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Show FIGHTING STOPS-GRBATWAR STOPS-GRBATWAR OVER Germany Signs Armistice Which Is Unconditional Surrender. KAISER WILH ELM ABDICATES "ream of World Conquest Ends in Defeat and Revolution Flight From Justice of Criminal Against Civilization. ' By J. D. SHERMAN. Peace! The greatest war of all history his-tory is over. The armistice asked for by Germany has been signed. This means no less than "unconditional surrender." For the terms of that armistice deprive Germany of the means of resistance. Germany must accept whatever peace terms the allies dictate. The kaiser Frederich Wilhelm Victor Vic-tor Albert, Emperor Wilhelm II? He is a fugitive in Holland from justice the justice of his own people as well as of the civilized world ; the red flag flies over the throne he was compelled com-pelled to acriHcate. His fate hangs in the balance. If extradition for punishment pun-ishment is demanded, his fate lies with Holland. The great war began June 28, 1914, with the assassination of the Austrian Archduke Francis Ferdinand in Sarajevo, Sara-jevo, Bosnia, by Serbians. This was the beginning, because civilization holds the kaiser guilty of seizing it as a pretext for the world war which he had long been secretly planning to carry out his purpose of world conquest. con-quest. He and his tremendous war machine were ready, impatient, eager for action. Here was the program, as tlie kaiser planned it: He would force Austria-Hungary, his ally and practically his vassal, into war with Serbia. Russia would rush to the defense of Serbia. Of Russia he had no fear, for he well knew that German intrigue had already prepared the way in advance ad-vance for the ruin of the unhappy land of Czar Nicholas. France, he knew, would support Russia. France she was really his Immediate object. Ever since 1STU Germany lias teen preparing to go back to France. Why? Because Germany Ger-many failed to beggar France by the staggering indemnity of 1S70, because she then overlooked the coal and iron deposits of northern France, and because be-cause she hated France and the French, root, stock and branch. And the kaiser knew also that France was not ready for a death grapple with Germany. . Great Britain, he had made himself believe, would remain neutral. That would be well, for he wanted to deal with Great Britain later. Anyway, her ' army was small. As for America she would not fight and could not if she would. So his schedule, arranged to the day and hour, called for his triumphant entry into Paris September 2, A. D. 1014. Then, with a huge French indemnity in-demnity and control of the iron and ooal regions of Meurthe-et-Moselle and Lens, he would sit back, make new war preparations and get ready to conquer Great Britain. Later on, at his leisure, would come the third war and the subjugation of the United States ! War of Frightf ulness. So, posing before the world as an advocate of peace driven to war in defense de-fense of his fatherland, the kaiser went his secret, devious way to war to the war of deliberate and calculated fri&hifulness which, under the guise of warfare, despoiled Belgium; laid tvuj,te northern France, depopulated Serbia ; shot the English nurse, Edith Ct'.vell ; sank the Lusiinnia wilh her freight of women and children; massacred, mas-sacred, ravished and enslaved non-combatant non-combatant civilian populations fright-fulness fright-fulness which has caused more than 23,000,000 casualties and the expenditure expend-iture of billions upon billions of money f rightfulness which instead of frightening fright-ening the world into submission has arrayed in arms against her 22 civilized civi-lized nations f rightfulness which now makes the name of Germany a Household execration among most of the peoples of earth. At first the kaiser's program went along without check or pause. July 23 Austria declared war on Serbia: Russia went to the aid of Serbia. The other nations promptly fell into line. Declarations of war came thick and fast. By August 4 the stage was all pet fo; actual fighting. August 5 the Germans and Belgians fell to on the Belgian frontier. The German march to Paris was on. But, as everybody knows. Wilhelm II did not enter Paris in triumph September 2. Why? Because lillle Belgium, mart" Belgium, saved Paris. She fouirhr. Her brave lillie army J!d not last long. Hut it lasted long nough to give the French time to "dig ?Q." The Germans thereupon found the road to Paris a series of trenches that must be taken one by one. The schedule was soon hopelessly behind time. Likewise the heroic resistance of Belgium brought Great Britain forthwith forth-with into the war. And though the British standing army was not large, it went to the front, died in the last ditch and still further delayed the German march to Paris. Moreover, Great Britain's Brit-ain's colonies from all the seven seas went hurrying to the front. And Great Britain's fleat promptly forced the Ger man fleet into cover at Kiel and srvept the oceans clear of German merchant shipping, thus carrying to Germany the war of starvation that Germany had planned for her. United States Neutral. The United States in the meantime had proclaimed its neutrality. Italy, though a member of the triple alliance, was holding off on the ground that its alliance with Germany and Austria were for defense and not of offense. of-fense. It was not until May of 1915 tha,t she got into the war and then on the side of the allies. By the end of 1014 Japan was in with the allies and Turkey with the central powers. Fighting Fight-ing was in active progress in Belgium and France; on the Russian-German and Russian-Austrian fronties. The government of France had been removed re-moved to Bordeaux. But the Germans Ger-mans were still G5 miles from Paris. May 7, 1915, the passenger liner Lusitauia was torpedoed without warning warn-ing and sunk by a German submarine off the coast of Ireland. This outrage against humanity horrified civilization. Germany, however, celebrated the sinking. To the world she sought to defend her action by asserting that the Lusitauia was armed and that she carried car-ried munitions of war. She was not armed and she did not carry munitions of war. Many Americans felt thereafter there-after that the entrauce of the United States into the war was inevitable. February 22, 1916, the German crown prince's army began the attack on Verdun Ver-dun which was to blast a way to Paris. The bombardment of Verdun was the heaviest artillery fire of the war. It was here that the French said "They shall not pass." And the Germans did not pass. The French saved Verdun by commandeering practically prac-tically ever motor vehicle in Paris and rushing reserves to the great fortress. The devotion of its garrison, the intensity in-tensity and persistence of the German attack and the dramatic deliverance have made the name Verdun known the world over. - June 5 Lord Kitchener, the British war hero, was lost on the British cruiser cruis-er Hampshire, together with most of the crew. He was on a secret mission for the allies. It was afterward charged that he was betrayed by the Russian czarina, who furnished, the information in-formation which led to the sinking of the cruiser by a German submarine. July 9 the German submarine Deutschland arrived ' in Baltimore. She carried a valuable cargo and took a valuable cargo back to Germany. She claimed to be a merchant vessel and was treated as such by the United States. The main purpose, doubtless, was to impress America with the German Ger-man submarine ; the sinking in October Octo-ber by German submarines of six merchant mer-chant vessels off Nantucket, Mass., was presumably part of the same plan. Germany was getting ready for her forthcoming announcement of unrestricted unre-stricted submarine warfare. September 14 the British introduced into war a new engine of destruction the "tank." In brief it is a heavily armored body, armed with guns on a "caterpillar" instead of wheels. It can thus travel over almost any sort of ground and crush its way through most obstacles. The caterpillar tractor is an American invention, originating iu Peoria, 111. ; the adaptation of harmless harm-less tractor machinery to a destructive war engine was done in secrecy by an Englishman. The tank proved a genuine genu-ine surprise and has played no small part in the war, together wilh lighter and faster tanks called "whippets." The Germans also soon produced tanks, . but apparently have pever been able to hold their own with those of the allies. One of the most striking strik-ing exploits of the war was the exploit ex-ploit of an American sergeant who rode into action perched on the top of an American tank. Collapse of Russia. The close of the year 1910 was marked mark-ed by the resignation of Premier Herbert Her-bert Asquith of Great Britain and the acceptance of lhe premiership by David Lloyd George; a new cabinet iu France and a new commander in chief, General Xivelle; the practically complete com-plete defeat of the armies of Ron-mania, Ron-mania, which had joined the allies. and peace proposals from Germany to the allies through lhe United Slates. Tilings were going 'well witli Germany and she wanled peace on terms of her own making. The spring of 1917 saw the collapse of Russia, a collapse undoubtedly brought about by Germany through intrigue in-trigue and for her own purposes. It began March I with revolution in IV-trograd. IV-trograd. March 15 Czar Nicholas abdicated. ab-dicated. March 22 America recognized the new Russian government a republic. repub-lic. Since thtm Russia has been a chaos. Russia is one of the big problems prob-lems confronting the allies. They can presumably put an end to the reign of anarchy, murder and pillage; the regeneration re-generation of the nation is a tremendous tremen-dous undertaking. October of 1917 wile marked by the collapse of the Italian Isonzo front. This collapse was also due to German propaganda and intrigue. Taken altogether alto-gether the year 101 T was not one of cheer for the allle. America Goes In. And yet the turning point of the war was reached In 1917. F' t the United States had entered th great world conflict. Germany stands convicted before the world of incredible stupidity stupid-ity ns well as unbelievable frightfnl-ncss. frightfnl-ncss. For Germany practically forced the United States into the war. Entirely En-tirely contemptuous of America us a possible belligerent, Germany announced an-nounced unrestricted submarine warfare war-fare January 31, 1917. Moreover, Germany Ger-many had the unbridled arrogance and the colossal presumption to Inform the United States of America that permission permis-sion would be given U codUs.us to ull regular American passenger ships after February 1 If these ships went to and from Falmouth and followed a prescribed pre-scribed course going and returning; if the steamers were painted in a specified speci-fied way and carried specified flags; ! if one steamer a week each way were sailed, and if the United States government govern-ment guaranteed that no contraband was carried. The immediate answer of the United States was given February 3 the severance sev-erance of diplomatic relations with Germany. April G the president signer a joint resolution of the two houses of congress declaring a state of war to exist with Germany. In quick succession suc-cession came the selective service act for the raising of an army; 'a war appropriation of $3,000,000,000; the sending of an expeditionary force of regulars to France under General Pershing; the registration of nearly 10.000,000 men for military service the closing of the first Liberty loan with a large oversubscription ; the drafting of the state militia into the federal service. October 27 formal announcement an-nouncement was made that American troops in France had fired their first shot in war. Nevertheless, the spring of 191S saw three huge drives on Paris by the Germans. Ger-mans. Ry June 1 the Germans were within 46 miles of the French capital, in Chateau-Toierry. Unless ohey were speedily stopped Paris would be under the'" nuns. The plan of the French ias to delay them as long as possible by rear-guard actions until reserves could be brought up. Yankees Stop Huns. And then took place the thing which all good Americans were prayerfully prayer-fully expecting: American soldiers got into action in American fashion, ' under American leadership, with American artillery and machine guns. The French commander sent to Chateau-Thierry an American division made up of marines and of infantry from the middle West. June 2 the leathernecks and doughboys moved into support positions back of seasoned season-ed French troops. The French were forced hack and filtered through the Americans ; the support positions soon became the front. June 4. about five o'clock in the afternoon, aft-ernoon, the Germans attacked in force through a wheat field, in platoon columns, col-umns, in perfect order, supremely confident. con-fident. The Americans rakeil them with shrapnel and machine guns. Then they opened with rifle fire. Cool, unhurried, un-hurried, they picked their shots ns if at target practice. Military experts win tell you that the American marines ma-rines are the most effective fighting men in all the armies of the world ; certainly cer-tainly they have no equals with the rifle. The Germans wavered, then came on again. Twice more they stopped ; twice more advanced. Then they broke. Flesh and blood could not stand that rifle fire. They crawled off through the standing grain. The Americans sent bullets wherever the wheat stirred. That was the end. Days and nights of heavy bombardment bombard-ment followed. Sleep was impossible. The Americans lived on "monkey meat," bread and water. Then they went on and took the town of Boures-ches, Boures-ches, cleaning out the nests of machine gunners, with rifle fire, bayonet and grenade. What They Have They Hold. Next they took the Bois .tie Belleau. It was a jungle. It was every man for himself, Indian fashion, from tree fo tree, from rock to rock. The battalion battal-ion of leathernecks which took the wood went In with 958 men and 20 ollicer3. They came out with 310 men and seven officers. But they took the wood. Then they dug themselves in and fought off counter-attacks for five days until relieved, constantly shelled and gassed, not one hot meal all that time. What the leathernecks have they hold. This one division used up live crack divisions of the Germans. There are those among lhe allies who say flint lhe Americans at ("bateau-Thierry saved Paris, Just as lhe Canadians saved Calais. When the military history of the Great War Is written Chat eau-Thierry Is likely to he called the turning point of the struggle. For its moral force was beyond be-yond estimate. It put now heart Into the war-worn French and Rrllish. All France flamed with Joy. The Americans Ameri-cans ha dstopped tin Hun, had driven him hack, had beaten him off. Anil thousands upon thousands of Just such Americans were In plain sight pushing to the front ! General Koch in supreme command of the allies on the western fronl, soon aflcrwi rd launched the allied offensive and victory followed victory all along the fighting line of 250 miles from the North sea to Verdun. It was the beginning be-ginning of flie end. Ry early October the Hun was beaten beat-en to his knees and asking for peace. October 31 the Italians utterly muled the Austrian. The same day Turkey surrendered. November Austria signed an armistice vlrlnally aniout,:-Ing aniout,:-Ing to unconditional surrender. Xn-veinber Xn-veinber 9 Kaiser Wilhelm abdicated and Crown Prince Frlcdrieb Wilhelm renounced the throne, belli fleeing to Holland to escape a people In revolution. revolu-tion. So the mad ambition of Emperor William II of Germany to conquer the world and his 30 years of debaucMng his people end In defeat, revolution, abdication and flight from Justice. This arch criminal against civilization civiliza-tion "111 he lucky If he fares no worse. Whatever his fate It Is of no Importance Impor-tance compared with the fact that this eartJi is now safe from a monstrosity who would pillage a world under pr teit oi patilotlc love for country. |
