THE WORLD RULERS AT WAR.
WOODROW WILSON, THE CHAMPION OF DEMOCRACY--THE EGOTISTICAL KAISER--THE
GERMAN CROWN PRINCE--BRITAIN'S MONARCH--CONSTANTINE WHO QUIT RATHER THAN
FIGHT GERMANY--PRESIDENT POINCAIRE--AND OTHER NATIONAL HEADS.
No matter what the human frailties may be there are always men who rise
in the stress of circumstances to unexpected heights. They thrive upon
difficulties and in the emergencies become protectors and saviors of
men. In the world's greatest melting-pot--the burned and blood-stained
battlefields of Europe--there were tried and tested millions of men of
all nationalities and characteristics, and though the experience was one
of bitterness, there was found in it the satisfaction that in their own
way millions of men proved themselves great.
Out of the hordes that rode over mountains, sailed the seas or picked
their way through trenches and across the scarred surface of the earth
there looms the figures of some whose names will go down in history for
all time. Their names will be written indelibly upon the pages of life
and they will be known for ages after the evidences of the great strife
have been obliterated and the peace for which the world struggled has
been made a permanent thing.
Among those whose names will be forever linked with the terrible war as
a leader of men--whose figure stands out against the mass of
humanity--is Woodrow Wilson, President of the United States of America.
Though he neither faced bullets nor tramped the historic byways of
Europe in the terrible struggle, he was to all intents and purposes the
commander-in-chief of all the world forces seeking to break the
autocratic domination of the Hohenzollerns of Germany and give
democracy its place among the nations of the world which its character
justifies.
President Wilson, when he was elevated to the highest position in
America which the Nation could bestow, was recognized as one of the
greatest essayists and students of history, political economy,
constitutional law and government in the country. And those who made
light of his "book-learning" and referred to him as "the school-master
president," came to know that his training and the very character of his
life's work fitted him better than probably any other man in America to
deal with the great national and international problems which
confronted, which culminated with or grew out of America's entrance into
the great war.
WILSON'S MANY HONORS.
He was born in Staunton, Va., in 1856, the son of Rev. Joseph Woodrow
Wilson, and received his early education at Davidson College, N.C.
Subsequently he received a degree at Princeton University and graduated
in law at the University of Virginia, later practicing law at Atlanta.
After this he received degrees at Johns Hopkins, Rutgers, University of
Pennsylvania, Brown, Dartmouth, Harvard and Yale Colleges, and was
professor of history and political economy, first at Bryn Mawr College
and later at Wesleyan University, and finally professor of jurisprudence
and political economy, then jurisprudence and politics and afterward
president at Princeton University, from which post he was elected
Governor of the State of New Jersey in 1913. He resigned from the
Governorship and was elected President of the United States for a term
beginning March, 1913, and was re-elected in November, 1916, for a
second term beginning March, 1917, both times on the Democratic ticket.
As against the figure of President Wilson there stands that of the
Emperor William of Germany, whose policies indirectly precipitated the
war and impelled the alignment of nations to defend themselves against
his autocratic domination. For years the head of the House of
Hohenzollern, descendant of the ancient margraves of Germany who have
battled with the old Romans, made it manifest in speech and by action
that his ambition was to create a world empire.
GERMANY MUST BE RECKONED WITH.
Once at the launching of one of the great German warships he said: "The
ocean teaches us that on its waves and on its most distant shores no
great decision can any longer be taken without Germany and without the
German Emperor. I do not think that it was in order to allow themselves
to be excluded from big foreign affairs that, thirty years ago, our
people, led by their princes, conquered and shed their blood. Were the
German people to let themselves be treated thus, it would be, and
forever, the end of their world-power; and I do not mean that that shall
ever cease. To employ, in order to prevent it, the suitable means, if
need be extreme means, is my duty and my highest privilege."
In a famous interview in the London "Daily Mail" in 1908, discussing the
attitude of Germany toward England, the Kaiser was quoted as follows:
"You English," he said, "are mad, mad, mad as March hares. What has come
over you that you are so completely given over to suspicions quite
unworthy of a great nation? What more can I do than I have done? I
declared with all the emphasis at my command, in my speech at Guildhall,
that my heart is set upon peace, and that it is one of my dearest wishes
to live on the best of terms with England. Have I ever been false to my
word? Falsehood and prevarication are alien to my nature. My actions
ought to speak for themselves, but you listen not to them but to those
who misinterpret and distort them. That is a personal insult which I
feel and resent. To be forever misjudged, to have my repeated offers of
friendship weighed and scrutinized with jealous, mistrustful eyes,
taxes my patience severely. I have said time after time that I am a
friend of England, and your Press--or at least a considerable section of
it--bids the people of England refuse my proffered hand, and insinuates
that the other holds a dagger. How can I convince a nation against its
will?"
And then as if to impress upon the world the belief that he was chosen
of God, the Kaiser repeatedly gave voice to such bombastic utterances as
when to his son in Brandenburg, he declared: "I look upon the people and
nation handed on to me as a responsibility conferred upon me by God, and
that it is, as is written in the Bible, my duty to increase this
heritage, for which one day I shall be called upon to give an account;
those who try to interfere with my task I shall crush."
THE "GOD-APPOINTED" HOHENZOLLERNS.
Again he expressed the same sentiment when he said: "It is a tradition
of our House, that we, the Hohenzollerns, regard ourselves as appointed
by God to govern and to lead the people, whom it is given us to rule,
for their well-being and the advancement of their material and
intellectual interests."
And finally in his address to the people in August, 1914, he said at the
beginning of war: "A fateful hour has fallen for Germany. Envious
peoples everywhere are compelling us to our just defence. The sword has
been forced into our hands. I hope that if my efforts at the last hour
do not succeed in bringing our opponents to see eye to eye with us and
in maintaining the peace, we shall, with God's help, so wield the sword
that we shall restore it to its sheath again with honor.
"War would demand of us an enormous sacrifice in property and life, but
we should show our enemies what it means to provoke Germany. And now I
commend you to God. Go to church and kneel before God, and pray for His
help for our gallant army."
This is the picture of "Kaiser Bill" whose egotism gave expression to
itself in 1910 when in a speech he said: "Considering myself as the
instrument of the Lord, without heeding the views and opinions of the
day, I go my way."
EMPEROR WILLIAM'S CHILDREN.
William II, Emperor of Germany and King of Prussia, was born
January 27, 1859, succeeding his father, Emperor Frederick the
III, in June, 1888. He married the Princess Augusta Victoria, of
Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Augustenburg, and had the following
issue: Frederick William, Crown Prince, born May 6, 1882; William
Eitel-Frederick, born 1883; Adalbert, born 1884; August, born 1887;
Oscar, born 1888; Joachim, born 1890, and Victoria Louise, born 1892.
Crown Prince Frederick William is one of the remarkable figures of the
war. A profound admirer of Napoleon he has always made a close study of
that great French soldier, and has long been one of the leaders of the
war-seeking element in Germany. The Crown Prince, who was born in 1882,
is tall, slim and impulsive. The late Queen Victoria, his great
grandmother, was his godmother.
After he had completed a military course he attended Bonn University,
and on the completion of his college course he set out on extensive
travels. After his return he was placed in the offices of the Potsdam
provincial government so that he might study local administration. After
completing this study he was given a course in the intricate routine
through which two-thirds of the German people are governed, by being
placed in the Prussian Ministry of the Interior. Naval administration
has also been a part of the studies of the Crown Prince, in fact he was
deeply engrossed in that study when the war was declared.
The Crown Prince married Duchess Cecilie of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, in
1905.
King George V, of Great Britain, the only surviving son of the late King
Edward, was born in 1865. He was the second son of the king, his brother
Prince Albert, the heir to the throne, dying suddenly in 1892 and
bringing the second son, who had been destined for the navy, into direct
succession. In 1893 Princess Mary of Teck, who was to have married
Prince Albert, was married to Prince George, and there is one daughter,
Princess Mary, and five sons--Edward, Prince of Wales, and Princes
Albert, Henry, George and John.
THE DUKE OF CONNAUGHT.
Prince Arthur, the Duke of Connaught, who is now Governor General of
Canada, is an uncle of the King. He was married to Princess
Louise-Margaret of Prussia, the daughter of Prince Frederick-Charles of
Prussia and Princess Marie-Anne of Anhalt. He has three children;
Margaret, the oldest, is the Crown Princess of Sweden; Prince Arthur is
married to his cousin, Princess Alexandra, Duchess of Fife, and Princess
Victoria-Patricia, who is unmarried.
King Edward had three brothers and five sisters, two brothers falling
heir in turn to the Duchy of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha.
King George V is uncle by blood to Olaf, Crown Prince of Norway, and by
marriage with Queen Mary, to three Princes and three Princesses of Teck.
He is brother-in-law to King Haakon VII of Norway and Prince of Denmark,
Duke Adolph of Teck, and Prince Alexander of Teck. He is a first cousin
on his father's side to Emperor William II of Germany, and his brothers
and sisters, among whom, principally, is the Queen of Greece; to
Ernst-Louis, Grand Duke of Hesse, and his four sisters, one of whom is
the wife of Prince Henry of Prussia, and another is Alice, former
Czarina of Russia. The first and second cousins of the King run well up
into the hundreds.
The Royal Family of Belgium was founded when, in 1831, the people
elected King Leopold I to rule the destinies of that country. The king
was married to Princess Louise of Orleans, after which practically all
the marriages of the family were with the southern group of royal
houses.
There were three children born to the couple, the oldest son succeeding
to the throne as King Leopold II. The latter married Archduchess Marie
Henriette of Austria. One son, and three daughters were born, the son
dying when he was 23 years old. The oldest of the daughters became the
wife of Prince Philip of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, the second wedding Crown
Prince Rudolph of Austria-Hungary, who died in youth, and the third
becoming the wife of Prince Napoleon Bonaparte. The daughter of Leopold
I is the widow of the ill-fated Emperor Maximilian of Mexico, who was
executed there in 1867.
SECOND SON OF LEOPOLD I.
The second son of Leopold I was Philip, the Count of Flanders, who was
married to Princess Marie of Hohenzollern, sister of the Prince Leopold
of Hohenzollern and King Charles of Roumania. The son to this marriage
is King Albert of Belgium, who succeeded his uncle, Leopold II, in 1909.
The Queen of Belgium is Princess Elizabeth of the Ducal House of
Bavaria. Through her King Albert is allied to the Crown Prince of
Bavaria, the Grand Duchess of Luxemburg, the Duke of Parma, the late
Franz Ferdinand of Austria, and the present heir-apparent, Archduke
Charles Francis Joseph. The King and Queen have two sons, Leopold, born
in 1902, and Charles Theodore, who is two years younger. There is also a
daughter, the Princess Marie-Josephine, born in 1906.
King Nicholas I, ruler of the picturesque little country of Montenegro,
which was the scene of much bitter fighting, was born October 7, 1841,
and proclaimed Prince of Montenegro, as successor to his uncle Danilo I,
in 1860. He became king in 1910. Nicholas I married Milena Petrovna
Vucotic. The children are Princess Militza, who married the Russian
Grand Duke Peter Nikolaievitch; Princess Stana, who married George, Duke
of Leuchtenberg, but which marriage was dissolved, the Princess
subsequently marrying the Russian Grand Duke Nicholas Nikolaievitch. The
other children are Prince Danilo Alexander, heir-apparent; Princess
Helena, who married Victor Emmanuel, King of Italy; Princess Anna, who
married Prince Francis Joseph of Battenberg; Prince Mirko, who married
Natalie Constantinovitch; Princess Zenia, Princess Vera and finally
Prince Peter, who was born in 1889.
KING OF SERVIA.
Peter I, King of Servia, one of the figures of the war, is the son of
Alexander Kara-Georgevitch. He was born in Belgrade in 1844, and was
proclaimed King after the murder of King Alexander and Queen Draga. He
ascended the throne on June 2, 1903. He was married in 1883 to Princess
Zorka, of Montenegro, who died in 1890. He has two sons and a daughter;
George, who was born in 1887, and who renounced his right to the throne
in 1909; Alexander, born in 1889, and Helen, who was born in 1884.
Because of his ill health King Peter, for a long time, delegated
authority to his son Alexander for the purpose of government.
Nicholas II, the last Czar of Russia, who abdicated in June, 1917, was
born May 18, 1868, and succeeded his father, Emperor Alexander III, on
November 1, 1894. He married Princess Alexandra Alice, daughter of
Ludwig IV, Grand Duke of Hesse, and has four daughters and one son:
Olga, Tatiana, Marie, Anastasia and Alexis.
The family is descended in the female line from Michael Romanof, first
elected Czar in 1613, and, in the male line, from Duke Karl Frederick of
Holstein-Gottorp. As the result of intermarriages and connections with
the royal houses of Germany, they are practically Germans by blood.
It was in fact the German influence, which is said to have been the
immediate cause of the revolt in the great country.
The revolution may be said to have had its inception when a small group
of men opposed to the German influence at court assassinated the monk
Gregory Rasputin, who had a great influence over the Czar.
A REACTIONARY CABINET INSTALLED.
Czar Nicholas in anger dismissed Premier Trepoff and installed a
thoroughly reactionary Cabinet. Trepoff had been in office only a short
time, having followed M. Sturmer, who had bitterly fought the Duma. It
had been commonly reported that the real power in the Russian Government
after Sturmer went out was in the hands of the Minister of the Interior,
M. Protopopoff. Sturmer had been called to the premiership to succeed M.
Goremykin, who was in office when the war began.
The fact that Michael Rodzianko, president of the Duma and one of the
leading advocates of liberalization of the Government, was named as the
chief figure in the provisional government, showed that the movement is
in the hands of the same forces which had demanded the overthrow of the
bureaucracy and a more energetic prosecution of the war.
There were many changes in the Russian Government during the war,
although the censorship was enforced so rigidly that the significance of
the rapid shifts was apparent. Vague reports reached the outside world
of high councilors of State who were obstructing instead of assisting
the work of carrying on the war, and the strength of German influence at
Petrograd. The most conspicuous case of this sort was that of General
Soukhomlinoff, former Minister of War, who was dismissed from office and
imprisoned as a result of charges of criminal negligence and high
treason.
M. Sazonoff, Russia's Foreign Minister at the beginning of the war and
an ardent believer in the prosecution of the war, was deposed early in
the reactionary regime and sent as envoy to London. It was suggested
that the motive for this was not to honor an anti-German, but to get him
out of Russia.
MEMBERS OF THE RUSSIAN CABINET.
The members of the Russian Cabinet, as announced for the Provisional
Government, were:
Prince Georges E. Lvov, well known as president of the Zemstvos' Union,
Prime Minister.
Alexander J. Guchkoff, Minister of the Interior.
Paul Milukoff, well known as a Constitutional Democrat leader, Minister
of Foreign Affairs.
M. Pokrovski, Minister of Finance.
General Manikovski, chief of the Artillery Department, War Minister.
M. Savitch, Minister of Marine.
M. Maklakoff, Minister of Justice.
M. Kovalevski, Minister of Education.
M. Nekrasoff, Minister of Railways.
M. Konovaloff, Moscow merchant, Minister of Commerce and Industry.
M. Rodischneff, Secretary for Finland.
M. Kerenski, Minister without portfolio.
The executive committee of the Imperial Duma, as the provisional
Government styles itself, is composed of twelve members, under M.
Rodzianko, including two Socialists, two Conservatives, three Moderates,
five Constitutional Democrats and Progressives.
Constantine I, King of Greece, who abdicated in favor of his son, Prince
Alexander, on June 11, 1917, under pressure from the Allied countries,
was born in 1868. His father, King George, was assassinated at Salonica
on March 18, 1913. The abdication of King Constantine in June, 1917, was
due to his opposition to the forces in the government which desired to
join the Allies in the war against Germany. The influence in favor of
the Germans in the royal family of Greece was Queen Sophia, a sister of
the Kaiser.
For a time Constantine was a veritable idol in Greece. In 1896 when his
country was drifting into war with Turkey, he sounded a warning that the
Greek army was unprepared for a campaign. The infantry was armed with
condemned French rifles; the cartridges were 15 years old; there was no
cavalry; the artillery was obsolete, and the officers few. When the
country went to war despite his warning, the result was a disastrous
defeat. A similar situation developed when King George tried to oppose
the popular clamor for the annexation of Crete. The King knew that
Turkey was waiting for another opportunity to crush Greece, and there
was a second uprising.
CONSTANTINE BECOMES AN IDOL.
Constantine had been in command of the military forces, and King George
was obliged to dismiss him as Generalissimo. In the Balkan war of 1912,
however, when he led an army of 10,000 Greeks to the capture of
Salonica, causing 30,000 Turks to lay down arms, he became an idol. On
ascending the throne, it was said that he aimed to restore the grandeur
of the ancient Hellenic Empire, and that he was a firm believer in the
old national prophecy that, under the reign of a "Constantine and a
Sophia," the Eastern Empire would be rejuvenated and the cross restored
on Saint Sophia in Constantinople, supplanting the Crescent of the Turk.
In fact, after the Balkan war, when Greece added a section of Turkish
territory to her domain, and the islands of Crete were annexed, King
Constantine hoisted the ancient Hellenic flag over the fort.
The climax in Grecian affairs was precipitated when Turkey entered the
great World War on the side of Germany. The question of intervention on
the part of Greece arose, and King Constantine insisted on strict
neutrality being observed. The cabinet, headed by Premier Venizelos,
which was for war on the side of the Allies, tendered its resignation.
When the operations began against the Dardanelles the Government
believed that the time had come for Greece to enter the war. The King
refused to countenance the plan, arguing that the sending of forces to
the Dardanelles would dangerously weaken the Greek defences on the
Bulgarian frontier. Queen Sophia was regarded as bitterly opposed to the
country joining the Allies, and was reported to have threatened several
times to leave the country.
The criticism directed against Constantine was severe because, under the
terms of the treaty made in the Balkan war, Greece was committed to ally
herself with Servia if that country were attacked by another power.
Austria did invade Servia, but Constantine asserted that the treaty
applied only to an attack by another Balkan nation.
ACCUSED OF EVASION.
The occupation by troops of the Entente Powers of a part of Macedonia,
and the seizure of Salonica as their base, involved the King of Greece
in a long series of clashes with the Entente commanders, and he was
accused of evasion and attempting to gain time in the interests of
Germany. A temporary understanding was obtained, but meantime the
provisional government, headed by Venizelos, had been growing in
strength, and obtained the recognition of the Entente Powers.
The Allies laid an embargo on the supplies of Greece, and Constantine
was denounced by the people of Crete and other territory, who demanded
his dethronement. This was the situation, in a general way, which led to
his abdication and his retirement to Berlin, with the Queen, in the
summer of 1917.
Alexander, who succeeded his father, was a second son, born August 1,
1893. He was a captain in the First Regiment, artillery, in the Greek
army.
Victor Emmanuel, King of Italy, who threw the weight of his country with
the Allies, repudiating the treaty with Germany and Austria-Hungary
which established what was known as the Triple Entente, was born in
1869, the only son of King Humbert, second King of United Italy, who was
murdered at Monza, in July, 1900. Victor Emmanuel married Princess
Elena, daughter of Nicholas, King of Montenegro, and has four children:
Princess Yolanda, Princess Mafalda; Prince Humbert, heir-apparent, and
Princess Giovanna. The mother of King Emmanuel--Dowager Queen
Margherita--is a daughter of the later Prince Ferdinand of Savoy.
TRAGEDY THE PATHWAY TO THRONE.
Charles I, the Emperor of Austria and King of Hungary, was born in 1887
and succeeded his grand uncle, Francis Joseph I, in November, 1916. His
way to the throne lay through tragedy, for he came into the crown
immediately through the assassination of the Archduke Francis Ferdinand,
heir-apparent, and his morganatic wife Countess Sophie Chotek, in
Bosnia, and which crime was the signal for the war. Nor would Charles
have been entitled to succeed to the throne but for the fact that the
Archduke Rudolf, heir-apparent to the throne, committed suicide in 1889.
The right of succession went with his death to the second brother of the
then Emperor Francis Joseph, or Archduke Charles Louis, father of the
assassinated Archduke Francis Ferdinand. It passed then after the
tragedies to Archduke Otto, brother of Francis Ferdinand, Charles I
being the son of the Archduke Otto. The young Emperor married Princess
Zita of Bourbon Parma in 1911. She is the daughter of Duke Robert of
Parma, and sister of the first wife of Czar Ferdinand of Bulgaria. The
Emperor has four children: Francis Joseph Otto, Adelaide Marie, Robert
Charles Ludwig and Felix Frederic August.
Ferdinand of Bulgaria, Czar, is son of the late Prince Augustus of
Saxe-Coburg and Gotha and late Princess Clementine of Bourbon-Orleans,
daughter of King Louis Philippe. He was born in 1861 and succeeded
Prince Alexander, who abdicated. He married Marie Louise, daughter of
Robert of Parma, and after her death married Princess Eleanore of
Reuss-Kostritz. There are four children by the first marriage: Prince
Boris, heir-apparent; Prince Cyril, Princess Eudoxia, Princess Nadejda.
Alfonso XIII, King of Spain, was born May 17, 1886, his father, King
Alfonso XII, having died nearly six months previous to his birth. Maria
Christina, mother of the heir to the Spanish throne, was an Austrian
princess. In 1906 King Alfonso XIII married the English Princess
Victoria Eugenie, daughter of the late Henry of Battenberg and Princess
Beatrice, a daughter of the late Queen Victoria.
KING ALFONSO'S SONS.
King Alfonso XIII has four sons: Alfonso, Prince of the Asturias, heir
to the Spanish throne; Prince Jaime, who is deaf and dumb; Prince Juan,
and Prince Gonzalo. There are two daughters, Princess Beatrice, and
Princess Maria Christina.
The King's sisters were Maria de las Mercedes, who married Prince Carlos
of Bourbon, in February, 1901, and died in 1904, and Infanta Maria
Teresa, who died suddenly from the effects of childbirth. She was the
wife of Prince Ferdinand, who afterward remarried Dona Maria Luisa Pie
de Concha, who was created Duchess of Talavera de la Reina, and given
the courtesy title of Highness by Alfonso. Don Carlos, who was born in
1848, and was the pretender to the Spanish throne, was a second cousin
to the King. He died in 1909, leaving a son, Prince Jamie, born in
1870, and who is the present pretender, and four daughters.
The Spanish reigning family are the Bourbons, descendants of King Louis
XIV of France.
Ferdinand, King of Roumania, was born in 1865, and is a nephew of the
late King Carol, who died in 1914. In 1893 he married Princess Marie of
Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, and two sons and four daughters were born to the
royal couple as follows: Charles, who was born in 1893, and who is
heir-apparent; Nicholas, Elizabeth, Marie, Ileana and Mircia, the latter
dying when four years old.
POINCAIRE'S VERSATILITY.
President Poincaire, of France, is a bearded, pale-faced, short, and
rather stout man, who leaves upon those who come in contact with him, an
impression of his mental ability. He was born in 1860, and is regarded
as one of the few strong characters who have held the office of
President since the war which brought about the third Republic. He is an
author of widely read books, and has won a place in the French Academy.
As a lawyer he was a leader at the bar, and before being chosen
President, in 1913, he served as Minister of Finance, and as Minister of
Public Instruction. While serving as Minister of Finance he is credited
with having put on the statutes admirable laws regulating and equalizing
the taxations of millions. President Poincaire is a patron of art, and
has been counsel of the Beaux Art, of the National Museum and President
of the Society of Friends of the University of Paris.
The Sultan of Turkey, the outstanding nation in the conflict, not
Christian, was chosen ruler and took the Osman sword on May 10, 1909,
and was designated Mohammed V. His name is Mohammed Reshad Effendi, and
he succeeded Abd-ul-Hamid, who was deposed. The latter became Sultan in
1876, succeeding Abd-ul-Aziz, who was preceded by Abd-ul-Mejid.
The history of the Ottoman Empire is filled with mystery, romance and
stories of intrigue, cruelty and barbarities, involving internal wars,
uprisings, almost continuous struggles with practically all of the
European countries and massacres that aroused the whole world. Legend
assigns Oghuz, son of Kara Khan, father of the Ottoman Turks, whose
first appearance in history dates back to 1227 A.D.
The reign of Abd-ul-Aziz in the latter part of the last century was
marked by many massacres and the extravagant conduct of affairs by the
Sultan, who visited England in 1876 and was honored by Queen Victoria,
who bestowed upon him the Order of the Garter. He was deposed and
Abd-ul-Hamid succeeded. He made feeble attempts to reorganize the
Government, but his efforts were fruitless and following wars and
uprisings and further internal troubles and the loss of territory he was
deposed and the present Sultan was chosen.