Panic in Berlin-Passage Through the Country Granted for Armies of the Allies-Ferdinand Abdicates-Germany's Imagined Mittel-Europa Dream CHAPTER XLVII. THE CENTRAL EMPIRES WHINE FOR PEACE Austria-Hungary Makes the First Plea-President Wilson's Abrupt Answer— Prince Max, Camouflaged as an Apostle of Peace, made Chancellor and Opens Germany's Pathetic Plea for a Peace by Negotiation-The President Replies on Behalf of all the Allied Powers-Foch Pushes on Regardless of Peace Notes. 603 CHAPTER XLVIII. BATTLES IN THE AIR Conquering the Fear of Death-From Individual Fights to Battles Between Squadrons-Heroes of the Warring Nations-America's Wonderful Record- From Nowhere to First Place in Eighteen Months-The Liberty Motor . 611 CHAPTER XLIX. HEALTH AND HAPPINESS OF THE AMERICAN Record of the Red Cross on all Fronts-A Gigantic Work Well Executed— Y. M. C. A.-Y. W. C. A.-Knights of Columbus-Jewish Welfare Associa- tion-Salvation Army-American Library Association-Other Organizations- Germany's Ruthless Submarine Policy-A Boomerang Destroying the Hand that Cast It-Terrorism that Failed-One Hundred and Fifty U-Boats Sunk or Captured Shameless Surrender of the German Submarines and of the Cutting the Railroads to Cambrai-Americans Co-operate with British in Furious Attack-Douai and St. Quentin Taken-The Battle Line Straightened for the Last Mighty Assault-All Hope Abandoned by the Kaiser. CHAPTER LII. LAST DAYS OF THE WAR American Troops Join with the Allies in Colossal Drive on 71-mile Front- Historic Sedan Taken by the Yanks-Stenay, the Last Battle of the War— THE DRASTIC TERMS OF SURRENDER Handcuffs for Four Nations-Bulgaria First to Fly the White Flag-Allenby's Great Victory Forces Turkey Out-Austria Signs Quickly-Germany's Protection of Small Neutral Nation-Looking Into the Future-Cost of War to the Nations-Liberty Loans-Reconstruction Problems-McAdoo Resigns AMERICA'S POSITION IN PEACE AND WAR President Wilson's Stirring Speech in Congress Which Brought the United States into the War-His Great Speech Before Congress Ending the War- The Fourteen Points Outlining America's Demands Before Peace Could be Concluded-Later Peace Principles Enunciated by the President. Condensed Word-Picture of the Happenings of the Most Momentous Fifty- two Months in All History-Leading Up to the Eleventh Hour of the CHAPTER LVII. BEHIND AMERICA'S BATTLE LINE General March's Story of the Work of the Military Intelligence Division- Of the War Plans Division-Of the Purchase and Traffic Divisions-How Men, CHAPTER LVIII. GENERAL PERSHING'S OWN STORY The Commander-in-Chief of the American Expeditionary Forces Tells the Story of the Magnificent Combat Operations of his Troops that Defeated Prussia's Legions—Official Account Discloses Full Details of the Fighting. A Year in the Life of the United States Crowded with Great Events-Tribute to the Soldiers and Sailors, the Workers at Home Who Supplied the Sinews of the Great Undertaking, the Women of the Land Who Contributed to the Great Result-The Future Safe in the Hands of American Businessmen. FOREWORD HIS is a popular narrative history of the world's greatest war. Written frankly from the viewpoint of the United T States and the Allies, it visualizes the bloodiest and most destructive conflict of all the ages from its remote causes to its glorious conclusion and beneficent results. The worldshaking rise of new democracies is set forth, and the enormous national and individual sacrifices producing that resurrection of human equality are detailed. Two ideals have been before us in the preparation of this necessary work. These are simplicity and thoroughness. It is of no avail to describe the greatest of human events if the description is so confused that the reader loses interest. Thoroughness is an historical essential beyond price. So it is that official documents prepared in many instances upon the field of battle, and others taken from the files of the governments at war, are the basis of this work. Maps and photographs of unusual clearness and high authenticity illuminate the text. All that has gone into war making, into the regeneration of the world, are herein set forth with historical particularity. The stark horrors of Belgium, the blighting terrors of chemical warfare, the governmental restrictions placed upon hundreds of millions of civilians, the war sacrifices falling upon all the civilized peoples of earth, are in these pages. It is a book that mankind can well read and treasure. M CHAPTER I A WAR FOR INTERNATIONAL FREEDOM Y FELLOW COUNTRYMEN: The armistice was signed this morning. Everything for which America fought has been accomplished. The war thus comes to an end." Speaking to the Congress and the people of the United States, President Wilson made this declaration on November 11, 1918. A few hours before he made this statement, Germany, the empire of blood and iron, had agreed to an armistice, terms of which were the hardest and most humiliating ever imposed upon a nation of the first class. It was the end of a war for which Germany had prepared for generations, a war bred of a philosophy that Might can take its toll of earth's possessions, of human lives and liberties, when and where it will. That philosophy involved the cession to imperial Germany of the best years of young German manhood, the training of German youths to be killers of men. It involved the creation of a military caste, arrogant beyond all precedent, a caste that set its strength and pride against the righteousness of democracy, against the possession of wealth and bodily comforts, a caste that visualized itself as part of a power-mad Kaiser's assumption that he and God were to shape the destinies of earth. When Marshal Foch, the foremost strategist in the world, representing the governments of the Allies and the United States, delivered to the emissaries of Germany terms upon which they might surrender, he brought to an end the bloodiest, the most destructive and the most beneficent war the world has known. It is worthy of note in this connection that the three great wars in which the United States of America engaged have been wars for freedom. The Revolutionary War was for the liberty of the colonies; the Civil War was waged for the freedom of manhood and for the principle of the indissolubility of the Union; the World War, beginning 1914, was fought for the right of small nations to |