of upturned faces of cheering Deputies, while from the public galleries cheers echoed and reëchoed."

The departure of Pershing and his staff was no secret, but the people knew nothing of the sailing of the first contingent of fighting men until they heard with pride of its safe arrival on the twenty-fifth of June at a port in France. A second contingent arrived a few days later, and as July drew to a close a third landed at "a European port." So secretly did they come that no demonstration attended their landing. Only a few spectators saw them as they quickly entrained and left for parts unknown.

At home, meanwhile, the militia had been mobilized. On the ninth of July the President, acting under the power given to him by the Constitution, called the National Guard into the service of the United States. In eleven States it was to mobilize on the fifteenth of July and gather in such places as might be chosen by the Secretary of War. In eighteen States and the District of Columbia the men were to assemble on the twenty-fifth of the month, and on August fifth those in all States were to be drafted into the new army under provisions of the act of May eighteenth.

CHAPTER XV

GERMAN INTRIGUE

WITH Our entrance into the war events in Europe, military and political, acquired for us a new interest and concern. From onlookers we had become allies. The war was now our war, and every victory gained, every check met with along the hundreds of miles of battle front was felt by us as never before. In the West the progress of the ruthless submarine war alone gave cause for deep anxiety. During February and March, if German reports may be trusted, 803 enemy and neutral ships had been sunk by submarines, causing a loss of 1,642,500 tons of shipping. On land all went well. The British and French in February and March drove back the German front between Arras and Soissons, for a depth of twelve miles, capturing Bapaume, Péronne, Noyon, and some sixty villages. The country over which the Germans retreated they turned into a desert. Wherever possible, said the German account, houses were burned down before evacuation. Walls that would not fall were blown down when the artillery fire of the Allies drowned the noise. Whole villages disappeared over night, the people having gathered in a few designated towns where they would be safe. Not a tree nor a bush-nothing was left lest it might give shelter to the Allies. Orchards were destroyed, fields ruined, farmsteads burned, every tree sawed off close to the ground. Church organs were pulled to pieces for the copper, brass rails were torn from the altars and crucifixes pulled from the walls and broken. Tombs and chapels were blown to pieces, and young girls carried away.

On Easter Monday, April 9, the British began another drive along a forty-five mile front from Arras to St. Quentin. By the end of the first day they had driven back the Germans along twelve miles of the line and captured the famous Vimy Ridge,

and so opened the battle of Arras which raged day after day for more than a month. Villages, guns and thousands of German prisoners were captured and a great advance made. On the west all was going well. But not so in the east. Russia was giving way.

The Provisional Government was recognized on the twentysecond of March by the United States, and on the twenty-third by Great Britain, France and Italy, and proceeded to make great reforms. Thousands of political prisoners were liberated and brought back from Siberia. Poland was set free and left to choose her own form of government; Finland was given back her constitution, and religious liberty was proclaimed.

Among those who came back to Russia was Vladimir Utulyanov, better known as Nikolai Lenine, a Radical Socialist leader allowed by Germany to return through Switzerland. He now used his liberty to denounce the Provisional Government and the Allies and to urge a separate peace. Angered by his harangues, an anti-pacifist demonstration was made in Petrograd on April twenty-ninth. Hundreds of maimed, crippled and convalescent soldiers gathered in front of the Cathedral and, followed by thousands of the people, started for the Duma. Halting on the way before the American Embassy, they were addressed by our Ambassador.

The work of Lenine, however, was not without effect. The Government was forced to declare its policy in a manifesto addressed to the Russian people and formally communicated to the Allies in a note. It denied that Russia would make a separate peace, denied that the overthrow of the old Government had caused any slackening on the part of the new, pledged it to work with the Allies to bring the world war to a victorious end and declared its belief that, inspired by the same sentiments, "the allied democracies" would find means "to establish the guaranties and penalties necessary to prevent any recourse to sanguinary war in the future." To the Council of Soldiers' and Workmen's Delegates this policy gave great offense and, May fourth, demonstrations against the Government were made in Petrograd. In the opinion of these men the note was too vague. The Government must speak plainly and give the Allies to understand that Russia stood for no annexations and no indemni

ties. A truce was at last arranged, a vote of confidence in the Government was given by the Council, and an explanation of the note of May first was announced. The Government in speaking of "a decisive victory," the Council said, did not mean that free Russia would seek to dominate other nations, or strip them of their "national patrimony," or by force occupy their territories; but would establish a lasting peace on the basis of the right of each nation to arrange its own affairs. By "penalties and guarantees" essential to a durable peace the Government meant the reduction of armaments, and the setting up of international tribunals. This explanation was to be sent to the Allies by the Minister of Foreign Affairs. The Prime Minister refused to do this. To send another note was impossible. Rather than take such a step the Ministers would resign, an act which the course of events soon forced them to commit. First to go was the Secretary of War, whose place was given to Kerensky. Milyukov was the next; a coalition Cabinet was then formed, and into it were taken six Socialists of all shades of opinion. Truly enough did Kerensky say to a delegation from the front, "The process of the change from slavery to freedom is not going on properly. We have tested freedom and are slightly intoxicated. What we need is sobriety and discipline.'

Meantime appeals and offers of aid were on their way to Russia from our country. Early in May the American Federation of Labor through its president, Samuel Gompers, appealed to the Council of Soldiers' and Workmen's Delegates. "We assure you," said he, "of the whole-hearted support of the American people." In free America, as in free Russia, agitators for a Prussian peace had spoken out so freely that they seemed more influential than they really were. In truth, but few in America were willing to allow that Kaiserism should continue its rule over non-German people who wished to be free. Should we not then protest against that pro-Kaiser Socialist interpretation, no annexation, which demanded that all oppressed non-German people should be forced to remain under Prussia and her lackeys, Austria and Turkey? Should we not rather hold that there must be no forcible annexations, that every people be free to choose its allegiance? Like you we are opposed to puni

tive indemnities, and denounce those laid on Belgium, Poland, Serbia.

"Let the German Socialists stop their pretenses and plottings to bring about a peace in the interests of Kaiserism. Let them stop calling international conferences at the instigation of the Kaiser. Let them stop their intrigues to cajole the Russian and American working people, to interpret your demand for no annexations, no indemnities in such a way as to leave intact the power of the German military caste.

"We feel certain that no message, no individual emissary, no commission has been or will be sent to offer any advice whatever to Russia as to how she shall conduct her own affairs." Reports contrary to this had been circulated in Russia. They were the criminal work of pro-Kaiser propagandists, set afloat to deceive and stir up bad feeling between the two great democracies of the world.

Something more than appeals and assurances of sympathy was needed if Russia was to continue to fight. She must have financial and material help and both were now supplied. On the ninth of May a commission of distinguished railroad engineers set off for Petrograd, to aid in rebuilding and developing Russian railways and routes of transportation, and to carry assurances that the United States stood ready to furnish any amount of rolling stock and rails. May fifteenth $100,000,000 was deposited in the Federal Reserve Bank to the credit of Russia, to be used for the purchase of supplies in our country. That same day the State Department announced that a special mission headed by Mr. Elihu Root would be sent to carry to the new Republic greetings of friendship, brotherhood and Godspeed, assurances of confidence and help and to break down the efforts of Germany and Austria to make a separate peace.

Lest this should be done by the contending factions in Russia before the Special Mission arrived the President, May 26, addressed a note to Russia.

The approaching visit of the American delegation was a fitting occasion to state again, he said, "the objects the United States had in mind in entering the war." America sought no material profit, no aggrandizement, she fought for no advantage for herself, but for the liberation of peoples everywhere from