Foreign Minister of Germany and President of the German Peace delegates.
During the attaching of the signatures of the great powers and the Germans a battery of moving picture cameras clicked away so audibly that they could be heard above the general noise and disorder of the throng. The close of the ceremony came so quickly and quietly that it was scarcely noticed until it was all over. M. Clemenceau arose almost unremarked, and in a voice half lost amid the confusion and the hum of conversation which had sprung up while the minor powers were signing declared the conference closed, and asked the Allied and associated delegates to remain in their seats for a few moments—this to permit the German plenipotentiaries to leave the building before the general exodus.
THE GERMANS DEPART
None arose as the Germans filed out, accompanied by their suite of secretaries and interpreters, just as all the plenipotentiaries had kept their seats when Dr. Müller and Dr. Bell entered. The Germans went forth evidently suffering strong emotion. Outside an unsympathetic crowd jammed close to the cars which took them away. There was no aggression, but the sentiment of the throng was unmistakable.
Meanwhile the great guns that announced the closing of the ceremony were booming, and their concussion shook the old palace of Versailles to its foundations. Amid confusion the assembly dispersed, and the most momentous ceremony of the epoch was at an end.
The great war which for five long years had shaken Europe and the world was formally ended at last. It was a war which had cost the belligerents over $200,000,000,000; which had caused the deaths of 8,000,000 human beings, and which had left the world a post-war burden of debt amounting to $135,000,000,000. It was a war which had changed the whole face of Europe, which had brought many new nations into existence, which had revolutionized the organization of all national and international life. It was a war which had brought the world the consciousness of its common obligation to unite against all war. The booming of the great guns of Versailles seemed to proclaim a new epoch.
IV—THE PEACE TREATY—ITS MEANING TO AMERICA
America's "Place in the Sun" Due to Her Efforts to Secure a Just Peace
By GEORGE W. WICKERSHAM