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diff --git a/76636-0.txt b/76636-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d0a2dfe --- /dev/null +++ b/76636-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,2664 @@ + +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 76636 *** + + + + + +MY COUNTRY’S PART + + + [Illustration: General Pershing’s veterans direct from the trenches in + France marching to the City Hall, New York City] + + + + + MY COUNTRY’S PART + + BY + MARY SYNON + + ILLUSTRATED + + CHARLES SCRIBNER’S SONS + CHICAGO NEW YORK SAN FRANCISCO + + + + + COPYRIGHT, 1918, BY + CHARLES SCRIBNER’S SONS + + [Illustration] + + + + + TO + + THOMAS S. ENRIGHT + JAMES B. GRESHAM + MARLE B. HAY + + PRIVATES IN THE RANKS OF + THE AMERICAN EXPEDITIONARY FORCES + WHO WERE THE FIRST TO DIE IN FRANCE + IN OUR WAR AGAINST GERMANY + + THIS BOOK + IS DEDICATED + + + + +CONTENTS + + + CHAPTER PAGE + + I. “MY GRANDMOTHER AND MYSELF” 1 + + II. THE UNITED STATES AND THE WORLD WAR 40 + + III. WHAT THE GREAT WAR REALLY MEANS 53 + + IV. HOW THE WAR CAME TO THE UNITED STATES 65 + + V. HOW THE UNITED STATES WENT INTO WAR 77 + + VI. WHAT THE UNITED STATES IS DOING IN THE WAR 85 + + VII. REAR-LINE TRENCHES 93 + + VIII. THE AMERICAN’S PART 110 + + IX. THE UNITED STATES AND INDIVIDUAL FREEDOM 121 + + X. THE UNITED STATES AND INTERNATIONAL PEACE 131 + + + + +ILLUSTRATIONS + + + General Pershing’s veterans direct from the trenches + in France marching to the City Hall, New York City _Frontispiece_ + + FACING PAGE + + Belgium refugees between Malines and Brussels 66 + + President Wilson delivering his war message 80 + + Recruits of the National Army waiting at the booths + of a National Army cantonment 90 + + Children selling thrift stamps 104 + + Boys at work in their war garden 110 + + The launching of the U. S. S. _Accoma_ 118 + + An immigrant family qualified to enter the United States 128 + + + + +CHAPTER I + +“MY GRANDMOTHER AND MYSELF” + + +What can an American boy or an American girl do for our country? + +The ways are many. Every man, woman, and child in the United States has +the duty of defending the nation. In time of war every American must be +in spirit, if he cannot be in actual duty, a soldier. A soldier’s part +is to guard his nation. An American’s part is to guard America. The +guarding may be done by saving the food that the government asks its +citizens to save, by buying War Thrift Stamps, by buying Liberty Bonds, +by working for the Red Cross, or for other patriotic organizations; but +it must be done with the idea that our country is our first concern, +our first care. + +Every American must be watchful for his country’s welfare. How may +he do this duty? By remembering always that he is, first of all, an +American. No matter what country his father or mother, or grandfather +or grandmother came from, he is American, with the rights and +privileges and obligations of his citizenship. And he must have no +divided allegiance. + +The story of what one American boy could do for his country is told in +the story that follows. Some people call this a fiction story. But the +root of it is truth. For every boy and every girl in the United States +can hold to the love of country that John Sutton’s grandmother put into +his soul through the incidents that make up the tale of + + +“MY GRANDMOTHER AND MYSELF” + +My grandmother was at the basement window, peering into the street +as if she were watching for some one, when I came home from school. +“Is that you, John?” she asked me as I stood in the hall stamping the +snow from my boots. “Sure!” I called to her. “Who’d you think I was? A +spirit?” + +She laughed a little as I went into the room and flung down my books. +My grandmother hasn’t seen any one in ten years, though she sits day +after day looking out on the street as if a parade were passing; but +she knows the thump of my books on the table as well as she knows the +turning of my father’s key in the lock of the door. “’Tis a lively +spirit you’d make, Shauneen,” she said, with that chuckle she saves for +me. “No, ’twas your father I thought was coming.” + +“What’d he be doing home at this time?” + +“These are queer days,” she said, “and there are queer doings in them.” + +“There’s nothing queer that I can see,” I told her. + +“I’m an old, blind woman,” she said, “but sometimes I see more than do +they who have the sight of their two eyes.” She said it so solemnly, +folding her hands one over the other as she drew herself up in her +chair, that I felt a little thrill creeping up my spine. “What do you +mean?” I asked her. “Time’ll tell you,” she said. + +My mother came in from the kitchen then. “Norah forgot to order bacon +for the morning,” she said. “Will you go to the market, John, before +you do anything else?” + +“Oh, I’m going skating,” I protested. + +“It won’t take you five minutes,” said my mother. She seemed tired +and worried. The look in her eyes made me feel that there was trouble +hanging over the house. My mother isn’t like my grandmother. When +things go wrong, my grandmother stands up straight, and throws back her +shoulders, and fronts ahead as if she were a general giving orders for +attack; but my mother wilts like a hurt flower. She was drooping then +while she stood in the room, so I said, “All right, I’ll go,” though +I’d promised the fellows to come to the park before four o’clock. + +“And look in at the shop as you go by,” my grandmother said, “and see +if your father’s there now.” + +“Why shouldn’t he be?” my mother asked. + +There was a queer sound in her voice that urged me around past my +father’s shop. My father was there in the little office, going over +blue-prints with Joe Krebs’s uncle and Mattie Kleiner’s father and a +big man I’d never seen before. I told my grandmother when I went home. +“I knew it,” she said. “I knew it. And I dreamed last night of my +cousin Michael who died trying to escape from Van Diemen’s Land.” + +“You knew what?” I asked her, for again that strange way of hers sent +shivery cold over me. + +“Go to your skating,” she bade me. + + * * * * * + +There wasn’t much skating at Tompkins Square, though, when I found +the crowd. The sun had come out strong in the afternoon and the ice +was melting. “Ground-hog must have seen his shadow last week,” Bennie +Curtis said. All the fellows--Joe Carey and Jim Dean and Frank Belden +and Joe Krebs and Mattie Kleiner and Fred Wendell and the rest of +them--had taken off their skates and were starting a tug of war in the +slush. Mattie Kleiner was the captain on one side and Frank Belden the +captain on the other. Mattie had chosen Joe Krebs and Jim Dean and Joe +Carey on his side. Just as I came along he shouted that he chose me. +Frank Belden yelled that it was his choice and that he’d take me. “He +don’t want to be on your side!” Mattie cried. “He’s with the Germans!” + +“Well, I guess not,” I said, “any more than I’m with the English. I’m +an American.” + +“You can’t be just an American in this battle,” Frank Belden said. + +“Then I’ll stay out of it,” I told him. + +They all started to yell “Neutral!” and “Fraid cat!” and “Oh, you dove +of peace!” at me. I got tired of it after a while, and I went after +Mattie hard. When I’d finished with him he bawled at me: “Wait till +your father knows, he’ll fix you!” + +“What for?” I jeered. + +“For going against his principles, that’s what,” Mattie Kleiner roared. + +“I’d like to know what you know about my father’s principles.” I +laughed at him. + +“Well, I ought to know,” he cried. “I heard him take the oath.” + +“What oath?” we all demanded, but Mattie went off in surly silence. Joe +Krebs and Joe Carey trailed after him. I stayed with the other fellows +until it was dark. Then I started for home. + +Joe Carey was waiting for me at the corner. “Do you believe him, John?” +he asked me. “Do you believe Mattie about the oath?” + +“How’s that?” I parried. I seemed to remember having heard a man who’d +been at the house a fortnight before whispering something about an +oath, and I knew that I’d heard my mother say to my grandmother: “I +pray to God he’ll get in no trouble with any oaths or promises.” I kept +wondering if Mattie Kleiner’s father and Joe Krebs’s uncle and the big +man with the blue-prints who’d been in my father’s shop had anything to +do with it. “Oh, Mattie’s talking in his sleep,” I said. + +“Well, maybe,” said Joe Carey; “but he wasn’t sleeping the night they +had the meeting in his house. He was on the stairs going up to the top +floor, and he kept the door open a little way and he heard everything +they said, and nobody at all knew he was there.” + +Joe Carey’s eyes were almost popping out of his head, and so I knew +that Mattie had been telling him a long story. “I guess he didn’t hear +very much,” I said. + +“You bet he did,” Joe declared. “He heard them reading the letters +telling people not to go on the ships because they were going to be +sunk, and he heard them talking about bombs and munition factories. He +says that he heard your father say that he’d gladly lay down his life +for the sake of Ireland.” + +“But Ireland’s not in this war!” + +“Sure it is! Mattie says the Germans are going to free Ireland if they +beat England. That’s why the Irish ought to be with the Germans. Mattie +says your father’ll be awful ashamed that you wouldn’t go on his side. +Mattie says your father----” + +“I don’t give a whoop what Mattie says about my father,” I told him. “I +guess I can take my own part.” + +“I guess you’ll have to,” said Joe. + +As I went up the street toward our house I had that queer feeling that +comes sometimes after I’ve been away for a while, a fear that something +terrible has happened while I’ve been gone and that I’ll be blamed for +it. It was dark on the street, for people hadn’t lighted the lamps in +the basement dining-rooms, and I was hurrying along when suddenly a +man’s voice came over my shoulder. I hadn’t heard his step behind me at +all, and I jumped when he spoke. “Where does Mr. John Sutton live?” he +asked me. + +“Right there.” I pointed to our house. + +“Do you know him?” he asked. Through the dark I could see that he was +a tall man with sharp eyes. I knew that I had never seen him before, +and that he didn’t look like any of the men who came to my father’s +machine-shop. “Don’t you know Mr. Sutton?” he repeated. + +“Yes, sir.” + +“Know him well, sonny?” + +“Yes, sir.” + +“How well?” + +“He’s my father.” + +He whistled softly, then laughed, turned on his heel, and strode down +the street. I watched him to see if he’d take the turn toward the shop, +but he turned the other way at the corner. I thought that I’d tell my +grandmother about him but my mother was with her in the dark when I +went in. They were talking very low, as if some one were dead in the +house, but I heard my mother say, “If I only knew how far he’s gone in +this!” and my grandmother mutter: “Sure, the farther he goes in, the +farther back he’ll have to come.” I stumbled over a chair as I went +into the room with them, and they both stopped talking. + +I could hear the little hissing whisper my grandmother always makes +while she says the rosary, but I could hear no sound from my mother at +all until she rose with a sigh and lighted the gas-lamp. She looked at +me as if she hadn’t known I’d been there. “Have you any home work to do +to-night, John?” she asked me. + +“No, ma’am,” I said. “It’s Friday.” + +“Then I want you to come to church with me after your dinner,” she said. + +“Oh, I don’t want to go to church,” I’d said before my grandmother +spoke. + +“’Twill be a queer thing to me as long as I live,” she said, “that +those who have don’t want what they have, and that those who haven’t +keep wanting.” + +The telephone-bell rang just then up in the room that my father used +for an office, and I raced up to answer it. A man’s voice, younger than +that of the man who’d spoken to me, came over the wire. “Say, is this +John Sutton’s residence?” it asked. “And is he home? And, if he isn’t, +who are you?” + +“What do you want?” I called. + +“Information. This is _The World_. We hear that there’s to be a meeting +of the clans to-night, and we want to know where it’s to be held.” + +“I don’t know,” I said. + +“Can you find out?” + +“No,” I lied. “There’s nobody home.” + +“Won’t your father be home for dinner?” + +Even then I could hear his key turning in the lock, could hear him +passing on his way up to his bedroom, but a queer kind of caution was +being born in me. “No, sir,” I said. + +“Who was that?” my grandmother asked me when I went down. + +I told her of the call, told her, too, of the man who had stopped me on +the street. Her rosary slipped through her fingers. “I feared it,” she +said. Then the whisper of her praying began again. + +At dinner my father was strangely silent. Usually he talks a great +deal, all about politics, and the newspapers, and the trouble with the +schools, and woman suffrage, and war. But he said nothing at all except +to ask me if the skating were good. My mother was just as quiet as he, +and I would have been afraid to open my mouth if my grandmother hadn’t +started in to tell about New York in the days she’d come here, more +than sixty-five years ago. She talked and talked about how different +everything had been then, with no tall buildings and no big bridges and +no subways and no elevateds. “Faith, you can be proud of your native +town, John,” she said to my father. + +“I wish I’d been born in Ireland,” he said. + +She laughed. “And if I’d stayed in Ireland I’d have starved,” she said, +“and little chance you’d have had of being born anywhere.” + +“It might have been just as well,” he said bitterly. + +“Oh, no,” she said; “there’s Shauneen.” + +He rose from the table, flinging down his napkin. “I won’t be home till +very late,” he said to my mother. + +She stood up beside him. “Do you have to go, John?” she asked him. + +“Yes,” he said. + +“Oh, John,” she said, “I’m afraid.” + +“Of what?” + +“Of what may happen you.” + +“Nothing’ll happen me,” he said. + +I wanted to tell him of the strange man who had halted me on the +street, and of the telephone call, but my father’s anger was rising and +I feared to fan it to flame. My grandmother said nothing until after my +father had gone. Then she spoke to my mother. + +“Don’t you know better,” she asked her, “and you eighteen years married +to him, than to ask John not to do something you don’t want him to do?” + +My mother began to cry as we heard the banging of the door after my +father. “Well, if you can do nothing else,” my grandmother said, “you’d +better be off to church. Keep your eyes open, Shauneen,” she warned me +while my mother was getting her hat and coat. + + * * * * * + +It was a grand night, with the evening star low in the sky, like a +lamp, and the big yellow moon just rising in the east. The wind blew +sharp and salt off the water, but there was a promise of spring in the +air, saying that it must be almost baseball time. We went over to the +Jesuit church, walking slowly all the way. There we knelt in the dark +until I was stiff. As we came out my mother stopped at the holy-water +font. “John,” she said, “will you promise me that if you ever marry +you’ll never set any cause but God’s above your wife?” + +“No, ma’am, I won’t,” I said, vaguely understanding that my father had +hurt my mother by his refusal to stay at home, and wondering what cause +he had set above her. As we walked toward the car-line I remembered +what Joe Carey had told me of Mattie Kleiner’s speech about my father. +“Do you have to go to Ireland to die for Ireland?” I asked her. She +clutched my hand. “My grandfather died for Ireland,” she said, “and he +wasn’t the first of his line to die for her. But I pray God that he may +have been the last.” She said no more till we came into our own house. + +My grandmother was still at the window of the dining-room. There was +no light, and my mother did not make one. “There was another telephone +call,” my grandmother said. “Norah answered it. ’Twas the newspaper +calling again for John to ask about the meeting. She said she knew +nothing about it and that no one was here to answer.” + +“Do you suppose,” I said, “it was detectives?” + +They said nothing, and I could feel a big lump coming up my throat. I +thought they might not have heard me until my grandmother said: “Do you +know, Kate, where the meeting is.” + +“I don’t know, and I don’t want to know,” my mother cried. She turned +to me sharply. “Go to bed, John,” she said. + +“I know where the meetings are,” I blurted out, eager enough for any +excuse to put off the hateful order. “They’re at Mattie Kleiner’s +house, because he hides on the stairs when they come, and he heard them +take the oath.” + +“Is that Matthew Kleiner’s boy?” my grandmother asked, so quietly that +I thought she had not realized the importance of my news. + +“Yes, ma’am.” + +“Go to bed, Shauneen.” She repeated my mother’s order. + +I went up-stairs, leaving the two of them silent in the dark. I +whistled while I undressed, but I shivered after I had turned out the +light and jumped between the sheets. I was going to lie awake waiting +for my father’s return, but I must have dozed, for I thought that it +was in the middle of the night that something woke me. I knew, as soon +as I woke, that some one was in my room. I could feel him groping. I +tried to speak, but my tongue stuck to the roof of my mouth. Then I +heard a faint whisper. “Shauneen,” it said. + +So far away it seemed that I thought it might be a ghost until my +grandmother spoke again. “Your mother’s in bed now,” she said. “Put on +your clothes as quick as you can.” + +“What is it?” I whispered. + +“We’re going to Matthew Kleiner’s, you and I,” she said. “I’d go alone +if I could see.” + +“What time is it?” + +“Between ten and eleven.” + +I pulled my clothes on as fast as I could. Then stealthily as thieves +we crept out from my room and down the stairs. I held my grandmother’s +hand and wondered at its steadiness. When we had come outside the +basement door she halted me. “Look down the street for the tall man,” +she bade me. There was no one in sight, however, and we walked along +sturdily, turning corners until we came to Kleiner’s. + +It was a red-brick house in a row, not a basement house like ours, but +with a cellar below and an attic above its two main floors. There was +no light on the first floor, but I thought that I saw a stream behind +the drawn curtains up-stairs. I found the bell and pushed on it hard. +No one came for a long time. I rang again. I could see shadows back +of the shades before Mattie Kleiner’s mother came. “What is it?” she +demanded before she opened the door. + +“Tell her that your mother’s sick and that you’ve come for your +father,” my grandmother ordered me. I repeated what she’d said. Mrs. +Kleiner opened the door. “Oh,” she cried, “it is Mrs. Sutton and little +John. Oh, you did frighten me. Is the mother very sick? I shall call +the father.” + +“Let me go to him,” my grandmother said. We were inside the hall then, +and I put her hand on the railing of the stairway. She had started up +before Mrs. Kleiner tried to stop her. “I’ve a message for him,” said +my grandmother. Mrs. Kleiner and I followed her. At the top of the +stairs I turned her toward the front room, for I could hear the murmur +of voices. I passed a door and wondered if Mattie Kleiner were hiding +behind it. “Oh, we must not go in,” Mrs. Kleiner pleaded. “The men will +not want us to go in.” She tried to stop us, but my grandmother turned, +looking at her as if she could see her. “I’ve always followed my own +conscience, ma’am,” she said, “not my husband’s, nor my son’s, nor any +other man’s.” + +From within the front room came the sound of the voices, growing louder +and louder as we stood there, my grandmother alert, Mrs. Kleiner +appalled, I myself athrill. I could hear my father’s voice, short, +sharp. “It’s our great opportunity,” he was saying. “We have only to +strike the blow at England’s empire, and the empire itself will arise +to aid us. Twenty thousand men flung into Canada will turn the trick. +French Quebec is disaffected. What if soldiers are there? We can fight +them! We may die, but what if we do? We will have started the avalanche +that will destroy Carthage!” + +There were cries of “Right!” to him. Then a man began to talk in +German. His voice rang out harshly. From the murmurs that came out to +us we knew that the men were applauding his words, but we had no idea +of what the words were. Mrs. Kleiner stood wringing her hands. “Who’s +in there?” my grandmother asked her. + +“I do not know,” she insisted. + +“Joe Krebs’s uncle is there,” I said. “I know his cough. And Mr. +Winngart who keeps the delicatessen-shop. And Frank Belden’s father; +and that’s Mr. Carey’s voice.” + +“They just meet for fun,” groaned Mrs. Kleiner. + +“Sure, I saw that kind of fun before,” said my grandmother, “when the +Fenians went after the Queen’s Own.” + +My father’s voice rose again. “We are ready to fire the torch? We +are ready to send out the word to-night for the mobilization of our +sympathizers? We are ready to stand together to the bitter end?” + +“We are ready!” came the shout. + +Then my grandmother opened the door. + +Through the haze of their tobacco smoke they looked up, the dozen +men crowded into the Kleiners’ front bedroom, to see my grandmother +standing before them, a bent old woman in her black dress and shawl, +her little jet bonnet nodding valiantly from its perch on her thin +white hair. She looked around as if she could see every one of them. My +father had sprung forward at her coming, and, as if to hold him off, +she put up one hand. + +“_Is it yourself, John Sutton, who’s talking here of plots, and plans, +and war?_” she said. Her voice went up to a sharp edge. She flung back +her head as if she defied them to answer her. All of them, my father +and Joe Krebs’s uncle and Mattie Kleiner’s father and Mr. Carey and Mr. +Winngart and the big man who’d had the blue-prints in the shop, and the +others, stared at her as if she were a ghost. No one of them moved as +she spoke. “’Tis a fine lot you are to be sitting here thinking ways +to bring trouble on yourselves, and your wives, and your children, +and your country. Who are there here of you? Is it yourself, Benedict +Krebs, who’s going out to fight for Germany when your own father came +to this very street to get away from Prussia? Is it you, Matthew +Kleiner, who gives roof to them who plot against America, you, who +came here to earn a living that you couldn’t earn at home? Is it you, +Michael Carey, who’s helping them hurt the land that’s making you a +rich man? Shame on you; shame on you all!” + +“Why shouldn’t we fight England?” Joe Carey’s father said with a growl. +“You’d be the last one, Mrs. Sutton, that I’d think’d set yourself +against that.” + +“’Tis not England,” said my grandmother, “that you fight with your +plots. ’Tis America you strike when you strike here. And, as long as +you stay here, be Americans and not traitors!” + +They began to murmur at that, and my father said: “You don’t know what +you’re talking about, mother. You’d better take John home. This is no +place for either of you.” + +“No more than it’s a place for you,” she said. “Will you be coming home +with me now?” + +“I will not,” my father said. + +“Faith, and you’ll all be wishing you had,” she told them, “when the +jails’ll be holding you in the morning.” + +“The jails!” The big man who had held the blue-prints came closer to +us. “What is it you say of jails? You have told the police, then?” + +“I didn’t need to,” my grandmother said. “The government men have +been watching this long time. ’Twill be at midnight that they’ll come +here. But ’tis not myself they’ll be finding.” I saw the men’s glances +flash around the room through the smoky haze before she called: “Come, +Shauneen.” I took her hand again and led her out of the room. Just +before the door closed after us I saw that my father’s face had grown +very white, and that Mattie Kleiner’s father had dropped his pipe on +the floor. + +Outside the house I spoke to my grandmother tremblingly. “Do the police +really know?” I asked her. She gave her dry little chuckle. “If they +don’t, they should,” she answered; “but I was born an O’Brien, and +I’ve never known one of them yet that ever told the police anything. +No, Shauneen,” she laughed, “’twas the high hill I shot at, but I’m +thinking that the shot struck. We’ll watch.” + +We crossed the street and waited in the shadow of the house at the +corner. For a little while all was quiet at Kleiner’s. Then I saw the +tall man come out with Joe Krebs’s uncle. After a time my father came +out with Mr. Winngart and Mr. Carey. They walked to the other corner +and stood there a moment before they separated, “Shall we go home now?” +I asked my grandmother after I had told her what I had seen. + +“Not yet,” she said. “I’ve one more errand to do this night.” I thought +it might have something to do with the tall man who’d spoken to me or +with the telephone call, and I wondered when she sighed. “I’m a very +old woman,” she seemed to be saying to herself. “I’ll be ninety-one +years come Michaelmas Day. Some of the world I’ve seen, and much of +life. Out of it all I’ve brought but a few things. I’d thought to give +these to my son. But--” She paused. “How old are you, Shauneen?” she +asked me. + +“Fourteen,” I said. + +“Old enough,” she nodded. She turned her head as if she were looking +for something or some one. Then: “Do you know your way to the Battery?” +she asked me. + +“Sure,” I told her. “Are you going there?” + +“We are.” + + * * * * * + +It had been quiet enough in our part of town. It was quieter yet when +we came to Bowling Green and walked across to the Battery. Down there, +past the high buildings and the warehouses, we seemed to have come into +the heart of a hush. To the north of us the sky was afire with the +golden glow from the up-town lights. In front of us ran the East River +and the North River. Out on Bedloe’s Island I could see the shining of +the Goddess of Liberty’s torch. Every little while a ferry-boat, all +yellow with lights, would shoot out on the water. A sailing-vessel +moved slowly after its puffing tug. The little oyster-boats were coming +in from the bay. A steamer glided along past it as I walked with my +grandmother out toward the old Castle Garden. + +On the Saturday before Joe Carey and I had come down to the piers, +prowling all afternoon on the docks, watching the men bringing in the +queer crates and boxes and bags while we told each other of the places +from where the fruits and spices and coffee and wines had come. There +were thousands and thousands of ships out there in the dark, I knew, +and I began to tell my grandmother what some of the sailors had told +us of how the trade of the world was crowding into New York, with the +ships all pressing the docks for room. “If you could only see it!” I +said to her. “I can see more than that,” she said. Then: “Take me to +the edge of the waters,” she bade me. + +Wondering and a little frightened, I obeyed her, trying to solve the +while the mystery of her whim to bring me to the deserted park in the +middle of the night. “Is Castle Garden over there?” she pointed. “Then +I’ve my bearings now.” + +She stood alone, a little way off from me, staring seaward as if she +counted the shadowy ships. The wind blew her thin white hair from under +her bonnet and raised the folds of her shawl. There in the lateness of +the night, alone at the edge of the Battery, she didn’t seem to be my +grandmother at all, but some stranger. I remembered the story I’d read +somewhere of an old woman who’d brought a pile of books to a King of +Rome, books that she threw away, one by one, as he refused them, until +there was but one book left. When he’d bought that one from her he’d +found that it was the book of the future of the empire, and that he’d +lost all the rest through his folly. As I looked at my grandmother I +thought she must be like the old woman of the story. Even her voice +sounded strange and deep when she turned to me. + +“It was sixty-five years ago the 7th of November that I first stood on +this soil,” she said. “’Tis a long lifetime, and, thank God, a useful +one I’ve had. Burdens I’ve had, but never did I lack the strength to +bear them. Looking back, I’m sorry for many a word and many a deed, but +I’ve never sorrowed that I came here.” + +I would have thought that she had forgotten me if she hadn’t touched +my arm. “You’ve heard tell of the famine, Shauneen,” she went on, “the +great famine that fell on Ireland, blighting even the potatoes in +the ground? We’d a little place in Connaught then, a bit of land my +father was tilling. We hadn’t much, even for the place, but we were +happy enough, God knows, with our singing and dancing, and the fairs +and the patterns. Then little by little, we grew poorer and poorer. I +was the oldest of the seven of us. My mother and myself’d be planning +and scraping to find food for the rest of them. Every day we’d see +them growing thinner and thinner. Oh, _mavrone_, the pity of it! And +they looking at us betimes as if we were cheating them of their bit +of a sup! Sometimes now in the dark I see them come to my bed, with +their soft eyes begging for bread, and we having naught to give them. +Brigid--she was the youngest of them all--died. Then my father went. + +“I used to go down to the sea and hunt the wrack for bits of food. +There by the shore I would look over here to America and pray, day +after day, that the Lord would send to us some help before my mother +should go. You don’t know what it is to pray, Shauneen. Your father +cannot teach you and your mother hopes you’ll never learn. For prayer +is born in agony, _avick_, and grief and loss and sorrow. But because +you are the son of my soul I pray for you that life may teach you +prayer. For when you come to the end of the road, Shauneen, you’ll know +that ’tis not the smoothness of the way, but the height of it and the +depth of it, that measures your travelling. Far, far down in the depths +I went when I prayed over there on the bleak coast of Connaught. + +“God answered my prayer. There came from America food to us. There +came, too, the chance for me to come here with the promise of work +to do. ’Twas a drear day when I left home. How I cursed England as I +looked back on the hills of Cork harbor, all green and smiling as if +never a blight had cast its shadow behind them! + +“’Twas a long, dreary sailing. Nine weeks we were in the crossing. A +lifetime I thought it was between the day I looked on the western sea +from the Connaught mountains and the day when I stood here looking back +toward home. Sure life is full of lifetimes like those.” + +She paused a moment, but I felt as if I were under a spell that I must +not break by word of mine. A cloud came over the moon and all around us +grew shadowy. The big throb that the city always beats at night kept +sounding like the thrumming of an orchestra waiting for the violin solo +to start. + +“I’d plenty of them before many years.” My grandmother’s voice came +like the sound for which the thrumming had waited. “Did you ever think +what it means to the poor souls who come here alone for their living? +When you’ve a house of your own, Shauneen, with men servants and maid +servants, don’t forget that your father’s mother worked out for some +one. They were kind people, too, who took me to their homes. Don’t +forget that either. For ’tis my first memory of America. Kind they +were, and just. They helped me save what I earned and they showed me +ways of helping my folks at home. I’d brought out Danny and James and +Ellen and Mary before the war. I met each one of them right here at +Castle Garden. That’s why I always think of this place as the gateway +through which the Irish have come to America. Sure Ellis Island’s been +for the Italians and the Jews and the Greeks. We didn’t wait outside +the door. We came straight in,” she chuckled. + +“My mother wouldn’t come from the old place. Long I grieved over her +there in the little house where my father and Brigid had died, but +after a while I knew she was happier so. Sometimes, Shauneen, I think +of Ireland as an old woman, like my mother, sitting home alone in the +old places, grieving, mourning, with her children out over the world, +living the dreams of her nights by the fire. ’Twas here we found +the freedom the Irish had been fighting for. ’Twas here, away from +landlords and landholding, away from famine and persecution, that we +found that life need not be a thing of sorrow. ’Twas here I met your +grandfather. + +“I’d nothing of my own, and your grandfather had but a trifle more when +we married. I suppose ’tis brave that people would call us now. We +didn’t think that we were. We were young and strong and we loved each +other. And we were getting along fairly well--we’d started the payments +on a bit of a house of our own after your father was born--when the war +came down on us. + +“Your grandfather went with the brigade. Not twice did we think whether +or not he should go. We knew that he owed his first duty to the +country that had called him, and sheltered him, and given him work and +hope and freedom. For he was a boy from home as I was a girl from home. +I stood on the curbstone the day he marched by, with your father in my +arms, and I cheered for the flag. ‘Sure he’ll be walking to meet you +when you come back!’ I called, lifting up the child. Your grandfather +never came back. He fell at Marye’s Heights.” + +When she spoke again her voice had changed more to her every-day tone. +“Well, I raised your father,” she said, “and I thought I was raising +him well. My arms were strong. I worked at the wash-tub morning, noon, +and night. It wasn’t long till I had a laundry of my own. I thought to +give my son all that I’d ever wanted for myself. Perhaps that was where +I made my mistake. I thought too much of the things that money can buy +in those years when money was so hard to earn. Perhaps ’twas myself and +no other who taught your father the cold, hard things of life, though, +God knows, I’d no thought to do it. He’s a good man in many ways, but +he’s not the man I want you to be. He’s a good hater but he’s not a +good lover. And, faith, what’s there in life but love?” + +I moved a little then, and my grandmother swung me around, with her two +hands on my shoulders, and, blind as she is, stared at me as if she +were looking right down into my heart. “Shauneen,” she said, “I have +prayed, day and night, that your father might be to America the good +citizen his father was. I have prayed that if America should ever need +him he would stand ready for her call. I have prayed that he’d love +America as I have loved America. I love Ireland, _mavrone_. Always in +my heart do I see her hills as they looked on the morning I looked back +on them from the sea. But I love America, too, and I wanted my son to +love her even more than I do. I’ve wanted him to love this land as my +fathers and their fathers loved Ireland. ’Twas not that I wanted him +to forget my land; when he was a lad like you I’d tell him tales of +Ireland’s glory and of Ireland’s woe. How was I to know that all it +would do for him was to rouse the black hate for England? I taught him +love for Ireland, but never did I teach him to set my land above his +own. + +“For ’twas America gave us our chance, Shauneen, when we’d no other +place on earth to seek. Hard days we’ve known here, too, days when +even the children jeered at us, but we’ve never felt the hand of the +oppressor upon us since we touched our feet on these shores. We’ve been +free and we’ve prospered. Fine houses we have and fine clothes; and +’tis a long day since I knew the pinch of hunger. This is our debt. +Tell me again, Shauneen, what you see out there?” + +I told her of the shining lights, of the funnels of the steamers, +of the piled piers, of the little oyster-boats, of the great liners +waiting the word for their sailing. + +“’Twould be a fine sight,” she sighed. “Do you think me a madwoman to +bring you here?” she went on, as if she had read my thought. “Perhaps +I am that. Perhaps I’m not. For you’ll remember this night when you’ve +forgotten many another time, just as I remember the day when my mother +took me to the shrine at Knock. For this is the shrine of your country, +Shauneen, this old Castle Garden, where your people set foot in the +land that’s given them liberty. Here it was that I told my brothers and +my sisters of the future before them. Here it is that I’m telling you +that your country will be the greatest nation of all the world if only +you lads stay true to her. That’s why I’ve brought you here to-night, +Shauneen. I’m an old, old woman. I’ve not long for this earth. But I’ve +this message for you; it’s yours; this duty that your father shirks +when he plots with black traitors who’d drag us into wars that are not +of our choosing. Raise your hand, Shauneen. Say after me: ‘_As long as +I live, God helping me, I shall keep my country first in my heart and, +after God, first in my soul!_’” + +Through the misty moonlight there came to me the memory of my mother’s +plea at the door of the church, my mother’s cry: “Promise me that +you’ll set no cause but God’s before your wife!” Some battle of spirit +struggled within me. For an instant I was silent. Then, suddenly, as if +the moon had ridden above the cloud, I saw the right. “Since all true +causes come from God,” I said to myself, “it is right to set my own +country above anything else that may ever come.” And I said the words +after my grandmother. + +She took my face between her hands and kissed me. “God keep you, +Shauneen,” she said, “for the woman who’ll love you, and the children +you’ll teach, and the land you’ll serve!” + +Then through a sleeping city my grandmother and I went home. + + * * * * * + +Our country’s part is to keep the flame of freedom burning above the +darkness of the world. Our part is to feed that flame with the oil of +our love of our country. No matter what our duty may be, whether it be +great or small, let us do it as our country asks; that we may keep our +land the place where men may live in freedom, in justice, in peace. + +We have come upon troubled times. We have enemies at home as well as +abroad. We have those who would cry “Peace at any price,” when our +country knows that the only enduring peace is one which is won with +honor. We have those who would barter American ideals for immediate +comfort, those who would sell the future for the present. It is our +part, the part of each and every American, to stand firm for those +principles which America has cherished and for which she fights to-day. +It is our part to be American, to think American, to pray American. It +is our duty to remember what America does for us. It is our privilege +to do what we can for America. Every man, woman, and child in the +United States, not in active war service in army or navy, is nothing +less than a licensed pilot, steering the ship of his patriotism +among rough waters. It is his part to steer it straight, and, as the +President said of the nation, “God helping him, he can do no other.” + + + + +CHAPTER II + +THE UNITED STATES AND THE WORLD WAR + + +In the last days of April, 1918, fifty men in the khaki of the army +of the United States of America landed at an Atlantic port. Their +coming, unheralded and almost unwelcomed, marked one of the most +important events in the history of our country. For they were the first +homecoming veterans of the American Expeditionary Forces, men who had +fought under Pershing on the soil of France for the principles that +inspired our nation’s entrance into the world war. + +There was the man who had fired the first American gun in the battles. +There was the man who had stood beside the first man killed in action. +There was the man who had brought five German prisoners back into camp +after the rush on the trenches. Wounded, disabled, made unfit for +further immediate service, they had been sent home; and they came back +to their country, the advance-guard of the greatest army the United +States has ever assembled and one of the greatest armies the world has +ever seen, to bear witness to the fact that America has actually taken +her place in the world struggle. + +They had fought under German fire. They had stood beside French +soldiers and British soldiers in the attack. They had received their +baptism of blood. They had set the flag of the United States of +America on the battle-fronts in the standard that bears the flags of +those nations which are defending the rights of democracy against the +invasion of autocracy. They are of the first division of an American +army to fight a battle for America in the fields of Europe; and they +had come home to give testimony of what America’s part in the great war +really is. For they are the first of the millions of fighters whom the +nation has gathered for the winning of the war. + +Even when the United States entered the great war on the 6th of April, +1917, the part that we would take in the conflict was not clearly +defined. Would we send an army abroad? Would our navy fight? Or would +we merely defend our own shores against possible attack, and supply +the other nations at war with Germany with food, munitions, and other +supplies? The question was soon answered by American honesty which +thundered that the only way to wage war was to send soldiers to the +scene of battle. Preparations never equalled in the history of the +world went into effect for the purpose of conveying our soldiers over +the ocean, of supplying them and equipping them, and of standing back +of the troops and peoples of the Allies who were already at war with +Germany. + +Not, however, until more than a year after the beginning of our part in +the war was the issue of exactly what the United States would do on the +battle-fronts settled. Then the President of the United States, Woodrow +Wilson, gave the order that General John Pershing, in command of the +American Expeditionary Forces, should place the American force at +the disposition of General Foch of France, commander-in-chief for the +armies of the Allies. The American Expeditionary Forces slipped into +place, and American soldiers began the actual fighting of America’s war. + +For the war into which our nation has entered is, in spite of the fact +that it is being fought on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean, as +much America’s war and a war of defense as if it were being fought +along our own Atlantic seaboard against an invading army. It is being +fought for the same principles which are the only ones great enough to +force our country to war, principles of freedom for the individual, +freedom for the free-governed nations, and of ultimate, lasting peace +for the world. It is being fought against the forces of aggression, +of greed, of injustice. It is being fought against the intention of +Germany to dominate the world. + +In every war there are two great issues battling against each other. +Men fight for one or the other. Nations fight for one or the other. +There have been wars of conquest waged by strong nations against +weaker ones, wars of religion, wars of territorial aggression, wars of +defense, wars of trade, wars of high moral ideals. This is a war where +the issue is sharply set. It is a war where democracy fights against +autocracy, where liberty fights against bondage, where freemen fight to +keep their freedom against men who strive to take it away from them. + +There are two kinds of nations in the world, those nations which +believe that governments derive their just powers from the consent of +the governed and those other nations which believe that power comes +from God to Kings to be used over people who have nothing to say about +its use. The first is a democracy, even though it have a monarch +nominally as its head. The other is an autocracy. And, since this is +a war of democracy against autocracy, it is really a war of the free +people of the world against the bondsmen and their masters. + +There was a time when all the great nations of the world had Kings. It +was part of the evolution of the social system. Nations need leaders, +and there were men so strong that they were able to seize and hold +leadership, keeping it for their sons so that the people came to accept +one family as its rulers. But in time some nations began to emerge from +the yoke that these rulers set upon them. The people, who had been +serfs and slaves, began to demand a voice in the government. Kings +and nobles began to lose power in these nations with the awakening of +the people. The signing of the Magna Charta in England by King John +marked the transfer of power from the King. Bit by bit in those nations +tending toward liberal government the shift of power took place. + +It was not until the last quarter of the eighteenth century, however, +that the theory of free government flowered and bore fruit. Then the +Thirteen Colonies of Great Britain, situated along the western Atlantic +seaboard, revolted against the imposition of a tax that the colonists +considered unjust, went to war, and won the war. They established the +United States of America, a nation which has been from that day to this +a genuine democracy, a free republic based absolutely on the doctrine +that power came from the people, and that government exists merely as +the steward of that power. + +It was through the aid given to the Colonies by France, brought by +Lafayette and Rochambeau, that the War of the Revolution was won. +The French soldiers, returning home at its close, took with them +reinforcement of the spirit of desire for freedom that was already +animating France and which in time brought about the beginnings of the +French Revolution, a war which changed France from a monarchy where the +King said with truth “I am the state” to a real democracy. + +The example of the United States of America inspired other nations of +Europe toward the ideal of a government in which the people should +have a voice. Our republican institutions have had a reflex upon +English institutions so that to-day Great Britain, in spite of having a +nominal King, is one of the most democratic governments in the world. +The King of Italy holds his power as a result of a war in which the +people of Italy wrested freedom from Austrian domination. And Russia, +at the time when it went into war, was moving toward a more elastic +form of government. That it failed in the experiment was due to +German intrigue, and not to lack of desire of the Russian people for +self-government. + +On the other hand, the people of the Central Powers, Germany and +Austria-Hungary, have accepted--sometimes with mutterings of revolt, +but eventually with resignation--the idea that their rulers derived +authority from some divine source. Few nations in modern times have +had less voice in the government of their country than the people of +Germany. For, under the German constitution, Germany is governed by its +Emperor, with its legislative power in two bodies, the _Bundesrat_ +and the _Reichstag_. Now, the United States puts its legislative +power into two bodies, the Senate and the House of Representatives. +France puts power into the Chamber of Deputies, England into the +House of Commons and the House of Lords. But England is shearing the +power of the House of Lords, and in our country the Senate and the +House of Representatives are elected by and are directly responsible +to the voters of the country. Here, as in France and in England, the +vote is not restricted by wealth or by class. In Germany the vote is +so arranged that 370 rich men have the same voting power as 22,324 +poor men in one district, Cologne; while the _Bundesrat_ is merely a +diplomatic assembly, representing the kingdoms of the German Empire, an +assembly which the King of Prussia absolutely dominates, and through +which he becomes, as Emperor of Germany, absolute ruler of the empire. +For the _Reichstag_ has no power to make or unmake ministries, or to +control the Emperor in any way. The Emperor appoints the chancellor, +and the chancellor is answerable only to him. So that in the long run, +although it has a constitutional form, the government of Germany is the +Emperor of Germany and the military group known as Junkers with whom he +has surrounded himself. + +The Emperor of Germany and the Junkers of his Prussia forced the +present war. They prepared for it during years while the rest of the +world was keeping peace. They justified it to their people on the +ground that Germany needed new territory, new trade, new markets. +Although she was gaining the trade and markets without war, Germany’s +leader made this their excuse to their people, and when they were ready +they went to war for the purpose of imposing their form of government +upon peoples who did not want it, of forcing their rule upon nations +opposed to their ideas. Serbia lay in their path of conquest into +Asia, and so they caused Austria, their tool, to make an excuse of the +assassination by a Serbian of an Austrian archduke, and declare war on +the small nation. Then Germany invaded Belgium, with which it was not +at war, to get to France, against which war had been declared. Belgium +resisted. England entered the conflict. The struggle was on. + +Month after month the aggressions of Germany caused new nations to +break off relations with her. Italy and Japan entered the war. China, +most peaceful of nations in her relations with the outside world, +broke off relations. One after another of the South American republics +were forced to do the same. The United States, after a long period of +patient endurance of German insults, attacks on our commerce, intrigues +and plots in our own country, restriction of our maritime activities in +defiance of international law, was finally driven to announcement of +the existence of a state of war. The lines were drawn. Democracy was +making a stand for its life against autocracy, the freemen of the world +against the bondsmen. + +It is right and fitting that the United States of America should take +her place in a war which is being fought for those principles for +which she has stood since her coming into nationhood. For more than a +century and a quarter she has been, like the Statue of Liberty in the +harbor of New York, a symbolic figure to the world beaconing men to +freedom. It is in line with her history that she should go to Europe +for the same cause for which she has fought all her wars--defense of +the weaker against the stronger, the right of people to determine their +own governments, the right of all to be free. + +There is a story told of General Pershing’s entrance into Paris. He was +taken to the tomb of Lafayette. His hosts crowded about him, waiting +for his speech. But, like all American soldiers, Pershing is no orator. +“Well, Lafayette,” he said, “we’re here!” That was all. But France, +hearing, understood. America was there, to fight side by side with +them, to suffer with them, to die with them, that the cause of liberty +for which Lafayette had fought on two continents might live. The world +war had menaced the United States in its sacred institution of freedom, +and the United States had met the challenge, and had come to fight for +that which is dearer than life--honor, and right, and justice. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +WHAT THE GREAT WAR REALLY MEANS + + +The history of the human race has been the history of man’s struggle +toward freedom. Because certain nations have seen the light sooner +than others, they have been the object of attack by these others, +primarily because the rulers of the latter have been shrewd enough +to see that revolution is contagious. A free neighbor threatens the +existence of a monarch who derives his power from the force with which +he has surrounded himself and from the blindness of his own people. A +free neighbor is therefore a menace to autocracy, and something to be +crushed. + +When the people of France, inspired by the example of the United +States, arose in revolution against their monarch, the revolution +shook the thrones of Europe. The King of France was closer in blood +to other royal families of Europe than he was to the people whom he +had governed. The Queen of France was a Hapsburg, of the royal family +of Austria, whose representatives were in almost every royal house of +the Continent of Europe. The success of the French Revolution was the +handwriting on the wall; and every Belshazzar on a throne had a Daniel +of statesmanship to tell him what it meant. + +Almost at once the Kings of Europe rallied against France, because free +France threatened the existence of the Kings. France fought valiantly. +The military establishment which she had to assume to protect her +rights, however, swung her out of the republican form of government +she had set up, and Napoleon Bonaparte, who won her wars, became her +Emperor. The change, however, did not swing back the French people into +any slavish acceptance of royalty. They held, in spite of Bonaparte’s +court, their fundamental democracy; and it was a democratic army which +France sent across Europe. Napoleon himself said that every private +carried a field-marshal’s bâton in his knapsack. Every man had a +chance for promotion. Every man had a chance to better his life. And, +because France remained fundamentally democratic, the Kings battled +against Bonaparte. They defeated him, finally; but they did not defeat +France, for its spirit remained free. + +Germany, nearest neighbor to France, had never known democracy. +Once part of the vast kingdom known as the Holy Roman Empire, +she had disintegrated into little states, kingdoms, duchies, and +archbishoprics, each ruled by one-man power. Sometimes a King, stronger +than the others, drew the kingdoms together for purposes of warfare +against other countries. Frederick the Great, King of Prussia, fought +against Austria. With him the power of Prussia rose. After his death +it declined so that Napoleon found the conquest of Prussia easy, and +went about it so thoroughly that he made the French conquest a profound +humiliation to the Prussians. Even his defeat at Waterloo failed to +pay the debt Prussia cherished against the French. + +It was in the time of Napoleon that the German people came nearer to +freedom of spirit than they had been before or have been since. For +in fighting a foreign enemy who sought power even as the Hohenzollern +ruler of Germany seeks it to-day, the youth of Germany glimpsed the +truth of democracy. With Napoleon’s defeat they stood ready to move +forward toward it. But again the Kings intervened. + +There was formed in Europe at that time the Holy Alliance, that same +group of Kings and Kingmakers who sought to restore to Spain its +revolting colonies in South America, and who held firmly to the idea of +the divine right of Kings. This Holy Alliance throttled free thought +in Germany. By 1848 revolutions for the right of freedom surged up +throughout the German states and kingdoms and principalities. They were +beaten down by the ruling powers, one helping the other. It was at this +time that the German emigration toward the United States began, for +the leaders of the revolution sought a land where they could be free. +Those who stayed came in time to accept the system which the rulers +imposed upon them. + +The putting down of the revolution of 1848 gave Prussia increased +power. She had a disciplined standing army, and a military +establishment. In 1862 William I became King. He made Bismarck his +prime minister, and the march of Prussia toward world conquest began. + +Bismarck made the whole Prussian nation into an army. Then he made +alliance with Austria to secure the duchy of Schleswig-Holstein from +Denmark. Then he provoked a quarrel with Austria so that Prussia might +deprive her of all influence over the other German states. He won his +object in a six-weeks’ war in 1866. But he was not satisfied with +the power he had won, for democratic France--democratic for all her +acceptance of another Napoleon for her throne--still threatened the +power of Kings who claimed that their power came from God, and not from +their people. + +Prussia waited its chance. When France was unprepared, a quarrel was +brought on, and the blow struck. Prussia took Alsace and Lorraine from +her. Then the King of Prussia was made Emperor of Germany. + +The territory which Prussia had acquired for the German Empire, for +Alsace and Lorraine are the richest mineral districts of France, +gave Germany opportunity for that industrial development which has +marked her history since the Franco-Prussian War. Germany’s population +overcrowded her territorial space. Germany grew rich and prosperous. +Germany became highly efficient in mechanical arts. German trade +reached out over the world, but found the barriers of the establishment +of other nations. The German army remained a great machine, officered +by Prussian nobles. Germany grew so mighty that she grew to believe +that might makes right. She had the might, and she made ready to +exercise it. + +First of all, she needed trade routes. She needed a way to the sea more +open than the Hamburg harbors. She wanted a road to Asia. She wanted +to control the gateway to the rich Orient. She wanted an empire that +would contain Austria-Hungary as well as Germany proper. And she set +out to win it all. + +In 1914 the situation was this: Francis Joseph, Emperor of Austria, +was an old man, a sick man. His empire, composed of scores of +nationalities, held together by a thin thread. If he died, it might +disintegrate into groups of free peoples. Serbia, its near neighbor, +had won independence. The Balkan wars had shifted power to small states +that stood between Germany and the Orient. Russia was disaffected. A +revolution might come at any time that would dethrone the Czar. Unless +a war, and a great war, was started, many and great free nations would +soon surround Germany, cutting her off from the way to the Orient. +France, her hated neighbor, flaunted her free institutions in her +face and remembered Alsace and Lorraine. England cut her off from +unrestricted rule of the sea. To be sure, she was not eager to force +war with England, since the German navy had not arrived at the point +of preparedness of the German army. England could wait until Germany +had conquered the rest of Europe. Then, when England was conquered, +too, Germany would punish the United States for our “international +impertinence” as Bismarck called our policy of the Monroe Doctrine. It +was the time to strike. Germany, as usual in the Bismarckian policy, +made the occasion. + +Down in Bosnia, a Balkan state which Austria had seized and held +against the will of its people, an anarchist threw a bomb which killed +an Austrian archduke in June, 1914. For a time no action came of the +happening. Then Austria announced that she had discovered that the +assassination was the result of a Serbian plot, known to the Serbian +Government, Bosnia’s neighbor and the friend of her freedom. Therefore +she declared war on Serbia. Germany gave her consent to the ultimatum. +She was taking her opportunity. + +Knowing that a war of Austria against Serbia would open a way for her +own progress toward the East, Germany, being prepared to the last +gun and last man, forced the issue. She knew that Russia would rise +against her, but she knew, better than the Russian Government did, how +unprepared Russia was. On the first day of August, 1914, she declared +war against Russia. On the fourth day of August the _Reichstag_, the +people’s legislative body of Germany, met and for the first time +learned officially of what had been done. By that time the German +Government had put itself in a position of war against Russia, France, +Great Britain, and Belgium, a fact which proves how little the German +people had to say about the making of actual warfare. + +In utter contempt of a treaty which had been signed Germany invaded +Belgium on the way to France. Belgium resisted the invasion. A Chinese +schoolboy, writing of the event in a school in western Canada months +afterward, phrased the story better than any historian has done. +“Germany,” he wrote, “said to Belgium: ‘Let me through.’ Belgium said: +‘I am not a road. I am a nation.’” And Belgium proved to the world how +strong a small nation may be in courage. For she resisted Germany so +well that France had time to gather her forces for defense. The drive +to Paris was stopped. Prussia had announced that its armies would be in +Paris in an almost incredibly short time. + +In the meantime Germany made alliance with the Sultan of Turkey. The +war on the eastern front began. Hordes of Austrians and Germans swarmed +over Poland into Russia, and back again as Russia beat them back, +then forward again as Russia collapsed. In Egypt, in Palestine, in +Mesopotamia war has raged. Japan joined. China broke off relations with +Germany. Japan holds troops at the eastern end of the Russian-Siberian +railway, waiting for the word of the Allies to strike westward. + +In the west the war has remained almost stationary since the initial +sweep of the German hordes; but eastward Germany has driven her +armies toward her goal. Russia has disintegrated, pulled apart by the +insidious forces of German intrigue. Germany has the open way to the +East. She has the resources of Austria-Hungary, of Russia, of Asia +Minor at her command. + +Had it not been for Germany’s idea that she could conquer the world +in one war, an idea supported by her eastward conquests, she might be +nearer to ultimate success than she is to-day. For the entrance of the +United States into the war, provoked by German measures of attack on +American commerce, has materially changed the issue. It has put heart +into the Allies, as well as opening up the field of supplies of men and +munitions for them. Our country has barely begun to fight, for it has +taken a year to bear to France the necessary troops and equipment. + +However long the war may be, it is one that must be fought to the end. +For, as a river purifies itself as it flows, so has the issue of the +war defined itself as it has progressed. In its beginning Germany +strove to make the world believe that it was a trade war between +Austria and Serbia which Russia had entered for the injury of Austria +and which had been forced on Germany in Austria’s defense. Then she +claimed that she fought England “for the freedom of the seas.” The +war against Belgium was “a military necessity,” the submarine warfare +against neutral nations “a retaliatory measure against blockade.” But +in the long run Germany’s war is the war of the military caste of the +world against the free peoples, the war of government holding power +by force against government holding power by popular vote, the war of +military establishment against peaceful ideals; and until it is won by +those who fight Germany there can be no lasting peace in the world. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +HOW THE WAR CAME TO THE UNITED STATES + + +The great war, beginning in 1914, brought to most Americans no idea +that our country would ever be more than a watcher of it. That we +ourselves would one day become part of it--and one of the greatest +parts of it--was something beyond the imagination of most men. America +had lived apart from other nations. For, although our government had +made treaties with foreign nations, and become part of The Hague +Conference, and been drawn to some extent into international politics, +we had none of the ambitions which draw nations into ordinary wars. We +had no desire for colonies, we had no jealousy of other nations, we had +no fear of neighboring governments. In fact, Americans believed that +wars were going out of fashion, and that western Europe, any more than +ourselves, was not likely to go to war. The coming of the conflict was +therefore a shock to us, but not one that brought us to realize that we +were likely to take part in it. + +When Germany invaded Belgium with no excuse other than that progress +through that nation afforded the quickest way to France the people of +the United States awoke to their first knowledge of what militarism +may mean. Although people of German birth or parentage in America +were inclined to accept Germany’s attempted justification of military +necessity, the sympathies of most Americans went to Belgium and became +one of the important factors in determining the country’s attitude +toward the war. For the United States had always stood for principles +of justice and humanitarianism. The stories of how Germany treated the +civilian population of Belgium, stories which were verified by the +later reports of such non-partisan investigators as Brand Whitlock, +American minister to Belgium, aroused American sentiment against German +military methods. + + [Illustration: _Copyright Newspaper Illustrations, Ltd._ + + Belgium refugees between Malines and Brussels + + When Germany invaded Belgium ... the people of the United States awoke + to their first knowledge of what militarism may mean] + +There were people in the United States who believed that our country +should go to war in defense of Belgium, just as we had gone to war to +free Cuba from the dominion of Spain when the rule of Spain on that +island became cruelly oppressive. But our government, believing that +the war was not a parallel instance, since it had not yet violated +those fundamental principles of our national life that had been struck +at by Spain, refused to consider such action, and the people fell back +into consideration of the causes and progress of the war abroad. + +It began to be clear, as German forces crossed Belgium and plunged +into France, while at the same time German forces swept eastward, that +Germany had evolved the definite scheme of world conquest which her +later demands and movements have proven. The American people, however, +were slow to believe this intention of Germany. Bit by bit only our +country began to see that Germany was pushing forward a gigantic plan +of territorial aggression, and with all that we heard and some that +we believed, we were slow to see how this plan could affect the United +States. + +Because we had lived apart from the rest of the world we would probably +have continued to feel that, terrible as the war which Germany had +begun was, it was not our war, and that all we were expected to do +was to remain genuinely neutral and to give such assistance as the +international law permitted neutral nations to give the wounded and +stricken. But Germany would not allow us to remain apart. The ruling +class of Prussia, headed by the Kaiser, grown mad with power and the +desire for more power, put into operation methods that forced us toward +war. + +Germany’s progress into this war had, as we have seen, struck blows at +those principles for which America had struggled, the principles of +individual freedom, of international peace, of the freedom of the seas. +For any one of these ideals the republic might have rushed into war; +but it was only when the American people came to know that Germany was +plotting not only to overthrow the Monroe Doctrine but actually against +the American Government here in the United States that we were roused +to desire for conflict to uphold our national honor. + +“It is plain enough how we were forced into war,” President Wilson +declared in his Flag Day Address of June 14, 1917. “The extraordinary +insults and aggressions of the Imperial German Government left us no +self-respecting choice but to take up arms in defense of our rights as +a free people and of our honor as a sovereign government. The military +masters of Germany denied us the right to be neutral. They filled +our unsuspecting communities with vicious spies and conspirators and +sought to corrupt the opinions of our people in their own behalf. +When they found that they could not do that, their agents diligently +spread sedition amongst us and sought to draw our own citizens from +their allegiance; and some of those agents were men connected with the +official embassy of the German Government in our own capital. + +“They sought by violence to destroy our industries and arrest our +commerce. They tried to incite Mexico to take up arms against us +and to draw Japan into a hostile alliance with her; and that, not +by indirection, but by direct suggestion from the Foreign Office +in Berlin. They impudently denied us the use of the high seas and +repeatedly executed their threat that they would send to their death +any of our people who ventured to approach the coasts of Europe. + +“Many of our own people were corrupted. Men began to look upon their +own neighbors with suspicion and to wonder in their hot resentment +whether there was any community in which hostile intrigue did not +lurk. What great nation in such circumstances would not have taken up +arms? Much as we desired peace, it was denied us, and not of our own +choice. The flag under which we serve would have been dishonored had we +withheld our hand.” + +The President of the United States stated America’s case against +Germany mildly. Evidence of the bad faith of the government of Germany +to the government of the United States is piled in the archives of the +State Department in Washington. The honest efforts of our government +to establish honest relations with them were met by German officials +with quibbles, misrepresentations, counter-accusations, and continuing, +deliberate delays. German high officials kept us in humiliating waiting +while German official agents in this country, protected by the rules +of diplomatic immunity from criminal prosecution, used their trust +to conspire against our internal peace. Agents of the German Embassy +placed spies through the length and breadth of our country. They put +their agents at work in Japan and in Latin America while they were +professing to be our friends. They bought newspapers and employed +speakers for the purpose of rousing distrust of us in those countries. +They incited insurrection in Cuba, in Haiti, and in Santo Domingo. +They did their best to arouse against us the Danish West Indies. They +spread suspicion of us and our motives in South America. They conducted +an attack upon the Monroe Doctrine such as no other nation had ever +attempted. + +For a time the government of the United States tried to take the view +that this intrigue, plotting, spying, and insidious warfare was the +work of irresponsible agents, not countenanced by the Imperial German +Government; but the proof was too strong. The government finally had +to request the recall of the Austro-Hungarian ambassador and of the +German military and naval attachés, presenting proof of their criminal +violations of our hospitality. Their governments offered no reply to +us, issued no reprimands to them. + +In spite of all this the temper of the American people was that we +should keep out of war as long as it was possible to maintain our +national honor without war. The President even began the preparation of +a communication to the warring nations, asking them to define their +war aims, as this would be a step toward peace. Before this note was +completed, the German Government sent out a communication, asking the +same definition. But the German Government issued this document on the +idea that the German armies had triumphed, and incorporated in it a +threat to neutral governments. From a thousand sources, official and +unofficial, word came to our government that unless the United States +used her influence to end the war on the terms dictated by Germany, +Germany and her allies would consider themselves free from obligation +to respect the rights of neutrals. The Kaiser was frankly ordering the +neutral nations of the world to force those Powers which fought him to +accept the peace he offered. If they failed to do this, Germany would +resume her submarine warfare on neutral commerce with new ruthlessness. + +The President, continuing his own purpose, finished his note to both +sides, sending it on the 18th of December, 1916. Both sides replied, +the Powers who resisted Germany declaring that their principal +end in the war was the lasting restoration of peace. Germany and +her associates refused to state their terms, and merely proposed a +conference--another method of delay. The President, in an address to +the Senate on the 22d of January, 1917, outlined the terms of the peace +which the United States could honorably join in guaranteeing. + +“No peace can last,” he stated, “or ought to last, which does not +recognize and accept the principle that governments derive all their +just powers from the consent of the governed, and that no right +anywhere exists to hand people about from sovereignty to sovereignty as +if they were property.... + +“I am proposing government by the consent of the governed; that +freedom of the seas which in international conference after conference +representatives of the United States have urged with the eloquence of +those who are the convinced disciples of liberty; and that moderation +of armaments which makes of armies and navies a power for order merely, +not an instrument of aggression or of selfish violence.” + +Six days earlier, on the 16th of January, the German secretary of +foreign affairs had secretly despatched a communication to the German +minister in Mexico, informing him that Germany intended to repudiate +its pledge made to the United States to discontinue submarine warfare +on neutral ships, and instructing him to offer to the Mexican +Government New Mexico and Arizona if Mexico would join with Japan in +attacking the United States. + +On the last day of January, 1917, the German ambassador to the United +States, Count Bernstorff, brought to the secretary of state a note +in which Germany announced her purpose of intensifying her submarine +warfare. The German chancellor stated in Germany that the reason that +this policy had not been put into force earlier was simply because his +government had not been ready to act. + +On the 3d of February, 1917, the President announced to both houses of +Congress the complete severance of our relations with Germany. Count +Bernstorff went to Berlin, and James W. Gerard, American ambassador to +Germany, was recalled to this country. Count Bernstorff had begged that +no irrevocable decision of war be made until he had the chance to make +one final plea for peace to the Kaiser. If he made the plea, he failed. +The submarine warfare began again in greater violence. And on the +twelfth day of March our government ordered the placing of armed guards +on our merchant ships. + +With the Sixty-fourth Congress dissolved on the 4th of March, we had +come to the door of the greatest war in the history of the world. + + + + +CHAPTER V + +HOW THE UNITED STATES WENT INTO WAR + + +One hundred and thirty years before the great war of Europe came +to the threshold of the United States a group of wise, far-sighted +statesmen met in the city of Philadelphia to make a constitution for +the governing of the Colonies whose independence had just been won. +They desired, above all things, to establish a government which would +stand the test of time and remain a government of the people, by the +people, and for the people. For months they deliberated, bringing to +the meetings all the wisdom, all the ideals, all the visioning they +had acquired from long study, and from victorious, righteous warfare. +Finally they--the fathers of our republic--completed a document that +has governed the United States of America and become to the world a +model of democratic government. + +In this document, which was ratified by the States then existing and +which became the law of those States which were admitted to the nation, +its makers set down certain rules governing the making of war. + +The Constitution divided the government into three branches: the +executive, the legislative, and the judicial. In order that no one of +them might have too much power, the duties of each were determined +and divided. The executive, of which the President is chief, could do +certain deeds and duties. The judicial had the final determination of +the right of enacting certain laws, saying whether or not later laws, +made by Congress, conformed to the original Constitution. But to the +legislative, represented by two houses of Congress, the Senate and the +House of Representatives, the Constitution granted certain very clear +powers. + +Among these powers was the power to declare war. In autocracies +monarchs declare war; but in a democracy such as ours it is right and +just that the power of declaring war should rest with that body most +directly responsive to the people of the nation. The Congress is such +a body. The Constitution therefore gave to Congress the right of war +declaration; and nothing better illustrates the difference between +autocracy and democracy than the fact that the Emperor of Germany had +thrust his country into war three days before the German _Reichstag_, +which is the limited popular assembly of the empire, knew officially of +its existence, while the President of the United States had to summon +Congress into special session for consideration of the war problem. + +On the second day of April, 1917, the President went before the +Congress which he had summoned. Beneath the dome of the white Capitol +in the city of Washington, while a world waited breathlessly for +the verdict of the great nation, he read his message to the men who +represent the people of the United States. In that message he set down +the case of the United States against Germany. Only twice before in +the history of America--at the beginning of the War of the Revolution +and at the beginning of the war between the States--had there been so +momentous an occasion. Upon the men assembled in the Senate and the +House of Representatives depended the honor, the future of the nation, +and the honor and the future of democracy. + +“It is a war,” the President read to them, “against all nations.... The +challenge is to all mankind. Each nation must decide for itself how +it will meet it. The choice we make for ourselves must be made with a +moderation of counsel and a temperateness of judgment befitting our +character and our motives as a nation. We must put excited feelings +away. Our motive will not be revenge or the victorious assertion of the +physical might of the nation, but only the vindication of right, of +human right, of which we are only a single champion.” + +In that spirit the Congress listened. In that spirit they heard the +voice of the man who was speaking not for himself but for our United +States, not for our generation alone but for the generations who +have passed and the generations who will come, when he said: + + [Illustration: _From a photograph by G. V. Buck, Underwood & Underwood._ + + President Wilson delivering his war message + + On the second day of April, 1917 ... while a world waited breathlessly + for the verdict of the great nation, President Wilson read his message + to the men who represent the people of the United States] + +“The world must be made safe for democracy. Its peace must be planted +upon the tested foundations of political liberty. We have no selfish +ends to serve. We desire no conquests, no dominion. We seek no +indemnities for ourselves, no material compensations for the sacrifices +we shall freely make. We are but one of the champions of the rights +of mankind. We shall be satisfied when those rights have been made as +secure as the faith and the freedom of nations can make them.” + +With the weight of the gravest responsibility an American Congress has +ever raised falling upon their shoulders, they gave heed as the chief +executive brought to them the issue: + +“It is a distressing and oppressive duty, gentlemen of the Congress, +which I have performed in thus addressing you. There are, it may be, +many months of fiery trial and sacrifice ahead of us. It is a fearful +thing to lead this great, peaceful people into war, into the most +terrible and disastrous of all wars, civilization itself seeming to +be in the balance. But the right is more precious than peace, and we +shall fight for the things which we have always carried nearest our +hearts--for democracy, for the right of those who submit to authority +to have a voice in their own governments, for the rights and liberties +of small nations, for a universal dominion of right by such a concert +of free people as shall bring peace and safety to all nations and make +the world itself at last free. + +“To such a task we can dedicate our lives and our fortunes, everything +that we are and everything that we have, with the pride of those +who know that the day has come when America is privileged to spend +her blood and her might for the principles that gave her birth and +happiness, and the peace which she has treasured. + +“God helping her, she can do no other.” + +The Congress of the United States deliberated, through three days and +three nights, while the world waited, upon the question of war. On +the 2d of April, the very day of the President’s message, the war +declaration passed the Senate with a vote of 82 yeas and 6 nays. On +the 5th of April, it passed the House of Representatives with a vote +of 373 yeas and 70 nays. America had spoken, and the voice of America +thundered this message to Germany: + +“Whereas the Imperial German Government has committed repeated acts +of war against the Government and the people of the United States of +America: Therefore be it + +“_Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United +States of America in Congress assembled_, That the state of war between +the United States and the Imperial German Government which has thus +been thrust upon the United States is hereby formally declared; and +that the President be, and he is hereby, authorized and directed to +employ the entire naval and military forces of the United States +and the resources of the Government to carry on war against the +Imperial German Government; and to bring the conflict to a successful +termination all the resources of the country are hereby pledged by the +Congress of the United States.” + +The United States of America had gone into its greatest war. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +WHAT THE UNITED STATES IS DOING IN THE WAR + + +When a military nation of the type of Germany goes into war the +entrance is but a step forward out of the preparations which it has +been making for years; but when a peace-loving, peace-observing nation +of the type of the United States goes into war the entrance is a +revolution in the thoughts, habits, and intentions of the people. + +The declaration by Congress of the existence of a state of war with +Germany found the United States with the greatest resources of any +nation in the world but without the sort of military machinery +necessary for prosecution of the conflict. The readjustment of the +nation from ordinary occupations into war-making occupations has been +a gigantic task, and one that has been accomplished only through the +intelligent patriotism of the citizens of the nation, co-operating +with the government. + +The first concern of the nation was the increase of our army and +navy to a size commensurate to the part we were about to take in the +conflict. Neither the army nor the navy came near to the strength +which the nation knew to be imperative for the winning of the war. +For, although the exact part which the United States would take in +the struggle was to be determined later by conferences with the war +councils of the other nations fighting Germany, it was certain that we +would require a vast army and an adequate navy. + +Congress having voted that the United States should undertake extensive +military preparation, the duty of providing that preparation fell upon +the executive branch of our government. It was provided that the army +of the United States should consist of the Regular Army, the National +Guard, and the National Army. The law provides that, when these armies +are assembled, there shall be no difference between the Regular Army, +the National Guard, and the National Army. Every man in the army, no +matter in what service, is equal in dignity, in responsibility, and in +opportunity to every other man of the same rank in the army. + +The first year of the conflict has been largely occupied with the +assembling of these armies, and in the despatch of those trained for +battle duty to France. To insure this despatch in safety the navy has +been greatly increased in size and efficiency, although it stands to +the honor of America that her navy proved itself instantly worthy of +her trust. + +With the beginning of the war there was a rush of men to enlist in the +Regular Army and in the National Guard, which was to be part of the +army of the United States. The government, however, decided upon a +method of service, known as selective service and sometimes called “the +draft,” which would be more democratic and fair than the enlistment +method, and which would supplement the other methods. + +The selective-service law, passed by Congress on the 18th of May, +1917, established a class of men between the ages of twenty-one +and thirty-one from which the President may draft soldiers. All +men between those ages were enrolled on the 5th of June, 1917. The +administration of the draft is in the hands of the War Department under +the supervision of the President. Every voting district has a local +draft board, and every congressional district a board of appeal, which +decides contested cases. All men between the ages given are subject +to service, unless they are exempted for reasons allowed by law. No +exemptions can be bought. No substitutions can be made. The richest man +in the country of draft age is as subject to service as the poorest +man. Exemptions are permitted those men who are supporting dependants +who cannot support themselves, those men who are working in occupations +necessary for the winning of the war, such as ship-building and the +making of munitions of war, and those men who are physically unfit for +war service. + +In the registration 9,659,382 men enrolled. By a drawing system +conducted publicly in the Capitol of the United States at Washington +the order by which these men were to go in the army was determined by +lot. The President issued instructions to the exemption boards on the +2d of July, and the first National Army of 687,000 men was called to +service on the 5th of September, 1917. + +Following this call every man in the rest of the nearly 10,000,000 men +received a document, known as a questionnaire, which gave a number of +questions to be answered, and which he filled out. According to his +answers the local board determined to what class he belongs. There +are five groups of selective service, ranged according to a man’s +obligations and his occupation. Single men without dependent relatives +head the first class. Licensed pilots, who are so necessary to +navigation as to be almost indispensable, end the last class. No fairer +system of military service was ever devised. + +For the training of this army arrangements had to be made. The +government set about the building of camps, called cantonments, for the +use of the National Guard and the National Army while their various +units were being prepared for service abroad. Most of these camps +are in the South so that the men may have less hardship during the +winter season. Some of the camps were completed in September, 1917. +The construction of every camp was a great engineering achievement. +Camp Meade is the second largest city of Maryland, and every camp is +in itself a great community. There are thirty-three of these camps, +or cantonments, extending from Atlantic to Pacific and from the Gulf +of Mexico to the Canadian border in their locations. Here the men are +trained into service, and cared for in various ways while they are +being trained. + +Training-camps for officers were also established where men were taught +the science of warfare and the leading of other men. In addition to +the army, training-camps for the United States marines, who are in the +naval service, were established. Special branches of service, such +as aviation, had special camps. + + [Illustration: Recruits of the National Army waiting at the booths of + a National Army cantonment] + +On the fourth day of July, 1917, the news came to the United States +that the first division of the American Expeditionary Forces, under +the command of General John Pershing, had landed in France. American +troops began intensive training with French and British soldiers, and +when they were judged ready, took their places on the battle-lines. Day +after day the casualty lists have recorded the deaths and injuries of +American soldiers in the war. Our country is paying the price for the +liberty we have enjoyed, and which we struggle to hold. + +Every day sees new divisions sailing eastward on their way to Europe. +The shipyards of the country are busy night and day in the building of +ships to convoy troops and supplies to the battle-fronts, and to the +countries of the peoples who fight with us against Germany. + +For upon the United States has fallen the task, not only of supplying +men for fighting with the men of France and Great Britain on the +western front, but of supplying food, clothing, and ammunition. +Depleted by the years of devastating warfare, our fellow fighters look +to us for sustenance. And we are not failing them. + +One of the sinews of war is money. Nations must raise vast sums to keep +up armies. Soldiers must be fed and clothed, and given guns and bullets +with which to defend themselves. If they have families at home, their +families must be supported. The government of the United States does +all this for the men in its army and navy. And the people of the United +States stand back of the government to pay for these needs. Besides +the government, certain private enterprises are aiding the soldiers, +sailors, and all the victims of war abroad, as well as those needing +aid at home for various reasons connected with the change that war +brings. Only a certain percentage of our population may go overseas to +fight, but to every American is given the opportunity of standing back +of the lines and doing the part asked of him. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +REAR-LINE TRENCHES + + +Back of the firing-lines of battle are other lines which must be held +by the fighting nations, if a war is to be won. These lines, which +may be called the rear-line trenches of conflict, are the means of +supply by which the armies at the front are fed and clothed, and given +ammunition, and cared for in every way that will make them better +soldiers. It is on these lines that the civilian population of a nation +gives help to the fighting men. It is in these trenches that the men, +and women, and children of a country may do their part for the soldiers +and sailors who have to go into the actual battles. + +Because the United States is a democracy, fighting in a great struggle +for the principles of democracy, it follows that our country has +enlisted the service of every American to win the war. There is no +one in the nation who may not help, since every one may do something +to give actual, immediate, necessary aid to the men at the front, and +those who are on their way to the front. + +This aid has been given, and is being given, in many ways. Through +food conservation, Liberty Loans, War Thrift and Savings Stamps and +Certificates, the Red Cross, the Young Men’s Christian Association, +the Young Men’s Hebrew Association, the Knights of Columbus, the Young +Women’s Christian Association, and various other organizations which +are working for the welfare of the soldiers, sailors, and marines, +almost every person in the United States old enough to understand that +the country is at war has helped toward the winning of the war. + +Some of these methods, such as food conservation, and the raising of +money through Liberty Loans and the sale of War Thrift Stamps, have +been used directly by the government. Others have been semi-private +enterprises with governmental sanction. All of them have been for the +purpose of helping the men who have been doing the actual fighting, +so that every one in the nation who has done what he could for these +causes has been fighting his country’s battles in the trenches back of +the front. + + +FOOD CONSERVATION + +Napoleon, the one-time Emperor of the French and the greatest general +of modern warfare, said that “an army travelled on its stomach.” He +meant that no army could go faster than its food-supply. Although the +method of warfare has changed since the century ago when he fought, the +truth of his statement remains. No army can win battles unless it is +properly fed. + +When the United States went into the great war the government of our +country knew that a vast amount of certain kinds of food must be +shipped abroad to feed those soldiers whom we would send across and +those soldiers of the nations on whose side we were to fight against +Germany. France and Belgium, devastated by the invading armies of the +Germans, could not raise food enough for their own populations, to +say nothing of the defending armies. England, with her men fighting +abroad, and with only a comparatively small area of farming land, could +not do much more. Canada was sending millions of bushels of wheat and +thousands of tons of other food-supplies monthly to the Allies, but the +need was infinitely greater than the supply. It therefore became the +first duty of our country to send to those nations which were fighting +in the same cause all the food which we could possibly spare, in order +that their soldiers, and our soldiers when they came, would be properly +fed. + +Although the United States produces great quantities of food products +every year, only certain kinds of food could be sent abroad. It was +necessary to send the kind of food that would take up the least space +in shipment and have the greatest nourishment. The greatest demand was +for wheat, and even our country could not--without saving at home--send +to Europe as much as was required. In order that the people of the +United States might be taught how to save wheat and other foods needed +for our troops and the Allies, the government established a food +administration for the double purpose of taking over this instruction +and of devising other methods of food saving. The success of both +branches of service has been due to the intelligent co-operation of the +American people with the officers of the food administration; but it +has been in the actual savings by individual Americans that the sum of +sacrifice has been attained. + +It may not seem a soldier’s duty to refrain from eating white bread +on certain days designated by the government. It may not seem a +patriot’s duty to keep from eating sugar or pork on other days; but it +is none the less a duty as certain as that one which his commanding +officer assigns to the soldier in the ranks, and one which should be +as carefully followed. The following of it has enabled the United +States to ship abroad wheat, pork, sugar, and other foodstuff in +quantities sufficient to keep fed the people who are actually fighting +the enemy. The man, woman, or child who has saved at home the kind of +food that the government has needed to send abroad, and who has used +the substitutes, has done a patriotic duty and his share of keeping the +rear-line trench where he is placed. + + +FUEL CONSERVATION + +Coal is one of the essential means of making war. Without coal ships +cannot cross the seas, bearing soldiers. Without coal the great +factories where guns and bullets, powder and cannon, uniforms and +equipment are made for our army and navy could not run. Because of many +reasons there was during 1917 a shortage of 50,000,000 tons of coal. +The government therefore appointed a fuel administrator for the purpose +of finding ways to make up this shortage so that ships would not be +delayed nor factories stopped where munitions for our soldiers and +sailors were being made. + +The fuel administrator ordered the shutting down of the use of +electric lights where these were not absolutely needed, and also, when +the shortage was most acute, the shutting down of all factories not +employed in munitions-making for a certain period of time. This was why +there were so-called “lightless” nights and “coalless” days. The people +were also asked to save fuel in their homes as much as possible. The +result was a saving of fuel that was used for war purpose directly. + + +WAR FINANCE + +In the old days, when Kings hired men of other nations to help their +own armies fight their wars, it used to be said that the victory went +to that side which had the most money. Some wars where countries with +practically no money fought against rich nations and defeated them, +because of superior valor and courage of their men, proved that it +was not money, but men, which won wars. The fact remains, however, +that money is absolutely necessary for any country to carry a war to +success. Soldiers must be fed and clothed, and given guns and bullets +and cannon, as well as proper care. All this takes money. + +A government has two ways of raising money. One of these ways, the +older way, is by taxation. The government says to the citizen: “You +have property worth so much money. We shall require you to give us +a certain percentage of that money. You have an income of so many +dollars. We shall take from you part of it, according to your wealth.” +Or the government may put a tax on tea, or coffee, or clothes, or any +other article which people use. All this is perfectly right and legal +as a means of raising money for the prosecution of a war in which the +government must direct the people, to win. + +The other method of raising money by the government is the sale of +bonds. Bonds are really promises made by a corporation to pay at a +certain stated time, with interest, the amount which the purchaser +gives for them. For instance, when a railroad company wants to get +money enough to make some necessary improvements, it issues bonds +at a certain rate of interest, payable at a certain time. If the +improvements help the railroad, and the company makes money by having +done this, the person who buys the bond usually finds that his purchase +has increased in value because of the certainty of the interest +payments. It is this certainty of payment, both principal and interest, +which has always made United States bonds such good investments. It is +not hard for a man who has good property to secure a mortgage upon it. + +The United States is the richest country in the world. The government +of the United States has at its command the greatest resources of any +nation. Therefore, the government could raise more money than any other +agency. + +When the war came to our country, the government had the choice of +raising money by taxation or by the sale of bonds. In order to make +the task as easy on the people as possible the government, through its +officers, decided to combine the systems. Through the Internal Revenue +Bureau of the Treasury of the United States the government set about +the collection of taxes imposed by Congress, and designed to raise +money for the winning of the war. And the secretary of the treasury +announced the opening of the first Liberty Loan. + +The Liberty Loans are really bond sales. Through them the government +sells to the people bonds, which are promises to pay the money which +the government borrows. These bonds are promises to pay the purchasers +at the end of a certain number of years the amount which they pay for +them. In the meantime they pay semi-annual interest. These bonds are +investments. Buying them is not making a gift to the government. It is, +rather, letting the government make a gift to you. + +In order to have money enough to purchase bonds, however, hundreds of +thousands of people have had to make sacrifices during the course of +the Liberty Loans; and it is only when they have made sacrifice, when +they have given up clothes they wanted, or vacations they thought they +needed, or pleasure they would have sought, that they are really doing +something for the country. But so many millions of men and women and +children have bought Liberty Bonds and are continuing to buy Liberty +Bonds that their purchase has become one of the great patriotic +movements of our country in this war. + +In the War of the Revolution, Robert Morris, of Philadelphia, loaned +money to General Washington’s army. History has made famous his name +because he had faith enough in his country and love enough for his +country to loan money to her in the hour of her need. In this great war +every man, every woman, every boy, every girl in the United States has +the opportunity of becoming a Robert Morris. + +For, although the lowest denomination of a Liberty Bond is fifty +dollars, the government has devised a method by which every one who +has any money at all can help in the war. The treasury has issued War +Thrift Stamps and War Savings Certificates so that any one who has +money at all--no matter how little--may do his share. The stamps may +be bought almost everywhere for twenty-five cents. In January, 1918, a +certificate cost $4.12. In every month which followed it cost one cent +more. But it will bring back to the holder of it in 1923 five dollars. +The stamps may be exchanged for certificates, as soon as the saver has +enough of them, with the odd amount added, to make the purchase. + +Since every one in the nation who has twenty-five cents may buy a +Thrift Stamp, it is almost certain that every one in the United States +can help the government win the war by making the purchase. And it is +by the individual efforts that the money will be raised, and the war +won. + + [Illustration: Children selling Thrift Stamps + + The Treasury has issued War Thrift Stamps and War Savings Certificates + so that any one who has money at all--no matter how little--may do his + share] + + +THE RED CROSS + +From an auxiliary branch of a great organization the American Red +Cross has become one of the great agencies of the war. Before the +United States entered the conflict, the American Red Cross had been +the great relief agency among the peoples of the stricken districts of +western Europe. Food, clothing, a new chance at life had been given +the stricken. Back of the battle-fields the soldiers, wounded in the +struggles, were cared for. Even in Germany the American Red Cross had +made easier the lot of the prisoners of war. With our entrance into the +war the organization became one of the great factors in our country’s +means of caring for the welfare of our fighters. + +The American Red Cross, of which the President of the United States is +honorary chairman, is the means through which volunteer aid is given to +the sick and wounded men of the army and navy, to sufferers in the war +zones, and to the families of men in the service. + +There are two classes of Red Cross service, civilian and military. The +civilian relief includes the care and education of destitute children +in the war zone, the care of mutilated soldiers, the care of sick and +wounded soldiers, the relief of the devastated districts of France and +Belgium, aid for prisoners of war and civilians sent back from bondage +in Germany to France and Belgium, and the prevention of tuberculosis. +It also includes care for the families of soldiers and sailors beyond +the aid given by the government. Military relief establishes and +maintains hospitals for sick and wounded soldiers in the American army +in France, and canteens, rest-houses, recreation-huts for American +soldiers and also for the soldiers of the other nations at war with +Germany. + +In the equipment of the hospitals and in the other relief work done +by the Red Cross a very great number of special articles, such as +bandages, garments, and other articles requiring skill in the making +were needed. Almost every woman and child in the United States has been +at work since the beginning of the war in making something for the Red +Cross, so that this semi-governmental activity has become one of the +most wide-spread forces in providing comforts and necessaries for our +army and navy, as well as for the relief of conditions in the war zone. + + +WELFARE WORK + +Both in the camps at home and in the trenches abroad the soldier needs +something besides the routine life provided for him by the government. +In order to give him recreation and pleasures, so that his life may be +normal even when he is away from home, several organizations have been +at work since the beginning of the war. The Commission on Training-Camp +Activities, the Young Men’s Christian Association, with its attendant +Young Men’s Hebrew Association, the Knights of Columbus, and the Jewish +Welfare Board have been among the many who have been working to make +the fighting men happier. These organizations have built rest-houses +and recreation-huts for the men. They have given entertainments for +them. They have supplied them with comforts, and have kept up a high +morality among them. The United Service Clubs have also been busy in +providing good lodgings for soldiers and sailors when they have been +out of the camps on leave. The Young Women’s Christian Association has +also done splendid work both for the men in the camps and for their +visiting relatives. + +In addition to the large organizations smaller ones are busy all over +the country in aiding the soldiers. Almost every town has some group of +people who are giving service to the men in the camps. In every city +and town through which the troop-trains have passed on their way from +the camps to the harbors where the soldiers would be placed on board +the transports, women have fixed food for the men, and children have +aided them in carrying this food to the stations. Large sums have been +raised to carry on the recreation service in the camps, both here and +in France, and the response of the American people to any request for +the soldiers and sailors has been speedy and inspiring. + +The Boy Scouts and the Girl Scouts of the United States have been +noteworthy in their work for our country. Three hundred and twenty +thousand Boy Scouts aided in the work of selling the bonds of the Third +Liberty Loan and of the sale of War Thrift Stamps. The Girl Scouts have +done all sorts of clerical and special work for the same cause, as well +as for various others. The children of every public school and almost +every private school in the United States have worked in some cause +or another for the winning of the war. With the men and women of the +country they have earned their place on the patriots’ roll. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +THE AMERICAN’S PART + + +Entering the great war after it had already waged for nearly three +years, the United States learned many of the lessons that experience +had taught to the Allies, and outlined a programme that was designed +to promote speed and efficiency. Every programme that is dependent +upon human action is, of course, imperfect; but the programme of our +country in this war has, at least, given to the citizens of our land +opportunity for service in the prosecution of the war. No man, woman, +or child in the nation need be idle or useless. He has the chance now +of helping his country as he has had in no other time in her history. + + [Illustration: Boys at work in their war garden + + No ... child in the nation need be idle or useless. He has the chance + now of helping his country as he has had in no other time in her + history] + +Why should the American help America? + +There is, to begin with, in the soul of every human being a love of +country that should come next to a love of God. Love of country +is not only next to love of God, but is part of genuine love of God. +No man who loves his God sincerely fails to love his country. Even +those countries which have not been kind or just, or fair to their +peoples, countries where men are not given the chance for freedom or +opportunity, have their patriots. But the United States of America, +more than any other country in the world, has given to her people +liberty, justice, opportunity, freedom. It is, therefore, the grateful +duty of every American to do what he can to keep his country what she +has been. + +For those men who are in the army or navy the duty is clear. They are +making the supreme sacrifice in standing ready to give their lives in +the defense of our nation. For those who stay at home the path may not +be as plain, but it is there, and no one should fail to find it and +travel upon it, for it is the road of patriotism, and patriotism is a +divine duty. + +The United States, as we have seen, entered the war to uphold those +principles of right which all great Americans, from Washington and +Patrick Henry to Abraham Lincoln, have cherished. For freedom of the +seas, for the safekeeping of the Monroe Doctrine, for the right of +arbitration in international disputes, for the right of small nations +to govern themselves, for the preservation of those free institutions +of democracy which the autocracy of Germany strives to conquer, our +nation took up the burden of conflict. While it is the first war in +which we have sent our troops to foreign soil, it is a war in keeping +with the basic principles of our nationality. It is being fought for +the same freedom for which the thirteen Colonies fought in the War of +the Revolution. It is being fought for the same maritime right for +which the War of 1812 was fought. Both these struggles were, it is +true, against England, who is now our cobelligerent in the war against +Germany. By our winning of those wars the United States helped the +people of England to see that light for which they are now sacrificing +everything. There were men in England, even in the times of the War of +the Revolution and in the War of 1812, who believed America right, and +who proclaimed their belief in the halls of Westminster. Their courage +and our success set beacons on the hills of history for the lighting +of those who followed. The same spirit that inspired our nation in its +beginnings is the spirit that inspires not only ourselves but those +against whom we fought until they, too, are fighting for it now on the +fields of Flanders and France. + +It is a war which is being fought for the same basic principles on +which the War of the States was fought in the sixties of the last +century. For while the North fought for the freedom of the slave, +the South fought, not for his continuation in bondage, but for the +rights of the separate States. Both issues were fundamentally right. +The greater--for the freedom of the individual is greater than the +constitutional right of a State--triumphed. But the spirit of both is +American, and part of our reason for entering this war. + +Since it is a war in keeping with American traditions, it is the part +of the American, in service or out of it, to keep up the standard of +our country in it. + +How shall he do it? + +Every man sees his own duty clearest. But there are certain lines of +life in which this duty is so clear that it is easy to mark. One of +these lines is that of the American of foreign birth or parentage, now +a citizen of the United States. Another is that of the families of +officers and soldiers. A third is that of the industrial workers of the +country. The men, women, and children in any one of these zones have +definite standards to uphold. If they fail to do so, they are not less +traitorous than the sentry who falls asleep at his post and lets the +enemy in. + +The American of foreign birth or parentage is a citizen of this country +because he or his parents saw that America offered an opportunity which +could not be secured in the old country. He is the recipient of favors +of freedom, liberty, and such wealth as he did not before enjoy. His +allegiance is doubly owed. It is therefore his part to do everything +in his power to prove his gratitude. It is his part to combat all +disloyalty, to uproot all treason, to stand firm for American +principles at home and abroad, to proclaim by word and deed his loyalty +to our country. + +Because this is a war for democracy it is the part of every American to +maintain that democracy at home and in deed as well as abroad and in +word. Military organizations have a tendency to create distinctions, +unless the people of the country keep close watch on themselves. +Military discipline must be maintained, but any line drawn between +officer and private must end with discipline and not be carried into +private life. The private in the ranks is as great an American, if he +does his duty, as the general in command; and no one knows it better +than the general. It is not in the army or navy, but in the civilian +families of soldiers and sailors, that the danger lies. Therefore, +it is the part of every member of these to bear in mind constantly +and continuously that every man in the service is equal; that the +commissioned officer is giving no more than the man in the ranks; and +that both are giving up everything else in life for the one thing of +paramount importance, the winning of the war. “No snobbery” is as good +and as great an American watchword as “Give me liberty, or give me +death.” For snobbery is the death of liberty as surely as the will of +a tyrant. The “Junker” class of Prussia is the officer class who look +down upon all others, and who have come to believe the world to have +been made for their rule. We are fighting “Junkerism” in Europe. It is +the American’s part to fight the slightest trace of it at home. + +Every war has its home heroes as well as its field heroes. Since this +war is, more than any other, a war of resources, it follows that the +part of labor is more important than it has been in any previous war. +If the working men and women of any one of the great warring nations +should refuse to continue at work, that nation would be defeated +as surely as if the armies had laid down their arms in the field. +American victory is as dependent upon American labor as it is upon +American manhood. And it is with pride that it may be said that +American labor has been found worthy of all American traditions. + +The United States has been pre-eminently the nation of the working +man. Its legislation has continuously tended toward the betterment of +his condition. Nowhere else in the world has he enjoyed the lot that +has been his in America. Nowhere else has he the voice, the power, the +future that our nation accords him. And upon him in this war has fallen +the duty of speeding up the war production of the country, a task so +important that those men of draft age engaged in such occupations have +been exempted from military service in order that they may continue at +their work. For the making of munitions is as necessary as the firing +of guns. + +It has become the duty of American labor to keep at the allotted tasks. +No one must shirk. No one must fail. No one must delay. No matter how +trivial the task may seem in the sum of the war work, it may be the one +whose lack of doing may be the breach in the wall through which the +enemy may enter. + + “For the want of a nail, the shoe was lost. + For the want of a shoe, the horse was lost. + For the want of a horse, the rider was lost. + For the want of the rider, the message was lost. + For the want of the message, the battle was lost. + For the loss of the battle, the kingdom was lost. + All for the want of the nail of a shoe.” + +And the maker of the horseshoe was one of the factors of his country’s +defeat! + +The civilian’s part in this war has been outlined by the President of +the United States in his proclamation of the 16th of April, 1917: + + [Illustration: The launching of the U. S. S. _Accoma_ + + Scarcely a minute after this 3,500-ton wooden cargo-ship had been + launched the keel of another ship was swung into place] + +“These, then, are the things we must do and do well besides +fighting--the things without which mere fighting would be fruitless; we +must supply abundant food for ourselves, our armies, and our seamen, +not only, but also for a large part of the nations with whom we have +common cause, in whose support and by whose side we are fighting. We +must supply ships by the hundreds out of our shipyards to carry to the +other side of the sea, submarines or no submarines, what will every day +be needed there, and abundant materials out of our fields and our mines +and our factories with which not only to cloak and equip our own forces +on land and sea, but also to clothe and support our people for whom the +gallant fellows under arms can no longer work; to help clothe and equip +the armies with which we are co-operating in Europe and to keep the +looms and manufactories there in raw materials; coal to keep the fires +going in the ships at sea and in the furnaces of hundreds of factories +across the sea; steel out of which to make arms and ammunition both +here and there; rails for worn-out railways back of the fighting +fronts; locomotives and rolling-stock to take the places of those every +day going to pieces; mules, horses, cattle, for labor and for military +service; everything with which the people in England, France, Italy, +and Russia have normally supplied themselves, but cannot now afford +the men, the materials, or the machinery to make.” + +America is the factory of the world. The American who stays at home is +the worker in the factory, and it is his part to do his work so well +that the man who fights overseas for the same cause may hold his hand +in the essential brotherhood of equal service. + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +THE UNITED STATES AND INDIVIDUAL FREEDOM + + +In the soul of every human being, no matter how clogged it be by +traditions, lives the desire for freedom. It is this desire, this spark +of fire, which has peopled the continent of America. For, long before +the colonies revolted and established a republic the great territory +which has become the United States beckoned to the peoples of the Old +World a welcome to a land which would give them opportunity for the +freedom they sought. The whole history of the American colonies is +a history of the search of mankind for individual freedom in which +to work out his ideals without governmental interference. Political +refugees, religious refugees dared the dangers of the ocean to come to +the new land that they might live and worship as their souls urged them. + +The settlement of Massachusetts was made by the Puritans of England +who were seeking a refuge from the oppression they had suffered in +England on account of their religious beliefs and practices. They +braved the stormy northern Atlantic to come to the wilderness. They +braved the Indians to stay. They established their homes, their +schools, their meeting-houses, their government, and dwelt according +to the dictates of their consciences in that freedom which they had +desired. + +No less for freedom did William Penn and his colony of Quakers come to +the western hemisphere. They sought a place where they would be given a +chance to worship God according to their belief. A peaceful sect, they +sought peace, and they brought into the new country standards of living +that set their impress upon the infant nation. Liberal to others as +they desired liberality for themselves, they were destined to sow seeds +of thought that were to be harvested in the effects of the Constitution +of the republic, when it was formulated. + +The Huguenots in the Carolinas, fleeing religious persecution, found +haven. Lord Baltimore established the Maryland colony of English +Catholics who could not practise their religion in the old country. +And where the motive for the establishment of the colony was not in +itself purely a question of finding a place of religious freedom, the +interrelationship of the colonies became so close that in time the +spirit of religious freedom became warp of the fabric of the country +that was to be the American nation. + +Political freedom was promoted, in the beginning, by the distance of +the colonies from Europe. France, Spain, and England were too far +away, and ocean travel too hazardous, to make the bond between the +mother countries and the colonies tight. Men and women who had been +venturesome enough to cross the seas were not of the sort who would be +held for long by mere traditions of allegiance to old lands. Little by +little the people of the colonies gained larger measures of political +freedom until the time arrived when the unjust tax imposed by England +aroused them to revolt. The Boston Tea Party expressed the spirit of +America. The Declaration of Independence voiced America’s aspiration +and America’s intention. The War of the Revolution settled the right +of Americans to their own government. The Constitution of the United +States guaranteed to Americans their rights to the enjoyment of that +freedom which had been the mainspring of the foundation of the nation. + +Gradually the fact that this was a country where men could have a share +in the government, could speak their minds, could worship God in their +own way, could work out their ideals and ambitions without governmental +interference as long as these in no way conflicted with the interests +of law and order, went over the earth. It found its way into those +countries of Europe where men were eager for its coming. The English, +after the War of 1812, when the United States definitely established +our standing as a nation, were among the first to come as settlers. And +from other western countries of Europe came other settlers, led by the +knowledge that here could they enjoy individual freedom. + +To America, as to the Promised Land, flocked the Irish. Restless +under the English yoke, denied economic, political, religious, and +educational liberty by a government of an alien neighbor, the Irish +people turned westward. The famine and the political revolution of 1848 +sent them out from Ireland by the tens of thousands. To our land they +brought a passionate yearning for freedom and a passionate gratitude +to the country which opened it to them; and because they were, as a +people, gifted with the power of expressing their emotions, they spread +the fame of the United States broadcast over the world as a haven for +those who sought liberty. + +After them came the Germans, led by the political refugees of that +country who had incurred the enmity of Prussia in the Revolution of +1848, which had striven to bring some measure of freedom to the German +people. Denied it at home, hundreds of thousands of Germans came to +America to find liberty in their individual lives, to find opportunity. +It is these Germans and their descendants who, understanding what +the Prussian yoke means, have become among the best of our American +citizens. Knowing what they escaped, they know what America fights +against now. + +The third great movement of a people to the United States has been +the westward coming of the Jews. In this country, as in no other, +they possessed full religious freedom, and to this country they have +flocked from every land of Europe where they had huddled, unwelcome, +for centuries. Here they have found no opposition to their faith. Here +they have had full chance to worship as they would. For the first time +in thousands of years the Jew could build his temple unhindered. For +the first time since the Roman had gone into Palestine the Jew was a +citizen of the land in which he dwelt. + +Then came the peoples of eastern Europe, peoples of the vast empire +that is called Austria-Hungary for lack of a better name. Ruled by a +man not of their race, a man of one of the oldest, most corrupt, and +autocratic of the reigning families of Europe, they were struggling +upward toward freedom when the growing commercial dominion of the +United States took the word to them of our nation’s beacon. To us they +have literally surged. Among us they have found the freedom denied +their peoples at home. + +Another people sought the United States to attain freedom. The Poles, +oppressed on one side by Germany, on another by Austria, and on the +third by the autocratic government of Russia under the Czars, heard +the tale of the land of liberty, and set out for our shores in great +hordes. So many have they come that Chicago is the second largest +Polish city in the world, having almost as many Poles as Warsaw; and +Milwaukee, Buffalo, and other American cities attest the surging of the +Pole toward a land of liberty. + +In fact, there has been no country in Europe where people were +dissatisfied with their government that has not sent its people to the +United States. That France has sent the least number in proportion to +her population has been due largely to the fact that the people of +France had worked out for themselves a genuine democracy that satisfied +the souls of her sons and daughters. + +Through the hundred and forty-one years that had elapsed between the +calling of the Continental Congress and the entrance of the United +States into war against Germany this nation had been solidifying that +right of individual freedom guaranteed by the Constitution. The war +between North and South had been fought in defense of the right of a +human being to freedom as against the right of a State to separate +itself from the national government. The latter issue was lost, not +because it was wrong, but because it was not as vitally important in +the history of civilization as the former. For that men and women and +children should be held in bondage violated the spirit of America; +and the bondage had to be broken. “No government,” as Abraham +Lincoln said, “can exist half-slave and half-free.” + + [Illustration: An immigrant family qualified to enter the United + States + + There has been no country in Europe where people were dissatisfied + with their government that has not sent its people to the United + States] + +Some one has called America the melting-pot of the nations. If it is, +the fire that fuses the nationalities which have come to our land has +been the fire of freedom. + +That is why America’s entrance into the world war is so much more +vitally significant than a mere attack in defense of certain violations +of international law. It is a defense of the principle of individual +freedom. Were the United States not to oppose a force that threatened +the freedom of the world, we would not be worthy of the trust which +the peoples of other lands have reposed in us. The Irish, the Germans, +the Jews, the Slavs who came to America would eventually have come in +vain. For Germany threatens the liberty of all peoples, if she wins to +victory in Europe. Germany stands for all those ideas of government +from which these peoples fled. Germany stands for the suppression of +the individual as a political unit. Germany stands for might. Against +all that we have always fought. If we failed to fight now, we would +be but deferring the issue. And so to-day the United States sends our +soldiers to France and our sailors out on the seas in defense of that +right of mankind which is God’s gift, no matter how men have tried to +take it from him, the right of the freedom of the individual to live +his life as he sees best, according only to the dictates of order, of +moral integrity, of justice, and of righteousness. + + + + +CHAPTER X + +THE UNITED STATES AND INTERNATIONAL PEACE + + +International, lasting peace is the third great ideal sought by the +Republic of the United States of America, and it is for the enforcement +of that kind of peace that the United States is fighting. For, unless +such peace is assured by a decisive victory, the menace of German +imperialism will so overshadow the world that all civilization will be +flung back into one long effort to keep armed to repel the invader. + +Although other nations have struggled toward a standard of +international and permanent peace, the United States was one of the +first great nations to put the theory into practice. One of the first +instances of this practice came at the close of the war between the +States, when the question of the _Alabama_ Claims arose. + +During the war the Confederate States had caused to be built in +English ports, with the knowledge of the British Government, cruisers +to damage Federal commerce on the high seas. The cruiser _Alabama_ was +most active of these, and from its prominence gave name to the claim +which the United States brought against Great Britain for the offense +against international law, particularly since the independence of the +Confederate States had not been recognized. Great Britain had paid no +attention to American remonstrance during the war, but at its close +requested settlement of the difficulty. + +The United States was equipped for war, with a victorious army at +command, and with a record of two victorious wars over England. It +was a chance to launch another, had our nation been inclined toward +militarism. Instead, our country did its part in appointing members of +a joint high commission, of five British and five American statesmen, +who met in Washington in 1871 and adjusted the difficulty. These +commissioners made a treaty, known as the Treaty of Washington, by +which it was agreed that the claims of either nation against the +other should be submitted to a board of arbitration to be appointed +by friendly nations. In 1872 this board met at Geneva, Switzerland, +and decided the claims in favor of the United States. Great Britain +paid fifteen million five hundred thousand dollars for the damage done +by the cruisers built in her ports; but even more important was the +precedent established by two great nations. + +Through a period in which the world was singularly free from great wars +the peace ideal grew among those countries where the democratic form +of government was progressing. The other nations, striving to maintain +that elusive standard of political and trade domination known as the +balance of power, juggled with the peace idea, but from a different +point of view. And it was, strangely enough, the Czar of Russia who +proposed the establishment of an international court for the settling +of international disputes. His idea and that of the nations who +accepted the plan was to keep peace by a settlement of the causes of +war, and also to reduce the military and naval armaments of the great +Powers. He also brought forward the idea that, if war should come, the +conditions of warfare should be made less terrible for the men who were +fighting. He invited the delegates of the nations of the world to a +conference at The Hague, in the Netherlands, in May, 1899. + +The first conference promoted--to all appearances--a general good +feeling, but did not formulate actual rules. The second, called by the +Czar in 1907, at the request of the government of the United States, +and extending from June to October of that year, promulgated certain +rules that were regarded until the beginning of the war by Germany in +1914 as those which would hold all civilized nations. + +The articles of this conference, known as The Hague Conventions, +provided for: + +I.--The pacific settling of international disputes; + +II.--The recovery of debts contracted; + +III.--Rules for the opening of hostilities; + +IV.--Laws and customs of war on land; + +V.--Rights and duties of neutral states and individuals in warfare on +land; + +VI.--Treatment of enemy’s merchant ships at the opening of hostilities; + +VII.--Transformation of merchant ships into war vessels; + +VIII.--Placing of submarine mines; + +IX.--Bombardment of undefended towns by naval forces; + +X.--Adoption of humane standards authorized by the Geneva Convention to +maritime warfare; + +XI.--Restrictions on right of capture in maritime war; + +XII.--Establishment of an international prize court; + +XIII.--Rights and duties of neutral states in maritime war. + +In addition to the adoption of these thirteen articles, which were +designed to keep peace or to make war less terrible, if it came, the +conference established a permanent court of arbitration which has had +its place at The Hague, and which is known as The Hague Tribunal. This +court is really a number of judges from whom some are selected to try +cases of international dispute. It is noteworthy that the first case +laid before The Hague Tribunal for settlement was the Pius Fund matter +between the United States and Mexico. The government of the United +States took the dispute to The Hague, the first time in history when a +great nation had appealed to an international court for settlement of a +claim against a small nation. + +Since The Hague Conference the United States has concluded about thirty +peace treaties with as many nations. They are all modelled on one +general idea which is expressed in the opening article of each in this +way: + +“The high contracting parties agree that all disputes between them, of +every nature whatsoever, shall, when diplomatic methods of adjustment +have failed, be referred for investigation and report to a permanent +international commission to be constituted” (by the contracting +parties) “... and agree not to declare war nor to begin hostilities +during such investigation and before the report be submitted.” + +Thirty-five nations had accepted this plan “in principle” before +Germany flung war upon the world, and thirty treaties had been signed. +France, Russia, Great Britain, and Italy had signed the treaties. +Germany professed approval of the plan, but avoided all definite +arrangements, her attitude apparently growing out of her dislike of +arbitration. + +This opposition to arbitration on Germany’s part was due to the fact +that for many years she was actually preparing for war, and believed +that her best chance of winning it was in the unpreparedness of the +nations against which she intended to wage it. The utterances of her +statesmen, philosophers, and editors revealed the German official +attitude of mind. There can be no doubt but that Germany desired to +keep the world lulled in a false security until she had made ready to +strike the blow against world peace. Nothing else explains her refusal +to bind herself with the terms that other nations accepted in the hope +that wars were becoming things of the past. + +Just before the United States was forced into the breaking off of +diplomatic relations with Germany the President of the country went +before the Senate to set forth the principles which should govern +our nation in the making of any peace with which we would associate +ourselves. The principles which he set forth were: + +I.--An equality of rights between nations, to be based on justice and +not on the old principle of balance of power; + +II.--Recognition of the principle that governments derive their just +powers from the consent of the governed; + +III.--The right of all great peoples to have a direct outlet to the +sea, either by territorial acquisition or by neutralization; + +IV.--The freedom of the seas; + +V.--The limitations of armaments on land and sea; + +VI.--Refusal to permit any nation to extend its policy over any other +nation or people; + +VII.--A concert of nations to guarantee peace and the rights of all +nations, no entangling alliances creating a competition for power, but +a league for the enforcement of international peace. + +“These are American principles, American policies,” the President +stated. “They are also the principles of forward-looking men and women +everywhere, of every modern nation, and of every enlightened community.” + +To the very last, until the action of Germany in restricting the +freedom of the seas for which the United States had fought and won a +war in days when she was ill-prepared for any conflict, our country had +stood out for peace. Only when our vital rights were threatened, our +vital principles violated, did war come. And, when it came the United +States entered into the conflict, not in hot passion, but with the +high purpose of establishing a real peace that cannot be broken by any +one vandal nation. + +The kind of peace which is the ideal of the United States, and the one +toward which we are now fighting, is not to be the sort which may be +patched up over a council-table for a brief space. There is only one +way of curing a cancer of the human body. It must be cut out. And so it +is with the world. The only way to cure the world of war is to cut out +the cancer of militarism. The only way to cut it out is to defeat the +armies of militarism. + +The United States and the Allies are not fighting to impose on Germany +and her fellow fighters any particular form of government; but they are +fighting to defeat that form of government which has precipitated the +war, the so-called Junker policy of the German Empire. The Junker, who +is a member of the Prussian nobility and a man devoted to militarism, +has been the instrument of war, forcing it on the world that Germany, +which for him means only a certain small class of rulers in Prussia +headed by the Kaiser, shall be rich and powerful over all the earth. +It is to end his reign upon earth that hundreds of thousands of men +are dying on the fields of France and Flanders. It is to end that +policy of Germany which aims to keep men always at war that we are +warring. For, if Germany is not totally defeated, every country in the +world will have to build up a military machine of the same kind as +Germany’s in order to be ready to fight her when she makes up her mind +to invade their territories; and no one will know when she might do +that. The policy of Germany will threaten every democracy in the world; +for democracies cannot exist while military establishments continue. +Nothing but a total, annihilating defeat of Germany in this war will +make the world “safe for democracy” and sure for peace. + +When the war is won the United States will, it is sure, insist upon +a just peace that will insure these ideals, a peace that will make +impossible another such outrage as the invasion of Belgium, another +_Lusitania_ outrage, another defiance of all civilized standards, a +peace that will remove militarism, make free the seas, and give to the +individual that freedom that has made the United States the haven of +the whole world. + + + + +TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES: + + + Italicized text is surrounded by underscores: _italics_. + + Perceived typographical errors have been corrected. + + Archaic or variant spelling has been retained. + + + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 76636 *** |