History of the World War | Page 6

Nations--Liberty
Loans--Reconstruction Problems--McAdoo Resigns--American Ideals
in the Old World
CHAPTER LV.
AMERICA'S POSITION IN PEACE AND WAR President Wilson's
Stirring Speech in Congress Which Brought the United States into the
War--His Great Speech Before Congress Ending the War--The
Fourteen Points Outlining America's Demands Before Peace Could be
Concluded--Later Peace Principles Enunciated by the President
CHAPTER LVI.
THE WAR BY YEARS Condensed Word-Picture of the Happenings of
the Most Momentous Fifty-two Months in All History--Leading Up to
the Eleventh Hour of the Eleventh Day of the Eleventh Month of 1918
CHAPTER LVII.
BEHIND AMERICA'S BATTLE LINE General March's Story of the

Work of the Military Intelligence Division--Of the War Plans
Division--Of the Purchase and Traffic Divisions--How Men, Munitions
and Supplies Reached the Western Front
CHAPTER LVIII.
GENERAL PERSHING'S OWN STORY The Commander-in-Chief of
the American Expeditionary Forces Tells the Story of the Magnificent
Combat Operations of his Troops that Defeated Prussia's
Legions--Official Account Discloses Full Details of the Fighting.
CHAPTER LIX.
PRESIDENT WILSON'S REVIEW OF THE WAR A Year in the Life
of the United States Crowded with Great Events--Tribute to the
Soldiers and Sailors, the Workers at Home Who Supplied the Sinews of
the Great Undertaking, the Women of the Land Who Contributed to the
Great Result--The Future Safe in the Hands of American Businessmen
SUMMARIZED CHRONOLOGY OF THE WAR

FOREWORD
This is a popular narrative history of the world's greatest war. Written
frankly from the viewpoint of the United States and the Allies, it
visualizes the bloodiest and most destructive conflict of all the ages
from its remote causes to its glorious conclusion and beneficent results.
The world-shaking rise of new democracies is set forth, and the
enormous national and individual sacrifices producing that resurrection
of human equality are detailed.
Two ideals have been before us in the preparation of this necessary
work. These are simplicity and thoroughness. It is of no avail to
describe the greatest of human events if the description is so confused
that the reader loses interest. Thoroughness is an historical essential
beyond price. So it is that official documents prepared in many

instances upon the field of battle, and others taken from the files of the
governments at war, are the basis of this work. Maps and photographs
of unusual clearness and high authenticity illuminate the text. All that
has gone into war making, into the regeneration of the world, are herein
set forth with historical particularity. The stark horrors of Belgium, the
blighting terrors of chemical warfare, the governmental restrictions
placed upon hundreds of millions of civilians, the war sacrifices falling
upon all the civilized peoples of earth, are in these pages.
It is a book that mankind can well read and treasure.
CHAPTER I
A WAR FOR INTERNATIONAL FREEDOM
"My FELLOW COUNTRYMEN: The armistice was signed this
morning. Everything for which America fought has been accomplished.
The war thus comes to an end."
Speaking to the Congress and the people of the United States, President
Wilson made this declaration on November 11, 1918. A few hours
before he made this statement, Germany, the empire of blood and iron,
had agreed to an armistice, terms of which were the hardest and most
humiliating ever imposed upon a nation of the first class. It was the end
of a war for which Germany had prepared for generations, a war bred
of a philosophy that Might can take its toll of earth's possessions, of
human lives and liberties, when and where it will. That philosophy
involved the cession to imperial Germany of the best years of young
German manhood, the training of German youths to be killers of men.
It involved the creation of a military caste, arrogant beyond all
precedent, a caste that set its strength and pride against the
righteousness of democracy, against the possession of wealth and
bodily comforts, a caste that visualized itself as part of a power-mad
Kaiser's assumption that he and God were to shape the destinies of
earth.
When Marshal Foch, the foremost strategist in the world, representing
the governments of the Allies and the United States, delivered to the

emissaries of Germany terms upon which they might surrender, he
brought to an end the bloodiest, the most destructive and the most
beneficent war the world has known. It is worthy of note in this
connection that the three great wars in which the United States of
America engaged have been wars for freedom. The Revolutionary War
was for the liberty of the colonies; the Civil War was waged for the
freedom of manhood and for the principle of the indissolubility of the
Union; the World War, beginning 1914, was fought for the right of
small nations to self-government and for the right of every country to
the free use of the high seas.
More than four million American men