N INTRODUCTION DRAMATIC ENDING OF THE WORLD WAR EVER so applicable as to the present and to the period from which we are just emerging have been the throbbing lines of Bishop Coxe: "We are living, we are dwelling, In a grand and awful time, To be living is sublime. Groaning for its latter day?" The supreme crisis of human history has been the titanic struggle between autocracy and democracy, with the final defeat of barbarism by civilization. The tremendous contest started with several declarations of war around August 1, 1914, with others following at later dates as the involvement spread, until never was there an international upheaval so nearly universal. Germany (chiefly responsible) and Austria-Hungary (whose unreasonable ultimatum to Serbia not being fully acceded to was the pretext for unleashing the dogs of savagery), Bulgaria and Turkey were arrayed against England and France (with their loyal and powerfully contributing Colonies), Belgium and Portugal, Italy and Greece, Montenegro and Serbia, Rumania and Russia (treacherously swung by the traitorous Bolsheviki from the alliance to which she had pledged herself), Japan and the United States. On the side of these twelve powers, but not so directly and actively engaged in the conflict, were fourteen other countries, big and small, namely, Arabia (the Hedjaz) and Liberia, Siam and China, Cuba and Panama, Guatemala and Ecuador, Hayti and Honduras, Costa Rica and Nicaragua, saucy little San Marino and gigantic Brazil. Four other governments, Bolivia and San Domingo and Peru and Uruguay, severed diplomatic relations with the lawless aggressor, coming only a trifle short of a full and final break. Moreover, when we consider that arrayed with the Allies were such Colonies as Canada, India, Australia and New Zealand, which were like separate States in dignity and importance, and when we recollect that with these also stood extensive African territories constituting most of the Dark Continent, we see that the alignment against Germany was practically world-wide. Four times was the Allied cause in real peril; once at the initial and flood-like inpour into Belgium and France of the invaders who alone in 1914 were prepared to move instantly, and Paris seemed likely to fall, but did not because of Joffre's great victory in the first battle of the Marne. General Von Kluck by his unaccountable and fatal "turn to the south, southeast" exposed his flank, and lost all. After a whole month of steady retreating the French, whose commanders knew exactly what they were about, suddenly halted on orders, and made such a vigorous and rapid offensive as to surprise and stupefy the hostile forces, who had grown increasingly confident and even arrogantly boastful, and who almost in sight of their great goal could not understand why in four days, September 6-9, they were rolled unceremoniously back, never again to be so near a great success. Again was disaster barely avoided when, after the enemy had been driven back from the Marne to the Aisne, he swung to the north and made a vigorous thrust for the channel ports, and with their capture the five million British troops, subsequently transported over the intervening water, would have been unable to cross to France with any facility, and the twenty millions could not have been carried back and forth between the two countries in four years. The hazard was great when at the first battle of Ypres only about 30,000 British soldiers, already weary with weeks of fighting, had to meet in mortal combat perhaps 150,000 Germans, rested and refreshed and better equipped. From October 31 to November 19 the unequal forces were in close grips, and the very last line of defense was being assaulted by the proud Prussian Guard, but, to use the opprobrious title of the foe, the old. "Contemptibles" at last won, and turned back the onrushing hordes, though defeat was escaped, the British commander-inchief has since conceded, only by a "narrow margin." A second battle of Ypres in April of 1915 was no more successful, though there was then sprung the surprise of the first use of poison-gas, laying low whole squads of men as by a withering blast, and making a dangerous gap in the defense five miles wide. Canadian reinforcements, however, were thrown in, and the day was saved. It seems almost a miracle, that from Ypres the British Channel was not reached, and once reached the whole course of the war would have been changed to the benefitting and possibly to the triumphing of the savage Huns. This peril, however, passed away, though it was a close call. In the undying literature produced by the war must be included "In Flanders Field," the poem struck off under the inspiration of the second battle of Ypres by John McCrae, Canadian soldier and physician as well as poet. This splendid lyric will never let its author's name perish, though he himself succumbed to double penumonia January 28, 1918. "In Flanders fields the poppies blow That mark our place; and in the sky We can still feel the ringing appeal of the closing lines to the living to catch up the torch thrown to them by the dying, "If ye break faith with us who die We shall not sleep, though poppies grow There was a third trembling of the balances, with the scales indeed tipping decidedly in Germany's favor, as she was steadily winning out, and that was in the earlier part of 1917 at the height of her U-boat success. In order to starve Great Britain she was sinking the world's shipping at a staggering rate, 536,000 tons in February, 603,000 in March, and nearly 900,000 in April. With that continued, the end could be calculated to a mathematical nicety. Official England, which knew the ugly facts without any manipulating to ease the public mind, had an inner feeling of panic, and quietly rushed a commission to the United States to reveal the critical situation. The English in all lost 7,000,000 tonnage and more than 14,000 lives. There was maintained, however, a stiff upper lip, and the usual British pluck at last surmounted all obstacles that had seemed insuperable. The menace was exceedingly serious, and the defiant challenge was what brought America on the field of action April sixth. There was the audacious proposal not only to have a mining barrage across the narrow English channel, which is only 20 miles at the shortest way over, but also to mine the whole distance of 230 miles between Scotland and Norway, and this was done with neatness and dispatch, with characteristic American enterprise. There was the multiplying of destroyers, together with the increasing of their efficiency, to chase and hunt down the monster of the deep, or submarine would fight submarine. The airplane from above would locate it, as the eagle from his aerial viewpoint spots his prey far below, and would attack it, and would wireless warships nearby for aid. There was the inventing of depth bombs to blow up the subsurface craft. There was the working out of an elaborate convoy system to terminate the piracy. There was the introducing of the subchaser, a small wooden vessel equipped with an ingenious mechanism whereby it could hear the propellers of the enemy twenty miles away and could definitely locate the foe for an effective attack. These little craft became a positive force. in destroying what could not be seen but could be heard, and they were being produced in quantities, at New London and Brooklyn, when the need for them ceased. Perhaps the most unique feature of this special type of warfare was connected with the mystery ship, a decoy boat fitted up to resemble a tramp steamer. A stealthy thug would come stealing up under watery cover, with ugly periscopic eye peering out just above the surface and spying out the situation preparatory to dealing a deadly torpedo blow. There was careful planning (with an art that should not be evident) to be gradually overtaken. After the submarine from a safe distance had shelled the mock merchantman, at what seemed |