AWAKENING OF AMERICA
PRESIDENT CLINGS TO NEUTRALITY--MONROE DOCTRINE AND WASHINGTON'S
WARNING--GERMAN CRIMES AND GERMAN VICTORIES--CARDINAL MERCIER'S
LETTER--MILITARY OPERATIONS--FIRST SUBMARINE ACTIVITIES--THE LUSITANIA
OUTRAGE--EXCHANGE OF NOTES--UNITED STATES AROUSED--ROLE OF PASSIVE
ONLOOKER BECOMES IRKSOME--FIRST MODIFICATION OF PRINCIPLES OF WASHINGTON
AND MONROE--OUR DESTINY LOOMS.
August 4,1914, President Wilson proclaimed the neutrality of the United
States. A more consistent attempt to maintain that attitude was never
made by a nation. In an appeal addressed to the American people on
August 18th, the president implored the citizens to refrain from "taking
sides." Part of his utterance on that occasion was:
"We must be impartial in thought as well as in action, must put a
curb upon our sentiments as well as upon every transaction that
might be construed as a preference of one party to the struggle
before another.
"My thought is of America. I am speaking, I feel sure, the earnest
wish and purpose of every thoughtful American that this great
country of ours, which is, of course, the first in our thoughts and
in our hearts, should show herself in this time of peculiar trial a
nation fit beyond others to exhibit the fine poise of undisturbed
judgment, the dignity of self-control, the efficiency of
dispassionate action; a nation that neither sits in judgment upon
others, nor is disturbed in her own counsels, and which keeps
herself fit and free to do what is honest and disinterested and
truly serviceable for the peace of the world."
American poise had been somewhat disturbed over the treatment of
American tourists caught in Germany at the outbreak of the war. American
sentiment was openly agitated by the invasion of Belgium and the
insolent repudiation by Germany of her treaty obligations. The German
chancellor had referred to the treaty with Belgium as "a scrap of
paper." These things had created a suspicion in American minds, having
to do with what seemed Germany's real and ulterior object, but in the
main the people of this county accepted the president's appeal in the
spirit in which it was intended and tried to live up to it, which
attitude was kept to the very limit of human forbearance.
A few editors and public men, mostly opposed to the president
politically, thought we were carrying the principle of neutrality too
far; that the violation of Belgium was a crime against humanity in
general and that if we did not at least protest against it, we would be
guilty of national stultification if not downright cowardice. Against
this view was invoked the time-honored principles of the Monroe Doctrine
and its great corollary, Washington's advice against becoming entangled
in European affairs. Our first president, in his farewell address,
established a precept of national conduct that up to the time we were
drawn into the European war, had become almost a principle of religion
with us. He said:
"Against the insidious wiles of foreign influence (I conjure you to
believe me, fellow citizens) the jealousy of a free people ought to
constantly awake, since history and experience prove that foreign
influence is one of the most baneful foes of republican
government--Europe has a set of primary interests which to us have
none or a very remote relation. Hence she must be engaged in
frequent controversies, the causes of which are essentially foreign
to our concern. Hence, therefore, it must be unwise in us to
implicate ourselves by artificial ties in the ordinary vicissitudes
of her politics or the ordinary combinations and collisions of her
friendships or enmities."
The Monroe Doctrine was a statement of principles made by President
Monroe in his famous message of December 2, 1823. The occasion of the
utterance was the threat by the so-called Holy Alliance to interfere
forcibly in South America with a view to reseating Spain in control of
her former colonies there. President Monroe, pointing to the fact that
it was a principle of American policy not to intermeddle in European
affairs, gave warning that any attempt by the monarchies of Europe "to
extend their system to any portion of this hemisphere" would be
considered by the United States "as dangerous to our peace and safety."
This warning fell in line with British policy at the time and so proved
efficacious.
[Illustration: NEGRO SOLDIERS AND RED CROSS WORKERS IN FRONT OF CANTEEN,
HAMLET, N.C.]
[Illustration: COLORED RED CROSS WORKERS FROM THE CANTEEN AT ATLANTA,
GA., FEEDING SOLDIERS AT RAILWAY STATION.]
[Illustration: COLORED WOMEN IN HOSPITAL GARMENTS CLASS OF BRANCH NO. 6.
NEW ORLEANS CHAPTER, AMERICAN RED CROSS. LOUISE J. ROSS, DIRECTOR.]
[Illustration: RED CROSS WORKERS. PROMINENT COLORED WOMEN OF ATLANTA,
GA., WHO ORGANIZED CANTEEN FOR RELIEF OF NEGRO SOLDIERS GOING TO AND
RETURNING FROM WAR.]
[Illustration: THE GAME IS ON. A BASEBALL MATCH BETWEEN NEGRO AND WHITE
TROOPS IN ONE OF THE TRAINING AREAS IN FRANCE.]
[Illustration: COL. WILLIAM HAYWARD OF 369TH INFANTRY PLAYING BASEBALL
WITH HIS NEGRO SOLDIERS AT ST. NAZAIRE, FRANCE.]
[Illustration: JAZZ AND SOUTHERN MELODIES HASTEN CURE. NEGRO SAILOR
ENTERTAINING DISABLED NAVY MEN IN HOSPITAL FOR CONVALESCENTS.]
[Illustration: ENJOYING A BIT OF CAKE BAKED AT THE AMERICAN RED CROSS
CANTEEN AT IS-SUR-TILLE, FRANCE.]
[Illustration: CORPORAL FRED. McINTYRE OF 369TH INFANTRY, WITH PICTURE
OF THE KAISER WHICH HE CAPTURED FROM A GERMAN OFFICER.]
[Illustration: LIEUT. ROBERT L. CAMPBELL, NEGRO OFFICER OF THE 368TH
INFANTRY WHO WON FAME AND THE D.S.C. IN ARGONNE FOREST. HE DEVISED A
CLEVER PIECE OF STRATEGY AND DISPLAYED GREAT HEROISM IN THE EXECUTION OF
IT.]
[Illustration: EMMETT J. SCOTT, APPOINTED BY SECRETARY BAKER, AS SPECIAL
ASSISTANT DURING THE WORLD WAR. HE WAS FORMERLY CONFIDENTIAL SECRETARY
TO THE LATE BOOKER T. WASHINGTON.]
[Illustration: (TOP)--GENERAL DIAZ, COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF ITALIAN ARMIES.
MARSHAL FOCH, COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF ALLIED FORCES.
(CENTER)--GENERAL PERSHING, COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF AMERICAN ARMIES. ADMIRAL
SIMS, IN CHARGE OF AMERICAN NAVAL OPERATIONS OVERSEAS.
(BOTTOM)--KING ALBERT, COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF BELGIAN ARMY. FIELD MARSHAL
HAIG, HEAD OF BRITISH ARMIES.]
In a later section of the same message the proposition was also advanced
that the American continent was no longer subject to colonization. This
clause of the doctrine was the work of Monroe's secretary of state, John
Quincy Adams, and its occasion was furnished by the fear that Russia was
planning to set up a colony at San Francisco, then the property of
Spain, whose natural heir on the North American continent, Adams held,
was the United States. It is this clause of the document that has
furnished much of the basis for its subsequent development.
In 1902 Germany united with Great Britain and Italy to collect by force
certain claims against Venezuela. President Roosevelt demanded and
finally, after threatening to dispatch Admiral Dewey to the scene of
action, obtained a statement that she would not permanently occupy
Venezuelan territory. Of this statement one of the most experienced and
trusted American editors, avowedly friendly to Germany, remarked at the
time, that while he believed "it was and will remain true for some time
to come, I cannot, in view of the spirit now evidently dominant in the
mind of the emperor and among many who stand near him, express any
belief that such assurances will remain trustworthy for any great length
of time after Germany shall have developed a fleet larger than that of
the United States." He accordingly cautioned the United States "to bear
in mind probabilities and possibilities as to the future conduct of
Germany, and therefore increase gradually our naval strength." Bismarck
pronounced the Monroe Doctrine "an international impertinence," and this
has been the German view all along.
Dr. Zorn, one of the most conservative of German authorities on
international affairs, concluded an article in Die Woche of September
13, 1913, with these words: "Considered in all its phases, the Monroe
Doctrine is in the end seen to be a question of might only and not of
right."
The German government's efforts to check American influence in the Latin
American states had of late years been frequent and direct. They
comprised the encouragement of German emigration to certain regions, the
sending of agents to maintain close contact, presentation of German
flags in behalf of the Kaiser, the placing of the German Evangelical
churches in certain South American countries under the Prussian State
Church, annual grants for educational purposes from the imperial
treasury at Berlin, and the like.
The "Lodge resolution," adopted by the senate in 1912, had in view the
activities of certain German corporations in Latin America, as well as
the episode that immediately occasioned it; nor can there be much doubt
that it was the secret interference by Germany at Copenhagen that
thwarted the sale of the Danish West Indies to the United States in
1903.
In view of a report that a Japanese corporation, closely connected with
the Japanese government, was negotiating with the Mexican government for
a territorial concession off Magdalena Bay, in lower California, the
senate in 1912 adopted the following resolution, which was offered by
Senator Lodge of Massachusetts:
"That when any harbor or other place in the American continent is
so situated that the occupation thereof for naval or military
purposes might threaten the communications or the safety of the
United States, the government of the United States could not see
without grave concern, the possession of such harbor or other place
by any corporation or association which has such a relation to
another government, not American, as to give that government
practical power of control for naval or military purposes."
All of the above documents, arguments and events were of the greatest
importance in connection with the great European struggle. America was
rapidly awakening, and the role of a passive onlooker became
increasingly irksome. It was pointed out that Washington's message said
we must not implicate ourselves in the "ordinary vicissitudes" of
European politics. This case rapidly was assuming something decidedly
beyond the "ordinary." As the carnage increased and outrages piled up,
the finest sensibilities of mankind were shocked and we began to ask
ourselves if we were not criminally negligent in our attitude; if it was
not our duty to put forth a staying hand and use the extreme weight of
our influence to stop the holocaust.
From August 4 to 26, Germany overran Belgium. Liege was occupied August
9; Brussels, August 20, and Namur, August 24. The stories of atrocities
committed on the civil population of that country have since been well
authenticated. At the time it was hard to believe them, so barbaric and
utterly wanton were they. Civilized people could not understand how a
nation which pretended to be not only civilized, but wished to impose
its culture on the remainder of the world, could be so ruthless to a
small adversary which had committed no crime and desired only to
preserve its nationality, integrity and treaty rights.
Germany did not occupy Antwerp until October 9, owing to the stiff
resistance of the Belgians and engagements with the French and British
elsewhere. But German arms were uniformly victorious. August 21-23
occurred the battle of Mons-Charleroi, a serious defeat for the French
and British, which resulted in a dogged retreat eventually to a line
along the Seine, Marne and Meuse rivers.
The destruction of Louvain occurred August 26, and was one of the events
which inflamed anti-German sentiment throughout the world. The beautiful
cathedral, the historic cloth market, the library and other
architectural monuments for which the city was famed, were put to the
torch. The Belgian priesthood was in woe over these and other
atrocities. Cardinal Mercier called upon the Christian world to note and
protest against these crimes. In his pastoral letter of Christmas, 1914,
he thus pictures Belgium's woe and her Christian fortitude:
"And there where lives were not taken, and there where the stones
of buildings were not thrown down, what anguish unrevealed!
Families hitherto living at ease, now in bitter want; all commerce
at an end, all careers ruined; industry at a standstill; thousands
upon thousands of workingmen without employment; working women;
shop girls, humble servant girls without the means of earning their
bread, and poor souls forlorn on the bed of sickness and fever
crying: 'O Lord, how long, how long?'--God will save Belgium, my
brethren; you can not doubt it. Nay, rather, He is saving
her--Which of us would have the heart to cancel this page of our
national history? Which of us does not exult in the brightness of
the glory of this shattered nation? When in her throes she brings
forth heroes, our mother country gives her own energy to the blood
of those sons of hers. Let us acknowledge that we needed a lesson
in patriotism--For down within us all is something deeper than
personal interests, than personal kinships, than party feeling, and
this is the need and the will to devote ourselves to that most
general interest which Rome termed the public thing, Res publica.
And this profound will within us is patriotism."
Meanwhile there was a slight offset to the German successes. Russia had
overrun Galicia and the Allies had conquered the Germany colony of
Togoland in Africa. But on August 26 the Russians were severely defeated
in the battle of Tannenburg in East Prussia. This was offset by a
British naval victory in Helgoland Bight. (August 28.)
So great had become the pressure of the German armies that on September
3 the French government removed from Paris to Bordeaux. The seriousness
of the situation was made manifest when two days later Great Britain,
France and Russia signed a treaty not to make peace separately. Then it
became evident to the nations of the earth that the struggle was not
only to be a long one, but in all probability the most gigantic in
history.
The Germans reached the extreme point of their advance, culminating in
the Battle of the Marne, September 6-10. Here the generalship of Joffre
and the strategy of Foch overcame great odds. The Germans were driven
back from the Marne to the River Aisne. The battle line then remained
practically stationary for three years on a front of three hundred
miles.
The Russians under General Rennenkampf were driven from East Prussia
September 16. Three British armored cruisers were sunk by a submarine
September 22. By September 27 General Botha had gained some successes
for the Allies, and had under way an invasion of German Southwest
Africa. By October 13 Belgium was so completely occupied by the Germans
that the government withdrew entirely from the country and established
itself at Le Havre in France. By the end of the year had occurred the
Battle of Yser in Belgium (October 16-28); the first Battle of Ypres
(decisive day October 31), in which the British, French and Belgians
saved the French channel ports; De Wet's rebellion against the British
in South Africa (October 28); German naval victory in the Pacific off
the coast of Chile (November 1); fall of Tsingtau, German possession in
China, to the Japanese (November 7); Austrian invasion of Serbia
(Belgrade taken December 2, recaptured by the Serbians December 14);
German commerce raider Emden caught and destroyed at Cocos Island
(November 10); British naval victory off the Falkland Islands (December
8); South African rebellion collapsed (December 8); French government
returned to Paris (December 9); German warships bombarded West
Hartlepool, Scarborough and Whitby on the coast of England (December
16). On December 24 the Germans showed their Christian spirit in an
inauguration of the birthday of Christ by the first air raid over
England. The latter part of the year 1914 saw no important action by the
United States excepting a proclamation by the president of the
neutrality of the Panama canal zone.
The events of 1915 and succeeding years became of great importance to
the United States and it is with a record of those having the greatest
bearing on our country that this account principally will deal.
On January 20 Secretary of State Bryan found it necessary to explain and
defend our policy of neutrality. January 28 the American merchantman
William P. Frye was sunk by the German cruiser Prinz Eitel Friedrich. On
February 10 the United States dispatched a note to the German government
holding it to a "strict accountability if any merchant vessel of the
United States is destroyed or any American citizens lose their lives."
Germany replied February 16 stating that her "war zone" act was an act
of self-defense against illegal methods employed by Great Britain in
preventing commerce between Germany and neutral countries. Two days
later the German official blockade of Great Britain commenced and the
German submarines began their campaign of piracy and pillage.
The United States on February 20 sent an identic note to Germany and
Great Britain suggesting an agreement between them respecting the
conduct of naval warfare. The British steamship Falaba was sunk by a
submarine March 28, with a loss of 111 lives, one of which was an
American. April 8 the steamer Harpalyce, in the service of the American
commission for the aid of Belgium, was torpedoed with a loss of 15
lives. On April 22 the German embassy in America sent out a warning
against embarkation on vessels belonging to Great Britain. The American
vessel Cushing was attacked by a German aeroplane April 28. On May 1 the
American steamship Gullflight was sunk by a German submarine and two
Americans were lost. That day the warning of the German embassy was
published in the daily papers. The Lusitania sailed at 12:20 noon.
Five days later occurred the crime which almost brought America into the
second year of the war. The Cunard line steamship Lusitania was sunk by
a German submarine with a loss of 1,154 lives, of which 114 were
Americans. After the policy of frightfulness put into effect by the
Germans in Belgium and other invaded territories, the massacres of
civilians, the violation of women and killing of children; burning,
looting and pillage; the destruction of whole towns, acts for which no
military necessity could be pleaded, civilization should have been
prepared for the Lusitania crime. But it seems it was not. The burst of
indignation throughout the United States was terrible. Here was where
the terms German and Hun became synonomous, having in mind the methods
and ravages of the barbaric scourge Attilla, king of the Huns, who in
the fifth century sacked a considerable portion of Europe and introduced
some refinements in cruelty which have never been excelled.
The Lusitania went down twenty-one minutes after the attack. The Berlin
government pleaded in extenuation of the sinking that the ship was
armed, and German agents in New York procured testimony which was
subsequently proven in court to have been perjured, to bolster up the
falsehood. In further justification, the German government adduced the
fact that the ship was carrying ammunition which it said was "destined
for the destruction of brave German soldiers." This contention our
government rightly brushed aside as irrelevant.
The essence of the case was stated by our government in its note of June
9 as follows:
"Whatever be the other facts regarding the Lusitania, the principal
fact is that a great steamer, primarily and chiefly a conveyance
for passengers, and carrying more than a thousand souls who had no
part or lot in the conduct of the war, was sunk without so much as
a challenge or a warning, and that men, women and children were
sent to their death in circumstances unparalleled in modern
warfare."
Three notes were written to Germany regarding the Lusitania sinking. The
first dated May 13 advanced the idea that it was impossible to conduct
submarine warfare conformably with international law. In the second
dated June 9 occurs the statement that "the government of the United
States is contending for something much greater than mere rights of
property or privileges of commerce. It is contending for nothing less
high and sacred than the rights of humanity." In the third note dated
July 21, it is asserted that "the events of the past two months have
clearly indicated that it is possible and practicable to conduct
submarine operations within the so-called war zone in substantial accord
with the accepted practices of regulated warfare." The temper of the
American people and the president's notes had succeeded in securing a
modification of the submarine campaign.
It required cool statesmanship to prevent a rushing into war over the
Lusitania incident and events which had preceeded it. There was a well
developed movement in favor of it, but the people were not unanimous on
the point. It would have lacked that cooperation necessary for
effectiveness; besides our country was but poorly prepared for engaging
in hostilities. It was our state of unpreparedness continuing for a long
time afterwards, which contributed, no doubt, to German arrogance. They
thought we would not fight.
But the United States had become thoroughly awakened and the authorities
must have felt that if the conflict was to be unduly prolonged, we must
eventually be drawn into it. This is reflected in the modified
construction which the president and others began to place on the
Monroe Doctrine. The great underlying idea of the doctrine remained
vital, but in a message to congress delivered December 7, 1915, the
president said:
"In the day in whose light we now stand there is no claim of
guardianship, but a full and honorable association as of partners
between ourselves and our neighbors in the interests of America."
Speaking before the League to Enforce Peace at Washington, May 27, 1916,
he said: "What affects mankind is inevitably our affair, as well as the
affair of the nations of Europe and of Asia." In his address to the
senate of January 22, 1917, he said: "I am proposing, as it were, that
the nations should with one accord adopt the doctrine of President
Monroe as the doctrine of the world--that no nation should seek to
extend its policy over any other nation or people, but that every people
should be left free to determine its own policy, its own way of
development, unhindered, unthreatened, unafraid, the little along with
the great and powerful." This was a modifying and enlarging of the
doctrine, as well as a departure from Washington's warning against
becoming entangled with the affairs of Europe.