America's War for Humanity Part 69

RUSSIA DETHRONES THE CZAR.

Early in March, after several days of ominous silence in regard to events in Petrograd, the news of a successful revolution in Russia astonished the world. From March 9 to March 15, it appeared, the Russian people, headed by Michael Rodzianko, President of the Duma, set about cleaning house with quiet but characteristic thoroughness. Beginning with minor food riots and labor strikes, the cry for food reached the hearts of the soldiers, and one by one, regiments rebelled until finally those troops which had for a time stood loyal to the government of the Czar and his bureaucratic advisers gathered up their arms and marched into the ranks of the revolutionists.

The change came with startling and dramatic rapidity. The Duma, ordered by Imperial rescript to dissolve, refused to obey and voted to continue its meetings. An Executive Committee was appointed, headed by the President of the Duma, which after arresting a number of pro-German ministers of the Czar, proclaimed itself a Provisional Government and announced its intention of creating a new representative form of government for the country. With the a.s.sistance of the army, it was soon in control.

Czar Nicholas was promptly compelled to abdicate the throne for himself and his young son. At first the crown was offered to his brother, the Grand Duke Michael, but inside of twenty-four hours he declined it, also abdicating formally. The Czar and imperial family were confined, while the former pro-German ministers were thrown into prison. The new Provisional Government pledged itself to conduct the war against Germany vigorously, and promised the people complete religious liberty and freedom of speech, political amnesty, universal suffrage, and a const.i.tutional a.s.sembly to determine the form of the permanent new government. Great Britain, France, and Italy were prompt to recognize the Duma committee and it was also given enthusiastic support by the Russian armies in the field.

By March 20 absolute quiet prevailed in Petrograd and throughout Russia.

The Allies were officially notified of the abdication of Nicholas II and informed by Foreign Minister Milukoff that Russia would stay in the war with them to the end. Prince Lvoff, one of the most popular men in Russia, was placed at the head of the Government Const.i.tute and general political amnesty was proclaimed in a ukase which brought numbers of political prisoners back to their homes from Siberia, and caused great rejoicing throughout the country, no longer an empire of the Romanoffs, who had ruled it for centuries with a rod of iron.

The United States recognized the new order of things in Russia on March 22. A few days later the grand dukes and royal princes of Russia jointly informed the Government Const.i.tute that they formally a.s.sociated themselves with the abdication of Grand Duke Michael and would turn over to the new Government the crown lands and other state grants in their possession, thus completing the total abdication of the Romanoff dynasty and placing the seal of complete success on the most remarkable revolution the world ever saw--accomplished almost without bloodshed, for the troops in Petrograd had refused to fire upon the revolutionists after the first few hours of disturbance in the streets of the capital, and most of the casualties were among the soldiers themselves.

The Russian revolution, produced in the crucible of war, meant the overthrow of Germanism in Russia, which had hampered the efforts of its armies by treasonable neglect, if not worse, and in the opinion of many neutral observers, destroyed the last chance of a German victory in the war. The effect of the revolution on Germany was twofold--it darkened her military outlook, and gave a tremendous impulse to the latent liberal forces within her empire. Its effect on the war was almost equivalent to bringing a new nation into the camp of the Allies. Its meaning to German democracy was thus stated:

"Germany has been taught to believe that the European war was inaugurated by Russia for aggressive purposes. Germany's democratic leaders repeatedly pointed to Czarism as the evil spirit dominating the Entente. The object of the Central Powers was proclaimed to be the overthrow of the Russian autocratic menace. Therefore the Russian revolution may profoundly move German democracy. This is probably its greatest disillusionment since the war began."

CAUSES OF THE REVOLUTION.

To get a clear picture of the conditions that produced the revolution, it is necessary to remember that from a very early period the German-born Czarina and the clique of pro-German reactionaries whom her influence made powerful with the Czar, were bent on ending the war prematurely in the interests of reaction. The Ministers set up under these auspices for over two years acted in defiance of public opinion.

Their policy was not obscure: they hampered the army in respect of munitions, disorganized the country in respect of its distributive services, brought about artificial famine in a land which is one of the world's chief food-producers, and themselves, through police agents, sought to stir up abortive revolts in order that they might plead military failure and internal revolution as a reason for withdrawing from the war.

The Russian people foiled them for a long time by magnificent and much-enduring patriotism. When the government left the army without munitions, the local authorities--the zemstvos and unions of towns--stepped in and organized their supply. When police agents tried to bring about riots and strikes, the workmen's own leaders prevented their breaking out. When secret negotiations were opened up with Germany, the Duma blasted them by public exposure on the popular side.

The Duma's demand for sympathetic and really national government was enforced, first by the Council of the Empire, normally the stronghold of high officialdom, and then by the Congress of n.o.bles, which represents the landed aristocracy.

But with the n.o.bility, much of the bureaucracy, the army, the navy, the Duma, the professional cla.s.ses, and the working cla.s.ses all ranged against them, the "dark forces" of the empire held obstinately on their way. The murder of the court favorite, the infamous monk Rasputin, only intensified the reaction, though its story and sequel showed significantly how far many members of the Imperial family were from supporting the reigning head and his consort in the policy which was jeopardizing the dynasty. But the Czar's political blindness was incurable. In a kind of panic he got rid of every remaining progressive minister; a nonent.i.ty of no importance from the Czar's personal circle was made prime minister, and the real power fell to Protopopoff, the strong man of the "dark forces," who was to see their designs through, but was the first victim of the popular uprising. As minister of the interior he defied all Russia, precipitated the revolution, and in his violent death the career of the "dark forces" in Russia was ended, no doubt for all time.

UNRESTRICTED SUBMARINE WARFARE.

On February 1 Germany entered upon unrestricted submarine warfare, a last resort of desperation. Ten ships were reported sunk and eight lives lost that day. Neutral vessels and belligerents were destroyed without discrimination, and in the first six days the tonnage of the vessels sunk by German U-boats was 86, tons, including 45 ships of all nationalities. The British liner California, formerly of the Anchor Line, was torpedoed on the seventh day, and sank with a loss of 100 lives. Transatlantic ships were held in New York and other eastern ports, pending instructions from the Government as to sailing in the face of the German warning, against which President Wilson had strongly protested.

RELATIONS WITH GERMANY SEVERED.

Diplomatic relations were broken with Germany on February 2, when President Wilson appeared before a joint session of Congress and announced that the German Amba.s.sador, Count von Bernstorff, had been given his pa.s.sports, and that Amba.s.sador Gerard had been recalled from Berlin. War with Germany was then believed to be only a matter of hours, awaiting the first German overt act. The reserve force of the Atlantic Fleet was ordered to make ready for immediate service. But the hour had not yet struck for war.

INTERNED SHIPS DAMAGED BY GERMANS.

Examination of a number of the German merchant vessels interned in United States ports showed that most of them had been seriously damaged by their crews to render them unseaworthy, and it was rumored that the partial wreckage of these ships had been ordered February 1 by the German government. Twenty-three German ships seized by the naval authorities at Manila were also found to have received willful damage.

On February 8 the State Department notified all American vessel-owners that merchant ships under the American flag might arm against submarines but that no naval convoys would be supplied by the Government. Sailings of American liners were still held up pending decision about their armament.

The United States Senate indorsed the stand of the President in the break with Germany, by a vote of 78 to 5.

On February 13 it was announced at Washington that an advance was made by the German government, through the Swiss legation, offering to reopen the discussion of submarine methods. The answer of the United States was to the effect that the Government refused to discuss the international situation with Germany until the U-boat warfare was abandoned and the pledges made in the case of the steamer Suss.e.x were restored. The Spanish amba.s.sador took over the deserted American emba.s.sy at Berlin.

President Wilson, with his cabinet, prepared a bill of particulars containing the grievances against the German government, with special emphasis on the refusal of the latter to liberate seventy-two American seamen taken to Germany as prisoners on the steamer Yarrowdale, one of the vessels captured in the South Atlantic by the raider supposed to be the Moewe.

GERMAN PLOT IN MEXICO.

Intense feeling was aroused throughout the United States when it was learned on February 28 that Germany had suggested to Mexico an alliance by which war was to be made on the United States if it did not remain neutral. Mexico was to have German aid to regain the southwestern territory acquired from it, and to have a share in the ultimate peace conference. It was to induce j.a.pan to leave the Allies and join in making war on America. Doc.u.mentary proof of such plots was said to be in the hands of the President, but a few days later the German foreign secretary admitted the scheme as his own and sought to justify it as a necessary precaution against war. The discovery of the plot did more than anything else to arouse the American people to a sense of the danger impending from Germany.

GERMANS RETREAT ON THE WEST.

After numerous minor successes by the British and French on the Western front, the Germans effected a retreat late in February, which was the greatest retirement in two years, as they yielded on a front of several miles on the Ancre to the Allies, including important towns. The growing superiority of the Allies in artillery had begun to count, and the retirement, while announced from Berlin as strategic, was undoubtedly forced by the development of Allied strength. The capture of Bapaume soon followed. By March 2 the Germans had retreated on a front of miles to a depth of from two to three miles, and the British were still pushing forward.

Another extended German retreat began on the West front March 17, the British and French advancing without resistance for from two to four miles on a front of 35 miles. Peronne was captured next day and it became evident that the Germans were falling back to a so-called Hindenburg line, 25 miles to the rear of their former positions. The Allied advance continued until more than 300 towns and villages were reoccupied and some 1,500 square miles of French territory regained by March 21. The German armies in their retreat devastated the country in the most wanton manner, even going so far as to destroy fruit trees, wells, churches, and buildings of every kind. They also drove before them many of the inhabitants, including women and girls, leaving only a remnant of the former populations, mostly old and feeble folk and children, these being left dest.i.tute and without food even for a day.

The story of this devastating retreat aroused horror throughout the world.

On March 25 the French pressed an attack against the whole front between St. Quentin and Soissons and made progress everywhere. From this time on the French offensive was active for three weeks, culminating in a great victory on the Soissons front April 16, in which the German losses were placed at 100,000.

A GREAT BRITISH OFFENSIVE.

In the week of April 9 the British made great gains in the Arras sector, capturing German positions to a great depth and taking a total of some 15,000 prisoners and 190 guns of all calibers, some of which were turned against the Germans as they sought to stem the tide of British successes by desperate rearguard actions. Notable victories were won by the Canadian troops in the capture of the hotly contested Vimy Ridge and other positions during the battle of Arras, as this series of important engagements was called, even before it was concluded with all the honors in Allied hands.

For several days after the first dash on Monday morning, April 9, the British tore through the German defenses on an extended front north and south of Arras, from the north bank of the River Scarpe to the German trench system just south of Loos, and straddled the iron line of Hindenburg by April 13 as far as a point seven miles southeast of Arras.

But success did not stop here. To the south the British progressed on a front of about nine miles, between Metz-en-Coutre and a point to the north of Hargicourt The French columns joining the British in this sector swept forward along with their allies. They attacked with tremendous vigor German positions south of St. Quentin and carried several lines of trenches between the Somme and the St. Quentin railway.

These positions were held despite every effort of the Germans to retake them.

Throughout the length of interlinked chain of advances the fighting was of the utmost ferocity.

For the first time in the war the British were making sharp drives and smashes like a skillful pugilist, every one of which contained force enough to have been considered a major attack in the history of other wars. In places the attack has shaken loose from the trenches and was being delivered along the lines of the old Napoleonic strategy.

The British captures of Vimy and later of Givenchy were looked on as victories of the utmost importance, equal to the storming by the Canadians of the Vimy Ridge. When this line of hills was firmly in the hands of the Canadians, they hauled their heavy guns up to the summit with extraordinary speed and proceeded to batter to pieces the powerful defenses of Vimy, while they made continual thrusts down the eastern slopes.

In 1915 Vimy was for a time held by the French under Gen. Foch, but they were shouldered out with great slaughter by the Germans, who proceeded to lavish the last details of their military science upon the fortifications of the town.

Givenchy, too, before which many British dead lie buried, was a stronghold upon which the Germans counted to stem any advance.

On April 16 the extension of the British attack nearly to Loos threatened to pocket Lens, just as a loop had been thrown around St.

Quentin, and the fall of this industrial city with its rich coal mines was considered inevitable. Indeed, credible reports had been received in Paris that the devastation of the rich city of Lille by the Germans was well under way, indicating that they contemplated a reluctant evacuation of the most important center in northern France. At all events, an immediate ebb in the German tide was necessitated by the British successes of April 9 to 16. The momentum of Field Marshal Haig's advance and the successes of the French on their share of the western front appeared to make a further retirement of the whole German line imperative--and the great Allied drive had scarcely begun.

SCENE OF THE CANADIAN VICTORY.

An exploration on April 13 of Vimy Ridge, carried by the Canadian troops in a series of historic charges, showed that the British artillery virtually blew off the top of it, and the German stronghold which had resisted all efforts of the French and British during more than two years of war, was finally forced into such a position by high explosives that it could no longer resist infantry charges. Walking on the top of the ridge was a continuous climb from one sh.e.l.l crater to another. Two surmounting k.n.o.bs, known only on military maps as numbered hills, had attracted the fire of the heaviest British guns and had been shattered into unrecognizable b.u.t.tes on the landscape.

It was little wonder the Germans made such desperate efforts to hold the Vimy ridge and to retake certain portions of it by counter attacks which failed miserably. The ridge stood as a natural barrier between the Germans and their opponents and was a great protective chain of hills shielding invaluable coal, iron, and other mineral lands that Germany had wrested from France in the first onrush of the war in 1914. The city of Lens, within sight of the British lines, from the ridge, is a great mining center.

THE FRENCH VICTORY AT SOISSONS.

On April 16 the "big push" of the Allies in France flared into a continuous battle covering nearly every mile of the long line from the North Sea to the Swiss border. Between Soissons and Rheims the French engaged in a terrific struggle, driving forward in a solid ma.s.s against the German lines on a front of twenty-five miles. Their way paved by ten days of "drum fire," the troops of Gen. Nivelle swept forward, carrying all of the first line of German positions between Soissons and Craonne.

They also took the second line positions, south of Juvincourt, east of Craonne, reached the outskirts of Bermericourt, and advanced up the Aisne ca.n.a.l at Loivre and Courcy.

During these operations the French captured 10,000 Germans and a vast amount of war material.

The British were continuing their pressure on both Lens and St. Quentin, but were temporarily held up by a great storm on the 16th. The night before they captured the village of Villaret, which straightened Field Marshal Haig's line northwest of St. Quentin, and made further progress to the northwest of Lens. The prison cages to the rear of Arras were filled with German prisoners, nearly all of whom were captured in a dazed condition from the terrific British fire that won the great battle of Arras.

A t.i.tANIC STRUGGLE FORESEEN.

"The struggle in the western theater of war promises to be a t.i.tanic one," said an eye-witness at British headquarters, April 16. "The Allies are prepared as never before, both in material and personnel, and are co-operating with a smoothness which comes from a complete understanding and thorough appreciation of the work in hand.