G CHAPTER XXXV PAVING THE WAY FOR AN ARMISTICE ERMANY overwhelmed on land by the forces of the Allies, and with its submarine menace checked in every sea, was now on the point of unconditional surrender. Ludendorff and Von Hindenburg saw in the avalanche of khaki that was breaking through the Argonne the destruction of the great German Army. Orderly retreat on the western front was daily becoming more difficult. The air forces of the Allies due to America's immense production of Liberty motors and the advance host of American battleplanes and aviators were almost ready to make the long heralded dash into the heart of Germany. Mountains of gas shells and munitions of many varieties were waiting in America or had already been transported to France. A military defeat had been suffered by Germany on the western front. It was approaching the proportions of an ignominious rout. Back of that defeat loomed a disaster greater than any that had befallen any great army in the history of the world. The time had come for peace at any price. Germany paved the way for its peace overtures by dismissing Count Von Hertling as chancellor of the Empire and by raising to the chancellorship Prince Maximilian of Baden on September 30th. Maximilian was not a militarist in the sense that Von Bethmann Hollweg and Von Hertling had been. He was rated as a moderate at home and abroad. The Entente Allies and the Germans recognized that proposals of peace were about to be made through official channels. Previous to this the Austro-Hungarian Government on September 15th addressed a note to all belligerents and neutral powers and to the Vatican asking for a peace conference. This overture was made at the direct suggestion of Germany. It was a cunning plan involving a conference without actual cessation of war activities. Germany's idea was that hostilities would be half-hearted during the peace discussion, and that the death-grip of Foch upon the German Army would be released. America's reply was an emphatic refusal: The Government of the United States feels that there is only one reply which it can make to the suggestion of the Imperial Austro-Hungarian Government. It has repeatedly and with entire candor stated the terms upon which the United States would consider peace and can and will entertain no proposal for a conference upon a matter concerning which it has made its position and purpose so plain. The pressure of America and its co-belligerents along the entire western front continued. German morale at home and in the field was breaking fast. Prince Maximilian realized that the end had come, and he set to work to avert the disaster that threatened the German armies by an abject appeal to President Wilson to end the war on his own terms. For his purpose Prince Max selected the President's famous "fourteen points of peace" and his Liberty Loan speech of September 27th as the basis of negotiations. It was on Tuesday, January 8, 1918, that the President of the United States enunciated his fourteen points of peace before both Houses of Congress in joint session. The fourteen principles were: First. Open covenants of peace, openly arrived at, after which there shall be no private international understanding of any kind, but diplomacy shall proceed always frankly and in the public view. Second. Absolute freedom of navigation upon the seas, outside territorial waters, alike in peace and war, except as the seas may be closed in whole or in part by international action for the enforcement of international covenants. Third. The removal, so far as possible, of all economic barriers and the establishment of an equality of trade conditions among all the nations consenting to the peace and associating themselves for its maintenance. Fourth. Adequate guarantees given and taken that national armaments will be reduced to the lowest point consistent with domestic safety. Fifth. A free, open-minded and absolutely impartial adjustment of all Colonial claims based upon a strict observance of the principle that in determining all such questions of sovereignty, the interests of the popula tions concerned must have equal weight with the equitable claims of the Government whose title is to be determined. Sixth. The evacuation of all Russian territory and such a settlement of all questions affecting Russia as will secure the best and freest co-operation of the other nations of the world in obtaining for her an unhampered and unembarrassed opportunity for the independent determination of her own political development and national policy, and assure her of a sincere welcome into the society of free nations under institutions of her own choosing; and, more than a welcome, assistance also of every kind that she may need and may herself desire. The treatment accorded Russia by her sister nations in the months to come will be the acid test of their good will, of their comprehension of her needs, as distinguished from their own interests, and of their intelligent and unselfish sympathy. Seventh. Belgium, the whole world will agree, must be evacuated and restored, without any attempt to limit the sovereignty which she enjoys in common with all other free nations. No other single act will serve as this will serve to restore confidence among the nations in the laws which they have themselves set and determined for the government of their relations with one another. Without this healing act the whole structure and validity of international law is forever impaired. Eighth. All French territory should be freed and the invaded portions restored, and the wrong done to France by Prussia in 1871, in the matter of Alsace-Lorraine, which has unsettled the peace of the world for nearly fifty years, should be righted, in order that peace may once more be made secure in the interests of all. Ninth. A readjustment of the frontiers of Italy should be effected along clearly recognized lines of nationality. Tenth. The peoples of Austria-Hungary, whose place among the nations we wish to see safeguarded and restored, should be accorded the freest opportunity of autonomous development. Eleventh. Roumania, Serbia and Montenegro should be evacuated, occupied territories restored; Serbia accorded free and secure access to the sea, and the relations of the several Balkan States to one another determined by friendly counsel along historically established lines of allegiance and nationality; and international guarantees of the political and economic independence and territorial integrity, of the several Balkan States, should be entered into. Twelfth. The Turkish portion of the present Ottoman Empire should be assured a secure sovereignty, but the other nationalities which are now under Turkish rule, should be assured an undoubted security of life and an absolutely unmolested opportunity of autonomous development, and the Dardanelles should be permanently opened as a free passage to the ships and commerce of all nations under international guarantees. Thirteenth. An independent Polish State should be erected which should include the territories inhabited by indisputably Polish populations, which should be assured a free and secure access to the sea, and whose political and economic independence and territorial integrity should be guaranteed by international covenants. Fourteenth. General association of nations must be formed under specific covenants for the purpose of affording mutual guarantees of political independence and territorial integrity to great and small States alike. In his Liberty Loan address of September 27th President Wilson said: First. The impartial justice meted out must involve no discrimination between those to whom we wish to be just and those to whom we do not wish to be just. It must be a justice that plays no favorites and knows no standard but the equal rights of the several peoples concerned; Second. No special or separate interest of any single nation or any group of nations can be made the basis of any part of the settlement which is not consistent with the common interests of all; Third. There can be no leagues or alliances or special covenants and understandings with the general and common family of the League of Nations; Fourth. And more specifically, there can be no special, selfish economic combinations within the league and no employment of any form of economic boycott or exclusion except as the power of economic penalty by exclusion from the markets of the world may be vested in the League of Nations itself as a means of discipline and control; Fifth. All international agreements and treaties of every kind must be made known, in their entirety to the rest of the world. CHAPTER XXXVI VICTORY IN SIGHT HE campaign of the American 1st Army in France may be said to have had three phases. The first, which began on September 26th was the drive north through the country east of the Argonne forest. The second phase carried the 1st Army through the Argonne, smashed the Kriemhilde line and captured Grand Pré. The third phase began on November 1st, when General Liggett's army marched up through the country west of the Meuse, liberating hundreds of French villages and capturing thousands of prisoners until its final entry into historic Sedan. In its last drive the object of the American Army was twofold: first, to cut the railroad in the neighborhood of Sedan; secondly, to clear the country east of the Meuse, in the direction of Longwy, and so to threaten the Briey Basin, from whose iron fields Germany had obtained the supplies which had enabled her to prolong the war. The drive north for the railroad began on November 1st. It was a new experience for the American troops. German resistance had disappeared. The American advance began at 5.30 in the morning, when the 77th, 80th, 2d, 89th, 90th and 5th Divisions marched forward. The Germans retreated rapidly, fighting only rear-guard actions, and by November 7th the Americans entered the city of Sedan after liberating a hundred French villages, and cutting the main German system of communication. As the American troops on the west bank of the Meuse pushed their way to the north they found themselves exposed to artillery and machine-gun fire from the heights on the east bank. Operations east of the Meuse had, indeed, begun before November 1st under the direction of the 17th French Corps, which had under it the 2d Colonial French Corps and a number of American divisions. The 29th and the 33d Divisions, under command of General Coudal, were assigned to this |