the moral obligation to repair the wrong
done in 1871 by Germany to France and the people of Alsace-Lorraine,
the territories ceded to Germany by the treaty of Frankfort are re-
stored to France with their frontiers as before 187 1 to date from
the signing of the armistice, and to be free of all public debts.

THE TREATY OF PEACE

Citizenship is regulated by detailed provisions distinguishing
those who are immediately resorted to full French citizenship, those
who have to make formal applications therefor, and those for whom
naturalization is open after three years. The last named class includes
German residents in Alsace-Lorraine, as distinguished from those
who acquire the position of iVlsace-Lorrainers as denned in the treaty.
All public property and all private property of German ex-sovereigns
passes to the French without payment or credit. France is subsituted
for Germany as regards ownership of the railroads and rights over
concessions of tramways ; the Rhine bridges pass to France with the
obligation for their upkeep

Several clauses now follow providing for trade between Alsace-
Lorraine and Germany; the sanctity of existing contracts etc. French
law replaces German law. A convention to be made between France
and Germany is to settle many details.

THE VALLEY OF THE SAAR
In compensation for the destruction of coal mines in northern
France and as payment on account of reparation, Germany cedes to
France full ownership of the coal mines of the Saar Basin with their
subsidiaries, accessories, and facilities. Their value will be estimated
by the reparation commission and credited against that account.
The French rights will be governed by German law in force at the
armistice excepting war legislation, France replacing the present
owners whom Germany undertakes to indemnify. France will con-
tinue to furnish the present proportion of coal for local needs and
contribute in just proportion to local taxes. The basin extends from
the frontier of Lorraine as reannexed to France north as far as St.
Wendel, including on the west the valley of the Saar as far as Saar-
holzbach and on the east the town of Homburg.

A MIXED GOVERNMENT PROVIDED
In order to secure the rights and welfare of the population and
guarantee to France entire freedom in working the mines, the ter-
ritory will be governed by a commission appointed by the League of
Nations and consisting of five members, one French, one a native in-
habitant of the Saar, and three representing three different countries
other than France and Germany. The league will appoint a member
of the commission as chairman to act as executive of the commission.

THE TREATY OF PEACE

The commission will have all powers of government formerly belong-
ing to the German Empire, Prussia, and Bavaria, will administer
the railroads and other public services and have full power to in-
terpret the treaty clauses. The local courts will continue, but subject
to the commission. Existing German legislation will remain the
basis of the law, but the commission may make modification after
consulting a local representative assembly which it will organize.

THE PEOPLE'S RIGHTS SECURED
The people will preserve their local assemblies, religious liberties,
schools, and languages, but may vote only for local assemblies. They
will keep their present nationality except so far as individuals may
change it. Those wishing to leave will have every facility with respect
to their property. The territory will form part of the French customs
system with no export tax on coal and metallurgical products going to
Germany nor on German products entering the basin, and for five years
no import duties on products of the basin going to Germany or German
products coming into the basin for local consumption. French money
may circulate without restriction.

POSSIBLE RETURN TO GERMANY
After 15 years a plebiscite will be held by communes to ascertain
the desires of the population as to the continuance of, the existing
regime under the League of Nations, union with France or union
with Germany. The right to vote will belong to all inhabitants over
20 resident therein at the signature of the treaty. Taking into ac-
count the opinions thus expressed, the league will decide the ultimate
sovereignty in any portion restored to Germany. The German
Government must buy out the French mines at an appraised valua-
tion, if the price is not paid within six months thereafter this portion
passes finally to France. If Germany buys back the mines the
league will determine how much of the coal shall be annually sold
to France.

GERMAN RELATIONS WITH FORMER AUSTRIAN STATES
"Germany recognizes the total independence of German Austria
in the boundaries traced." Germany recognizes the entire independ-
ence of the Czecho-Slovak State including the autonomous territory
of the Ruthenians south of the Carpathians, and accepts the frontiers

THE TREATY OF PEACE

of this State as to be determined, which in the case of the German
frontier shall follow the frontier of Bohemia in 1914. The usual
stipulations as to acquisition and change of nationality follow.

GERMAN RELATIONS WITH NEW POLAND
Germany cedes to Poland the greater part of upper Silesia, Posen,
and the Province of West Prussia on the left bank of the Vistula.
A field boundary commission of seven, five representing the allied
and associated powers, and one each representing Poland and Ger-
many, shall be constituted within 15 days of the signing of peace to
delimit this boundary. Such special provisions as are necessary to
protect racial, linguistic or, religious minorities, and to protect free-
dom of transit and equitable treatment of commerce of other nations
shall be laid down in a subsequent treaty between the. five allied and
associated powers and Poland.

EAST PRUSSIA
East Prussia presents a peculiar problem since it is cut off from
Germany proper. The boundaries between East Prussia and Poland
are to be determined by a plebisicites or a referendum vote of the
people, specifying what sections are affected, the treaty sets forth
that in each case German troops and authorities will move out within
15 days of the peace and the territories will be placed under an inter-
national commission of five members appointed by the five allied
and associated powers, with the particular duty of arranging for a
free, fair and secret vote. The commission will report the results
of the plebiscites to the five powers with a recommendation for the
boundary and will terminate its work as soon as the boundary has
been laid down and the new authorities set up.

THE RIGHTS OF EAST PRUSSIA GUARDED
The five allied and associated powers will draw up regulations
assuring East Prussia full and equitable access to and use of the
Vistula. A subsequent convention, of which the terms will be fixed
by the five allied and associated powers will be entered into between
Poland, Germany and Danzig to assure suitable railroad communica-
tion across German territory on the right bank of the Vistula be-
tween Poland and Danzig, while Poland shall grant free passage
from East Prussia to Germany.

THE TREATY OF PEACE

The northeastern corner of East Prussia about Memel is to be
ceded by Germany to the associated powers, the former agreeing to
accept the settlement made, especially as regards the nationality of
the inhabitants.

DANZIG MADE A FREE CITY
Danzig and the district immediately about it are to be consti-
tuted into the ''free City of Danzig" under the guarantee of the League
of Nations. A high commissioner appointed by the league and resi-
dent at Danzig shall draw up a constitution in agreement with the
duly appointed representatives of the city and shall deal in the first
instance with all differences arising between the city and Poland.
The actual boundaries of the city shall be delimited by a commission
appointed within six months from the signing of peace, and to in-
clude three representatives chosen by the allied and associated
powers, and one each by Germany and Poland.

RELATIONS BETWEEN DANZIG AND POLAND
A convention, the terms of which shall be fixed by the five allied
and associated powers, shall be concluded between Poland and Dan-
zig, which shall include Danzig within the Polish customs frontiers
though a free area in the port; insure to Poland the free use of all
the city's waterways, docks, and other port facilities, the control and
administration of the Vistula and the whole through railway system
within the city, and postal, telegraphic, and telephonic communica-
tion between Poland and Danzig; provide against discrimination
against Poles within the city and place its foreign relations and the
diplomatic protection of its citizens abroad in charge of Poland.

GERMAN RELATIONS WITH DENMARK
The war with Denmark in the days of Bismark resulted in the
loss of Schleswig and Holstein to Germany. This treaty provides
for a conditional return to these provinces to Denmark, the country
is divided into zones in each of which the people are to vote on the
question of being returned to Denmark. The international commis-
sion will then draw a new frontier on the basis of these plebiscies
and with due regard of geographical economic conditions. Germay
will renounce all sovereignty over territories north of this line in
favor of the associated governments, who will hand them over to
Denmark.

THE TREATY OF PEACE

HELIGOLAND TO BE DISMANTLED
Heligoland was a very strongly fortified island guarding the ap-
proaches to the Kiel Canal. The treaty sets forth that the fortifica-
tions, military establishment and harbors of the islands of Heligoland
and Dune are to be destroyed under the supervision of the Allies by
German labor and at Germany's expense. They may not be recon-
structed for any similar fortifications built in the future.

STRIPPED OF HER COLONIAL EMPIRE
Germany's vast colonial empire — totaling more than 1,000,000
square miles in area — is now a thing of the past. Outside of Europe
Germany renounces all rights, titles, and privileges as to her own
or her allies' territories to all the allied and associated powers, and
undertakes to accept whatever measures are taken by the five allied
powers in relation thereto. In addition Germany surrenders all conces-
sions she had wrung from other countries, — as China, Siam, Liberia,
Morocco and Egypt.

GERMANY LOSES HER ARMY
The demobilization of the German Army must take place within
two months of the peace. Its strength may not exceed 100,000,
including 4,000 officers, with not over seven divisions of infantry and
three of cavalry, and it is to be devoted exclusively to maintenance
of internal order and control of frontiers. Divisions may not be
grouped under more than two army corps headquarters staffs. The
great German General Staff is abolished. The army administrative
service, consisting of civilian personnel not included in the number
of effectives, is reduced to one-tenth the total in the 1913 budget.
Employees of the German states such as customs officers, first guards
may not exceed the number in 1913. Gendarmes and local police may
be increased only in accordance with the growth of population. None
of these may be assembled for military training.

STRIPPED OF HER NAVY
The German Navy must be demobilized within a period of two
months after the peace. She will be allowed six small battleships, six light
cruisers, 12 destroyers, 12 torpedo boats, and no submarines, either mili-
tary or commercial, with a personnel of 15,000 men, including officers, and
no reserve force of any character. Conscription is abolished, only volun-

THE TREATY OF PEACE

teer service being permitted, with a minimum period of 25 years' service
for officers and 12 for men. No member of the German mercantile ma-
rine will be permitted any naval training.

Germany must surrender 42 modern destroyers, 50 modern torpedo
boats, and all submarines with their salvage vessels. All war vessels un-
der construction, including submarines, must be broken up. War vessels
not otherwise provided for are to be placed in reserve or used for com-
mercial purposes. Replacement of ships, except those lost, can take place
only at the end of 20 years for battleships and 15 years for destroyers.
The largest armored ship Germany will be permitted will be 10,000 tons.

CANNOT HAVE FIGHTING AIR CRAFT
For temporary purposes Germany may retain a small force of air-
planes and a small force to operate them, but otherwise the entire air
force is to be demobilized within two months. No aviation grounds or
dirigible sheds are to be allowed within 150 kilometers of the Rhine or
the eastern or southern frontiers, existing installations within these lim-
its to be destroyed. The manufacture of aircraft and parts of aircraft
is forbidden for six months. All military and naval aeronautical material
under a most exhaustive definition must be surrendered within three
months except for the 100 seaplanes already specified.

COMPULSORY MILITARY SERVICE ABANDONED
Conscription is abolished in Germany. The enlisted personnel must
be maintained by voluntary enlistments for terms of 12 consecutive years,
the number of discharges before the expiration of that term not in any
year to exceed 5 per cent of the total effectives. Officers remaining in
the service must agree to serve to the age of 45 years, and newly appointed
officers must agree to serve actively for 25 years.

No military schools except those absolutely indispensable for the
units allowed shall exist in Germany two months after the peace. No as-
sociations such as societies of discharged soldiers, shooting or touring
clubs, educational establishments, or universities may occupy themselves
with military matters. All measures of mobilization are forbidden.

MANUFACTURE OF GUNS AND AMMUNITION FORBIDDEN
All establishments for the manufacturing, preparation, storage, or
design of arms and munitions of war, except those specifically excepted,

THE TREATY OF PEACE

must be closed within three months of the peace and their personnel dis-
missed. The exact amount of armament and munitions allowed Germany
is laid down in detail by tables, all in excess to be surrendered or rendered
useless. The manufacture or importation of asphyxiating, poisonous or
other gases and all analogous liquids is forbidden, as well as the importa-
tion of arms, munitions and war material. Germany may not manufac-
ture such material for foreign governments.

WILLIAM II INDICTED AND HIS TRIAL SOUGHT
"The allied and associated powers publicly arraign William II of
Hohenzollern, formerly German Emperor, not for an offense against
criminal law, but for a supreme offense against international morality
and the sanctity of treaties."

The former Emperor's surrender is to be requested of Holland, and
a special tribunal set up, composed of one judge from each of the five
great powers, with full guarantees of the right of defense. It is to be
guided "by the highest motives of international policy with a view of vin-
dicating the solemn obligations of international undertakings and the
validity of international morality," and will fix the punishment it feels
should be imposed.

OFFICERS RESPONSIBLE FOR CRUELTIES TO BE TRIED
Persons accused of having committed acts in violation of the laws
and customs of war are to be tried and punished by military tribunals of
only one state. They will be tried before a tribunal of that state ; if they
affect nationals of several states they will be tried before joint tribunals
of the states concerned. Germany shall hand over to the associated
governments either jointly or severally all persons so accused, and all
documents and information necessary to insure full knowledge of the in-
criminating acts, the discovery of the offenders and the just appreciation
of the responsibility. The accused will be entitled to name his own
counsel.

GERMANY MUST PAY ALL THE DAMAGES SHE CAN
"While the allied and associated governments recognize that the
resources of Germany are not adequate after taking into account per-
manent diminutions of such resources which will result from other treaty
claims, to make complete reparation for all such loss and damage, they
require her to make compensation for all damages caused to civilians un-
der seven main categories :

THE TREATY OF PEACE

These are now defined and the total obligation Germany is to pay is
t© be determined and notified to her after a fair hearing and not later
than May i, 192 1, by an inter-allied reparation commission. At the same
time a schedule of payments to discharge the obligation within 30 years
shall be presented. These payments are subject to postponement in cer-
tin contingencies. Germany irrevocably recognizes the full authority of
this commission, agrees to supply it with all the necessary information,
and to pass legislation to effectuate its findings. She further agrees to
restore to the Allies cash and certain articles which can be identified.

A PRESENT PAYMENT DEMANDED
As an immediate step forward restoration, Germany shall pay within
two years 20,000,000,000 marks in either gold, goods, ships, or other speci-
fic forms of payment, with the understanding that certain expenses such
as those of the armies of occupation and payments for food and raw ma-
terials may be deducted at the discretion of the Allies.

It is now provided that a commission shall have charge of future
payments and the amounts of such payment is left to be decided by the
commission.

MUST REPLACE SHIP SUNK BY SUBMARINES
The German Government recognizes the right of the Allies to the
replacement, ton for ton and class for class, of all merchant ships and
fishing boats lost or damaged owing to the war, and agrees to cede to the
Allies all German merchant ships of 1,600 tons gross and upward, one-
half of her ships between 1,600 and 1,000 tons gross, and one-quarter of
her steam trawlers and other fishing boats. These ships are to be deliv-
ered within two months to the reparation committee, together with docu-
ments of title evidencing the transfer of the ships free from incumbrance.

"As an additional part of reparation," the German Government fur-
ther agrees to build merchant ships for the account of the Allies to the
amount of not exceeding 200,000 tons gross annually during the next five
years.

MUST RESTORE DEVASTATED AREAS
Germany undertakes to devote her economic resources directly to the
physical restoration of the invaded areas. The reparation commission is
authorized to require Germany to replace the destroyed articles and to
manufacture materials required for reconstruction purposes, all with due
consideration for Germany's essential domestic requirements.

THE TREATY OF PEACE

The German Government is also to restore to the French Govern-
ment certain papers taken by the German authorities in 1870 belonging
then to M. Reuther, and to restore the French flags taken during the war
of 1870 and 1871. As reparation for the destruction of the library of
Louvain, Germany is to hand over manuscripts, early printed books,
prints, etc., to be equivalent to those destroyed.

"In addition to the above Germany is to hand over to Belgium wings
now at Berlin belonging to the altar piece of the 'Adoration of the Lamb,"
by Hubert and Jan Van Eyck, the center of which is now in the church of
St. Bavo at Ghent, and the wings now at Berlin and Munich, of the altar
piece of 'Last Supper/ by Dirk Bouts, the center of which belongs to the
church of St. Peter at Louvain.

MUST PAY COST OF ARMY OF OCCUPATION
Germany is required to pay the total cost of the armies of occupation
from the date of the armistice as long as they are maintained in German
territory, this cost to be a first charge after making such provisions for
payments for imports as the Allies may deem necessary. Germany is to
deliver to the allied and associated powers all sums deposited in Germany
by Turkey and Austria-Hungary in connection with the financial support
extended by her to them during the war, and to transfer to the Allies all
claims against Austria-Hungary, Bulgaria, or Turkey in connection with
agreements made during the war. Germany confirms the renunciation of
the treaties of Bucharest and Brest-Litovsk.

TRADE AND COMMERCE REGULATED
"Customs — For a period of six months Germany shall impose no
tariff duties higher than the lowest in force in 19 14, and for certain agri-
cultural products, wines, vegetables, oils, artificial silk, and washed or
scoured wool this restriction obtains for two and a half years, or for five
years unless further extended by the league of nations.

"Germany must give most favored nation treatment to the allied and
associated powers. She shall impose no customs tariff for five years on
goods originating in Alsace-Loraine and for three years on goods originat-
ing in former German territory ceded to Poland with the right of obser-
vation of a similar exception for Luxemburg.

"Ships of the allied and associated powers shall for five years, and
thereafter under condition of reciprocity, unless the league of nations
otherwise decides, enjoy the same rights in German ports as German

THE TREATY OF PEACE

vessels and have most favored nation treatment in fishing, coasting trade,
and towage, even in territorial waters. Ships of a country having no
sea coast may be registered at some one place within its territory.

FREEDOM OF TRANSIT
Germany must grant freedom of transit through her territories by
mail or water to persons, goods, ships, carriages and mails from or to
any of the allied or associated powers without customs or transit duties
undue delays, restrictions or discriminations based on nationality, means
of transport or place of entry or departure. Goods in transit shall be as-
sured all possible speed of journey, especially perishable goods. Germany
may not divert traffic from its normal course in favor of her own trans-
port routes or maintain "control stations" in connection with transmigra-
tion traffic. She may not establish any tax discrimination against the
ports of allied or associaed powers, must grant the latter's seaports all
factors and reduced tariffs granted her own or other nationals, and af-
ford the allied and associated powers equal rights with those of her own
nationals in her ports and waterways, save that she is free to open or
close her maritime coasting trade.

GERMAN RIVERS INTERNATIONALIZED
The Elbe from the junction of the Vltava, the Vitava from Prague,
the Oder from Oppa, the Niemen from Grodno, and the Danube from
Ulm are declared international, together with their connections. The ri-
parian states must ensure good conditions of navigation within their ter-
ritories unless a special organization exists therefor. Otherwise appeal
may be had to a special tribunal of the league of nations, which also may
arrange for a general international waterways convention.

"The Elbe and the Oder are to be placed under international com-
missions to meet within three months, that for the Elbe composed of four
representatives of Germany, two from Czecho-Slovakia, and one each
from Great Britain, France, Italy, and Belgium, and that for the Oder
composed of one each from Poland, Russia, Czecho-Slovakia, Great Bri-
tain, France, Denmark, and Sweden.

"If any riparian state on the Niemen should so request of the league
of nations a similar commission shall be established there. These com-
missions shall, upon request of any riparian state, meet within three
months to revise existing international agreement.

THE TREATY OF PEACE

CONTROL OF THE DANUBE

The European Danube commission reassumes its pre-war powers, for
the time being, with representatives of only Great Britain, Italy, and Rou-
mania. The upper Danube is to be administered by a new international
commission until a definitive state be drawn up at a conference of the
powers nominated by the allied and associated governments within one
year after the peace.

"The enemy governments shall make full reparations for all war
damages caused to the European commission ; shall cede their river facil-
ities in surrendered territory, and give Czecho-Slovakia, Serbia, and Rou-
mania any rights necessary on their shores for carrying out improve-
ments in navigation.

FRANCE, BELGIUM AND THE RHINE ,

The Rhine is placed under the central commission to meet at Stras-
bourg within six months after the peace and to be composed of four rep-
resentatives of France, which shall in addition select the president ; four
of Germany, and two each of Great Britiain, Italy, Belgium, Switzerland,
and the Netherlands.

"Belgium is to be permitted to build a deep draft Rhine-Meuse canal
if she so desires within twenty-five years, in which case Germany must
construct the part within her territory on plans drawn by Belgium ;
similarly, the interested allied governments may construct a Rhine-Meuse
canal, both, if constructed, to come under the competent international
commission.

"Germany must give France on the course of the Rhine included be-
between the two extreme points of her frontiers all rights to take water to
feed canals, while herself agreeing not to make canals on the right bank
opposite France. She must also hand over to France all her drafts and
designs for this part of the river.

THE KIEL CANAL INTERNATIONALIZED

The Kiel canal is to remain free and open to war and merchant ships
of all nations at peace with Germany. Goods and ships of all states are
to be treated on terms of absolute equality, and no taxes to be imposed
beyond those necessary for upkeep and improvement for which Germany
is responsible.

THE TREATY OF PEACE

"In case of violation of or disagreement as to these provisions, any
state may appeal to the league of nations, and may demand the appoint-
ment of an international commission. For preliminary hearing of com-
plaints Germany shall establish a local authority at Kiel.

THE TERMS NOT TO BE MODIFIED
Germany agrees to recognize the full validity of the treaties of peace
and additional conventions to be concluded by the allied and associated
powers with the powers allied with Germany ; to agree to the decisions to
be taken as to the territories of Austria-Hungary, Bulgaria, and Turkey,
and to recognize the new states in the frontiers to be fixed for them.

Germany agrees not to put forward any pecuniary claims against any
allied or associated power signing the present treaty based on events pre-
vious to the coming into force of the treaty.

Germany accepts all decrees as to German ships and goods made by
any allied or associated prize court. The allies reserve the right to ex-
amine all decisions of German prize courts. The present treaty, of which
the French and British texts are both authentic, shall be ratified and the
depositions of ratifications made in Paris as soon as possible. The treaty
is to become effective in all respects for each power on the date of depo-
sition of its ratification.

THE ALLIES TAKE NO RISKS
As a guarantee for the execution of the treaty German territory to
the west of the Rhine, together with the bridgeheads, will be occupied by
allied and associated troops for 15 years. If the conditions are faith-
fully carried out by Germany, certain districts, including the bridgehead
of Cologne, will be evacuated at the expiration of five years. Certain
other districts, including the bridgehead of Coblenz and the territories
nearest the Belgian frontier will be evacuated after ten years, and the re-
mainder, including the bridgehead of Mainz, will be evacuated after 15
years. In case the interallied reparation commission finds that Germany
has failed to observe the whole or part of her obligations, either during
the occupation or after the 15 years have expired, the whole or part of the
areas specified will be reoccupied immediately. If before the expiration
of the 15 years Germany complies with all the treaty understandings, the
occupying forces will be withdrawn immediately.

THE TREATY OF PEACE

All German troops at present in territories to the east of the new
frontier shall return as soon as the allied and associated governments
deem wise. They are to abstain from all requisitions and are in no way
to interfere with measures for national defense taken by the government
concerned.

All questions regarding occupation not provided for by the treaty will
be regulated by a subsequent convention or conventions which will have
similar force and effect.

CONDENSED CHRONOLOGY OF THE WAR

1914.

June 28 — Murder at Serajevo of the
Archduke Francis Ferdinand.

July 23 — Austro-Hungarian ultimatum
to Serbia.

July 28 — Austria-Hungary declares
war on Serbia.

July 31 — General mobilization in
Russia. ''State of war" declared in
Germany.

Aug. 1 — Germany declared war on
Russia and invaded Luxemburg.

Aug. 2 — German ultimatum to Bel-
gium, demanding free passage across
Belgium.

Aug. 3 — Germany declares war on
France.

Aug. 4 — War declared by Great Britain
on Germany.

Aug. 4 — President Wilson proclaimed
neutrality of United States.

Aug. 4-26 — Belgium overrun: Liege
occupied (Aug. 9) ; Brussels (Aug. 20) ;
Namur (Aug. 24).

Aug. 6 — Austria-Hungary declares war
on Russia.

Aug. 10 — France declares war on
Austria-Hungary.

Aug. 12 — Great Britain declares war
on Austria-Hungary.

Aug. 16 — British expeditionary force
landed in France.

Aug. 18 — Russia completes mobiliza-
tion and invades East Prussia.

Aug. 21-23— Battle of Mons-Charleroi.
Dogged retreat of French and British
in the face of the German invasion.

Aug. 23 — Tsingtau bombarded by
Japanese.

Aug# 25-Dec. 15 — Russians overrun
Galicia. Lemberg taken (Sept. 2) ;
Przemysl first attacked (Sept. 16) ;
siege broken (Oct. 12-Nov. 12). Fall of
Przemysl (Mar. 17, 1915). Dec. 4,
Russians 3% miles from Cracow.

Aug. 26 — Germans destroy Louvain.

Aug. 26 — Allies conquer Togoland, in
Africa.

Aug. 26 — Russians severely defeated
at Battle of Tannenberg in East Prussia.

Aug. 28 — British naval victory in
Helgoland Bight.

Aug. 31 — Allies' line along the Seine,
Marne and Meuse rivers.

Aug. 31 — Name St. Petersburg changed
to Petrograd by Russian decree.

Sept. 3 — French Government removed
(temporarily) from Paris to Bordeaux.

Sept. 5 — Great Britain, France and
Russia sign a treaty not to make peace
separately.

Sept. 6-10— First Battle of the Marne.
Germans reach the extreme point of their
advance; driven back by the French
from the Marne to the River Aisne.

Sept. 7 — Germans take Maubeuge.

Sept. 11 — An Australian expedition-
captures New Guinea and the Bismark
Archipelago Protectorate.

Sept. 16 — Russians under Gen. Rennen-
kampf driven from East Prussia.

Sept. 22 — Three British armored
cruisers sunk by a submarine.

Sept. 27 — Successful invasion of Ger-
man Southwest Africa by Gen. Botha.

Oct. 9 — Germans occupy Antwerp.

Oct. 13 — Belgian Government with-
draws to Le Havre, in France. Germans
occupy Ghent.

Oct. 16-28— Battle of the Yser, in
Flanders. Belgians and French halt
German advance.

Oct. 17-Nov. 17 — French, Belgians and
British repulse German drive in first
battle of Ypres, saving Channel ports
(decisive day of battle, Oct. 31).

Oct. 21-28 — German armies driven back
in Poland.

Oct. 28— De Wet's Rebellion in South
Africa.

Nov. 1 — German naval victory in the
Pacific off the coast of Chile.

Nov. 3 — German naval raid into Eng-
lish waters.

Nov. 5 — Great Britain declared war
on Turkey; Cyprus annexed.

Nov. 7— Fall of Tsingtau to the
Japanese.

Nov. 10-Dec. 14 — Austrian invasion of
Serbia ( Belgrade taken Dec. 2, recaptured
by Serbians Dec. 14).

Nov. 10 — German cruiser "Emden"
caught and destroved at Cocos Island.

CONDENSED CHRONOLOGY OF THE AVAR.

Nov. 21 — Basra, on Persian Gulf, occu-
pied by British.

Dec. 8 — British naval victory off the
Falkland Islands.

Dec. 8 — South African rebellion col-
lapses.

Dec. 9 — French Government returned
to Paris.

Dec. 16 — German warships bombarded
West Hartlepool, Scarborough and
Whitby.

Dec. 17 — Egypt proclaimed a British
Protectorate, and a new ruler appointed
with title of sultan.

Dec. 24 — First German air raid on
England.

1915.

Jan. 1-Feb. 15 — Russians attempt to
cross the Carpathians.

Jan. 24 — British naval victory in
North Sea off Dogger Bank.

Jan. 25 — Second Russian invasion of
East Prussia.

Jan. 28 — American merchantman "Wil-
liam P. Frve" sunk bv German cruiser
"Prinz Eitel Friedrich."

Feb. 4 — Germany's proclamation of
"war zone" around the British Isles after
February 18.

Feb. 10 — United States note holding
German Government to a "strict account-
ability" if any merchant vessel of the
United States is destroyed or any Ameri-
can citizens lose their lives.

Feb. 10 — Germany's reply stating "war
zone" act is an act of self-defense against
illegal methods employed by Great
Britain in preventing commerce between
Germany and neutral countries.

Feb. 18 — German official "blockade" of
Great Britain commenced. German sub-
marines begin campaign of "piracy and
pillage."

Feb. 10 — Anglo-French squadron bom-
bards Dardanelles.

Feb. 20 — United States sends identic
note to Great Britain and Germany sug-
gesting an agreement between these two
powers respecting the conduct of naval
warfare.

Feb. 28 — Germany's reply to identic
note.

Mar. 1 — Announcement of British
"blockade": "Orders in Council" issued
to prevent commodities of any kind from
reaching or leaving Germany.

Mar. 10 — British capture Neuve
( ihapelle.

Mar. 17 — Russians captured Przemysl
and strengthened their hold on the greater
part of Galicia.

Mar. 28 — British steamship "Falaba"
attacked by submarine and sunk (111
lives lost; 1 American).

Apr. 2 — Russians fighting in the Car-
pathians.

Apr. 8 — Steamer "Harpalyce," in serv-
ice of American commission for aid of
Belgium, torpedoed; 15 lives lost.

Apr. 17-May 17— Second Battle of
Ypres. British captured Hill 60 (April
19); (April 23); Germans advanced
toward Yser Canal. Asphyxiating gas
employed by the Germans. Failure of
Germany to break through the British
lines.

Apr. 22 — German embassy sends out a
warning against embarkation on vessels
belonging to Great Britain.

Apr. 26 — Allied troops land on the
Gallipoli Peninsula.

Apr. 28 — American vessel "dishing"
attacked by, German aeroplane.

Apr. 30 — Germans invade the Baltic
Provinces of Russia.

May 1 — American steamship "Gulf-
light" sunk by German submarine; two
Americans lost. Warning of German
embassy published in daily papers.

May 2 — Russians forced by the com-
bined Germans and Austrians to retire
from their positions in the Carpathians
(Battle of the Dunajec).

May 7 — Cunard line steamship "Lusi-
tania" sunk by German submarine (1,154
lives lost, 114 being Americans).

May 8 — Germans occupy Libau, Rus-
sian port on the Baltic.

May 9- June — Battle of Artois, or
Festubert (near La Bassee).

May 10 — Message of sympathy from
Germany on loss of American lives by
sinking of "Lusitania."

May 12 — South African troops under
Gen. Botha occupy capital of German
Southwest Africa.

May 13 — American note protests
against submarine policy culminating in
the sinking of the "Lusitania."

May 23 — Italy declared war on
Austria-Hungary.

May 25 — Coalition cabinet formed in
Great Britain; Asquith continues to be
Prime Minister.

May 25 — American steamship "Ne-
braskan" attacked by submarine.

May 28 — Germany's answer to Ameri-
can note of May 13.

CONDENSED CHRONOLOGY OF THE WAR.

June 1 — Supplementary note from
Germany in regard to the "Gulflight"
and "Cushing."

June 3 — Przemysl retaken by Germans
and Austrians.

June 8 — Resignation of William J.
Bryan, Secretary of State.

June 9 — Monfalcone occupied by Ital-
ians, severing one of two railway lines
to Trieste.

June J) — United States sends second
note on "Lusitania" case.

June 22 — The Austro-Germans re-
capture Lemberg.

July 2 — Naval action between Russian
and German warships in the Baltic.

July 8 — Germany sends reply to note
of June 9 and pledges safety to United
States vessels in war zone under specified
conditions.

July 15 — Germany sends memorandum
acknowledging submarine attack on
"Nebraskan" and expresses regret.

July 15 — Conquest of German South-
west Africa completed.

July 21 — Third American note on
"Lusitania" case declares Germany's
communication of July 8 "very unsatis-
factory."

July 12-Sept. 18 — German conquest of
Russian Poland. Germans capture Lub-
lin (July 31), Warsaw (Aug. 4), Ivan-
gorod (Aug. 5), Kovno (Aug. 17), Novo-
georgievsk (Aug. 19), Brest-Litovsk
(Aug. 25), Vilna (Sept. 18).

July 25 — American steamship "Lee-
lanaw" sunk by submarines; carrying
contraband; no lives lost.

Aug. 4 — Capture of Warsaw by Ger-
mans.

Aug. 19— White Star liner "Arabic"
sunk by submarine; 16 victims, 2 Ameri-
cans.

Aug. 20 — Italy declared war on Turkey.

Aug. 24 — German ambassador sends
note in regard to "Arabic." Loss of
American lives contrary to intention of
the German Government and is deeply
regretted.

Sept. 1 — Letter from Ambassador von
Bernstorff to Secretary Lansing giving
assurance that German submarines will
sink no more liners without warning.
Endorsed by the German Foreign Office
(Sept. 14).

Sept. 4 — Allan liner "Hesperian" sunk
by German submarine; 26 lives lost, 1
American.

Sept. 7 — German Government sends
report on the sinking of the "Arabic."

Sept. 8 — United States demands recall
of Austro-Hungarian ambassador, Dr.
Dumba.

Sept. 14 — United States sends sum-
mary of evidence in regard to "Arabic."

Sept. 18 — Fall of Vilna; end of Russian
retreat.

Sept. 25-Oct. — French offensive in
Champagne fails to break through Ger-
man lines.

Sept. 27 — British progress in the
neighborhood of Loos.

Oct. 4 — Russian ultimatum to Bul-
garia.

Oct. 5 — Allied forces land at Saloniki,
at the invitation of the Greek Govern-
ment.

Oct. 5 — German Government regrets
and disavows sinking of "Arabic" and is
prepared to pay indemnities.

Oct. 6-Dec. 2 — Austro-German-Bul-
garian conquest of Serbia. Fall of Nish
(Nov. 5), of Prizrend (Nov. 30), of
Monastir (Dec. 2).

Oct. 14 — Great Britain declared war
against Bulgaria.

Nov. 10 — Russian forces advance on
Teheran as a result of pro-German activi-
ties in Persia.

Dec. 1 — British under Gen. Townshend
forced to retreat from Ctesiphon to
Kut-el-Amara.

Dec. 4 — United States Government de-
mands recall of Capt. Karl Boy-Ed,
German naval attache, and Capt. Franz
von Papen, military attache.

Dec. 6 — Germans captured Ipek
(Montenegro) .

Dec. 13 — British defeat Arabs on west-
ern frontier of Egypt.

Dec. 15 — Sir John French retired from
command of the army in France and
Flanders, and is succeeded by Sir Douglas
Haig.

Dec. 17 — Russians occupied Hamadan
(Persia).

Dec. 19 — The British forces withdrawn
from Anzac and Sulva Bay (Gallipoli
Peninsula) .

Dec. 26 — Russian forces in Persia
occupied Kashan.

Dec. 30 — British passenger steamer
"Persia" sunk in Mediterranean, pre-
sumably by submarine.

1916.

Jan. 8 — Complete evacuation of Galli-
poli.

Jan. 13 — Fall of Cettinje, capital of
Montenegro.

CONDENSED CHRONOLOGY OP THE WAR.

Jan. 18 — United States Government
sets forth a declaration of principles
regarding submarine attacks and asks
whether the governments of the Allies
would subscribe to such an agreement.

Jan. 28 — Austrians occupy San Gio-
vanni de Medjci (Albania).

Feb. 10 — Germany sends memorandum
to neutral powers that armed merchant
ships will be treated as warships and will
be sunk without warning.

Feb. 15 — Secretary Lansing makes
statement that by international law
commercial vessels have right to carry
arms in self-defense.

Feb. 16 — Germany sends note ac-
knowledging her liability in the "Lusi-
tania" affair.

Feb. 16 — Kamerun (Africa) con-
quered.

Feb. 21-July— Battle of Verdun. Ger-
mans take Ft. Douaumont (Feb. 25).
Great losses of Germans with little re-
sults. Practically all the ground lost
was slowly regained by the French in
the autumn.

Feb. 24 — President Wilson in letter to
Senator Stone refuses to advise Ameri-
can citizens not to travel on armed mer-
chant ships.

Feb. 27 — Russians captured Kerman-
shah (Persia).

Mar. 8 — German ambassador com-
municates memorandum regarding U-
boat question, stating it is a new weapon
not yet regulated by international law.

Mar. 8 — Germany declares war on
Portugal.

Mar. 19 — Russians entered Ispahan
(Persia) .

Mar. 24 — French steamer "Sussex" is
torpedoed without warning; about 80
passengers, including American citizens,
are killed or wounded.

Mar. 25 — Department of State issues
memorandum in regard to armed mer-
chant vessels in neutral ports and on
the nigh seas.

Mar. 27-29— United States Govern-
ment instructs American ambassador in
Berlin to inquire into sinking of "Sus-
sex" and other vessels.

Apr. 10 — German Government replies
to United States notes of March 27, 28
29, on the sinking of "Sussex" and other
vessels.

Apr. 17 — Russians capture Trebizond.

Apr. 18 — United States delivers what
is considered an ultimatum that unless
Germany abandons present methods of

submarine warfare United States will
sever diplomatic relations.

Apr. 19 — President addressed Congress
on relations with Germany.

Apr. 24-May 1 — Insurrection in Ire-
land.

Apr. 29 — Gen. Townshend surrendered
to the Turks before Kut-el-Amara.

May 4 — Reply of Germany ac-
knowledges sinking of the "Sussex" and
in the main meets demands of the United
States.

May 8 — United States Government ac-
cepts German position as outlined in
note of May 4, but makes it clear that
the fulfillment of these conditions can not
depend upon the negotiations between
the United States and any other belliger-
ent Government.

May 16-June 3 — Great Austrian attack
on the Italians through the Trentino.

May 19 — Russians ioin British on the
Tigris.

May 27 — President in address before
League to Enforce Peace says United
States is ready to join any practical
league for preserving peace and guaran-
teeing political and territorial integrity
of nations.

May 31 — Naval battle off Jutland.

June 4-30 — Russian offensive in Vol-
hynia and Bukovina. Czernovitz taken
(June 17) ; all Bukovina overrun.

June 5 — Lord Kitchener drowned.

June 21 — United States demands
apology and reparation from Austria-
Hungary for sinking by Austrian sub-
marine of "Petrolite," an American
vessel.

July 1-Nov. — Battle of the Somme.
Combles taken (Sept. 26). Failure of
the Allies to break the German lines.

Aug. 6-Sept. — New Italian offensive
drives out Austrians and wins Gorizia
(Aug. 9).

Aug. 27 — Ttaly declares war on Ger-
many.

Aug. 27-Jan. 15, 1917 — Roumania
enters war on the side of the Allies and
is crushed. (Fall of Bucharest, Dec. 6;
Dobrudja conquered, Jan. 2; Focsani
captured, Jan. 8).

Oct. 8 — German submarine appears
off American coast and sinks British
passenger steamer "Stephano."

Oct. 28 — British steamer "Marina"
sunk without warning (6 Americans
lost).

CONDENSED CHRONOLOGY OF THE WAR.

Nov. 6 — British liner "Arabia" tor-
pedoed and sunk without warning in
Mediterranean.

Nov. 20 — United States protests
against Belgian deportations.

Dec. 12 — German peace offer. Refused
(Dec. 30) by Allies as "empty and in-
sincere."

Dec. 14 — British horse:transport ship
"Russian" sunk in Mediterranean by
submarine (17 Americans lost).

Dec. 20 — President Wilson's peace note
(dated Dec. 18). Germany replies (Dec.
26). Entente Allies' reply (Jan. 10) de-
mands "restorations, reparation, indem-
nities."

1917.

Jan. 10 — The Allied Governments
state their terms of peace: a separate
note from Belgium included.

Jan. 11 — Supplemental German note
on views as to settlement of war.

Jan. 13 — Great Britain amplifies reply
to President's note of Dec. 18. Favors
cooperation to preserve peace.

Jan. 22 — President Wilson addresses
the Senate, giving his ideas of steps
necessary for world peace.

Jan. 31 — Germany announced un-
restricted submarine warfare in specified
zones.

Feb. 3 — United States severs diplo-
matic relations with Germany; Bern-
storff dismissed.

Feb. 12 — United States replies to Swiss
Minister that it will not negotiate with
Germany until submarine order is with-
drawn.

Feb. 18 — Italians and French join in
Albania, cutting off Greece from the
Central Powers.

Feb. 24 — Kut-el-Amara taken by
British under Gen. Maude (campaign
begun Dec. 13 ) .

Feb. 26 — President W7ilson asks au-
thority to arm merchant ships.

Feb. 28 — "Zimmerman note" revealed.

Mar. 4 — Announced that the British
had taken over from the French the en-
tire Somme front: British held on west
front 100 miles, French 175 miles, Bel-
gians 25 miles.

Mar. 11 — Bagdad captured by British
under Gen. Maude.

Mar. 11-15 — Revolution in Russia,
leading to abdication of Czar Nicholas
II (Mar. 15). Provisional Government
formed by Constitutional Democrats
under Prince Lvov and M. Milyukov.

Mar. 12 — United States announced that
an armed guard would be placed on all
American merchant vessels sailing
through the war zone.

Mar. 17-10 — Retirement of Germans to
"Hindenburg line." Evacuation of 1,300
square miles of French territory, on
front of 100 miles, from Arras to Sois-
sons.

Mar. 22 — United States formally recog-
nized the new government of Russia set
up as a result of the revolution.

Mar. 20— The United States refused
the proposal of Germany to interpret
and supplement the Prussian Treaty of
1709.

Mar. 27— Minister Brand Whitlock and
American Relief Commission withdrawn
from Belgium.

Apr. 2 — President Wilson asks Con-
gress to declare the existence of a state
of war with Germany.

Apr. 6 — United States declares war on
Germany.

Apr. 8 — Austria-Hungary severs diplo-
matic relations with the United States.

Apr. 9-May 14 — British successes in
Battle of Arras; (Vimv Ridge taken
Apr. 0).

Apr. 16-May 6 — French successes in
Battle of the Aisne between Soissons
and Rheims.

Apr. 20 — Turkey severs relations with
United States.

May 4 — American destroyers begin
cooperation with British navy in war
/one.

May 15-Sept. 15 — Great Italian offen-
sive on Isonzo front (Carso Plateau).
Capture of Gorizia. Aug. 0. Monte Santo
taken Aug. 24. Monte San Gabrielle,
Sept. 14.

May 15 — Gen. Petain succeeds Gen.
Nivelle as commander in chief of the
French armies.

May 17 — Russian Provisional Govern-
ment reconstructed. Kerensky (formerly
minister of justice) becomes minister of
war.

May 18 — President Wilson signs selec-
tive service act.

June 3 — American mission to Russia
lands at Vladivostok ("Root Mission")
Returns to America Aug. 3.

June 7 — British blow up Messines
Ridge, south of Ypres, and capture
7,500 German prisoners.

June 10 — Italian offensive on Trentino.
June 12 — King Constantine of Greece
forced to abdicate.

CONDENSED CHRONOLOGY OF THE WAR.

June 15 — Subscriptions close for first
Liberty Loan ($2,000,000,000 offered;
$3,035>226,850 subscribed).

June 26 — First American troops reach
France.

June 29 — Greece enters war with Ger-
many and her allies.

July 1 — Russian army led in person
by Kerensky begins a short-line offensive
in Galicia, ending in disastrous retreat
(July 10- Aug. 3),

July 4 — Resignation of Bethmann Holl-
weg as German chancellor. Dr. George
Michaelis, chancellor (July 14).

July 20 — Drawing at Washington of
names for first army under selective
service.

July 20 — Kerensky becomes premier on
resignation of Prince Lvov.

.luly 30 — Mutiny in German fleet at
Wilhelmshaven and Kiel. Second
mutinv Sept. 2.

July 31 -Nov .—Battle of glanders (Pas-
schendaele Ridge) ; British successes.

Aug. 10 — Food and fuel control bill
passed.

Aug. 15 — Peace proposals of Pope
Benedict revealed (dated Aug. 1).
United States replies Aug. 27; Germany
and Austria, Sept. 21; supplementary
German reply, Sept. 26.

Aug. 15 — Canadians capture Hill 70,
dominating Lens.

Aug. 19 — New Italian drive on the
Isonz front (Carso Plateau). Monte
Santo captured (Aug. 24).

Aug. 20-24 — French attacks at Verdun
recapture high ground lost in 1916.

Sept. 3 — Riga captured by Germans.

Sept. 8 — Luxburg dispatches ("Spurlos
versenkt") revealed by United States.

Sept. 10-13 — Attempted coup d'etat of
Gen. Kornilov.

Sept. 15 — Russia proclaimed a republic.

Oct. 12 — Germans occupy Oesel and
Dago Islands (Gulf of Riga).

Oct. 17 — Russians defeated in a naval
engagement in the Gulf of Riga.

Oct. 24-Dec. — Great German-Austrian
counterdrive into Italy. Italian line
shifted to Piave River, Asiago Plateau
and Brenta River.

Oct. 23-26— French drive north of the
Aisne wins important positions includ-
ing Malmaison Fort.

Oct. 26 — Brazil declares war on Ger-
many.

Oct. 27 — Second Libertv loan closed
($3,000,000,000 offered; $4,617,532,300
subscribed) .

Oct. 30 — Count von Hertling succeeds
Michaelis as German chancellor.

Nov. 2 — Germans retreat from the
Chemin des Dames, north of the Aisne.

Nov. 3 — First clash of American with
German soldiers.

Nov. 7 — Overthrow of Kerensky and
Provisional Government of Russia by the
Bolsheviki.

Nov. 13 — Clemenceau succeeds Ribot as
French premier.

Nov. 18 — British forces in Palestine
take Jaffa.

Nov. 22-Dec. 13— Battle of Cambrai.
Successful surprise attack near Cambrai
by British under Gen. Byng on Nov. 22
(employs "tanks" to break down wire
entanglements in place of the usual
artillery preparations). Bourlon Wood,
dominating Cambrai, taken Nov. 26.
Surprise counter-attack by Germans, Dec.
2, compels British to give up fourth of
ground gained. German attacks on Dec.
13 partly successful.

Nov. 29 — First plenary session of the
Interallied Conference in Paris. Sixteen
nations represented. Col. E. M. House,
chairman of American delegation.

Dec. 5 — President Wilson, in message
to Congress, advises war on Austria.

Dec. 6 — United States destroyer "Jacob
Jones" sunk by submarine, with loss
of over 40 American men.
* Dec. 6 — Explosion of munitions vessel
wrecks Halifax.

Dec. 6-9 — Armed revolt overthrows
pro- Ally administration in Portugal.

Dec. 7 — United States declares war on
Austria-Hungary.

Dec. 9 — Jerusalem captured by British
force advancing from Egypt.

Dec. 10 — Gens. Kaledines and Kornilov
declared by the Bolsheviki Government
to be leading a Cossock revolt.

Dec. 15 — Armistice signed between
Germany and the Bolsheviki Government
at Brest-Litovsk.

Dec. 23 — Peace negotiations opened at
Brest-Litovsk between Bolsheviki Govern-
ment and Central Powers, under Presi-
dency of the German foreign minister.

Dec> 26— President Wilson issues proc-
lamation taking over railroads and ap-
pointing W. G. McAdoo, director-general.
Proclamation takes effect at noon,
December 28.

Dec. 29 — British national labor con-
ference approves continuation of war
for aims similar to those defined by
President Wilson.

CONDENSED CHRONOLOGY OF THE WAR.

1918.

Jan. 10 — American troops take over
sector northwest of Toul.

Feb. 6 — "Tuscania," American trans-
port, torpedoed off coast of Ireland; 101
lost.

Feb. 22 — American troops in Cliemin
des Dames sector.

Mar. 3 — Peace treaty between Bolshe-
vik Government of Russia and the Central
Powers signed at Brest-Litovsk.

Mar. 4 — Treaty signed between Ger-
many and Finland.

Mar. 5 — Rumania signs preliminary
treaty of peace with Central Powers.

Mar. 20 — President Wilson orders all
Holland ships in American ports taken
over.

Mar. 21 — Germans begin great drive on
50-mile front from Arras to La Fere.
Bombardment of Paris by German long-
range gun from a distance of 76 miles.
■ Mar. 20 — General Foch chosen com-
mander-in-chief of all Allied forces.

Apr. 0 — Second German drive begun
in Flanders.

Apr. 10 — First German drive halted
before Amiens after maximum advance
of 35 miles.

Apr. 15 — Second German drive halted
before Ypres, after maximum advance
of 10 miles.

Apr. 23 — British naval forces raid
Zeebrugge in Belgium, German submarine
base, and block channel.

May 27 — Third German drive begins on
Aisne-Marne frfont of 30 miles between
Soissons and Rheims.

May 28 — Germans sweep on beyond the
Chemin des Dames and cross the Veslo at
Fismes.

May 28 — Cantigny taken by Americans
in local attack.

May 29 — Soissons evacuated by French.

May 31 — Ma me River crossed by Ger-
mans, who reach Chateau Thierry, 40
miles from Paris.

May 31 — "President Lincoln," Ameri-
can transport, sunk.

June 2— Schooner "Edward H. Cole"
torpedoed by submarine off American
coast.

June 3-6 — American marines and regu-
lars check advance of Germans at
Chateau Thierry and Neuilly after maxi-
mum advance of Germans of 32 miles.
Beginning of American cooperation on
major scale.

June 0-14 — German drive on Noyon-
Montdidier front. Maximum advance,
5 miles.

June 15-24 — Austrian drive on Italian
front ends in complete failure.

July 12 — Berat, Austrian base in Al-
bania, captured by Italians.

July 15 — Stonewall defense of Chateau
Thierry blocks new German drive on
Paris.

July 16 — Nicholas Romanoff, ex-Czar
of Russia, executed at Yekaterinburg.

July 18 — French and Americans begin
counter offensive on Marne-Aisne front.

July 10— -San Diego," United States
cruiser, sunk off Fire Island.

July 21 — German submarine sinks
three barges off Cape Cod.

Aug. 3 — Allies sweep on between Sois-
sons and Rheims, driving the enemy from
his base at Fismes and capturing the
entire Aisne-Vesle front.

Aug. 7 — Franco-American troops cross
the Vesle.

Aug. 8 — New Allied drive begun by
Field-Marshal Ilaig in Picardy, penetrat-
ing enemy front 14 miles.

Aug. 10— Montdidier recaptured.

Aug. 20 — Noyon and Bapaume fall in
new Allied advance.

Sept. 1 — Australians take Peronne.

Sept. 1 — Americans fight for the first
time on Belgian soil and capture Voor-
mezeele.

Sept. 11 — Germans are driven back to
the Mindenburg line which they held in
November, 1017.

Sept. 14 — St. Mihiel recaptured from
Germans. General Pershing announces
entire St. Mihiel salient erased, liberat-
ing more than 150 square miles of French
territory which had been in German
hands since 1014.

Sept. 20 — Nazareth occupied by British
forces in Palestine under Gen. Allenby.

Sept. 23 — Bulgarian armies flee before
combined attacks of British, Greek,
Serbian, Italian and French.

Sept. 26 — Strumnitza, Bulgaria, occu-
pied by Allies.

Sept. 27 — Franco-Americans in drive
from Rheims to Verdun take 30,000
prisoners.

Sept. 28 — Belgians attack enemy from
Ypres to North Sea, gaining four miles.

Sept. 20 — Bulgaria surrenders to Gen.
d'Esperey, the Allied commander.

Oct. 1 — St. Quentin, cornerstone of
Hindenburg line, captured.

CONDENSED CHRONOLOGY OF THE WAR.

Oct. 1 — Damascus occupied by British
in Palestine campaign.

Oct. 3 — Albania cleared of Austrians by
Italians.

Oct. 4 — Ferdinand, king of Bulgaria,
abdicates; Boris succeeds.

Oct. 5 — Prince Maximilian, new Ger-
man Chancellor, pleads with President
Wilson to ask Allies for armistice.

Oct. 0 — Cambrai in Allied hands.

Oct. 10 — "Leinster," passenger steamer,
sunk in Irish Channel by submarine;
480 lives lost; final German atrocity at
sea.

Oct. 11 — Americans advance through
Argonne forest.

Oct. 12 — German foreign secretary,
Solf, says plea for armistice is made
in name of German people; agrees to
evacuate all foreign soil.

Oct. 13 — Laon and La Fere abandoned
by Germans.

Oct. 13 — Grandpre captured by Ameri-
cans after four days' battle.

Oct. 14 — President Wilson refers Ger-
mans to General Foch for armistice terms.

Oct. 17 — Ostend, German submarine
base, taken by land and sea forces.

Oct. 19 — Bruges and Zeebrugge taken
by Belgians and British.

Oct. 25 — Beginning of terrific Italian
drive which nets 50,000 prisoners in five
days.

Oct. 31 — Turkey surrenders; armistice
takes effect at noon; conditions include
free passage of Dardanelles.

Nov. 3 — Austria surrenders, signing
armistice with Italy at 3 p. m. after
500,000 prisoners had been taken.

Xov. 11 — Germany surrenders; arm-
istice takes effect at 11 a. m. American
Hag hoisted on iSedan front.

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