But the women of America were not satisfied with "petticoat preparedness." They rushed to the khaki suits and to the colors with unexpected enthusiasm. One khaki-clad woman walked from San Francisco to New York, making recruiting speeches on the way.
The infantry, the cavalry, the navy, the marines could all point to their girls in khaki.
As the women enlisted for all kinds of service, so it may be said all kinds of women enlisted—that is, women of all ranks of life—some from society, some from the mills, others from the offices, the shops, the stage, the restaurants and the colleges.
Many years ago the country rang with the name of Tippecanoe, and one of the men who bore arms on the western frontier was William Henry Harrison. The years went by and Benjamin Harrison came to the White House as President.
The Harrison blood showed in the preparedness work, and Old Tippecanoe's great granddaughter helped to make the women of the country fit for the burden of war.
There isn't anything on earth that shows so strongly in the blood as the soldier element, and Elizabeth Harrison, whose great ancestor faced the perils of the frontier warfare, was a leader by force of her inherited ability as a leader. She was elected drill sergeant for the college girls of the New York University.
When the war clouds came she was following inherited bent. All of the Harrison men had been among the country's greatest lawyers and Miss Harrison was studying for the bar.
But just as the warwhoop of the West called Tippecanoe from his books and briefs to bullets and battles, so the daughter of the former President dropped Blackstone and Kent to take up the Drill Regulations and the elementary text books of the army.
She knew that the way to make women fit for their part of war service was to make them strong and healthy and to give them an idea of the things that men-at-arms have to do.
So Miss Harrison was one of the first workers in the movement to teach women the elements of war. Many women of importance in the social and financial world took up the task with a will, and there was a girl for every signal flag, a maid for every wireless station, and an angel for every hospital ward in the making as the men pursued the task of providing guns and the men behind the guns.
Miss Harrison and the girls she drilled at the University wore regulation field service uniform, khaki breeches, coat, heavy shoes and puttees, and a large hat of military cut.
The American Woman's League for Self-Defence and Preparedness was the first woman's military organization in America, according to its president, Mrs. Ida Powell Priest, who is descended from an old Long Island family, Thomas Powell being one of her ancestors.
The first cavalry troop, of which Ethel M. Scheiss was first senior captain, drilled regularly. Their first appearance mounted caused a mild sensation on Broadway. They were most impressively stern soldierettes as they trotted and galloped their horses.
Everywhere the girl in America strove with helpful earnestness to do "her bit." Every strata of society called out its members in a wonderful plan of feminine preparedness. Besides the thousands of women members of the Red Cross some of the most prominent organizations officered and planned by women include The National League for Women's Service, which has branches in every large city in the United States. They enrolled women as motor car drivers, telegraphers, wireless operators, agriculturists and skilled mechanics.
Miss Anne Morgan, as head of this organization, devoted an enormous amount of energy to the success of the work.
Other societies organized were the National Special Aid Society, Service of Any Kind, Militia of Mercy, which sends and provides bandages and other necessities and comforts for the soldiers; Girl Scouts of America, first aid, signalling and drills; Daughters of the American Revolution; the Suffrage Party and the Anti-Suffrage Society; the International Child Welfare League and the Girls' National Honor Guard. The Federation of Women's Clubs all over the United States also organized for any patriotic service that women could perform.
A practical way of doing something to help France and Servia was offered early in the war by the splendid initiative of Dr. Elsie Inglis and the Scottish Federation of Women's Suffrage Societies, who organized hospitals for the wounded, the staffs of which were all women, and called on other societies for their support.
The London society responded first by subscriptions from individual members, then by giving beds, then (in February, 1915) by offering itself as London agent for the hospitals and undertaking all the practical work, in the sending out of personnel and equipment, which had to be transacted in London.
It is only by carefully systematized organization that great work of this kind can be carried on. The slapdash, haphazard of hysterical excitement can have no legitimate place in a movement that provides stepping stones toward the salvation of the civilized world.
One of the things which will live long in the history of womankind was the wonderful work done by the magnificently courageous units of Lady Paget's nursing force, which went out to Servia, when that country was laid waste not only by the German beasts, but also by disease.
It was not the fault of those brave women and men that things happened at Uskub and in other Servian towns that do not bear repeating.
It was just the lack of thorough preparedness for a war which was much worse than humanity had thought possible that deepened the tragedy of their situation. In Servia, in fact, the career of the hospitals was quite checkered and the service rendered proportionately more vital.
At the time of the Austro-German invasion in the autumn of 1915, the London-Wales Unit was at Valjevo, one of the five Scottish women's hospitals working in the country. It was under the command of Dr. Alice Hutchinson and was very highly organized. Doctor Inglis had herself gone on to Servia to take general charge of the hospitals there in the spring of 1915. From the time that a typhus epidemic was overcome by women doctors early in the year to the time of the invasion all seemed to be going well. Then came three weeks of great pressure of work and of rapid moves from place to place as the enemy advanced into the country. Finally, it became a necessity for the personnel of the different units either to retreat with the Servian army over the mountains into Montenegro or to fall in the hands of the enemy.
The story of the retreat is now very generally known. The journey was one long series of forced marches. Mountains 7000 feet high had to be traversed in blinding snow, almost the whole journey had to be made on foot and it was six weeks before the little band reached the coast. Doctor Inglis meanwhile, with her group of nurses and orderlies, and Doctor Hutchinson, with the London-Wales Unit, had gallantly stayed behind and continued to attend to their Servian wounded and to organize help for them till the work was forcibly stopped by the advancing Austrian army.
After being ordered out of Valjevo, Doctor Hutchinson made several attempts to organize hospitals in the line of retreat. She was at Vrnyachka Banja when the Austrians entered the town on November 10, 1915. She and her unit were taken prisoners and interned, first near the Servian frontier and then in Hungary for three weary months. The cheerful courage with which the members of the unit bore hardship and uncertainty and hope deferred has been related by Doctor Hutchinson in a memorable narrative. Their conditions would have been still more intolerable and their release would have been still longer delayed if Doctor Hutchinson herself had not known a great deal more about the Geneva Convention than the Austrian authorities had ever dreamed. She was thus able to assert herself on behalf of those under her in a way which taught her captors something new about British women. At the beginning of February the unit was at last allowed to cross the frontier into Switzerland. It reached England on February 12. It was only the perfection of its organization that carried this brave body of women through amazing hardships.
Abroad women chauffeurs became almost as common in the war as men; the public in Paris and London refused to regard the appearance of a woman on the streets in cap, "knickers" and puttees or heavy boots as unusual, and in need they in many instances not only drove "taxi," but guided ambulances in the hospital service.
The Red Cross in America, in the matter of preparedness, organized a class for women chauffeurs. One of these, started in Philadelphia, had among its instructors Mrs. Thomas Langdon Elwyn and Miss Letitia McKim, both of whom drove ambulances for the Allies in England.
The National League for Woman Service, working in conjunction with the Council of National Defense, canvassed the country through its Bureau of Registration and Information to provide statistics for mobilizing the entire woman-force of the Nation; all of which was done with the approval of the Secretary of Labor.
Perhaps the outstanding incident of industrial employment among women was that of several women in France as locomotive engineers. It is true that they operated only the shunting engines about the yards at the military camps, but it was noted in dispatches in every quarter of the globe that Mesdames Louis Debris and Marie Viard, whose husbands were killed in the war, were piloting the engines which their husbands had formerly driven.
And woman has proved her ingenuity. In the damp trenches of the battlefields abroad the men need protection from the dampness and cold, which ordinary clothing will not provide. It was found that the leather-lined huntsmen's coats, and the sort of garments worn by the chauffeur, the aviator and the mountaineer served the men in the trenches well, and particularly along the Russian frontier and in the cold mountainous regions.
But the price of leather soared, with the demand for millions of pairs of shoes, saddles, harness, headgear, and whatnot, and leather-lined coats were at a premium. The women were not to be denied, and through the Suffrage organizations which turned in to prepare America for the struggle and to render assistance to the Allies, the unique plan was adopted of making linings for the airmen and soldier's coats of old kid gloves.
One group of women in a single section of Philadelphia gathered a thousand pairs of old gloves in a canvass. The seams were ripped and the gloves cut down one side and laid open. The fingers of one glove so treated were dovetailed between the fingers of another glove so cut, and stitched together. Thus one glove was sewed to another until a section of leather was formed sufficient to make a lining for a coat. And many such were devised and incorporated in the garments sent to the front by the various agencies dominated by the women of the land.
While women to a limited degree were rendering service as "policemen" in certain sections of the United States and on Continental Europe the war was responsible for the development of an organized force in London, which will probably remain a permanent organization to the end of time. Miss Darner Dawson is chief of the London woman "bobbies," and M.S. Allen is chief superintendent.
The force was organized in 1914, shortly after the outbreak of the war and has relieved the men of a large amount of responsibility. The force is uniformed, the women wearing military costumes with visored caps. They operate under the supervision, or with the authority of Sir Edward Henry, Chief Commissioner of the Metropolitan police, and serve for duty at the munition plants where women workers are employed, besides doing regular patrol duty and welfare work.
The service in London is in the nature of a training for special service and the women after sufficient experience are sent to suburbs and small towns to do police duty. They are highly spoken of and declared to be very efficient, rendering service in the barrooms and looking after women in a manner that the regular "bobbies" cannot approximate.
It was declared in England, by way of closing the comment on this phase of the war that no one thing so stimulated the enlistments for service as the execution of Miss Edith Cavell, the English nurse who was shot as a spy by Germany. That her name will go down in history as a martyr to the cause of liberty and humanity goes without saying.
Miss Cavell had been a nurse in Brussels, and after the occupation of the Belgian capital by the Germans, she remained where she used her private hospital for the nursing of wounded soldiers; not excluding the Germans. It had been intimated that she had better cross the border, but she insisted on remaining at her post. Ultimately she was accused of being one of the instigators of a plot to smuggle English, French and Belgian soldiers across the lines, and of serving the enemies of Germany.
To the German mind she was more than a spy; Her conduct was reprehensible, because in the capacity of nurse she had won a degree of confidence. She was therefore held as a spy and traitor. And though Brand Whitlock, America's Minister to Belgium, and other diplomats sought to save her, she was shot by the ruthless Germans.
A Nation of Men Destroyed—Millions in Shipping and Commerce Destroyed—World's Maps Changed—Billions in Money—Immense Debts—Nation's Wealth—The United States a Great Provider.
The human tongue seems almost devoid of power to convey to the human mind what the war has actually cost the world in lives, money, property, ideals and all that is dear to humanity. In all the world there is not a human being who has not contributed something to the awful cost and the loss due to the destruction of property, the stopping of industry, the waste of energy and the curtailment of human endeavor in the interest of civilization, and the effects which the struggle has had upon the world cannot even be approximated in dollars and cents.
We have been taught to regard war as a terrible thing and to realize that thousands must be slain, but in no war in the history of the world has there been as many troops engaged as have been killed in the European war on the battlefields of Belgium and France.
At the beginning of the year 1917 it was estimated that the total casualties of the war were 22,500,000. In a report based on figures compiled in Washington it was stated: The human estimated waste and financial outlay are staggering. The combined casualties of the war, partly estimated because all belligerents do not publish lists, are 22,500,000. The figures included killed, permanently injured, prisoners and wounded returned to the front. Of this number the Central Powers were estimated to have suffered permanent losses in excess of 4,000,000, and the entente perhaps twice that number, Russia being by far the heaviest loser.
The financial outlay, based in part on official reports and statements and in part on estimates, was placed at approximately $80,000,000,000, divided $50,000,000,000 to the entente and $30,000,000,000 to the Central Powers. The entente lost more than 3,500,000 tons of merchant shipping and approximately 800,000 tons of naval vessels. On the other side the loss of naval tonnage was approximately 250,000 tons, and merchant ships aggregating 211,000 tons were reported captured or destroyed.
Of the foreign commerce the Central Powers had lost $10,000,000,000 in the two and a half years of war, including imports and exports. The loss of commerce of Great Britain and her allies with the Central Powers probably was in the neighborhood of $7,000,000. This was largely made up at least on the import side by increased trade with the United States and other neutral countries and enlarged trade with the colonies.
Germany lost virtually all her African colonies and all her possessions in the Pacific Ocean, an aggregate of more than 1,000,000 square miles. Turkey also lost a large area of territory held at the outbreak of the war, while Austria lost most of Bukowina and Galicia. To offset the territory losses of the Central Powers, the entente have lost in Europe approximately 300,000 square miles. Of this large area, all of it thickly populated in normal times, 175,000 square miles were wrested from Russia on the eastern battlefield.
The staggering losses in men include the vast number on both sides wounded in such a way as to permanently cripple them and render them unfit for military service. The figures are based on official reports and estimates by military experts.
Germany's permanent losses were placed at 1,500,000 men, including about 1,000,000 in killed. The permanent losses of Austria-Hungary were placed at about 1,000,000 more than those of Germany, owing to the fact that so much of the hard fighting on the eastern front was in the Austro-Hungarian theater. The losses of the Austro-Hungarians during the drive of General Brusiloff in 1916 were frightful. Large numbers of Austrians were taken prisoner by Brusiloff.
Russia's casualties for the first year of the war were estimated by military experts at more than 3,500,000 men, and these were doubled in the succeeding year, according to estimates by American military experts. Russia returned to the fighting line a smaller percentage of wounded than any of the other great Powers.
Great Britain's casualties were placed in excess of 1,250,000 despite the limited front of British operations in France in the early stages. The aggregate of Italy's casualties was estimated at 1,500,000, while Belgium's were placed at 200,000, Servians at 400,000, Montenegro's at 150,000 and Rumania's at more than 300,000.
While the area of the territorial losses of the Central Powers was nearly four times as great as that of the entente group, with the exception of the occupied portions of Bukowina and Galicia, the value of the territory included in them is comparatively small. For example, Germany's African colonies were sparsely settled, largely by natives, with virtually all development in the future. Despite this fact, their loss was a severe blow to Germany.
The territorial losses of the entente covered all but a small corner of Belgium, a highly developed, thickly populated industrial country; a large slice of northern France, virtually all of Servia, all of Montenegro, more than three-fourths of Rumania and 175,000 square miles of Russia, the major part of it in the grain-growing section.
According to military experts on the "war map" of Europe as it stood at that time, the Central Powers had won the war. But when their enormous loss of foreign commerce and territory is considered, their "victory" was shown to have most decided limitations, especially because of their admission that they eventually would have to give up all occupied territory in view of the frightful cost in men and money.
Supplementing these statements, as showing the progress of the war, it was stated just before the United States took its memorable step to break off diplomatic relations with Germany, members of the National War Council estimated the total casualties of the war at that time as in excess of the population of the United Kingdom, which in 1911 was more than 45,000,000. This of course included those maimed, injured or so stricken that they were unfit for future service. The number actually killed was estimated at more than 7,000,000.
Staggering as these figures are they are easily conceivable when it is remembered that the German front lines covered more than 500 miles with Allied troops opposing them, and that in a single battle millions of shells were fired by one side or the other. In one battle it was officially reported that 4,000,000 shot and shell were used, and in another the English mined the German trenches for a distance of several miles and blew out the strongholds, using more than 1,000,000 pounds of high explosives.
One of the great 42-centimeter guns of the Germans is said to have used a charge of guncotton involving the use of a full bale of cotton to make the explosive—and a bale of cotton contains 500 pounds. The shrapnel of the heavy field artillery of the United States contains 717 balls or bullets about the size of a common marble, and the shell, so timed that it explodes just before it touches the ground, scatters the bullets or balls over an area estimated at one yard for every bullet, or more than 700 yards. With thousands of such shells being rained over the entrenchments is it any wonder that the list of wounded and killed was great?
Thousands were killed by poisoned gases, and where they were not killed a very large percentage of those affected suffered consequences which rendered them unfit for battle—turned them into invalids. The gas bombs produced hemorrhages of the lungs and bowels in thousands of cases and left those who inhaled the fumes in an anemic and permanently disabled condition. And what of the thousands who succumbed to fevers, and who because of the terrible shock became mental and physical wrecks and were made unfit for further duty on the actual firing lines?
When it comes to the cost in dollars and cents it is possible to tell something of what they mean with reference to war construction and maintenance, although no one can estimate what it represents in destruction. No one has yet devised an accounting system to determine the percentage of "depreciation" through wear and tear on guns and devices that cost thousands of dollars each, but everybody knows that guns wear out and that some of the larger ones have a very decided limit on the number of times they can be fired without being rebored or rifled.
Railroads which have taken years to build and develop have been destroyed, telephone and telegraph lines put out of commission, great castles and temples razed, works of art burned, whole cities devastated, green fields turned into great craters torn up by bombs and shells, factories dismantled, herds of cattle fed into the maw of the armies, and the ruthless Germans even went so far as to wantonly cut down and destroy whole forests and magnificent shade trees which it took generations to grow.
How the indebtedness of the nations grew during the progress of the war is shown in the following statement issued by some of the financial institutions of the country in the Spring of 1917:
"Indebtedness of the seven principal nations engaged in the European war has crossed $75,000,000,000. In the middle of 1914 the indebtedness of these seven nations was $27,000,000,000."
Financing on an extensive scale followed this state of affairs. France issued a second formal war loan, Germany a fifth loan and Russia a sixth loan. Great Britain issued temporary securities in enormous sums.
The war cost $105,000,000 every twenty-four hours, according to the statistics, expenditures of the Entente Allies being fully double those of the Central Allies.
Without for one moment taking into consideration the billions which were thrown into the war-pot by America the figures are staggering. An interesting comparison is found in the cost of the previous great world wars. The American Civil War, the greatest conflict in prior history cost $8,000,000,000, a sum equalled every three months in the conduct of the European war.
| Approximate cost. | |
| Napoleonic Wars, 1793-1815 | $6,250,000,000 |
| American Civil War, 1861-1864 | 8,000,000,000 |
| Franco-Prussian War, 1870-1871 | 3,000,000,000 |
| South African War, 1900-1902 | 1,250,000,000 |
| Russo-Japanese War, 1904-1905 | 2,500,000,000 |
| European War, 1914-1917 (3 years) | 75,000,000,000 |
It was further estimated that after the year 1917, the payment of $3,800,000,000 a year would be required to pay the interest on the debt, and that the total Government expenditures in Europe for bond interest and support of the various branches of the Governments would require in the neighborhood of 20 per cent of the people's income.
Another comparative table that is important to any one desiring to study the costs and their effects is that relating to population and wealth of the principal countries. The latest available figures are:
| Population | Wealth | |
| United States | 101,577,000 | $187,739,071,090 |
| British Empire | 394,930,000 | 130,000,000,000 |
| Germany | 67,810,000 | 80,000,000,000 |
| France | 39,700,000 | 50,000,000,000 |
| Russia | 187,379,000 | 40,000,000,000 |
| Austria-Hungary | 53,000,000 | 25,000,000,000 |
| Spain | 20,000,000 | 5,400,000,000 |
| Belgium | 7,500,000 | 9,000,000,000 |
| Portugal | 5,958,000 | 2,500,000,000 |
| Italy | 37,048,000 | 20,000,000,000 |
Taxes have been the main sources for raising money to carry on the war. In Germany taxes on all incomes from the Kaiser to the ordinary business man were kept at the highest rate, the Kaiser paying $500,000 on his fortune of $35,000,000 during the early part of the struggle. This was in addition to his income tax which amounted to $440,000, making a total annual tax of nearly $1,000,000. The Krupps are said to have been assessed at $3,000,000.
When the new military service laws were approved in Paris, which was about the middle of July, 1913, the French Cabinet was at its wit's end to provide the financial end of the tremendous military budget. Investment markets were sluggish, and there were thousands of notes whose values were rapidly depreciating. The French Government was unable to float a loan of $200,000,000 which was necessary for making preparations.
Then in her desperation Paris closed her doors to all foreign loans. The Viviani Ministry practically duplicated the plan of its predecessor in proposing an issue of $360,000,000 3-1/2 per cent bonds, which were redeemable in 25 years.
One year previously to this financial struggle the Belgian Government had started to raise $62,800,000 in order that the people of this country might prevent its being used as the battleground for the world war which they had seen away off in the future. This money was raised for the purpose of making Antwerp an impregnable fortress.
Russia had taken steps to raise $3,700,000,000 which the Russian Minister of Finance had informed the Budget Committee must be spent in the next five years on the army and navy. During the first year of the war there was $500,000,000 spent by this country in military and naval defence. This does not include the cost of those strategic railroads of which so many were constructed by the Russian Government, and which cost so many hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Previous to the time Great Britain declared war on Germany the House of Commons had voted $525,000,000 for Emergency purposes, and within a couple of days of this appropriation an additional $500,000,000 was granted by the British Parliament.
One of the things accomplished by war was to bring out the fact that the resources of individuals are far greater than is ordinarily suspected. In 1870 Bismarck imposed an indemnity of $1,000,000,000 on France, never believing that country could meet the great debt, but with the help of all the inhabitants the debt was lifted within a few months.
When countries are at war the cost of continuing fighting does not stop with those actually engaged. The trade of the world is affected, and this means loss in all quarters of the globe. Of the import trade of the United States more than $500,000,000 was directly with those nations engaged in the war at the opening of hostilities. This was out of a total of $1,850,000,000. A great part of this commerce is classed as among that which yields the greatest import tax, which means that internal taxes must be imposed on the people to make up for the money necessary to meet with the yearly loss occasioned during the continuance of the war.
In the United States there is an annual national income of $50,000,000,000, the total bank resources being $35,000,000,000, the individual deposits being $24,000,000,000, with cash held by the banks totaling $2,500,000,000, total gold stock in the country being $3,000,000,000, and available additional commercial credits on the basis of cash holdings totaling $6,000,000,000.
The borrowing power of the American Government does not total less than $40,000,000,000, from domestic sources, and this does not disturb the ordinary financial and economical affairs of the nation.
During the first five months in 1917 the Government of the United States reached a record for expenditures never before equalled in American history. The total amount expended was $1,600,000,000.
The chief item of the increase—$607,500,000—was the purchase of the obligations of foreign Governments in exchange for loans advanced to the Allies. The sum did not represent by approximately $140,000,000 the total amount authorized in loans. An increase of approximately $245,000,000 in the ordinary disbursements of the Government, chiefly due to military and naval needs, also was recorded and another item going to swell the grand total of expenditures was the payment of $25,000,000 for purchase of the Danish West Indies.
War loans of the six chief European belligerents, early in 1917, aggregated approximately $53,113,000,000.
Loans of the chief Entente nations, Great Britain, France, Russia and Italy, were placed at about $36,300,000,000; those of Germany and Austria-Hungary, not including the sixth German loan reported to have yielded about $3,000,000,000, at $18,800,000,000.
The amounts of the various loans were placed at:
Great Britain, to March 31, 1917, $18,805,000,000; France, to February 28, $10,500,000,000; Russia, to December 31, 1916, $7,896,000,000; Italy, to December 31, 1916, $2,520,000,000; Germany, to December 31, 1916, $11,226,000,000; Austria, to December 31, 1916, $5,880,000,000; Hungary, $1,730,000,000.
The total included the advances made by the United Kingdom and France to the smaller belligerent countries allied with them.
Some idea of what all this financing means to a country may be judged by the statement of the Chancellor of the Exchequer, who in October, 1916, replying to questions regarding the English loans in the House of Commons, declared that England was paying at that time about $10,000,000 a day in the United States, for every working day in the year.
When the English mission visited the United States in May, 1917, after the country had entered the war, there was handed to Arthur James Balfour, ex-Premier of England, a check for $200,000,000, said to have been one of the largest single checks ever paid in this country. It was a loan for war purposes. In the month of June it was stated that the total advance made to the Allies was $923,000,000, among the loans made then was one of $75,000,000 to Great Britain, and $3,000,000 to Servia. The Servian loan, the first made by the United States to that country, was mainly for the improvement of railway lines. A small portion was used for the relief of the distressed population, and Red Cross work.
It was stated that the allied countries would spend in America, in the neighborhood of $200,000,000 a month for the year; which brings attention to the resources which America turned in against Germany when she joined the allied forces. To meet the demands made upon it the Government borrowed at once $3,000,000,000 by popular subscription—a matter of history of which the nation is proud.
From its funds the country loaned Russia $100,000,000, which was the first loan made by the United States to that Government. A credit of $45,000,000 to Belgium was also established by the Secretary of the Treasury. This also was Belgium's first participation in the loan of the Allies.
Aside from the financial resources of the United States, the country is undoubtedly the richest in agricultural, mineral and other natural resources. It annually produces more than 3,500,000,000 bushels of corn, wheat touching the high point of 1,500,000,000 bushels; 1,600,000,000 bushels of oats; 250,000,000 bushels of barley; 40,000,000 bushels of rye; 22,000,000 bushels of buckwheat; 425,000,000 bushels of potatoes; 77,000,000 tons of hay; 30,000,000 bushels of flaxseed; 7,000,000,000 pounds of cotton; more than 1,000,000,000 pounds of tobacco; 2,000,000 long tons of sugar and 275,000,000 pounds of wool.
There are nearly 70,000,000 swine, and as many cattle, more than 25,000,000 head of horses and mules, and 62,000,000 sheep. Coal is mined at the rate of more than 500,000,000 tons yearly, and the copper mines yield 1,250,000,000 pounds of metal. Petroleum wells yield 225,500,000 barrels yearly. There are 270,000 manufacturing plants with a yearly output of more than $25,000,000,000. The products of the farm total more than $11,000,000,000 annually.
As to Germany's position, economists all over the world have considered her position as not only lacking soundness, but as crazy—crazy in that no attention whatever has apparently been paid to what are recognized as firmly fixed economic laws. The world has been at a loss to understand Germany's attitude, and it can only be explained by assuming that Germany was perfectly well aware of the entire unsoundness of her commercial and financial position, and was willing, or, in fact, had to risk everything with the hope of acquiring sufficient indemnity, resulting from the war, to bring her financial affairs to a sound basis. Germany's entire structure from the close of the Franco-Prussian war evidently was built upon rotten foundations.
Woodrow Wilson, the Champion of Democracy—The Egotistical Kaiser—The German Crown Prince—Britain's Monarch—Constantine Who Quit Rather than Fight Germany—President Poincaire—And Other National Heads.
No matter what the human frailties may be there are always men who rise in the stress of circumstances to unexpected heights. They thrive upon difficulties and in the emergencies become protectors and saviors of men. In the world's greatest melting-pot—the burned and blood-stained battlefields of Europe—there were tried and tested millions of men of all nationalities and characteristics, and though the experience was one of bitterness, there was found in it the satisfaction that in their own way millions of men proved themselves great.
Out of the hordes that rode over mountains, sailed the seas or picked their way through trenches and across the scarred surface of the earth there looms the figures of some whose names will go down in history for all time. Their names will be written indelibly upon the pages of life and they will be known for ages after the evidences of the great strife have been obliterated and the peace for which the world struggled has been made a permanent thing.
Among those whose names will be forever linked with the terrible war as a leader of men—whose figure stands out against the mass of humanity—is Woodrow Wilson, President of the United States of America. Though he neither faced bullets nor tramped the historic byways of Europe in the terrible struggle, he was to all intents and purposes the commander-in-chief of all the world forces seeking to break the autocratic domination of the Hohenzollerns of Germany and give democracy its place among the nations of the world which its character justifies.
President Wilson, when he was elevated to the highest position in America which the Nation could bestow, was recognized as one of the greatest essayists and students of history, political economy, constitutional law and government in the country. And those who made light of his "book-learning" and referred to him as "the school-master president," came to know that his training and the very character of his life's work fitted him better than probably any other man in America to deal with the great national and international problems which confronted, which culminated with or grew out of America's entrance into the great war.
He was born in Staunton, Va., in 1856, the son of Rev. Joseph Woodrow Wilson, and received his early education at Davidson College, N.C. Subsequently he received a degree at Princeton University and graduated in law at the University of Virginia, later practicing law at Atlanta. After this he received degrees at Johns Hopkins, Rutgers, University of Pennsylvania, Brown, Dartmouth, Harvard and Yale Colleges, and was professor of history and political economy, first at Bryn Mawr College and later at Wesleyan University, and finally professor of jurisprudence and political economy, then jurisprudence and politics and afterward president at Princeton University, from which post he was elected Governor of the State of New Jersey in 1913. He resigned from the Governorship and was elected President of the United States for a term beginning March, 1913, and was re-elected in November, 1916, for a second term beginning March, 1917, both times on the Democratic ticket.
As against the figure of President Wilson there stands that of the Emperor William of Germany, whose policies indirectly precipitated the war and impelled the alignment of nations to defend themselves against his autocratic domination. For years the head of the House of Hohenzollern, descendant of the ancient margraves of Germany who have battled with the old Romans, made it manifest in speech and by action that his ambition was to create a world empire.
Once at the launching of one of the great German warships he said: "The ocean teaches us that on its waves and on its most distant shores no great decision can any longer be taken without Germany and without the German Emperor. I do not think that it was in order to allow themselves to be excluded from big foreign affairs that, thirty years ago, our people, led by their princes, conquered and shed their blood. Were the German people to let themselves be treated thus, it would be, and forever, the end of their world-power; and I do not mean that that shall ever cease. To employ, in order to prevent it, the suitable means, if need be extreme means, is my duty and my highest privilege."
In a famous interview in the London "Daily Mail" in 1908, discussing the attitude of Germany toward England, the Kaiser was quoted as follows:
"You English," he said, "are mad, mad, mad as March hares. What has come over you that you are so completely given over to suspicions quite unworthy of a great nation? What more can I do than I have done? I declared with all the emphasis at my command, in my speech at Guildhall, that my heart is set upon peace, and that it is one of my dearest wishes to live on the best of terms with England. Have I ever been false to my word? Falsehood and prevarication are alien to my nature. My actions ought to speak for themselves, but you listen not to them but to those who misinterpret and distort them. That is a personal insult which I feel and resent. To be forever misjudged, to have my repeated offers of friendship weighed and scrutinized with jealous, mistrustful eyes, taxes my patience severely. I have said time after time that I am a friend of England, and your Press—or at least a considerable section of it—bids the people of England refuse my proffered hand, and insinuates that the other holds a dagger. How can I convince a nation against its will?"
And then as if to impress upon the world the belief that he was chosen of God, the Kaiser repeatedly gave voice to such bombastic utterances as when to his son in Brandenburg, he declared: "I look upon the people and nation handed on to me as a responsibility conferred upon me by God, and that it is, as is written in the Bible, my duty to increase this heritage, for which one day I shall be called upon to give an account; those who try to interfere with my task I shall crush."
Again he expressed the same sentiment when he said: "It is a tradition of our House, that we, the Hohenzollerns, regard ourselves as appointed by God to govern and to lead the people, whom it is given us to rule, for their well-being and the advancement of their material and intellectual interests."
And finally in his address to the people in August, 1914, he said at the beginning of war: "A fateful hour has fallen for Germany. Envious peoples everywhere are compelling us to our just defence. The sword has been forced into our hands. I hope that if my efforts at the last hour do not succeed in bringing our opponents to see eye to eye with us and in maintaining the peace, we shall, with God's help, so wield the sword that we shall restore it to its sheath again with honor.
"War would demand of us an enormous sacrifice in property and life, but we should show our enemies what it means to provoke Germany. And now I commend you to God. Go to church and kneel before God, and pray for His help for our gallant army."
This is the picture of "Kaiser Bill" whose egotism gave expression to itself in 1910 when in a speech he said: "Considering myself as the instrument of the Lord, without heeding the views and opinions of the day, I go my way."
William II, Emperor of Germany and King of Prussia, was born January 27, 1859, succeeding his father, Emperor Frederick the III, in June, 1888. He married the Princess Augusta Victoria, of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Augustenburg, and had the following issue: Frederick William, Crown Prince, born May 6, 1882; William Eitel-Frederick, born 1883; Adalbert, born 1884; August, born 1887; Oscar, born 1888; Joachim, born 1890, and Victoria Louise, born 1892.
Crown Prince Frederick William is one of the remarkable figures of the war. A profound admirer of Napoleon he has always made a close study of that great French soldier, and has long been one of the leaders of the war-seeking element in Germany. The Crown Prince, who was born in 1882, is tall, slim and impulsive. The late Queen Victoria, his great grandmother, was his godmother.
After he had completed a military course he attended Bonn University, and on the completion of his college course he set out on extensive travels. After his return he was placed in the offices of the Potsdam provincial government so that he might study local administration. After completing this study he was given a course in the intricate routine through which two-thirds of the German people are governed, by being placed in the Prussian Ministry of the Interior. Naval administration has also been a part of the studies of the Crown Prince, in fact he was deeply engrossed in that study when the war was declared.
The Crown Prince married Duchess Cecilie of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, in 1905.
King George V, of Great Britain, the only surviving son of the late King Edward, was born in 1865. He was the second son of the king, his brother Prince Albert, the heir to the throne, dying suddenly in 1892 and bringing the second son, who had been destined for the navy, into direct succession. In 1893 Princess Mary of Teck, who was to have married Prince Albert, was married to Prince George, and there is one daughter, Princess Mary, and five sons—Edward, Prince of Wales, and Princes Albert, Henry, George and John.
Prince Arthur, the Duke of Connaught, who is now Governor General of Canada, is an uncle of the King. He was married to Princess Louise-Margaret of Prussia, the daughter of Prince Frederick-Charles of Prussia and Princess Marie-Anne of Anhalt. He has three children; Margaret, the oldest, is the Crown Princess of Sweden; Prince Arthur is married to his cousin, Princess Alexandra, Duchess of Fife, and Princess Victoria-Patricia, who is unmarried.
King Edward had three brothers and five sisters, two brothers falling heir in turn to the Duchy of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha.
King George V is uncle by blood to Olaf, Crown Prince of Norway, and by marriage with Queen Mary, to three Princes and three Princesses of Teck. He is brother-in-law to King Haakon VII of Norway and Prince of Denmark, Duke Adolph of Teck, and Prince Alexander of Teck. He is a first cousin on his father's side to Emperor William II of Germany, and his brothers and sisters, among whom, principally, is the Queen of Greece; to Ernst-Louis, Grand Duke of Hesse, and his four sisters, one of whom is the wife of Prince Henry of Prussia, and another is Alice, former Czarina of Russia. The first and second cousins of the King run well up into the hundreds.
The Royal Family of Belgium was founded when, in 1831, the people elected King Leopold I to rule the destinies of that country. The king was married to Princess Louise of Orleans, after which practically all the marriages of the family were with the southern group of royal houses.
There were three children born to the couple, the oldest son succeeding to the throne as King Leopold II. The latter married Archduchess Marie Henriette of Austria. One son, and three daughters were born, the son dying when he was 23 years old. The oldest of the daughters became the wife of Prince Philip of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, the second wedding Crown Prince Rudolph of Austria-Hungary, who died in youth, and the third becoming the wife of Prince Napoleon Bonaparte. The daughter of Leopold I is the widow of the ill-fated Emperor Maximilian of Mexico, who was executed there in 1867.
The second son of Leopold I was Philip, the Count of Flanders, who was married to Princess Marie of Hohenzollern, sister of the Prince Leopold of Hohenzollern and King Charles of Roumania. The son to this marriage is King Albert of Belgium, who succeeded his uncle, Leopold II, in 1909. The Queen of Belgium is Princess Elizabeth of the Ducal House of Bavaria. Through her King Albert is allied to the Crown Prince of Bavaria, the Grand Duchess of Luxemburg, the Duke of Parma, the late Franz Ferdinand of Austria, and the present heir-apparent, Archduke Charles Francis Joseph. The King and Queen have two sons, Leopold, born in 1902, and Charles Theodore, who is two years younger. There is also a daughter, the Princess Marie-Josephine, born in 1906.
King Nicholas I, ruler of the picturesque little country of Montenegro, which was the scene of much bitter fighting, was born October 7, 1841, and proclaimed Prince of Montenegro, as successor to his uncle Danilo I, in 1860. He became king in 1910. Nicholas I married Milena Petrovna Vucotic. The children are Princess Militza, who married the Russian Grand Duke Peter Nikolaievitch; Princess Stana, who married George, Duke of Leuchtenberg, but which marriage was dissolved, the Princess subsequently marrying the Russian Grand Duke Nicholas Nikolaievitch. The other children are Prince Danilo Alexander, heir-apparent; Princess Helena, who married Victor Emmanuel, King of Italy; Princess Anna, who married Prince Francis Joseph of Battenberg; Prince Mirko, who married Natalie Constantinovitch; Princess Zenia, Princess Vera and finally Prince Peter, who was born in 1889.
Peter I, King of Servia, one of the figures of the war, is the son of Alexander Kara-Georgevitch. He was born in Belgrade in 1844, and was proclaimed King after the murder of King Alexander and Queen Draga. He ascended the throne on June 2, 1903. He was married in 1883 to Princess Zorka, of Montenegro, who died in 1890. He has two sons and a daughter; George, who was born in 1887, and who renounced his right to the throne in 1909; Alexander, born in 1889, and Helen, who was born in 1884. Because of his ill health King Peter, for a long time, delegated authority to his son Alexander for the purpose of government.
Nicholas II, the last Czar of Russia, who abdicated in June, 1917, was born May 18, 1868, and succeeded his father, Emperor Alexander III, on November 1, 1894. He married Princess Alexandra Alice, daughter of Ludwig IV, Grand Duke of Hesse, and has four daughters and one son: Olga, Tatiana, Marie, Anastasia and Alexis.
The family is descended in the female line from Michael Romanof, first elected Czar in 1613, and, in the male line, from Duke Karl Frederick of Holstein-Gottorp. As the result of intermarriages and connections with the royal houses of Germany, they are practically Germans by blood.
It was in fact the German influence, which is said to have been the immediate cause of the revolt in the great country.
The revolution may be said to have had its inception when a small group of men opposed to the German influence at court assassinated the monk Gregory Rasputin, who had a great influence over the Czar.
Czar Nicholas in anger dismissed Premier Trepoff and installed a thoroughly reactionary Cabinet. Trepoff had been in office only a short time, having followed M. Sturmer, who had bitterly fought the Duma. It had been commonly reported that the real power in the Russian Government after Sturmer went out was in the hands of the Minister of the Interior, M. Protopopoff. Sturmer had been called to the premiership to succeed M. Goremykin, who was in office when the war began.
The fact that Michael Rodzianko, president of the Duma and one of the leading advocates of liberalization of the Government, was named as the chief figure in the provisional government, showed that the movement is in the hands of the same forces which had demanded the overthrow of the bureaucracy and a more energetic prosecution of the war.
There were many changes in the Russian Government during the war, although the censorship was enforced so rigidly that the significance of the rapid shifts was apparent. Vague reports reached the outside world of high councilors of State who were obstructing instead of assisting the work of carrying on the war, and the strength of German influence at Petrograd. The most conspicuous case of this sort was that of General Soukhomlinoff, former Minister of War, who was dismissed from office and imprisoned as a result of charges of criminal negligence and high treason.
M. Sazonoff, Russia's Foreign Minister at the beginning of the war and an ardent believer in the prosecution of the war, was deposed early in the reactionary regime and sent as envoy to London. It was suggested that the motive for this was not to honor an anti-German, but to get him out of Russia.
The members of the Russian Cabinet, as announced for the Provisional Government, were:
Prince Georges E. Lvov, well known as president of the Zemstvos' Union, Prime Minister.
Alexander J. Guchkoff, Minister of the Interior.
Paul Milukoff, well known as a Constitutional Democrat leader, Minister of Foreign Affairs.
M. Pokrovski, Minister of Finance.
General Manikovski, chief of the Artillery Department, War Minister.
M. Savitch, Minister of Marine.
M. Maklakoff, Minister of Justice.
M. Kovalevski, Minister of Education.
M. Nekrasoff, Minister of Railways.
M. Konovaloff, Moscow merchant, Minister of Commerce and Industry.
M. Rodischneff, Secretary for Finland.
M. Kerenski, Minister without portfolio.
The executive committee of the Imperial Duma, as the provisional Government styles itself, is composed of twelve members, under M. Rodzianko, including two Socialists, two Conservatives, three Moderates, five Constitutional Democrats and Progressives.
Constantine I, King of Greece, who abdicated in favor of his son, Prince Alexander, on June 11, 1917, under pressure from the Allied countries, was born in 1868. His father, King George, was assassinated at Salonica on March 18, 1913. The abdication of King Constantine in June, 1917, was due to his opposition to the forces in the government which desired to join the Allies in the war against Germany. The influence in favor of the Germans in the royal family of Greece was Queen Sophia, a sister of the Kaiser.
For a time Constantine was a veritable idol in Greece. In 1896 when his country was drifting into war with Turkey, he sounded a warning that the Greek army was unprepared for a campaign. The infantry was armed with condemned French rifles; the cartridges were 15 years old; there was no cavalry; the artillery was obsolete, and the officers few. When the country went to war despite his warning, the result was a disastrous defeat. A similar situation developed when King George tried to oppose the popular clamor for the annexation of Crete. The King knew that Turkey was waiting for another opportunity to crush Greece, and there was a second uprising.
Constantine had been in command of the military forces, and King George was obliged to dismiss him as Generalissimo. In the Balkan war of 1912, however, when he led an army of 10,000 Greeks to the capture of Salonica, causing 30,000 Turks to lay down arms, he became an idol. On ascending the throne, it was said that he aimed to restore the grandeur of the ancient Hellenic Empire, and that he was a firm believer in the old national prophecy that, under the reign of a "Constantine and a Sophia," the Eastern Empire would be rejuvenated and the cross restored on Saint Sophia in Constantinople, supplanting the Crescent of the Turk. In fact, after the Balkan war, when Greece added a section of Turkish territory to her domain, and the islands of Crete were annexed, King Constantine hoisted the ancient Hellenic flag over the fort.
The climax in Grecian affairs was precipitated when Turkey entered the great World War on the side of Germany. The question of intervention on the part of Greece arose, and King Constantine insisted on strict neutrality being observed. The cabinet, headed by Premier Venizelos, which was for war on the side of the Allies, tendered its resignation. When the operations began against the Dardanelles the Government believed that the time had come for Greece to enter the war. The King refused to countenance the plan, arguing that the sending of forces to the Dardanelles would dangerously weaken the Greek defences on the Bulgarian frontier. Queen Sophia was regarded as bitterly opposed to the country joining the Allies, and was reported to have threatened several times to leave the country.
The criticism directed against Constantine was severe because, under the terms of the treaty made in the Balkan war, Greece was committed to ally herself with Servia if that country were attacked by another power. Austria did invade Servia, but Constantine asserted that the treaty applied only to an attack by another Balkan nation.
The occupation by troops of the Entente Powers of a part of Macedonia, and the seizure of Salonica as their base, involved the King of Greece in a long series of clashes with the Entente commanders, and he was accused of evasion and attempting to gain time in the interests of Germany. A temporary understanding was obtained, but meantime the provisional government, headed by Venizelos, had been growing in strength, and obtained the recognition of the Entente Powers.
The Allies laid an embargo on the supplies of Greece, and Constantine was denounced by the people of Crete and other territory, who demanded his dethronement. This was the situation, in a general way, which led to his abdication and his retirement to Berlin, with the Queen, in the summer of 1917.
Alexander, who succeeded his father, was a second son, born August 1, 1893. He was a captain in the First Regiment, artillery, in the Greek army.
Victor Emmanuel, King of Italy, who threw the weight of his country with the Allies, repudiating the treaty with Germany and Austria-Hungary which established what was known as the Triple Entente, was born in 1869, the only son of King Humbert, second King of United Italy, who was murdered at Monza, in July, 1900. Victor Emmanuel married Princess Elena, daughter of Nicholas, King of Montenegro, and has four children: Princess Yolanda, Princess Mafalda; Prince Humbert, heir-apparent, and Princess Giovanna. The mother of King Emmanuel—Dowager Queen Margherita—is a daughter of the later Prince Ferdinand of Savoy.
Charles I, the Emperor of Austria and King of Hungary, was born in 1887 and succeeded his grand uncle, Francis Joseph I, in November, 1916. His way to the throne lay through tragedy, for he came into the crown immediately through the assassination of the Archduke Francis Ferdinand, heir-apparent, and his morganatic wife Countess Sophie Chotek, in Bosnia, and which crime was the signal for the war. Nor would Charles have been entitled to succeed to the throne but for the fact that the Archduke Rudolf, heir-apparent to the throne, committed suicide in 1889.
The right of succession went with his death to the second brother of the then Emperor Francis Joseph, or Archduke Charles Louis, father of the assassinated Archduke Francis Ferdinand. It passed then after the tragedies to Archduke Otto, brother of Francis Ferdinand, Charles I being the son of the Archduke Otto. The young Emperor married Princess Zita of Bourbon Parma in 1911. She is the daughter of Duke Robert of Parma, and sister of the first wife of Czar Ferdinand of Bulgaria. The Emperor has four children: Francis Joseph Otto, Adelaide Marie, Robert Charles Ludwig and Felix Frederic August.
Ferdinand of Bulgaria, Czar, is son of the late Prince Augustus of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha and late Princess Clementine of Bourbon-Orleans, daughter of King Louis Philippe. He was born in 1861 and succeeded Prince Alexander, who abdicated. He married Marie Louise, daughter of Robert of Parma, and after her death married Princess Eleanore of Reuss-Kostritz. There are four children by the first marriage: Prince Boris, heir-apparent; Prince Cyril, Princess Eudoxia, Princess Nadejda.
Alfonso XIII, King of Spain, was born May 17, 1886, his father, King Alfonso XII, having died nearly six months previous to his birth. Maria Christina, mother of the heir to the Spanish throne, was an Austrian princess. In 1906 King Alfonso XIII married the English Princess Victoria Eugenie, daughter of the late Henry of Battenberg and Princess Beatrice, a daughter of the late Queen Victoria.
King Alfonso XIII has four sons: Alfonso, Prince of the Asturias, heir to the Spanish throne; Prince Jaime, who is deaf and dumb; Prince Juan, and Prince Gonzalo. There are two daughters, Princess Beatrice, and Princess Maria Christina.
The King's sisters were Maria de las Mercedes, who married Prince Carlos of Bourbon, in February, 1901, and died in 1904, and Infanta Maria Teresa, who died suddenly from the effects of childbirth. She was the wife of Prince Ferdinand, who afterward remarried Dona Maria Luisa Pie de Concha, who was created Duchess of Talavera de la Reina, and given the courtesy title of Highness by Alfonso. Don Carlos, who was born in 1848, and was the pretender to the Spanish throne, was a second cousin to the King. He died in 1909, leaving a son, Prince Jamie, born in 1870, and who is the present pretender, and four daughters.
The Spanish reigning family are the Bourbons, descendants of King Louis XIV of France.
Ferdinand, King of Roumania, was born in 1865, and is a nephew of the late King Carol, who died in 1914. In 1893 he married Princess Marie of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, and two sons and four daughters were born to the royal couple as follows: Charles, who was born in 1893, and who is heir-apparent; Nicholas, Elizabeth, Marie, Ileana and Mircia, the latter dying when four years old.
President Poincaire, of France, is a bearded, pale-faced, short, and rather stout man, who leaves upon those who come in contact with him, an impression of his mental ability. He was born in 1860, and is regarded as one of the few strong characters who have held the office of President since the war which brought about the third Republic. He is an author of widely read books, and has won a place in the French Academy. As a lawyer he was a leader at the bar, and before being chosen President, in 1913, he served as Minister of Finance, and as Minister of Public Instruction. While serving as Minister of Finance he is credited with having put on the statutes admirable laws regulating and equalizing the taxations of millions. President Poincaire is a patron of art, and has been counsel of the Beaux Art, of the National Museum and President of the Society of Friends of the University of Paris.
The Sultan of Turkey, the outstanding nation in the conflict, not Christian, was chosen ruler and took the Osman sword on May 10, 1909, and was designated Mohammed V. His name is Mohammed Reshad Effendi, and he succeeded Abd-ul-Hamid, who was deposed. The latter became Sultan in 1876, succeeding Abd-ul-Aziz, who was preceded by Abd-ul-Mejid.
The history of the Ottoman Empire is filled with mystery, romance and stories of intrigue, cruelty and barbarities, involving internal wars, uprisings, almost continuous struggles with practically all of the European countries and massacres that aroused the whole world. Legend assigns Oghuz, son of Kara Khan, father of the Ottoman Turks, whose first appearance in history dates back to 1227 A.D.
The reign of Abd-ul-Aziz in the latter part of the last century was marked by many massacres and the extravagant conduct of affairs by the Sultan, who visited England in 1876 and was honored by Queen Victoria, who bestowed upon him the Order of the Garter. He was deposed and Abd-ul-Hamid succeeded. He made feeble attempts to reorganize the Government, but his efforts were fruitless and following wars and uprisings and further internal troubles and the loss of territory he was deposed and the present Sultan was chosen.
Striking Figures in the Conflict—Joffre, the Hero of Marne—Nivelle, the French Commander—Sir Douglas Haig—The Kaiser's Chancellor—Venizelos—"Black Jack" Pershing.
One of the most striking figures among those whose names are irrevocably linked with the history of the world fight for democracy, is that of Joseph Joffre, Marshal of France, former Commander of the French forces and victor of the famous battle of the Marne, who led the French Mission to the United States, after America entered the war.
The Commander-in-Chief of all the French armies, a man of humble birth, saw the light of day at Perpignan, near the Pyrenees, in 1852.
The future General early showed a deep interest in mathematics and obtained the degree of Bachelor of Science at the College of Perpignan at the early age of 16. He was a student at the Polytechnic Institute when the Franco-German War of 1870 broke out. Joffre was placed in charge of a large part of the defense of Paris and drew the plans of the fortifications in the direction of Enghein. At the age of 19 he was promoted to Captaincy in the presence of Marshal MacMahon and his whole staff.
Marshal Joffre traveled much and spent a great many years fighting France's colonial wars. He served in the Formosa campaign of 1885; constructed a chain of forts at Tonkin, Cochin-China; was decorated for distinguished bravery in leading his troops in action there in the eighties; was Chief Engineer of the Engineering Corps at Hanoi, and undertook the building of a railroad from Senegal to the Niger River in 1892.
Joffre fought through the Dahomey Campaign in 1893; saved the day for the French in a brilliant rear-guard action and entered Timbuctoo as a conqueror. Later he proceeded to Madagascar, where he constructed fortifications and organized a naval station.
Recalled to France, General Joffre became a Professor in the War College and obtained his stars in 1901. He later entered the Engineering Department of the War Ministry; then became Military Governor of Lille. Later he was promoted to be a Division Commander in Paris and then commander of the Second Army Corps at Amiens. He gained the honor in 1911 of a unanimous vote of the Superior Council of War making him Commander of all the military forces of France.
His record in the World War is well known. Every one has read of his masterly conduct of the retreat from the Belgian border; of his work in regrouping the shattered and retiring French forces; of his ringing appeal to the men to strike back at the moment he had determined upon. At the Marne he saved France and perhaps the world.
Joffre is unsympathetic and grim when at work. He has no patience for anything but the highest efficiency. At a single stroke he cashiered a score of Generals who did not measure up to his standards. He is a master builder, organizer and strategist. Though rather taciturn he is loved both by the officers and poilus. Among the latter he became known as "Papa" Joffre.
He showed by his appointments and acts that a new inspiration—an inspiration of patriotism—controlled the Republic. Joffre's accession to supreme command symbolized that France had experienced a new birth, that the army was well organized and that the man who for three years had been silently performing the regeneration of the land forces had rightly been placed over the forces he had reformed.
Almost unknown to the masses, Joffre was placed at the head of the French troops in the summer of 1914. Among his associates he was known as an authority on aeroplanes, automobiles, telegraphs and the other details of modern warfare. Above everything else he stood for efficiency and preparedness, and lacked the qualities of the French soldier of literature. To be prepared for instant war had been his effort for three years, and when that time came France found herself nearly as well prepared for the conflict as was Germany, which had prepared for twenty-five years.
One of his few published speeches, made to his old school chums, is on this theme. "To be prepared in our days," he said, "has a meaning which those who prepared for and fought the wars of other days would have great difficulty in understanding. It would be a sad mistake to depend upon a sudden burst of popular enthusiasm, even though it should surpass in intensity that of the volunteers of the Revolution, if we do not fortify it by complete preparation.
"To be prepared we must assemble all the resources of the country, all the intelligence of her children, all their moral energy and direct them toward a single aim—victory. We must have organized everything, foreseen everything. Once hostilities have begun no improvisation will be worth while. Whatever lacks then will be lacking for good and all. And the slightest lack of preparation will spell disaster."
What Joffre said to his chums he had done for the French army, and President Poincare, after the Battle of the Marne, summed up his qualities which made it a French victory in this message to Joffre: "In the conduct of our armies you have shown a spirit of organization, order and of method whose beneficent effects have influenced every phase, from strategy to tactics; a wisdom cold and cautious, which has always prepared for the unexpected, a powerful soul which nothing has shaken, a serenity whose salutary example has everywhere inspired confidence and hope."
These words of the President of the French Republic are an epitome of the character and the military record of Joffre. He is representative of the real France, not the France of Paris and scandals. He is of the peasantry, and he and his kind, men of character, brought about the glorious France of the war.
Among those who accompanied Joffre on his visit to the United States was Rene Viviani, ex-Premier of France and Minister of Justice. He was born in Algeria in 1862, his family being Corsican, and originally of Italian blood.
M. Viviani became a lawyer in Paris and built up a large practice. In 1893 he entered the Chamber of Deputies as a Socialist. Together with Briand, Jaures and Millerand he was long a leader of the parliamentary delegation of Socialists. On June 1, 1914, one month before the outbreak of the war, M. Viviani became Prime Minister. He showed himself a brilliant leader and tireless worker. His speeches embodying the spirit of fighting France were read and admired the world over. Many persons consider Rene Viviani France's greatest orator. Volumes of his speeches have had a wide sale.
M. Viviani was succeeded in the Premiership by M. Briand, and recently he became Minister of Justice in the Ribot Cabinet. He is a man of great culture. Though an excellent Latin and Greek scholar, he speaks no English. Rene Viviani has had some experience as a newspaper man, as a special writer and as managing editor of the Petite Republique. His younger son, aged 22, was killed in the war. His older son has been wounded but is back at the front.
Another member of the French mission was M. de Hovelacque, the French Inspector General of Public Instruction. He is well known in the United States because of his marriage to Miss Josephine Higgins, of New York State.
The Right Honorable Arthur Balfour, ex-Premier of England, who came to America to join in the conferences at which the policies for carrying the war were outlined after America became an Ally, is described as one of the most intellectual statesmen in England, and one who, although he won all the honors his country could give him, never realized his own possibilities. At sixty-nine, at the height of his mental development, he occupies a place in the English cabinet, a place which was given him because of his great hold upon the autocracy of England.