[Illustration:
The Western Front]
Between April, 1917, when America declared war, and approximately a year later when her weight began to be felt, the Allies suffered reverses that were thoroughly disheartening and were almost disastrous. Russia, who had conducted a powerful offensive in 1916, began to retreat in the summer of 1917 and was thereafter no longer a military factor.[5] Italy had driven back the Austrians in the summer of 1916, but in the fall of 1917 was compelled to conduct a retreat that became all but a disaster. Allied conferences were accordingly held in Paris in November and December, 1917, for the purpose of bringing about closer unity in the prosecution of the war. Nation after nation, on the other hand, had severed relations or declared war on the Teutonic powers until a great part of the world had ranged itself on the side of the Allies. In March, 1918, the Germans precipitated a series of crises—the final ones as it turned out. In that month they began a terrific drive on a fifty-mile front against their opponents in the western theatre of the war. In order to meet this thrust the Allies decided to give over the supreme command of all their forces to Marshal Ferdinand Foch, chief in command of the French army, and General Pershing thereupon offered him all the American troops in France. American efforts were redoubled, in the face of the new danger, and forces were transported across the ocean in numbers which had not been anticipated and which soon began to give the Allies a substantial advantage. One vessel, the Leviathan, landed in France the equivalent of a German division each month. The enemy, nevertheless, continued to advance and on May 31 were at Chateau-Thierry, only forty miles from Paris, where the American Third Division assisted in preventing any further forward movement. The leading military experts in the United States, meanwhile, with the support of a large portion of the public were demanding a still larger army and the Secretary of War, Newton D. Baker, accordingly laid before Congress a plan which developed eventually into the "Man Power" act of August 31, 1918. It changed the draft ages and added more than 13,000,000 registrants to the available supply of men. A clause of this law, designed in part to provide further supplies of officers, allowed the Secretary of War to send soldiers to educational institutions at the public expense, thus establishing the Students' Army Training Corps.[6]
[Illustration:
Strength of the American Expeditionary Force
July 1, 1917-Nov. 1, 1918]
At the time when General Pershing placed his forces at the disposal of Marshal Foch, the Americans numbered 343,000 and were used mainly to relieve the French and British at quiet parts or "sectors" on the western front. In April, 1918, however, the First Division was placed in a more active position, and on May 28 took Cantigny; the Second Division was on the Marne River early in June, and later in the month helped prevent a German advance at Belleau Wood. Other forces were sent to operate with the British, a regiment was sent to Italy, and a small force to northern Russia and Siberia. In mid-July the Germans renewed their attacks but were shortly turned back again at Chateau-Thierry, and Marshal Foch judged this to be the time for the Allies to make a general offensive movement. On the 18th the First and Second Divisions, with picked French troops, made a successful drive toward Soissons. On August 30 the Americans were given a permanent portion of the front, and two weeks later came the first distinctly American action in the reduction of the St. Mihiel salient—a wedge driven by the Germans into the allied line. Infantry, artillery, aircraft, tanks and ambulances were gathered—about 600,000 men all told—mostly under cover of darkness. Preceding the drive a heavy artillery fire was directed upon the enemy for four hours, during which brief period thirty times as many rounds of ammunition were fired as were used by the Union forces at Gettysburg in three days. Then at five o'clock in the morning, on September 12, the troops fell upon an enemy which had been demoralized by the artillery, and routed them. The American losses were 7,000—injuries for the most part—and the gains, 16,000 prisoners, 443 guns and a great quantity of war materials, together with an advantageous position for further advance. The "American Army was an accomplished fact."
The most important action in which the Americans participated was the Meuse-Argonne offensive. The goal of this attack was the Carignan-Sedan-Mézières railroad, which ran parallel to the front and comprised the main supply line of the enemy. The drive began late in September and continued with greater or less intensity and with increasing success until November 11, when it became evident that the Germans were in serious difficulties. Their line was cut, and only surrender or an armistice could prevent thorough-going disaster.[7]
While the allied armies were first stemming the German advance and later making their counter-offensive, the statesmen were attempting to preserve the morale of the Allies and break down that of the enemy by means of a wide-spread peace offensive. Because of his position as President of the United States and his skill in the expression of the purposes of the Allies, Wilson became by common consent the spokesman of the enemies of Germany, much as he had earlier been the representative of the neutral nations. In August, 1917, the Pope proposed peace on the basis of "reciprocal condonation" for past offenses, and the reciprocal return of territories and colonies. In reply Wilson contended that the suggested settlement would not result in a lasting peace. Peace, he believed, must be between peoples, and not between peoples on the one hand and "an ambitious and intriguing government" on the other. "We cannot," he declared, "take the word of the present rulers of Germany as a guarantee of anything that is to endure unless explicitly supported by such conclusive evidence of the will and purpose of the German people themselves as the other peoples of the world would be justified in accepting." The reply continued, of course, the attempt made in the address to Congress calling for a declaration of war—the attempt to drive a wedge between the German people and their rulers, but for the moment the attempt was fruitless.
On January 8, 1918, President Wilson again explained the attitude of the United States, in an address to Congress in which he gave expression to the famous "fourteen points." "The program of the world's peace," he stated, must include: the beginning of an era of "open diplomacy" and the end of secret international understandings; the freedom of the seas in peace and war; the removal of economic barriers between nations; the reduction of armaments; the impartial adjustment of colonial claims; the evacuation of territories occupied by Germany, such as Russia, Belgium, France and the Balkan states; the righting of the wrong done to Alsace-Lorraine, the provinces wrested from France by Germany in 1871; an opportunity for peoples subject to Austria and Turkey to develop along lines chosen by themselves; the establishment of a Polish state which should include territories inhabited by indisputably Polish populations; and an association of nations to guarantee the safety of large and small states alike. Both Austria and Germany replied to this address, but not in a manner to make possible a cessation of warfare. In setting these replies before Congress, as well as in later speeches both to that body and to public audiences, the President reiterated the peace program of the Allies.
In the meanwhile conditions in the Teutonic countries were reaching a serious point. Germany, Austria, Bulgaria and Turkey were facing an enraged world. Their man power was almost exhausted, the numbers of killed and wounded in Germany alone being estimated at 6,000,000 men; famine, agitation and mutiny were at the door and revolution on the horizon; food was scarce and of poor quality; Austria was disintegrating; signs were evident of dissensions in the German government and suggestions were even made that the Kaiser abdicate. Allied pressure in the field together with insistent emphasis on the Allied distrust of the German government were at last having their combined effect; the Teutonic morale was breaking down. On October 4 the German chancellor requested President Wilson to take steps toward peace on the basis of the "fourteen points." An interchange of notes ensued which indicated that the Teutonic powers were humbled and that the Chancellor was speaking in behalf of the people of Germany. The Inter-allied Council then met at Versailles and drew up the terms of an armistice which were delivered to Germany on November 7. That nation was already in a tumult, in the midst of which demonstrations in favor of a republic were prominent, and while the German government was considering the terms of the armistice the Kaiser abdicated and fled to Holland, and a new cabinet was formed with a Socialist at the head. The end was evidently at hand and on November 11 the world was cheered with the news that Germany had signed the armistice and the war was over.[8]
As far as the United States was concerned the questions of greatest public interest after the close of the conflict, fell into two categories: one connected with the complicated question of the exact terms of settlement between the Allies and the Teutonic powers, including modifications of the foreign policy of the United States; the other, that concerning the readjustments necessary in the internal affairs of the nation—economic, social and moral, as well as political. Any adequate discussion of these matters requires so much more information and perspective than can now be had, that only the barest outlines can be given.
The conference for the determination of the settlements of the war was to meet in Paris. The American representatives were to include Robert Lansing, the Secretary of State, Henry White, who had represented the United States in many diplomatic matters, especially as ambassador to Italy and to France, Colonel Edward M. House, a trusted personal advisor of the President, and General Tasker H. Bliss, the American military representative on the Inter-allied Council. President Wilson himself was to head the delegation.