recorded history, challenged the organized and unorganized forces of the
civilized world to mortal combat. They thrust the Imperial German sword
through all the covenants and commands of civilization and of justice.
Bursting out upon an unprepared and unsuspecting world, they were,
despite their incredible strength, checked by France on the battlefield
of the Marne, encircled by the British fleets, and like Napoleon after
Leipzig, condemned to ultimate defeat. At the hour when the white flag
was brought to the French lines, British armies were approaching the
field of Waterloo, American armies stood victorious in Sedan, and French
armies were sweeping forward from the Oise to the Meuse. The crowning
humiliation came with the admission of defeat. Germany sought armistice
at the hands of a Marshal of France!
FOCH - "THE GRAY MAN OF CHRIST"
In the closing days of the great war a striking contrast was drawn by
the Los Angeles Times between William Hohenzollern and Marshal Foch,
from the religious standpoint. The former German monarch coupled Gott
with himself as an equal, while Ferdinand Foch was called, with apparent
reason, "the gray man of Christ."
"This has been Christ's war," said the Times. "Christ on one side,
and all that stood opposed to Christ on the other side. And the
generalissimo, in supreme command of all the armies that fought on the
side of Christ, is Christ's man. * * * It seems to be beyond all shadow
of doubt that when the hour came in which all that Christ stood for was
to either stand or fall, Christ raised up a man to lead the hosts that
battled for him." And the Times continues:
"If you will look for Foch in some quiet church, it is there that he
will be found, humbly giving God the glory and absolutely declining to
attribute it to himself. Can that kind of a man win a war? Can a man who
is a practical soldier be also a practical Christian? And is Foch that
kind of a man? Let us see.
"A California boy, serving as a soldier in the American Expeditionary
Forces in France, wrote a letter to his parents in San Bernardino
recently, in which he gives, as well as anyone else could give, the
answer to the question we ask. This American boy, Evans by name, tells
of meeting Marshal Foch at close range in France.
"Evans had gone into an old church to have a look at it, and as he stood
there with bared head satisfying his respectful curiosity, a gray man
with the eagles of a general on the collar of his shabby uniform entered
the church. Only one orderly accompanied the quiet, gray man. No
glittering staff of officers, no entourage of gold-laced aides were with
him; nobody but just the orderly.
"Evans paid small attention at first to the gray man, but was curious
to see him kneel in the church, praying. The minutes passed until full
three-quarters of an hour had gone by before the gray man arose from his
knees.
"Then Evans followed him down the street and was surprised to see
soldiers salute this man in great excitement, and women and children
stopping in their tracks with awe-struck faces as he passed.
"It was Foch! And now Evans, of San Bernardino, counts the experience as
the greatest in his life. During that three-quarters of an hour that
the generalissimo of all the Allied armies was on his knees in humble
supplication in that quiet church, 10,000 guns were roaring at his word
on a hundred hills that rocked with death.
"Moreover, it is not a new thing with him. He has done it his whole life
long."
CHAPTER XXXII
HOME FOLLOWS THE FLAG
_Nearly 28,000,000 Red Cross Relief Workers Distributing Aid in Ten
Countries - Two War Fund Drives in 1918 Raise $291,000,000 - Other
Organizations Active - 3,000 Buildings Necessary - Caring for the
Boys - Boy Scouts Play Their Part Well._
From the hour of enlistment to the hour of return, the United States
soldiers and sailors have had with them, throughout the war, the
advantage of intelligent, sympathetic help from various civilian
organizations, co-ordinating with the military.
First of all is the Red Cross, but that organization really is a
non-combatant arm of the national service; and its work, generously
financed by public subscription, is the greatest of its kind ever done
in field or hospital, in any war.
Red Cross history would fill a big volume, no matter how meagrely told.
There are 3,854 chapters of the organization. At the annual meeting of
their war council, October 23, 1918, the chairman, Henry P. Davison,
submitted a report that is literally astonishing, because the facts
related had developed without, publicity and were quite unknown to the
people of the country at large. Here are a few of them, taken from Mr.
Davison's official statement:
NEARLY 28,000,000 WORKERS
The Red Cross in America has a membership of 20,648,103, and in
addition, 8,000,000 members in the Junior Red Cross - a total enrollment
of more than one-fourth the population of the United States.
American Red Cross workers produced up to July 1st, 1918, a total
of 221,282,838 articles of an estimated value of $44,000,000. About
8,000,000 women are engaged in canteen work and the production of relief
supplies.
The American Red Cross is distributing aid in ten countries - the United
States, England, France, Italy, Belgium, Switzerland, Palestine, Greece,
Russia and Siberia. Besides it has sent representatives to Serbia,
Denmark and Madeira.
Two war fund "drives" in 1918 brought money contributions to the amount
of $291,000,000. Membership dues of $24,500,000 brought the total up
to $315,500,000 for the fiscal year. All this money was expended for
purposes of pure mercy.
It has been because of the spirit which has pervaded all American Red
Cross effort in this war that the aged governor of one of the stricken
and battered provinces of France stated not long since that, though
France had long known of American's greatness, strength and enterprise,
it remained for the American Red Cross in this war to reveal America's
heart.
The home service of the Red Cross, with its now more than 40,
workers, is extending its ministrations of sympathy and counsel each
month to upward of 100,000 families left behind by soldiers at the
front.
OTHER ORGANIZATIONS ACTIVE
Next to the Red Cross in importance comes the Young Men's Christian
Association, affectionately known to the army as "the Y." Then the Young
Women's Christian Association; the National Catholic War Council; the
Salvation Army; the Knights of Columbus; The Jewish Welfare Board: the
War Camp Community Service; and The American Library Association.
What might be called the field army of these seven great agencies
comprises more than 15,000 uniformed workers on both sides of the
Atlantic and in Siberia; and General Pershing, late in October of 1918,
asked that additional workers be sent over at the rate of at least a
thousand a month.
They represent every type of activity - secretaries, athletic directors,
librarians, preachers, lecturers, entertainers, motion picture
operators, truck drivers, hotel managers and caterers. Many of them
pay their own expenses. Those who cannot do that are paid their actual
living expenses if they are single; and if they have families, are
allowed approximately the pay of a second lieutenant.
3,000 BUILDINGS NECESSARY
More than 3,000 separate buildings have been erected (or rented) to make
possible this huge work. These are of various sorts, from the great
resorts at Aix les Bains, where our soldiers can spend their furloughs,
to the hostess houses at the cantonments on this side. In addition,
there are scores of warehouses and garages, and hundreds of "huts"
which consist of nothing more than ruined cellars and dugouts in
war-demolished towns or old-line trenches.
These figures do not include the buildings occupied by the organizations
in times of peace, though all such buildings and quarters are at the
disposal of soldiers and sailors. All are supported by their regular
funds, supplemented by contributions entirely apart from those funds.
ALL PULL TOGETHER
The spirit of these seven organizations is uplifting in the broadest
sense of the word. They depend upon people of ideals for support. Their
purpose is to surround each boy, so far as possible, with the influences
that were best in his life at home. Differences of creed or dogma are
unknown. The W.M.C.A. and The Jewish Welfare Board work side by side
with no thought of divergence in faith. They are as one, and their
working creed is service, in the spirit of brotherhood to all men.
These are 842 libraries, with 1,547 branches, containing more
than 3,600,000 books and 5,000,000 copies of periodicals. In the
navy-branches are maintained 250 additional libraries aboard our war and
mercantile ships.
Almost every family in the United States having a son in the service
has received letters written on the stationery of one or other of the
organizations, for together they supply abundant writing materials. They
supply 125,000,000 sheets of writing paper a month, and keep on hand all
the time about $500,000 worth of postage stamps.
A soldier boy finds himself located in a little French village that
before the war sheltered 500 people and now must accommodate as many
soldiers besides. His sleeping place is a barn, which he must share with
forty other boys. There is no store in the town, no theatre, no library,
no place to write a letter or be warm and dry - until the hut comes.
ALL MODERN IDEAS
With it come books and writing paper and baseballs and bats and boxing
gloves and chocolate and cigarettes and motion pictures and lectures and
theatrical entertainments. Home comes with the hut, bringing all the
love and care and cheer of the folks who have stayed behind.
The boy is called into the front line trenches. He is there through the
long cold night, his feet wet, his whole body chilled to the bone. As
the first rays of the sun announce the new day, a shout of welcome runs
through the trench. He looks to see a secretary - Y, or K. of C., or
Jewish Welfare Board or Salvation Army - it matters not. Down the trench
comes this secretary with chocolates and cigarettes, doughnuts and hot
coffee or cocoa - a reminder that even here, in front, the love and care
of the folks back home still follow him.
CARING FOR THE BOYS
Is he wounded? Aiding the stretcher bearers, the secretaries work side
by side, taking the wounded back to the dressing stations.
Is he taken prisoner? Even in the prison camp the long arm of these
friendly organizations reaches out to aid him. In Switzerland both the Y
and the K. of C. have established headquarters, and through such neutral
agencies as the Danish Red Cross they carry on their program of help
even in the enemy prison camps.
Does he wish to send money back to the folks at home? The Y.M.C.A. and
the K. of C., the Jewish Welfare Board and the Salvation Army transmit
hundreds of thousands of dollars a month from the front to mothers and
sisters and wives over here.
If the Boy is allowed to visit the armies of our Allies he will find
that they too have asked for the hut, and received it. More than a
thousand Y huts under the name of "Foyers du Soldat" are helping to
maintain morale in the French army - erected at the special request of
the French Ministry of War. The King of Italy made a personal request
for the extension of the "Y" work to his armies. The men who were
charged with the task of winning this war believed that America could do
nothing better to hasten victory than to extend the influence of these
great creators and conservers of morale to the brave soldiers of our
Allies.
The cheer, the comfort, the recuperative influence of these united
services to our soldiers cannot be overestimated. They are incalculably
valuable - and they are purely and originally American.
WOUNDED YANKS ARE CHEERFUL
A Paris correspondent just from the front says - The spirit of American
soldiers passing through casualty stations is admirable. One "doughboy"
from Kansas, hobbling up to an American Red Cross canteen on one leg and
crutches, shouted, "Here I come. I'm only hitting on three cylinders,
but still able to get about."
Another boasted of his luck because he had only three shrapnel wounds,
one in his hand, one in his shoulder and one in the back.
An American Red Cross canteen at a receiving station often offers men
their first chance to talk over their experiences. They stand round with
a cup of chocolate in one hand, a doughnut in the other, and fight their
fights over again until officers drive them to the dressing rooms.
BOY SCOUTS PLAY THEIR PART WELL
"Boys will be men" is a new version of an old saying. It is justified
by the record of the Boy Scouts of America, for a better formation of
upright, manly character never was achieved by any other means. That
Scout training makes good men and fine soldiers has been amply proven on
a broad scale.
November 1, 1918, The Boy Scouts of America had a registered membership
of over 350,000, and applications for membership were coming in at the
rate of a thousand a day. April 9, 1917, three days after this country
entered the war, the National Council of the organization formally
resolved "To co-operate with the Red Cross through its local chapters
in meeting their responsibilities occasioned by the state of war." The
members have nobly followed out that resolution.
BOYS HELP MOST WONDERFUL
They have sold liberty bonds in the amount of $206,179,150, to 1,349,
individual subscribers. As "dispatch bearers of the government" they
have distributed over 15,000,000 war pamphlets. They have been sedulous
and invaluable in checking enemy propaganda. They have served on
innumerable public occasions as police aids and as ushers at great
meetings. They performed one feat that might to many have appeared
impossible, in searching out for the war department enough black walnut
trees to furnish 14,038,560 feet of board lumber that was urgently
needed for gunstocks and plane propellors. They have been tireless in
supplementing the service of other organizations. And they never make
any display of their work - they just do it, and keep on doing it,
without any talk. They are useful; and every man who was a boy scout is
a better man for having been one.
THIRTY-THREE Y.M.C.A. WORKERS GIVE LIVES IN WAR
From the time the United States entered the war up to the signing of
the armistice, thirty-three Y.M.C.A. workers, twenty-nine men and four
women, have given up their lives in the service abroad.
British air forces kept pace with the German armies across the Rhine.
In the last five months, in which occurred some of the heaviest air
fighting in the war, Germany lost in aerial combats with the British
alone 1,837 machines. It is estimated that something like 2,700 machines
were accounted for by the British since June 1, and to this total may be
added the heavy destruction wrought by French and American aviators.
GREATEST MAIL SERVICE IN THE WORLD
The mail service of the American armies in France and Belgium was one of
the most remarkably original features of the war. Mail was handled by
postal experts from home in such manner as sent millions of letters by
the straightest course to every point in the United States, from the
great cities down to the smallest hamlet.
"SAG" RELIEVED POISON GAS VICTIMS
American soldiers in the fighting lines were furnished with tubes of
medicinal paste to cure mustard gas burns. It was simply smeared over
the burned patches, or rubbed on the skin to prevent burning. It was
called "sag," which is the reverse spelling of "gas."
GERMANS ABANDONED MUCH EQUIPMENT
While they were chasing the Germans after they had broken the Hindenburg
line, American soldiers salvaged enormous quantities of equipment
thrown away or abandoned by the boches in their haste to get out of the
Americans' way.
CHAPTER XXXIII.
TERMS OF THE ARMISTICE
On the memorable afternoon of Monday, November 11, 1918. President
Wilson convened the Senate and the House of Representatives in the
capitol at Washington, and there read out the terms of the armistice
which Germany had accepted, and to the observance of which Germany was
pledged with guaranties so strict that evasion was made impossible. The
President is an unemotional man, but in that hour he must have felt deep
satisfaction in the fact that the document in his hand had been made
possible by the will and the action of the great nation whose chief
magistrate he was, and is - the nation that with generous hand and prompt
compliance had backed him at every step of the difficult road to triumph
over the dark forces of evil that had plagued the whole earth and
imperilled the very life of civilization.
His audience (the legislative arm of our government and the co-ordinate
judiciary arm as represented by Justices of the Supreme Court; the
members of the President's cabinet, the diplomatic corps; and high
officers of the army and navy) was less repressed. As the strongest
points were reached, all present joined in mighty applause.
THE NATION LISTENS AND APPLAUDS
The whole country was listening, for while the President's voice was
being heard in that place, the wires were carrying the words to every
city and hamlet in all the broad land.
The armistice had been signed by the German envoys in the very last
hour of the seventy-two that Marshal Foch had granted them. Long before
daylight, the news came by cable, the sirens and factory whistles were
thrown wide open, and the whole population of the United States, men,
women and children, roused out of bed, swarmed the streets and highways,
and gave themselves over to such a jubilation as no country ever before
had seen - nor any previous day in the story of the human race had called
for. It is not to be forgotten; for by reason of the magnificent and
final victory of right over might, another such day need never dawn.
PRESIDENT MAKES ARMISTICE PUBLIC
President Wilson in making public the armistice terms addressed the
governing bodies of our country as follows:
"Gentlemen of the Congress: In these anxious times of rapid and
stupendous change it will in some degree lighten my sense of
responsibility to perform in person the duty of communicating to you
some of the larger circumstances of the situation with which it is
necessary to deal.
"The German authorities who have, at the invitation of the supreme war
council, been in communication with Marshal Foch, have accepted and
signed the terms of armistice which he was authorized and instructed to
communicate to them.
TERMS OF THE ARMISTICE
One - Cessation of operations by land and in the air six hours after the
signature of the armistice.
Two - Immediate evacuation of invaded countries; Belgium, France,
Alsace-Lorraine, Luxemburg, so ordered as to be completed within fifteen
days from the signature of the armistice. German troops which have not
left the above mentioned territories within the period fixed will become
prisoners of war. Occupation by the allied and United States forces
jointly will keep pace with evacuation in these areas. All movements of
evacuation and occupation will be regulated in accordance with a note
annexed to the stated terms.
Three - Repatriation, beginning at once and to be completed within
fifteen days, of all inhabitants of the countries above mentioned,
including hostages and persons under trial or convicted.
MUST SURRENDER MILITARY SUPPLIES
Four - Surrender in good condition by the German armies of the following
equipment: Five thousand guns (2,500 heavy, 2,500 field), 25,000 machine
guns, 3,000 minenwerfer (mine throwers), 1,700 aeroplanes (fighters,
bombers, firstly D-73 Js and night bombing machines). The above to
be delivered in situ to the allies and the United States troops in
accordance with the detailed conditions laid down in the annexed note.
Five - Evacuation by the German armies of the countries on the left bank
of the Rhine. These countries on the left bank of the Rhine shall be
administered by the local troops of occupation under the control of the
allied and United States armies of occupation. The occupation of these
territories will be carried out by allied and United States garrisons
holding the principal crossings of the Rhine - Mayence, Coblenz,
Cologne - together with bridgeheads at these points in thirty kilometer
radius on the right bank and by garrisons similarly holding the
strategic points of the regions. A neutral zone shall be reserved on the
right of the Rhine between the stream and a line drawn parallel to
it, forty kilometers to the east from the frontier of Holland to the
parallel of Gernsheim and as far as practicable a distance of thirty
kilometers from the east of the stream from this parallel upon the Swiss
frontier. Evacuation by the enemy of the Rhine lands shall be so ordered
as to be completed within a further period of eleven days, in all
nineteen days after the signature of the armistice. All movements of
evacuation and occupation will be regulated according to the note
annexed.
Six - In all territory evacuated by the enemy there shall be no
evacuation of inhabitants; no damage or harm shall be done to the
persons or property of the inhabitants; no person shall be prosecuted
for participation in war measures prior to the signing of this
armistice. No destruction of any kind to be committed. Military
establishments of all kinds shall be delivered intact, as well as
military stores of food, munitions, equipment not removed during the
periods fixed for evacuation. Stores of food of all kinds for the
civil population, cattle, etc., shall be left in situ. Industrial
establishments shall not be impaired in any way and their personnel
shall not be moved. Roads and means of communication of every kind,
railroad, waterways, main roads, bridges, telegraphs, telephones, shall
be in no manner impaired.
Seven - All civil and military personnel at present employed on them
shall remain. Five thousand locomotives, 150,000 wagons and 5,000 motor
lorries in good working order, with all necessary spare parts and
fittings, shall be delivered to the associated powers within the period
fixed for the evacuation of Belgium and Luxemburg. The railways of
Alsace-Lorraine shall be handed over within the same period, together
with all pre-war personnel and material. Further material necessary for
the working of railways in the country on the left bank of the Rhine
shall be left in situ. All stores of coal and material for upkeep of
permanent ways, signals and repair shops left entire in situ and kept in
an efficient state by Germany during the whole period of armistice. All
barges taken from the allies shall be restored to them. A note appended
regulates the details of these measures.
MUST REVEAL ALL MINES
Eight - The German command shall be responsible for revealing within
forty-eight hours all mines or delay-acting fuses deposed on territory
evacuated by the German troops, and shall assist in their discovery
and destruction. The German command shall also reveal all destructive
measures that may have been taken (such as poisoning or polluting of
springs, wells, etc.), under penalty of reprisals.
Nine - The right of requisition shall be exercised by the allies and the
United States armies in all occupied territory. The upkeep of the troops
of occupation in the Rhineland (excluding Alsace-Lorraine) shall be
charged to the German government, subject to the regulation of accounts
with those whom it may concern.
Ten - An immediate repatriation without reciprocity according to detailed
conditions, which shall be fixed, of all allied and United States
prisoners of war. The allied powers and the United States shall be able
to dispose of these prisoners as they wish. This condition annuls the
previous conventions on the subject of the exchange of prisoners of war,
including the one of July, 1918, in course of ratification. However,
the repatriation of German prisoners of war interned in Holland and
Switzerland shall continue as before. The repatriation of German
prisoners of war shall be regulated at the conclusion of the
preliminaries of peace.
Eleven - Sick and wounded who cannot be removed from evacuated territory
will be cared for by German personnel, who will be left on the spot with
the medical material required.
Twelve - All German troops at present in any territory which before the
war belonged to Roumania or Turkey shall withdraw within the frontiers
of Germany as they existed on August 3, 1914. Territory which belonged
to Austria-Hungary is added to that from which the Germans must withdraw