as his reply to the Pope (Aug., 1917), was treated in last month's article, and therefore will not be further analyzed here.

"The general effect of these events was to bring into clearer light the fundamental issues of the war," especially, after the Russian revolution which overthrew the Czar (March, 1917), and the entry of the United States into the war (April 6, 1917). Sixteen more states now declared war on Germany or severed diplomatic relations with her. This all brought on an internal crisis in Germany, with the upshot that the Reichstag on July 11 refused to vote war credits for the time being, and repudiated the annexationist scheme of the war party (which was in power). BethmannHollweg resigned the imperial chancellorship, and the Reichstag resolutions were published to the world. They are worth noting in this connection:

(1) Germany fights in self-defence, to preserve her territories.

(2) The Reichstag is for peace and "lasting reconciliation among the nations."

(3) It is against "forced acquisitions of territory, and political, economies and financial violations."

(4) It rejects all plans for an economic blockade and the stirring up of enmity among the peoples after the war.

(5) The freedom of the seas must be assured.

(6) The Reichstag will work for international arbitration "jurisdictional organizations."

From the above points it is easily seen that the Reichstag was moving for peace; it was answering to the world what the Kaiser and his government and army disdained to answer. It was the voice of the German people that the Reichstag had heard,-their reaction to the democratic peace terms that President Wilson and the peoples and governments of the Allies had forced upon their attention. But what did the voice of the German people or the resolutions

of the Reichstag amount to, at that stage of the war? Kaiser Wilhelm with his war lords rode rough-shod and defiantly over the German people and their representatives, brandished again his "shining sword," and with God's help, promised a German junker's peace. And the people and the Reichstag were not again heard from until the last days of the war. The "shining sword" had so dazzled them that they were again ready to follow their "God's anointed"; and the collapse of Russia confirmed their belief in victory.

CHAPTER XVIII

OFFICIAL PEACE NEGOTIATIONS (Concluded)

IN our last chapter we gave some space to a consideration of the German-Bolshevik peace developments and their effects on peace negotiations throughout the world. A further examination of this conspiracy is necessary to a proper conception of its nature and results, especially, upon Russia and upon German honor before the world.

Brest-Litovsk Conference and Peace Treaty

Winning support, as it did, among Socialists and certain labor and pacifist elements everywhere, this abortive peace offensive of the Bolshevists and Germans constituted for months a distinct danger and threat to the Allies and the cause of democracy. Tremendous pressure was brought to bear upon the Allied governments to "negotiate peace" with their enemies. But the defiant refusal of the heads of the Allied and American governments to surrender the principles for which they fought soon brought all effective opposition to an end, as their peoples became aware of the nature of these German-Anarchist schemes.

The exact nature of the Russian surrender to the German government is revealed in the following statement in the introduction to "War Information Series" No. 20, (Oct., 1918): "The documents show that the Bolshevik revolution was arranged for by the German Great General Staff and financed by the German Imperial Bank and other German financial insitutions.

"They show that the treaty of Brest-Litovsk was a be

trayal of the Russian people by the German agents, Lenine and Trotsky; that a German-picked commander was chosen to 'defend' Petrograd against the Germans; that German officers have been secretly received by the Bolshevik government as military advisers, as spies upon the embassies of Russia's allies, as officers in the Russian army and directors of the Bolshevik military, foreign and domestic policy. They show, in short, that the present Bolshevik government is not a Russian government at all, but a German government acting solely in the interests of Germany and betraying the Russian people, as it betrays Russia's natural allies, for the benefit of the Imperial German government alone."

Not only did the Allied countries and United States suspect all this treachery and later find it out for a fact, but there were even Germans who admitted it. "A German politician, writing in the Vienna Arbeiter-Zeitung of Aug. 27, 1918, stated: "We have brought about treaties of peace at Brest and Bucharest (with Roumania) which correspond to our interest, but not to our principles as we presented them in the peace offer."-War Information Series 21, p. 26.

The Final Developments Before the Armistice

On July 4, 1918, President Wilson reiterated his statement that there could be no peace while the Imperial German Government, which was responsible for the war, remained in power. And he laid down the "ends for which the associated peoples of the world are fighting and which must be conceded them before there can be peace:

(1) "The destruction of every arbitrary power anywhere that can separately, secretly, and of its single choice disturb the peace of the world; or, if it cannot be presently destroyed, at least its reduction to a virtual impotence.

(2) "The settlement of every question, whether of territory, of sovereignty, of economic arrangement, or of politi

cal relationship, upon the basis of the free acceptance of that settlement by the people immediately concerned, and not upon the basis of material interest or advantage of any other nation or people which may desire a different settlement for the sake of its own exterior influence or mastery.

(3) "The consent of all nations to be governed in their conduct toward each other by the same principles of honor and respect for the common law of civilized society that governs the individual citizens of all modern states in their dealings with one another; to the end that all promises and covenants may be sacredly observed, no private plots or conspiracies hatched, no selfish injuries wrought with impunity, and a mutual trust established upon the handsome foundation of a mutual respect for right.

(4) "The establishment of a League of Nations that will check every invasion of right—affording a tribunal-to which all must submit, and by which every international readjustment that cannot be amicably agreed upon by the peoples directly concerned, shall be sanctioned."

In his New York address of Sept. 27 (1918), the President once more declared that he could not make peace with the governments of the Central Empires on any sort of bargain or compromise whatsoever, since we cannot accept their word for anything. In this address he speaks more definitely and in detail on the matter of a League of Nations. Without reserve he declares that the League must be formed -not before nor after the peace is made, but in the peace council itself; also, that the League is the "most essential part of the peace settlement itself." And, as we all know, he won his point in the Peace Council at Versailles by having the constitution of the League drawn up as the very first permanent work of the Conference. Whether the necessary two-thirds majority of the United States Senate ratifies this constitution or not, the evidence throughout the world at present is, that the peoples of the nations are looking