History of the American Negro in the Great World War Part 5

In 1902 Germany united with Great Britain and Italy to collect by force certain claims against Venezuela. President Roosevelt demanded and finally, after threatening to dispatch Admiral Dewey to the scene of action, obtained a statement that she would not permanently occupy Venezuelan territory. Of this statement one of the most experienced and trusted American editors, avowedly friendly to Germany, remarked at the time, that while he believed "it was and will remain true for some time to come, I cannot, in view of the spirit now evidently dominant in the mind of the emperor and among many who stand near him, express any belief that such a.s.surances will remain trustworthy for any great length of time after Germany shall have developed a fleet larger than that of the United States." He accordingly cautioned the United States "to bear in mind probabilities and possibilities as to the future conduct of Germany, and therefore increase gradually our naval strength." Bismarck p.r.o.nounced the Monroe Doctrine "an international impertinence," and this has been the German view all along.

Dr. Zorn, one of the most conservative of German authorities on international affairs, concluded an article in Die Woche of September 13, 1913, with these words: "Considered in all its phases, the Monroe Doctrine is in the end seen to be a question of might only and not of right."

The German government's efforts to check American influence in the Latin American states had of late years been frequent and direct. They comprised the encouragement of German emigration to certain regions, the sending of agents to maintain close contact, presentation of German flags in behalf of the Kaiser, the placing of the German Evangelical churches in certain South American countries under the Prussian State Church, annual grants for educational purposes from the imperial treasury at Berlin, and the like.

The "Lodge resolution," adopted by the senate in 1912, had in view the activities of certain German corporations in Latin America, as well as the episode that immediately occasioned it; nor can there be much doubt that it was the secret interference by Germany at Copenhagen that thwarted the sale of the Danish West Indies to the United States in 1903.

In view of a report that a j.a.panese corporation, closely connected with the j.a.panese government, was negotiating with the Mexican government for a territorial concession off Magdalena Bay, in lower California, the senate in 1912 adopted the following resolution, which was offered by Senator Lodge of Ma.s.sachusetts: "That when any harbor or other place in the American continent is so situated that the occupation thereof for naval or military purposes might threaten the communications or the safety of the United States, the government of the United States could not see without grave concern, the possession of such harbor or other place by any corporation or a.s.sociation which has such a relation to another government, not American, as to give that government practical power of control for naval or military purposes."

All of the above doc.u.ments, arguments and events were of the greatest importance in connection with the great European struggle. America was rapidly awakening, and the role of a pa.s.sive onlooker became increasingly irksome. It was pointed out that Was.h.i.+ngton's message said we must not implicate ourselves in the "ordinary vicissitudes" of European politics. This case rapidly was a.s.suming something decidedly beyond the "ordinary." As the carnage increased and outrages piled up, the finest sensibilities of mankind were shocked and we began to ask ourselves if we were not criminally negligent in our att.i.tude; if it was not our duty to put forth a staying hand and use the extreme weight of our influence to stop the holocaust.

From August 4 to 26, Germany overran Belgium. Liege was occupied August 9; Brussels, August 20, and Namur, August 24. The stories of atrocities committed on the civil population of that country have since been well authenticated. At the time it was hard to believe them, so barbaric and utterly wanton were they. Civilized people could not understand how a nation which pretended to be not only civilized, but wished to impose its culture on the remainder of the world, could be so ruthless to a small adversary which had committed no crime and desired only to preserve its nationality, integrity and treaty rights.

Germany did not occupy Antwerp until October 9, owing to the stiff resistance of the Belgians and engagements with the French and British elsewhere. But German arms were uniformly victorious. August 21-23 occurred the battle of Mons-Charleroi, a serious defeat for the French and British, which resulted in a dogged retreat eventually to a line along the Seine, Marne and Meuse rivers.

The destruction of Louvain occurred August 26, and was one of the events which inflamed anti-German sentiment throughout the world. The beautiful cathedral, the historic cloth market, the library and other architectural monuments for which the city was famed, were put to the torch. The Belgian priesthood was in woe over these and other atrocities. Cardinal Mercier called upon the Christian world to note and protest against these crimes. In his pastoral letter of Christmas, 1914, he thus pictures Belgium's woe and her Christian fort.i.tude: "And there where lives were not taken, and there where the stones of buildings were not thrown down, what anguish unrevealed! Families. .h.i.therto living at ease, now in bitter want; all commerce at an end, all careers ruined; industry at a standstill; thousands upon thousands of workingmen without employment; working women; shop girls, humble servant girls without the means of earning their bread, and poor souls forlorn on the bed of sickness and fever crying: 'O Lord, how long, how long?'-G.o.d will save Belgium, my brethren; you can not doubt it. Nay, rather, He is saving her-Which of us would have the heart to cancel this page of our national history? Which of us does not exult in the brightness of the glory of this shattered nation? When in her throes she brings forth heroes, our mother country gives her own energy to the blood of those sons of hers. Let us acknowledge that we needed a lesson in patriotism-For down within us all is something deeper than personal interests, than personal kins.h.i.+ps, than party feeling, and this is the need and the will to devote ourselves to that most general interest which Rome termed the public thing, Res publica. And this profound will within us is patriotism."

Meanwhile there was a slight offset to the German successes. Russia had overrun Galicia and the Allies had conquered the Germany colony of Togoland in Africa. But on August 26 the Russians were severely defeated in the battle of Tannenburg in East Prussia. This was offset by a British naval victory in Helgoland Bight. (August 28.) So great had become the pressure of the German armies that on September 3 the French government removed from Paris to Bordeaux. The seriousness of the situation was made manifest when two days later Great Britain, France and Russia signed a treaty not to make peace separately. Then it became evident to the nations of the earth that the struggle was not only to be a long one, but in all probability the most gigantic in history.

The Germans reached the extreme point of their advance, culminating in the Battle of the Marne, September 6-10. Here the generals.h.i.+p of Joffre and the strategy of Foch overcame great odds. The Germans were driven back from the Marne to the River Aisne. The battle line then remained practically stationary for three years on a front of three hundred miles.

The Russians under General Rennenkampf were driven from East Prussia September 16. Three British armored cruisers were sunk by a submarine September 22. By September 27 General Botha had gained some successes for the Allies, and had under way an invasion of German Southwest Africa. By October 13 Belgium was so completely occupied by the Germans that the government withdrew entirely from the country and established itself at Le Havre in France. By the end of the year had occurred the Battle of Yser in Belgium (October 16-28); the first Battle of Ypres (decisive day October 31), in which the British, French and Belgians saved the French channel ports; De Wet's rebellion against the British in South Africa (October 28); German naval victory in the Pacific off the coast of Chile (November 1); fall of Tsingtau, German possession in China, to the j.a.panese (November 7); Austrian invasion of Serbia (Belgrade taken December 2, recaptured by the Serbians December 14); German commerce raider Emden caught and destroyed at Cocos Island (November 10); British naval victory off the Falkland Islands (December 8); South African rebellion collapsed (December 8); French government returned to Paris (December 9); German wars.h.i.+ps bombarded West Hartlepool, Scarborough and Whitby on the coast of England (December 16). On December 24 the Germans showed their Christian spirit in an inauguration of the birthday of Christ by the first air raid over England. The latter part of the year 1914 saw no important action by the United States excepting a proclamation by the president of the neutrality of the Panama ca.n.a.l zone.

The events of 1915 and succeeding years became of great importance to the United States and it is with a record of those having the greatest bearing on our country that this account princ.i.p.ally will deal.

On January 20 Secretary of State Bryan found it necessary to explain and defend our policy of neutrality. January 28 the American merchantman William P. Frye was sunk by the German cruiser Prinz Eitel Friedrich. On February 10 the United States dispatched a note to the German government holding it to a "strict accountability if any merchant vessel of the United States is destroyed or any American citizens lose their lives." Germany replied February 16 stating that her "war zone" act was an act of self-defense against illegal methods employed by Great Britain in preventing commerce between Germany and neutral countries. Two days later the German official blockade of Great Britain commenced and the German submarines began their campaign of piracy and pillage.

The United States on February 20 sent an identic note to Germany and Great Britain suggesting an agreement between them respecting the conduct of naval warfare. The British steams.h.i.+p Falaba was sunk by a submarine March 28, with a loss of 111 lives, one of which was an American. April 8 the steamer Harpalyce, in the service of the American commission for the aid of Belgium, was torpedoed with a loss of 15 lives. On April 22 the German emba.s.sy in America sent out a warning against embarkation on vessels belonging to Great Britain. The American vessel Cus.h.i.+ng was attacked by a German aeroplane April 28. On May 1 the American steams.h.i.+p Gullflight was sunk by a German submarine and two Americans were lost. That day the warning of the German emba.s.sy was published in the daily papers. The Lusitania sailed at 12:20 noon.

Five days later occurred the crime which almost brought America into the second year of the war. The Cunard line steams.h.i.+p Lusitania was sunk by a German submarine with a loss of 1,154 lives, of which 114 were Americans. After the policy of frightfulness put into effect by the Germans in Belgium and other invaded territories, the ma.s.sacres of civilians, the violation of women and killing of children; burning, looting and pillage; the destruction of whole towns, acts for which no military necessity could be pleaded, civilization should have been prepared for the Lusitania crime. But it seems it was not. The burst of indignation throughout the United States was terrible. Here was where the terms German and Hun became synonomous, having in mind the methods and ravages of the barbaric scourge Attilla, king of the Huns, who in the fifth century sacked a considerable portion of Europe and introduced some refinements in cruelty which have never been excelled.

The Lusitania went down twenty-one minutes after the attack. The Berlin government pleaded in extenuation of the sinking that the s.h.i.+p was armed, and German agents in New York procured testimony which was subsequently proven in court to have been perjured, to bolster up the falsehood. In further justification, the German government adduced the fact that the s.h.i.+p was carrying ammunition which it said was "destined for the destruction of brave German soldiers." This contention our government rightly brushed aside as irrelevant.

The essence of the case was stated by our government in its note of June 9 as follows: "Whatever be the other facts regarding the Lusitania, the princ.i.p.al fact is that a great steamer, primarily and chiefly a conveyance for pa.s.sengers, and carrying more than a thousand souls who had no part or lot in the conduct of the war, was sunk without so much as a challenge or a warning, and that men, women and children were sent to their death in circ.u.mstances unparalleled in modern warfare."

Three notes were written to Germany regarding the Lusitania sinking. The first dated May 13 advanced the idea that it was impossible to conduct submarine warfare conformably with international law. In the second dated June 9 occurs the statement that "the government of the United States is contending for something much greater than mere rights of property or privileges of commerce. It is contending for nothing less high and sacred than the rights of humanity." In the third note dated July 21, it is a.s.serted that "the events of the past two months have clearly indicated that it is possible and practicable to conduct submarine operations within the so-called war zone in substantial accord with the accepted practices of regulated warfare." The temper of the American people and the president's notes had succeeded in securing a modification of the submarine campaign.

It required cool statesmans.h.i.+p to prevent a rus.h.i.+ng into war over the Lusitania incident and events which had preceded it. There was a well developed movement in favor of it, but the people were not unanimous on the point. It would have lacked that cooperation necessary for effectiveness; besides our country was but poorly prepared for engaging in hostilities. It was our state of unpreparedness continuing for a long time afterwards, which contributed, no doubt, to German arrogance. They thought we would not fight.

But the United States had become thoroughly awakened and the authorities must have felt that if the conflict was to be unduly prolonged, we must eventually be drawn into it. This is reflected in the modified construction which the president and others began to place on the Monroe Doctrine. The great underlying idea of the doctrine remained vital, but in a message to congress delivered December 7, 1915, the president said:

"In the day in whose light we now stand there is no claim of guardians.h.i.+p, but a full and honorable a.s.sociation as of partners between ourselves and our neighbors in the interests of America." Speaking before the League to Enforce Peace at Was.h.i.+ngton, May 27, 1916, he said: "What affects mankind is inevitably our affair, as well as the affair of the nations of Europe and of Asia." In his address to the senate of January 22, 1917, he said: "I am proposing, as it were, that the nations should with one accord adopt the doctrine of President Monroe as the doctrine of the world-that no nation should seek to extend its policy over any other nation or people, but that every people should be left free to determine its own policy, its own way of development, unhindered, unthreatened, unafraid, the little along with the great and powerful." This was a modifying and enlarging of the doctrine, as well as a departure from Was.h.i.+ngton's warning against becoming entangled with the affairs of Europe.

CHAPTER V.

HUNS SWEEPING WESTWARD.

TOWARD Sh.o.r.eS OF ATLANTIC-SPREAD RUIN AND DEVASTATION-CAPITALS OF CIVILIZATION ALARMED-ACTIVITIES OF SPIES-APOLOGIES AND LIES-GERMAN ARMS WINNING-GAIN TIME TO FORGE NEW WEAPONS-FEW VICTORIES FOR ALLIES-ROUMANIA CRUSHED-INCIDENT OF U-53.

The powerful thrusts of the German armies toward the English channel and the Atlantic ocean, the pitiless submarine policy, and the fact that Germany and Austria had allied with them Bulgaria and Turkey, began to spread alarm in the non-belligerent nations of the world.

That Germany was playing a Machiavellian policy against the United States soon became evident. After each submarine outrage would come an apology, frequently a promise of reparation and an agreement not to repeat the offense, with no intention, however, of keeping faith in any respect. As a mask for their duplicity, the Germans even sent a message of sympathy for the loss of American lives through the sinking of the Lusitania; which but intensified the state of mind in this country.

Less than three weeks after the Lusitania outrage the American steams.h.i.+p Nebraskan was attacked (May 25) by a submarine. The American steams.h.i.+p Leelanaw was sunk by submarines July 25. The White Star liner Arabic was sunk by a submarine August 19; sixteen victims, two American.

Our government received August 24 a note from the German amba.s.sador regarding the sinking of the Arabic. It stated that the loss of American lives was contrary to the intention of the German government and was deeply regretted. On September 1 Amba.s.sador von Bernstorff supplemented the note with a letter to Secretary Lansing giving a.s.surance that German submarines would sink no more liners.

The Allan liner Hesperian was sunk September 4 by a German submarine; 26 lives lost, one American.

On October 5 the German government sent a communication regretting again and disavowing the sinking of the Arabic, and stating its willingness to pay indemnities.

Meanwhile depression existed among the Allies and alarm among nations outside the war over the German conquest of Russian Poland. They captured Lublin, July 31; Warsaw, August 4; Ivangorod, August 5; Kovno, August 17; Novogeorgievsk, August 19; Brest-Litovsk, August 25, and Vilna, September 18.

Activities of spies and plottings within the United States began to divide attention with the war in Europe and the submarine situation. Dr. Constantin Dumba, who was Austro-Hungarian amba.s.sador to the United States, in a letter to the Austrian minister of foreign affairs, dated August 20, recommended "most warmly" to the favorable consideration of the foreign office "proposals with respect to the preparation of disturbances in the Bethlehem steel and munitions factory, as well as in the middle west."

He felt that "we could, if not entirely prevent the production of war material in Bethlehem and in the middle west, at any rate strongly disorganize it and hold it up for months."

The letter was intrusted to an American newspaper correspondent named Archibald, who was just setting out for Europe under the protection of an American pa.s.sport. Archibald's vessel was held up at Falmouth, England, his papers seized and their contents cabled to the United States. On September 8 Secretary Lansing instructed our amba.s.sador at Vienna to demand Dr. Dumba's recall and the demand was soon acceded to by his government.

On December 4 Captain Karl Boy-Ed, naval attache of the German emba.s.sy in Was.h.i.+ngton, was dismissed by our government for "improper activity in naval affairs." At the same time Captain Franz von Papen, military attache of the emba.s.sy, was dismissed for "improper activity in military matters." In an intercepted letter to a friend in Germany he referred to our people as "those idiotic Yankees."

As a fitting wind-up of the year and as showing what the German promise to protect liners amounted to, the British pa.s.senger steamer Persia was sunk in the Mediterranean by a submarine December 30, 1915.

The opening of 1916 found the president struggling with the grave perplexities of the submarine problem, exchanging notes with the German government, taking fresh hope after each disappointment and endeavoring by every means to avert the impending strife and find a basis for the preservation of an honorable peace.

It was now evident to most thinking people that the apparent concessions of the Germans were granted merely to provide them time to complete a larger program of submarine construction. This must have been evident to the president; but he appears to have possessed an optimism that rose above his convictions.

Our government, January 18, put forth a declaration of principles regarding submarine attacks and inquired whether the governments of the allies would subscribe to such an agreement. This was one of the president's "forlorn hope" movements to try and bring about an agreement among the belligerents which would bring the submarine campaign within the restrictions of international law. Could such an agreement have been effected, it would have been of vast relief to this country and might have kept us out of the war. The Allies were willing to subscribe to any reasonable agreement provided there was a.s.surance that it would be maintained. They pointed out, however, the futility of treating on the basis of promises alone with a nation which not only had shown a contempt for its ordinary promises, but had repudiated its sacred obligations.

A ray of hope gleamed across our national horizon when Germany, on February 16, sent a note acknowledging her liability in the Lusitania affair. But the whole matter was soon complicated again by the "armed s.h.i.+p" issue. Germany had sent a note to the neutral powers that an armed merchant s.h.i.+p would be treated as a wars.h.i.+p and would be sunk on sight. Secretary Lansing made the statement for this government that by international law commercial s.h.i.+ps have a right to arm themselves for self-defense. It was an additional emphasis on the position that the submarine campaign as conducted by Germany was simply piracy and had no standing in international law. President Wilson, in a letter to Senator Stone February 24, said that American citizens had a right to travel on armed merchant s.h.i.+ps, and he refused to advise them against exercising the right.

March 24 the French steamer Suss.e.x, engaged in pa.s.senger traffic across the English channel, was torpedoed and sunk without warning. About eighty pa.s.sengers, including American citizens, were killed or wounded.

Several notes pa.s.sed between our government and Germany on the sinking of the Suss.e.x and other vessels. Our amba.s.sador at Berlin was instructed to take energetic action and to insist upon adequate attention to our demands. April 18 our government delivered what was considered an ultimatum to the effect that unless Germany abandoned her methods of submarine warfare, the United States would sever diplomatic relations. The president addressed congress on the matter the following day.

Germany had not yet completed her program of submarine building and thought it wise to temporize with the American government for a while longer. May 4 she replied to the ultimatum of April 18, acknowledged the sinking of the Suss.e.x and in the main acceded to all the demands of the United States. There were certain phases which indicated that Germany wished to use this country as a medium for securing certain agreements from the Allies. The president accepted the German conditions generally, but made it clear in his reply that the conditions could not depend upon any negotiations between this country and other belligerents. The intimation was plain enough that the United States would not be a catspaw for German aims.

Up to this time in the year 1916 the advantage in arms had been greatly on the side of Germany and her allies. In January the British had evacuated the entire Gallipoli peninsula and the campaign in Turkey soon came to grief. Cettinje, the capital of Montenegro, had also fallen to the Teutonic allies, and that country practically was put out of the war.

The British had made important gains in the German colonies in Africa and had conquered most of the Kamerun section there. Between February and July the Germans had been battling at the important French position of Verdun, with great losses and small results. Practically all the ground lost was slowly regained by the French in the autumn. The Russians had entered Persia in February, and April 17 had captured the important city of Trebizond in Armenia from the Turks. But on April 29 General Townshend surrendered his entire British force to the Turks at Kut el Amara, after being besieged for 143 days and finally starved into submission.

Throughout the balance of the year the advantage was greatly on the side of the Germans, for the latter part of the year saw the beginning of the crus.h.i.+ng of Roumania, which had entered the war August 27 on the side of the Allies. Bucharest, the capital, fell to the Germans December 6; Dobrudja, January 2, and Focsani, January 8 of the ensuing year, 1917. The crus.h.i.+ng of Roumania was accomplished almost entirely by treachery. The Germans knew the plans of all the princ.i.p.al fortifications; the strength and plans of the Roumanian forces, and every detail calculated to be of benefit. The country had been honeycombed with their spies prior to and during the war, very much as Russia had been. It is quite evident that men high in the councils of the Roumanian government and in full possession of the military secrets of the country were simply disguised German agents.

Between July and November had occurred the great battles of the Somme during which the Allies had failed to break the German lines. The Austrians in June had launched a great attack and made much progress against the Italians in the Trentino. The princ.i.p.al offsets to the German gains during the last seven months of the year 1916 were the Russian offensive in Volhynia and Bukovina, and the counter drive of the Italians against the Austrians. The Russians captured Czernovitz June 17, and by the end of the month had overrun the whole of Bukovina. The Italians drove out the Austrians between August 6 and September 1, winning August 9 the important city and fortress of Gorizia.

Submarine incidents important to this government were not lacking during the latter half of the year. The German submarine U-53 suddenly appeared October 8 in the harbor at Newport, R.I. The commander delivered letters for the German amba.s.sador and immediately put to sea to begin ravages on British s.h.i.+pping off the Nantucket coast. Among the five or six vessels sunk was the steamer Stephano, which carried American pa.s.sengers. The pa.s.sengers and crews of all the vessels were picked up by American destroyers and no lives were lost. The episode, which was an eight-day wonder, and resulted in a temporary tie-up of s.h.i.+pping in eastern ports, started numerous rumors and several legal questions, none of which, however, turned out finally to have been of much importance, as U-53 vanished as suddenly as it had appeared, and its visit was not succeeded by any like craft. It is not improbable that the purpose of the German government in sending the boat to our sh.o.r.es was to convey a hint of what we might expect if we should become involved with Germany. October 28 the British steamer Marina was torpedoed with a loss of six American lives.

The straining of President Was.h.i.+ngton's advice and the Monroe Doctrine were again evident throughout the year. President Wilson in an address before the League to Enforce Peace, May 27, had said that the United States was ready to join any practical league for preserving peace and guaranteeing the political and territorial integrity of nations. November 29 our government sent a protest to Germany against the deportation of Belgians.