America's War for Humanity Part 39

The Russian army has always placed much dependence on its horses, having a vast number, but it has realized the importance of the motor vehicle in warfare and already it is much better equipped than other nations suppose. An ill.u.s.tration of the fact is the following, related by a Bed Cross man who accompanied the Russian forces into eastern Germany:

"I was walking beside one of our carts. We could hear heavy artillery fire as we went, when shouts from our people behind warned us to get off the road. We pulled onto the gra.s.s as there came thundering past, b.u.mping from one rough place to another on the poor road and going at a sickening pace, a string of huge motor cars crowded with infantrymen.

They looked like vehicles of the army establishment, all apparently alike in size and pattern and each carrying about thirty men.

"They were traveling like no motor wagon that I ever saw--certainly at not less than forty miles an hour. The procession seemed endless. I didn't count them, but there were not less than a hundred, and perhaps a good many more. That was General Rennenkampf reinforcing his threatened flank."

JENNIE DUFAU'S NARROW ESCAPE

Jennie Dufau, the American opera singer, had one of the most thrilling experiences told by a refugee from the war zone.

Miss Dufau was visiting in Saulxures, Province of Alsace, when the war started, and was in the hitherto peaceful valley of that region until August 24. She was with her sister, Elizabeth, and her two brothers, Paul and Daniel.

On August 6 the German artillery occupied the heights on one side of the valley, overlooking the town. On the 12th the Germans occupied the town itself. At that time there were but two French regiments near Saulxures.

The French, however, opened fire on the Germans, and Miss Dufau with her father and sister at once retreated to the cellar in an effort to escape the flying sh.e.l.ls.

"Then began a tremendous artillery duel that lasted for days," she said.

"All this time we were living in the cellar, where we were caring for ten wounded French officers. I often went out over the battlefield when the fire slackened and did what I could for the wounded and dying.

"My brothers Paul and Daniel were drafted into the German army. They had sworn an oath not to fire a shot at a Frenchman, and their greatest hope was that they would be captured and permitted to put on the French uniform.

"Between August 12 and 24 the artillery duel raged, and finally the opposing armies came to a hand-to-hand fight with the bayonet. First it was the Germans who occupied the town, then the French. The Germans finally came to our house and accused my sister, my father, and myself of being spies because they found a telephone there. The soldiers lined us up against the wall to shoot us, but we fell on our knees and begged them to spare the life of our father. They gave no heed till a German colonel came along and, after questioning us, ordered that we be set free."

VALLEY OF DEATH ON THE AISNE

A non-combatant who succeeded in getting close to the firing lines on the Aisne when the great battle had raged continuously for five weeks, wrote as follows on October 21st of the horrors he had witnessed:

"Between the lines of battle there is a narrow strip, varying from seventy yards to a quarter of a mile, which is a neutral valley of death. Neither side is able to cross that strip without being crumpled by fire against which no body of men can stand. The Germans have attempted to break through the British and French forces hundreds of times but have been compelled to withdraw, and always with severe losses.

"A number of small towns are distributed in this narrow strip, the most important being Craonne. The Germans and French have reoccupied it six times and each in turn has been driven out. The streets of Craonne are littered with the dead of both armies. The houses, nearly all of which have been demolished by exploding sh.e.l.ls, are also full of bodies of men who crawled into them to get out of the withering fire and have there died. Many of these men died of sheer exhaustion and starvation while the battle raged day after day.

"Both armies have apparently abandoned the struggle to hold Craonne permanently, and it is now literally a city of the dead.

"It is a typical French village of ancient stone structures; the tiny houses all have, or had, gables and tiled roofs. These have mostly been broken by sh.e.l.l fire. Under the shelter of its buildings both the Germans and French have been able at times to rescue their wounded.

"This is more than can be said of the strip of death between the battle lines. There the wounded lie and the dead go unburied, while the opposing forces direct their merciless fire a few feet above the field of suffering and carnage. I did not know until I looked upon the horrors of Craonne that such conditions could exist in modern warfare.

"I thought that frequent truces would be negotiated to give the opposing armies an opportunity to collect their wounded and bury their dead. I had an idea that the Red Cross had made war less terrible. The world thinks so yet, perhaps, but the conditions along the Aisne do not justify that belief. If a man is wounded in that strip between the lines he never gets back alive unless he is within a short distance of his own lines or is protected from the enemy's fire by the lay of the land.

"This protracted and momentous battle, which raged day and night for so many weeks, became a continuous nightmare to the men engaged in it, every one of whom knew that upon its issue rested one of the great deciding factors of the war."

BRITISH AID FOR FRENCH WOUNDED

The following paragraphs from a letter received October 15th by the author from an English lady interested in the suffrage movement, give some idea of the spirit in which the people of England met the emergency; and also indicate the frightful conditions attending the care of the wounded in France:

"London, October 7, 1914.--The world is a quite different place from what it was in July--dear, peaceful July! It seems years ago that we lived in a time of peace. It all still seems a nightmare over England and one feels that the morning must come when one will wake up and find it has all been a hideous dream, and that peace is the reality. But the facts grow sadder every day, as one realizes the frightful slaughter and waste of young lives. * * *

"But now that we are in the midst of this horrible time, we can only stop all criticism of our Government, set our teeth, and try to help in every possible way. All suffrage work has stopped and all the hundred-and-one interests in societies of every kind are in abeyance as well. The offices of every kind of society are being used for refugees, Bed Cross work, unemployment work, and to meet other needs of the moment.

"Every day of our time is taken up with helping to equip 'hospital units,' private bodies of doctors and nurses with equipment, to go to France and help the French Red Cross work among the French wounded. The situation in France at present is more horrible than one can imagine.

Our English soldiers have medical and surgical help enough with them for first aid. Then they are sent back to England, and here all our hospitals are ready and private houses everywhere have been given to the War Office for the wounded. But the battlefield is in France; many of the French doctors have been shot; the battle-line is 200 miles long, and the carnage is frightful.

"Last week we sent off one hospital unit, and a messenger came back from it yesterday to tell us awful facts--16,000 wounded in Limoges for one place, and equal numbers in several other little places south of Paris--just trains full of them--with so little ready for them in the way of doctors or nurses. One hears of doctors performing operations without chloroform, and the suffering of the poor fellows is awful."

COMPARATIVE WEALTH OF NATIONS AT WAR

The wealth of the princ.i.p.al belligerent nations, in terms of property, goods and appraisable resources of all kinds, is estimated as follows:

National National Percent Wealth Debt

United States.............$260,000,000,000 $18,000,000,000 6.

Great Britain.............. 90,000,000,000 36,675,000,000 40.

France..................... 65,000,000,000 23,000,000,000 35.

Russia..................... 40,000,000,000 25,400,000,000 63.

Italy...................... 25,000,000,000 7,000,000,000 28.

j.a.pan...................... 28,000,000,000 1,300,000,000 4.

Germany.................... 80,000,000,000 33,000,000,000 38.

Austria-Hungary............ 25,000,000,000 20,000,000,000 80.

It is worth noting in this connection that the fourth liberty bond issue of six billions was oversubscribed to extent $866,416,300--almost an extra billion. There were over 21,000,000 individual subscribers.

The war bills of the United States between April 6, 1917, and October 31st, 1918, as officially reported at Was.h.i.+ngton November 2, 1918, amounted to twenty billions, five hundred and sixty-one million dollars ($20,561,000,000). Of this sum, seven billions and seventeen millions ($7,017,000,000) have been loaned to the allies and will be repaid.

Only a little more than one-fourth of the expense had up to the date of the report been raised by taxation. Most of the remainder had been raised by bond issues practically all of which were subscribed by our own people, so that the debt is owing not to foreign creditors, but to ourselves.

The same report shows that on November 1st, 1918, the treasury's working balance stood at one billion, eight hundred and forty-five millions, seven hundred and thirty-nine thousand dollars ($1,845,739,000) the largest sum ever available at any one time in the history of the nation--with continuing receipts of instalment payments on the fourth liberty loan coming in at the rate of two billions per month, and preparations for the fifth loan well under way.

FIGURES THAT ARE DIFFICULT TO COMPREHEND.

The direct cost of the war for all belligerent nations to May 1, 1918, was reported at about $175,000,000,000 by the Federal Reserve board bulletin, issued November 18. It was estimated that the cost would amount to nearly $200,000,000,000 before the end of the year.

For purely military and naval purposes, it appears that all belligerents had spent about $132,000,000,000 to May 1. The remainder represented interest on debt, and other indirect war expenses.

The mobilization and the first five months of the war in 1914 cost all belligerents about $10,000,000,000. In 1915 the expenses jumped to $26,000,000,000, in 1916 they increased to $38,000,000,000; and in they were estimated at $60,000,000,000. In 1918 expenses ran only a little above the rate of 1917.

The public debt of the princ.i.p.al entente allies is calculated at approximately $105,000,000,000, not counting the debt incurred since May 1918. The annual burden to all belligerents to pay interest and sinking fund allowances will be not less than $10,000,000,000, and probably much more.

Unofficial reports indicate that Germany's national debt, represented mainly by war bonds held within the empire, is now nearly $35,000,000,000 (almost two-fifths of the estimate national wealth of $80,000,000,000). Besides this, France claims a return of the indemnity, $20,000,000,000; $28,000,000,000 for pensions; and reparation of damages, $20,000,000,000; being $68,000,000,000 in all.

Whatever may be the weight of the final burden of reparation and rest.i.tution to be placed on Germany, the size of the task ahead of her may be ill.u.s.trated by comparison of her national debt with that of the United States, Germany has 66,000,000 population and $80,000,000,000 of estimated wealth, to pay $35,000,000,000 of war debt already created.