The Project Gutenberg EBook of Kelly Miller's History of the World War for Human Rights, by Kelly Miller This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org Title: Kelly Miller's History of the World War for Human Rights Author: Kelly Miller Release Date: July 17, 2007 [EBook #19179] [This file was first posted on September 4, 2006] Language: English Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 *** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK KELLY MILLER'S HISTORY OF WORLD WAR *** Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Graeme Mackreth, and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net [Illustration: KELLY MILLER, A.M., LL.D. Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, Howard University, Washington D.C.] KELLY MILLER'S HISTORY OF 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 Important 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 Photographs, 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. BY KELLY MILLER, A.M., LL.D. The Well-Known and Popular Author of "Race Adjustment," "Out of the House of Bondage" and "The Disgrace of Democracy." ALSO Important Contribution by JOHN J. PERSHING, the Famous General, FREDERICK DRINKER, the Noted War Correspondent, and E.A. ALLEN, Author of "The History of Civilization." Copyright, 1919 By A. JENKINS Copyright, 1919 By O. KELLER THE NEGRO'S PART IN THE WAR BY PROFESSOR 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 brilliant power of statement for which the author is famous. The mere announcement that the author of "Race Adjustment," "Out of the House of Bondage," and "The Disgrace 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 anything 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 German 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 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 story never told before, because the world has never before witnessed Negro officers in large numbers participating 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 glowing colors as the result of his loyal and patriotic conduct in 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 greatest wars have in the main been conflicts of ideals--democracy being arrayed against oligarchy--men fighting for individual rights as against militarism and military domination. In the World War, which terminated with the signing 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 neighbors and assuming that "might is right." The Imperial Government, led by the House of Hohenzollern, was suffering from an exaggerated ego. Her 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 with an idea and "rides a hobby" to the exclusion of all else, he loses his balance and develops an obliquity of view which makes him a dangerous 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 Hohenzollern, which is responsible for the development of the national fighting arm, neglected much and produced millions 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 training 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 dedication of the monument to Prince Frederick Charles at Frankfurt-on-the-Oder in 1891, as having said, "We would 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 Frederick gained." His speeches were filled with similar bombastic and extravagant expressions which were the subject of international comment for many years. Other countries besides Germany have maintained great armies, but their maintenance has been but an incidental part of the general business 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 neighboring countries, it was adamant, stubborn, military Prussianism 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 realized 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 eliminated. 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 has ever stood, might be perpetuated throughout the world, and that an international peace might be established, which has for its purposes the ending of such convulsions 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--THE GREAT CONSPIRACY--THE WAR BY YEARS--UNITED STATES IN THE WAR--TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTY MILES OF BATTLE--THE DOWNFALL OF TURKEY--THE DEMOCRATIC CLOSE OF THE WAR 17 CHAPTER II GEN. PERSHING'S OWN STORY ORGANIZATION OF HIS GENERAL STAFF--TRAINING IN FRANCE--IN THE AISNE OFFENSIVE--AT CHATEAU THIERRY--THE ST MIHEIL 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--SPLENDID 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 TEUTON FIND IN A MURDER THE EXCUSE FOR WAR--GERMANY INSPIRED BY AMBITIONS 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--FIREBRAND 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 135 CHAPTER VIII THWARTING THE U-BOAT NETS 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 FORCESON LAND OR SEA--LEAD DISASTROUS BOMB ATTACKS--VALUABLE IN "SPOTTING" SUBMARINES--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 HELMETS--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 THE WAR FLAMES SPREAD--A SCORE OF COUNTRIES INVOLVED--THE POINTS OF CONTACT--PICTURESQUE AND RUGGED BULGARIA, ROUMANIA, SERVIA, GREECE, ITALY AND HISTORIC SOUTHEAST EUROPE 259 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 TACTICS--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--ORGANIZER 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--VENIZELOS--"BLACK JACK" PERSHING 344 CHAPTER XX CHEMISTRY IN THE WAR SUBSTITUTES FOR COTTON--NITRATES PRODUCED FROM AIR--YEAST A REAL SUBSTITUTE FOR BEEF--SEAWEED MADE TO GIVE UP POTASH--A GANGRENE PREVENTATIVE--SODA MADE OUT OF SALT WATER--AMERICA CHEMICALLY INDEPENDENT 361 CHAPTER XXI OUR NEIGHBORING ALLY CANADA'S RECRUITING--RAISE 33,000 TROOPS IN TWO MONTHS--FIRST EXPEDITIONARY FORCE TO CROSS ATLANTIC--BRAVERY AT YPRES AND LENS--MEETING DIFFICULT PROBLEMS--QUEBEC AROUSED BY CONSCRIPTION 371 CHAPTER XXII THE HEROIC ANZAC FORCES THAT STIRRED THE WORLD IN THE GALLIPOLI CAMPAIGN--FAMOUS AS SAPPERS--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 NEGOTIATIONS BETWEEN GERMANY AND AMERICA--THE U-BOAT RESTRICTED ZONE ANNOUNCEMENT OF GERMANY--PREMIER LLOYD GEORGE ON AMERICA IN THE CONFLICT 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 BY 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 XXVIII AMERICAN FORCES BECOME FACTOR UNITED STATES SOLDIERS INSPIRED ALLIED TROOPS--RUSSIAN GOVERNMENT COLLAPSES--ITALIAN ARMY FAILS--ALLIED WAR COUNCIL FORMED--FOCH COMMANDS ALLIED ARMIES--PERSHING OFFERS AMERICAN TROOPS--UNDER FIRE--U-BOAT BASES RAIDED BY BRITISH 473 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 489 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 497 THE NEGRO IN THE WORLD WAR 507 [Illustration: WOUNDED AMERICAN SOLDIERS ENTERTAINING THEMSELVES. During the period of convalescence the wounded were well cared for. They earned and deserved the best possible treatment and care.] [Illustration: FIFTH AVENUE, NEW YORK, CHEERS NEGRO VETERANS. The 369th Colored Infantry acclaimed by thousands upon their return from France. Their record is one of the bravest of any organization in the war.] [Illustration: ONE OF 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.] [Illustration: 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.] [Illustration: NEGRO SOLDIERS LOOKING FOR THE ENEMY. Negro troops from many parts of the world were engaged in the war. It has been estimated that as many as 700,000 Negro soldiers were in the French Army alone.] [Illustration: ENTERTAINING CONVALESCENT AMERICAN SOLDIERS AT AUTHEIL. Negro musicians were in great demand in France. This picture shows Lieut. Europe's noted colored band.] [Illustration: THE BAND IN La BOURBOULE, FRANCE. The arrival of the colored musicians created great excitement. This band heralded the coming of soldiers to rest up.] [Illustration: A SNIPER AT WORK. This papier-maché camouflage, made to imitate a dead horse, furnished good protection for the sharpshooter.] [Illustration: SENEGALIANS ON THE SOMME FRONT.] [Illustration: FRENCH ZOUAVES TAKEN PRISONERS BY GERMANS. They were formerly artists in a Paris cafe-concert.] [Illustration: WOUNDED COLORED SOLDIERS ON THE MACEDONIAN FRONT. They were with the ambulance X.A., and the major surgeon is distributing cigarettes.] [Illustration: Private Henry Johnson Private Needham Roberts Of the New York National Guards (now the 369th) who have been decorated by the French for routing 24 Germans and preventing the carrying out of a well-developed plan to assail one of the most important points of resistance on the American front. They have been awarded the War Cross by the French.] [Illustration: COLORED SOLDIERS BUILDING ROADS "OVER THERE."] [Illustration: COLORED SOLDIERS IN THE TRENCHES "OVER THERE." (Note the tin hats.)] [Illustration: HOTEL BOOKER T. WASHINGTON "OVER THERE." The Negro Soldiers are surely fighting for Democracy. It is coming to them by leaps and bounds.] [Illustration: 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 [Illustration: The late Major James E. Walker was born in Virginia, September 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.] [Illustration: THE FIGHTING U.S.A. MARINE BRIGADE IN BELLEAU WOOD. Here the Germans were not only stopped in their march toward Paris, but "knocked out." The furious and fast fighting of the Marines proved their superiority. The Hun was badly beaten. The soldier applying the bayonet is an American Negro.] [Illustration: AFRICAN TROOPS IN FRANCE. THEY FOUGHT FOR THE ALLIES. A war dance, relieving the monotony and for the benefit of British and French troops. These colored soldiers gave a good account of themselves.] [Illustration: KAMERAD! KAMERAD! Three colored Canadians imitating the Germans, whom they captured in this dugout near the Canal du Nord, as they put up their hands and shouted "Kamerad"!] 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--THE DOWNFALL OF TURKEY--THE DEMOCRATIC CLOSE OF THE WAR. The World War, terminated by the signing of the armistice November 11, 1918, was attended with more far-reaching changes than any war known to history, and is destined to so profoundly influence civilization that we see in it the beginning of a new age. Somewhat similar wars in the past were the campaigns of Alexander; 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 nations--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, considering 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 possible; study the issue involved stripped of all misleading statements; review its course and weigh the nature of the profound changes--geographical, political and economic--that resulted. We shall find that this war was the culmination 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 approaches 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 whose 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 Frederick 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 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 Austria in 1866, with France in 1870,--not one of which was justifiable. The war with France was occasioned by deliberately 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 empire 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 language, her laws and her customs. Like her great prototype, we now know that official Prussia regarded all she had accomplished to the formation of the empire as simply 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 was 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 increased 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 acknowledged 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 understand 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 class, the professors, scientists and theologians of Germany. 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 would lead his people to "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 Robber 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 conquest, he, by God's help, would succeed. Every prominent military leader in Germany applauded such beliefs. He said that when he contemplated the paintings of his ancestors, and the military chiefs of Germany, who advanced the insignificant Mark of Brandenburg to the rank of the most powerful state in Europe, they seemed to reproach 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 Mohammedan world that he was henceforth their friend. The ignorant Turks actually supposed he had become a Mohammedan 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 dominance of Germany to all parts of the world, peacefully if 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 exuberant dream of fanatics. Intellectual, military, and official Germany was in earnest. Her generals wrote books illustrated with maps showing the stages of world conquest; 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 William II. He was to be the Augustus of this greater Roman Empire; over virtually all the earth the House of Hohenzollern was to exercise despotic sway. Then began preparation for the World's War. With characteristic German thoroughness and patience the plans were laid. Thoroughness, since they embraced every conceivable means that would enhance their prospect of victory, her military leaders, 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 commerce and industry of the empire, but with it all--underlying 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 involved. A nation aspiring to territory extending from Hamburg to Bagdad must firmly control the Balkan States. That meant that Austria must become, in effect, 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 Germany in 1908 when she annexed the Serbian states of Bosnia and Herzegovina, 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 herself ready for the conflict. Enormous supplies of guns, of a caliber before unthought of, and apparently inexhaustible 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 going 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 begging 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 records of the Potsdam council over which the Kaiser presided, 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 yachting trip while the financiers immediately commenced disposing 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, American 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 entailed with its heritage of woe. We must now gain a general view of the events of the war. Every well-informed man or woman feels the necessity of such outline knowledge. It was not only the greatest 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 achievements. 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 northern 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, outflank, 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. BELGIAN RESISTANCE. Germany expected that at the most a day or so would see Belgian resistance broken and the dash on Paris begun. 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 "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 English army had also assumed a position before the menacing rush of the German forces. The only thing the Allies could do was to retreat. This movement, directed by General Joffre, was a remarkably able one. His plan was to give ground before the advance without risking a decisive 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). Apparently, the German forces were carrying everything 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 coursing 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 success 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 northeast. The evening of that day, General Joffre issued orders for a general attack all along the line. His message to the French Senate was couched in words of deep meaning,--he had made, he said, the best disposition possible. France could only await in hope the outcome. The battle that began the next day continued for one week and 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? 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 to 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 mistakes of General Von Kluck. The results were commensurate 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 invasion of Belgium began, Russia made immediate efforts to counteract by invasion of East Prussia. She was successful 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. Tannenberg is nearly one hundred miles southeast of Konigsburg. This was the battle that gave General Von Hindenburg 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 Hindenburg was acclaimed the greatest soldier of the day, and was immediately 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 advantages 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 German retreat after the battle of the Marne, remained without substantial change. Do not understand there were no battles along that extended line. Almost daily there were 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 counter-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 accounts for the comparative quiet in that section, which in turn gave Great Britain time to prepare in earnest. And 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 intended to serve. There were already signs of the approaching 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 overrun by German forces. It seemed for a time as if Petrograd 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 continued 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 inducing 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 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 Armenians. 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 crippled 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 mentioned 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 constitutes a landmark in the early history of France. It was Verdun that held back the southern end of the flail wherewith France was 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 to gather an enormous army under his command, overwhelm 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 battle that enveloped Verdun for six months, beginning February 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 Thermopylae 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 further 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 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 notable 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 decisive 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 war on Austria, August 27, 1916. The response of Germany and Bulgaria to this new menace was prompt and decisive. Before the end of the year Roumania was crushed, the capital city, Bucharest, was taken. Roumania was not at all prepared to wage war on the scale this war had assumed, but the immediate cause of her easy conquest 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 grouping 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 showed 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 involved. 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 significant of one thing,--growing resentment against what had long been recognized as the criminal ambitions of Germany to dominate the world. THE UNITED STATES IN WAR. April 6, 1917, will hereafter be one of the most important 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 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 principle that we hold dear, demanded that we should respond to the call of the President to arms. Then commenced 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 outbreaks, 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 thoroughgoing 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, outdoing 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. THE ITALIAN REVERSE. Having achieved such signal successes in the east, Russia 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 endurance was at hand. A great force of Austrians and Germans 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 pronounced 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 offensive in their turn. Germany hastened its preparations 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 distance 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 German 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 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 for reinforcements from America. Germany was making desperate 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 imply. 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 millions 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 continued, 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 patrolling 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 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 charging 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 appointing 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 qualities of leadership displayed by Marshal Foch were necessarily 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 generals just as able. The fetish of German military invincibility 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 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 country in the eighteen months that elapsed from the declaration of war to the signing of the armistice. Our preparations in France, representing only a part of our total effort, were on such an enormous scale, that neutral nations--as Sweden and Spain--sent trusted officials to investigate if it were possibly true that America was making such colossal preparations; could it be that men by the hundreds of thousands were disembarking on European 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 preparation meant that spurred Germany on during the early summer of 1918. But it was too late. Already the handwriting 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 section 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 German 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 elaborate plan whereby all the trade of the world was to pay tribute to Germany. It was another case 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 suddenly confronted by American marines, hurried to the scene of action in motor driven vehicles of all descriptions 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. Instead 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 France 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 warfare in which American forces participated. Before advancing at Chateau Thierry the Germans had fortified their position in Belleau Woods which they had previously occupied. In the black recesses of this woods they established 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 Chateau Thierry was not rendered secure until the Germans were driven from Belleau Woods. And so for the next three weeks the battle of Belleau Woods raged. Fighting day after day without relief, without sleep, often without water, and for days without hot rations, 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 wonderful work of reducing the St. Mihiel salient to the south and to the east of Verdun, a German wedge that had withstood 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 declared 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 humiliation 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 Mesopotamia, Palestine, and large parts of Asia Minor, and freeing 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 leading 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 Mesopotamia 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 overthrown, 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 Testament 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 Palestine with its wealth of Biblical history is a wonderful theme for contemplation. Given the blessings of a twentieth 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, according 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 armistice, the terms of which were the most drastic and humiliating 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 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 west 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 million 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 emergencies. 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 withstand 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 initiative 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 forward 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 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 highest order. Day by day the remorseless jaws of the Allied military machine, hinged to the north of the Aisne,--British 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 hopeless. 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 war. 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 victories 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 Germany. The English forces under General Allenby were 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 proclamation to his soldiers, the Austrian commander bade them remember "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 "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 rout on the western front, with a great military disaster confronting them, with everyone of her allies forced to surrender, with revolution threatening at home, there was nothing left for Germany to do but to make the best terms possible. Their 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. [Illustration: PRESIDENT WOODROW WILSON. President Wilson's latest photograph.] [Illustration: GENERAL JOHN J. PERSHING. This is the latest and best photograph of General Pershing.] [Illustration: 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.] [Illustration: Showing the actual drafting by the Allied Plenipotentiaries of the armistice terms which ended the great world war. Left side of table from left to right: second man, General di Robilant; Italian Foreign Minister Sonnino; Italian Premier Orlando; Colonel Edward H. House; General Tasker H. Bliss; next man unknown; Greek Premier Venizelos, and Serbian Minister Vesnitch. Right side of the table from left to right: Admiral Wemyss (with back turned); General Sir Henry Wilson; Field Marshal Sir Douglas Haig; General Sackville West; Andrew Bonar Law; British Premier Lloyd George; French Premier Georges Clemenceau, and French Foreign Minister, Stephen Pichon.] [Illustration: SENLIS, FRANCE, WHERE THE ARMISTICE WAS SIGNED. Amid the ruins wrought by the Huns the envoys of Germany signed the truce terms that victoriously ended the struggle for democracy.] [Illustration: FAMOUS FIGHTERS--"THE BLACK WATCH." Some of the best fighters in the British Army, resting by the roadside after having driven the Germans back in the "Fight of the Woods," near Rheims.] [Illustration: CLERKS IN NAVY DEPARTMENT. Washington, D.C.] [Illustration: FIRST COLORED BATTALION, DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA, NATIONAL GUARD. On Pennsylvania Avenue, Washington, D.C., Parading the National Capital before going to France.] [Illustration: SERGT. HENRY JOHNSON, OF 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.] [Illustration: GROUP OF 369TH COLORED INFANTRY WITH THEIR WAR CROSSES. One hundred and sixty-nine men of this regiment (old 15th N.Y.) won valor medals. They were nicknamed "Hell Fighters." Top--Fred Rogers. Lower row--George Chapman, Lawrence McVey, Isaac Freeman. Upper row--Wm. Bunn, Herbert Mills, Hugh Hamilton, Clarence Johnson.] [Illustration: COL. HAYWARD AND GROUP OF REAL FIGHTERS. All winners of the Croix de Guerre. When a French general gave orders to retire, Col. Hayward replied: "My men never retire: they go forward or die, and we are going through here or hell. We don't go back."] [Illustration: LIEUTENANT ROBERT S. CAMPBELL, U.S. ARMY. The first man in the 92nd American Division (Negroes) to receive the distinguished service cross for bravery in the fighting in the Argonne. He was a member of Co. I, 368th Infantry.] [Illustration: GUARDING THE FLAG. The flag of the old 15th (decorated by the French) and Old Glory.] [Illustration: AT THE Y.M.C.A. ON FRENCH FRONT. This group of soldiers is being served at a "Y" tent.] [Illustration: NEGRO SOLDIERS ON THE MARCH IN FRANCE. Along this beautiful stream it was tramp, tramp, tramp the soldiers were marching on to do their duty and help bring the victory which meant "World Peace."] [Illustration: HOME AGAIN. OH, HOW JOYFUL! Back from France, and what a grand reception awaited them! Conquering heroes on the battlefield and the warmth and enthusiasm over their homecoming are beyond words to describe.] CHAPTER II. GENERAL PERSHING'S OWN STORY OF THE VICTORIOUS AMERICAN ARMY ORGANIZATION OF HIS GENERAL STAFF--TRAINING IN FRANCE--IN THE AISNE OFFENSIVE--AT CHATEAU THIERRY--THE ST. MIHIEL SALIENT--MEUSE-ARGONNE, FIRST PHASE--THE BATTLE IN THE FOREST--SUMMARY. This is a brief summary of the organization and operations 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 American 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 being an organization that could give intelligent direction to effort, the formation of a General Staff occupied my early attention. ORGANIZATION OF GENERAL STAFF. A well organized General Staff through which the commander exercises his functions is essential to a successful modern army. However capable our division, our battalion, and our companies as such, success would be impossible 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 experience of the British who had similarly formed an organization to meet the demands of a great army. By selecting from each the features best adapted to our basic organization, 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 equipment of troops, replacements, tonnage, priority of overseas shipment, the auxiliary welfare association and cognate 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 important questions of supply, construction, transport arrangements for combat, and of the operations of the service of supply, and of hospitalization and the evacuation of the sick and wounded; G.5 supervises the various schools and has general direction and co-ordination of education and training. The first Chief of Staff was Colonel (now Major-General) James G. Harbord, who was succeeded in May, 1918, by Major-General James W. McAndrew. To these officers, 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 perfecting 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 organizations it was decided that our combat division should consist 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 regiments, 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 France 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 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 qualities 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 training 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 northern ports of France were crowded by the British armies' shipping and supplies while the southern ports, though 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 without much new construction. Practically all warehouses, supply depots and regulating stations must be provided by fresh constructions. While France offered us such material 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 necessary construction for the supply of an army of three and perhaps four million men would require a mammoth program of shipbuilding at home, and miles of dock construction in France, with a corresponding large project for additional railways and for storage depots. All these considerations led to the inevitable conclusion that if we were to handle and supply the great forces deemed essential to win the war we must utilize the southern 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 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 Regular 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 transport such an army and keep it supplied. With such assistance 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 General'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 general 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 supply, 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 administrative co-ordination of all these services. TRANSPORTATION AND ENGINEER'S DEPARTMENT. The transportation department under the Service of Supply directs the operation, maintenance, and construction 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 intimate relationship between our organization and that of the French, with the practical result that our transportation department has been able to improve materially the operations of railways generally. Constantly laboring under a shortage of rolling stock, the transportation department has nevertheless been able by efficient management to meet every emergency. The Engineer Corps is charged with all construction, including light railways and roads. It has planned and constructed 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 these purchases and to prevent competition between our departments, a general 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 departments under one control, charged with the duty of consolidating requisitions and purchases. Our efforts to extend the principle have been signally successful, and all purchases 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 auxiliaries 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 requirements 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 millimeter howitzers, and one-fifty-five GPF 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 manufactured 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 millimeter 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 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 airplanes 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 Government has always taken a most liberal attitude and has been most anxious to give us every possible assistance in meeting 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 due 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 impressionable period of youth. They could not have the privilege 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 influence in their lives and on the character of their future citizenship, the Red 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 recorded, however, that the members of these welfare societies 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 significance 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 training, had gone to the trenches for its first period of instruction at the end of October and by March 21, when the German offensive in Picardy began, we had four divisions 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 Foch who had been agreed upon as Commander-in-Chief of the 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 Chaumont en Vexin. As German superiority in numbers required prompt action, an agreement was reached at the Abbeville conference of the Allied premiers and commanders 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 position 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 River Marne and Paris, and the Allies faced a crisis equally as grave as that of the Picardy offensive in March. Again every available man was placed at Marshal Foch's disposal, and the Third Division, which had just come from its preliminary 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, opposite Chateau-Thierry. The Second Division, in reserve near Montdidier, was sent by motor trucks and other available 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 American 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 reserves. 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-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 wrote one of the most brilliant 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 footing, 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 offensive 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 toward Soissons on July 18 was given to our First and Second Divisions in company with chosen French divisions. 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 handling of our troops under these trying conditions was excellent 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 days' fighting the First Division continued to advance until it had gained the heights above Soissons and captured the village of Berzy-le-sec. The Second Division took Beau Repaire farm and Vierzy in a very rapid advance 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 division, 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 Jaulgonne 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 Roncheres 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 Sergy and the Thirty-second capturing Hill 230, both American divisions joining in the pursuit of the enemy to the Vesle, and thus the operation of reducing the salient was finished. 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 command. 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 assembling of divisions and of corps and army artillery, transport, aircraft, tanks, ambulances, the location of hospitals, 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 concentration 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 attention 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 movements. 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, Ninetieth, 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. Dickman, 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 command of Maj. Gen. George H. Cameron, with our Twenty-sixth Division and a French division at the western 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 Nonsard. 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 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 operated 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 River 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 demoralization 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 determination 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 Divisions 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 Divisions 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 which had long been inactive. In the attack, which began on the 26th, we drove through the barbed wire entanglements 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 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 Marcheville 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 increasing 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. From September 28 until October 4 we maintained the offensive against patches of woods defended by snipers and continuous lines of machine guns, and pushed forward 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 September 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 under whom 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 Rheims. 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 second 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 threw in more and more first-class troops to stop our advance. We made steady headway in the almost impenetrable 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 forcing the issue, and our infantry and artillery were improving 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 become 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 according 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 divisions co-operating with the French captured Consenvoye 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 Division. Maj. Gen. John L. Hines, who had gone rapidly up from regimental to division commander, was 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 October 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 Kriemhilde Line, where the enemy had hoped to check us indefinitely. Later the Fifth Corps penetrated further the Kriemhilde Line, and the First Corps took Champigneulles and the important town of Grandpre. Our dogged offensive was wearing down the enemy, who continued desperately 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 battle, 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 neighborhood 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 northward 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 incessant effort and the hardships of very inclement weather. With comparatively well-rested divisions, the final advance in the Meuse-Argonne front was begun on November 1. Our increased artillery force acquitted itself magnificently 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 Aincreville, 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 enemy's line to a depth of twelve miles. Our large caliber guns had advanced and were skillfully brought into position to fire upon the important lines at Montmedy, Longuyon, 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 strategical 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 an the Meuse-Argonne battle. Between September 26 and 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, Twenty-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 remained 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 Corps fought a difficult struggle through the Meuse Hills south of Stenay and forced the enemy into the plain. Meanwhile, 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 received 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 Bezonvaux, in the foothills of the Meuse, thence along to the foothills and through the northern edge of the Woevre forests to the Meuse at Mouzay, thence along the Meuse connecting 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 soldiers 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 peoples. 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. STRENGTH. 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 combatant troops. Forty divisions have arrived, of which the infantry personnel of ten have been used as replacements, leaving 30 divisions now in France 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 difficult 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 efficiency, 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 attainments, 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 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 possible commendation. SPLENDID TECHNICAL SERVICE. As to the more technical services, the able personnel of the Ordnance Department in France has splendidly fulfilled its functions, both in procurement and in forwarding 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 to 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 proficiency 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 opportunities 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 surpassed 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 Judge Advocate General's Department has solved with judgment and wisdom the multitude of difficult legal problems, many of them involving questions of great international 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 services, 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 offensive 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. PRESIDENT 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. On December 2, 1918, just prior to sailing for Europe to take part in the Peace Conference, President 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 conclusion on November 11th. His speech, in part, follows: "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 qualified 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 legislative 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, 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 whom were upon a single English transport which was sunk near the Orkney Islands. "I need not tell you what lay back of this great movement 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. [Illustration: PHOTOGRAPHED IN A VILLAGE IN GERMANY. A member of the 369th (old 15th N.Y.) brought this picture back with him. He is wearing the smile which tells the story. The war is over.] [Illustration: LIEUT. "JIMMY" EUROPE AND HIS FAMOUS BAND. This band was hailed with enthusiasm by the French. Five kettle drums in this band were presented by the French as a mark of esteem. Another drum, beaten by Willie Webb, of Louisville, Ky., was a trophy left by the Germans when they retreated.] [Illustration: GETTING READY FOR THEIR DAILY BATH. Negro troops in a transport going over. No inconvenience marred their good cheer.] [Illustration: IN LINE FOR REVIEW. Members of the 15th Infantry being reviewed. A sturdy and determined line of fighting men.] [Illustration: A QUARTETTE WHICH GAVE GOOD ENTERTAINMENT. These colored members of the 301st Stevedore Regiment were attached to the 23rd Engineers in France.] [Illustration: LINED UP AND READY FOR ACTION. Members of the 15th Infantry. Note the serious and determined expression in their faces. They mean business and will obey orders.] [Illustration: AT THE SIGNAL BOX READY TO SOUND THE GAS ALARM. These men had a great responsibility placed upon them. The sounding of the Gas Alarm quickly and accurately, when gas was detected, meant saving the lives of many men.] [Illustration: BOTH WORKING FOR THE Y.M.C.A. Mr. Kelly and his colored driver at work during the last German offensive.] [Illustration: BAPTIZING NEGRO SOLDIERS AT CAMP GORDON. A religious and very effective scene. These Christian men had faith and confidence in their religion.] [Illustration: COLORED TROOPS IN PUERTO RICO. A brilliant Fourth of July parade through Allen Street, San Juan, Puerto Rico.] [Illustration: NEGRO SHARPSHOOTERS.] [Illustration: NEGRO CHILDREN WEAVING CLOTH. Recently photographed in Kamerun, the last of the German provinces in Africa to surrender to the Allies. Illustrating child labor at the lowest possible cost.] [Illustration: AFRICAN NEGROES IN KAMERUN, SHOWING NATIVE HEADDRESS. These pictures were photographed in Fumban, the largest and most densely populated section of Kamerun, one of Germany's colonies in Africa captured by the Allies.] [Illustration: NATIVE CHILDREN SPINNING COTTON IN KAMERUN, AFRICA. Kamerun was the last German province in Africa to hold out against the Allies. This picture was taken by the Allies since they captured the Colony. The natives were never before photographed.] [Illustration: Africa and the World Democracy HOW AFRICA WAS DIVIDED UP AMONG THE NATIONS OF EUROPE BEFORE THE WAR] _Area_ _Country_ _Sq. Miles_ _Populat'n_ British Empire 3,700,000 52,325,000 France 4,641,000 29,577,000 Germany 931,000 13,420,000 Portugal 749,000 8,244,000 Italy 593,000 1,579,000 Belgium (Belgian Congo) 909,000 15,000,000 Spain 88,000 660,000 INDEPENDENT STATES Abyssinia 432,000 8,000,000 Liberia 40,000 1,800,000 [Illustration: AFRICAN TROOPS BEING TRAINED IN FRANCE. These husky fighters are bound to deliver the goods.] TRIBUTE TO AMERICAN SOLDIERS. "But it is not the physical scale and executive efficiency 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 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 irresistibly 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. 'Old men forget; yet all shall be forgot, but he'll remember with advantages what feats he did that day!' "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 empires knew themselves beaten, and now their very empires 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 wish 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 patriotism, the unselfishness, the thoroughgoing devotion and distinguished 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 shipyards, 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 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 voluntarily 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 completeness, 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 irresponsible monarchs and ambitious military coteries and made ready for a new order, for new foundations of justice and fair dealing. "We are about to give order and organization to this 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 serious 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 purpose and self-reliant in action. Any leading strings we might seek to put them in would speedily become hopelessly tangled because they would pay no attention to them and go their own way. All that we can do as their legislative 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 reconstruction 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 serviceable in war, by which to gain for the purchasing departments of the government a certain control over the prices 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 public and private, so that there would be no unnecessary conflict or confusion--by which, in short, to put every material 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 shipping, because the world has still to be fed from our granaries and the ships are still needed to send supplies to our men oversea and to bring the men back as fast as the disturbed conditions on the other side of the water permit; but even there restraints are being relaxed as much as possible, 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 departments of the government and so have been the centers of unified and co-operative action. It has been the policy of the Executive, therefore, since the armistice was assured (which is in effect a complete submission of the enemy) to put the knowledge of these bodies at the disposal 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 discussing with them the main features of the treaty of peace. I realize the great inconveniences that will attend my leaving the country, particularly at this time, but the conclusion 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 January last, as the Central Empires also have, and very reasonably 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 settlements that will be of common benefit to all the nations concerned may be made fully manifest. The peace settlements which are now to be agreed upon are of transcendent 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 interpret 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 difficulty 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 working 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 domestic 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 belligerent powers to confer with the premiers and leading diplomats 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 AMBITIONS FOR 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 commonly 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 convulsed the universe, she marked the way easy for Imperial Germany to put into effect a long-contemplated plan for territorial 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 to 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 Dreibund; the Triple Entente, or understanding between Great Britain, France and Russia; the smaller group whose neutrality and integrity had been guaranteed, or at least recognized--Belgium, Denmark, Holland and the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, sandwiched in between Germany, France and Belgium, together with Switzerland. The fourth group included the Balkan nations: Bulgaria, Servia, Montenegro, Greece, Turkey 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 markets as against Britain, France and Russia. Back of all this was the question of commercial supremacy, Germany showing 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 ignored the rights of the small neutral states, invaded Belgium and brought his armies within threatening distance of England. France prepared to defend her country against Germany, 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 with suspicion. One of the underlying 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 independent 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 countries of Servia, Roumania, Bulgaria and Montenegro, and 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 occupation and management. Austria was a trustee of the country which lies between Servia and the Adriatic sea, and while Austria'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 prospect 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 Herzegovina a part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The Servians 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 Austria, 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 Adriatic. 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 principality, 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 precipitated the last Balkan war, which was really made possible, or probable, by the Austrian policy. When the war was concluded 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 Archduke Ferdinand and his wife occurred in Bosnia. The Archduke was, in effect, a joint ruler with the Emperor Franz Joseph, 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 murder 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 differences, 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 and Germany, and the progress which Germany has made in world affairs, despite the burden of militarism which she has earned, is one of the marvels of the century. And the situation compelled France to maintain a defensive military organization 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 Teutonic 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 Germany 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 Austria. Germany had made overtures to Great Britain, but England 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 violation of international agreement establishing Belgium's neutrality 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 Belgium the theatre of war just the same. Pan-Germanism has been described as one of the underlying motives in the world war, and Pan-Slavism has always opposed Pan-Germanism. Pan-Germanism is described as a well-defined policy or movement which seeks the common welfare of the Germanic peoples of all Europe and the advance of Teutonic culture, while Pan-Slavism, represented by Russia, 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 Germany 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 way to the Orient. England threatened the Kaiser's expansion on the sea; while Russia, on one side, with France her strong ally, closed the Germans in on opposite sides. So Germany 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 religious groups for centuries. Moslems counted several millions of Turks, Bosnians and Albanians in Europe, the Protestants 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 European 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 incidents of the war it is difficult to determine. The outstanding fact is that but for the arrogant, militaristic 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 desolation 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 pleading 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 arrogance 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 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 government, and join the Allies to defend it. In the sense which Prussianism or militarism is here used it denotes a mental attitude 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 superiority 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 Washington, who in an address before the Home Club of the Department 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 scientific 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 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 killing 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: "'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 cannot 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 was 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 moneymakers, devoid of all character--until, indeed, we were told that we could not walk the highways of the world without permission of a Prussian soldier, that our ships might not sail without wearing a striped uniform of humiliation upon a narrow 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. "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, impoverished 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 million of whose heroic sons have died to save the land of Lafayette. 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, traditions, 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 overwhelmed 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 government 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 American seamen, murdered against all law, without warning. "We believed Germany's promise that she would respect the neutral flag and the rights of neutrals, and we held our anger and outrage in check. But now we see that she was holding 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 confidence. 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 sent 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 gospel that government has no conscience. And this doctrine cannot 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, outworn 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 democracy--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, thirteenth century plus twentieth; this is the religion of the mistaken Germany that has linked itself with the Turk; that has, too, adopted the method of Mahomet: 'The State has no conscience,' '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 globe 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 ambition 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." In his denunciations of the Imperial German Government 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 Germans 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 subjugated 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 assigned without protest and without question. The history of Germany began with Henry, the Fowler, 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 principalities, each of which maintained a force of arms. This limited form of military rule maintained for several centuries of troublesome times, or until about 1412, when Emperor Sigismund appointed Burgrave Frederick, of Nuremberg, "Stratt-halter," or vice-regent. BIRTH OF THE MILITARY SPIRIT. This appointment marked the establishment of the Hohenzollerns 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 nation 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 Frederick 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, of Brandenburg (1542), whom history describes as an unscrupulous despot, fond of 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 Hohenzollerns and their aides were fighting unfriendly neighbors and quarrelsome princes, and when after the lapse of time the Thirty Years' War finally turned Germany 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 autocrats 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 discipline. 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 was recruited by districts and every district had its regiment, though later exemptions were allowed. Under Frederick William III, Scharnhorst, a Hanoverian, was the military reorganizer, 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 years 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 artillery and other forces, and in 1886 Bismarck, recognizing the power of Prussianism and its military influence, was compelled 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 engineers; 55 battalions of garrison artillery; 31 battalions of communications 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, Mecklenburg-Schwerin, Mecklenburg-Sterlitz, Oldenburg, Brunswick, Saxe-Weimer-Eisnach, Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, Saxe-Meiningen, Saxe-Altenburg, Waldeck, Lippe, Schaumburg-Lippe, Reuss (elder line), Reuss (younger line), Anhalt, Schwarz-Rudolstadt, Schwarzburg-Sonderhausen, Hamburg, Bremen, Lubeck and Reichsland--the Alsace-Lorraine. The area is less than that of the State of Texas while the population according 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 annually 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 military 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 inveterate 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 conclusively 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 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 democracy." This declaration refers immediately to the plans which Germany had developed 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 consolidation 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 appeals 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 Turkey. 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 unhindered and to spread their appeals in a country of strict press supervision. How closely the German Government did adhere to the plan in reality has been demonstrated clearly by the course of the war. Following the footsteps of Bismarck, who used the Franco-Prussian war alliance to bring Baden, Bavaria and Wurttemburg into the German confederacy and then into the German 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 Emperor Franz Joseph, the dual monarchy was regarded everywhere as on the verge of dissolution. Her helplessness before Russia's army became apparent early in the war, and the eagerness with which Germany seized the opportunity thus presented 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 outside 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 regarded now as further evidence that a clear road through to the Dardanelles was considered in Berlin as a primary and imperative purpose of the war. In the case of Turkey, German domination is even more 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 German professors have been spreading German kultur among the population. The developments threw a new light on many events before the war. Among them the long-unexplained declaration of Emperor William at Damascus in 1898 that all Mohammedans 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 indispensable 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 subject 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 country 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 internal police, no nation be allowed to have a force sufficient to be 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 advancing 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 manufactured 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 military 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--FIREBRAND AND TORCH--RAPE AND PILLAGE--THE SACKING OF LOUVAIN--WANTON DESTRUCTION--OFFICIAL PROOF. The conduct of Germany in ignoring international treaties 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, appointed by King Albert of Belgium, laid before President Wilson on September 16, 1914. The mission consisted of Henry Carton de Wiart, Minister of Justice; Messrs. de Sadeleer, Hymans and Vandervelde, 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, Belgium 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, we 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. "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 portion of our territory, but it committed incredible acts of violence, 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 impartially examine the facts and to determine the responsibility thereof, and I will have the honor, Excellency, 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 attachment for the laws of humanity. Therefore, it has won a moral influence which is recognized by the entire world. It 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 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." THE 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 circumstances, 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 University; 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, Honorary 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 Germany proposed to frustrate such a move by sending its soldiers through Belgium; that the German government had no intention 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 Belgium. Quoting articles from the Hague treaty, the commission's report reads: THE DAYS OF BARBARISM. "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 difference between the property of the government of the territory occupied and the property of individuals. While the present 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 administrations. "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 convictions and the exercise of worship, must be respected. Private 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 transportation, warehouses and provisions, and in a general way all movable property belonging to the State and liable to be used for warlike operations. "'Art. 56. Property of municipalities, property of establishments 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 National 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 capital 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 Rheims in the Franco-Prussian war, and they wanted to confiscate the 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 Brabant 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 provision that undefended cities, villages and dwellings are not to be bombarded, and where bombardment is necessary the commanding officer of the attacking party must warn the authorities that such bombardment is to take place, German aeroplanes and dirigibles bombarded relentlessly from the beginning. 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 pavement. 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. On 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 Antwerp 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 explosive bullets used by the Germans at Werchter, and submitted briefs from physicians who treated wounds made by the explosive 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 August 10 by a strong force of German cavalry, artillery and machine guns. In spite of the assurance given by the Burgomaster that none of the peasants had taken part in the previous fighting two farms and six outlying houses were destroyed by gunfire and burned. All the male population were compelled to come forward and hand over what they possessed. No recently 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 Germans, without provocation, fired upon Mr. Deglimme-Gever's house, broke into it, destroyed furniture, looted money, burned 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 husband was carried away in another direction." Farmer Jeff 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 children outraged at Orsmael, where several inhabitants suffered mutilations too horrible to describe. A Belgian soldier belonging to a battalion of cyclist carbineers who had been wounded and made prisoner was hanged, while another who was tending 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 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 matron, 22 years old, whose husband was in the army, was surprised 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 bayonets. 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 held in her hand the needle with which she was sewing when attacked; 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 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 he 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 largest 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 University with its manuscripts, its collections, the largest part of the scientific institutions and the town theatre were at the moment 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 deliberate 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, 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 notables of the city, such as Father Coloboet and a Spanish priest, and also an American priest, were conducted, during the morning 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 treatment after repeated threats of being shot, and were driven in front of the German troops as far as the village of Campenhout. 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 brigade 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, carrying around bottles of wine and liquor; the officers themselves 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 President 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 Berlin to protest, threatened to resign, but did not. He returned, and a German official said that Belgium would now be subjected to a more terrible regime, would learn what war was. The prophecy has been vindicated. "The deportations began in October in the Etape, at 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 protected against the cold, many of them were without overcoats. The men, shivering from cold and fear, the parting from weeping 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 coming 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 Belgium that tend to bear the stories one constantly hears of brutality 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 communes asking that permission be obtained to send to the deported men in Germany packages of food similar to those that are being sent to prisoners of war. Thus far the German authorities 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 another 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 despair of the future of the human race, a deed coldly planned, studiously matured, and deliberately and systematically executed, a deed so cruel that German soldiers are said to have wept in its execution, and so monstrous that even German officers 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? It makes no difference, so far as the principles of humanity are concerned, whether the German army is in victory or suffering defeat, advancing or retreating. The treatment accorded 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 Andenne, 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 showed only a cruel extreme of punishment 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 obsessed by the Nietschean doctrine of "spare not." Before Bapaume was evacuated it was deliberately converted 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 destroy everything. The house of a doctor at Nesle, a specially attractive home, was not blown down for strategic purposes, 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 sixteenth 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 thirteenth century by Enguerrand III and passed to the French crown in 1498, and was one of the great historic landmarks of Northern France. Coucy was one of the noblest relics of the Middle Ages, respected by the most barbarous wars of the past, whose donjon (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 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 meditated 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 Lawyer 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 discovered 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 defense, 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 limestone, for miles around. What for? To clear a battlefield, they say. It is not true. 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 donjon 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 worried 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 Vallois! 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 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 Cradle 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 setting 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 completely 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 situated 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 weeping 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 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 terrace 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 shocking ruin to human life in the evacuated region is of even greater moment. The half-starved civilians of Bapaume 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 Peronne 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 relief 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 desolated 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 husband and two eldest daughters being carried away, remonstrated, 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 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 investigation 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 destruction of nature and wealth and art and life is the German defense 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 devastation of the country they are leaving and of the desert created by German genius. Editors speak of the mercy which tempered 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 accepting the position of the wolf. They fail entirely to see the humor of the fable, and hence the fallacy of the wolf's argument. The greatest hope of civilization, which trembled for a time before the spectre of German barbarity, is that frightfulness 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 SUBMARINE. A VORACIOUS SEA MONSTER--THE RUTHLESS 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 infamous Germany famous. The truth is that, in so far as America 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 purpose 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 submarines 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 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 blockaded, 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 innocent human beings had been accomplished by a so-called civilization 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. International 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 Government, expressing regret that Americans should have been sacrificed, 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 merely 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 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 Americans, and then without warning the campaign against all vessels was renewed. A dozen were sunk on which were American 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 American 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 accountability 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 destruction of commerce without disregarding those rules of fairness, 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 business calls them upon the high seas. "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 inalienable rights of the United States and its citizens, and of safeguarding 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 declared 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. America'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 carrying 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 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 threatened with starvation. 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 submarine, 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 water-tight 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 protruding 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 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 "underseas," coupled with the numeral denoting the number of the boat. Thus those who sail the ocean highways came to recognize 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 intents and purposes a novelty--a boat of recognized possibilities, 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 wonderful 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 submerge or rise. At the bow and stern, respectively, there are two horizontal 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 regarded as a fair description from a physical standpoint. It has spread terror to all corners of the earth, and, taken in proportion to its size and steaming radius, may well be said to be the superior of the super-dreadnought. 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 torpedoes is done pneumatically and electrically. The interior of the submarine is a marvel of mechanical complexity and scientific 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 driving 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 Teutons. 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. Neutral shipping has been devastated, and men, women and children have been murdered by the hand of the Kaiser, as exemplified 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 been chartered by the Belgian Relief Commission. This was sunk in the early part of February, 1917, and the crew of nineteen 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 German autocrat demanded, with the balloon, flag and bunting displayed at each of the mastheads, together with other marks of identification, the ship was steaming along in the bright moonlight 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 engineer, 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 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 bottom. 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 victim. 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 bottom 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 of bluish black from the cold, and with a gasping cry he attempted 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 demented 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 impossible 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 steamship, 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. The sunken ship proved to be a Russian steamer. In his efforts to attract the attention of the intended victim 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 submarine. As the captain talked he made motions, as though to 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 towing 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 promised 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 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 was 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 crossing 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 Diesel oil engine, which is regarded as the ideal power-producing 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 submarines, traveling along in a diamond-shaped formation, one in front, one on either flank and one in rear. Eight miles separate the boats. The leading submarine carries the extra gasoline and supplies and acts as a scoutship; she sights a vessel, reports its speed and direction and then submerges--her task is done. The two 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 carries 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, England 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 submarines 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 was attached to the submarine by a light cable, and towed along the surface of the water 1000 feet or more behind the submarine. 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 reflector 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 principle 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 periscope, 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 distance the mirrors reflect the surface of the sea, so that a lookout sees nothing but the waves as they are reflected in the mirror. The Germans use the bottom of the sea as regular "land" for their supply bases, and when the submarines go to the surface 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 bottom 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 simultaneously alongside the ship, one being a submarine cruiser, 800 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 submarines 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 afternoon when we observed a Norwegian sailing vessel in an encounter with a submarine eight miles away. Apprehending that our turn would come next, we prepared a lifeboat. A 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 Norwegian 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 equipment 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, coming up now and then for periscopic observations, or on hearing the approach of merchant craft, which often can be identified 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. "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 submarine commander declined to look at the Norwegian captain's papers. We had another twenty-four hours in open boats, and then were picked up by a British patrol and landed." CHAPTER VIII. THWARTING THE U-BOAT. NETS 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. The advantage which Germany gained by the development of what has been termed the super-submarine 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 submarines 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 bottom 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 restrict the underseas boats in their work upon the open seas. The most effective plan of overcoming the dire consequences of the U-boat warfare was found, therefore, to lie in the use of submarine chasers and airships, the two operating together in conjunction with the battleships, cruisers and torpedo 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 submarine 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 enabled her to immediately begin a campaign for the construction of chasers, which would be able to guard the seas in the channels 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 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 only 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, going 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 submarine 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 armored. 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 excess of 20 miles an hour. The submarine must be light and easy to handle. It gains in steadiness 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 submarine'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 distinct 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 presence 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 connection 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 wars to minimize the effectiveness of the underseas craft. This is proven by the fact that immediately after the United States naval forces joined those of the Allies in European waters, the disasters resultant upon submarine 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 6-3/4 x 7-3/4 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 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 duplicate controls, &c., for the engine room and for the steering. Immediately aft of the steering shelter is the bridge deck, located 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 purposes. 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 steering 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 quarters, berthing eight men, with lavatory attached. The hull is divided into six water-tight 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, 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 demand for exceptional speed was based on experience. It is a well known fact that the Russian government was successful in patrolling 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 English Channel, the North Sea and the waters all about the British Isles. As 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 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 character 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 submarine 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 setting 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 barrier of chains and wires. As a means of visualizing the operations of the "chaser" and giving some idea of the excitement which attends the attempt to run down the underseas craft, the following description 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 had been stuck up not far from her, then the craft had submerged, 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 themselves in their small boats and learning that the submarine had run over to the westward, where we knew chain net traps to be laid, we 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 torpedoes out. These are bombs on long cables which are towed astern and sink to a certain 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. "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 submerged. 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 international 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 exterminate a nest of poisonous vipers, or a nest of hornets. People 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 we began to hammer her with our three-inch guns. She opened fire, but her shots went wild, and, in a few seconds, she disappeared. "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 detonate 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 muffled roar, a column of water rises to what seems a hundred feet, and falls back, drenching every one who is near it. But our comrades are unhurt. The momentum of their boat has carried them just far enough to save them from being blown to atoms. That is the second narrow escape for our little squadron 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 multiplied. 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 propeller, 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 cannot 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 mobility of the seaplane gives it a great advantage over the ship attacked. Another of the weapons or instruments of warfare devised 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 employment is for observation. It is a watcher of enemy movements on the water. But it is also serviceable for attack, and especially for assailing submarines. The British used blimps for the latter purpose, and to great advantage. The dirigible sausage-balloon, when a submarine 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 betrayed 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 auxiliary 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 standardized pattern, with definite published specifications, in accordance with which contractors turned them out in numbers. It is a sausage-shaped balloon 160 feet long, with a great diameter of 31-1/2 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 required 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 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 gallons of gasoline. DESCRIPTION OF THE "BLIMP." In effect, the blimp is a combination of balloon and aeroplane. 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 balloon--puncturing by gunfire or by other mishap--the "balloonets" 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 airship--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 "observer," who makes sketches and takes notes of anything important that he sees. Behind the observer are the tanks for fuel oil and 300 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 desired, 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 Department. These fins are made of wood and light steel tubing, reinforced with wire, covered with aeroplane linen rubber painted and finished with varnish. THE "BLIMP" WELL EQUIPPED. There are also two horizontal rudders and two vertical rudders, for steering up and down or sidewise. 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 information 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 submarine, the news is instantly transmitted to the Navy Department. The department orders its "chasers" and warplanes nearest to the scene to go after the undersea boat. Within a 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 patterns. 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 proposed to make, but of toy size--one-thirtieth the length of the full-sized, completely equipped aerial sea scout. 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" SUBMARINES--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 balloon 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 inventors were pioneers in the construction and successful operation of aeroplanes, or airplanes, which were first developed to their greatest efficiency and utility by the French and Germans. Some of the most striking events of the war centre around the use of the airplanes or dirigibles, and aside from the picturesqueness 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 reduced the proudest cavalry to second place in the matter of reconnoissance, and has rendered services which have heretofore been impossible. The airman 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 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 German position in June, 1917, swoop down upon the enemy, attack 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 conceal 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 military 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 communication 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 devices, which falling to the ground serve as marks for the artillerymen 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 enemy are plainly visible to the airmen. And armed with cameras having powerful telescopic lenses they can photograph the entire scene and send to their own military headquarters 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 Belgium have ranged from 100 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 surface of the earth looks like an immense gridiron. The soldiers almost live within the trenches and dugouts 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 commanders 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 misjudgment because of the great length of the firing lines. The airmen verify positions 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 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 reconnoitering 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 upward of 500, of various sorts, and this does not include the famous Zeppelins or dirigible balloons. She also had something like two dozen factories which could turn out flying machines, and had been at work on the development of her aircraft long enough to have her patterns and methods of manufacture 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 directions was what enabled her to obtain such a tremendous advantage 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 Germany 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, 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 powerful. 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 borders, 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 electric 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 constructed 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. Some of them have been armored to an extent, and to make them less easily detected they have been painted tints and colors 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 campaigns, the aircraft has shown itself to be one of the most effective 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 battleship 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 aeroplane 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 indicate the allowance that must be made for speed and motion. Complete apparatus has been built up for launching the projectiles 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 Government 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 altitude 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 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 balloon being attached to the other with wires. The small balloons 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 looking over the hill and down on concealed enemy positions would be in rising above the smoke screen thrown out by destroyers. THE SMOKE SCREEN. The smoke screen, by the way, which has been used by the British with marked success in many instances, is an American 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 influenced by the direction and strength of the wind. Used generously 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 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 fighting 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 submarines. 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 important 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 with a hull much along the lines of the motorboat or hydroplane. 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, sturdy, 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 capital 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 lumber 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 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 fantastic 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 yellowjackets. 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. Virtually 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 tipped 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 "camouflage" purposes, as guns, wagons and tents often are painted to blend with the landscape and thus avoid detection. 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 machines 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 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 searched 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 gray-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 disorganized 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 ammunition, 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 frightfulness, 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 automobile 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. This same pilot later came across an active field gun battery and charged it, scattering the gun crew and hitting a number of them. Still further along he attacked a column of Germans 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, constantly watching their movements, their progress, any temporary 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 accounted 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 caterpillar 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 was going on. During the battle British aeroplanes 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 advantages in use, the biplane being regarded as more stable for certain 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 constructed 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 principle is the reaction of air and an inclined surface in motion. 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 designers 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. WAR'S STRANGE DEVICES. CHEMISTRY A DEMON OF DESTRUCTION--POISON GAS BOMBS--GAS MASKS--HAND GRENADES--MORTARS--"TANKS"--FEUDAL "BATTERING RAMS"--STEEL HELMETS--STRANGE BULLETS--MOTOR PLOWS--REAL 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 professional 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 chemistry has had to wait for the great world war. The conflict which has involved the entire world might almost be termed a warfare of chemists. Without their diabolical 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 international 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 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 containers for the mixture before described. They are so contrived 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 magnesium. 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 mixture of aluminum and iron burns like so much tinder--though such a way of putting it is absurdly feeble. The present war has been conspicuously marked by reversions 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 improvement on its original of the Middle Ages. The modern contrivance is thoroughly scientific, and it does its destructive business with 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. Seventy-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. 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 terrible coughing. In many cases fever developed in a few days ending with pneumonia. When the men were not sufficiently poisoned to cause death they were so affected that their usefulness 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 protect 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 with a chemical which possessed 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 air breathed 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 Belgium, 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 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 nefarious 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 strengthened 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 perfected 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 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 leverage 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 reproduced 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 compartments 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 movements 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 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 sprockets 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 regardless 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 extended 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 manipulating 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 guncotton 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 gunners 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 these shoes a heavy gun can be drawn over soft and irregular ground, which would be almost impassable 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 preliminary 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 developments it will some day prove ridiculous. At the opening of the war two opposed theories of artillery 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 development of guns so big that their opponents were tempted, 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 Germans 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 warfare. 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 unforeseen 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 application 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 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 explosion. 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 piece did all expected of it. The German 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 northward 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 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 ammunition was to cope with the situation. While the heavy gun was more effective in blasting out the enemy from his dugouts 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 became 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 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 covered 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, comparable 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 counter-attack. Time is given to rout out what remains of the enemy from the first line dugouts, 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 distance apart that they are, and, of course, the amount of artillery 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 proportion 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 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 Germans 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 by 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 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 German 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 stand which might be used by the poor peasant in rehabilitating himself and building a new home. NEW METHOD OF WARFARE. The new method of warfare, with men working in trenches and dugouts 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 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 insignia 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. It 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 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 fragments, 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 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 developed a bullet-proof jacket and headgear which it is said approximates 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 wearing 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 horrors 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 containing an explosive chemical which was set off by contact. Photographs taken of wounds show the effect which these bullets produced. More than that, the Russians charged that along the northern frontier the Germans fired glass bullets, although there is nothing to sustain the belief that such missiles were generally 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 Germans, 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 agricultural 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 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 constant 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 agricultural 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 particularly 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 battlefields 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 terriers and Airedales have also been trained to do effective work, as have the Great Danes and St. Bernards. 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. 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 bullets 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 purchase 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 Germany and Austria were the first into action--actually precipitated 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 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 of the awful havoc wrought by the German 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 opposing forces from resuming the position which they had abandoned. 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 farming and the "traction engine" can recognize. Germany and Austria, as in many other matters, solved the problem by building mortars for field service which outclassed 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 transportation would be slow, and not certain at best. Early in the war Austria sent to the front a battery of 80-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 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 direction, 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 interest 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 features of campaigning and helped to revolutionize military methods. The armored automobile is an ordinary chassis with a body made of chilled steel. Many types have been devised, including turreted automobile, 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 instruments of war are of the heaviest types. Some have been constructed 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 attached 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 hoop 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 delivered 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 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 Germany, England and France the exigencies of conflict impelled the Governments to practically commandeer all of the automobiles in the countries for war purposes. Many of these cars were turned into armored cars of the lighter type, and the number of such automobiles in use runs far into the thousands. The 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 indicates 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 Belgian 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 automobiles, 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, 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 Rimailho howitzers of the armored artillery type. Russia is said to have been weak in automobile equipment, having less than a thousand trucks in the Empire available 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 something like 1500 trucks and about 20,000 passenger cars available 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 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 intrenched 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 attack. 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 locomotive. 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 observation ladders of a less complicated mechanical nature. In use, 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 and 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 observation 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 he 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 aeroplanes or balloons, and the range is established by calculations, so that the gunner must be proficient in geometry, trigonometry 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 dreadnoughts and battleships--and therefore the fortifications at Helgoland, which are designed to resist the bombardment of the heaviest naval guns, must be regarded as equipment. Helgoland is the protecting fort of Germany's most vulnerable 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 helpless 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 varieties 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 improved 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 provides for the use of the smallest bullet which will work sufficient injury on the enemy to make its use profitable. 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 muzzle-loader, was generally used by the United States army. The Springfield, which was the first breech-loader (one cartridge inserted at a time) came along in 1870. In 1892 it was replaced by the first of our magazine rifles, the Krag, and simultaneously we adopted smokeless powder, a European invention. The regulation United States service rifle is a great improvement 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 Philippines. 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, therefore, 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. 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 traditional 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 military history of Egypt, the first country in which a regular military 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 abroad 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.) Armory, which is the government's great small-arms factory, and at the Rock Island (Ill.) Arsenal--the facilities of the latter having hitherto been held in reserve for emergency purposes. The 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 purposes. 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 containing 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. 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 attachment enables the soldier sitting in a trench or shelter to accurately 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 attachment 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 instruments in the days of our own Civil War, and the stories related of the bravery and astuteness displayed by orderlies, messengers 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 telephone "booths" are set up wherever it is found necessary. Switchboards are mounted on motor cars and encased in armor 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 wireless 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 information 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 brigade 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. 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 overcome some of this difficulty. A WORD ABOUT "HEAVY ARTILLERY." It would not do to mention armaments and weapons without a word about the "heavy artillery" of the commissary department, 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, particularly those of the Kaiser and the Crown Prince in the German 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 campaigns 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 by two horses, 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 fortifications, 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 ingenious 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 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. No one scoffs at the military organization which Germany 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 organization 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 officers 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 quartermasters' 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 officers and ambulance drivers carry revolvers. There are several classes of infantrymen, a distinction being made between the 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 howitzer, 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 nation'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 the ranks were full and there was no room for them in the regular 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 organizations 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 battalions form an infantry regiment. Two regiments form a brigade, 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 squadrons, 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 squadrons and 8 to 12 guns. In a general way it may here be interpolated that the organization of an army is given in the military manuals as follows: INFANTRY. A squad is 8 men under 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. A division is 2 or more brigades under a major-general. An army corps is 2 or more divisions, 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 squadron 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 countries. 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 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 officers 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 provides for the establishment of basic units for the army, the War Department orders and regulations fixed the basis of the organization 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 department, inspector general department, judge advocate general department, quartermaster corps, medical department, corps 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, enlisted 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 Guardsmen 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 regiment, 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; sanitary, 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 engineers, 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 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 regiment 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 Congress 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 Austrian 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 service weapon by officers and those requiring this sort of arm. It is a .45 caliber pistol with a magazine holding seven cartridges, 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 Metropolitan 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 between 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 army one period of two weeks, and in the Territorial reserve, no fixed period. There are more than 2,000 reservists per battalion produced by the length of the reserve service, and when the troops are mobilized the active units can be easily maintained 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 companies and sanitary and service troops. The cavalry divisions are composed of three brigades of two regiments each--together 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 contained 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. In the French field army there were 20 army corps, a brigade 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 reserves 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 protection of the gunners. A howitzer of 12 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, terminating 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 supply the bulk of officers required for the reserve upon mobilization. The Russian army is divided into three forces, the army, 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 batteries 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 reserve. 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 cavalry 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 reorganized into a strong army which, at the outbreak, was capable of mobilizing, together with auxiliary 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 2-3/4 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, shielded gun, of the 1902 model, with a muzzle velocity of 1,950 foot seconds, the shell weighing 13-1/2 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 soldiers. Military service is universal and compulsory, beginning 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 service 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 Landsturm, or second reserve, in which the soldier serves until his forty-second birthday. Hungary possesses a separate and distinct Landwehr and Landsturm, which constitute the Hungarian 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 batteries 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. 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 14-1/2-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 service 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 defense 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 battalions, and 2 regiments of 36 mountain batteries. The army strength approximates 2,600,000, made up of 700,000 active army, 400,000 mobile militia, which is the second 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 beginning 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 enlistment 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 with 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 brigades, in addition to detachments of varying size from the Regular army. Two nearly full divisions are stationed at Aldershot and in Ireland, one complete division in the Southern and one in the Eastern "command." There are also six aeroplane squadrons, each with 18 aeroplanes. The Lee-Enfield rifle, caliber .303, is the arm of the infantry 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 3,542 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 artillery 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 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 approximately 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 reserve 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, giving a war strength of over a million, and has a total available 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 credited 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 unorganized 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 available 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 fortresses 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 situated 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, 17 old forts and 38 forts of an advanced type, the whole forming entrenched camps at Versailles 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 Saarlouis 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 Vistula Passages, of the second line. South of this point are Posen, Glogau and Breslau, which face Poland, while beginning at Neisse 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-Georgievsk, Warsaw and Ivangorod, on the Vistula, and Brest-Litovsk, on the Bug--four strongholds known as the Polish Quadrilateral. Guarding Petrograd are the smaller fortifications 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-Fehervar and Arad, on the Maros River, and which guard the 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 submarine 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 actually 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 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 possessions, the navy of that country is undoubtedly the greatest collection of fighting ships ever gathered together under one flag. In order to take care of her population of 1,625,000,000 she has gathered together a navy consisting of 60 modern battleships, 9 battle cruisers, 34 armored cruisers, 17 heavy protected 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, includes 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 consists 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 completed in 1915. These boats--England's super-dreadnoughts--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 armament consists of 8 15-inch, 16 6-inch and 12 3-inch rapid fire 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 completed the list of French ships. France was, however, strong, so far as numbers go, in destroyers, torpedo boats and submarines, there being 84 destroyers, with displacements of 276 to 804 tons and speeds of 28 and 31 knots. She possessed 135 torpedo boats and 78 submarines, 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 displacement 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 submarines is 17-1/2 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. 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 struggle, 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 fighting value whatever. Russia had but 14 torpedo boats, all small and of little value. She had a fairly good fleet of destroyers and submarines, 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 supporter, 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 horsepower 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 horsepower. They had three torpedo tubes. Three ships of 20,000 tons displacement were launched in 1912 and 1913. They had a speed of 20 knots and four torpedo 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 28-1/2 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 submarines. 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 consisting 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 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, Mississippi and Pennsylvania are the latest battleships of the navy, and are of the super-dreadnought type. All of these battleships 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 construction of vessels approximately 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 battlefront. This comparison to a battlefront on land becomes interesting 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 headquarters is in the conning tower, to which all lines of "field communication" 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 fighting equipment, 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 hospital, supplemented by battle dressing stations near the guns, for the emergency treatment of the wounded. To the musicians of the ship's band is assigned the duty of carrying wounded 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 protection. 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--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 1/2-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 allowance 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 allowance of 504 officers to the corps, which, under the bill, are distributed among the grades of major, captain, first lieutenant 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 having been authorized by the Continental Congress November 10, 1775. The present organization really dates from July, 1798, when Congress passed an act approving the establishment 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 nothing 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. 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 minutes 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 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 importance 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 number to come around. If he distinguishes himself above his fellows, 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 everybody 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 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 has 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 advantage 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. 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 instruction 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 ultramodern arm of the service. He learns to send messages by 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 supply the power for either sending radio messages or operating huge electric searchlights. Or he may go into aviation. [Illustration: 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 Europe. The latter are brought out in bold relief.] CHAPTER XIV. THE NATIONS AT WAR. UNEXPECTED DEVELOPMENTS--HOW THE WAR FLAMES SPREAD--A SCORE OF COUNTRIES INVOLVED--THE POINTS OF CONTACT--PICTURESQUE AND RUGGED BULGARIA, 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 approximated 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 existing 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 Germany and Austria, supported by the Bulgarians and the Turks. And to these must be added the entrance into the conflict 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 up as a consequence of the alliances formed between the powers, the countries referred to in preceding chapters. The triple alliance was originally an agreement between Germany, Austria-Hungary and Italy, to strengthen their positions, and the Triple Entente consisted of agreements between France, England 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 Austria, 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 declared against Portugal, whose government replied in kind; 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 between 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 United 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 formalities, 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 themselves 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, 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 Bulgar 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. [Illustration: OUTLINE MAP OF GERMANY AND THE STATES FORMING THE EMPIRE. This drawing shows the location of the twenty-five States which were included within the boundaries of the German Empire at the beginning of the war.] "COMIC OPERA" SOLDIERS. In a month of fighting the little countries, in the picturesque southeastern section, whose soldiers have been depicted as "comic opera" soldiers, had rent Turkey; Greece had captured the famous Macedonian city of Salonica, once known as Thessalonica, where was located the church in which was addressed 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 soldiers 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 deprived 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 suzerainty, 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 reorganized. 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 Pelasgian 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 Turkish rule for centuries, they have never recognized the sovereignty 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 population of Albania constitute the populace of the little country of Montenegro, which was once part of the Turkish possession. Montenegro contained about 3486 square miles of territory 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, 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 Turanians, 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 demands 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. It 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 Maggorie, 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 of Italy, are among the most picturesque in the world. They have scaled the almost perpendicular faces of the Alps, climbing from crag to crag with their bodies roped together, dragging machine guns in pieces strapped to their shoulders. Tolmino, 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. [Illustration: OUTLINE MAP OF THE AUSTRIA-HUNGARY EMPIRE. Drawn and engraved especially to show the Provinces comprising the Empire, and their locations as they were at the beginning of the war. This is a country of many nationalities and languages.] 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 under 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 kingdom. In the fourteenth century the Servian empire comprised 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 power became supreme. The country has an area of about 34,000 square miles and a population 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 section 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 Hungary, only to be conquered by the Turks. It is the mountainous, 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 portion 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 succeeded 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 Venetians. Revolt was had from the Ottoman yoke in 1821, and independence was secured by the interference 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 between 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 fifteenth 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 independence 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 Vlachi, a colony of Romans, who settled in Thrace, and, in the twelfth century, emigrated to the Danube. The name Roumania is 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 Illyria to the river Nestos, taking in what is now part of Salonica. It was reduced by the Persians and subsequently 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 conflict 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 of country was to be governed by the power of the German Emperor until the constitution of the German Empire was established. Many of the inhabitants opposed the Prussian domination, 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 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. [Illustration: OUTLINE MAP OF TURKEY IN ASIA. A country where civilization was first born and which is now undergoing a new birth of a new civilization. The location of the Garden of Eden was between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. The drawing shows the country which is mentioned largely in Bible history.] 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 commerce, 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. [Illustration: A DASTARDLY CRIME WHICH AUTOCRACY CANNOT DENY. Aerial photograph by a British pilot showing four huts of a British hospital in France, in which were helpless men who were blown to bits. All plainly shown in the foreground.] [Illustration: A BRITISH TOMMY ON WAY TO TRENCHES. This photograph shows a soldier crossing through a trench--which is camouflaged. The screen prevents his being seen.] [Illustration: AN ATTACK BY AMERICANS. Company H and Company K of the 336th Infantry, 82nd Division are advancing on enemy positions in France and driving them out while the 307th Engineers of the 82nd Division are clearing the way by blowing up wire entanglements.] [Illustration: GENERAL BULLARD.] [Illustration: GENERAL LIGGETT.] [Illustration: GENERAL DICKMAN. American Army Commanders who out-generaled the Germans. They were well supported by the fearless and determined fighters, the U.S.A. troops.] [Illustration: A RELIGIOUS MEETING ON THE FIELD. American, British, French, Belgian and Portuguese troops are represented in this gathering of defenders of Liberty listening to a sermon on the western front.] [Illustration: THE HOLY LAND AND THE WAR. Christmas Day at Bethlehem. Latin procession to the Church of Nativity.] [Illustration: FIGHTING IN PALESTINE EAST OF THE JORDAN. Infantry were in the act of occupying an important hill when they were met with a strong counter-attack. The timely arrival of machine guns and supports the situation.] [Illustration: SIGNING OF THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE BY MID-EUROPEAN NATIONS. Professor H.A. Miller, Director; Thos. Naroshevitshius (Lithuaniana); Christos Vassilkaki (Unredeemed Greeks); Christo Dako (Albanians); Charles Tomazolli (Italian Irredentists); Nicholas Ceglinsky (Ukranian); Dr. Hinko Ninkovich (Jugoslavs); T.M. Helinski (Poles); Dr. T.G. Masaryk (Prime Minister of Cezhoslovakia); G. Pasdermadjian (Armenians); Capt. Vasile Solca (Roumanians): Gregory Zsatkovich (Uhro-Rusins); Ittamar Ban-Avi (Zionists). Signed Independence Hall, Phila, Oct. 26.] [Illustration: GENERAL ALLENBY. One of the notable events in the history of the war was the surrender of Jerusalem to the British Army under the command of General Allenby.] [Illustration: GENERAL TOWNSHEND. The British officer who was taken prisoner at Kut-el-Amara, and who afterwards became the peace negotiator.] [Illustration: OFFICE OF A FIELD CASHIER. This spot was formerly one of the pillbox strongholds of the famous switch in the Hindenburg line. It was afterwards run by the Canadians.] [Illustration: Negro Band of the 814th Infantry Leaving the Celtic After Her Arrival.] [Illustration: 8th Reg., FRENCH WAR-CROSS WINNERS. Top Row: 1st-Lieut. Hurd, Lieut-Col. Duncane, Major White, Capt. Crawford, 1st-Lieut. Warfield and Capt. Smith. Bottom Row: Capt. Allen, Lieut. Browning, Capt. Warner and 1st-Lieut. Tisdale.] [Illustration: Captain John H. Patton, 370th U.S. Infantry (formerly 8th Illinois Infantry). Regimental Adjutant to September 11, 1918. Commanding 2nd Battalion from 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 Signes 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.)] [Illustration: Homecoming of 370th (old 8th Regiment), parade passing the reviewing stand, Michigan ave., opposite Art Institute, Chicago Ill. Line of march broken by the great mass of people eager to march with the soldiers, the greatest gathering ever assembled on Chicago's great boulevard.] [Illustration: Officers of the 370th (old Illinois 8th Regiment) Reading left to right: 2nd-Lieut. Lawson Price, 2nd-Lieut. L.W. Stearls, 2nd-Lieut. Ed. White, 2nd-Lieut. Eliass F.E. Williams, 1st-Lieut. Oaso Browning, Capt. Louis B. Johnson, 1st-Lieut. Frank Bates and 1st-Lieut. Binga Desmond.] [Illustration: Left to right: Col. Franklin Dennison, Col. J. Roberts and Lieut. Col. Otis B. Duncan of 370th (old Illinois 8th Regiment).] The population is a motley assortment of races, nationalities 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, Armenians, 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 began hostile operations in both parts of the Turkish Empire. 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 Roumelia became united with Bulgaria. In 1908 Bulgaria declared its independence and the Young Turk Party extorted a constitution and a parliament from Abdul-Hamud II, who 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 centuries, 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 descendants of the Rurik, the first Norse chieftain. Ivan the Terrible 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 degradation. 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 ambitious, 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. [Illustration: 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 control this gateway into southwestern Asia.] 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 proclaimed 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, invaded 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 Romanoff, 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 cultivated friendly relations with Ukraine and the Cossack country. 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. When Ivan died Peter assumed the reins, and it was he who gave Russia a frontage on the Black Sea, and on the Baltic, and built St. Petersburg. He did much for the development 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, vesting 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 comparatively honest lines by favorites, and while they ruled she drank herself to death. Her nephew, Peter III, succeeded her. He was incompetent 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 courtiers when he was on the point of joining Napoleon Bonaparte in his conquest of India. His son was 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. 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. Petersburg, 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 thereupon 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 territory. The coastlands and the southern section of the country are especially rich in fruits and agriculture. Although watered by many rivers, the land, for the most part, is artificially irrigated. Up until 1898 Spain held possession of magnificent colonies 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 in 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 under 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. The substantial socialism of the recent period was, however, based on the workingmen's movement. Before the outbreak 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 territory 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 TACTICS--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 employed 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 modern 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 personal initiative of the soldiers, and the modern fighting machine 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 Rebellion, 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 explodes 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 fighting 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 extensive trench warfare which has formed so much of the fighting 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 cavalryman 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 demonstrated that such long periods of trench warfare may develop that it becomes necessary for him to dismount and make himself 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 retreating foe. The war has been full of surprising results as regards cavalry. It was popularly supposed that in facing such terrible modern weapons as the repeating rifle of long range, the machine gun and the automatic field pieces which have become so 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 positions is still of great value. The idea had developed from the tactics so largely employed in the Civil War of using the cavalry as mounted infantry, that the increased deadliness of modern weapons would make this use 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 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 cannot control the step and movement of his mount as well as a man can control his own. Barring fire, however, the infantryman has no chance against the lance, with the speed and momentum of the mounted man behind it. So, for this reason, though they are cumbersome weapons under ordinary circumstances, and make a detachment equipped with them much more likely to be seen, lances were retained 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 obtain 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 foraging feature of cavalry work disappeared. It is no longer possible for an army to "live on the country as it goes." Food 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 certainly 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 magnificent 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 fellows, 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. 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 American 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 German 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 soldiers are thus "entrenched." One force seeks to drive the other from its position. MANY DEADLY DEVICES. The force of batteries is directed against the entrenchments, 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 concentration 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 reduced to a minimum. Napoleon said that armies travel on their stomachs, but the European War and the Russian-Japanese 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 jaundice," common in Asia. Weil's disease is characterized by sudden 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 European soldiers. The study of the disease was made possible by the successful 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. Experiments in Europe demonstrated the presence of the germ in rats not only near the infected zones, but also in captured localities some distance from trenches. For purposes of comparison Dr. Noguchi collected a number of rats in this country and removed their kidneys. His report states that by inoculating the emulsion made of the kidneys 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 identical 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 produced death in guinea pigs within nine to twelve days. AMERICA'S GREAT SERVICE IN WAR ZONE. In studying the conditions and helping to fight the dangers 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 American nurses, ambulance drivers and surgeons were on the battlefields 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 reduced 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 ausp