THE I FUTILE EARLY EFFORTS August, 1914-December, 1917 HE cessation of hostilities that came with the signing of the armistice on November 11, 1918, had been preceded on several occasions since the war began by more or less serious attempts to obtain peace. Aside from efforts made by the Pope and those made by President Wilson during the years when the United States was neutral, all these proposals, or "peace kites," as they were commonly called in Entente circles, came from Germany, or from her ally, Austria, who was acting with Germany's knowledge. None of them went so far as to indicate in any degree the terms the Central Powers would consider. They suggested conferences rather than terms of peace, and were dominated by a purpose to get a German peace, or what Germans called "a strong peace," which meant conquest, or other profit from the war such as, in Germany, had been called "thumping indemnities." Some quite pacific and even mellifluous words would be uttered by a foreign minister, a premier, or a chancellor, in Vienna or, less often, in Berlin, followed in a few days by a boastful speech from the Kaiser in which he would talk of his "good sword," his "war-map, his "victorious army," and the "honorable peace" which the Fatherland must have. In one instance, where the German Chancellor had used words as soft and insinuating as the cooing of a dove, the Kaiser within three days came forth with a speech that was described as "throwing a brickbat." To all these efforts to extract peace by force-indeed the whole attitude of the military Germans was a swaggering one, as if victory had actually been won by them-the Allies responded with speeches, sometimes from a prime minister, sometimes from a cabinet secretary, or an under-secretary in which words of indifference or scorn were exprest. None of the Allied Government ever took the Teutonic proposals with any seriousness. Soon after Germany had declared war on Russia in 1914, President Wilson proclaimed the neutrality of the United States. He asked that all citizens respect our neutrality in word, thought, and deed. The idea of America's destiny as a trustee of peace was first advanced by him at that time. Next day he addrest to King George, the Czar Nicholas, Emperor William, Emperor Francis Joseph, and President Poincaré a message tendering his good office for peace, as follows: "As official head of one of the Powers signatory to the Hague Convention, I feel it to be my privilege and my duty, under Article Three of that Convention, to say to you in a spirit of most earnest friendship that I should welcome an opportunity to act in the interest of European peace, either now or any other time that might be thought more suitable, as an occasion to serve you and all concerned in a way that would afford me lasting cause for gratitude and happiness." Nothing that remotely suggested a willingness among any of the Entente Powers to avail themselves of the President's offices resulted from this message. Europe had no illusions as to the possibility of securing at that time a satisfactory peace. A premature peace they had clearly foreseen, would become a guaranty of more wars to follow soon and Great Britain and her Allies would be faithless stewards of civilization were they to call a halt before German militarism had been crusht. A month after the war began a new treaty was entered into by Great Britain, France, and Russia, in which they bound themselves not to conclude a peace separately, the duration of the conflict to hang, not upon the necessities of the weakest among them, but upon the interests and will of the strongest member of the alliance. The treaty was signed in London and had for its chief significance an implication that all the resources of men and money of the greatest of the world's powers had been enlisted for the war and would be thrown into the balance. It would take time to make those resources available, but, with a resolute spirit behind them, it was certain that eventually they would bear de cisively upon their adversaries. The war, therefore, was to be a contest not so much between peoples and empires as between systems. It was British self-government, British seapower, British commerce and British wealth, world-wide in their extent, that had been thrown into a life and death struggle with that consolidated German autocracy and militarism which for forty years had burdened mankind with armaments and menaced it with war. The issue was between rule by the people and rule by the sword, not in Britain alone, or in Germany alone, but throughout the earth, now and for generations to come. Peace was unthinkable until the Prussian military autocracy had been destroyed. Until well into September, newspapers reported activities for peace among Americans, especially among professional pacifists, then a numerous and influential class in the country. The Allied Powers in Europe were annoyed by these efforts, because of their futility-futile, that is, because of the supreme confidence the Teutonic Powers had in their own strength, and because of their known war-aims as those of conquest and the accomplishment of which were to Germany a condition precedent to peace. Throughout this country there remained an intense longing for a cessation of hostilities. Not only had the battle of the Marne occurred, but the seven days' battle of the Aisne and the "race to the sea, and then had come the terrible fighting in Flanders, on the Yser and around Ypres. The battle of Flanders had just begun when October 7 was set apart in America as "Peace Sunday," and in every city and small place where there was a house of worship prayers were offered for peace in response to a special proclamation issued by President Wilson. In the larger cities, from coast to coast, great meetings took place at which clerical and lay speakers discust the war and offered prayers for its termination. The President's appeal: "I do request all good God-fearing persons to repair to their places of worship," was heeded everywhere and so was his plea that the people "unite their petitions to Almighty God that he vouchsafe his children healing peace again." Jew, Protestant, and Roman Catholic, each in his own place of worship and after his own fashion, joined in the services. |