trolled and the court martial was swift and summary.

The pacifists tried to assemble in Minneapolis and in some points in Wisconsin to further the ends of peace and to particularly urge from the President a statement of the things the Government of the United States was fighting for. Because of the fact that feeling was strong, that the ends desired by this body were pro-German, it was impossible for them to find a place in which they would be allowed to meet. They finally arrived in Chicago, but the Governor of Illinois refused to allow them to meet in that city. However, Mayor Thompson gave them permission and a meeting was held on Sunday, September 2nd. Even while the meeting was going on troops were being rushed from Springfield to disperse the meeting. The meeting, however, was concluded just before the troops arrived. On September 6th, federal officers raided all points where the I. W. W. and kindred organizations had their headquarters for the purpose of seeking evidence to justify a belief that both moral and material aid was being given and received from the enemy.

War missions had come to this country from almost all of the Allies. The end of August found the Japanese and the Belgian missions on our shores. August also found a peace proposal from the Pope who was then the most prominent exponent of peace. He suggested that the belligerents be brought together for the purpose of coming to an agreement. It was felt by many that the Pope would not have taken this step unless he had first sounded the Allies and the Central Powers, but it was soon realized that such could not have been the case as far as the Allies were concerned, for President Wilson replied almost immediately to the Pope's peace proposal. His reply

was compressed into five words. "No Peace with Prussian Autocracy." To quote:

"The object of this war is to deliver the free peoples of the world from the menace and the actual power of a vast military establishment controlled by an irresponsible government, which having secretly planned to dominate the world, proceeded to carry out the plan without regard either to the sacred obligations of treaty or the long-established practices and long-cherished principles of international action and honor; which chose its own time for the war; delivered its blow fiercely and suddenly; stopped at no barrier either of law or of mercy; swept a whole continent within the tide of blood-not the blood of soldiers only, but the blood of innocent women. and children; also of the helpless poor, and now stands balked but not defeated, the enemy of four-fifths of the world."

The President carefully pointed out that it was his opinion that this power was not the German people, but its ruthless master. The attitude of this Government was then stated:

"Punitive damages, the dismemberment of empires, the establishment of selfish and exclusive economic leagues, we deem inexpedient, and in the end worse than futile, no proper basis for a peace of any kind, least of all for an enduring peace."

President Wilson concluded his message with these words:

"We cannot take the word of the present rulers of Germany as a guaranty 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. Without such guaranties, treaties of settlement, agreements for disarmament,

covenants to set up arbitration in the place of force, territorial adjustments, reconstitutions of small nations, if made with the German Government, no man, no nation, could now depend on.

"We must await some new evidence of the purposes of the great peoples of the Central Powers. God grant it may be given soon and in a way to restore the confidence of all peoples everywhere in the faith of nations and the possibility of a convenanted peace."

CHAPTER CXXIV

1917

OTHER PHASES OF THE WAR

Russia's Part in the War-Italy's Glorious Share-Serbia the Heroic-Roumania's Disaster-The Armies opposed to the Turk-Greece' late Entry-The War on the SeaAerial Warfare.

We can deal but briefly with events of the war, direct in their bearing though they were, which did not include American activity.

The story of Russia is a tragedy. The empire of Russia, a hot bed of German propaganda and treachery, could cope but illy with the might of Germany on the Eastern front. Great blows were struck by it at critical points of the war but always such concerted effort seemed to be followed by a crumbling of its forces and weakened defense.

Possibly the greatest service in Russia rendered the Allies was its invasion of Eastern Prussia in 1914. To that as much as any other thing is due the fact that Paris was saved to the Allies

German propaganda grew, the Russian army, tremendous numerically, found itself sand before Germany's onrush. Now and then there were victories, but Russia on the whole was the weak sister of the Allies, where it was hoped she would prove a tower of strength.

Roumania's short lived entree in the war was due to the defection of Russia on whose aid she had counted. It was due to the fact that Russia failed Roumania that that nation was crushed so quickly.

The graft in high circles, the useless waste of hu

man lives, the treachery too, among the autocracy brought about revolution in Russia. Czar Nicholas abdicated. His final fate was long in doubt.

A new government came into power. Prince Lvoff, who held strong democratic views was its leader. The life of this cabinet was short, it was succeeded by the Socialists under Kerensky.

Kerensky tried hard to keep Russia true to the Allies. But the extremists who were known as the Bolsheviki, opposed him, opposed Russia's remaining in the war. They called for peace. Lenine and Trotsky, their leaders, finally succeeded in obtaining the reins of government. Anarchy, bloodshed, the destruction of property, was followed by the BrestLitovsk treaty between Russia and the Central powers, which stripped the former of Poland, the Ukraine and the Baltic provinces. It left Russia open to the exploitations of Germany and that country availed itself to the fullest of the opportunity.

The Allies, to whom the defection of Russia presented grave though not unexpected problems found it necessary to place allied forces in Vladivostock (American and Japanese) and in Northern Archangel and the Murman coast (British, French and American).

Italy conducted a big campaign against the Central Powers but principally against Austria which had in earlier wars acquired territory that of right belonged to her, in the Trentino, along the Isonzo River, Trieste and Istra.

Italy was a member of the Triple Alliance (Germany, Austria and Italy). Its treaty with the two nations pledged her to join with them in any defensive war. Germany tried hard to prove to her that the war was a defensive one, that the Central Powers had been attacked. Failing to make Italy