There are in Europe altogether, including a regiment and some sanitary units with the Italian Army and the organizations at Murmansk, also including those en route from the States, approximately 2,053,347 men, less our losses. Of this total there are in France 1,338,169 combatant troops. Forty divisions have arrived, of which the infantry of ten have been used as replacements, leaving thirty divisions now in France organized into three armies of three corps each.

The losses of the Americans up to Nov. 18 are: Killed and wounded, 36,145; died of disease, 14,811; deaths unclassified, 2,204; wounded, 179,625; prisoners, 2,163; missing, 1,160. We have captured about 44,000 prisoners and 1,400 guns, howitzers, and trench mortars.

The duties of the General Staff, as well as those of the army and corps staffs, have been very ably performed. Especially is this true when we consider the new and difficult problems with which they have been confronted. This body of officers, both as individuals and as an organization, has, I believe, no superiors in professional ability, in efficiency, or in loyalty.

Nothing that we have in France better reflects the efficiency and devotion to duty of Americans in general than the Service of Supply, whose personnel is thoroughly imbued with a patriotic desire to do its full duty. They have at all times fully appreciated their responsibility to the rest of the army, and the results produced have been most gratifying.

Our Medical Corps is especially entitled to praise for the general effectiveness of its work, both in hospital and at the front. Embracing men of high professional attainments, and splendid women devoted to their calling and untiring in their efforts, this department has made a new record for medical and sanitary proficiency.

The Quartermaster Department has had difficult and various tasks, but it has more than met all demands that have been made upon it. Its management and its personnel have been exceptionally efficient and deserve every possible commendation.

As to the more technical services, the able personnel of the Ordnance Department in France has splendidly fulfilled its functions, both in procurement and in forwarding the immense quantities of ordnance required. The officers and men and the young women of the Signal Corps have performed their duties with a large conception of the problem, and with a devoted and patriotic spirit to which the perfection of our communications daily testifies. While the Engineer Corps has been referred to in another part of this report, it should be further stated that the work has required large vision and high professional skill, and great credit is due their personnel for the high proficiency that they have constantly maintained.

Our aviators have no equals in daring or in fighting ability, and have left a record of courageous deeds that will ever remain a brilliant page in the annals of our army. While the Tank Corps has had limited opportunities, its personnel has responded gallantly on every possible occasion, and has shown courage of the highest order.

The Adjutant General's Department has been directed with a systematic thoroughness and excellence that surpassed any previous work of its kind. The Inspector General's Department has risen to the highest standards, and throughout has ably assisted commanders in the enforcement of discipline. The able personnel of the Judge Advocate General's Department has solved with judgment and wisdom the multitude of difficult legal problems, many of them involving questions of great international importance.

It would be impossible in this brief preliminary report to do justice to the personnel of all the different branches of this organization, which I shall cover in detail in a later report.

The navy in European waters has at all times most cordially aided the army, and it is most gratifying to report that there has never before been such perfect co-operation between these two branches of the service.

As to the Americans in Europe not in the military service, it is the greatest pleasure to say that, both in official and in private life, they are intensely patriotic and loyal, and have been invariably sympathetic and helpful to the army.

Finally, I pay the supreme tribute to our officers and soldiers of the line. When I think of their heroism, their patience under hardships, their unflinching spirit of offensive action, I am filled with emotion which I am unable to express. Their deeds are immortal, and they have earned the eternal gratitude of our country.

JOHN J. PERSHING. General, Commander-in-Chief, American Expeditionary Forces.



THE UNITED STATES AT WAR—AT HOME

When any nation declares war, it immediately brings upon itself unusual problems and difficulties, but probably no other nation ever had such problems to solve and such difficulties to overcome as the United States, immediately after Congress declared a state of war existed with Germany. The United States was not ready for war. She had been a peace loving nation, and although possessed of great natural resources, she had never developed them, to any extent, for the purpose of carrying on war. The cosmopolitan people of the United States had never been put to the severe test of war conditions, and whether or not they would stand together as one great nation was yet to be proved. This meant that when war was declared the United States had to start right at the bottom and build up a mighty fighting nation. This had to be done as quickly as possible, for Germany's plan was to crush her enemies before the United States could bring any help.

The first thing that the country was called upon to do was to raise an army. Under ordinary circumstances, the government would call for volunteers. In this way an army could be provided which would be sufficient for usual conditions. The war with Germany, however, was by no means a war in any way like that Americans had taken part in before. The government knew this and realized that the United States would have to raise an army that numbered in the millions. To do this, the volunteer system was found entirely inadequate. So a system of drafting men was worked out for which the government passed the draft law, compelling all men between the ages of 21 and 31 to register for military service. This plan was accepted with great favor by the people, and consequently, the day after registration the government had ten million men in the prime of life from which to pick her army. The draft system was in charge of General Crowder who, as a result of long study on the subject, had devised a system which was not in any way influenced by political pull and was equally fair to both the rich and the poor. Local boards were established for examining the drafted men, and those selected were soon on their way to training camps.

To house this great army, the government had to build a great system of army camps. Contracts were given out soon after war was declared and the camps began to spring up almost overnight. The government built 16 draft army camps and 16 national guard camps. There were also numerous other military zones where smaller bodies of troops were trained. The draft army camps were located so as to house the men from different sections of the country, as a glance at the list of camps will show:—

Camp Devens, Massachusetts; Camp Upton, New York; Camp Dix, New Jersey; Camp Meade, Maryland; Camp Lee, Virginia; Camp Jackson, South Carolina; Camp Gordon, Georgia; Camp Sherman, Ohio; Camp Taylor, Kentucky; Camp Custer, Michigan; Camp Grant, Illinois; Camp Pike, Arkansas; Camp Dodge, Iowa; Camp Funston, Kansas; Camp Travis, Texas; Camp Lewis, Washington.

These great cities were built in less than four months. If all the buildings of the sixteen cantonments were placed end to end, they would make a continuous structure reaching from Washington to Detroit. Each one of these camps housed between 35,000 and 47,000 men. The sixteen cantonments were capable of providing for a number equal to the combined population of Arizona and New Mexico. The hospitals of these camps were able to take care of as many sick and wounded as are to be found in all the hospitals west of the Mississippi in normal times. Each camp covered many square miles of land which had to be cleared of trees and brush before buildings and roads were completed.



To keep these cantonments clean and fit to live in, large numbers of sanitary engineers, medical officers, and scientific experts were kept busy planning and installing the most modern sanitation systems. To command this great army, the government built officers' camps where men best fitted were trained to be officers, and were then sent to the cantonments to help in changing the American citizen into a soldier. War was declared in April, and by the hot weather of summer America was sending troops by the tens of thousands to Europe. The wonderful way in which American shipbuilders had made it possible to transport these soldiers is told later. But before leaving the subject of raising an army, let us first see by means of figures just what the United States had accomplished in this work. In August, 1918, the overseas force alone was seven times as large as the entire United States army sixteen months before, at the declaration of war. In this time she had transported a million and a half troops overseas and had the same number on this side, with the numbers always increasing. In September, 1918, she had another draft and registration, calling men between the ages of 18 and 45. This gave thirteen million more men.

The colleges of the country had suffered a great deal because of the two draft laws, as practically all men of college age were liable to military service. To overcome this difficulty, the government established in the fall of 1918, the Student Army Training Corps. This plan allowed all students of military age, who were physically fit, to enlist in the army and receive military training, and at the same time obtain a college education. From these men the government planned to choose future officer material. Although the war came to a close before the plan could be fully carried out, it gave every promise of being a success.

It must be evident that perhaps even a greater problem than raising the army was how it was to be transported to Europe. At the beginning of the war, the United States had no ships to use for her necessary task of transporting men and supplies. The ships that were sailing from her ports were all doing their capacity work and could not be used for the new demands. The Shipping Board immediately looked around for yards to place orders for new ships; but there were no yards to fill the orders, as the few the United States had were all overburdened with work. The only remaining solution of the problem was to build new yards. America did it.

The United States went into the war with something like thirty steel and twenty-four wood shipyards, employing less than eighty thousand men. In a little over a year's time, there were one hundred and fifty-five yards turning out ships and employing over three hundred and eighty-six thousand men. These men turned out more tonnage every month than the United States had ever turned out in any entire year before the war. Of the new yards, the greatest was the famous Hog Island yard. On what was once a swamp on the Delaware River, just below Philadelphia, the United States built this yard which is the largest in the world. The demand for speed in building resulted in the plan of fabricating the steel before sending it to the yards. By this method the steel is cut and punched before going to the yard where it is then assembled. Thus steel mills at long distances from the shipyards could be doing a very considerable part of building the ships. Perhaps the great increase in shipping can be best stated by a few figures. In the month of January, 1918, America produced 88,507 tons. Six months later in July she produced 631,944 tons. Before the war the official estimate of America's annual shipping production was 200,000 tons. The estimated production for 1919 was 7,500,000 tons.

The United States navy at the time of the declaration of war was unprepared for the task ahead of it. It was efficient but not nearly large enough for the tremendous amount of work it was called upon to perform. The troop and supply transports needed convoys. There were hundreds of miles of coast to be patrolled. Merchant ships must be armed with men and guns. All this had to be done, besides the work of aiding the Allied fleets in European waters. The government was not long in seeing the need of a great increase in the naval force and was soon making plans to bring this about. New yards were constructed immediately for the building of warships, and the capacity of the old yards was increased. These yards were soon busy turning out destroyers and battleships at a remarkable speed. The special work of patrolling the coasts for submarines called for a great many small and speedy submarine chasers. Motor boat manufacturers all over the country immediately began to make these swift little craft which were popularly called the "mosquito fleet." Even the great factories of Henry Ford, although already busy turning out thousands of motor cars, found room to build these chasers at their inland factories. They were built on specially constructed flat cars, which were then drawn to the coast, where the ships were launched.

As the number of ships increased, the man power was accordingly increased. The navy established a new record by placing a unit of five 14-inch naval guns mounted on specially built railway cars for land duty in France. These guns were the longest range guns in France and were out-distanced only by the great German super guns, the destroying of which was one of their objects. The German super gun fired a small shell for a distance of from sixty to seventy miles. The naval 14-inch guns fired a 1400 lb. shell about twenty-five miles. Although this was a new departure for the navy, it met with the same success which had crowned all of the other war work of this branch of the service.

[Illustration: A 10-inch caliber naval gun on a railroad mount at the Aberdeen Proving Grounds, Maryland, where, after official testing, it was destined for the advance into Germany. Railroad artillery played a very important part in the late war because of its great mobility and range. This gun is terrifically effective at a range of fifteen miles. The oil cylinders visible under the gun where it is mounted are not sufficient to take up the recoil, hence the braces which protrude against the wooden platforms sunk into the ground. The bridge-like structure on the rear platform of the car is part of the carrier for the shell in loading, and the arched bar over the breech block a part of the newly invented quick loading device.]

In figures the work of the navy stands out prominently. At the time war was declared, the navy had 65,777 men in the service and 197 ships in commission; when the armistice was signed, the navy consisted of 497,030 men and about 2000 ships, out of which 75,000 men and 388 ships were on duty in foreign waters.

While army and navy preparations were going on, the business of obtaining munitions and supplies was being very carefully attended to. Before the war there were very few firms making supplies for the government. This meant that the government would have to turn to the great private concerns for its material. These firms dropped all their pre-war work and attended strictly to government orders. The result was that at the end of the summer of 1918 the government was doing business with over 3,000 firms and had over 12,000 contracts in operation. Even small plants invested heavily in increasing their capacity so as to be able to turn out more and better work for the government. The organizing and manufacturing genius of the American people came to the front with a result that the American overseas forces were almost entirely supplied by American products, thereby taking little strength away from the foreign manufacturers.

A few facts concerning the production of motor vehicles will give an idea of the immensity of America's manufacturing program. The automobile industry as a whole expended one billion three hundred million dollars in order to expand its factories to fill government orders. By the month of October, 1918, 70,000 motor trucks had been sent overseas. At the end of the war, 5-ton and 10-ton trucks were being built at the rate of 1000 a day, and all trucks, at the rate of shipment then prevailing, would have in a year's time made a procession 300 miles long.

If critical persons were to try to point out any weakness in America's preparedness program, they would probably take the production of aircraft as an instance where the government had failed. Although America was slow in producing airplanes, it must be taken into consideration that this was almost entirely a new departure for American manufacturers. The delay in airplane production was due to the fact that there was too much red tape to be unrolled before actual work was begun. The government soon realized this and appointed one man to have entire charge of aircraft production. Under his management the red tape was thrown aside and business-like methods took its place.

The combined ability of the automobile engineers of the country produced the Liberty motor which proved to be one of the best airplane engines ever developed to lift great weights. The DeHaviland and Handley-Page, bombing and reconnaissance planes, were immediately equipped largely with the new Liberty. 3180 of the former and 101 of the latter were produced in this country in the year before the armistice was signed. Out of this number 1379 had been shipped overseas. In the meantime the production of planes had been far outstripped by the enlisted and commissioned personnel of the air service. Thousands of cadets and officers were delayed in the ground schools, at the flying schools, and at Camp Dick, Texas, the concentration post for aviation, because of the ruinous shortage of planes, just when the American forces newly brought into the battle zones needed the efficient help of a great fleet of aircraft. Airplanes are rightly called "the eyes of the army." It is unofficially stated that less than 800 American aviators ever saw service over the German lines, and these men, not having American scout planes, used largely foreign models equipped with the famous French Gnome, LeRhone, and Hispano-Suiza motors. American-made machines, whether for bombing, observing, or scouting, went into action for the first time in July, 1918.



The American people before the war were the most wasteful people in the world. This was probably due to the fact that the people had never been confronted by a real necessity for economizing. However, when war was declared the government immediately demanded that the people conserve their food. The result was that Americans were soon observing wheatless, meatless, and porkless days with great patriotic fervor. 12,000,000 families signed pledges to observe the rules of the food administration, and hotels and restaurants joined in the great conservation effort. War gardens sprang up by the millions. The country was soon conserving millions of pounds of foodstuffs that would ordinarily have been wasted. A food "hog" was considered in the same light as a traitor!

On the same plan as the food administration, the government conducted the conservation of coal. The result was that the essential industries received coal first and the people could get only what was absolutely necessary for heating their homes. Lights were turned out in cities early to save fuel. The "daylight saving" plan from April to November turned the clocks ahead one hour. As a result of all these precautions, the factories were kept going, the ships were not hindered for lack of coal, and America's great preparedness program was carried on without hindrance or delay.

It is difficult to realize what gigantic efforts America was putting forth. An illustration from the manufacture of ordnance will help such an understanding. In the fall of 1918, the United States government was spending upon the making of ordnance alone, every thirty days, an amount equal to the cost of the Panama Canal, and it was spending as much or more in several other departments. What a terrible loss war brings to the world!



To finance these tremendous preparedness projects, the government called upon the people to lend their money by buying government liberty bonds. This was an entirely new thing for the American people of any generation, but they responded in a manner that showed the government that the people were backing it to the last inch, and that they were out to win as quickly as possible, regardless of cost, or other sacrifices they were called upon to make. The government conducted great loan campaigns. Each one met with greater success than the one preceding it. The bonds were bought by all classes of people, and a man without a bond was like a dog without a home. Of course the great banks and corporations bought millions of dollars worth of bonds, but the great number of small denomination bonds bought by the wage-earning classes was what spelled the success of the loans. The total amount raised by the five loans was approximately twenty-two billion dollars.

Besides these great loans, the American people contributed $300,000,000 to two Red Cross funds inside of a year. There were also enormous contributions to the Y. M. C. A., the Knights of Columbus, the War Camp Community Service, the Salvation Army, and allied funds.

Although a great deal of credit for the remarkable success of America's preparedness program is due to the fact that she had such wonderful resources, the true underlying reason for her success is the magnificent spirit of the American people. Germany thought that, because of the cosmopolitan make-up of the people and the immensity of the country they occupied, they would not unite as one great nation. The United States has proved for all time that she is one solid indivisible nation with ho thought of anything but the progress and liberty of her country and the world, of the unsullied honor and unquestioned defense of her flag, and of all for which it stands.

*******************

It was not his olive valleys and orange groves which made the Greece of the Greek; it was not for his apple orchards or potato fields that the farmer of New England and New York left his plough in the furrow and marched to Bunker Hill, to Bennington, to Saratoga. A man's country is not a certain area of land, but it is a principle; and patriotism is loyalty to that principle. The secret sanctification of the soil and symbol of a country is the idea which they represent; and this idea the patriot worships through the name and the symbol. . . .

We of America, with our soil sanctified and our symbol glorified by the great ideas of liberty and religion,—love of freedom and of God,—are in the foremost vanguard of this great caravan of humanity. To us rulers look, and learn justice, while they tremble; to us the nations look, and learn to hope, while they rejoice. Our heritage is all the love and heroism of liberty in the past; and all the great of the Old World are our teachers.

GEORGE WILLIAM CURTIS.



A CONGRESSIONAL MESSAGE

FROM PRESIDENT WILSON'S ANNUAL ADDRESS TO

CONGRESS DECEMBER 2, 1918

GENTLEMEN OF THE CONGRESS: The year that has elapsed since I last stood before you to fulfill my Constitutional duty to give the Congress from time to time information on the state of the Union has been so crowded with great events, great processes, and great results, that I cannot hope to give you an adequate picture of its transactions or of the far-reaching changes which have been wrought in the life of our nation and of the world. You have yourselves witnessed these things, as I have. It is too soon to assess them; and we who stand in the midst of them and are part of them are less qualified than men of another generation will be to say what they mean or even what they have been. But some great outstanding facts are unmistakable and constitute, in a sense, part of the public business with which it is our duty to deal. To state them is to set the stage for the legislative and executive action which must grow out of them and which we have yet to shape and determine.

A year ago we had sent 145,198 men overseas. Since then we have sent 1,950,513, an average of 162,542 each month, the number in fact rising in May last to 245,951, in June to 278,760, in July to 307,182, and continuing to reach similar figures in August and September—in August 289,570 and in September 257,438. No such movement of troops ever took place before across 3000 miles of sea, followed by adequate equipment and supplies, and carried safely through extraordinary dangers of attack—dangers which were alike strange and infinitely difficult to guard against. In all this movement only 758 men were lost by enemy attacks—630 of whom were upon a single English transport which was sunk near the Orkney Islands.

I need not tell you what lay back of this great movement of men and material. It is not invidious to say that back of it lay a supporting organization of the industries of the country and of all its productive activities more complete, more thorough in method and effective in results, more spirited and unanimous in purpose and effort than any other great belligerent had ever been able to effect.

We profited greatly by the experience of the nations which had already been engaged for nearly three years in the exigent and exacting business, their every resource and every executive proficiency taxed to the utmost. We were the pupils, but we learned quickly and acted with a promptness and a readiness of cooeperation that justify our great pride that we were able to serve the world with unparalleled energy and quick accomplishment.

But it is not the physical scale and executive efficiency of preparation, supply, equipment and dispatch that I would dwell upon, but the mettle and quality of the officers and men we sent over and of the sailors who kept the seas, and the spirit of the nation that stood behind them. No soldiers or sailors ever proved themselves more quickly ready for the test of battle or acquitted themselves with more splendid courage and achievement when put to the test. Those of us who played some part in directing the great processes by which the war was pushed irresistibly forward to the final triumph may now forget all that and delight our thoughts with the story of what our men did.

Their officers understood the grim and exacting task they had undertaken and performed with audacity, efficiency, and unhesitating courage that touch the story of convoy and battle with imperishable distinction at every turn, whether the enterprise were great or small—from their chiefs, Pershing and Sims, down to the youngest lieutenant; and their men were worthy of them—such men as hardly need to be commanded, and go to their terrible adventure blithely and with the quick intelligence of those who know just what it is they would accomplish. I am proud to be the fellow countryman of men of such stuff and valor. Those of us who stayed at home did our duty; the war could not have been won or the gallant men who fought it given their opportunity to win it otherwise; but for many a long day we shall think ourselves "accurs'd we were not there, and hold our manhood cheap while any speaks that fought," with these at St. Mihiel or Thierry. The memory of those days of triumphant battle will go with these fortunate men to their graves; and each will have his favorite memory. "Old men forget; yet all shall be forgot, but he'll remember with advantages what feats he did that day!"

What we all thank God for with deepest gratitude is that our men went in force into the line of battle just at the critical moment when the whole fate of the world seemed to hang in the balance and threw their fresh strength into the ranks of freedom in time to turn the whole tide and sweep of the fateful struggle—turn it once for all, so that thenceforth it was back, back, back for their enemies, always back, never again forward! After that it was only a scant four months before the commanders of the Central Empires knew themselves beaten; and now their very empires are in liquidation!

And through it all, how fine the spirit of the nation was. What unity of purpose, what untiring zeal! What elevation of purpose ran through all its splendid display of strength and untiring accomplishment. I have said that those of us who stayed at home to do the work of organization and supply will always wish that we had been with the men whom we sustained by our labor; but we can never be ashamed. It has been an inspiring thing to be here in the midst of fine men who had turned aside from every private interest of their own and devoted the whole of their trained capacity to the tasks that supplied the sinews of the whole great undertaking! The patriotism, the unselfishness, the thorough-going devotion and distinguished capacity that marked their toilsome labors day after day, month after month, have made them fit mates and comrades of the men in the trenches and on the sea. And not the men here in Washington only. They have but directed the vast achievement. Throughout innumerable factories, upon innumerable farms, in the depths of coal mines and iron mines and copper mines, wherever the stuffs of industry were to be obtained and prepared, in the shipyards, on the railways, at the docks, on the sea, in every labor that was needed to sustain the battlelines, men have vied with each other to do their part and do it well. They can look any man-at-arms in the face and say, "We also strove to win and gave the best that was in us to make our fleets and armies sure of their triumph!"

And what shall we say of the women—of their instant intelligence, quickening every task that they touched; their capacity for organization and cooeperation, which gave their action discipline and enacted the effectiveness of everything they attempted; their aptitude at tasks to which they had never before set their hands; their utter self-sacrifice alike in what they did and in what they gave? Their contribution to the great result is beyond appraisal. They have added a new luster to the annals of American womanhood.

The latest tribute we can pay them is to make them the equals of men in political rights as they have proved themselves their equals in every field of practical work they have entered, whether for themselves or for their country. These great days of completed achievements would be sadly marred were we to omit that act of justice. Besides the immense practical services they have rendered, the women of the country have been the moving spirits in the systematic economies by which our people have voluntarily assisted to supply the suffering peoples of the world and the armies upon every front with food and everything else that we had that might serve the common cause. The details of such a story can never be fully written, but we carry them at our hearts and thank God that we can say that we are the kinsmen of such.

And now we are sure of the great triumph for which every sacrifice was made. It has come, come in its completeness; and with the pride and inspiration of these days of achievement quick within us we turn to the tasks of peace again—a peace secure against the violence of irresponsible monarchs and ambitious military coteries, and made ready for a new order, for new foundations of justice and fair dealing.



PRESIDENT WILSON IN FRANCE

On December 14, 1918, President Wilson arrived in Paris. He had by leaving North America done something never done before by an American president; but he was never afraid to establish a new precedent if he believed his duty called upon him to do so. Very rarely have the presidents gone in person before Congress to read their messages, but Woodrow Wilson revived the custom. In leaving the continent, however, he was not reviving an abandoned custom but establishing an entirely new precedent.

He sailed on one of the huge American transports, the George Washington, and was wildly welcomed upon his arrival at Brest, the American base in France.



In Paris, at a great dinner given in his honor, he was welcomed by President Poincare in the following words:—

Mr. President: Paris and France awaited you with impatience. They were eager to acclaim in you the illustrious democrat whose words and deeds were inspired by exalted thought, the philosopher delighting in the solution of universal laws from particular events, the eminent statesman who had found a way to express the highest political and moral truths in formulas which bear the stamp of immortality.

They had also a passionate desire to offer thanks, in your person, to the great Republic of which you are the chief for the invaluable assistance which had been given spontaneously, during this war, to the defenders of right and liberty.

Even before America had resolved to intervene in the struggle she had shown to the wounded and to the orphans of France a solicitude and a generosity the memory of which will always be enshrined in our hearts. The liberality of your Red Cross, the countless gifts of your fellow-citizens, the inspiring initiative of American women, anticipated your military and naval action, and showed the world to which side your sympathies inclined. And on the day when you flung yourselves into the battle with what determination your great people and yourself prepared for united success!

Some months ago you cabled to me that the United States would send ever-increasing forces, until the day should be reached on which the Allied armies were able to submerge the enemy under an overwhelming flow of new divisions; and, in effect, for more than a year a steady stream of youth and energy has been poured out upon the shores of France.

No sooner had they landed than your gallant battalions, fired by their chief, General Pershing, flung themselves into the combat with such a manly contempt of danger, such a smiling disregard of death, that our longer experience of this terrible war often moved us to counsel prudence. They brought with them, in arriving here, the enthusiasm of Crusaders leaving for the Holy Land.

It is their right today to look with pride upon the work accomplished and to rest assured that they have powerfully aided by their courage and their faith.

Eager as they were to meet the enemy, they did not know when they arrived the enormity of his crimes. That they might know how the German armies make war it has been necessary that they see towns systematically burned down, mines flooded, factories reduced to ashes, orchards devastated, cathedrals shelled and fired—all that deliberate savagery, aimed to destroy national wealth, nature, and beauty, which the imagination could not conceive at a distance from the men and things that have endured it and today bear witness to it.

In your turn, Mr. President, you will be able to measure with your own eyes the extent of these disasters, and the French Government will make known to you the authentic documents in which the German General Staff developed with astounding cynicism its program of pillage and industrial annihilation. Your noble conscience will pronounce a verdict on these facts.

Should this guilt remain unpunished, could it be renewed, the most splendid victories would be in vain.

Mr. President, France has struggled, has endured, and has suffered during four long years; she has bled at every vein; she has lost the best of her children; she mourns for her youths. She yearns now, even as you do, for a peace of justice and security.

It was not that she might be exposed once again to aggression that she submitted to such sacrifices. Nor was it in order that criminals should go unpunished, that they might lift their heads again to make ready for new crimes, that, under your strong leadership, America armed herself and crossed the ocean.

Faithful to the memory of Lafayette and Rochambeau, she came to the aid of France, because France herself was faithful to her traditions. Our common ideal has triumphed. Together we have defended the vital principles of free nations. Now we must build together such a peace as will forbid the deliberate and hypocritical renewing of an organism aiming at conquest and oppression.

Peace must make amends for the misery and sadness of yesterday, and it must be a guarantee against the dangers of tomorrow. The association which has been formed for the purpose of war, between the United States and the Allies, and which contains the seed of the permanent institutions of which you have spoken so eloquently, will find from this day forward a clear and profitable employment in the concerted search for equitable decisions and in the mutual support which we need if we are to make our rights prevail.

Whatever safeguards we may erect for the future, no one, alas, can assert that we shall forever spare to mankind the horrors of new wars. Five years ago the progress of science and the state of civilization might have permitted the hope that no Government, however autocratic, would have succeeded in hurling armed nations upon Belgium and Serbia.

Without lending ourselves to the illusion that posterity will be forevermore safe from these collective follies, we must introduce into the peace we are going to build all the conditions of justice and all the safeguards of civilization that we can embody in it.

To such a vast and magnificent task, Mr. President, you have chosen to come and apply yourself in concert with France. France offers you her thanks. She knows the friendship of America. She knows your rectitude and elevation of spirit. It is in the fullest confidence that she is ready to work with you.

President Wilson replied:—

Mr. President: I am deeply indebted to you for your gracious greeting. It is very delightful to find myself in France and to feel the quick contact of sympathy and unaffected friendship between the representatives of the United States and the representatives of France.

You have been very generous in what you were pleased to say about myself, but I feel that what I have said and what I have tried to do has been said and done only in an attempt to speak the thought of the people of the United States truly, and to carry that thought out in action.

From the first, the thought of the people of the United States turned toward something more than the mere winning of this war. It turned to the establishment of eternal principles of right and justice. It realized that merely to win the war was not enough; that it must be won in such a way and the question raised by it settled in such a way as to insure the future peace of the world and lay the foundations for the freedom and happiness of its many peoples and nations.

Never before has war worn so terrible a visage or exhibited more grossly the debasing influence of illicit ambitions. I am sure that I shall look upon the ruin wrought by the armies of the Central Empires with the same repulsion and deep indignation that they stir in the hearts of the men of France and Belgium, and I appreciate, as you do, sir, the necessity of such action in the final settlement of the issues of the war as will not only rebuke such acts of terror and spoliation, but make men everywhere aware that they cannot be ventured upon without the certainty of just punishment.

I know with what ardor and enthusiasm the soldiers and sailors of the United States have given the best that was in them to this war of redemption. They have expressed the true spirit of America. They believe their ideals to be acceptable to free peoples everywhere, and are rejoiced to have played the part they have played in giving reality to those ideals in cooeperation with the armies of the Allies. We are proud of the part they have played, and we are happy that they should have been associated with such comrades in a common cause.

It is with peculiar feeling, Mr. President, that I find myself in France joining with you in rejoicing over the victory that has been won. The ties that bind France and the United States are peculiarly close. I do not know in what other comradeship we could have fought with more zest or enthusiasm. It will daily be a matter of pleasure with me to be brought into consultation with the statesmen of France and her Allies in concerting the measures by which we may secure permanence for these happy relations of friendship and cooeperation, and secure for the world at large such safety and freedom in its life as can be secured only by the constant association and cooeperation of friends.

I greet you not only with deep personal respect, but as the representative of the great people of France, and beg to bring you the greetings of another great people to whom the fortunes of France are of profound and lasting interest.

This meeting of the American and the French presidents at a banquet in the French capital is a remarkable incident in the history of the world. The statement of the likelihood of such a meeting would have been ridiculed before the war.



As we read the speeches, however, and grasp their full meaning, we understand that the most remarkable fact about the historic meeting is that the leaders of two great republics met with minds and hearts set upon justice. They were determined that the weak who had suffered unimaginable wrong should not fail to secure justice because they were weak and they were equally of a mind that the high and mighty who were responsible for these wrongs should not escape justice because they were high and mighty.

Many times in the history of the world, meetings of the great have been remembered because of the show of Might, on every hand. The meeting of President Wilson and President Poincare in Paris on December 14, 1918, will never be forgotten because it was the greatest demonstration the world has ever seen of the power of Right.

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Truth forever on the scaffold, Wrong forever on the throne,— Yet that scaffold sways the future, And, behind the dim unknown, Standeth God within the shadow, Keeping watch above His own.

JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL.



SERGEANT YORK OF TENNESSEE

People will always differ as to what was the most remarkable exploit of the World War. Major General George B. Duncan, one of the American commanders who helped to drive the Germans out of the Argonne forest, has said that Corporal Alvin C. York, a tall, red-headed, raw-boned mountaineer from Tennessee distinguished himself above all men in the achievement of the greatest individual deed in the World War.



Because of his brave acts, Corporal York was made Sergeant York, was given the Croix de Guerre with a palm, and the Congressional Medal of Honor. His own state has made him a colonel for life on the Governor's Staff.

Before the officers of York's division, the 82d, Major General C. P. Summerall, a soldier not given to over-praise or exaggeration, commended him in these words:

"Corporal York, your division commander has reported to me your exceedingly gallant conduct during the operations of your division in the Meuse-Argonne battle. I desire to express to you my pleasure and commendation for the courage, skill, and gallantry which you displayed on that occasion. It is an honor to command such soldiers as you. Your conduct reflects great credit not only upon the American army, but also upon the American people. Your deeds will be recorded in the history of this great war, and they will live as an inspiration not only to your comrades, but also to the generations that will come after us. I wish to commend you publicly and in the presence of the officers of your division."

Corporal York was about thirty years of age, six feet tall, and weighed a little over two hundred pounds. He would not be called handsome, although he was really a fine looking man, with keen gray eyes that could become hard and penetrating when he was greatly moved. He was a gentle man with a soft, quiet voice and a Southern drawl. He was very religious and was the Second Elder in the Church of Christ and Christian Union when he was called to the service of his country.

The church to which he belonged did not believe in war. Like the Quakers, its members were "conscientious objectors." It was supposed that Alvin C. York would ask exemption as a "conscientious objector"; but he did not, although his friends begged him to do so. He reported for duty at Camp Gordon, Georgia, on November 14, 1917.

He was often troubled however with the feeling that to kill men, even in a righteous war to ensure liberty to all the world, was contrary to his religion and the teachings of the Bible. He finally came to realize that in this belief he was wrong, and that it was his duty, and the duty of every brave man, to meet armed oppression by arms, and when no other way was left, to kill those who would by force take away the life and liberty of others.

He was an expert pistol and rifle shot, as are almost all Tennessee and Kentucky mountaineers. In a shooting match with a major of his division, York is said to have hit with his automatic pistol at every shot a penny match-box over one hundred feet distant. His coolness and courage in the face of danger and his skill with the pistol and rifle enabled him to do the impossible—or at any rate, what every one would have declared impossible, before Alvin C. York accomplished it.

All through the Argonne forest, from Verdun almost to Sedan, the Americans were obliged to advance between hills, and often over hills covered with dense tangles of shrubs, vines, and trees, among which the Germans had hidden machine-gun nests.

Corporal York, on the morning of October 8, 1918, with his battalion was attempting to get behind the machine-gun nests on a hillside and to destroy them. The hill was then only known by number; it is now called York Hill.

They were to climb the hill and come down over the crest, as in this way they would get behind the German machine-guns. Sergeant Bernard Early with sixteen men was ordered to undertake the task. Corporal York was one of the men. At the start they were observed and were caught by German fire from three directions. Six of the small company were killed and three wounded, leaving Corporal York with seven privates to advance up the hillside.

They succeeded in reaching the crest of the hill, although machine-gun bullets were constantly whipping about them, usually however over their heads in the branches. They came upon an old trench and followed it over the brow of the hill, when suddenly they saw two Germans ahead of them. They fired on the Germans; one ran and escaped, the other surrendered. Going on, they soon discovered a couple of dozen Germans gathered about a small hut beside a stream which ran through the valley below. The Americans opened fire. The Germans dropped their guns, threw up their hands, and yelled, "Kamerad! Kamerad!" This meant they had surrendered. Among them was the major in command.

Some of York's seven men were assigned to guard the prisoners and had assembled them, when a hail of machine-gun bullets came from the hillside directly in front of them and across the brook. Every one, Germans included, fell flat on the ground. The Americans had indeed come over the hilltop down behind the German machine-guns, but the gunners had now turned them squarely around and were sending a rain of bullets upon the Americans. They avoided firing upon their German comrades and thus the American privates guarding them were comparatively safe. Corporal York was on the hill above the prisoners and it was difficult for the gunners to hit him without killing or injuring some of their own men. A well-aimed rifle or pistol shot might have done it, however.

He had fallen into a path and was somewhat protected by the rise on the side toward the German guns. From here, lying flat upon his face, he coolly aimed his rifle and picked off German after German, after every shot calling upon those left to come down and surrender.

His comrades could not assist him, for those who were not with the German prisoners were so situated that to show themselves meant instant death.

Seeing York must be taken at any cost, a German lieutenant and seven men sprang up from behind one of the machine-guns, only about one hundred feet distant, and charged upon the red-headed American who was fighting a whole company. The officer who ordered the Germans to charge knew of course that some of them would be killed, but he was sure the remaining ones would capture or kill the American; but York, the man from Tennessee, who was not sure at one time that it was right to fight, did not lose his coolness, his courage, or his skill with the automatic pistol, and a German lieutenant and seven German privates fell before his unerring aim.

Then the German commander offered to surrender, and Corporal York and his seven American privates escorted one hundred and thirty-two German prisoners back to the American lines. About forty of these were added to the original number by the capture of another German machine-gun nest on the way back.

Corporal York showed the extreme modesty which is characteristic of very brave men, in not mentioning his exploit when he reached his own battalion headquarters. The prisoners had been delivered at another, and it was only by accident that York's superior officers learned of it later.

When Sergeant York returned to America, he was received with great pride by the Tennessee Society of New York City, and was granted his first wish to talk over the long-distance telephone with his old mother in Tennessee. He was taken to see the New York Stock Exchange where business was suspended for half an hour while the members cheered him. Thousands of persons on the streets recognized him and crowded around the automobile in which he rode so that the police had to clear a path for the car.

At the banquet given in his honor at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel, generals, admirals, noted bankers, and members of Congress united in his praise. During the dinner, Sergeant York was unanimously elected an honorary life-member of the Tennessee Society.

From New York, he went to Washington, where he was similarly received because of these and other acts of heroism which distinguish him as one of the great soldiers of the World War. After being honorably discharged, he returned to the Tennessee Mountains to marry the girl who had been waiting for him to return from the war. The wedding which took place in a humble mountain home was attended by thousands of people from all over the state. The Governor of Tennessee, a former judge of the district, performed the ceremony, after which York and his bride were his guests at the Executive Mansion in Nashville, where a public reception was given in his honor.

Through these tributes to Sergeant York the people of the United States attempted to show their true appreciation and admiration of the courage and fortitude of the non-commissioned officer.



PRONOUNCING VOCABULARY



After-Days

When the last gun has long withheld Its thunder, and its mouth is sealed, Strong men shall drive the furrow straight On some remembered battlefield.

Untroubled they shall hear the loud And gusty driving of the rains, And birds with immemorial voice Sing as of old in leafy lanes.

The stricken, tainted soil shall be Again a flowery paradise— Pure with the memory of the dead And purer for their sacrifice.

ERIC CHILMAN

THE END