Little by little, day after day, piracies dwindled as the murderous submarine was mastered and its menace strangled. On the land, the Allies, under the matchless leadership of Marshal Ferdinand Foch and the generous co-operation of Americans, British, French and Italians, under the great Generals Pershing, Haig, Petain and Diaz, wrested the initiative from von Hindenburg and Ludendorf, late in July, 1918. Then, in one hundred and fifteen days of wonderful strategy and the fiercest fighting the world has ever witnessed, Foch and the Allies closed upon the Germanic armies the jaws of a steel trap. A series of brilliant maneuvers dating from the battle of Chateau-Thierry in which the Americans checked the Teutonic rush, resulted in the defeat and rout on all the fronts of the Teutonic commands.

In that titanic effort, America’s share was that of the final deciding factor. A nation unjustly titled the “Dollar Nation,” believed by Germany and by other countries to be soft, selfish and wasteful, became over night hard as tempered steel, self-sacrificing with an altruism that inspired the world and thrifty beyond all precedent in order that not only its own armies but the armies of the Allies might be fed and munitioned.

Leading American thought and American action, President Wilson stood out as the prophet of the democracies of the world. Not only did he inspire America and the Allies to a military and naval effort beyond precedent, but he inspired the civilian populations of the world to extraordinary effort, efforts that eventually won the war. For the decision was gained quite as certainly on the wheat fields of Western America, in the shops and the mines and the homes of America as it was upon the battle-field.

This effort came in response to the following appeal by the President:

“These, then, are the things we must do, and do well, besides fighting–the things without which mere fighting would be fruitless:

We must supply abundant food for ourselves and for our armies and our seamen not only, but also for a large part of the nations with whom we have now made common cause, in whose support and by whose sides we shall be fighting; We must supply ships by the hundreds out of our shipyards to carry to the other side of the sea, submarines or no submarines, what will every day be needed there; and Abundant materials out of our fields and our mines and our factories with which not only to clothe and equip our own forces on land and sea but also to clothe and support our people for whom the gallant fellows under arms can no longer work, to help clothe and equip the armies with which we are co-operating in Europe, and to keep the looms and manufactories there in raw material;

Coal to keep the fires going in ships at sea and in the furnaces of hundreds of factories across the sea; Steel out of which to make arms and ammunition both here and there; Rails for worn-out railways back of the fighting fronts; Locomotives and rolling stock to take the place of those every day going to pieces; Everything with which the people of England and France and Italy and Russia have usually supplied themselves, but cannot now afford the men, the materials, or the machinery to make.

I particularly appeal to the farmers of the South to plant abundant foodstuffs as well as cotton. They can show their patriotism in no better or more convincing way than by resisting the great temptation of the present price of cotton and helping, helping upon a large scale, to feed the nation and the peoples everywhere who are fighting for their liberties and for our own. The variety of their crops will be the visible measure of their comprehension of their national duty.”

The response was amazing in its enthusiastic and general compliance. No autocracy issuing a ukase could have been obeyed so explicitly. Not only did the various classes of workers and individuals observe the President’s suggestions to the letter, but they yielded up individual right after right in order that the war work of the government might be expedited. Extraordinary powers and functions were granted by the people through Congress, and it was not until peace was declared that these rights and powers returned to the people.

These governmental activities ceased functioning after the war: Food administration; Fuel administration; Espionage act; War trade board; Alien property custodian (with extension of time for certain duties); Agricultural stimulation; Housing construction (except for shipbuilders); Control of telegraphs and telephones; Export control.

These functions were extended: Control over railroads: to cease within twenty-one months after the proclamation of peace. The War Finance Corporation: to cease to function six months after the war, with further time for liquidation. The Capital Issues Committee: to terminate in six months after the peace proclamation. The Aircraft Board: to end in six months after peace was proclaimed; and the government operation of ships, within five years after the war was officially ended.

President Wilson, generally acclaimed as the leader of the world’s democracies, phrased for civilization the arguments against autocracy in the great peace conference after the war. The President headed the American delegation to that conclave of world re-construction. With him as delegates to the conference were Robert Lansing, Secretary of State; Henry White, former Ambassador to France and Italy; Edward M. House and General Tasker H. Bliss.

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Representing American Labor at the International Labor conference held in Paris simultaneously with the Peace Conference were Samuel Gompers, president of the American Federation of Labor; William Green, secretary-treasurer of the United Mine Workers of America; John R. Alpine, president of the Plumbers’ Union; James Duncan, president of the International Association of Granite Cutters; Frank Duffy, president of the United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners, and Frank Morrison, secretary of the American Federation of Labor.

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World War I - A War for International Freedom

Source: History of the World War. An Authentic Narrative of the World’s Greatest War. Francis A. March and Richard J. Beamish, 1919

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Speaking to the Congress and the people of the United States, President Wilson made this declaration on November 11, 1918:

“My FELLOW COUNTRYMEN: The armistice was signed this morning. Everything for which America fought has been accomplished. The war thus comes to an end.”

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 were under arms when the conflict ended. Of these, more than two million were upon the fields of France and Italy. These were thoroughly trained in the military art. They had proved their right to be considered among the most formidable soldiers the world has known. Against the brown rock of that host in khaki, the flower of German savagery and courage had broken at Chateau-Thierry. There the high tide of Prussian militarism, after what had seemed to be an irresistible dash for the destruction of France, spent itself in the bloody froth and spume of bitter defeat. There the Prussian Guard encountered the Marines, the Iron Division and the other heroic organizations of America’s new army. There German soldiers who had been hardened and trained under German conscription before the war, and who had learned new arts in their bloody trade, through their service in the World War, met their masters in young Americans taken from the shop, the field, and the forge, youths who had been sent into battle with a scant six months’ intensive training in the art of war. Not only did these American soldiers hold the German onslaught where it was but, in a sudden, fierce, resistless counter-thrust they drove back in defeat and confusion the Prussian Guard, the Pommeranian Reserves, and smashed the morale of that German division beyond hope of resurrection.

The news of that exploit sped from the Alps to the North Sea Coast, through all the camps of the Allies, with incredible rapidity. “The Americans have held the Germans. They can fight,” ran the message. New life came into the war-weary ranks of heroic poilus and into the steel-hard armies of Great Britain. “The Americans are as good as the best. There are millions of them, and millions more are coming,” was heard on every side. The transfusion of American blood came as magic tonic, and from that glorious day there was never a doubt as to the speedy defeat of Germany. From that day the German retreat dated. The armistice signed on November 11, 1918, was merely the period finishing the death sentence of German militarism, the first word of which was uttered at Chateau-Thierry.

Germany’s defiance to the world, her determination to force her will and her “kultur” upon the democracies of earth, produced the conflict. She called to her aid three sister autocracies: Turkey, a land ruled by the whims of a long line of moody misanthropic monarchs; Bulgaria, the traitor nation cast by its Teutonic king into a war in which its people had no choice and little sympathy; Austria-Hungary, a congeries of races in which a Teutonic minority ruled with an iron scepter.

Against this phalanx of autocracy, twenty-four nations arrayed themselves. Populations of these twenty-eight warring nations far exceeded the total population of all the remainder of humanity. The conflagration of war literally belted the earth. It consumed the most civilized of capitals. It raged in the swamps and forests of Africa. To its call came alien peoples speaking words that none but themselves could translate, wearing garments of exotic cut and hue amid the smart garbs and sober hues of modern civilization. A twentieth century Babel came to the fields of France for freedom’s sake, and there was born an internationalism making for the future understanding and peace of the world. The list of the twenty-eight nations entering the World War and their populations follow:

Never before in the history of the world were so many races and peoples mingled in a military effort as those that came together under the command of Marshal Foch. If we divide the human races into white, yellow, red and black, all four were largely represented. Among the white races there were Frenchmen, Italians, Portuguese, English, Scottish, Welsh, Irish, Canadians, Australians, South Africans (of both British and Dutch descent) New Zealanders; in the American army, probably every other European nation was represented, with additional contingents from those already named, so that every branch of the white
race figured in the ethnological total.

There were representatives of many Asiatic races, including not only the volunteers from the native states of India, but elements from the French colony in Cochin China, with Annam, Cambodia, Tonkin, Laos, and Kwang Chau Wan. England and France both contributed many African tribes, including Arabs from Algeria and Tunis, Senegalese, Saharans, and many of the South African races. The red races of North America were represented in the armies of both Canada and the United States, while the Maoris, Samoans, and other Polynesian races were likewise represented. And as, in the American Army, there were men of German, Austrian, and Hungarian descent, and, in all probability, contingents also of Bulgarian and Turkish blood, it may be said that Foch commanded an army representing the whole human race, united in defense of the ideals of the Allies.

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It will be seen that more than ten times the number of neutral persons were engulfed in the maelstrom of war. Millions of these suffered from it during the entire period of the conflict, four years three months and fifteen days, a total of 1,567 days. For almost four years Germany rolled up a record of victories on land and of piracies on and under the seas.

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World War I - America’s Titanic Effort

Source: History of the World War. An Authentic Narrative of the World’s Greatest War. Francis A. March and Richard J. Beamish, 1919

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With the economy and banking industry in its current condition, it is a good time to look at the history of the credit card. Credit card debt has become a ubiquitous part of American life but the credit card as we know it is a recent development. In fact, credit cards didn’t get their start in the United States until just before World War I. Department stores started issuing metal plates resembling dog-tags to their best customers. By the mid-1920s gas stations began offering credit cards which could be used at their locations around the country. This was an important step because the automobile became common and the mobile lifestyle of the average American has led to the popularity of the credit card.

World War II brought the rationing of gasoline and tires so traveling and automobile use were severely cut back. In 1950, Francis McNamara operated a loan company in New York City. He met a man who would loan out department store cards to friends for a fee and then borrow money from McNamara’s loan company to pay off the balances. He made money on the difference between his interest rate and what he charged his friends for their use. Of course someone failed to pay what they owed and McNamara was saddled with the losses. McNamara was having lunch with his lawyers discussing what to do about the loss when he had the notion of a credit card that could be used at different merchant locations. He decided to start with restaurants in New York City and the Diner’s Club was born.

The initial card was made of cardboard and was issued to an individual with their name on one side and the list of 28 New York restaurants that would accept the card printed on the back. The fee for belonging to Diner’s Club was five dollars per year. He and his attorney successfully enlisted restaurants and more members so Diner’s Club became the first national credit card that wasn’t just for oil and gas. But in 1951, New York’s Franklin National Bank offered a credit card that was accepted by a wide variety of merchants and this made other banks realize what a profitable venture it could be. Bank of America launched the BankAmericard which became the Visa credit card known around the world.

American Express began offering credit cards in 1958 and by the 1960s banks all over the U.S. would mail cards out to anyone that had an address regardless of their credit rating. This led to the explosive use of credit cards in American society and the inevitable bankruptcies and fraud we know all too well. Many laws have been passed to protect the consumer but nothing can protect people from their own bad choices.

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It was February 24, 1917 when the British government presented then American president Woodrow Wilson with the now famous Zimmermann telegraph. Although not the only factor, the telegraph’s message, along with the increase in German submarine warfare, would take America out of its traditional and seemingly steadfast policy of isolationism and hurl it full force onto the world stage.

The war to end all wars, also known as World War I, had begun in 1914 with the assassination of Archduke Francis Ferdinand by Serbian freedom fighter, Gavrilo Princip. The international incident brought the dizzying map of European alliances into a war nobody had expected. The main players became Germany, Russia, England and France although nearly every European country as well as their allies from other continents took part in the devastating warfare. America declared itself to be neutral. 

Despite fantastic trade and friendly relations with most European countries, the United States had little desire or indeed means to be involved in a war. After the Mexican American War in 1848 and the crippling bloodshed of the American Civil War, Americans had little desire to involve themselves in the conflicts of other nations. Friends with both England and Germany, to take sides would mean a drop in trade as well as a commitment the country may not be fit to undertake.

Woodrow Wilson was enjoying his second term as the president after campaigning on a platform of keeping the country out of the war. This college professor turned governor made for a balanced president, drawing on both the academic and real world experiences to run his administration. Having lost his wife in 1914 and remarried in 1915, Wilson had experienced a lot of personal ups and downs but managed to keep the country out of the European war claiming that as long as Germany and her allies did not attempt to interfere with American trade or travel, there really was little reason to involve the nation in a war that was not theirs.

In 1915 the British luxury liner, the RMS Lusitania was sunk by German u boats, at a cost of over a hundred American lives. Most of the public had determined with whom their sympathies lay but Wilson still resisted involvement.

By early 1917, the British were feeling the pinch of battle, low on troops, supplies and morale. German subs filled the waters surrounding the proud island and trench warfare in France was taking its toll in bodies and spirit. Help was needed in order for the Allies to successfully defeat Germany and her forces.  In January of that year British code breakers stumbled across the Zimmermann telegraph.

“FROM 2nd from London # 5747.
“We intend to begin on the first of February unrestricted submarine warfare. We shall endeavor in spite of this to keep the United States of America neutral. In the event of this not succeeding, we make Mexico a proposal or alliance on the following basis: make war together, make peace together, generous financial support and an understanding on our part that Mexico is to reconquer the lost territory in Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona. The settlement in detail is left to you. You will inform the President of the above most secretly as soon as the outbreak of war with the United States of America is certain and add the suggestion that he should, on his own initiative, invite Japan to immediate adherence and at the same time mediate between Japan and ourselves. Please call the President’s attention to the fact that the ruthless employment of our submarines now offers the prospect of compelling England in a few months to make peace.” Signed, ZIMMERMANN.”

Arthur Zimmermann was the then foreign minister of Germany and he sent the intercepted message to von Eckhardt who was the German Ambassador to Mexico. It would take the British almost a month to present the intercepted note to President Wilson. Some claim it was to protect intelligence sources, others that it was to allow anti-German feelings to increase with the onset of their plan of all out submarine warfare.  To date, no clear and decisive motive has been made. The effect however of the telegraph was powerful and Wilson called on congress to declare war on Germany in April of 1917 officially ending American neutrality.

World War I remains a stain on modern history with over 20 million lives lost in four years. Its bitter end and settlement treaties sparked the Second World War which again through America into a war that was not their own. Hitler never officially declared war on America.  By World War II, the United States had clearly shown where its alliances lay. Even today, the British and American governments have a “special relationship” supporting each other in military actions across the globe.

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In an era when America is considered a global policeman with a mission to bring democracy on all four corners of the world, it is sometimes difficult to imagine that once such involvement would have been considered inconceivable. But it was less than a century ago when all that changed as the infamous Zimmermann telegraph landed on President Wilson’s desk.

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