The "Watch Tower" was a news feature for the older readers of St. Nicholas. Children note in their letters that they have used the "Watch Tower" for school projects or "Current Events." This one one was written just before the Armistice that ended World War I and is a fine example of the jingoism that accompanied the coverage of the war.
ST. NICK'S OWN MONTH!
What! The Christmas, month again? Why, bless us all, so it is—according to the calendar, and according to the pleasant warmth that comes in our hearts with the time o' year when wild winds whistle and the snow begins to fly! But where have the months flown since last we wished you all—not, indeed, a merry, but—a happy Christmas? No matter; they have gone their way, and again it is Yule-tide; and again we wish you the joy that may shine quietly in brave hearts, even when there are heavy burdens to bear and hard hills to be climbed.
Last Christmas we were deep in war—a holy war, a war in defense of all that makes life worth living, a war in which every Christian principle and belief gives strength to the defenders of Christian civilization. Now, as then, the world is in arms; but then peace was remote, and now, at this writing, its coming is, if not as near as we might wish, at least in sight.
Christmas giving means something this year! We are not indulging in expensive uselessnesses, but with the enforced return to a simpler way of expressing our good will to our fellow-men, we are learning a splendid lesson, the lesson of sincerity.
And the man in The Watch Tower wants every beam of his lantern's light to carry to the boys and girls of St. Nicholas a message of cheer and courage. If it were to flash out the news of Peace on earth—well, now; would n't that be just too joyful for anything?
PROGRESS OF THE ARMIES
After Chateau-Thierry and the clearing out of the Soissons-Rheims salient, came the American victory at St. Mihiel; and after that, the glorious beginning of the deliverance of France and Belgium from the brutal invader. All the way from the sea down to the line out in front of Metz, the Belgian, British, French, and American armies, first with slow, steady pressure, and then with the resistless might of an ocean tide, pushed the hosts of the would-be conquerors and rulers of the world back toward their own self-doomed land.
On the first of October, the French were in St. Quentin. On October 9, the British occupied Cambrai. The next day, they had taken Le Cateau, and passed fifteen miles beyond it. Lens and Armentieres were evacuated in the next few days. Laon and La Fere were taken by the French. On the eighteenth, the Allies entered Lille and Ostend. The American troops cleared the forest of Argonne of its defenders, and threatened a deadly thrust at Germany. They took many prisoners...
By the end of the month, Arras and Peronne and Bapaume and Cambrai and other cities that have been held by the devastating Huns were freed of their hateful presence, and had been left far behind by the advancing armies of Liberty. Important coal and iron fields had been released,—though the retreating destroyers had done their best to wreck them,—and the main lines of supply had been cut. The German forces were in full retreat, dropping back in ever increasing disorder from one new line to another, trying their best to get their demoralized ranks back to the border.
After forty years of training and preparation, the proud armies of the German Fatherland were on the run before the rave and invincible soldiers of the free nations, who had developed their fighting power within the short space of the four years in which they had been struggling to save the world from ruin at the hands of these supermen from savage Hunland.
HOW MUCH DO OUR ALLIES OWE US?
The former attorney-general of the United States, Mr. George W. Wickersham, has suggested canceling the war debts of the other Allies to this Government. Whether it be found practical or not, the suggestion is mighty interesting. Does any one in our large and alert class in history know of such a thing having ever been done?
Up to the middle of October, we had advanced to England, France, and Italy seven and one half billions of dollars. It seei»ed reasonable to suppose that, before the madness of Germany could be subdued, the total of our loans for war purposes would reach the ten-billion mark. That is a billion more than the United States Government borrowed from the American people in the Third and Fourth Liberty Loans combined.
It is easy to recognize, and not difficult to share, the ideal motives which prompted Mr. Wickersham. The cause of England, France, and Italy is ours, too. For three years, while they held the battle-line and paid the price of freedom in lives, we were supplying them with food, clothing, machinery, and all the munitions of war. The money they have borrowed from us'has gone to meet a common need, to serve a common cause, to defend all the free nations against Germany's assault. By canceling the debt we could not, in this view, consider ourselves to be making our allies a gift. We should be simply squaring up accounts with them for their inestimable service to us all in saving the liberties of the world at the cost to themselves of awful sacrifices of men and treasure.
But are not the accounts being squared up, rapidly and to the satisfaction of all concerned ? Are not the ordinary methods of business adequate? These questions express the practical view. The British, French, and Italian Governments, and the nations they represent, might feel that the sums of money involved failed to measure the full extent of the obligation!
But, whether or not we ought to do this thing, the fact remains that it has been seriously proposed, and that the suggestion gains equally serious consideration. There is a sign of progress with which to rebuke the pessimists who refuse to admit that the world is getting better, or ever can get better!
THE FOURTH LIBERTY LOAN
The Fourth Liberty Loan began September 28 and closed October 19. The amount of bonds to be subscribed for was set at six billions. The load started pretty well, then slowed up, but in the last few days subscriptions were made in immense amounts, and the newspapers of October 20 declared the loan oversubscribed.
The quota was twice as large as that of the Third Loan had been, and the epidemic of influenza, which was so severe in many places as to cause the schools, churches, theaters, and other places of public resort to be closed, was the direct drag upon the progress of the loan, since many Liberty Loan meetings and parades had to be called off. But the varioud patriotic demonstrations held on Columbus Day, which was also National Liberty Day and was observed in every American community, proved a great stimulus to the loan.
The Fourth Liberty Loan certainly gave the opportunity for a splendid exhibition of that American spirit of which we are so justly proud. Pershing's boys, on the battle-line Over There, had proof of the fact that they need never lose faith in the loyal support of this great nation for which they are righting.
We don't know, as this is written, just what proportion of the six billions and more was secured by the boys and girls who have worked so faithfully and well in every patriotic enterprise since America went into the war, but we are pretty sure that their earnest and intelligent efforts were responsible for no small part of the tremendous outpouring of subscriptions at the end of that wonderful campaign!
GERMANY'S BIGGEST BLUFF
Each installment of our serial history of the war takes, in reflecting the events of the weeks it reports, a character of its own. As we review the happenings of the good month of October, the final impression is that we have been spectators at a performance in which the German Government and the Government of the United States have been the chief actors—with the Germans making a more or less magnificent bluff and the Americans "calling" it. With her armies in defeat and retreat and her people at home war-weary and dismayed by the loss of Bulgaria and the exhaustion of her other allies, Germany tried to gain time for reorganization of her remaining resources by drawing her enemies into an armistice of which Germany should dictate the terms.
On October 7 a note to President Wilson, from the new chancellor, Prince Maximilian of Baden, was published. In it he said, "The German Government accepts the program set forth by President Wilson in his message to Congress of January 8 and his speech of September 27 as a basis for peace negotiations....[and] requests the immediate conclusion of an armistice on land and water and in the air." Foch carried on.
On October 8 the President answered the German note. He asked if the German chancellor accepted the famous "fourteen points," and whether he was the spokesman merely of "the constituted authorities of the Empire who had so far conducted the war."
Senator Lodge, in Congress, and ex-President Roosevelt, out of it, led a prompt and well-meant opposition to any negotiation with Germany, declaring that the decision must be left to the Allies' commanders in the field: Foch, Pershing, and Haig. "Unconditional surrender!" was their war-cry.
Oa October 12 Germany replied that she had accepted the President's terms and was asking for the armistice simply to have the application of them definitely determined. The present German Government, said this note, was formed by the Reichstag, and the chancellor was supported in all his actions by the majority of its members.
To this note Mr. Wilson promptly replied, saying that the details of the evacuation of Belgium and France would have to be left to the Allies, and pointing out that, even while asking for an armistice, Germany had been committing more of those atrocities on land and sea that have made it impossible for self-respecting governments to deal with her except on the battle-field. He demanded "absolute guarantees" that any arbitrary power that could disturb the peace of the world would be made wholly ineffective.
On October 19 the State Department sent President Wilson's answer to the Austrian plea for an armistice. It pointed out that whereas the President in his address of January 8 had insisted upon the right of "autonomous development" for the states subject to Austrian rule, he could no longer accept the concession of autonomy as a basis for peace, but would have to insist upon recognition of the independence of those states already recognized by this Government as an established fact. This referred to the Czecho-Slovaks and the Jugo-Slavs.
At the end of October the Austrian Government declared its readiness to accept the terms defined by the American Government and renewed its request to the Allies to "enter upon negotiations" for peace and an armistice. And in France and Italy the Allies drove on.
THROUGH THE WATCH TOWER TELESCOPE
The new map of Europe will look strange to persons who learned their geography before 1914. The greatest changes will be in the broad belt running from the Arctic Ocean down to Turkey. The western part of Russia may show some new states. Ukrainia and the Caucasus region, between the Black and Caspian Seas, may be independent. Russian, Prussian, and Austrian Poland may become one Poland, free and independent, one block of color on the map. There will be new lines drawn in the Balkans—and, we trust, the little patch that marks Turkey-in-Europe will be shown under another name.
Kaiser Karl—the little kaiser of Austria-Hungary—woke up too late. He proclaimed an autonomous reorganization for the lands under Austrian domination. Autonomy is home rule, self-government subject to supervision from an overlord Government. A few years ago it would have made the victims of Austrian oppression happy; now it falls far short of their desire and determination, which is for full independence. Teuton brains, it seems, cannot quite catch up with the rest of the world.
October brought some serious disasters. Forest fires in Minnesota and Wisconsin caused the loss of many lives and the destruction of towns. They may possibly have been started by vengeful I. W. Ws. The explosions at Morgan, New Jersey, caused many deaths and heavy loss in property. They shook the whole region between New York and Trenton. For days, the roads near by were thronged with refugees, like the roads in France and Belgium and Poland. Splendid work was done for their relief. Enemy aliens employed in the plant may have started the explosions. And in October the country was swept by an epidemic of influenza which threatened to interrupt the war work of the nation. Altogether, with the news from the battle-line, the German peace notes, the Liberty Loan, and these disasters, it was a month in which the trials of war time seemed very near and very real. But American courage was more than equal to every test.
"Socialist Congress in Bavaria Votes to Try Kaiser," is a newspaper head-line that caught our attention. We had been looking, so long and so hard, for news that the Germans, having tried the Kaiser, were getting ready to try something else!
The Americans in France may have been getting a little more than their share of the glory. Some good Yankee lads in Russia have been doing their part, also, for Uncle Sam and freedom!
One of the first things Japan's new Government did, in October, was to declare itself friendly—actively friendly—toward the United States. A good beginning! It is to be hoped that Americans will do all they can to make it easy for Japan to regard us as among the best of her friends.
The United States Senate, on October I, voted against the Suffrage Amendment, 53 to 31. Even this was not final defeat, but another postponement of the day of victory.
On the first day of October, the Allies put into effect the long discussed plan of centralized control of economic forces. If this succeeds as well as unity of military command has succeeded, there will be no fault to find!
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