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Berlin Lokal Anzeiger, which also remarked that President Wilson's assertion that the war was not against the German people but against the German Government would not "lessen German anger, because it is untrue and dishonest, and Wilson knows it." On this point the Berlin Vossische Zeitung said that "efforts to dissociate the German Government from the people are perfidious," and the statement that the Kaiser started the war for dynastic reasons "apparently was made at England's command.” The same paper regretfully recalled that "German policy had eonsidered it the right thing to refuse to consider a 'Bryan treaty,' such as England and other Powers concluded with the United States," for, "if such a treaty existed to-day the United States would be in duty bound, before breaking off relations, to submit the question in controversy to a commission which could take at least a year to reach a ver

The Tageblatt pointed out that Mr. Wilson's decision would be of more far-reaching consquence to the United States than to Germany, for "once for all, the Monroe Doctrine is done with, and so is the policy of avoidance of entangling alliances."

In sharp contrast to these bitter comments found in the German press was the enthusiastic approval of English and French journals and their unrestrained admiration for President Wilson, whose action, according to the London Times, was "an event to influence the destiny of mankind on both sides of the Atlantic for a generation to come." It added that no greater action, except the war itself, had happened since the French Revolution "shattered the traditions of feudalism in Europe." The cause in which America had drawn the sword and the grounds on which the President justified the momentous step he had taken were "auguries that the final outcome would be for the happiness and welfare of mankind." That paper doubted if in all history "a great community has ever been summoned to war on grounds so largely ideal." If the President's speech meant anything, said the London Daily Express, it meant that "America will never treat with the Kaiser and will resolutely oppose any peace that leaves the Hohenzollerns on the German throne." The London Morning Post singled

out the President's point that the continued existence of a German military autocracy was totally incompatible with future peace, and said that the President and the American people "serve the world's highest interest by proving that there is such a thing as the solidarity of civilization." Mr. Lloyd George declared that America had "at one bound become a world power." In behalf of the British War Cabinet, he recognized "the chivalry and courage which called the people of the United States to dedicate the whole of their resources to the greatest cause that ever engaged human endeavor. Mr. Asquith welcomed the day when "the two great English-speaking Democracies can rejoice together as fellow-workers and fellow-combatants for the triumph of freedom and for right." Bonar Law declared Mr. Wilson's message "a fitting pendant to the revolution which has brought the Russian people within the circle of free nations," and added, "It is when America throws her weight into the scale that the end becomes certain."

France was no less eager to welcome her new ally. President Poincaré, in a cable-letter to President Wilson, said: "The war would not have reached its final import had not the United States been led by the enemy himself to take part in it." M. Hanotaux declared that the gravest of the errors of autocracy in this war was to have so acted as "to bring America into the war at the moment when it enters upon its most decisive phase." Paris dispatches reported Premier Ribot as saying to American press correspondents, on April 4: "It is a red-letter day for us" and "a memorable day in your history and in the history of the world." Jules Cambon, Secretary-General of the Foreign Office, said the President's message was 'a great battle won from Germany." He was convinced that it would "shorten the war considerably." Rome dispatches said the news was received with rejoicing by the Italian people. America's action had raised them to "the highest pitch of enthusiasm." When the news was heard in Petrograd, at the Tauride Palace, where the Council of Soldiers and Workingmen's Deputies was in session, it "evoked a storm of applause and soon the entire palace echoed with shouts and cheers." Dispatches quoted Foreign Minister Miliukoff as saying: "The

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ideal side of the war is once more emphasized by the intervention of America."

Within twenty-four hours there came over London a remarkable change of opinion as to the length of the war. There was in some quarters a somewhat general belief, or hope, that peace might be only a matter of weeks. America had launched an offensive without using a man or a gun that would prove powerful enough to convince Germany that it would be well to end hostilities. She could not fail to consider the force which America had brought to bear against her as something as effective as five, ten, or twenty divisions of men. Many Britons talked of peace by May or June, with the maximum forecast fixing November as the final month of hostilities. Friday, April 20, was set apart in London as "America Day." The Stars and Stripes were on that day unfurled from the great Victoria Tower of the Houses of Parliament. The British Government also gave instructions that the Stars and Stripes should be flown beside the Union Jack on that day from as many public buildings as possible. The sale of American flags in London became so enormous that many dealers were soon sold out. With the Stars and Stripes and the Union Jack fluttering fraternally on April 20 from the same flagstaff at the top of the Victoria Tower at Westminster, where in all the long history of the Mother of Parliaments hitherto no flag other than the British had ever been hoisted; with the King and Queen and other notable representatives of the British realm listening to an inspired oration by an American Bishop in St. Paul's Cathedral on President Lincoln's text that ballots, not bullets, are the true weapons of Democracy; with Ameri

[graphic]

ALEXANDRE RIBOT

French Premier after Viviani and Briand, and before Painlevé and Clemenceau

can flags everywhere gaily flying in the bright sunshine of England's first spring day, and with crowds in the streets cheering heartily for the representatives of the United States, "Americá Day" in London became a great day. "A solemn service to Almighty God on the occasion of the entry of the United States of America into the great war for freedom" was the official description of the function at St. Paul's, attended by their Majesties, the King and Queen, and the American Ambassador. About 4,000 persons were accommodated in the cathedral, the congregation including, besides a large number of Americans, a representative gathering of English men and women of light and leading. There were also present a number of Americans who, by fighting in the Canadian ranks, had already shed their blood in the cause of freedom. Official representatives of Canada and the other British colonies were there in full strength, together with the diplomatic corps of most of the Allies in the Entente.

In Paris the Stars and Stripes were put out to wave side by side with Allied flags. Nothing else was discust in the press. Premier Ribot in opening the Chamber of Deputies read a formal salutation to America. Paris newspapers got out their biggest type, their most jubilant "make-up," to express the general rejoicing. Great interest was exprest in the possibility of an American Expeditionary Force soon to be seen on the Western Front in France-and as to Roosevelt's expected division. Géneviève Vix, a popular Paris singer, cabled to Colonel Roosevelt at Oyster Bay, asking that he accept an American flag stitched by women of France and to be carried as the standard of the first battalion raised under his command.

The President's address caused a greater sensation in Rome than any other event since the beginning of the conflict. Rejoicing was noticeable all through the city. People eagerly read newspapers containing dispatches from Washington, which were featured in big type. Everybody felt that America's decision to take part in the war on the side of the Allies was the greatest moral defeat yet sustained by the Central Empires, and that it would soon be followed by a material one.

By the third week in April hundreds of thousands of copies of President Wilson's address, printed in German, as an enterprise of the New York World, each in a little pamphlet with the American flag in red, white, and blue at the top, were on their way to all French aviation-stations along the front from St. Quentin to the Swiss frontier, ready to be scattered over the German lines by Allied aviators and scattered in the streets of German cities and towns within flying radius. French, British, and Belgian War Offices had given permission for their aviators to carry and drop them. The pamphlets were of four pages, measur

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AN AMERICAN WAR MEDAL

Struck in England to commemorate the declaration of war

by the United States

ing 10 by 12 inches, with the parts of the speech already published in Germany printed in black, and the portions supprest in Germany printed in red. There were 136 lines. of black print to 294 lines of red. As the color-work required three passages through the press, copies were struck off and completed in batches of 10,000, the first of which went to the American Escadrille, which had already dropt large numbers of rough proofs of the message over the German lines. It was the intention to have the battle lines from Switzerland to the North Sea covered with copies of the President's words.

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