stance an almost unconditional surrender. They began at once the withdrawal of their troops from the invaded area, while a few days later the army of occupation followed them to the Rhine and took station at Cologne, Coblenz, and Mainz. The American forces, which the armistice had found along the Meuse above Sedan, marched down the Moselle to headquarters at Coblenz.

BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE

General Pershing's summary of operations in his Final Report (1919), may be supplemented by the semi-official Frederick Palmer, America in France (1918), and Our Greatest Battle (1919). Jennings C. Wise, The Turn of the Tide (1920), and R. M. Johnston, First Reflections on the Campaign of 1918 (1919), are special in their treatment. The final operations are covered in the second volume of John Bach McMaster, The United States in the World War (1920). Other works of interest, in the absence of definitive studies, are A. W Page, The Truth About Our 110 Days' Fighting (1919); de Chambrun and de Marenches, The American Army in the European Conflict (1919), and Erich von Ludendorff, Ludendorff's Own Story, August 1914-November 1918 (1919).

CHAPTER LV

PEACE AND THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS

Between Congres

sional election of 1918

THE closing weeks of the battle of 1918 brought peace to Europe and relieved the tension of the world. September 15, when Austria made her open appeal for a cessation of hostilities, and November II, when the armistice terms were signed, the alliance of the Central Powers fell apart. Bulgaria and Turkey capitulated, the Dual Monarchy disintegrated and collapsed, and the military rulers of Germany were deposed. The fear of possible defeat disappeared from the mind of the Allies, and in its place arose inconsistent hopes of recouping the losses of the war, of strengthening national defenses against the next war, of punishing Germany, and of realizing those ideals whose clear enunciation by President Wilson held the associates together during the final year of war. Whether conservative or radical, the citizens of the victor nations ceased to fear and turned to the future. The fact that they were free to do so was the most important feature of the Congressional campaign then in progress in the United States.

Only in the United States had the Government in power at the outbreak of the war survived the upheavals of opinion and the shifting fates and remained in office until the armistice. In England, France, and Italy there had appeared war coalition Governments. Lloyd George, Clemenceau, and Orlando, their premiers, were in office with a backing of sagacious and practical politicians, whose acceptance of the "fourteen points" and the political liberalism that these embodied was less a matter of conviction than of expediency. In America the author of this formula remained in power because of the constitutional provision for a four-year term, and no war issue could have driven him out because America has no responsible government in the

European sense. Critics of his Administration and partisan opponents of his party were forced during the war to restrain their active political opposition, for this could have no effect but to hinder the prosecution of war measures and perhaps wound the obstructionists on the rebound. "Politics is adjourned," the President himself declared. Public opinion treated alike Republicans and Democrats believed to be obstructive of the war. With national defense holding the whole of the mind of the nation, the parties had prepared to elect a Congress in 1918 The Republican minority found itself bound hand and foot by the necessities of patriotic unity.

The reorganization of the Republican Party after the defeats of 1910, 1912, 1914, and 1916 was accomplished in Republican February, 1918, when Will H. Hays, of Indiana,

Party re- was made chairman of the National Committee. organized Hays was already favorably known as a healer of factional differences, and replaced a chairman whose war record was poor, in order to bring into solid front all the factions whose controversy since 1912 disrupted the party. The only basis of attack open to Republicans was to charge the Administration with inefficiency and lukewarm prosecution of the war. The Munitions Ministry debate received most of its support from Republican leaders. Defects in war preparation were charged against the Government, and Democratic opponents of the war were pictured as the real Democrats. But the assignment of Judge Hughes to investigate the aircraft scandal and the appointment of ex-President Taft as chairman of the National War Labor Board broke the force of these attacks. To offset Roosevelt and Wood, who were set aside, the friends of the Administration could point to the important duties of Pershing, Sims, March, and Hoover, all of whom were Republicans. The canvass of 1918 was unimportant until in October the beginning of the discussion of the armistice made it clear that the danger had passed. Immediately the demand for "unconditional surrender" was raised by Republicans, the Administration was charged with an inten

46 'Uncon

surrender"

tion to accept a peace of negotiation, and the international tendency of the "fourteen points" was denounced. Lodge and Poindexter led in the ditional attack, and Roosevelt, who had consistently opposed the program of the League to Enforce Peace, raised his voice against a League of Nations. Unconditional surrender for Germany and independence for America became the war-cry of the canvass. When on October 25 the President issued an open letter asking for the election of a Democratic Congress so that he might be assured of assistance in negotiating the sort of peace he had promised the nation, his action was criticized as unnecessarily partisan. Henry Ford, who was running for the Senate in Michigan, and Secretary of War Baker were described as pacifists.

The day of election was the day that President Wilson transmitted to Germany the decision of the Supreme War Council to receive the German envoys begging peace. The war was over, and the votes that were cast that day insured the return of the Republican Party to power in Congress, with easy control of the House and a probable majority in the Senate. "In no other free country in the world today would Mr. Wilson be in office" was the comment of Roosevelt upon the election.

The disbanding of the army of the United States began within a few hours of the signing of the armistice. The Third Field Army, which had been organized by Pershing during the battle of the Argonne, was designated to march into Germany as a part of the army of occupation; but preparations were made to send all the other troops home as rapidly as transportation could be provided, and the American camps were emptied within the next few weeks. The restrictions upon industry that had been administered by the War Industries Board were relaxed at once, and when Congress met on December 2 the President spoke with confidence of the speedy resumption of the ordinary course of life. Two days later he set sail on the army transport, George Washington, for Brest and the Peace Conference.

The American Commission to Negotiate Peace had at its

American

head the President of the United States, as the commission of each other Allied country was presided over Commission by its most important political official. Assistto Negotiing him were four other members: Robert Lanate Peace sing, the Secretary of State; Edward M. House, who had acted since 1914 as confidential agent; General Tasker H. Bliss, who had represented the United States on the Supreme War Council from its formation; and Henry White, whose diplomatic service had included many years at Vienna, London, Rome, and Paris. There was no Senator on the commission, and, in spite of the result of the November election, no active member of the party that was to dominate the Congress to which the peace treaty would have to be submitted. There were, however, some hundreds of other assistants representing the State Department, the "House inquiry," and the various war boards whose members had acquired useful information upon the status of world affairs.

Only a few of the better informed among European leaders knew enough of American institutions to appreciate the fact that a President serves out his term whatever the result of a Congressional election. The additional fact that the adverse Congress would not meet earlier than December, 1919, unless specially summoned, served to obscure the vote of dissatisfaction that Wilson had received. To most of Europe he was in office, and hence in full power. His had been the decisive leadership whose democratic idealism held the Allies together and disintegrated the morale of the enemy. Europe, when he "touched its shores," wrote an old and keen observer of world politics, E. J. Dillon, "was as clay ready for the creative potter. Never before were the nations so eager to follow a Moses who would take them to the long-promised land where wars are prohibited and blockades unknown. . . . In France men bowed down before him in awe and affection. . . . To the working classes of Italy his name was a heavenly clarion at the sound of which the earth would be renewed. . . . The Germans regarded him and his humane doctrine as their