Chapter XXX: Victory--Peace (1)

THE GERMAN EMPIRE COLLAPSES--FOCH'S STRATEGY WINS--AMERICAN INSPIRATION A BIG FACTOR--BULGARIA, TURKEY AND AUSTRIA QUIT WAR--MONARCHS FALL--- KAISER ABDICATES AND FLEES GERMANY--ARMISTICE SIGNED--NOVEMBER 11, PEACE.

Then came the fall of autocracy--

Victory! Peace!

With a crash that echoed around the world the autocratic governmental structure builded by the Kaiser and his forebears gave way and came tumbling to the earth in ruins on Monday, November 11, 1918.

The most momentous event in ages had come to pass and victory was perched upon the banner of democracy.

Out of the sacrifice of millions of lives, the desolation of homes and countries, the expenditure of untold energy and incomprehensible billions of dollars in money, there came everlasting, glorious peace.

The great German Empire lay a wreck, given into the hands of the people for remaking, and the arrogant Emperor William Hohenzollern had fled into Holland, and his example was imitated by the Crown Prince.

THE COMING OF THE END.

The end came swiftly and with dramatic action. Beaten back by the Allied forces, which gathered strength and inspiration from the irresistible American troops, the German army weakened all along the line from Holland to the Swiss border. The press of power exerted against the German strongholds on every side was felt within the domains and produced internal strife and dissension which undermined and weakened the military organization. Taking full advantage of this situation, the Allied forces on every side quickened and intensified their blows.

The brilliant strategy of Marshal Foch, generalissimo of the Allied armies, brought defeat to the Germans in less than four months. After bringing to an end the German advance of March 21 to July 18 with the second battle of the Marne, he compelled a hurried retirement to the Hindenburg line with the evacuation of practically all the territory conquered by the Huns.

Finally, in what may be termed the last phase of the war, he absolutely demoralized the German forces. The thrust in this phase was started by the Anglo-Belgian forces in Flanders and the Franco-American armies in Lorraine on September 26.

The British also made a gigantic and brilliant drive between Cambrai and St. Quentin. The whole colossal defense system of the Germans was shattered and in less than three months more than 100,000 German prisoners and 5,000 guns were taken and 8,000 square miles of French and Belgian territory liberated.

VICTORIES ON OTHER FRONTS.

Not only was there great victory on the west, but in Syria the British army broke the power of Turkey and liberated Syria, Mesopotamia and Arabia. In Macedonia, too, an army made up of soldiers of many nations under a French command compelled the surrender of Bulgaria and her withdrawal, and swept the last vestige of German control from the Balkans.

On the Austrian front likewise the Italian army, strengthened and heartened by the presence of American and Allied forces, swept the Austrians before them in one of the most picturesque offensives of the war, capturing more than 300,000 prisoners and great quantities of guns and supplies.

This in brief is the way the German command was driven to a point of seeking peace to prevent the invasion of their territory.

The brilliant assaults of the various units and commands of the Allies at points along the entire 200 miles of western front will go down in history a wonderful military achievement.

AMERICAN VICTORIES ON THE EAST FRONT.

One of the wonderful attacks was that of the American First Army under General Pershing, when St. Mihiel salient was annihilated. This salient for four years resisted all efforts to penetrate it and stood a guardian to great iron fields running through the Basin de Briey to the Belgian-Luxemburg frontier. It formed a strong outpost to the fortified city of Metz, with its twenty-eight forts, and made impossible the invasion of German Lorraine from the west.

The offensive of General Pershing was one of the most carefully planned of the war. More than 1,000 tanks were operated to open the way for the infantry and cavalry. A greater force of airplanes than were ever concentrated in a single attack menaced the Germans overhead and in a week the Americans encompassed a territory of 200 square miles and threatened the mining center and the forts of Metz, capturing 20,000 prisoners and hundreds of guns and great quantities of ammunition. Moreover, the Verdun-Nancy railway was released.

Support was brought to the Germans and they stubbornly resisted, but many points were gained and held by the Americans.

AMERICAN VICTORIES ALONG THE MEUSE-AISNE RIVERS.

Another corps of the First American Army, in command of General Hunter Liggett, also made a brilliant attack between the Meuse and Aisne rivers east of Rheims on a front twenty miles long, where the crack Prussian Guards were routed. Here in one of the most bitterly contested battles of the closing days the Americans made an important advance, capturing half a dozen villages.

As at Chateau-Thierry, the Americans in the face of withering fire and against all the instruments of modern warfare handled by the best soldiers in Germany, fought their way through with a bravery that won for them the praises of the highest commands in the French and British armies, as well as from General Pershing.

At the very close of the struggle the Americans arose to the heights of sublime heroism in crossing the river Meuse, capturing the town of Dun and later the town of Sedan, famous as one of the scenes of bitter fighting in the Franco-Prussian War.

GREAT VICTORY AT SEDAN.

The Americans forced their way across a 160-foot river, a stretch of mud flats and a 60-foot canal in the face of terrible fire. Men who could swim breasted the stream carrying ropes, which were stretched from bank to bank and along which those who could not swim made their way over the river. Some crossed in collapsible boats, others on rafts and finally on pontoon and foot bridges, which were constructed under the enemy fire.

This difficult feat accomplished, the men waded through mud to the canal, fighting as they went, and again plunged into the water, swimming the canal, at the far side of which they were compelled to use grappling hooks and scaling irons to mount the perpendicular banks of the canal, along which were the resisting Germans. And finally, when the German Empire fell, famed Sedan was in the hands of the Americans. With the last forward movement they took possession of Stenay when hostilities ceased.

The part the American soldiers played in winning the war, merely as a matter of increased man power, is indicated by the fact that when the end came there were 2,900,000 men in the forces abroad.

COLLAPSE OF THE TEUTONIC ALLIES.

The failure of the German submarine warfare and the ability of the British, French and American naval forces to protect troop ships and permit the landing of as high as 200,000 soldiers in France in a single month, had much to do with discouraging the German command.

The withdrawal of Bulgaria on September 27 and her unconditional surrender to the Allies was a distinct blow to Germany. The abdication of King Ferdinand in favor of Crown Prince Boris was shortly followed by the surrender and withdrawal of Turkey, which further weakened Germany's position, and peace offers were made by both Austria and by Germany.

Austria sought a separate peace, but Germany, seeing the handwriting on the wall, asked for an armistice through Prince Maximilian of Baden, who had succeeded Count Von Hertling as Chancellor. But while agreeing to accept as a basis of peace the points established by President Wilson as necessary to an agreement, Germany's military forces continued their ruthless and barbaric warfare.

President Wilson submitted a set of questions to the German Government to ascertain the sincerity and purpose of the request and finally brought the matter to an issue by declaring that nothing short of a complete surrender would suffice and that further negotiations must be taken up with the Allied command.

Meantime King Boris of Bulgaria abdicated and the Government was taken over by the people. This was followed by the surrender of Austria on November 8 and the abdication of the Emperor Charles.

THE END.

Austria in her surrender agreed to the immediate suspension of hostilities, the demobilization of the army of Austro-Hungary and the withdrawal of all forces from the North Sea to Switzerland, the evacuation of all territories invaded, the evacuation of all German troops from Austro-Hungarian territory and the Italian and Balkan fronts, as well as the surrender of fifteen submarines and all German submarines in Austro-Hungarian territorial waters, together with thirty-four warships, and also the repatriation of all prisoners of war.

With her forces demoralized and Bulgaria, Turkey and Austria out of the war and her power broken in Russia, Germany was driven to the necessity of accepting terms submitted by the Allies as the basis of peace as outlined by President Wilson.

SUMMARY.

Thus came peace after fifty-two continuous months of fighting, in which it is estimated that nearly 10,000,000 were killed and that there were about 27,000,000 casualties, while $200,000,000 were expended by the combined nations.

America's casualties were 236,117, divided as follows: Killed and died of wounds, 36,154; died of disease, 14,811; died from unassigned causes, 2,204; wounded, 179,625; missing, 1,160, and prisoners, 2,163.

England by contrast had 658,665 killed, 2,032,122 wounded and 359,145 missing and prisoners during the four years, while Italy had about 1,600,000 casualties; France, 3,500,000; Belgium, 400,000; Rumania, 200,000, and Russia, 6,000,000. All told, twenty-eight nations, with a total population of approximately 1,600,000,000, or nearly eleven-twelfths of the human race, were involved in the world struggle at the close.

TERMS OF THE ARMISTICE ACCEPTED BY GERMANY.

I. MILITARY CLAUSES ON WESTERN FRONT:

One--Cessation of operations by land and in the air six hours after
the signature of the armistice.

Two--Immediate evacuation of invaded countries: Belgium, France,
Alsace-Lorraine, Luxemburg, so ordered as to be completed within
fourteen days from the signature of the armistice. German troops
which have not left the above-mentioned territories within the
period fixed will become prisoners of war. Occupation by the Allied
and United States forces jointly will keep pace with evacuation in
these areas. All movements of evacuation and occupation will be
regulated in accordance with a note annexed to the stated terms.

Three--Repatriation beginning at once and to be completed within
fourteen days of all inhabitants of the countries above mentioned,
including hostages and persons under trial or convicted.

Four--Surrender in good condition by the German armies of the
following equipment: Five thousand guns (two thousand five hundred
heavy, two thousand five hundred field) thirty thousand machine
guns. Three thousand minenwerfers. Two thousand airplanes
(fighters, bombers--firstly D. Seventy-three's and night bombing
machines). The above to be delivered in situ to the allies and the
United States troops in accordance with the detailed conditions
laid down in the annexed note.

Five--Evacuation by the German armies of the countries on the left
bank of the Rhine. These countries on the left bank of the Rhine
shall be administered by the local authorities under the control of
the Allied and United States armies of occupation. The occupation
of these territories will be determined by Allied and United States
garrisons holding the principal crossings of the Rhine, Mayence,
Coblenz, Cologne, together with bridgeheads at these points in
thirty kilometre radius on the right bank and by garrisons
similarly holding the strategic points of the regions.

A neutral zone shall be reserved on the right of the Rhine between
the stream and a line drawn parallel to it forty kilometres
(twenty-six miles) to the east from the frontier of Holland to the
parallel of Gernsheim and as far as practicable a distance of
thirty kilometres (twenty miles) from the east of stream from this
parallel upon Swiss frontier. Evacuation by the enemy of the Rhine
lands shall be so ordered as to be completed within a further
period of eleven days, in all nineteen days after the signature of
the armistice. All movements of evacuation and occupation will be
regulated according to the note annexed.

Six--In all territory evacuated by the enemy there shall be no
evacuation of inhabitants; no damage or harm shall be done to the
persons or property of the inhabitants. No destruction of any kind
to be committed. Military establishments of all kinds shall be
delivered intact as well as military stores of food, munitions,
equipment not removed during the periods fixed for evacuation.
Stores of food of all kinds for the civil population, cattle, etc.,
shall be left in situ. Industrial establishments shall not be
impaired in any way and their personnel shall not be moved. Roads
and means of communication of every kind, railroad, waterways, main
roads, bridges, telegraphs, telephones, shall be in no manner
impaired.

Seven--All civil and military personnel at present employed on them
shall remain. Five thousand locomotives, fifty thousand wagons and
ten thousand motor lorries in good working order with all necessary
spare parts and fittings shall be delivered to the associated
powers within the period fixed for the evacuation of Belgium and
Luxemburg. The railways of Alsace-Lorraine shall be handed over
within the same period, together with all pre-war personnel and
material. Further material necessary for the working of railways in
the country on the left bank of the Rhine shall be left in situ.
All stores of coal and material for the upkeep of permanent ways,
signals and repair shops left entire in situ and kept in an
efficient state by Germany during the whole period of armistice.
All barges taken from the Allies shall be restored to them. A note
appended regulates the details of these measures.

Eight--The German command shall be responsible for revealing all
mines or other acting fuses disposed on territory evacuated by the
German troops and shall assist in their discovery and destruction.
The German command shall also reveal all destructive measures that
may have been taken (such as poisoning or polluting of springs,
wells, etc.) under penalty of reprisals.

Nine--The right of requisition shall be exercised by the Allied and
the United States armies in all occupied territory. The upkeep of
the troops of occupation in the Rhine land (excluding
Alsace-Lorraine), shall be charged to the German Government.

Ten--An immediate repatriation without reciprocity according to
detailed conditions which shall be fixed, of all Allied and United
States prisoners of war. The Allied powers and the United States
shall be able to dispose of these prisoners as they wish.

Eleven--Sick and wounded, who can not be removed from evacuated
territory will be cared for by German personnel who will be left on
the spot with the medical material required.

II. DISPOSITION RELATIVE TO THE EASTERN FRONTIERS OF GERMANY:

Twelve--All German troops at present in any territory which before
the war belonged to Russia, Rumania or Turkey shall withdraw within
the frontiers of Germany as they existed on August 1, 1914.

Thirteen--Evacuation by German troops to begin at once and all
German instructors, prisoners and civilian as well as military
agents, now on the territory of Russia (as defined before 1914) to
be recalled.

Fourteen--German troops to cease at once all requisitions and
seizures and any other undertaking with a view to obtaining
supplies intended for Germany in Rumania and Russia (as defined on
August 1, 1914).

Fifteen--Abandonment of the treaties of Bucharest and Brest-Litovsk
and of the supplementary treaties.

Sixteen--The Allies shall have free access to the territories
evacuated by the Germans on their eastern frontier either through
Danzig or by the Vistula in order to convey supplies to the
population of those territories or for any other purpose.

III. CLAUSE CONCERNING EAST AFRICA:

Seventeen--Unconditional capitulation of all German forces
operating in East Africa within one month.

IV. GENERAL CLAUSES:

Eighteen--Repatriation, without reciprocity, within maximum period
of one month, in accordance with detailed conditions hereafter to
be fixed, of all civilians interned or deported who may be citizens
of other Allied or associated states than those mentioned in clause
three, paragraph nineteen, with the reservation that any future
claims and demands of the Allies and the United States of America
remain unaffected.

Nineteen--The following financial conditions are required:
Reparation for damage done. While such armistice lasts no public
securities shall be removed by the enemy which can serve as a
pledge to the Allies for the recovery or repatriation for war
losses. Immediate restitution of the cash deposit, in the National
Bank of Belgium, and in general immediate return of all documents,
specie, stocks, shares, paper money, together with plant for the
issue thereof, touching public or private interests in the invaded
countries. Restitution of the Russian and Rumanian gold yielded to
Germany or taken by that power. This gold to be delivered in trust
to the Allies until the signature of peace.

V. NAVAL CONDITIONS:

Twenty--Immediate cessation of all hostilities at sea and definite
information to be given as to the location and movements of all
German ships. Notification to be given to neutrals that freedom of
navigation in all territorial waters is given to the naval and
mercantile marines of the allied and associated powers, all
questions of neutrality being waived.

Twenty-one--All naval and mercantile marine prisoners of war of the
Allied and associated powers in German hands to be returned without
reciprocity.

Twenty-two--Surrender to the Allies and the United States of
America of one hundred and sixty German submarines (including all
submarine cruisers and mine laying submarines) with their complete
armament and equipment in ports which will be specified by the
Allies and the United States of America. All other submarines to be
paid off and completely disarmed and placed under the supervision
of the Allied Powers and the United States of America.

Twenty-three--The following German surface warships which shall be
designated by the Allies and the United States of America shall
forthwith be disarmed and thereafter interned in neutral ports to
be designated by the Allies and the United States of America and
placed under the surveillance of the Allies and the United States
of America, only caretakers being left on board, namely:

Six battle cruisers, ten battleships, eight light cruisers,
including two mine layers, fifty destroyers of the most modern
type. All other surface warships (including river craft) are to be
concentrated in naval bases to be designated by the Allies and the
United States of America, and are to be paid off and completely
disarmed and placed under the supervision of the Allies and the
United States of America. All vessels of auxiliary fleet (trawlers,
motor vessels, etc.), are to be disarmed.

Twenty-four--The Allies and the United States of America shall have
the right to sweep all mine fields and obstructions laid by Germany
outside German territorial waters, and the positions of these are
to be indicated.

Twenty-five--Freedom of access to and from the Baltic to be given
to the naval and mercantile marine of the Allied and associated
powers. To secure this the Allies and the United States of America
shall be empowered to occupy all German forts, fortifications,
batteries and defense works of all kinds in all the entrances from
the Cattegat into the Baltic, and to sweep up all mines and
obstructions within and without German territorial waters without
any question of neutrality being raised, and the positions of all
such mines and obstructions are to be indicated.

Twenty-six--The existing blockade conditions set up by the Allies
and associated powers are to remain unchanged, and all German
merchant ships found at sea are to remain liable to capture.

Twenty-seven--All naval aircraft are to be concentrated and
immobilized in German bases to be specified by the Allies and the
United States of America.

Twenty-eight--In evacuating the Belgian coasts and ports, Germany
shall abandon all merchant ships, tugs, lighters, cranes and all
other harbor materials, all materials for inland navigation, all
aircraft and all materials and stores, all arms and armaments, and
all stores and apparatus of all kinds.

Twenty-nine--All Black Sea ports are to be evacuated by Germany,
all Russian war vessels of all descriptions seized by Germany in
the Black Sea are to be handed over to the Allies and the United
States of America; all neutral merchant vessels seized are to be
released; all warlike and other materials of all kinds seized in
those parts are to be returned and German materials as specified in
clause twenty-eight are to be abandoned.

Thirty--All merchant vessels in German hands belonging to the
Allied and associated powers are to be restored in ports to be
specified by the Allies and the United States of America without
reciprocity.

Thirty-one--No destruction of ships or of materials to be permitted
before evacuation, surrender or restoration.

Thirty-two--The German Government will notify neutral Governments
of the world, and particularly the Governments of Norway, Sweden,
Denmark, and Holland, that all restrictions placed on the trading
of their vessels with the Allied and associated countries, whether
by the German Government or by private German interests, and
whether in return for specific concessions such as the export of
shipbuilding materials or not, are immediately cancelled.

Thirty-three--No transfers of German merchant shipping of any
description to any neutral flag are to take place after signature
of the armistice.

VI. DURATION OF ARMISTICE:

Thirty-four--The duration of the armistice is to be thirty days,
with option to extend. During this period, on failure of execution
of any of the above clauses, the armistice may be denounced by one
of the contracting parties on forty-eight hours' previous notice.

VII. TIME LIMIT FOR REPLY:

Thirty-five--This armistice to be accepted or refused by Germany
within seventy-two hours of notification.

THE NEGRO IN THE WORLD WAR.

BEFORE THE WAR.

Civilization evolves destructive forces of change. War is change in explosive form. World notions, points of view, and general ideas of 1914 have spun the cycle of years with accelerated speed. At that time the public mind gained its concept of the Negro from encyclopaedic information. He was regarded as a "sub-species of mankind, dark of skin, wooly of hair, long of head, with dilated nostrils, thick lips, thicker cranium, flat foot, prehensile great toe and larkheel."

He was described as a creature with "mental constitution very similar to that of the child, on a lower evolutionary plane than the white man, and more closely related to the highest anthropoids." His brain weight, we were told, was 35 ounces as compared with the gorilla's 20 ounces and the Caucasian's 45.

In America, conception of the Negro has ever fluctuated in direct ratio to the rise and fall of military domination of the affairs of the republic. Whenever the military agencies of the government have been exalted, the Negro has been benefited by reaction of the public mind. From 1865 to 1870 exaltation of the military element of American life brought along not only emancipation of the black man, but that conception of him which resulted in the conferring of manhood rights and privileges. In this short space of five years, so highly had the Negro come into public estimation that, with the protection of the military arm of the government, there were actively engaged in his interest an Emancipation League, a Freedmen's Pension Society, a Freedmen and Soldiers' Relief, a Freedmen's Aid Society of the M.E. Church, a Society of Friends of Great Britain and Ireland for the Relief of Emancipated Slaves of America, an American Missionary Association, a Freedmen's Bureau, a Freedmen's Bank, a British and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society, an American Negro Aid Commission, and other organizations, too numerous for mention. So important, however, was military organization and predominance to the success of any one of these organizations, that Carl Schurz, reporting to Congress the condition of the South, declared: "If the national government firmly and unequivocally announces its policy not to give up the control of free labor reform until it is firmly accomplished, the progress of the reform will be far more rapid and far less difficult than it will be if the attitude of the government is such as to permit contrary hopes to be indulged in."

In 1870, as the military power of the United States weakened its control over the nation, forces of opposition arose to pull down to the depths the black man, who had been exalted by the agencies of military government. The Ku Klux Klan, headed by the Grand Wizard of the Invisible Empire, and the Grand Dragon of the Realm, with malignant fanaticism worshipped the lost cause. Hatred of white man for Negro, accentuated and embittered by hatred for the Yankee carpet-bagger and the southern scalawag, resulted in the rise of a powerful southern partisanship, stunned only so long as military power held sway. Peonage took place of colored free labor. Disproportionate appropriation of taxes between blacks and whites lowered the Negro measurably year by year. With the complete removal of military supremacy, the Ku Klux courted publicity which it had hitherto shunned. A leader, the statesman of the new era, in the person of the late Benjamin R. Tillman, of South Carolina, appeared. He split the loose organization of southern aristocracy with the blacks with lily white wedge, and trampled into dust every agency which favored the black man. He deprived the black of all weapons of offence or defence, disfranchised him, shunted him off into the ghetto, and called the world to mock him in his lowly position. This southern statesman lived to see the Solid South come into national power in 1912. From that time, until the beginning of the world war in 1914, the American negro reached the lowest point of his political and social status.

Compared with Anglo-Saxon, Frenchman, Italian, Austrian, German or Russian, he was of an order and degree reputed farthest down. No celebrity attached to his menial state. No distinction might be his as an award from the courts of nations. Dignity, grandeur and majesty applied to Guelphs, Hapsburgs and Hohenzollerns. Theirs was all arrogation of supereminence. And to them all, the Negro, throughout the world, was, if a man at all, pre-eminently the mere Man Friday.

From such a status of debasement, existing in an intolerable atmosphere of derogation and disrepute, the humble and humiliated American Negro sought the exaltation of international honor. Denied and disavowed at home, through vicissitude of international war, he hoped for affirmation of a new world dictum in acknowledgment of his human qualities and worth. He did not, like Toussaint, long for the high honors of the continental emperor. He sought democratic equality, and he would as lief think of bringing the Kaiser to his level as exalting himself to the plane of that immortal celebrity.

He wanted to make good in public. He wanted to demonstrate both efficiency and initiative. He desired that popular belief conceive him as a man, not a monkey. He wished the Caucasian world to take into its head that he might function as a valuable and serviceable element of twentieth century civilization. He yearned to reveal his powers in every field of endeavor. And he expected that when the Caucasian had arrived at a fair judgment in his behalf, he would issue to him the warrant certifying that he was four-square with the dominant opinion of mankind, and, therefore, entitled to the honors of superior status.

He aimed to compensate the world by presenting a concept of beauty in place of a general notion of repellent ugliness. Instead of being regarded as a "Hottentot with clicking palate, whom the meanest of the rest look down upon for all his glimmering language and spirituality," he wished the world to find in him fitness for survival, conformity with civilization's ideal, example of the world philosophy of forbearance, human relationships, symmetry and poise in adaptation to the world's tasks, and moderation in respect of the higher laws, whose harmonies order and rectify all creation.

He sought to neutralize the misteachings of Adam Smith, of Darwin and Defoe. Smith's "Wealth of Nations" presumed the material debasement of darker peoples of colonial populations, or, in lieu thereof, such debasement of Slav, Serf or Serbian as would compensate the vanity of the superior people. Indirectly, Darwin taught, that the Negro closely approached the missing link between the savage beast and the human. Defoe delighted the world with a picture of the ideal economic status for the maintenance of white superiority over black man. These ideas the Negro wished to topple over.

He felt it necessary to repudiate the indoctrination of racial hatred proclaimed throughout the world by "The Birth of a Nation." He set over against it the reception by all civilization of the Booker T. Washington life story. He wished to substitute recognition of worth in place of the things that debase and make ashamed.

His great puzzle was the Anglo-Saxon, cold, austere and uncomplaisant. This Caucasian, fair of skin, with smooth and wavy hair, small cheekbones and elevated forehead, appeared a worshipful master whose station, under God, was of preordained and predestined eminence. Occupying Eurasia from the Channel to the Ganges, together with the most favored portions of Africa and America, he was the author and agency for law and order for the world. St. Augustine, first archbishop and lawgiver of Canterbury, himself of African descent, the son of Monica and Patricius of Carthage, had left the Anglo-Saxon from semi-barbarism to his position of world renown. Would this Anglo-Saxon ever degrade the sons of women of Africa?

The Negro's next puzzle was the French, urbane, amenable and suave. Negro emotions and French sensibilities mingled even without recourse to the vehicle of language. Imbued with all the finer Latin qualities and characteristics, the French ever invited the black man to a social world which the Anglo-Saxon denied him. E.W. Lightner, writing as a war correspondent, says:

"Long previous to the war thousands of blacks from various States
of Africa were in France, most especially Paris, at the
universities, in business and in the better ranges of service.
Everywhere and by all sorts and conditions of whites, they were
treated as equals. During several visits to the French capital I,
an American, knowing full well the prejudices of whites of this
country against the race, was amazed to see the cordial mingling of
all phases of the cosmopolitan population of the French capital.
Refined white men promenaded the streets with refined black women,
and the two races mingled cordially in studies, industries and
athletic sports. White and black artists had ateliers in common in
the Latin quarter...."

Thus, at hob and nob with the civilities and honors and embraces of this social life, the Negro felt an unaccustomed giddiness seize him. This giddiness was not caused by lack of social poise, nor incited by the French, but it arose from the dilemma, or rather peril, in which the French intercourse placed him with relation to the adjustment of darker races to Anglo-Saxon civilization.

Nevertheless in 1914, the approach to this court of honour and equality must be made by the Negro--and made under restraint sufficient to assure Anglo-Saxon approval. This was, indeed, a complex problem. Traducers proclaimed his undeveloped capacities; he answered with a claim of long repressed aptitudes. They spoke of intolerable coalescence; he claimed that the times demanded imperative coexistence. They said he had no soul; he claimed the over-soul. They asserted his lecherous character; he referred to statistics. But when they claimed he was pro-German, he stripped for action. World war, and France, prostrate amid its terrors, offered the Negro the great opportunity of the centuries to refute the broadcast propaganda of his enemies.

Beyond the French appeared the German, ungainly, acrimonious and obdurate. Part Saxon, part Hun, part Vandal and Visigoth, a creature of blood and iron, he utilized every force of nature to exterminate his enemies. The Negro knew how to exploit none of nature's elemental energies. But he did know that he could learn how by seizing and mastering the weapons of the enemy.

Of the energies of earth he lacked both scientific mastery and the weapons which give them offensive power and direction. Of the air he lacked all control. Fire he utilized only for purposes of cooking food, but not for the development of machinery of warfare. He has no vessel upon all the seven seas. To seize and master and utilize these energies appeared a thankless job, albeit a necessary one. He voted a grim "Aye."

Scene immediately after the murder of the Archduke and Archduchess of Austria in the streets of Sarajevo, Bosnia. The arrest of Gavrio Princip, the murderer.]

A soldier's equipment consists of a great number of articles, skillfully packed so that they make a small bundle, considering the number of articles. The kit includes a blanket, rifle, bayonet, kit bag, cartridge belt, canteen, pan, plate, knife, fork, spoon, tent spikes, rubber blanket and other miscellaneous articles. The photo shows three views--side, front and back, with equipment attached.]

This remarkable photograph taken during the Peace Conference at Paris shows President Wilson and President Poincare in the center background (directly underneath the clock). Seated next to Mr. Wilson is Secretary of State Lansing. Next to President Poincare at the right are seated Lloyd George, Balfour and Bonar Law. At the long table to the left of the photo we see seated Clemenceau, Pichon and Marshal Foch.]

United States soldiers, carrying the Stars and Stripes and Regimental Standard, passed cheering crowds at the head of a National army command that marched through London on May 11th, 1918.]

This photograph was taken at the State, War and Navy Building, just after they had called on Secretary of War Baker. Joffre stands on the lower step in the centre of the picture.]

This is a late photograph of the commander of the British armies in France.]

This picture shows the portraits and headdress of reprsentative fighters now engaged in the European war.]

Scene on the day British troops entered Bapaume, a French city evacuated by the Germans in their retreat to the Hindenburg line. Cheerful British soldiers are seen in a street.]

They are on the heels of the Germans. The photograph shows how the town was wrecked by the Germans before they evacuated.]

French army horses wearing gas masks, which look at first sight like oat bags. They are used when the animals have to cross a gas zone in drawing the shell wagons to the batteries.]

This man is being taken over mountainous regions, and the method of transportation has been devised in order to minimize the shock.]

Sailors spelling the word "VICTORY" with flags.]

They are from the H.M.S. Roxburgh, and took part in welcoming the arrival of Gen. Joffre in New York City]

French Jackies, for the first time in the United States, learn all the delights of the great American drink, the Ice Cream Soda.]

Wardroom Steward, U.S.N. Lost when U.S.A.C.T. TICONDEROGA was torpedoed and sunk September 30, 1918.]

Wardroom Officer's Steward, U.S.N. Lost when U.S.A.C.T. TICONDEROGA was torpedoed and sunk September 30, 1918.]

Mess Attendant U.S.N. Lost on U.S.S. CYCLOPS, June 14, 1918.]

Water Tender, U.S.N. 909 N. 5th St., Richmond, Va.]

Mess Attendant, 1c, U.S.N. Fell overboard and drowned, U.S.S. OZARK, July 25, 1918.]

Cabin Steward U.S.N. Lost when Liberty Boat capsized, U.S.S. LANSDALE. December 6, 1918.]

In doing so, he accepted the challenge of no mere enigma. Of his own volition, he entered upon the path that led through untrod and dangerous ground. It was his problem to cut the Gordian knot of Anglo-Saxon icy reserve that in the end fair England might assume as a policy of world administration the award of citizenship rights to the darker races in the sphere of influence of the league of civilized nations. It was a part of this problem to enter the equation with such deliberate caution as to upset no part of the nicely calculated adjustments of white to darker peoples. And it was also a part of his problem that he should not relinquish his grasp upon the factors that led to honor, recognition and equality.

Germany was indignant as the Negro sought entry to the war. The South was sensitive. The North was quizzical. The whole world was hesitant. The too ardent favor which the Negro found in France gave offence to both America and England. Indeed, for the Negro to lift himself too rapidly by his own bootstraps would have offended England, whose law prohibited emigration of foreign Negroes to South Africa. And it would also offend America, strangely jealous of any sign of unwanted assertiveness the Negro might display. The Negro accepted the challenge to penetrate this maze and labyrinth, with no surety, save God's good grace, of the fate that lay beyond.

To attain the goal of Recognition, it was necessary for him to demand of the people of England, France and Italy, that he be made subject to every test calculated to reveal his worth or inferiority as an individual, business, political or social equal of the allied peoples. The goal of Honor, he had attained in every war waged by America. He was with Jackson at New Orleans, a pioneer in the Mexican struggle, 200,000 strong in the great civil crisis, the acme of terror to Geronimo in the later Indian wars, the hero of San Juan in the Spanish-American combat, and at Carrizal in the latest Mexican imbroglio. By 1914, however, he had lost all rewards of honor which he had previously won. As for Equality, since the Civil War, he had been guaranteed this goal by three amendments to the Constitution of the United States. These forgotten amendments read in part:

"Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment
for crime, whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall
exist within the United States, or any place subject to their
jurisdiction....

"All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject
to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and
of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce
any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of
citizens of the United States; nor shall deprive any person of
life, liberty, or property, without due process of law, nor deny to
any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the
laws....

"Representatives shall be apportioned among the several States
according to their respective numbers, counting the whole number of
persons in each State....

"The right of the citizens of the United States to vote shall not
be denied or abridged by the United States or any State on account
of race, color or previous condition of servitude."

America of 1914 was prone to look upon this part of the Constitution as a mere scrap of paper. From what point of vantage might the Negro hope for Honor, Recognition and Equality at the hands of the allied governments?

Land of the free and home of the brave, America is assumed to be so openhearted, munificent and princely, so liberal and so generous that could she but behold a man, of whatever hue, trampled in the mire, or hear his piteous cry, she would hasten to his aid and deliver him. So much does she admire genuine human worth that a man of heart and spirit and fortitude cannot perish while she is nigh at hand. Such, at least, is the assumption.

From the debasement of industrial serfdom, the black workman wished the American people of 1914 to stop the trend of their strenuous existence and behold him ... and test him ... and proclaim him. He not only wished to be given a free field and a fair chance to work at the same job, for the same wage, during the same hours, and under the same conditions as the white workman, but he was ready to contend for all of the industrial privileges.

The black man of business not only wished to enter into business competition with members of the Caucasian race under the same conditions as customarily pertain to such arrangements, but he was eagerly hoping to insure adjustment of this situation. The black social outcast wished "jim-crow" railway accommodations and signs proclaiming inequality of race to disappear. He wished sufficient education to enable him to develop his own society. He, too, was willing for a world war, for he had come to the point where he desired immediate and explosive change. Looked down upon because of his despised blood, the black American wished to elevate the status of his womankind, too long disproved and betrayed, to the level of free and brave womanhood of all the civilized world. Concerning this situation he was grim. It required but a spark applied here to explode with terrific outburst the sinister silence of the volcano.

But in India, in South Africa, in Nigeria, and in all countries where English rule held sway, England was committed to the policy of the white overseer or foreman for the black exponent of industry. Nor could she, save through war, adopt a policy of employing either Indians or Africans at the same job and for the same wage as that received by members of the British Labor Party. On the other hand, France, whose political life was convulsed from 1894 to 1899 by principles of racial prejudice exhibited in the Dreyfus case, offered every form of equality to the darker races under her dominion. However, such equality offered by France was not equal in the sum total of advantage to the partial equality which the Negro received in America. The French workman gave more hours of toil for less monetary reward. The Negro wanted to bring the French principle of equality to apply in American industry. But the British in 1914 could not agree to industrial equality for black men. Such agreement would upset the nicely calculated economic adjustments of the English system. America would take no step until forced to do so.

It was the problem of the Negro, alone and single-handed, to grasp the opportunity afforded by world war to bring America to this point of recognition and democratic equality. The Negro, hitherto regarded as the monkey-man, the baby race, the black brute, trained by such ruthless propaganda to disrespect himself, hesitated.

There was no leadership. No ringleader arrayed the mob. No chief appeared. No captain called the hosts. No generalissimo marshalled the black phalanx. No statesman sought entanglement in the meshes of the negro labyrinth. But the Negro proposition for a test of Negro fitness, like Topsy, "just growed." The young Negro possessed the clear eye to see the situation. College trained, his vision was not blinded by proximity to issues of the Civil War, nor by financial dependence, nor by excessive spirituality. The elder Negro possessed the oratorical and linguistic powers to state the case. Also college trained, of long experience, possessing a widespread oratorical clientele, he spoke with a voice that stirred and played upon the heartstrings of all America. Never was such a proposition advanced where men, old and young, despised and rejected, penniless and without credit, without acclaimed leadership or champion, sought position of honor and recognition and equality beside the best fighting forces of the world to help defeat the greatest military machine that hell had ever invented.

Capital and labor, in previous years, had found the Negro wanting. State governments had utilized him for the purpose of increasing taxes and court fees. The national government always handled him in accordance with political expediency, despite his unswerving loyalty. Capital, labor, State government and national government had brought the Negro so low that he was ready in 1914 for any form of relief.

The Negro was ready for change, for one reason, because he had lost the honor of ministership to Haiti, Henry W. Furniss being succeeded by a white man. He was ready for change because, as the continental war proceeded, it became evident that though America might participate, her black colonel, Charles Denton Young, a graduate of West Point, and a distinguished soldier, might receive recognition as the leader of black forces on foreign soil. He was ready for change because it appeared that there had been agreement that no American Negro should participate in a test of world equality upon the field of world honor and renown.

In the American Navy Department, in 1914, time had destroyed the wake of Negro tradition, and the log had been deleted. The Negro has rendered honorable service in the navy. He was with Perry on Lake Erie. During the Civil War, Robert Smalls, a Negro, single-handed, stole the Union cruiser "Planter" from Charleston harbor and brought her into a Union port. Half the men who accompanied Hobson into Santiago harbor were Negroes. Matt Henson was the only man with Peary at the Pole. John Jordan fired the first shot from Dewey's flagship "Olympia," opening the battle of Manila. The Negro wanted change because in 1914 the naval administration reluctantly offered Negroes positions as messmen and cooks. No seamen, no members of the merchant marine, no petty officers, no lieutenants, might apply.

In the American Treasury Department, an ex-Senator of the United States, a colored man, Blanche K. Bruce of Mississippi, was honored by having created for him the office of register of the treasury. Subsequently the honor was conferred as a political favor upon Judson W. Lyons, of Georgia; William T. Vernon, of Kansas, and J.C. Napier, of Tennessee. The democratic executive was good enough to offer this position, created as a direct result of the Negro's activities during and after the Civil War, to Adam E. Patterson, of Oklahoma. But so great was the pressure from opposing political forces that the name was withdrawn and another position of honor lost to the race. Ralph W. Tyler, auditor of the navy, resigned his position in 1912. A white man was appointed in his place. Screens were erected in this department, shutting the Negro from the view of his erstwhile fellow-clerk. He was sent down in the cellar to emphasize his degradation as he attended to his physical wants. The Negro cried aloud for change, and in his heart he cared not how soon this change should come, nor what form it should take.

The American Post-office Department, by 1914, had taken over the bulk of the express service of the United States. The Negro was found available as a clerk, but seldom, if ever, as a foreman. The appointment of large numbers of Negroes to mere clerical positions did not mean to the Negro recognition of merit. The Negro postmaster had disappeared.

The American Department of the Interior is engaged with domestic affairs of the nation. The Negro constitutes one-tenth of the population and requires one-tenth of the necessities of American life. In 1914, a definite attempt was made in a bureau of this department to give the Negro recognition, honor and near-equality by the policy of segregating him into a Negro bureau. This policy had previously been worked out in Negro school systems and in the army. But the Negro clerks of the Interior Department, by unanimous vote, rejected the proposition for this sort of change. The kind of recognition, the kind of honor and the kind of equality which they desired had taken definite shape in their minds.

The American Agricultural Department, it would appear, should be made up of a large percentage of Negroes. The Negro was essentially an agriculturist before he came to America. He was brought to Virginia for the specific purpose of engaging in agriculture. His development of agricultural conferences in the South in recent years has been a great source of production. The Negro wanted change because this department employed messengers and clerks, but demonstrators seldom, if ever, of his color. Agricultural strategy in 1914 might well have been exonerated if it had employed Negro chief demonstrators and engaged them in interstate contest for quantity production. In one Southern State the Negro operates the greater agricultural area. In another he will operate the greater portion of such districts at an early date. In still another many of the communities of large Negro population have hardly had a white foot set upon them in two decades. The Negroes of these three states could have furnished surplus food for any nation of the allies, but a Negro might receive honor if put in charge of their development at the proper salary and with full authority to act. In 1914, this honor must not be.

In the American Department of Commerce the masters of barter and exchange are exhibited. America seeks to develop the man who can strike a bargain and outbid his competitors. The Negro wanted change because, since the invention of salesmanship he has been declared out of the scope of this department. His social status prevents him from making the proper sales approach. The Negro of 1914 came to this department only as a depositor of funds, or as a beggar for charity. He was not seriously regarded.

Lastly, in the American Department of Labor, the Negro wanted change because he was regarded in 1914 as the man requiring a boss of another color. He was not regarded as a master mechanic, manufacturer, artist or journeyman, unless the labor union, to which he was ineligible, so regarded him.

In these many ways, by capital and labor, by state and national government, in every department, had the Negro of 1914 been reduced to the state of man without honor in his own country. If war be change, however explosive in form, in 1914 the Negro wanted the world war to come to America from whatever angle that promised him the greatest advantage.

Equality in citizenship, for which the Negro yearned, meant parity of adjustment to conditions of life. Equality may be considered under three forms, industrial, business and political. As the terms are understood in America, the Negro was unanimous in 1914 in desiring industrial, business and political equality. He eagerly watched the fuse of war if perchance he might foresee from the consequent explosion the termination of Anglo-Saxon prejudice. It is but fair to say that he was not the only victim of discrimination at that time. The sub-dominant nations, including the Jugo-Slavs, the Czecho-Slavs, the Serbs and the Serfs of Russia, were subject to discrimination and deprived of the higher places of honor in the world's society.

But the Negro was not immediately concerned with any one's status save his own. He was not concerned that Mexicans, Chinese, Japanese, Filipinos, Porto Ricans or South Africans did not enjoy the advantage of living on American soil. He was only concerned with the fact that, living in America, performing the full duties of American citizenship, he was denied the advantages and privileges of its possession, while Slavs and Serbs of Europe, with white skins, were accorded the fullest measure of democratic opportunity whenever and wherever they set foot on American soil. The Negro wanted the world war to prove that he, too, was a coalescent element in the civilization of the world.

To summarize the burden of the Negro in 1914 we may include Caucasian arrogance, hatred and prejudice of race, injustice of attitude and treatment, personal fear for life and property, improperly requited toil, unrewarded ambition, unmerited disfavor and debased self-respect. What profound pathos in the love which he bore Old Glory!

THE WAR FOR DEMOCRATIZATION.

Germany of 1914 aimed to throw off the yoke which she claimed England wished to fasten on her world relationships. She aimed to dominate the world with German efficiency. She aimed to demonstrate German superiority and expose what she called Anglo-Saxon hypocrisy and cant. Already possessing the world's supply of potash, she struck directly at the coal and iron region of Belgium and Northern France. And she took them on the initial advance. With potash, coal and iron, this was a Teutonic coup for industrial and commercial supremacy indeed. Now well might she dictate who should boycott English goods. Now well might she point to the political and military dishonor of the easy defeat of Belgium and France. Now well might she proceed to the disintegration of these countries by the weapons of poverty, disease, hunger and bitter cold. Little did Germany dream what moral advantage she gave these overrun lands in the hearts of the millions of Negroes of the world. Germany felt assured that Negroes from all Africa would gloat over the assassination of Belgium. She was positive that American Negroes would rejoice. She expected the blacks of the world would rise up and hail her as the champion of a new day.

In the twinkling of an eye she reduced Belgium to industrial serfdom. She made the Belgian merchant a business pariah. She reduced the Belgian citizen to a political Helot, and imprisoned the burgomaster of Brussels, who refused to yield his citizenship honors. She made of Belgium a desert. The Belgian woman she whistled at and made a bye-word and reproach. And she called her treaty of Belgian neutrality a mere scrap of paper. Namur fell, and Charleroi and lovely Louvain. Liege succumbed in those hot August days, and Malines and Tournai and Antwerp. Poor Belgian refugees, starved and naked, fled westward. In remembrance of barbarities in the Congo under the international commission which placed Belgium in control, the American Negro quoted the poet: "The sins we borrow two by two we pay for one by one." But there was no disposition to gloat. The American Negro, be it said, came to the Belgian relief with money and goods and prayers and tears, and forgot the sins of the fathers of the suffering little kingdom. The secret of this reaction is revealed in the sympathy which the Negro bore toward another people reduced to his American status, without honor, recognition or equality.