It appears from this report that as soon as the Germans sighted the

British fleet they promptly turned around and fled to the southeast.

This flight, before they could have known the full British strength,

suggests that the German Admiral was hoping to lure the British vessels

into the Helgoland trap. The British gunnery was remarkably good, shot

after shot taking effect at a distance of ten miles, and that too when

moving at over thirty miles an hour. Over 120 of the crew of the Blucher

were rescued and more would have been rescued if it had not been for the

attack upon the rescue parties by the German aircraft. The injury to the

Lion was very unfortunate. Admiral Beatty handed over charge of the

battle cruisers to Rear-Admiral Moore, and when he was able to overtake

the squadron he found that under Admiral Moore's orders the British

fleet were retiring. The British squadron at the moment of turning was

seventy miles from Helgoland, and in no danger from its mine fields.

What might have been a crushing victory became therefore only a partial

one: the Germans lost the Blucher; the Derfflinger and the Seydlitz were

badly injured, but it seems that with a little more persistence the

whole German squadron might have been destroyed.

The result was a serious blow to Germany. This engagement was the first

between modern big-gun ships. Particular interest is also attached to it

because each squadron was accompanied by scouting and screening light

cruisers and destroyers. It was fear of submarines and mines, moreover,

that influenced the British to break off the engagement. A Zeppelin

airship and a seaplane also took part, and perhaps assisted in the fire

control of the Germans. The conditions surrounding this battle were

ideal for illustrating the functions of battle cruisers. The German

warship raid on the British coast of the previous month was still fresh

in mind, and when this situation off the Dogger Bank arose the timely

interposing of Admiral Beatty's superior force, the fast chase, the

long-range fighting, the loss of the Blucher and the hasty retreat of

the enemy, were all particularly pleasing to the British people. As a

result the battle cruiser type of ship attained great popularity.

CHAPTER XIV

NEW METHODS AND HORRORS OF WARFARE

When Germany embarked upon its policy of frightfulness, it held in

reserve murderous inventions that had been contributed to the German

General Staff by chemists and other scientists working in conjunction

with the war. Never since the dawn of time had there been such a

perversion of knowledge to criminal purposes; never had science

contributed such a deadly toll to the fanatic and criminal intentions of

a war-crazed class.

As the war uncoiled its weary length, and month after month of embargo

and privation saw the morale of the German nation growing steadily

lower, these murderous inventions were successively called into play

against the Allies, but as each horror was put into play on the

battle-field, its principles were solved by the scientists of the Allied

nations, and the deadly engine of destruction was turned with trebled

force against the Huns.

This happened with the various varieties of poison gas, with liquid

fire, with trench knives, with nail-studded clubs, with armor used by

shock troops, with airplane bombs, with cannon throwing projectiles

weighing thousands of pounds great distances behind the battle lines.

Not only did America and the Allies improve upon Germany's pattern in

these respects, but they added a few inventions that went far toward

turning the scale against Germany. An example of these is the "tank."

Originally this was a caterpillar tractor invented in America and

adopted in England. At first these were of two varieties, the male,

carrying heavy guns only, and the females, equipped with machine guns.

To these was later added the whippet tank, named after the racing dog

developed in England. These whippet tanks averaged eighteen miles an

hour, carrying death and terror into the ranks of the enemy. All the

tanks were heavily armored and had as their motto the significant words

"Treat 'Em Rough." The Germans designed a heavy anti-tank rifle about

three feet longer than the ordinary rifle and carrying a charge

calculated to pierce tank armor. These were issued to the German first

line trenches at the rate of three to a company. That they were not

particularly effective was proved by the ease with which the tanks of

all varieties tore through the barbed wire entanglements and passed over

the Hindenburg and Kriemhild lines, supposed by the Germans to be

impregnable.

The tanks in effect were mobile artillery and were used as such by all

the Allied troops. Germany frantically endeavored to manufacture tanks

to meet the Allied monsters, but their efforts were feeble when compared

with the great output opposed to them.

Before considering other inventions used for the first time in this war,

it is well to understand the tremendous changes in methods and tactics

made necessary by these discoveries.

Put into a sentence, the changed warfare amounts to this: it is a

mobilization of material, of railroads, great guns, machine guns, food,

airplanes and other engines of destruction quite as much as it is a

mobilization of men.

The Germans won battle after battle at the beginning of the war because

of their system of strategic railways that made it possible to transport

huge armies to selected points in the shortest possible time both on the

eastern and the western fronts. Lacking a system of transportation to

match this, Russia lost the great battles that decided her fate, Belgium

was over-run, and France, once the border was passed, became a

battle-field upon which the Germans might extend their trench systems

over the face of the land.

Lacking strategic railways to match those of Germany, France evolved an

effective substitute in the modern system of automobile transportation.

When von Kluck swung aside from Paris in his first great rush, Gallieni

sent out from Paris an army in taxicabs that struck the exposed flank

and went far toward winning the first battle of the Marne. It was the

truck transportation system of the French along the famous "Sacred Road"

back of the battle line at Verdun that kept inviolate the motto of the

heroic town, "They Shall Not Pass." Motor trucks that brought American

reserves in a khaki flood won the second battle of the Marne. It was

automobile transportation that enabled Haig to send the British

Canadians and Australians in full cry after the retreating Germans when

the backbone of the German resistance was broken before Lens, Cambrai,

and Ostend.

America's railway transportation system in France was one of the marvels

of the war. Stretching from the sector of seacoast set apart for America

by the French Government, it radiated far into the interior, delivering

men, munitions and food in a steady stream. American engineers worked

with their brothers-in-arms with the Allies to construct an

inter-weaving system of wide-gauge and narrow-gauge roads that served to

victual and munition the entire front and further serve to deliver at

top speed whole army corps. It was this network of strategic railways

that enabled the French to send an avalanche clad in horizon-blue to the

relief of Amiens when Hindenburg made his final tremendous effort of

1918.

In its essentials, military effort in the great conflict may be roughly

divided into

Open warfare,

Trench warfare,

Crater warfare.

The first battle of the Marne was almost wholly open warfare; so also

were the battles of the Masurian Lakes, Allenstein, and Dunajec in the

eastern theater of war, and most of the warfare on the Italian front

between the Piave River and Gorizia.

In this variety of battle, airplanes and observation balloons play a

prominent part. Once the enemy is driven out of its trenches, the

message is flashed by wireless to the artillery and slaughter at long

range begins. If there have been no intrenchments, as was the case in

the first battle of the Marne, massed artillery send a plunging fire

into the columns moving in open order and prepare the way for machine

gunners and infantry to finish the rout.

In previous wars, cavalry played a heroic role in open warfare; only

rarely has it been possible to use cavalry in the Great War. The Germans

sent a screen of Uhlans before its advancing hordes into Belgium and

Northern France in 1914. The Uhlans also were in the van in the Russian

invasion, but with these exceptions, German cavalry was a negligible

factor.

British and French cavalry were active in pursuit of the fleeing Teutons

when the Hindenburg line was smashed in September of 1918. Outside of

that brief episode, the cavalry did comparatively nothing so far as the

Allies were concerned. It was the practice on both sides to dismount

cavalry and convert it into some form of trench service. Trench mortar

companies, bombing squads, and other specialty groups were organized

from among the cavalrymen. Of course the fighting in the open stretches

of Mesopotamia, South Africa and Russia involved the use of great bodies

of cavalry. The trend of modern warfare, however, is to equip the

cavalryman with grenades and bayonets, in addition to his ordinary gear,

and to make of him practically a mounted infantryman.

Trench warfare occupied most of the time and made nine-tenths of the

discomforts of the soldiers of both armies. If proof of the adaptive

capacity of the human animal were needed, it is afforded by the manner

in which the men burrowed in vermin-infested earth and lived there under

conditions of Arctic cold, frequently enduring long deprivations of

food, fuel, and suitable clothing. During the early stages of the war,

before men became accustomed to the rigors of the trenches, many

thousands died as a direct result of the exposure. Many thousand of

others were incapacitated for life by "trench feet," a group of maladies

covering the consequences of exposure to cold and water which in those

early days flowed in rivulets through most of the trenches. The trenches

at Gallipoli had their own special brand of maladies. Heatstroke and a

malarial infection were among these disabling agencies. Trench fever, a

malady beginning with a headache and sometimes ending in partial

paralysis and death, was another common factor in the mortality records.

But in spite of all these and other discomforts, in spite of the

disgusting vermin that crawled upon the men both in winter and in

summer, both sides mastered the trenches and in the end learned to live

in them with some degree of comfort.

At first the trenches were comparatively straight, shallow affairs; then

as the artillery searched them out, as the machine gunners learned the

art of looping their fire so that the bullets would drop into the hiding

places of the enemy, the trench systems gradually became more

scientifically involved. After the Germans had been beaten at the Marne

and had retired to their prepared positions along the Aisne, there

commenced a series of flanking attempts by one side and the other which

speedily resolved itself into the famous "race to the sea." This was a

competition between the opposing armies in rapid trench digging. The

effort on either side was made to prevent the enemy from executing a

flank movement. In an amazingly short time the opposing trenches

extended from the Belgian coast to the Swiss border, making further

outflanking attempts impossible of achievement.

[Illustration: Map: The North Sea and surrounding countries--Norway,

Denmark, Great Britain, France, Belgium, Holland, Germany.]

FORTS, FLYING AND NAVAL BASES ON THE NORTH SEA

This was not the first time in history that intrenched armies opposed

each other. The Civil War in this country set the fashion in that

respect. The contending sides in the Great War, however, improved vastly

upon the American example. Communicating trenches were constructed,

leading back to the company kitchens, and finally to the open road

leading back to the rest billets of the armies.

When night raiding commenced, it was speedily seen that straight

trenches exposed whole companies of men to enfilading fire. Thereupon

bastions were made and new defenses presented by zig-zagging the

front-line trenches and the communicating ditches as well.

To the formidable obstacles presented by the trenches, equipped as they

were with sand-bag parapets and firing steps, were added barbed-wire

entanglements and pitfalls of various sorts. The greatest improvement

was made by the Germans, and they added "pill boxes." These were really

miniature fortresses of concrete and armor plate with a dome-shaped

roof and loopholes for machine gunners. Only a direct hit by a

projectile from a big gun served to demolish a "pill box." The Allies

learned after many costly experiments that the best method to overcome

these obstacles was to pass over and beyond them, leaving them isolated

in Allied territory, where they were captured at the leisure of the

attackers.

Trench warfare brings with it new instruments. There are the flame

projectors, which throw fire to a distance of approximately a hundred

feet. The Germans were the first to use these, but they were excelled in

this respect by the inventive genius of the nations opposing them.

The use of poison gas, the word being used in its broad sense, is now

general. It was first used by the Germans, but as in the case of flame

throwers, the Allies soon gained the ascendency.

[Illustration: Four photographs of tanks.]

TYPES OF LAND BATTLESHIPS DEVELOPED BY ALLIES AND GERMANS

British light tank, of 1918, with turret action and high speed

British Tank of earliest type, as used at Cambrai.

German land battleship in 1918 on the Western front

Improved French Tank first used in Champagne in 1916.

[Illustration: Painting]

CHARGING ON GERMAN TRENCHES IN GAS MASKS

Each British soldier carried two gas-proof helmets. At the first alarm

of gas the helmet was instantly adjusted, for to breathe even a whiff

of the yellow cloud meant death or serious injury. This picture shows

the earlier type before the respirator mask was devised to keep up

with Germany's development of gas warfare.

The first use of asphyxiating gas was by the Germans during the first

battle of Ypres. There the deadly compound was mixed in huge reservoirs

back of the German lines. From these extended a system of pipes with

vents pointed toward the British and Canadian lines. Waiting until air

currents were moving steadily westward, the Germans opened the

stop-cocks shortly after midnight and the poisonous fumes swept slowly,

relentlessly forward in a greenish cloud that moved close to the earth.

The result of that fiendish and cowardly act was that thousands of men

died in horrible agony without a chance for their lives.

Besides that first asphyxiating gas, there soon developed others even

more deadly. The base of most of these was chlorine. Then came the

lachrymatory or "tear-compelling" gases, calculated to produce

temporary or permanent blindness. Another German "triumph" was mustard

gas. This is spread in gas shells, as are all the modern gases. The

Germans abandoned the cumbersome gas-distributing system after the

invention of the gas shell. These make a peculiar gobbling sound as they

rush overhead. They explode with a very slight noise and scatter their

contents broadcast. The liquids carried by them are usually of the sort

that decompose rapidly when exposed to the air and give off the acrid

gases dreaded by the soldiers. They are directed against the artillery

as well as against intrenched troops. Every command, no matter how

small, has its warning signal in the shape of a gong or a siren warning

of approaching gas.

Gas masks were speedily discovered to offset the dangers of poison gases

of all kinds. These were worn not only by troops in the field, but by

artillery horses, pack mules, liaison dogs, and by the civilian

inhabitants in back of the battle lines. Where used quickly and in

accordance with instructions, these masks were a complete protection

against attacks by gas.

The perfected gas masks used by both sides contained a chamber filled

with a specially prepared charcoal. Peach pits were collected by the

millions in all the belligerent countries to make this charcoal, and

other vegetable substances of similar density were also used. Anti-gas

chemicals were mixed with the charcoal. The wearer of the mask breathed

entirely through the mouth, gripping a rubber mouthpiece while his nose

was pinched shut by a clamp attached to the mask.

In training, soldiers were required to hold their breath for six seconds

while the mask was being adjusted. It was explained to them that four

breaths of the deadly chlorine gas was sufficient to kill; the first

breath produced a spasm of the glottis; the second brought mental

confusion and delirium; the third produced unconsciousness; and the

fourth, death. The bag containing the gas mask and respirator was

carried always by the soldier.

The soldier during the winter season in the front line trenches was a

grotesque figure. His head was crowned with a helmet covered with khaki

because the glint of steel would advertise his whereabouts. Beneath the

helmet he wore a close fitting woolen cap pulled down tightly around his

ears and sometimes tied or buttoned beneath his chin. Suspended upon his

chest was the khaki bag containing gas mask and respirator. Over his

outer garments were his belt, brace straps, bayonet and ammunition

pouches. His rifle was slung upon his shoulder with the foot of a woolen

sock covering the muzzle and the leg of the same sock wrapped around the

breech. A large jerkin made of leather, without sleeves, was worn over

the short coat. Long rubber boots reaching to the hips and strapped at

ankle and hip completely covered his legs. When anticipating trench

raids, or on a raiding party, a handy trench knife and carefully slung

grenades were added to his equipment.

Airplane bombing ultimately changed the whole character of the war. It

extended the fighting lines miles behind the battle front. It brought

the horrors of night attacks upon troops resting in billets. It visited

destruction and death upon the civilian population of cities scores of

miles back of the actual front.

Germany transgressed repeatedly the laws of humanity by bombing

hospitals far behind the battle front. Describing one of these atrocious

attacks, which took place May 29, 1918, Colonel G. H. Andrews, chaplain

of a Canadian regiment, said:

"The building bombed was one of three large Red Cross hospitals at

Boulenes and was filled with Allied wounded. A hospital in which were a

number of wounded German prisoners stood not very far away.

"The Germans could not possibly have mistaken the building they bombed

for anything else but a hospital. There were flags with a red cross

flying, and lights were turned on them so that they would show

prominently. And the windows were brilliantly lighted. Those inside

heard the buzz of the advancing airplanes, but did not give them a

thought.

"The machines came right on, ignoring the hospital with the German

wounded, indicating they had full knowledge of their objective, until

they were over a wing of the Red Cross hospital that contained the

operating room on the ground floor. In the operating room a man was on

the table for a most difficult surgical feat. Around him were gathered

the staff of the hospital and its brilliant surgeons. Lieutenant Sage of

New York had just given him the anesthetic when one of the airplanes let

the bomb drop. It was a big fellow. It must have been all of 250 pounds

of high explosive.

"It hurtled downward, carrying the two floors before it. Through the gap

thus made wounded men, the beds in which they lay, convalescents, and

all on the floors came crashing down to the ground. The bomb's force

extended itself to wreck the operating room, where the man on the table,

Lieutenant Sage, and all in the room were killed. In all there were

thirty-seven lives lost, including three Red Cross nurses.

"The building caught fire. The concussion had blown the stairs down, so

that escape from the upper floors seemed impossible. But the

convalescents and the soldiers, who had run to the scene of the bombing,

let the very ill ones out of the windows, and escape was made in that

way.

"And then, to cap the climax, the German airplanes returned over the

spot of their ghastly triumph and fired on the rescuers with machine

guns. God will never forgive the Huns for that act alone. Nor will our

comrades ever forget it."

The statement of Colonel Andrews was corroborated by a number of other

officers.

To protect artillery against counter-fire of all kinds, both sides from

the beginning used the art of camouflage. This was resorted to

particularly against scouting airplanes. At first the branches of trees

and similar natural cover were used to deceive the airmen. Later the

guns themselves were painted with protective colorations, and screens of

burlap were used instead of branches. The camoufleur, as the camouflage

artist was called, speedily extended his activities to screens over

highways, preventing airmen from seeing troops in motion, to the

protective coloration of lookout posts, and of other necessary factors

along the fighting front. Camouflage also found great usefulness in the

protective coloration of battleships and merchant vessels. Scientific

study went hand in hand with the art, the object being to confuse the

enemy and to offer targets as small as possible to the enemy gunners.

Crater warfare came as a development of intensified artillery attacks

upon trench systems. It was at Dunajec on the eastern front that for the

first time in modern war the wheels of artillery were placed hub to hub

in intensified hurricane fire upon enemy positions. The result there

under von Mackensen's direction was the rout of the Russians. When later

the same tactics were employed on the western front, the result was to

destroy whole trench systems with the exception of deep dugouts, and to

send the occupants of the trenches into the craters, made by shell

explosions, for protection.

It was observed that, these craters made excellent cover and when linked

by vigorous use of the intrenching tools carried by every soldier, they

made a fair substitute for the trenches. This observation gave root to

an idea which was followed by both armies; this was the deliberate

creation of crater systems by the artillery of the attacking force. Into

these lines of craters the attacking infantry threw itself in wave after

wave as it rushed toward the enemy trenches. The ground is so riddled by

this intensive artillery fire that there is created what is known as

"moon terrain", fields resembling the surface of the moon as seen

through a powerful telescope. Troops on both sides were trained to

utilize these shell holes to the utmost, each little group occupying a

crater, keeping in touch with its nearest group and moving steadily in

unison toward the enemy.

One detail in which this war surpassed all others was in the use of

machine guns and grenades. The Germans were first to make extensive use

of the machine gun as a weapon with which to produce an effective

barrage. They established machine-gun nests at frequent intervals

commanding the zone over which infantry was to advance and by skilful

crossfire kept that terrain free from every living thing. The Germans

preferred a machine gun, water cooled and of the barrel-recoil type. The

English used a Vickers-Maxim and a Lewis gun, the latter the invention

of an officer in the American army. The French preferred the Hotchkiss

and the Saint-Etienne. The Americans standardized the Browning light and

heavy machine guns, and these did effective service. It was asserted by

American gunnery experts that the Browning excels all other weapons of

its type.

Two general types of grenades were used on both sides. One a defensive

bomb about the size of an orange, containing a bursting charge weighing

twenty-two ounces. Then there was a grenade used for offensive work

carrying about thirty-two ounces of high explosives. The defensive

grenades were of cast iron and so made that they burst into more than a

hundred jagged pieces when they exploded. These wounded or killed within

a radius of one hundred and fifty yards. In exceptional instances, the

range was higher.

The function of artillery in a modern battle is constantly extending.

Both the big guns and the howitzers were the deciding factors in most of

the military decisions reached during the war. Artillery is divided

first between the big guns having a comparatively flat trajectory and

the howitzers whose trajectory is curved. Then there is a further

division into these four classes:

Field artillery,

Heavy artillery,

Railroad artillery,

Trench artillery.

The type of field artillery is the famous 75-millimeter gun used

interchangeably by the French and Americans. It is a quick-firing weapon

and is used against attacking masses and for the various kind of

barrages, including an anti-aircraft barrage.

Included in the heavy artillery are guns and howitzers of larger caliber

than the 75-millimeter. Three distinct and terrifying noises accompany

explosions of these guns. First, there is the explosion when the shell

leaves the gun; then there is the peculiar rattling noise like the

passing of a railway train when the shells pass overhead; then there is

the explosion at point of contact, a terrific concussion which produces

the human condition called "shell-shock," a derangement of body and

brain, paralyzing nerve and muscle centers and frequently producing

insanity.

The railroad artillery comprises huge guns pulled on railways by

locomotives, each gun having a number of cars as part of its equipment.

These are slow-firing guns of great power and hurling the largest

projectiles known to warfare. The largest guns of this class were

produced by American inventive genius as a reply to the German gun of

St. Gobain Forest. This was a weapon which hurled a nine-inch shell from

a distance of sixty-two miles into the heart of Paris. The damage done

by it was comparatively slight and it had no appreciable effect upon the

morale of the Parisians.

Its greatest damage was when it struck the Roman Catholic Church of St.

Gervais on Good Friday, March 29, 1918, killing seventy-five persons and

wounding ninety. Fifty-four of those killed were women, five being

Americans. The total effect of the bombardment by this big gun was to

arouse France, England and America to a fiercer fighting pitch. The late

Cardinal Farley, Archbishop of New York, expressed this sentiment, when

he sent the following message to the Archbishop of Paris:

Shocked by the brutal killing of innocent victims gathered at religious

services to commemorate the passing of our blessed Saviour on Good

Friday, the Catholics of New York join your noble protest against this

outrage of the sanctuary on such a day and at such an hour and,

expressing their sympathy to the bereaved relatives of the dead and

injured, pledge their unfaltering allegiance in support of the common

cause that unites our two great republics. May God bless the brave

officers and men of the Allied armies in their splendid defense of

liberty and justice!

Trench artillery are Stokes guns and other mortars hurling aerial

torpedoes containing great quantities of high explosives. These have

curved trajectories and are effective not only against trenches but also

against deep dugouts, wire entanglements and listening posts.

One of the most important details of modern warfare is that of

communication or liaison on the battlefield. This is accomplished by

runners recruited from the trenches, by dogs, pigeons, telephone, radio.

As has been heretofore stated, the airplane considered in all its

developments, is the newest and most important of factors in modern

warfare. It photographs the enemy positions, it detects concentrations

and other movements of the enemy, it makes surprise impossible, it is a

deadly engine of destruction when used in spraying machine-gun fire upon

troops in the open. As a bombing device, it surpasses the best and most

accurate artillery.

CHAPTER XV

GERMAN PLOTS AND PROPAGANDA IN AMERICA

The pages of Germany's militaristic history are black with many shameful

deeds and plots. Those pages upon which are written the intrigues

against the peace of America and against the lives and properties of

American citizens during the period between the declaration of war in

1914 and the armistice ending the war, while not so bloody as those

relating to the atrocities in Belgium and Northern France are still

revolting to civilized mankind.

Germany not only paid for the murder of passengers on ships where its

infernal machines were placed, not only conspired for the destruction of

munition plants and factories of many kinds, not only sought to embroil

the United States, then neutral, in a war with Mexico and Japan, but it

committed also the crime of murderous hypocrisy by conspiring to do

these wrongs under the cloak of friendship for this country.

It was in December of 1915 that the German Government sent to the United

States for general publication in American newspapers this statement:

The German Government has naturally never knowingly accepted the support

of any person, group of persons, society or organization seeking to

promote the cause of Germany in the United States by illegal acts, by

counsel of violence, by contravention of law, or by any means whatever

that could offend the American people in the pride of their own

authority.

The answer to this imperial lie came from the President of the United

States, when, in his address to Congress, April 2, 1917, urging a

declaration of war on Germany, he characterized the German spy system

and its frightful fruits in the following language:

"One of the things that has served to convince us that the Prussian

autocracy was not and could never be our friend is that from the very

outset of the present war it has filled our unsuspecting communities,

and even our offices of government, with spies, and set criminal

intrigues everywhere afoot against our national unity of counsel, our

peace within and without, our industries and our commerce. Indeed it is

now evident that its spies were here even before the war began; and it

is unhappily not a matter of conjecture, but a fact proved in our courts

of justice, that the intrigues which have more than once come perilously

near to disturbing the peace and dislocating the industries of the

country have been carried on at the instigation, with the support, and

even under the personal direction of official agents of the Imperial

Government accredited to the Government of the United States."

Austria co-operated with Germany in a feeble way in these plots and

propaganda, but the master plotter was Count Johann von Bernstorff,

Germany's Ambassador. The Austro-Hungarian Ambassador, Constantin

Theodor Dumba, Captain Franz von Papen, Captain Karl Boy-Ed, Dr.

Heinrich F. Albert, and Wolf von Igel, all of whom were attached to the

German Embassy, were associates in the intrigues. Franz von Rintelen

operated independently and received his funds and instructions directly

from Berlin.

One of the earliest methods of creating disorder in American munition

plants and other industrial establishments engaged in war work was

through labor disturbances. With that end in view a general German

employment bureau was established in August, 1915, in New York City. It

had branches in Philadelphia, Bridgeport, Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Chicago

and Cincinnati. These cities at that time were the centers of industries

engaged in furnishing munitions and war supplies to the Entente allies.

Concerning this enterprise Ambassador Dumba, writing to Baron Burian,

Foreign Minister of Austria-Hungary, said:

A private German employment office has been established which provides

employment for persons who have voluntarily given up their places, and

it is already working well. We shall also join in and the widest support

is assured us.

The duties of men sent from the German employment offices into munition

plants may be gathered from the following frank circular issued on

November 2, 1914, by the German General Headquarters and reprinted in

the Freie Zeitung, of Berne.

GENERAL HEADQUARTERS TO THE MILITARY REPRESENTATIVE

ON THE RUSSIAN AND FRENCH FRONTS, AS WELL AS IN ITALY AND NORWAY.

In all branch establishments of German banking houses in Sweden, Norway,

Switzerland, China and the United States, special military accounts have

been opened for special war necessities. Main headquarters authorizes

you to use these credits to an unlimited extent for the purpose of

destroying factories, workshops, camps, and the most important centers

of military and civil supply belonging to the enemy. In addition to the

incitement of labor troubles, measures must be taken for the damaging of

engines and machinery plants, the destruction of vessels carrying war

material to enemy countries, the burning of stocks of raw materials and

finished goods, and the depriving of large industrial centers of

electric power, fuel and food. Special agents, who will be placed at

your disposal, will supply you with the necessary means for effecting

explosions and fires, as well as with a list of people in the country

under your supervision who are willing to undertake the task of

destruction.

(Signed) DR. E. FISCHER.

Shortly after the establishment of the German employment bureau,

Ambassador Dumba sent the following communication to the Austrian

Foreign Office:

It is my impression that we can disorganize and hold up for months, if

not entirely prevent, the manufacture of munitions in Bethlehem and the

Middle West, which, in the opinion of the German military attache, is of

importance and amply outweighs the comparatively small expenditure of

money involved.

Concerning the operations of the arson and murder squad organized by von

Bernstorff, Dumba and their associates, it is only necessary to turn to

the records of the criminal courts of the United States and Canada. Take

for example the case against Albert Kaltschmidt, living in Detroit,

Michigan. The United States grand jury sitting in Detroit indicted

Kaltschmidt and his fellow conspirators upon the following counts:

"To blow up the factory of the Peabody's Company, Limited, at

Walkerville, Ontario, ... engaged in manufacturing uniforms, clothing

and military supplies ...

"To blow up the building known as the Windsor Armories of the City of

Windsor.

"To blow up and destroy other plants and buildings in said Dominion of

Canada, which were used for the manufacture of munitions of war,

clothing and uniforms.

"To blow up and destroy the great railroad bridges of the Canadian

Pacific Railroad at Nipigon. . . .

"To employ and send into said Dominion of Canada spies to obtain

military information."

Besides the acts enumerated in the indictment it was proved upon trial

that Kaltschmidt and his gang planned to blow up the Detroit Screw Works

where shrapnel was being manufactured, and to destroy the St. Clair

tunnel, connecting Canada with the United States. Both of these plans

failed. Associated with Kaltschmidt in these plots were Captain von

Papen, Baron Kurt von Reiswitz, German consul-general in Chicago;

Charles F. Respa, Richard Herman, and William M. Jarasch, the latter two

German reservists. Testifying in the case Jarasch, a bartender, said:

"Jacobsen (an aide) told me that munition factories in Canada were to be

blown up. Before I left for Detroit, Jacobsen and I went to the

consulate. We saw the consul and he shook hands with me and wished me

success."

Charles F. Respa, in his testimony made the following revelations in

response to questions by the government's representatives:

Q. How long had you been employed before he (Kaltschmidt) told you that

he wanted you to blow up some of these factories? A. About three weeks.

Q. Did Kaltschmidt at the time speak of any particular place that he

wanted you to blow up? A. The particular place was the Armory.

Q. Did he mention the Peabody Building at that time? A. Not

particularly--he was more after the bridges and the armories and wanted

those places blown up that made ammunition and military clothing.

Q. The explosion at the armories was to be timed so that it would occur

when the soldiers were asleep there? A. Yes--he did not mention that he

wanted to kill soldiers.

Q. Did he say that if the dynamite in the suitcase exploded it would

kill the soldiers? A. I do not remember that he said so, but he must

have known it.

Q. Did you take both grips? A. Yes. Q. Where did you set the first grip?

A. By the Peabody plant (blown up on June 20,1915).

Q. Where did you put the other suitcase? A. Then I walked down the

Walkerville road to the Armories at Windsor, and carried the suitcase.

Q. When you got to the Armories did you know where to place it? A. I had

my instructions.

Q. From Kaltschmidt? A. Yes.

Q. Did you place this suitcase containing the dynamite bomb at the

armory in a proper place to explode and do any damage? A. Yes.

Q. Was it properly connected so that the cap would explode and strike

the dynamite? A. I fixed it so that it would not.

Q. Did you deliberately fix this bomb that you took to the Armories so

that it would not explode? A. Yes.

Q. Why did you do that? A. I knew that the suitcase contained thirty

sticks of dynamite and if exploded would blow up the Armories and all

the ammunition and kill every man in it.

It is interesting to note in this connection that Kaltschmidt was

sentenced to four years in the federal prison at Leavenworth, Kansas,

and to pay a fine of $20,000. Horn's sentence was eighteen months in the

Atlanta penitentiary and a fine of $1,000.

Attempts were also made to close by explosions the tunnels through which

the Canadian Pacific Railroad passes under the Selkirk Mountains in

British Columbia. The German General Staff in this instance operated

through Franz Bopp, the German consul-general in San Francisco, and

Lieutenant von Brincken. J. H. van Koolbergen was hired to do this work.

Concerning the negotiations, van Koolbergen made this statement:

"Not knowing what he wanted I went to see him. He was very pleasant and

told me that he was an officer in the German army and at present working

in the secret service of the German Empire under Mr. Franz Bopp, the

Imperial German consul.

"I went to the consulate and met Franz Bopp and then saw von Brincken in

another room. He asked me if I would do something for him in Canada and

I answered him, 'Sure, I will do something, even blow up bridges, if

there is money in it.' And he said, 'You are the man; if that is so, you

can make good money.'

"Von Brincken told me that they were willing to send me up to Canada to

blow up one of the bridges on the Canadian Pacific Railroad or one of

the tunnels. I asked him what was in it and he said he would talk it

over with the German consul, Bopp.

"I had accepted von Brincken's proposition to go to Canada and he

offered me $500 to defray my expenses. On different occasions, in his

room, von Brincken showed me maps and information about Canada, and

pointed out to me where he wanted the act to be done. This was to be

between Revelstake and Vancouver on the Canadian Pacific Railroad, and I

was to get $3,000 in case of a successful blowing up of a military

bridge or tunnel."

Van Koolbergen only made a pretended effort to blow up the tunnel. He

did furnish the evidence, however, which served to send Bopp and his

associates to the penitentiary.

Even more sensational was the plot against the international bridge upon

which the Grand Trunk Railway crosses the border between the United

States and Canada at Vanceboro, Me.

Werner Horn was a German reserve lieutenant. Von Papen delivered to him

a flat order to blow up the bridge and he gave him $700 for the purpose

of perpetrating the outrage. Horn was partially successful. At his trial

in Boston in June, 1917, he made the following confession:

"I admit and state that the facts set forth in the indictments as to the

conveyance of explosives on certain passenger trains from New York to

Boston and from Boston to Vanceboro, in the State of Maine, are true. I

did, as therein alleged, receive an explosive and conveyed the same from

the city of New York to Boston, thence by common carrier from Boston to

Vanceboro, Maine. On or about the night of February 1, 1915, I took said

explosive in a suitcase in which I was conveying it and carried the same

across the bridge at Vanceboro to the Canadian side, and there, about

1.10 in the morning of February 2, 1915, I caused said explosive to be

exploded near or against the abutments of the bridge on the Canadian

side, with intent to destroy the abutment and cripple the bridge so that

the same could not be used for the passage of trains."

Bribery of Congressmen was intended by Franz von Rintelen, operating

directly in touch with the German Foreign Office in Berlin. Count von

Bernstorff sent the following telegram to Berlin in connection with his

plan:

I request authority to pay out up to $50,000 in order, as on former

occasions, to influence Congress through the organization you know of,

which can perhaps prevent war. I am beginning in the meantime to act

accordingly. In the above circumstances, a public official German

declaration in favor of Ireland is highly desirable, in order to gain

the support of the Irish influence here.

That it was Rintelen's purpose to use large sums of money for the

purpose of bribing Congressmen was stated positively by George Plochman,

treasurer of the Transatlantic Trust Company, where Rintelen kept his

deposits.

Rintelen was the main figure on this side of the water in the fantastic

plot to have Mexico and Japan declare war upon the United States. During

the trial of Rintelen in New York City in May, 1917, it was testified

"that he came to the United States in order to embroil it with Mexico

and Japan if necessary; that he was doing all he could and was going to

do all he could to embroil this country with Mexico; that he believed

that if the United States had a war with Mexico it would stop the

shipment of ammunition to Europe; that he believed it would be only a

matter of time until we were involved with Japan."

Rintelen also said that "General Huerta was going to return to Mexico

and start a revolution there which would cause the United States to

intervene and so make it impossible to ship munitions to Europe.

Intervention," he said, "was one of his trump cards."

Mexico was the happy hunting-ground for pro-German plotters, and the

German Ambassador in Mexico, Heinrich von Eckhardt, was the leader in

all the intrigues. The culmination of Germany's effort against America

on this continent came on January 19, 1917, when Dr. Alfred Zimmerman,

head of the German Foreign Office, sent the following cable to

Ambassador von Eckhardt:

On the first of February we intend to begin submarine warfare

unrestricted. In spite of this, it is our intention to endeavor to keep

neutral the United States of America.

If this attempt is not successful, we propose an alliance on the

following basis with Mexico: That we shall make war together and

together make peace. We shall give general financial support, and it is

understood that Mexico is to reconquer the lost territory in New Mexico,

Texas and Arizona. The details are left to you for settlement. You are

instructed to inform the President of Mexico of the above in the

greatest confidence as soon as it is certain that there will be an

outbreak of war with the United States, and suggest that the President

of Mexico, on his own initiative, should communicate with Japan

suggesting adherence at once to this plan; at the same time, offer to

mediate between Germany and Japan.

Please call to the attention of the President of Mexico that the

employment of ruthless submarine warfare now promises to compel England

to make peace in a few months.

ZIMMERMAN.

This was almost three months before the United States entered the war.

As an example of German blindness and diplomatic folly it stands

unrivaled in the annals of the German Foreign Office.

Plots against shipping were the deadliest in which the German

conspirators engaged. Death and destruction followed in their wake. In

direct connection of von Bernstorff and his tools with these outrages

the following testimony by an American secret service man employed by

Wolf von Igel is interesting. It refers to an appointment with Captain

von Kleist, superintendent of Scheele's bomb factory in Hoboken, N. J.

"We sat down and we spoke for about three hours. I asked him the

different things that he did, and said if he wanted an interview with

Mr. von Igel, my boss, he would have to tell everything. So he told me

that von Papen gave Dr. Scheele, the partner of von Kleist in this

factory, a check for $10,000 to start this bomb factory. He told me that

he, Mr. von Kleist, and Dr. Scheele and a man by the name of Becker on

the Friedrich der Grosse were making the bombs, and that Captain

Wolpert, Captain Bode and Captain Steinberg, had charge of putting these

bombs on the ships; they put these bombs in cases and shipped them as

merchandise on these steamers, and they would go away on the trip and

the bombs would go off after the ship was out four or five days, causing

a fire and causing the cargo to go up in flames. He also told me that

they have made quite a number of these bombs; that thirty of them were

given to a party by the name of O'Leary, and that he took them down to

New Orleans where he had charge of putting them on ships down there,

this fellow O'Leary."

About four hundred bombs were made under von Igel's direction;

explosions and fires were caused by them on thirty-three ships sailing

from New York harbor alone.

Four of the bombs were found at Marseilles on a vessel which sailed from

Brooklyn in May, 1915. The evidence collected in the case led to the

indictment of the following men for feloniously transporting on the

steamship Kirk Oswald a bomb or bombs filled with chemicals designed to

cause incendiary fires: Rintelen, Wolpert, Bode, Schmidt, Becker,

Garbade, Praedel, Paradies, von Kleist, Schimmel, Scheele, Steinberg and

others. The last three named fled from justice, Scheele being supplied

with $1,000 for that purpose by Wolf von Igel. He eluded the Federal

authorities until April, 1918, when he was found hiding in Cuba under

the protection of German secret service agents. All the others except

Schmidt were found guilty and sentenced, on February 5, 1918, to

imprisonment for eighteen months and payment of a fine of $2,000 each.

It was proved during the trial that Rintelen had hired Schimmel, a

German lawyer, to see that bombs were placed on ships.

Schmidt, von Kleist, Becker, Garbade, Praedel and Paradies had already

been tried for conspiracy to make bombs for concealment on ocean-going

vessels, with the purpose of setting the same on fire. All were found

guilty, and on April 6, 1917, von Kleist and Schmidt were sentenced to

two years imprisonment and a fine of $500 each.

Robert Fay, a former officer in the German army, who came to the United

States in April, 1915, endeavored to prevent the traffic in munitions by

sinking the laden ships at sea. In recounting the circumstances of his

arrival here to the chief of the United States secret service, Fay said:

". . .I had in the neighborhood of $4,000.... This money came from a man

who sent me over ... (named) Jonnersen. The understanding was that it

might be worth while to stop the shipment of artillery munitions from

this country. . . . I imagined Jonnersen to be in the (German) secret

service."

After stating that he saw von Papen and Boy-Ed, and that neither would

have anything to do with him, apparently because suspicious of his

identity, Fay continued:

"I did not want to return (to Germany) without having carried out my

intention, that is, the destruction of ships carrying munitions. I

proceeded with my experiments and tried to get hold of as much explosive

matter as in any way possible. . . ."

Fay and two confederates were arrested in a lonely spot near Grantwood,

New Jersey, while testing an explosive. During his examination at police

headquarters in Weehawken immediately after the arrest he was questioned

as follows:

Q. That large machine you have downstairs, what is that?

A. That is a patent of mine. It is a new way of getting a time fuse. ...

Q. Did you know where Scholz (Fay's brother-in-law) had this machine

made?

A. In different machine shops.

Q. What material is it you wanted (from Daeche, an accomplice)?

A. Trinitrotoluol (T. N. T.). ...

Q. How much did the machinery cost?

A. Roughly speaking, $150 or $200.

Q. What would be the cost of making one and filling it with explosives?

A. About $250 each ... If they had given me money enough I should simply

have been able to block the shipping entirely.

Q. Do you mean you could have destroyed every ship that left the harbor

by means of those bombs?

A. I would have been able to stop so many that the authorities would not

have dared (to send out any ships).

It was proved during Fay's trial that his bomb was a practical device,

and that its forty pounds of explosive would sink any ship to which it

was attached.

Fay and his accomplices, Scholz and Daeche, were convicted of conspiracy

to attach explosive bombs to the rudders of vessels, with the intention

of wrecking the same when at sea, and were sentenced, on May 9, 1916, to

terms of eight, four and two years respectively, in the federal

penitentiary at Atlanta. Dr. Herbert Kienzle and Max Breitung, who

assisted Fay in procuring explosives, were indicted on the same charge.

Both were interned.

Another plan for disabling ships was suggested by a man who remained for

some time unknown. He called one day at the German Military Information

Bureau, maintained at 60 Wall Street by Captain von Papen, of the German

embassy, and there gave the following outline of his plan:

"I intend to cause serious damage to vessels of the Allies leaving ports

of the United States by placing bombs, which I am making myself, on

board. These bombs resemble ordinary lumps of coal and I am planning to

have them concealed in the coal to be laden on steamers of the Allies. I

have already discussed this plan with ... at ... and he thinks favorably

of my idea. I have been engaged on similar work in ... after the outbreak

of the war, together with Mr. von ..."

[Illustration: Painting]

WOMEN AT WORK THAT MEN MAY FIGHT

The women of the world took up quickly almost every masculine task in

industry to release their menfolk for the firing line. They were

especially valuable in the munitions factories of England, as shown

above. The women in the foreground are testing shell cases for size,

while those in the background work the lathes.

[Illustration: Painting]

THE FINAL TRIBUTE

Allied airman dropping a wreath on the grave of a comrade who fell and

was buried within the German lines.

[Illustration: Photograph]

A BELGIAN MILITARY OBSERVATION BALLOON

Large numbers of these balloons, which came to be known as sausages,

were used by the Allied armies on all fronts.

The German secret service report from which the above excerpt is taken

states that the maker of the bomb was paid by check No. 146 for $150

drawn on the Riggs National Bank of Washington. A photographic copy of

this check shows that it was payable to Paul Koenig, of the

Hamburg-American Line, and was signed by Captain von Papen. On the

counterfoil is written this memorandum, "For F. J. Busse." Busse

confessed later that he had discussed with Captain von Papen at the

German Club in New York City the plan of damaging the boilers of

munition ships with bombs which resembled lumps of coal.

Free access to Allied ships laden with supplies for Vladivostok would

have been invaluable to the conspirators, and in order to obtain it

Charles C. Crowley, a detective employed by Consul-General Bopp,

resorted to the extraordinary scheme revealed in the following letter to

Madam Bakhmeteff, wife of the Russian Ambassador to the United States:

MME J. BAKHMETEFF, care Imperial Russian Embassy, Newport, R. I.: DEAR

MADAM:--By direction of the Imperial Russian Consul-General of San

Francisco, I beg to submit the following on behalf of several

fruit-growers of the State of California. As it is the wish of certain

growers to contribute several tons of dried fruit to the Russian Red

Cross they desire to have arrangements made to facilitate the

transportation of this fruit from Tacoma, Washington, to Vladivostok,

and as we are advised that steamships are regularly plying between

Tacoma and Vladivostok upon which government supplies are shipped we

would like to have arrangements made that these fruits as they might

arrive would be regularly consigned to these steamers and forwarded. It

would be necessary, therefore, that an understanding be had with the

agents of these steamship lines at Tacoma that immediate shipments be

made via whatever steamers might be sailing.

It is the desire of the donors that there be no delay in the shipments

as delays would lessen the benefits intended to those for whom the fruit

was provided ....

Respectfully yours,

C. C. CROWLEY.

The statements of Louis J. Smith and van Koolbergen, combined with a

mass of other evidence consisting in part of letters and telegrams,

caused the grand jury to indict Consul-General Bopp, his staff and his

hired agents, for conspiracy to undertake a military enterprise against

Canada. Among the purposes of this enterprise specified in the

indictment was the following:

"To blow up and destroy with their cargoes and crews any and all vessels

belonging to Great Britain, France, Japan or Russia found within the

limits of Canada, which were laden with horses, munitions of war, or

articles of commerce in course of transportation to the above

countries...."

The following descriptions have been made by the United States

Government of the tools of von Bernstorff in German plots:

Paul Koenig, the head of the Hamburg-American secret service, who was

active in passport frauds, who induced Gustave Stahl to perjure himself

and declare the Lusitania armed, and who plotted the destruction of the

Welland Canal. In his work as a spy he passed under thirteen aliases in

this country and Canada.

Captains Boy-Ed, von Papen, von Rintelen, Tauscher, and von Igel were

all directly connected with the German Government itself. There is now

in the possession of the United States Government a check made out to

Koenig and signed by von Papen, identified by number in a secret report

of the German Bureau of Investigation as being used to procure $150 for

the payment of a bomb-maker, who was to plant explosives disguised as

coal in the bunkers of the merchant vessels clearing from the port of

New York. Boy-Ed, Dr. Bunz, the German ex-minister to Mexico, the German

consul at San Francisco, and officials of the Hamburg-American and North

German Lloyd steamship lines evaded customs regulations and coaled and

victualed German raiders at sea. Von Papen and von Igel supervised the

making of the incendiary bombs on the Friedrich der Grosse, then in New

York Harbor, and stowed them away on outgoing ships. Von Rintelen

financed Labor's National Peace Council, which tried to corrupt

legislators and labor leaders.

A lesser light of this galaxy was Robert Fay, who invented an explosive

contrivance which he tied to the rudder posts of vessels. According to

his confession and that of his partner in murder, the money came from

the German secret police.

Among the other tools of the German plotters were David Lamar and Henry

Martin, who, in the pay of Captain von Rintelen, organized and managed

the so-called Labor's National Peace Council, which sought to bring

about strikes, an embargo on munitions, and a boycott of the banks which

subscribed to the Anglo-French loan. A check for $5,000 to J. F. J.

Archibald for propaganda work, and a receipt from Edwin Emerson, the war

correspondent, for $1,000 traveling expenses were among the documents

found in Wolf von Igel's possession.

Others who bore English names were persuaded to take leading places in

similar organizations which concealed their origin and real purpose. The

American Embargo Conference arose out of the ashes of Labor's Peace

Council, and its president was American, though the funds were not.

Others tampered with were journalists who lent themselves to the German

propaganda and who went so far as to serve as couriers between the

Teutonic embassies in Washington and the governments in Berlin and

Vienna. A check of $5,000 was discovered which Count von Bernstorff had

sent to Marcus Braun, editor of Fair Play. And a letter was discovered

which George Sylvester Viereck, editor of the Fatherland, sent to Privy

Councilor Albert, the German agent, arranging for a monthly subsidy of

$1,750, to be delivered to him through the hands of

intermediaries--women whose names he abbreviates "to prevent any

possible inquiry." There is a record of $3,000 paid through the German

embassy to finance the lecture tour of Miss Ray Beveridge, an American

artist, who was further to be supplied with German war pictures.

The German propagandists also directed their efforts to poisoning the

minds of the people through the circulation of lies concerning affairs

in France and at home. Here are some of the rumors circulated throughout

the country that were nailed as falsehoods:

It was said that the national registration of women by the Food

Administration was to find out how much money each had in the bank, how

much of this was owed, and everything about each registrant's personal

affairs.

That the millions collected from the public for the Red Cross went into

the pockets of thieves, and that the soldiers and sailors got none of

it, nor any of its benefits.

That base hospital units had been annihilated while en route overseas.

That leading members of other hospital units had been executed as spies

by the American Government.

That canned goods put up by the housewives were to be seized by the

government and appropriated to the use of the army and navy.

That soldiers in training were being instructed to put out the eyes of

every German captured.

That all of the "plums" at the officers' training camps fell to Roman

Catholics. The plums went to Protestants when the propagandist talked to

a Catholic.

That the registration of women was held so that girls would be enticed

into the cities where white slaves were made of them.

That the battleship Pennsylvania had been destroyed with everyone on

board by a German submarine.

That more than seventy-five per cent of the American soldiers in France

had been infected with venereal diseases.

That intoxicants were given freely to American soldiers in Y. M. C. A.

and Knights of Columbus huts in France.

But the lies and the plots failed to make any impression on the morale

of American citizenry. In fact, America from the moment war was declared

against Germany until the time an armistice was declared, seemed to care

for nothing but results. Charges of graft made with bitter invective in

Congress created scarcely more than a ripple. The harder the pro-German

plotters worked for the destruction of property and the incitement to

labor disturbances, the closer became the protective network of

Americanism against these anti-war influences. After half a dozen German

lies had been casually passed from mouth to mouth as rumors; the

American people came to look upon other mischievous propaganda in its

true light. Patriotic newspapers in every community exposed the false

reports and citizens everywhere were on their guard against the

misstatements. It was noticeable that the propaganda was intensified

just previous to and during the several Liberty Loan campaigns. Proof

that the American spirit rises superior to anti-American influences is

furnished by the glorious records of these Liberty Loans. Every one was

over-subscribed despite the severest handicaps confronted by any nation.

CHAPTER XVI

SINKING OF THE LUSITANIA

The United States was brought face to face with the Great War and with

what it meant in ruthless destruction of life when, on May 7, 1915, the

crack Cunard Liner Lusitania, bound from New York to Liverpool, with

1,959 persons aboard, was torpedoed and sunk by a German submarine off

Old Head of Kinsale, Southwestern Ireland. Two torpedoes reached their

mark. The total number of lives lost when the ship sunk was 1,198. Of

these 755 were passengers and the remainder were members of the crew. Of

the drowned passengers, 124 were Americans and 35 were infants.

"Remember the Lusitania!" later became a battlecry just as "Remember the

Maine!" acted as a spur to Americans during the war with Spain. It was

first used by the famous "Black Watch" and later American troops shouted

it as they went into battle.

The sinking of the Lusitania, with its attendant destruction of life,

sent a thrill of horror through the neutral peoples of the world.

General opposition to the use of submarines in attacking peaceful

shipping, especially passenger vessels, crystallized as the result of

the tragedy, and a critical diplomatic controversy between the United

States and Germany developed. The American Government signified its

determination to break off friendly relations with the German Empire

unless the ruthless practices of the submarine commanders were

terminated. Germany temporarily agreed to discontinue these practices.

Among the victims of the Cunarder's destruction were some of the best

known personages of the Western Hemisphere. Alfred Gwynne Vanderbilt,

multimillionaire; Charles Frohman, noted theatrical manager; Charles

Klein, dramatist, who wrote "The Lion and the Mouse;" Justus Miles

Forman, author, and Elbert Hubbard, known as Fra Elbertus, widely read

iconoclastic writer, were drowned.

The ocean off the pleasant southern coast of Ireland was dotted with

bodies for days after the sinking of the liner. The remains of many of

the victims, however, never were recovered.

When the Lusitania prepared to sail from New York on her last trip,

fifty anonymous telegrams addressed to prominent persons aboard the

vessel warned the recipients not to sail with the liner. In addition to

these warnings was an advertisement inserted in the leading metropolitan

newspapers by the German embassy, advising neutral persons that British

steamships were in danger of destruction in the war zone about the

British Isles. This notice appeared the day the Lusitania sailed, May

1st, and was placed next the advertisement of the Cunard Line. Following

is the advertisement:

NOTICE!

Travelers intending to embark on the Atlantic voyage are reminded that a

state of war exists between Germany and her allies and Great Britain and

her allies; that the zone of war includes the waters adjacent to the

British Isles; that, in accordance with formal notice given by the

Imperial German Government, vessels flying the flag of Great Britain, or

of any of her allies, are liable to destruction in those waters and that

travelers sailing in the war zone on ships of Great Britain or her

allies do so at their own risk.

Imperial German Embassy,

Washington, D. C., April 22, 1915.

Little or no attention was paid to the warnings, only the usual number

of persons canceling their reservations, The general agent of the Cunard

Line at New York assured the passengers that the Lusitania's voyage

would be attended by no risk whatever, referring to the liner's speed

and water-tight compartments.

As the great Cunarder drew near the scene of her disaster, traveling at

moderate speed along her accustomed route, there was news of freight

steamers falling victims to Germany's undersea campaign. It was not

definitely established, however, whether the liner was warned of danger.

At two o'clock on the fine afternoon of May 7th, some ten miles off the

Old Head of Kinsale, the Lusitania was sighted by a submarine 1,000

yards away. A second later the track of a torpedo, soon followed by

another, was seen and each missile crashed into the Lusitania's hull

with rending detonations.

Many were killed or injured immediately by the explosions.

Before the liner's headway was lost, some boats were lowered, and

capsized as a result. The immediate listing of the steamship added to

the difficulties of rescue and increased the tragical toll of dead.

Much heroism and calmness were displayed by many in the few minutes the

liner remained afloat. The bearing of Frohman, Vanderbilt, Hubbard and

other Americans was declared to have been particularly inspiring.

Rescue ships and naval vessels rushed to the aid of the survivors from

all nearby ports of Ireland.

It has been said that the sinking of the Lusitania was carefully planned

by the chiefs of the German admiralty. They expected, it was believed,

to demoralize British shipping and strike terror into the minds of the

British people by showing that the largest and swiftest of liners could

easily be destroyed by submarines.

According to the Paris paper, La Guerre Sociale, published by Gustave

Herve, the submarine responsible was the U-21, commanded by Lieutenant

Hersing. Hersing was said to have been decorated for his deed. The U-21

afterwards was destroyed and the story of its participation in the

sinking of the great Cunarder never was confirmed.

Immediately upon the news of the Lusitania disaster, President Wilson

took steps to hold Germany to that "strict accountability" of which he

had notified Berlin when the war-zone operations were begun earlier in

the year. His first communication, protesting against the sinking of the

liner in the name of humanity and demanding disavowal, indemnity and

assurance that the crime would not be repeated, was despatched on May

13th. On May 30th the German reply argued that the liner carried

munitions of war and probably was armed.

The following official German version of the incident by the German

Admiralty Staff over the signature of Admiral Behncke was given:

"The submarine sighted the steamer, which showed no flag, May 7th, at

2.20 o'clock, Central European time, afternoon, on the southeast coast

of Ireland, in fine, clear weather.

"At 3.10 o'clock one torpedo was fired at the Lusitania, which hit her

starboard side below the captain's bridge. The detonation of the torpedo

was followed immediately by a further explosion of extremely strong

effect. The ship quickly listed to starboard and began to sink.

"The second explosion must be traced back to the ignition of quantities

of ammunition inside the ship."

These extenuations were all rejected by the United States, and the next

note prepared by President Wilson was of such character that Secretary

of State Bryan resigned. This second communication was sent on June

11th, and on June 22d another was cabled. September 1st Germany accepted

the contentions of the United States in regard to submarine warfare upon

peaceful shipping. There were continued negotiations concerning the

specific settlement to be made in the case of the Lusitania.

On February 4th, 1916, arrived a German proposition which, coupled with

personal parleys carried on between German Ambassador von Bernstorff and

United States Secretary of State Lansing, seemed in a fair way to

conclude the whole controversy. It was announced on February 8th that

the two nations were in substantial accord and Germany was declared to

have admitted the sinking of the liner was wrong and unjustified and

promised that reparation would be made.

However, a week later, when Germany took advantage of tentative American

proposals concerning the disarming of merchant ships, by announcing that

all armed hostile merchantmen would be treated as warships and attacked

without warning, the almost completed agreement was overthrown. The

renewed negotiations were continuing when the torpedoing of the

cross-channel passenger ship Sussex, without warning, on March 24th,

impelled the United States to issue a virtual ultimatum, demanding that

the Germans immediately cease their present methods of naval warfare on

pain of the rupture of diplomatic relations with the most powerful

existing neutral nation.

The Lusitania, previous to her sinking, had figured in the war news,

first at the conflict, when it was feared she had been captured by a

German cruiser while she was dashing across the Atlantic toward

Liverpool, and again in February of 1915, when she flew the American

flag as a ruse to deceive submarines while crossing the Irish Sea. This

latter incident called forth a protest from the United States.

On her fatal trip the cargo of the Lusitania was worth $735,000.

As a great transatlantic liner, the Lusitania was a product of the race

for speed, which was carried on for years among larger steamship

companies, particularly of England and Germany. When the Lusitania was

launched, it was the wonder of the maritime world. Its mastery of the

sea, from the standpoint of speed, was undisputed.

Progress of the Lusitania on its first voyage to New York, September 7,

1907, was watched by the world. The vessel made the voyage in five days

and fifty-four minutes, at that time a record. Its fastest trip, made on

the western voyage, was four days eleven hours forty-two minutes. This

record, however, was wrested from it subsequently by the Mauretania, a

sister ship, which set the mark of four days ten hours forty-one

minutes, that still stands.

Although the Lusitania was surpassed in size by several other liners

built subsequently, it never lost the reputation acquired at the outset

of its career. Its speed and luxurious accommodations made it a

favorite, and its passenger lists bore the names of many of the most

prominent Atlantic wayfarers. The vessel was pronounced by its builders

to be as nearly unsinkable as any ship could be.

Everything about the Lusitania was of colossal dimensions.

Her rudder weighed sixty-five tons. She carried three anchors of ten

tons each. The main frames and beams, placed end to end, would extend

thirty miles. The Lusitania was 785 feet long, 88 feet beam, and 60 feet

deep. Her gross tonnage was 32,500 and her net tonnage, 9,145.

Charges were made that one or more guardian submarines deliberately

drove off ships nearby which might have saved hundreds of lives lost

when the Lusitania went down. Captain W. F. Wood, of the Leyland Line

steamer Etonian, said his ship was prevented from going to the rescue of

the passengers of the sinking Lusitania by a warning that an attack

might be made upon his own vessel.

The Etonian left Liverpool, May 6th. When Captain Wood was forty-two

miles from Kinsale he received a wireless call from the Lusitania for

immediate assistance.

The call was also picked up by the steamers City of Exeter and

Narragansett. The Narragansett, Captain Wood said, was made a target for

submarine attack, a torpedo missing her by a few feet, and her commander

then warned Captain Wood not to attempt to reach the Lusitania.

"It was two o'clock in the afternoon, May 7th, that we received the

wireless S O S," said Captain Wood. "I was then forty-two miles distant

from the position he gave me. The Narragansett and the City of Exeter

were nearer the Lusitania and she answered the SOS.

"At five o'clock I observed the City of Exeter cross our bows and she

signaled, 'Have you heard anything of the disaster?'

"At that moment I saw a periscope of a submarine between the Tonina and

the City of Exeter, about a quarter of a mile directly ahead of us. She

dived as soon as she saw us.

"I signaled to the engine room for every available inch of speed. Then

we saw the submarine come up astern of us. I now ordered full speed

ahead and we left the submarine behind. The periscope remained in sight

about twenty minutes.

"No sooner had we lost sight of the submarine astern, than another

appeared on the starboard bow. This one was directly ahead and on the

surface, not submerged.

"I starboarded hard away from him, he swinging as we did. About eight

minutes later he submerged. I continued at top speed for four hours and

saw no more of the submarines. It was the ship's speed that saved her,

that's all.

"The Narragansett, as soon as she heard the S O S call, went to the

assistance of the Lusitania. One of the submarines discharged a torpedo

at her and missed her by not more than eight feet. The Narragansett then

warned us not to attempt to go to the rescue, and I got her wireless

call while I was dodging the two submarines. You can see that three

ships would have gone to the assistance of the Lusitania had they not

been attacked by the two submarines."

The German Government defended the brutal destruction of non-combatants

by the false assertions that the Lusitania was an armed vessel and that

it was carrying a great store of munitions. Both of these accusations

were proved to be mere fabrications. The Lusitania was absolutely

unarmed and the nearest approach to munitions was a consignment of 1,250

empty shell cases and 4,200 cases of cartridges for small arms.

Intense indignation swept over the neutral world, the tide rising

highest in America. It well may be said that the destruction of the

Lusitania was one of the greatest factors in driving America into the

war with Germany.

Concerning the charge that the Lusitania carried munitions, Dudley Field

Malone, Collector of the port of New York, testified that he made

personal and close inspection of the ship's cargo and saw that it

carried no guns and that there were no munitions in its cargo.

His statement follows:

"This report is not correct. The Lusitania was inspected before sailing,

as is customary. No guns were found, mounted or unmounted, and the

vessel sailed without any armament. No merchant ship would be allowed to

arm in this port and leave the harbor."

Captain W. T. Turner, of the Lusitania, testifying before the coroner's

inquest at Kinsale, Ireland, was interrogated as follows:

"You were aware threats had been made that the ship would be torpedoed?"

"We were," the Captain replied.

"Was she armed?"

"No, sir."

"What precautions did you take?"

"We had all the boats swung when we came within the danger zone, between

the passing of Fastnet and the time of the accident."

The coroner asked him whether he had received a message concerning the

sinking of a ship off Kinsale by a submarine. Captain Turner replied

that he had not.

"Did you receive any special instructions as to the voyage?"

"Yes, sir."

"Are you at liberty to tell us what they were?"

"No, sir."

"Did you carry them out?"

"Yes, to the best of my ability."

"Tell us in your own words what happened after passing Fastnet."

"The weather was clear," Captain Turner answered. "We were going at a

speed of eighteen knots. I was on the port side and heard Second Officer

Hefford call out:

"'Here's a torpedo!'

"I ran to the other side and saw clearly the wake of a torpedo. Smoke

and steam came up between the last two funnels. There was a slight

shock. Immediately after the first explosion there was another report,

but that may possibly have been internal.

"I at once gave the order to lower the boats down to the rails, and I

directed that women and children should get into them. I also had all

the bulkheads closed.

"Between the time of passing Fastnet, about 11 o'clock, and of the

torpedoing I saw no sign whatever of any submarines. There was some haze

along the Irish coast, and when we were near Fastnet I slowed down to

fifteen knots. I was in wireless communication with shore all the way

across."

Captain Turner was asked whether he had received any message in regard

to the presence of submarines off the Irish coast. He replied in the

affirmative. Questioned regarding the nature of the message, he replied:

"I respectfully refer you to the admiralty for an answer." "I also gave

orders to stop the ship," Captain Turner continued, "but we could not

stop. We found that the engines were out of commission. It was not safe

to lower boats until the speed was off the vessel. As a matter of fact,

there was a perceptible headway on her up to the time she went down.

"When she was struck she listed to starboard. I stood on the bridge when

she sank, and the Lusitania went down under me. She floated about

eighteen minutes after the torpedo struck her. My watch stopped at 2.36.

I was picked up from among the wreckage and afterward was brought aboard

a trawler.

"No warship was convoying us. I saw no warship, and none was reported to

me as having been seen. At the time I was picked up I noticed bodies

floating on the surface, but saw no living persons."

"Eighteen knots was not the normal speed of the Lusitania, was it?"

"At ordinary times," answered Captain Turner, "she could make

twenty-five knots, but in war times her speed was reduced to twenty-one

knots. My reason for going eighteen knots was that I wanted to arrive at

Liverpool bar without stopping, and within two or three hours of high

water."

"Was there a lookout kept for submarines, having regard to previous

warnings?"

"Yes, we had double lookouts."

"Were you going a zigzag course at the moment the torpedoing took

place?"

"No. It was bright weather, and land was clearly visible."

"Was it possible for a submarine to approach without being seen?"

"Oh, yes; quite possible."

"Something has been said regarding the impossibility of launching the

boats on the port side?"

"Yes," said Captain Turner, "owing to the listing of the ship."

"How many boats were launched safely?"

"I cannot say."

"Were any launched safely?"

"Yes, and one or two on the port side."

"Were your orders promptly carried out?"

"Yes."

"Was there any panic on board?"

"No, there was no panic at all. It was almost calm."

"How many persons were on board?"

"There were 1,500 passengers and about 600 crew."

By the Foreman of the Jury--"In the face of the warnings at New York

that the Lusitania would be torpedoed, did you make any application to

the admiralty for an escort?"

"No, I left that to them. It is their business, not mine. I simply had

to carry out my orders to go, and I would do it again."

Captain Turner uttered the last words of this reply with great emphasis.

By the Coroner--"I am glad to hear you say so, Captain."

By the Juryman--"Did you get a wireless to steer your vessel in a

northern direction?"

"No," replied Captain Turner.

"Was the course of the vessel altered after the torpedoes struck her?"

"I headed straight for land, but it was useless. Previous to this the

watertight bulkheads were closed. I suppose the explosion forced them

open. I don't know the exact extent to which the Lusitania was damaged."

"There must have been serious damage done to the water-tight bulkheads?"

"There certainly was, without doubt."

"Were the passengers supplied with lifebelts?"

"Yes."

"Were any special orders given that morning that lifebelts be put on?"

"No."

"Was any warning given before you were torpedoed?"

"None whatever. It was suddenly done and finished."

"If there had been a patrol boat about, might it have been of

assistance?"

"It might, but it is one of those things one never knows."

With regard to the threats against his ship, Captain Turner said he saw

nothing except what appeared in the New York papers the day before the

Lusitania sailed. He had never heard the passengers talking about the

threats, he said.

"Was a warning given to the lower decks after the ship had been struck?"

Captain Turner was asked.

"All the passengers must have heard the explosion," Captain Turner

replied.

Captain Turner, in answer to another question, said he received no

report from the lookout before the torpedo struck the Lusitania.

Ship's Bugler Livermore testified that the watertight compartments were

closed, but that the explosion and the force of the water must have

burst them open. He said that all the officers were at their posts and

that earlier arrivals of the rescue craft would not have saved the

situation.

After physicians had testified that the victims had met death through

prolonged immersion and exhaustion the coroner summed up the case.

He said that the first torpedo fired by the German submarine did serious

damage to the Lusitania, but that, not satisfied with this, the Germans

had discharged another torpedo. The second torpedo, he said, must have

been more deadly, because it went right through the ship, hastening the

work of destruction.

The characteristic courage of the Irish and British people was

manifested at the time of this terrible disaster, the coroner continued,

and there was no panic. He charged that the responsibility "lay on the

German Government and the whole people of Germany, who collaborated in

the terrible crime."

"I propose to ask the jury," he continued, "to return the only verdict

possible for a self-respecting jury, that the men in charge of the

German submarine were guilty of wilful murder."

The jury then retired and after due deliberation prepared this verdict:

We find that the deceased met death from prolonged immersion and

exhaustion in the sea eight miles south-southeast of Old Head of

Kinsale, Friday, May 7, 1915, owing to the sinking of the Lusitania by

torpedoes fired by a German submarine.

We find that the appalling crime was committed contrary to international

law and the conventions of all civilized nations.

We also charge the officers of said submarine and the Emperor and the

Government of Germany, under whose orders they acted, with the crime of

wholesale murder before the tribunal of the civilized world.

We desire to express sincere condolences and sympathy with the relatives

of the deceased, the Cunard Company, and the United States, many of

whose citizens perished in this murderous attack on an unarmed liner.

President Wilson's note to Germany, written consequent on the torpedoing

of the Lusitania, was dated six days later, showing that time for

careful deliberation was duly taken. The President's Secretary, Joseph

P. Tumulty, on May 8th, the day following the tragedy, made this

statement:

Of course the President feels the distress and the gravity of the

situation to the utmost, and is considering very earnestly but very

calmly, the right course of action to pursue. He knows that the people

of the country wish and expect him to act with deliberation as well as

with firmness.

Although signed by Mr. Bryan, as Secretary of State, the note was

written by the President in shorthand--a favorite method of Mr. Wilson

in making memoranda--and transcribed by him on his own typewriter. The

document was presented to the members of the President's Cabinet, a

draft of it was sent to Counselor Lansing of the State Department, and

after a few minor changes, it was transmitted by cable to Ambassador

Gerard in Berlin.

DEPARTMENT OF STATE,

WASHINGTON, MAY 13, 1915.

The Secretary of State to the American Ambassador at Berlin:

Please call on the Minister of Foreign Affairs and after reading to him

this communication leave with him a copy.

In view of recent acts of the German authorities in violation of

American rights on the high seas, which culminated in the torpedoing and

sinking of the British steamship Lusitania on May 7, 1915, by which over

100 American citizens lost their lives, it is clearly wise and desirable

that the Government of the United States and the Imperial German

Government should come to a clear and full understanding as to the grave

situation which has resulted.

The sinking of the British passenger steamer Falaba by a German

submarine on March 28th, through which Leon C. Thrasher, an American

citizen, was drowned; the attack on April 28th, on the American vessel

Cushing by a German aeroplane; the torpedoing on May 1st of the American

vessel Gulflight by a German submarine, as a result of which two or more

American citizens met their death; and, finally, the torpedoing and

sinking of the steamship Lusitania, constitute a series of events which

the Government of the United States has observed with growing concern,

distress, and amazement.

Recalling the humane and enlightened attitude hitherto assumed by the

Imperial German Government in matters of international right, and

particularly with regard to the freedom of the seas; having learned to

recognize the German views and the German influence in the field of

international obligation as always engaged upon the side of justice and

humanity; and having understood the instructions of the Imperial German

Government to its naval commanders to be upon the same plane of humane

action prescribed by the naval codes of the other nations, the

Government of the United States was loath to believe--it cannot now

bring itself to believe--that these acts, so absolutely contrary to the

rules, the practices, and the spirit of modern warfare, could have the

countenance, or sanction of that great government. It feels it to be its

duty, therefore, to address the Imperial German Government concerning

them with the utmost frankness and in the earnest hope that it is not

mistaken in expecting action on the part of the Imperial German

Government, which will correct the unfortunate impressions which have

been created, and vindicate once more the position of that government

with regard to the sacred freedom of the seas.

The Government of the United States has been apprised that the Imperial

German Government considered themselves to be obliged by the

extraordinary circumstances of the present war and the measure adopted

by their adversaries in seeking to cut Germany off from all commerce, to

adopt methods of retaliation which go much beyond the ordinary methods

of warfare at sea, in the proclamation of a war zone from which they

have warned neutral ships to keep away. This government has already

taken occasion to inform the Imperial German Government that it cannot

admit the adoption of such measures or such a warning of danger to

operate as in any degree an abbreviation of the rights of American

shipmasters or of American citizens bound on lawful errands as

passengers on merchant ships of belligerent nationality, and that it

must hold the Imperial German Government to a strict accountability for

any infringement of those rights, intentional or incidental. It does not

understand the Imperial German Government to question these rights. It

assumes, on the contrary, that the Imperial Government accept, as of

course, the rule that the lives of noncombatants, whether they be of

neutral citizenship or citizens of one of the nations at war, cannot

lawfully or rightfully be put in jeopardy by the capture or destruction

of an unarmed merchantman, and recognize also, as all other nations do,

the obligation to take the usual precaution of visit and search to

ascertain whether a suspected merchantman is in fact of belligerent

nationality or is in fact carrying contraband of war under a neutral

flag.

[Illustration: Photograph]

Copyright Underwood and Underwood. N. Y.

THE LUSITANIA

The sinking of this great liner by a German submarine, with the loss

of more than a thousand lives, caused a thrill of horror throughout

all neutral nations and crystallized public opinion in the United

States into a fierce resentment of German barbarism which indirectly

led to the entry into the World War.

[Illustration]

SUBMARINE HUNTING

A small naval dirigible used for scouting by the British Navy. Under

the cigar-shaped balloon is swung an airplane chassis equipped with

powerful motors and steering apparatus, together with a light gun.

The Government of the United States, therefore, desires to call the

attention of the Imperial German Government with the utmost earnestness

to the fact that the objection to their present method of attack against

the trade of their enemies lies in the practical impossibility of

employing submarines in the destruction of commerce without disregarding

those rules of fairness, reason, justice, and humanity which all modern

opinion regards as imperative. It is practically impossible for the

officers of a submarine to visit a merchantman at sea and examine her

papers and cargo. It is practically impossible for them to make a prize

of her; and, if they cannot put a prize crew on board of her, they

cannot sink her without leaving her crew and all on board of her to the

mercy of the sea in her small boats. These facts, it is understood, the

Imperial German Government frankly admit. We are informed that in the

instances of which we have spoken time enough for even that poor measure

of safety was not given, and in at least two of the cases cited not so

much as a warning was received. Manifestly, submarines cannot be used

against merchantmen, as the last few weeks have shown, without an

inevitable violation of many sacred principles of justice and humanity.

American citizens act within their indisputable rights in taking their

ships and in traveling wherever their legitimate business calls them

upon the high seas, and exercise those rights in what should be the

well-justified confidence that their lives will not be endangered by

acts done in clear violation of universally acknowledged international

obligations, and certainly in the confidence that their own government

will sustain them in the exercise of their rights.

There was recently published in the newspapers of the United States, I

regret to inform the Imperial German Government, a formal warning,

purporting to come from the Imperial German Embassy at Washington,

addressed to the people of the United States, and stating, in effect,

that any citizen of the United States who exercised his right of free

travel upon the seas would do so at his peril if his journey should take

him within the zone of waters within which the Imperial German Navy was

using submarines against the commerce of Great Britain and France,

notwithstanding the respectful but very earnest protest of the

Government of the United States. I do not refer to this for the purpose

of calling the attention of the Imperial German Government at this time

to the surprising irregularity of a communication from the Imperial

German Embassy at Washington addressed to the people of the United

States through the newspapers, but only for the purpose of pointing out

that no warning that an unlawful and inhumane act will be committed can

possibly be accepted as an excuse or palliation for that act or as an

abatement of the responsibility for its commission.

Long acquainted as this government has been with the character of the

Imperial Government, and with the high principles of equity by which

they have in the past been actuated and guided, the Government of the

United States cannot believe that the commanders of the vessels which

committed these acts of lawlessness did so except under a

misapprehension of the orders issued by the Imperial German naval

authorities. It takes for granted that, at least within the practical

possibilities of every such case, the commanders even of submarines were

expected to do nothing that would involve the lives of noncombatants or

the safety of neutral ships, even at the cost of failing of their object

of capture or destruction. It confidently expects, therefore, that the

Imperial German Government will disavow the acts of which the Government

of the United States complains; that they will make reparation so far as

reparation is possible for injuries which are without measure, and that

they will take immediate steps to prevent the recurrence of anything so

obviously subversive of the principles of warfare for which the Imperial

German Government have in the past so wisely and so firmly contended.

The government and people of the United States look to the Imperial

German Government for just, prompt, and enlightened action in this vital

matter with the greater confidence, because the United States and

Germany are bound together not only by ties of friendship, but also by

the explicit stipulations of the Treaty of 1828, between the United

States and the Kingdom of Prussia.

Expressions of regret and offers of reparation in case of the

destruction of neutral ships sunk by mistake, while they may satisfy

international obligations, if no loss of life results, cannot justify or

excuse a practice the natural and necessary effect of which is to

subject neutral nations and neutral persons to new and immeasurable

risks.

The Imperial German Government will not expect the Government of the

United States to omit any word or any act necessary to the performance

of its sacred duty of maintaining the rights of the United States and

its citizens and of safeguarding their free exercise and enjoyment.

BRYAN.

Ex-President Roosevelt, after learning details of the sinking of the

Lusitania, made these statements:

"This represents not merely piracy, but piracy on a vaster scale of

murder than old-time pirate ever practiced. This is the warfare which

destroyed Louvain and Dinant and hundreds of men, women and children in

Belgium. It is a warfare against innocent men, women, and children

traveling on the ocean, and our own fellowcountrymen and countrywomen,

who were among the sufferers.

"It seems inconceivable that we can refrain from taking action in this

matter, for we owe it not only to humanity, but to our own national

self-respect."

Former President Taft made this statement:

"I do not wish to embarrass the President of the Administration by a

discussion of the subject at this stage of the information, except to

express confidence that the President will follow a wise and patriotic

course. We must bear in mind that if we have a war it is the people, the

men and women, fathers and mothers, brothers and sisters, who must pay

with lives and money the cost of it, and therefore they should not be

hurried into the sacrifices until it is made clear that they wish it and

know what they are doing when they wish it.

"I agree that the inhumanity of the circumstances in the case now

presses us on, but in the heat of even just indignation is this the best

time to act, when action involves such momentous consequences and means

untold loss of life and treasure? There are things worse than war, but

delay, due to calm deliberation, cannot change the situation or minimize

the effect of what we finally conclude to do.

"With the present condition of the war in Europe, our action, if it is

to be extreme, will not lose efficiency by giving time to the people,

whose war it will be, to know what they are facing.

"A demand for war that cannot survive the passion of the first days of

public indignation and will not endure the test of delay and

deliberation by all the people is not one that should be yielded to."

President Wilson was criticised later by many persons for not insisting

upon a declaration of war immediately after the sinking of the

Lusitania. Undoubtedly the advice of former President Taft and of others

high in statesmanship, prevailed with the President. This in substance

was that America should prepare resolutely and thoroughly, giving

Germany in the meantime no excuse for charges that America's entrance

into the conflict was for aggression or for selfish purposes.

It was seen even as early as the sinking of the Lusitania that Germany's

only hope for final success lay in the submarine. It was reasoned that

unrestricted submarine warfare against the shipping of the world, so far

as tended toward the provisioning and munitioning of the Allies, would

be the inevitable outcome. It was further seen that when that

declaration would be made by Germany, America's decision for war must be

made. The President and his Cabinet thereupon made all their plans

looking toward that eventuality.

The resignation of Mr. Bryan from the Cabinet was followed by the

appointment of Robert Lansing as Secretary of State. It was recognized

on both sides of the Atlantic that President Wilson in all essential

matters affecting the war was active in the preparation of all state

papers and in the direction of that department. Another Cabinet vacancy

was created when Lindley M. Garrison, of New Jersey, resigned the

portfolio of Secretary of War because of a clash upon his militant views

for preparedness. Newton D. Baker, of Cleveland, Ohio, a close friend

and supporter of President Wilson, was appointed in his stead.

CHAPTER XVII

NEUVE CHAPELLE AND WAR IN BLOOD-SOAKED TRENCHES

After the immortal stand of Joffre at the first battle of the Marne and

the sudden savage thrust at the German center which sent von Kluck and

his men reeling back in retreat to the prepared defenses along the line

of the Aisne, the war in the western theater resolved itself into a play

for position from deep intrenchments. Occasionally would come a sudden

big push by one side or the other in which artillery was massed until

hub touched hub and infantry swept to glory and death in waves of gray,

or blue or khaki as the case might be. But these tremendous efforts and

consequent slaughters did not change the long battle line from the Alps

to the North Sea materially. Here and there a bulge would be made by the

terrific pressure of men and material in some great assault like that

first push of the British at Neuve Chapelle, like the German attack at

Verdun or like the tremendous efforts by both sides on that bloodiest of

all battlefields, the Somme.

Neuve Chapelle deserves particular mention as the test in which the

British soldiers demonstrated their might in equal contest against the

enemy. There had been a disposition in England as elsewhere up to that

time to rate the Germans as supermen, to exalt the potency of the

scientific equipment with which the German army had taken the field.

When the battle of Neuve Chapelle had been fought, although its losses

were heavy, there was no longer any doubt in the British nation that

victory was only a question of time.

The action came as a pendant to the attack by General de Langle de

Cary's French army during February, 1915, at Perthes, that had been a

steady relentless pressure by artillery and infantry upon a strong

German position. To meet it heavy reinforcements had been shifted by the

Germans from the trenches between La Bassee and Lille. The earthworks at

Neuve Chapelle had been particularly depleted and only a comparatively

small body of Saxons and Bavarians defended them. Opposite this body was

the first British army. The German intrenchments at Neuve Chapelle

surrounded and defended the highlands upon which were placed the German

batteries and in their turn defended the road towards Lille, Roubaix and

Turcoing.

The task assigned to Sir John French was to make an assault with only

forty-eight thousand men on a comparatively narrow front. There was only

one practicable method for effective preparation, and this was chosen by

the British general. An artillery concentration absolutely unprecedented

up to that time was employed by him. Field pieces firing at point-blank

range were used to cut the barbed wire entanglements defending the enemy

intrenchments, while howitzers and bombing airplanes were used to drop

high explosives into the defenseless earthworks.

Sir Douglas Haig, later to become the commander-in-chief of the British

forces, was in command of the first army. Sir Horace Smith-Dorrien

commanded the second army. It was the first army that bore the brunt of

the attack.

No engagement during the years on the western front was more sudden and

surprising in its onset than that drive of the British against Neuve

Chapelle. At seven o'clock on the morning of Wednesday, March 10, 1915,

the British artillery was lazily engaged in lobbing over a desultory

shell fire upon the German trenches. It was the usual breakfast

appetizer, and nobody on the German side took any unusual notice of it.

Really, however, the shelling was scientific "bracketing" of the enemy's

important position. The gunners were making sure of their ranges.

At 7.30 range finding ended, and with a roar that shook the earth the

most destructive and withering artillery action of the war up to that

time was on. Field pieces sending their shells hurtling only a few feet

above the earth tore the wire emplacements of the enemy to pieces and

made kindling wood of the supports. Howitzers sent high explosive

shells, containing lyddite, of 15-inch, 9.2-inch and 6-inch caliber into

the doomed trenches and later into the ruined village. It was eight

o'clock in the morning, one-half hour after the beginning of the

artillery action, that the village was bombarded. During this time

British soldiers were enabled to walk about in No Man's Land behind the

curtain of fire with absolute immunity. No German rifleman or machine

gunner left cover. The scene on the German side of the line was like

that upon the blasted surface of the moon, pock-marked with shell holes,

and with no trace of human life to be seen above ground.

[Illustration: Map: Neuve Chapelle and surroundings.]

THE BATTLE GROUND OF NEUVE CHAPELLE

An eye witness describing the scene said:

"The dawn, which broke reluctantly through a veil of clouds on the

morning of Wednesday, March 10, 1915, seemed as any other to the Germans

behind the white and blue sandbags in their long line of trenches

curving in a hemicycle about the battered village of Neuve Chapelle. For

five months they had remained undisputed masters of the positions they

had here wrested from the British in October. Ensconced in their

comfortably-arranged trenches with but a thin outpost in their fire

trenches, they had watched day succeed day and night succeed night

without the least variation from the monotony of trench warfare, the

intermittent bark of the machine guns--rat-tat-tat-tat-tat--and the

perpetual rattle of rifle fire, with here and there a bomb, and now and

then an exploded mine.

"For weeks past the German airmen had grown strangely shy. On this

Wednesday morning none were aloft to spy out the strange doings which,

as dawn broke, might have been descried on the desolate roads behind the

British lines.

"From ten o'clock of the preceding evening endless files of men marched

silently down the roads leading towards the German positions through

Laventie and Richebourg St. Vaast, poor shattered villages of the dead

where months of incessant bombardment have driven away the last

inhabitants and left roofless houses and rent roadways....

"Two days before, a quiet room, where Nelson's Prayer stands on the

mantel-shelf, saw the ripening of the plans that sent these sturdy sons

of Britain's four kingdoms marching all through the night. Sir John

French met the army corps commanders and unfolded to them his plans for

the offensive of the British army against the German line at Neuve

Chapelle.

"The onslaught was to be a surprise. That was its essence. The Germans

were to be battered with artillery, then rushed before they recovered

their wits. We had thirty-six clear hours before us. Thus long, it was

reckoned (with complete accuracy as afterwards appeared), must elapse

before the Germans, whose line before us had been weakened, could rush

up reinforcements. To ensure the enemy's being pinned down right and

left of the 'great push,' an attack was to be delivered north and south

of the main thrust simultaneously with the assault on Neuve Chapelle."

[Illustration: Map bounded by Armentieres on the North, Lille on the

East, Estaires on the West and Carvin on the South.]

MAP OF THE BATTLE FRONT BETWEEN ARMENTIERES AND LA BASSEE

On the left, half way up the map, may be seen Neuve Chapelle; a little

to the right of it is Aubers, where some of the sternest fighting

occurred.

After describing the impatience of the British soldiers as they awaited

the signal to open the attack, and the actual beginning of the

engagement, the narrator continues:

"Then hell broke loose. With a mighty, hideous, screeching burst of

noise, hundreds of guns spoke. The men in the front trenches were

deafened by the sharp reports of the field-guns spitting out their

shells at close range to cut through the Germans' barbed wire

entanglements. In some cases the trajectory of these vicious missiles

was so flat that they passed only a few feet above the British trenches.

"The din was continuous. An officer who had the curious idea of putting

his ear to the ground said it was as though the earth were being smitten

great blows with a Titan's hammer. After the first few shells had

plunged screaming amid clouds of earth and dust into the German

trenches, a dense pall of smoke hung over the German lines. The

sickening fumes of lyddite blew back into the British trenches. In some

places the troops were smothered in earth and dust or even spattered

with blood from the hideous fragments of human bodies that went hurtling

through the air. At one point the upper half of a German officer, his

cap crammed on his head, was blown into one of our trenches.

"Words will never convey any adequate idea of the horror of those five

and thirty minutes. When the hands of officers' watches pointed to five

minutes past eight, whistles resounded along the British lines. At the

same moment the shells began to burst farther ahead, for, by previous

arrangement, the gunners, lengthening their fuses, were 'lifting' on to

the village of Neuve Chapelle so as to leave the road open for our

infantry to rush in and finish what the guns had begun.

"The shells were now falling thick among the houses of Neuve Chapelle, a

confused mass of buildings seen reddish through the pillars of smoke and

flying earth and dust. At the sound of the whistle--alas for the bugle,

once the herald of victory, now banished from the fray!--our men

scrambled out of the trenches and hurried higgledy-piggledy into the

open. Their officers were in front. Many, wearing overcoats and carrying

rifles with fixed bayonets, closely resembled their men.

"It was from the center of our attacking line that the assault was

pressed home soonest. The guns had done their work well. The trenches

were blown to irrecognizable pits dotted with dead. The barbed wire had

been cut like so much twine. Starting from the Rue Tilleloy the Lincolns

and the Berkshires were off the mark first, with orders to swerve to

right and left respectively as soon as they had captured the first line

of trenches, in order to let the Royal Irish Rifles and the Rifle

Brigade through to the village. The Germans left alive in the trenches,

half demented with fright, surrounded by a welter of dead and dying men,

mostly surrendered. The Berkshires were opposed with the utmost

gallantry by two German officers who had remained alone in a trench

serving a machine gun. But the lads from Berkshire made their way into

that trench and bayoneted the Germans where they stood, fighting to the

last. The Lincolns, against desperate resistance, eventually occupied

their section of the trench and then waited for the Irishmen and the

Rifle Brigade to come and take the village ahead of them. Meanwhile the

second Thirty-ninth Garhwalis on the right had taken their trenches with

a rush and were away towards the village and the Biez Wood.

"Things had moved so fast that by the time the troops were ready to

advance against the village the artillery had not finished its work. So,

while the Lincolns and the Berks assembled the prisoners who were

trooping out of the trenches in all directions, the infantry on whom

devolved the honor of capturing the village, waited. One saw them

standing out in the open, laughing and cracking jokes amid the terrific

din made by the huge howitzer shells screeching overhead and bursting in

the village, the rattle of machine guns all along the line, and the

popping of rifles. Over to the right where the Garhwalis had been

working with the bayonet, men were shouting hoarsely and wounded were

groaning as the stretcher-bearers, all heedless of bullets, moved

swiftly to and fro over the shell-torn ground.

"There was bloody work in the village of Neuve Chapelle. The capture of

a place at the bayonet point is generally a grim business, in which

instant, unconditional surrender is the only means by which bloodshed, a

deal of bloodshed, can be prevented. If there is individual resistance

here and there the attacking troops cannot discriminate. They must go

through, slaying as they go such as oppose them (the Germans have a

monopoly of the finishing-off of wounded men), otherwise the enemy's

resistance would not be broken, and the assailants would be sniped and

enfiladed from hastily prepared strongholds at half a dozen different

points.

"The village was a sight that the men say they will never forget. It

looked as if an earthquake had struck it. The published photographs do

not give any idea of the indescribable mass of ruins to which our guns

reduced it. The chaos is so utter that the very line of the streets is

all but obliterated.

"It was indeed a scene of desolation into which the Rifle Brigade--the

first regiment to enter the village, I believe--raced headlong. Of the

church only the bare shell remained, the interior lost to view beneath a

gigantic mound of debris. The little churchyard was devastated, the very

dead plucked from their graves, broken coffins and ancient bones

scattered about amid the fresher dead, the slain of that morning--

gray-green forms asprawl athwart the tombs. Of all that once fair

village but two things remained intact--two great crucifixes reared

aloft, one in the churchyard, the other over against the chateau. From

the cross, that is the emblem of our faith, the figure of Christ, yet

intact though all pitted with bullet marks, looked down in mute agony on

the slain in the village.

"The din and confusion were indescribable. Through the thick pall of

shell smoke Germans were seen on all sides, some emerging half dazed

from cellars and dugouts, their hands above their heads, others dodging

round the shattered houses, others firing from the windows, from behind

carts, even from behind the overturned tombstones. Machine guns were

firing from the houses on the outskirts, rapping out their

nerve-racking note above the noise of the rifles.

"Just outside the village there was a scene of tremendous enthusiasm.

The Rifle Brigade, smeared with dust and blood, fell in with the Third

Gurkhas with whom they had been brigaded in India. The little brown men

were dirty but radiant. Kukri in hand they had very thoroughly gone

through some houses at the cross-roads on the Rue du Bois and silenced a

party of Germans who were making themselves a nuisance there with some

machine guns. Riflemen and Gurkhas cheered themselves hoarse."

[Illustration: Map: Bapaume on the North, Albert on the West, Rosieres and

Chaulnes on the South and Peronne on the East.]

SCENE OF THE BLOODY BATTLES OF THE SOMME

The tide of war swept over this terrain with terrific violence.

Peronne was taken by the British in their great offensives of 1916-17;

in the last desperate effort of the Germans in 1918 they plunged

through Peronne advancing 35 miles, only to be hurled back with awful

losses by Marshal Foch. The town of Albert was taken and retaken

several times.

Unfortunately for the complete success of the brilliant attack a great

delay was caused by the failure of the artillery that was to have

cleared the barbed wire entanglements for the Twenty-third Brigade, and

because of the unlooked for destruction of the British field telephone

system by shell and rifle fire. The check of the Twenty-third Brigade

banked other commands back of it, and the Twenty-fifth Brigade was

obliged to fight at right angles to the line of battle. The Germans

quickly rallied at these points, and took a terrific toll in British

lives. Particularly was this true at three specially strong German

positions. One called Port Arthur by the British, another at Pietre Mill

and the third was the fortified bridge over Des Layes Creek.

Because of the lack of telephone communication it was impossible to send

reinforcements to the troops that had been held up by barbed wire and

other emplacements and upon which German machine guns were pouring a

steady stream of death.

As the Twenty-third Brigade had been held up by unbroken barbed wire

northwest of Neuve Chapelle, so the Seventh Division of the Fourth Corps

was also checked in its action against the ridge of Aubers on the left

of Neuve Chapelle. Under the plan of Sir Douglas Haig the Seventh

Division was to have waited until the Eighth Division had reached Neuve

Chapelle, when it was to charge through Aubers. With the tragic mistake

that cost the Twenty-third Brigade so dearly, the plan affecting the

Seventh Division went awry. The German artillery, observing the

concentration of the Seventh Division opposite Aubers, opened a vigorous

fire upon that front. During the afternoon General Haig ordered a charge

upon the German positions. The advance was made in short rushes in the

face of a fire that seemed to blaze from an inferno. Inch by inch the

ground was drenched with British blood. At 5.30 in the afternoon the men

dug themselves in under the relentless German fire. Further advance

became impossible.