young men put into the field could be properly equipped to win the World War.

This organization was the "Army Ordnance Association and its founding committee consisted of a group of the prominent men representing American industry who supplied the technical knowledge which made America's rapid mobilization of resources the wonder of the world. The object was to keep in close touch the men qualified to take care of special branches of ordnance, engineering or production and to stimulate their interest in these specialties so that what they learned about them during the war would not be forgotten. The organization was by ordnance districts and cross-sectioned into specialized committees.

The founding committee of this organization was Herbert W. Alden, vice-president of the Timken-Detroit Axle Company; Waldo C. Bryant, president Bryant Electric Company; C. L. Harrison, president Missouri Mutual Life Insurance Company; James C. Heckman, general manager of the Larkin Company; Robert P. Lamont, president American Steel Foundries; Bascom Little, building contractor of Cleveland, Ohio; Samuel McRoberts, vice-president National City Bank; Alton S. Miller, vice-president Bartlett, Howard Company, Baltimore; David C. Seagrave, vice-president Pacific Coast Shipbuilding Company; John R. Simpson, formerly of E. A. Filence Company, of Boston; William C. Spruance, director Explosives Manufacturing Department for E. I. du Pont de Nemours & Company; Guy E. Tripp, chairman board of directors Westinghouse Electric and Manufacturing Company; Charles Eliot Warren, president Lincoln National Bank of New York, was acting treasurer of the association, and Major John H. Van Deventer, acting secretary.

Out of the maelstrom of war and the storms of radicalism following the war, America emerged serene, possessed of greater vitality and a greater determination to spread the gospel of human liberty than ever before. Millions who had been impoverished in foreign lands and who were fearful of radical experiments that were being thrust upon them were eager to make their homes in America. Had the doors of naturalization and of immigration remained open, immedi

ately after the war it is probable that at least ten million persons would have come to America. The peoples of the world had learned to look to America as the home of freedom, the land where hope might blossom into prosperity and happiness. America sheathed the sword it had drawn in the cause of world freedom. The world had seen that the sword was

keen and swift. It had seen also that the sword was not drawn in haste and was gladly restored to its scabbard. Within the brief space of time when the sword was in action there came to the world a realization of American power and of American purpose that redounded to the glory of a nation peacefully minded but sternly resolved upon the right when it had entered a conflict between right and wrong.

TH

HE clock of history tolled the beginning of a new era when at 3.00 P. M. on Saturday, June 28, 1919, the treaty of peace, signalizing the destruction of Germany's military autocracy was signed. No more significant act had been consummated by America since the execution of the Peace Treaty that ended the Civil War. The peace which ended the Revolutionary War gave birth to the democratic ideals embodied in the United States of America. treaty that brought the Civil War to an end made certain the preservation of that democracy. The treaty of Versailles extended the ideals and principles of true democracy throughout the world into nations whose age-long oppression had held struggling millions under the heel of tyranny.

The

The setting which surrounded the ceremony of the signing the treaty of Versailles befitted the sacred occasion. Into the noble avenues and wide spaces surrounding the famous Place d'Armes of Versailles throngs had come through the mists of a threatening morning. Sunshine dissipated the clouds by noon and gleamed upon the accoutrements of eleven regiments of French cavalry and infantry. Through this avenue of heroic poilus in horizon blue and the human embankments of eager sightseers, the plenipotentiaries, delegates and honor guests poured in an endless stream of automobiles, to be saluted as they reached the broad marble stairway leading to the Queen's Apartment and the Hall of Peace which opened upon the historic Hall of Mirrors. German delegates were admitted to the Hall of Mirrors through a separate entrance, a circumstance which angered some of the Germans.

A special honor was paid by the huge throng to General Foch, Premier Clemenceau, President Wilson, General Pershing and Premier Lloyd George.

RIGHTING THE WRONG DONE TO FRANCE IN 1871

In accordance with the terms of the Treaty of Peace, Alsace and Lorraine were restored to France; the Saar Basin was taken out of German control for fifteen years; Luxemburg ceased to form part of the German Zollverein; Eupen and Malmedy were given to Belgium.

It was sheer justice that the document which destroyed German imperial autocracy should be signed in the very hall where the German Empire was born and commenced its ruthless being. In that same Hall of Mirrors forty-nine years before at the dictation of Bismarck, the Iron Chancellor, President Thiers had been compelled to sign the terms of a crushing defeat. Along the back wall of the mirrored chamber four hundred seats had been placed for guests of honor and along the right wall were an equal number of places for representatives of newspapers throughout the civilized world. The peace table was a huge hollow rectangle with an open side facing the windows looking out over the throng.

Three dramatic incidents slightly delayed the proceedings. These were the spirited but unavailing protests of the German delegates, the flat refusal of the representatives of the Chinese Republic to attend the ceremony because of concessions granted to Japan in Shantung by the Peace Conference, and the solemn protest of General Jan Christian Smuts of the South African Peace Delegation that some provisions of the treaty were out of harmony with the peaceful temper which should have animated all the signatories.

Just before three o'clock struck, forty-five wounded soldiers, fifteen each from the American, French and British armies entered the hall, took their places in the embrasures of the wide windows. Premier Clemenceau gave a human touch to the scene by going quickly to each of the wounded soldiers of France and expressing his regret for the sufferings they had undergone and his joy at the glory that had come to them.

It was seven minutes past three o'clock when the German delegates Dr. Hermann Müller, German Secretary for Foreign Affairs, and Dr. Johannes Bell, Colonial Secretary, came into the hall. They had been preceded a few minutes earlier by a group of correspondents for German newspapers and magazines. They took seats between the Japanese delegation on their right and the Brazilians on their left.

The ceremony of signing the treaty was of the simplest character. Premier Clemenceau, as president of the Peace Conference, speaking in French, said: