June 1915

In June 1915, as the world observes the 100th anniversary of the Battle of Waterloo and the 700th anniversary of the Magna Carta, it confronts a war of unprecedented destruction and geographic scope.  German submarine warfare threatens a rupture in relations with the United States.  A second note pressing the American case brings about the resignation of Secretary of State William Jennings Bryan.  His successor, Robert Lansing, is the son-in-law of a former secretary of state and the uncle of a future one, John Foster Dulles.  Freed from the constraints of office, Bryan addresses a peace rally in Madison Square Garden.  President Wilson's friend and adviser Colonel House returns from an extended trip to Europe, and in his report to the president predicts war with Germany.  Another British attack fails in Gallipoli.  Great Britain is feeling the financial and personal pain of waging war; she gains, then loses, one of her first war heroes.  The U.S.S. Arizona is launched in Brooklyn.  "The Class the Stars Fell On" graduates from West Point; its members will lead the American Army in another world war.  President Wilson honors the American flag, and is honored at a reunion of Confederate veterans.  Two notorious murder cases, one in Georgia and one in New York, move closer to final resolution. The governor of Georgia commutes Leo Frank's death sentence, but cannot protect either himself or Frank from angry mobs.  In New York, only the governor now stands between Charles Becker and the electric chair, and he is convinced of Becker's guilt.  Becker's lawyer, Martin Manton, faces a roller-coaster future: he will become a federal judge, be on the short list for the Supreme Court, serve as Chief Judge of the Second Circuit Court of Appeals, and wind up in jail for taking bribes.

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An Editorial Comment on the Lusitania Notes

Last month the United States and Germany exchanged diplomatic notes following the attack on the Lusitania that cost the lives of 1,198 passengers and crew, including 128 Americans (see last month's installment of this blog).  On June 9, the United States sent a second note to Germany.  Like the first one, it was drafted principally by President Wilson himself.  It responds to several assertions made by Germany in its reply to the first note "with regard to the character and outfit of [the Lusitania]," telling the German government that "these are matters concerning which the Government of the United States is in a position to give the Imperial German Government official information."  It acknowledges that it was the duty of the United States, as a neutral power, "to see to it that the Lusitania was not armed for offensive action, that she was not serving as a transport, that she did not carry a cargo prohibited by the statutes of the United States, and that, if in fact she was a naval vessel of Great Britain, she should not receive clearance as a merchantman."  The note assures Germany that the United States "performed that duty and enforced its statutes with scrupulous vigilance through its regularly constituted officials" and "is able, therefore, to assure the Imperial German Government that it has been misinformed."  It asks the German Government, if it has "convincing evidence that the officials of the Government of the United States did not perform these duties with thoroughness," to "submit that evidence for consideration."  Referring to the contention that the Lusitania was carrying contraband munitions and that the torpedo caused those munitions to explode, the note says that those contentions are "irrelevant to the question of the legality of the methods used by the German naval authorities in sinking the vessel."  It asserts that "the sinking of passenger ships involves principles of humanity which throw into the background any special circumstances of detail that may be thought to affect the cases," and that, whatever other facts there might be, "the principal fact is that a great steamer, primarily and chiefly a conveyance for passengers, and carrying more than a thousand souls who had no part or lot in the conduct of the war, was torpedoed and sunk without so much as a challenge or a warning, and that men, women, and children were sent to their death in circumstances unparalleled in modern warfare."  The United States therefore "very earnestly and very solemnly renews the representations of [the first] note" and asks for assurances that the German Government will "adopt the measures necessary" for "the safeguarding of American lives and American ships."

The New Secretary of State

Although the second Lusitania note added little of substance to the earlier one, it had the important result of bringing about the resignation of the Secretary of State, William Jennings Bryan.  He was known to have been unhappy with the position taken in the first note, preferring a warning to Americans not to travel on belligerent ships combined with a protest to Great Britain for its blockade policy.  When the second note restated and reenforced the position of the first, Bryan decided that he could no longer be identified with the government's position.  A broader and more important factor may have been his conviction that he had never been President Wilson's principal or most trusted adviser on foreign policy.  When Bryan met with the president on Monday, June 7, and told him of his intention to resign, among the reasons he gave was that "Colonel House has been your Secretary of State, not I, and I have never had your full confidence."  Bryan's letter of resignation was submitted the next day.  The president, in his reply, accepted it "with much more than deep regret -- with a feeling of personal sorrow,"  and said "We shall continue to work for the same causes even when we do not work in the same way."  The note to Germany, signed by State Department Counselor Robert Lansing as Acting Secretary, was delivered on June 9.  On June 23 the president appointed Lansing Secretary of State; the Senate confirmed his appointment the next day.  Lansing's father-in-law is John Foster, who was Secretary of State under President Benjamin Harrison.

Colonel House with President Wilson

After sending Lansing's name to the Senate, President Wilson left for a vacation in Cornish, New Hampshire, where he is staying again at novelist Winston Churchill's Harlakenden House.  On his way north, he stopped in New York to confer with Colonel House, who returned to the United States June 13 after four months in Europe.  In a report sent three days after his return, House told the president "I think we shall find ourselves drifting into war with Germany."  The two men met on June 24 at the Colonel's home at Roslyn, Long Island, where they discussed House's report and the details of his meetings with high-level officials of the British, French and German governments.  House told the president that, because the public in each of the warring countries is insistent that any peace agreement must justify the terrible losses already suffered, there is no possibility that any terms acceptable to one side would be acceptable to the other even as a basis for discussion. 

 Madison Square Garden

That evening in Manhattan, a huge peace rally was held at Madison Square Garden.  William Jennings Bryan, the recently resigned Secretary of State, addressed a capacity crowd that included the Austro-Hungarian and Turkish ambassadors and the German military and naval attaches.  Henry Weismann, president of the New York branch of the German-American Alliance, told the friendly crowd that "the pulse of America does not beat in the gilded halls of Washington.  The president is surrounded by sycophants on the one hand and by skilled, shrewd, paid agents of our enemies on the other."  He welcomed Bryan as "the new leader of the American people that stand for peace."  When Bryan took the podium, he tried to downplay his rift with the president, telling the crowd that he and President Wilson had "found it impossible to share responsibility together.  He could not do otherwise than he did, believing as he did, and I could not do otherwise than I did, believing as I did.  There was no concealment.  We separated as two friends should separate."  He said that "if war comes, we will stand as one man behind the Government, but until Congress declares war each citizen is at liberty to express his opinion as to whether or not there should be war."  He appealed to "the national honor of a peace-loving nation, not the false pride of a bully or a braggart," and concluded by asking "if others desire that our flag be feared, let us prefer that it be loved.  If others would have the world tremble in awe at the sight of it, let us pray that the plain people everywhere may turn their faces toward it and thank God that it is the emblem of justice and the hope of peace."

Outside, thousands more filled Madison Square Park and Madison Avenue from 23rd to 27th Street, listening to speakers who addressed the crowds from six outdoor stages, many speaking in German and all delivering essentially the same message in opposition to American involvement in the World War.

British Troops on the Attack

As if in mockery of the sentiments being expressed in Madison Square, war continued this month around the world.  On June 4 British and French forces on the Gallipoli peninsula mounted another attack in an attempt to secure the commanding heights of Achi Baba overlooking the Dardanelles, the original objective of the landing at Cape Helles.  Once again they fell short, and a Turkish counterattack on June 6 drove the Allies back to their original positions but failed to drive the Allies off the peninsula.  In eastern Europe, the Austro-German offensive in the Carpathians resulted in the capture of Przemysl on June 3 and of Lemberg on June 22.  On the Western Front, French attacks in Artois and on the Meuse-Argonne front resulted in thousands of casualties but no significant gains.  On the new front at the head of the Adriatic, Italian forces attacked Austro-Hungarian positions along the Isonzo River, but were turned back with heavy losses.  Nor has North America been peaceful: while there is no declared war, battles between competing factions in Mexico have been raging for over two years.  On June 2, President Wilson issued a statement to the warring parties warning them to come together and set up a government that other nations can deal with or risk American intervention.

Prime Minister Asquith

Great Britain may be the wealthiest nation in the world, but the strain of global war is beginning to be felt, financially and otherwise.  On June 15, Prime Minister Asquith told Parliament the war is costing Great Britain $13,000,000 a day, and the House of Commons voted an additional $1,250,000,000 in war appropriations, bringing the total so far to $4,310,000,000.  On June 19, the Prime Minister reported that British casualties in the war in Europe and the Mediterranean from the beginning of the war through the end of May have been 50,342 killed, 153,980 wounded, and 53,747 missing.  The Munitions for War Act became law on June 23.  It prohibits strikes in businesses supplying the armed forces and gives the newly created Ministry of Munitions, headed by David Lloyd George, power to regulate wages, hours and working conditions.

Lieutenant Warneford

For the British public, Zeppelin raids on English cities have added a new and frightening dimension to the war.  On June 7 aviator Lt. Reginald A. J. Warneford became a national hero when he attacked and destroyed a Zeppelin near Ghent as it was returning from a failed raid on London.  He is the first, and so far the only, aviator in history to bring down an airship.  Ten days later Warneford lost control of his aeroplane during a demonstration flight near Paris.  He and his passenger, an American journalist, were ejected and killed.

 Arizona Ready for Launch

The new American superdreadnought U.S.S. Arizona (BB-39) was launched at the New York Navy Yard on June 19 before some 75,000 spectators.  Arizona Governor George W. Hunt, New York City Mayor John Purroy Mitchel, Secretary of the Navy Josephus Daniels and Admiral Frank F. Fletcher, Commander in Chief of the Atlantic Fleet, were among the dignitaries in attendance.  In recognition of Arizona's recent vote to become a dry state, a bottle of Arizona water as well as the traditional bottle of champagne was broken over the bow in the christening ceremony.  As she slid down the ways into the East River, she was greeted by whistles from the other warships present in the shipyard, including the battleships U.S.S. Wyoming, New York, Utah, Arkansas, Florida and Texas, and two flotillas of destroyers.  Tugboats took her in tow under the Williamsburg Bridge, and before long had her moored securely alongside her dock, where she will receive her guns, engines and other equipment.  When commissioned, Arizona and her sister ship U.S.S. Pennsylvania (BB-38), launched in March at Newport News, Virginia, will be the largest warships in the world, each displacing over 31,000 tons.

Secretary Garrison, General Scott and Colonel Townsley Reviewing the Corps of Cadets

On June 12 the United States Military Academy at West Point graduated 164 cadets, the largest class in its history.  Secretary of War Lindley Garrison, Army Chief of Staff Major General Hugh Scott and Academy Superintendent Colonel Clarence Townsley reviewed the cadets on parade, after which Secretary Garrison addressed the graduating class.  He told them that they might be called upon at any time to demonstrate their worth, and that upon their conduct "may depend issues of vital moment" to their country.  Each graduate was cheered as he received his diploma.  Judging from the volume and duration of the cheers as observed by the New York Times reporter, the most popular members of the graduating class were the athletic standouts, including Cadets James Van Fleet, Omar Bradley, and Dwight Eisenhower.  After the ceremony, the new second lieutenants went to New York for dinner and a Broadway play.

President Wilson Delivering his Flag Day Address

The Stars and Stripes was adopted as the flag of the United States on June 14, 1777.  In recent years the anniversary of that date has been unofficially observed as Flag Day.  On June 14 this year, President Wilson delivered an address from the south portico of the Treasury Department Building, next door to the White House.  He began by telling the assembled crowd that "for me the flag of the United States does not express a mere body of vague sentiment.  The flag of the United States has not been created by rhetorical sentences in declarations of independence and in bills of rights.  It has been created by the experience of a great people, and nothing is written upon it that has not been written by their life."  He closed by saying that he would like to see them "wear a little flag of the Union every day" but that "if you lose the physical emblem, be sure that you wear it in your heart, and the heart of America shall interpret the heart of the world."

Congressman Heflin (center) with Senators Vardaman (D., Miss.) and James (D., Ky.)

The United Confederate Veterans held their twenty-fifth annual reunion June 1-3 in Richmond, Virginia.  On June 2 they adopted a resolution "as soldiers, who know only too well the horrors of war, and as citizens of a reunited country."  The resolution praised President Wilson as one "who, strictly neutral between warring nations, will, with wisdom and courage, stand for all regard and respect for the honor of the American flag and a proper observance of the full rights of the humblest American citizen."  Congressman J. Thomas Heflin (D., Ala.) also praised the president, telling the veterans they had survived the Civil War "to see a man, born in the Southland, the son of a Confederate soldier, the President of the United States."

Chief Justice White

The Fifteenth Amendment, which became part of the United States Constitution in 1870, forbids states to deny the vote to citizens "on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude."  As Reconstruction ended and the Democratic Party regained control of the governments in the southern states, many of them adopted literacy and property ownership requirements for voting that were designed to deny the franchise to Negro citizens.  Those requirements passed constitutional muster, but they threatened to disenfranchise poor and illiterate whites as well as blacks, so many states added "grandfather clauses," exempting from the property and literacy requirements anyone who had been eligible to vote, or whose ancestors had been eligible to vote, prior to a given date (typically a date before the abolition of slavery).  On June 21 of this year, the U.S. Supreme Court held such "grandfather clauses" unconstitutional.  The vote was 8-0, with Mr. Justice McReynolds not voting.  The opinion was written by Chief Justice Edward White, a Democrat who grew up on a Louisiana plantation before the Civil War.  Property and literacy requirements for voting, where they exist, now apply to all citizens, but they are administered at the discretion of local officials, leaving much room for discrimination in their actual implementation.

Governor and Mrs. Slaton

On June 21, as his term was drawing to a close, Georgia Governor John Slaton commuted the death sentence of Leo Frank, the Atlanta pencil factory superintendent convicted of the murder two years ago of Mary Phagan, a 13-year-old female factory employee, to life imprisonment.  Frank's trial was conducted in an atmosphere of intense hostility, fueled by antisemitism and marked by unruly mobs outside the courthouse demanding a guilty verdict.  (For further background, see the March 1914 and April 1915 installments of this blog.)  In considering the clemency petition the governor reviewed the evidence and heard arguments of counsel, following which he concluded that there was substantial doubt as to Frank's guilt.  He announced the commutation a day before Frank's scheduled execution, triggering mass protests at the Atlanta City Hall and at the courthouse where Frank had been tried.  Similar demonstrations took place elsewhere in the state.  In Marietta, Mary Phagan's home town, a life-size dummy bearing a sign that read "John M. Slaton, King of the Jews and Georgia's traitor forever" was strung to a telephone pole   In Newnan, not far from Atlanta, effigies of Slaton and Frank were hung to a giant oak tree in a park, then set on fire and dragged through the streets.  A few days later Governor Slaton attended his successor's inauguration, after which an armed escort was necessary to get him safely from the capitol building to his car and out of town.  At month's end, Slaton and his wife were visiting friends in New York prior to a tour of Canada.  He told reporters that "after a careful and long study of the great mass of evidence in the case it would have been simply impossible for me to have taken any other action than the one I did."

Martin Manton (right) at the Becker-Rosenthal Trial

In another high-profile murder case, former New York Police Lieutenant Charles Becker has lost his last appeal and faces the electric chair for ordering the 1912 murder of Herman Rosenthal to prevent him from giving evidence to District Attorney Charles Whitman.  (For further background, see the August and October 1912, March and April 1914, and May 1915 installments of this blog.)  Becker's motion for reconsideration of the Court of Appeals ruling was denied on June 18; his attorney Martin Manton has applied for clemency to Whitman, who is now the governor.  Manton has said he might ask Whitman, because of his prior involvement in the case, to step aside and let the clemency petition be considered by Lieutenant Governor Edward Schoeneck.

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June 1915 – Selected Sources and Recommended Reading

Contemporary Periodicals:

American Review of Reviews, July and August 1915

New York Times, June 1915

Books and Articles:

A. Scott Berg, Wilson
Winston S. Churchill, The World Crisis 1911-1918
John Milton Cooper, Jr., Woodrow Wilson: A Biography
John Milton Cooper, Jr., The Warrior and the Priest: Woodrow Wilson and Theodore Roosevelt

Patrick Devlin, Too Proud to Fight: Woodrow Wilson's Neutrality

David Fromkin, A Peace to End All Peace: Creating the Modern Middle East, 1914-1922
Martin Gilbert, The First World War: A Complete History

Martin Gilbert, A History of the Twentieth Century, Volume One: 1900-1933
Martin Gilbert, Winston S. Churchill Volume III: The Challenge of War, 1914-1916

Richard F. Hamilton and Holger H. Herwig, Decisions for War, 1914-1917

August Heckscher, Woodrow Wilson: A Biography

Godfrey Hodgson, Woodrow Wilson's Right Hand: The Life of Colonel Edward M. House
John Keegan, The First World War
Nicholas A. Lambert, Planning Armageddon: British Economic Warfare and the First World War
Erik Larson, Dead Wake: The Last Crossing of the Lusitania

Arthur S. Link, Wilson: The Struggle for Neutrality, 1914-1915

Arthur S. Link, Woodrow Wilson and the Progressive Era, 1910-1917

Robert K. Massie, Castles of Steel: Britain, Germany, and the Winning of the Great War at Sea
G.J. Meyer, A World Undone: The Story of the Great War, 1914 to 1918

J. Lee Thompson, Never Call Retreat: Theodore Roosevelt and the Great War

Barbara W. Tuchman, The Zimmermann Telegram 
Geoffrey C. Ward and Ken Burns, The Roosevelts
Stanley Weintraub, Young Mr. Roosevelt: FDR's Introduction to War, Politics, and Life

May 1915

It's May 1915.  As the month begins, the Lusitania sets sail from the west side of Manhattan on its regular transatlantic voyage to Liverpool.  Six days later, as it passes along the south coast of Ireland, it is torpedoed by a German submarine.  It sinks in minutes, killing over a thousand passengers and crew, including 128 Americans.  In President Wilson's first public statement after the sinking, he suggests America might be "too proud to fight," but a rupture in diplomatic relations seems possible.  Former President Theodore Roosevelt, in the midst of defending himself in a libel suit, tells reporters the United States must take action in defense of "humanity" and "our own national self-respect."  Meanwhile the war goes on.  On the Eastern Front a combined Austrian-German offensive pushes the Russians back in the Carpathians, while on the Western Front coordinated British and French offensives in the vicinity of Artois fail to achieve any measurable success.  Stalemate also threatens the armies on the Gallipoli Peninsula, as Turkish and German naval forces demonstrate the vulnerability of the Allied fleet offshore.  A political crisis in Great Britain brings a new coalition government and the demotion of First Lord of the Admiralty Winston Churchill.  Italy joins the war and invades Austria-Hungary.  The Allies serve notice that members of the Ottoman government will be held "personally responsible" for the ongoing massacre of Armenians.  John McCrae writes a poem about the poppies growing "In Flanders Fields."  In the United States a new speed record is set at the Indianapolis 500, Thomas Edison invents a machine for recording telephone conversations, and a New York City Police Lieutenant's fate appears sealed when his murder conviction is affirmed on appeal.

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Adjacent Newspaper Notices by Cunard and the German Embassy

On Saturday, May 1, the British luxury liner RMS Lusitania left the Cunard Line's Pier 54 on the west side of Manhattan bound for Liverpool on its regular transatlantic run.  That morning an advertisement placed by the German embassy appeared in the New York newspapers.  It reminded travelers that a state of war existed between Great Britain and Germany and that Germany had given formal notice that vessels entering waters adjacent to the British Isles were liable to destruction.  It advised that those who chose to travel on such ships would do so at their own risk.  The last-minute warning caused only two passengers, a Boston shoe dealer and his wife, to cancel their voyage.  Taxicabs delivered passengers and their luggage to the pier Saturday morning, and that afternoon, after a short delay to board passengers from another ship requisitioned for war service, Lusitania cast off and proceeded down the Hudson toward the open sea (click to play):

Lusitania's Departure from New York, May 1, 1915

*****

Lusitania Victims in Queenstown

On the afternoon of Friday, May 7, the Lusitania was in the Western Approaches, a few miles off the Old Head of Kinsale, near Queenstown on the south coast of Ireland.  She was due to arrive in Liverpool the following morning.  Captain William Turner was maneuvering the ship to take navigational bearings on coastal landmarks.  The German submarine U-20, commanded by Kptlt. Walther Schwieger, was headed for home, nearing the end of a cruise that had taken her from Emden through the North Sea and around the British Isles.  The Western Approaches had been blanketed by fog all morning, but the fog had lifted, and when Schwieger raised his periscope he saw Lusitania as she turned to starboard, presenting a perfect target.  He fired a single torpedo, which penetrated the Lusitania's hull under water and exploded directly beneath the bridge.  There was a second explosion, likely caused by the rupture of high pressure steam lines.  A longitudinal coal bunker, empty as the voyage was nearing its end, flooded quickly, causing a pronounced list to starboard.  Unlike the Titanic three years ago, the Lusitania carried plenty of lifeboats, but the list made most of them unusable.  The liner sank in a little over seventeen minutes.  Almost 1,200 passengers and crew, including 128 Americans, died.  Among the Americans lost were Broadway producer Charles Frohman and businessman Alfred Gwynne Vanderbilt, heir to the Vanderbilt fortune.  Three years ago, Vanderbilt had decided at the last minute to cancel his plans to take the Titanic home from England.

"Too Proud to Fight" -- A British View

In Washington, President Wilson learned of the sinking of the Lusitania Friday afternoon.  He cancelled his planned golf outing, and as reports of heavy loss of life came in that evening he left the White House and walked alone through the streets of Washington.  Over the weekend he continued to keep his own counsel, not issuing a statement and not conferring with his Secretary of State or any other administration official.  When Senator Stone, Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, called at the White House, the president declined to see him.  On Monday, he fulfilled a previous commitment by traveling to Philadelphia to address an audience at Convention Hall that included some four thousand newly naturalized citizens.  Without mentioning the Lusitania, he told the group, echoing his speech to the Associated Press last month, that "the example of America must be the example not merely of peace because it will not fight, but of peace because it is the elevating and healing influence of the world, and strife is not.  There is such a thing as a man being too proud to fight.  There is such a thing as a nation being so right that it does not need to convince others by force that it is right."  The president's suggestion that the United States is "too proud to fight" has elicited strong reactions, ranging from scornful disgust (especially in Great Britain) to enthusiastic approval (including from his audience in Philadelphia, many of whom were German-Americans).  The next day, he felt compelled to explain his statement, telling reporters at a news conference that he was "expressing a personal attitude, that was all. . . . I did not regard that as a proper occasion to give any intimation of policy on any special matter."  Reflecting the division in American opinion, Colonel House, Secretary of War Garrison and Ambassador Walter Hines Page have advised the president to take a firm stand against Germany, while Secretary of State Bryan has told the president that Americans should be advised not to travel on Allied ships.

Edith Bolling Galt

More than the Lusitania was on the president's mind that weekend.  Lonely since the death of his wife Ellen last August, he had met a 42-year old Washington widow named Edith Bolling Galt in March and fallen in love.  On Tuesday evening, May 4, after dinner at the White House, he proposed marriage.  Mrs. Galt neither accepted nor declined, sending the president into a period of amorous longing and ardent pursuit, punctuated by dinners and frequent letters (several a day) exchanged through his cousin and her friend Helen Bones.  As he received the Lusitania news and struggled to formulate a response, Mrs. Galt remained foremost in his thoughts.  As the month of May came to an end she had still not given him an answer.

Ambassador James Gerard

On May 13, the Department of State instructed Ambassador James Gerard in Berlin to deliver a note from Secretary of State Bryan to the German Minister of Foreign Affairs protesting the sinking of the Lusitania as well as three other recent attacks on American ships and American citizens.  Signed by Secretary of State Bryan but written by President Wilson himself, the note reminds Germany of the earlier warning that the United States would hold the German government to "strict accountability" for infringement of the right of American citizens to travel on the high seas in "the well-justified confidence that their lives will not be endangered by acts done in clear violation of universally acknowledged international obligations."  It diplomatically pretends that the German embassy's May 1 notice may have been published without the knowledge of the German government, saying that the Secretary of State "regrets to inform the Imperial German Government" of its appearance in American newspapers.  Putting aside "the surprising irregularity of a communication from the Imperial German Embassy at Washington addressed to the people of the United States through the newspapers," the note categorically insists that "no warning that an unlawful and inhumane act will be committed can possibly be accepted as an excuse or palliation for that act or as an abatement of the responsibility for its commission."  Assuming that "the commanders of the vessels which committed these acts of lawlessness" did so "under a misapprehension of the orders issued by the Imperial German naval authorities," the note demands that Germany promptly "disavow" those acts, that it "make reparation so far as reparation is possible," and that it "take immediate steps to prevent [their] recurrence."

Ambassador von Bernstorff

Germany's reply to the Lusitania note, signed by Foreign Minister Gottlieb von Jagow, was delivered to the State Department by Ambassador Johann Heinrich von Bernstorff on May 28.  It says that the recent attacks on American ships are under investigation, that "the German Government has no intention of subjecting neutral ships in the war zone, which are guilty of no hostile acts, to attacks by a submarine or submarines or aviators," and that "German forces have repeatedly been instructed most specifically to avoid attacks on such ships."  In the case of the Lusitania, the note repeats earlier expressions of "keen regret" that citizens of neutral nations lost their lives.  It points out, however, that the British Admiralty recently authorized merchant ships not only to fly neutral flags but also to resist capture by force, and that the Lusitania itself "was one of the largest and fastest British merchant ships, built with Government funds as an auxiliary cruiser and carried expressly as such in the 'navy list' issued by the British Admiralty."  It argues that "German commanders consequently are no longer able to observe the customary regulations of the prize law, which they before always followed."  The note also states that Germany acted in justified self-defense because the Lusitania on its previous trip had carried Canadian troops and war material, "including no less than 5,400 cases of ammunition intended for the destruction of the brave German soldiers who are fulfilling their duty with self-sacrifice and devotion in the fatherland's service."  Finally, it says the Cunard Line "is wantonly guilty of the death of so many passengers" because it "used the lives of American citizens as protection for the ammunition aboard . . . against the clear provisions of the American law" and because "the quick sinking of the Lusitania is primarily attributable to the explosion of the ammunition shipment."

The American reaction to the German note is one of keen disappointment, particularly regarding the failure of the note to address the subject either of reparations or of guarantees for the future protection of American vessels and lives.  It is expected that a second note will be sent without delay, and that it will dispute the contention that the Lusitania was carrying munitions in violation of American law.  President Wilson is said to be determined to obtain reparation for Lusitania victims and assurances of respect for American rights in the future, failing which he is likely to sever diplomatic relations with Germany.  Secretary Bryan is more concerned with keeping the United States clear of international disputes that might lead to American involvement in the war.

Roosevelt in Syracuse with his Cousin, Assistant Secretary of the Navy Franklin D. Roosevelt (right)

"What a Pity Theodore Roosevelt is Not President" read a banner headline in the New York Herald the day after the Lusitania's sinking.  Roosevelt, who is known to regard German submarine attacks on civilian ships as "piracy, pure and simple," was in Syracuse, New York, defending a libel suit brought against him by Republican Party boss William Barnes (see last month's installment of this blog).  When news of the sinking was brought to him in the courtroom, his lawyer reminded him that two of the jurors were German-Americans and urged him not to comment.  At the next recess, he told reporters what his lawyer had advised but said he could not remain silent.  "It seems inconceivable," he said, "that we can refrain from taking action in this matter, for we owe it not only to humanity but to our own national self-respect."  Two weeks later, to Roosevelt's immense relief, the jury returned a verdict in his favor.  Afterward, he assembled the jurors in an adjoining room and thanked them individually.  In a celebration resembling an election night rally, he told the jurors the latch-key would always be out for them at Sagamore Hill, and that he would always try "to act in public and private affairs so that no one of you will have cause to regret the verdict you have given this morning."  The outcome of the trial is seen by many as representing a major step toward bringing Roosevelt back into the Republican Party and mending the 1912 split between its regular and progressive wings.

HMS Majestic Sinking off Gallipoli

As the Lusitania crossed the Atlantic on its last voyage, and as diplomats dealt with the aftermath of its sinking, the clash of armies continued on several fronts.  In the Carpathian Mountains, nine months of Russian victories came to an end when a major offensive by Austro-Hungarian and German armies, begun May 1 with a massive artillery bombardment, drove the Russians from the Galician towns of Gorlice and Tornow.  By month's end, the Russians were in danger of being forced to abandon the fortress of Przemysl, which they have occupied since capturing it in March after a siege of several months.  On the Western Front, coordinated attacks by British and French forces in the vicinity of Artois (the British on Aubers Ridge and the French on Vimy Ridge) have failed to make sustainable gains against strong defensive positions.  On the Gallipoli Peninsula the fighting has been similarly inconclusive, as British troops at Cape Helles and Anzac troops several miles to the north have been unable to make appreciable progress in their attempts to occupy the high ground commanding the Straits.  Meanwhile, the Allied fleet supporting the landed troops has itself proved vulnerable.  On May 12, a Turkish destroyer slipped down the European side of the Dardanelles and fired three torpedoes into HMS Goliath, which sank with the loss of 570 British sailors.  Later in the month two other British battleships were lost to a single submarine when U-21 torpedoed and sank HMS Triumph on May 25 off the Anzac beach and HMS Majestic the next day off Cape Helles.

Other disasters struck far from the battlefields.  German Zeppelins conducted bombing raids on Ramsgate on May 17 and London on May 31.  On May 22, a troop train carrying Scottish soldiers to Liverpool to board a transport bound for Gallipoli collided with a local train that had been mistakenly shunted onto the express track, causing wreckage to spread across both the northbound and southbound tracks.  Less than a minute later an express train bound for Glasgow collided with the wreckage and ignited a raging fire.  It was the deadliest railroad crash in British history, killing over 200 soldiers and several other passengers and railroad workers.  Less than a week later, HMS Princess Irene, an ocean liner converted to a minelayer, was being loaded with mines in the Thames Estuary when it suddenly exploded, killing over 300 British sailors, dockyard workers and other civilians.

 Arthur Balfour

The unsatisfactory progress of the war has led to a political crisis in Great Britain.  Sir John French blames the recent failure of the British Expeditionary Force at Aubers Ridge on a shortage of artillery shells caused by the diversion of munitions and other military supplies to the Gallipoli campaign.  The First Sea Lord, Admiral Sir John Fisher, also became a fierce critic of the Dardanelles campaign, insisting on the withdrawal of the superdreadnought HMS Queen Elizabeth to home waters.  By May 15 his relationship with First Lord of the Admiralty Winston Churchill had deteriorated to the point that he finally insisted that his resignation, previously threatened, tendered and withdrawn, be accepted.  Churchill himself was among the next casualties.  On May 25, Prime Minister Asquith formed a new coalition government.  He remains Prime Minister and Sir Edward Grey and Lord Kitchener remain Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs and Secretary of State for War, respectively.  Home Secretary Reginald McKenna becomes Chancellor of the Exchequer, replacing David Lloyd George, who has been named to the new post of Minister of Munitions, created in response to the shell shortage.  John Simon is the new Home Secretary.  Among the Unionists (Conservatives) brought into the cabinet are Andrew Bonar Law (Secretary of State for the Colonies), Lord Curzon (Lord Privy Seal), and Austen Chamberlain (Secretary of State for India).  The most prominent of the Unionist additions is former Prime Minister Arthur Balfour, who replaces Churchill as First Lord of the Admiralty.  Churchill remains in the cabinet as Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster.

Italian Troops Marching to War

Last month the Italian government signed the Treaty of London, promising to declare war against Germany and Austria-Hungary within thirty days.  On May 23 Italy partially fulfilled that promise by declaring war on Austria-Hungary, an act that led Kaiser Wilhelm to recall the German ambassador from Rome.  On May 27 Italian troops crossed the Isonzo River into the Slovene lands of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, where they encountered strong Austrian defenses.  Emperor Franz Joseph of Austria-Hungary denounced the action of his former ally as "a breach of trust, the like of which has not been seen before."  With Italy's entry, eleven nations are now at war on at least seven fronts.

American State Department Telegram Relaying the Allies' Declaration to the Ottoman Government

The killing and forced deportation of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire continued this month.  On May 24, The Russian, French and British governments issued a joint declaration stating that "the Kurd and Turkish populations of Armenia have been massacring Armenians with the connivance and often assistance of Ottoman authorities," and that the Allied governments will "hold personally responsible [for] these crimes all members of the Ottoman government and those of their agents who are implicated in such massacres."   On May 29, at the request of the French Foreign Office, the American State Department relayed the Allies' declaration to the Turkish government (the "Sublime Porte").

John McCrae

Major John McCrae is a medical doctor and pathologist assigned to the Canadian Field Artillery in Flanders, engaged in the defense of the Ypres salient   On May 3, after an attack in which two young officers in his unit were killed by an artillery shell, he looked out across no-man's land, covered with a blanket of spring poppies, and wrote a poem.  After finishing it, he threw it away, but his commanding officer retrieved it.  It reads as follows:

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; And in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead.  Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders Fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

*****

Ralph DePalma and His Riding Mechanic Louis Fontaine Under the Checkered Flag

The fifth International 500-mile Sweepstakes Race was held May 31 at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.  The winning driver was Ralph DePalma, who drove his Mercedes automobile at an average speed of 89.8 miles per hour, more than seven miles per hour faster than the previous record.

Edison and His Telescribe

The inventor Thomas A. Edison announced on May 23 that he had perfected an instrument he calls the telescribe, a combination of the telephone and phonograph designed to record telephone conversations.  A second receiver is connected to each telephone and makes a record of what is said on a wax cylinder.  A stenographer plays back the recording, writes it out, and copies are exchanged for confirmation, facilitating a process that at present might require many weeks and multiple exchanges of correspondence.  By giving both parties to a telephone conversation a phonographic record of what has been said, Mr. Edison believes his invention will eliminate the necessity for millions of letters that are now required every year for making and recording business agreements.  Another potential use of the telescribe is that, if the person being called is not available, it can be used to leave messages to be listened to later.

Governor Whitman

In July 1912, mobster Herman Rosenthal was on his way to meet with Manhattan District Attorney Charles Whitman when he was gunned down in front of the Hotel Metropole.  The trigger men were arrested, convicted and sent to the electric chair.  Charles Becker, a corrupt police lieutenant accused of having ordered the killing to keep Rosenthal from informing, was also arrested, convicted and sentenced to death, but his conviction was overturned when the appellate court found the trial judge guilty of bias and numerous trial errors.  District Attorney Whitman, convinced of Becker's guilt, pursued the case to a second trial and again succeeded in obtaining a conviction.  (For more background on the Rosenthal murder case, see the August and October 1912 and the March and April 1914 installments of this blog.)  On May 25 the New York Court of Appeals (New York's highest court) affirmed Becker's conviction and death sentence.  His only hope now is a reprieve from the governor.  Unfortunately for Becker, the new governor is Charles Whitman.

May 1915 – Selected Sources and Recommended Reading

Contemporary Periodicals:

American Review of Reviews, June and July 1915

New York Herald, May 1915
New York Times, May 1915

Books and Articles:

A. Scott Berg, Wilson
Winston S. Churchill, The World Crisis 1911-1918
John Milton Cooper, Jr., Woodrow Wilson: A Biography
John Milton Cooper, Jr., The Warrior and the Priest: Woodrow Wilson and Theodore Roosevelt

Patrick Devlin, Too Proud to Fight: Woodrow Wilson's Neutrality

David Fromkin, A Peace to End All Peace: Creating the Modern Middle East, 1914-1922
Martin Gilbert, The First World War: A Complete History

Martin Gilbert, A History of the Twentieth Century, Volume One: 1900-1933
Martin Gilbert, Winston S. Churchill Volume III: The Challenge of War, 1914-1916

Richard F. Hamilton and Holger H. Herwig, Decisions for War, 1914-1917

August Heckscher, Woodrow Wilson: A Biography

Godfrey Hodgson, Woodrow Wilson's Right Hand: The Life of Colonel Edward M. House
John Keegan, The First World War
Nicholas A. Lambert, Planning Armageddon: British Economic Warfare and the First World War
Erik Larson, Dead Wake: The Last Crossing of the Lusitania

Arthur S. Link, Wilson: The Struggle for Neutrality, 1914-1915

Arthur S. Link, Woodrow Wilson and the Progressive Era, 1910-1917

Robert K. Massie, Castles of Steel: Britain, Germany, and the Winning of the Great War at Sea
G.J. Meyer, A World Undone: The Story of the Great War, 1914 to 1918

J. Lee Thompson, Never Call Retreat: Theodore Roosevelt and the Great War

Barbara W. Tuchman, The Zimmermann Telegram 

Geoffrey C. Ward and Ken Burns, The Roosevelts
Stanley Weintraub, Young Mr. Roosevelt: FDR's Introduction to War, Politics, and Life

April 1915

In April 1915 poison gas is used for the first time on the Western Front as the German Army makes another attempt to eliminate the Ypres salient in Belgium.  In the Ottoman Empire, Armenian Christians are accused of undermining the war against Russia; executions and forced deportations ensue.  The campaign to force the Dardanelles becomes a ground war as Allied forces are landed on the Gallipoli Peninsula; poet Rupert Brooke dies before he gets there.  Italy decides to join the war on the side of the Allies.  German cruisers seek refuge in an American port.  The civil war in Mexico intensifies as Constitutionalist forces rout Pancho Villa.  In the United States, Leo Frank loses his last appeal.  Former President Roosevelt goes on trial for libel and blasts pacifists, comparing them to Civil War Copperheads.  President Wilson advocates "America First" in a speech to the Associated Press.  Jess Willard ends Jack Johnson's reign as heavyweight champion, and Charlie Chaplin invents a new character in "The Tramp."

*****

German Attack on the Ypres Salient Begins With a Gas Attack

The Belgian town of Ypres is once again the focus of bitter combat on the Western Front.  Hill 60, named for its height in meters, was created years ago by earth excavated for construction of a nearby railroad.  Located at the southeastern edge of the salient formed around Ypres by the German advance through Belgium, it provides an excellent view of the surrounding countryside and a useful vantage point for directing artillery fire.  This month British sappers dug a tunnel under Hill 60 and packed it with explosives which, when detonated on April 17, demolished the crest of the hill and killed hundreds of German soldiers.  German counterattacks on Hill 60 were followed on April 22 by a German assault on the northeastern edge of the salient.  This attack introduced a new and terrifying weapon, poison gas.  Released from canisters and carried by a favorable breeze over the Allied positions, the chlorine gas triggered a panicked retreat, leaving a wide gap in the Allied lines.  Like the Allies last month following their initial success at Neuve Chapelle, however, the lack of an effective follow-up plan prevented the Germans from exploiting their breakthrough.

Talat Pasha

After the failure of the Ottoman Army's January offensive in the Russian Caucasus, Turkish Minister of War Enver Pasha blamed the local Armenian Christian population for siding with Russia.  This month the Turkish Army began rounding up and executing thousands of Armenian men and forcibly deporting many more thousands of Armenian women, children and elderly men to Cilicia, Syria and Mesopotamia.  On April 24, Interior Minister Talat Pasha issued an order shutting down Armenian political organizations and ordering the arrest of Armenian community leaders and intellectuals in Constantinople.  The German and American governments have been asked to intervene.

General Hamilton (right) with Admiral de Robeck (center) and Commodore Roger Keyes

The Allied operations designed to send a fleet through the Dardanelles, capture Constantinople, and force the Ottoman Empire out of the war resumed this month with Allied landings on the Aegean coast of the Gallipoli Peninsula.  On April 25, the British 29th Division was put ashore at Cape Helles, on the extreme southern tip of the peninsula, and the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (Anzac), including the Royal Newfoundland Regiment, landed in a cove some twelve miles up the coast.  In both locations, the Turkish opposition was stronger than expected and the Allies have been unable to secure the heights overlooking the landing areas.

The Marquis Guglielmo Imperiali

On April 26, Italy and the members of the Triple Entente signed the Treaty of London, in which Italy promises to declare war against Germany and Austria-Hungary within 30 days and the Allies promise in the event of victory to grant substantial territorial gains to Italy, mostly at the expense of Austria-Hungary.  Italy's principal negotiator was its ambassador to Great Britain, the Marquis Guglielmo Imperiali.

Kronprinz Wilhelm, still flying the German flag, interned at Newport News

Prinz Eitel Friederich Before the War

On April 11 the German passenger liner S.M.S. Kronprinz Wilhelm entered Hampton Roads, Virginia and was interned at Newport News.  She had been at sea since leaving Hoboken, New Jersey, on August 3, the day before Great Britain declared war on Germany.  Shortly after her departure from Hoboken, she was armed with guns removed from a captured British cruiser and she began operation as an auxiliary cruiser, attacking Allied shipping in the South Atlantic. Until this month, she was believed to be the only German warship still on the high seas.  As the Royal Navy gained control of the world's oceans, her opportunities for commerce raiding dwindled, as did her ability to obtain fuel and provisions, and she chose internment in a neutral port.  Another converted German cruiser is also interned at Newport News.  S.M.S. Prinz Eitel Friedrich, detached from the German East Asia Squadron last August for independent operations off the coast of Australia, entered Newport News for repairs on March 10.  She was interned April 7 when her captain decided not to try to escape the British and French cruisers patrolling outside the entrance to Chesapeake Bay.

General Alvaro Obregon

Beginning April 8, a series of battles were fought near the city of Celaya in the Mexican state of Guanajuato  between forces loyal to the Constitutionalist President Venustiano Carranza, commanded by General Alvaro Obregon, and a rebel army under the command of Francisco "Pancho" Villa, which controls much of northern Mexico.  Taking advantage of Villa's over-aggressiveness, Obregon achieved a decisive victory.  The fighting ended on April 15 with Villa's retreat.

Mr. Justice Holmes

In 1913 Leo Frank, owner of the National Pencil Factory in Atlanta, was tried and convicted of murder in the death of Mary Phagan, a thirteen-year-old factory employee, and sentenced to death by hanging.  When his appeals to the Georgia courts were unsuccessful, he sought review in the federal courts by way of a petition for habeas corpus, arguing that the atmosphere of violence and antisemitism surrounding the trial deprived him of his Constitutional right to due process of law.  Mobs surrounded the courthouse during the trial demanding a conviction, and the trial judge suggested that Frank and his lawyer for their own safety not be present in the courtroom when the verdict was announced.  When the jury pronounced Frank guilty, the polling of the jury had to be suspended because it could not be heard over the cheers of the crowd.   On April 19, the Supreme Court denied Frank's petition.  Justice Mahlon Pitney, writing for the Court, held that any trial impropriety had been addressed adequately in the state appellate process.  Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, joined by Justice Charles Evans Hughes, dissented.  Reviewing the facts alleged in the petition, he concluded that "it is our duty . . . to declare lynch law as little valid when practiced by a regularly drawn jury as when administered by one elected by a mob intent on death."

Roosevelt on Trial

During the 1914 campaign for governor of New York, former President Roosevelt supported former State Senator Harvey D. Hinman for the Republican nomination.  In his statement announcing his endorsement, Roosevelt linked the Republican and Democratic Party machines, led respectively by Republican Party Chairman William J. Barnes, Jr. and Charles F. Murphy, the Democratic boss of Tammany Hall.  His statement charged that "the state government is rotten throughout" and attributed its rottenness to "the dominance in politics of Mr. Murphy . . . aided and abetted when necessary by Mr. Barnes and the sub-bosses of Mr. Barnes."  Despite Roosevelt's endorsement, Hinman lost the Republican nomination to New York District Attorney Charles S. Whitman, who went on to win the governorship, defeating the incumbent Democrat Martin H. Glynn.  Meanwhile, taking umbrage at Roosevelt's statement, Barnes sued Roosevelt for libel.  The trial began on April 19 in Syracuse after being transferred from Albany to avoid Barnes's local influence in the state capital.

The Federal Trade Commission (George Rublee top right, Chairman Joseph E. Davies seated center)

Before leaving for Syracuse, Roosevelt took time to reply to a letter from Mrs. George Rublee, wife of one of the members of a new federal agency, the Federal Trade Commission.  Mrs. Rublee had asked Roosevelt's opinion of a new organization called the Women's Party for Constructive Peace.  In his reply, a copy of which was obtained by the Chicago Herald, Roosevelt denounced the statement of principles enclosed with Mrs. Rublee's letter as "both silly and base."  He compared the organization to "the Copperheads of the North" in the Civil War, who he said "held exactly the views about peace which are set forth in the platform you enclosed and to a man they voted against Abraham Lincoln."  The party's principles, he wrote, are "base as well as futile [because] there is nothing more repulsive than to see people agitating for general righteousness in the abstract when they dare not stand up against wickedness in the concrete."  According to Roosevelt, "the professional pacifist leaders in the United States are in exactly this position" in light of the "frightful wrongs [that] have been committed against the men, women and children of Belgium," no mention of which, he notes, is found in Mrs. Rublee's letter or its enclosure.  Until they "do something to show that they mean what they say and that they are really striving for righteousness," Roosevelt advises that "every upright man and woman refuse to have anything more to do with a movement which is certainly both foolish and noxious, which is accompanied by a peculiarly ignoble abandonment of national duty and which if successful would do only harm, and the mere attempt to accomplish which rightly exposes our people to measureless contempt."

The Waldorf-Astoria Hotel, 34th Street and Fifth Avenue

On Tuesday, April 20, President Woodrow Wilson traveled to New York City with his secretary Joseph Tumulty, his physician Dr. Cary Grayson, and Secretary of the Navy Daniels, to address a luncheon of the Associated Press at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel.  He told the audience of newspaper editors and publishers that they should guard against disturbing the "unstable equilibrium" of the world by reporting based on "rumor" or "imaginative combinations of circumstances."  Regarding America's policy of neutrality, he said the United States is "the mediating nation of the world" and that "our whole duty for the present, at any rate, is summed up in this motto: 'America First.'  Let us think of America before we think of Europe, in order that America may be fit to be Europe's friend when the day of tested friendship comes."  "My interest in the neutrality of the United States," he said, "is not the petty desire to keep out of trouble. . . .  I am interested in neutrality because there is something so much greater to do than fight, because there is something, there is a distinction waiting for this nation that no other nation has ever yet got.  That is the distinction of absolute self-control and self-mastery."  After his address, followed by a reception, the President took an automobile trip uptown to visit Grant's tomb, then returned to Pennsylvania Station where he boarded his special car (named "Superb") attached to the Sunset Limited for a 4:35 departure.

William Rockhill Nelson

William Rockhill Nelson, editor and publisher of the Kansas City Star and one of the most influential newspaper proprietors in the country, died on April 13 at his home in Kansas City.

Frederick W. Seward During the Civil War

Frederick W. Seward died April 25 at the age of 84.  He was Assistant Secretary of State, serving under his father, William.H. Seward, during the Civil War and thereafter until 1869.  He returned to his former position in the Rutherford B. Hayes administration, serving from 1877 to 1879.  On April 14, 1865, he fought with Lewis Powell when Powell invaded his father's house on Lafayette Square as part of the plot to assassinate President Lincoln and other senior administration officials.
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Rupert Brooke

The well-known English poet Rupert Brooke died April 23 on the Island of Skyros in the Aegean Sea at the age of 27.  He had contracted blood poisoning from an infected mosquito bite.  When the war began he joined the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve and participated in the defense of Antwerp.  In February he sailed to Gallipoli with the Mediterranean Expeditionary Force.  His best-known lines are from his "War Sonnets," published shortly before his departure:

     Now, God be thanked Who has matched us with His hour,
     And caught our youth, and wakened us from sleeping.
     [Sonnet I: "Peace"]

     and:

     If I should die, think only this of me:
     That there's some corner of a foreign field
     That is forever England.
     [Sonnet V: "The Soldier"]

The Willard-Johnson Fight in Havana -- A Panoramic View

Jess Willard and Jack Johnson -- The Knockout

In a bout that "restored pugilistic supremacy to the white race" according to the New York Times, Jess Willard defeated the reigning heavyweight champion Jack Johnson on April 5 at Oriental Park in Havana, winning by a knockout in the 26th round.  Ever since Johnson, a Negro, captured the title in 1908 by defeating Canadian Tommy Burns, white boxing fans have longed for a "Great White Hope" to regain the title.  The previously undefeated former champion, Jim Jeffries, tried and failed to do so in 1910.  After the fight, Willard was modest and unassuming and refrained from making any boastful comments.  Johnson, who has announced his retirement from the ring, said "it was a clean knockout and the best man won."

Charlie Chaplin, the former vaudeville comedian turned motion picture producer, director and actor, has moved from Mack Sennett's Keystone Studios in Los Angeles to the Essanay Film Manufacturing Company in Niles, California, across the bay from San Francisco.  On April 11 the studio released his latest production, The Tramp.  In a departure from his prior films, in which he played mostly slapstick comedy, The Tramp is a bittersweet story about a character who gallantly rescues the girl of his dreams (played by Edna Purviance) from a gang of robbers, falls in love, but loses her in the end (click to play):

April 1915 – Selected Sources and Recommended Reading

Contemporary Periodicals:

American Review of Reviews, May and June 1915
New York Times, April 1915

Books and Articles:

A. Scott Berg, Wilson
Winston S. Churchill, The World Crisis 1911-1918
John Milton Cooper, Jr., Woodrow Wilson: A Biography
John Milton Cooper, Jr., The Warrior and the Priest: Woodrow Wilson and Theodore Roosevelt

Patrick Devlin, Too Proud to Fight: Woodrow Wilson's Neutrality

Frank v. Mangum, 237 U.S. 309 (1915)

David Fromkin, A Peace to End All Peace: Creating the Modern Middle East, 1914-1922
Martin Gilbert, The First World War: A Complete History

Martin Gilbert, A History of the Twentieth Century, Volume One: 1900-1933
Martin Gilbert, Winston S. Churchill Volume III: The Challenge of War, 1914-1916

Richard F. Hamilton and Holger H. Herwig, Decisions for War, 1914-1917

August Heckscher, Woodrow Wilson: A Biography

Godfrey Hodgson, Woodrow Wilson's Right Hand: The Life of Colonel Edward M. House
Theodore Huff, Charlie Chaplin
John Keegan, The First World War
Nicholas A. Lambert, Planning Armageddon: British Economic Warfare and the First World War
Erik Larson, Dead Wake: The Last Crossing of the Lusitania

Arthur S. Link, Wilson: The Struggle for Neutrality, 1914-1915

Arthur S. Link, Woodrow Wilson and the Progressive Era, 1910-1917

Robert K. Massie, Castles of Steel: Britain, Germany, and the Winning of the Great War at Sea
G.J. Meyer, A World Undone: The Story of the Great War, 1914 to 1918

J. Lee Thompson, Never Call Retreat: Theodore Roosevelt and the Great War

Barbara W. Tuchman, The Zimmermann Telegram

March 1915

It's the end of March, one hundred years ago.  Repeated efforts to force the Dardanelles with naval forces alone have failed, and the Allies are now preparing an amphibious assault on the Gallipoli Peninsula.  The British Army in France overruns the German position at Neuve Chapelle but is unable to exploit its initial success.  Great Britain responds to Germany's declaration of submarine warfare by announcing the commencement of total economic warfare, declaring that all ships bound for Germany will be intercepted and their cargoes subject to confiscation.  The United States objects, but does so mildly.  Colonel House is in Europe making the rounds of the warring nations' capitals, but his peacemaking attempts bear no fruit.  German submarine warfare claims its first American victim off the coast of Wales.  The German cruiser S.M.S. Dresden is run to ground on a Chilean island.  The long Russian siege of the Austrian fortress of Przemysl ends with an Austrian surrender.  In the United States, the Sixty-third Congress comes to an end.  Former President Roosevelt is harshly critical of the administration's foreign policy with regard to Mexico.  A new motion picture, "The Birth of a Nation," opens in New York to overflow crowds.

*****

Admiral Carden

After several days of bombardment had neutralized the Turkish forts guarding the entrance to the Dardanelles, minesweepers (converted fishing trawlers) were sent into the Straits on the night of March 1 in an attempt to clear mines from the Narrows.  Escorted by a light cruiser and four destroyers, the minesweepers made slow progress against the current.  When they reached the Narrows they were illuminated by searchlights and driven back by heavy fire from the forts and mobile howitzer batteries on both banks.  Blinded by the searchlights, the escorts' return fire was ineffective.  Over the next several nights, repeated attempts to sweep the minefields failed.  On March 15 Admiral Carden, taken ill with an ulcer,  resigned his command and was replaced by his deputy, Admiral John de Robeck.

Admiral de Robeck

Victims of Turkish Mines

Admiral de Robeck decided to reverse the order of attack, sending his battleships into the Straits to silence the Turkish guns before sending the minesweepers through the Narrows.  On March 18 sixteen British and French battleships entered the Straits and engaged in a furious artillery battle with the Turkish forts.  Although the portion of the Straits in which the battleships were operating had been swept for mines and declared clear, five battleships struck previously undetected mines as they were maneuvering to withdraw, and were sunk, abandoned, or otherwise put out of action.  At a conference on March 22 aboard Admiral de Robeck's flagship, HMS Queen Elizabeth, attended by his senior commanders and the recently arrived General Sir Ian Hamilton, de Robeck decided that the attempt to force the Straits by naval action alone should be abandoned.  Instead, he ordered General Hamilton to prepare a landing on the Gallipoli Peninsula to be followed by occupation of the heights overlooking the Straits.  First Lord of the Admiralty Winston Churchill wanted to order de Robeck to continue the naval assault, but Prime Minister Asquith and the cabinet declined to overrule the commander on the scene.  The focus of activity has now shifted to military operations on the Peninsula under General Hamilton's command.  Although Churchill remains at his post at the Admiralty, primary responsibility for the conduct of the Dardanelles campaign now lies with Lord Kitchener, Secretary of State for War.

Sir John French

Field Marshal Sir John French, commanding officer of the British Expeditionary Force in France, believes that the British Army would be more usefully deployed on the Western Front than in the eastern Mediterranean.  On March 10, in an operation perhaps designed to demonstrate the point as Army units are being sent to Gallipoli, forces under French's command attacked a thinly defended portion of the German lines in the vicinity of Neuve Chapelle.  The attack began with a heavy artillery barrage, followed by an infantry assault that exploited the element of surprise and achieved a breakthrough.  French's hopes for a decisive victory, however, were not realized.  Delay in following up, due in large part to breakdowns in communication, caused the attack to falter after the initial success.  German counterattacks beginning March 12 succeeded in halting the British advance and regaining much of the lost ground.

Prime Minister Herbert Asquith

The British government responded this month to the submarine warfare policy announced last month by Germany.  On March 1, Prime Minister Asquith read a statement in the House of Commons that was sent simultaneously to the capitals of the neutral powers.  Formalized in an Order in Council on March 11, it declared that, because the new German policy "substitutes indiscriminate destruction for regulated captures ... with the avowed object of preventing commodities of all kinds, including food for the civilian population, from reaching or leaving the British Isles or Northern France," the Allies are "driven to frame retaliatory measures in order in their turn to prevent commodities of any kind from reaching or leaving Germany."  The statement acknowledges that the new policies "in some measure involve a departure from previous practice," but states that they will be enforced "without risk to neutral ships or neutral or noncombatant lives, and in strict observation of the dictates of humanity."  "Ships carrying goods of presumed enemy destination, ownership or origin" may be detained and taken into port, but the ships and their cargoes will not be confiscated "unless they would otherwise be liable to confiscation."  In presenting the statement, the Prime Minister said "to our enemy -- on behalf of the Government, and I hope on behalf of the House of Commons -- that under existing conditions there is no form of economic pressure to which we do not consider ourselves entitled to resort.  If, as a consequence, neutrals suffer inconvenience and loss of trade, we regret it, but we beg them to remember that this phase of the war was not initiated by us."

What remains unclear, perhaps even within the British government itself, is how the new policy will be enforced against commerce between neutrals, particularly with the so-called "northern neutrals" (Norway, Sweden, Denmark and the Netherlands).  One thing that is clear is that the March 11 Order in Council represents a firm rejection by the British of the modus vivendi proposed last month by American Secretary of State William Jennings Bryan.

Robert Lansing

The United States responded this month to the British Order in Council.  The note was drafted by State Department Counselor Robert Lansing and revised by President Wilson after comments by Secretary of State Bryan.  Delivered March 30, it pointed out that international law does not permit the blockading of neutral ports (such as Rotterdam), and that the Order in Council in effect claims the traditional rights of a blockading squadron for British naval forces that are not in fact blockading an enemy coast, such as those patrolling between Norway, the Faeroes and Iceland.  The American note goes to some length, however, to avoid a direct confrontation with Great Britain on points of international law.  It states that it assumes the Order in Council's reference to "retaliatory" measures, presumably intended to justify any departure from international law, is meant "as merely a reason for certain extraordinary activities on the part of His Majesty's naval forces and not as an excuse for or prelude to any unlawful action," and that "it is confidently expected that the extensive powers conferred by the order in council [will be exercised] in such a manner as to modify in practical application those provisions of the order in council which, if strictly enforced, would  violate neutral rights and interrupt legitimate trade."

Colonel House

"Colonel" Edward M. House has been in Europe since early last month as President Wilson's unofficial representative.  The first several weeks after his arrival were spent in England, where he and Mrs. House were entertained by the political and social elite.  During his visit, Colonel House had an hour's audience with the king and met extensively with Foreign Minister Sir Edward Grey, but found little encouragement for his attempts at peacemaking.  Grey told House that any settlement must include German evacuation of Belgium and payment of an indemnity.  He rejected House's "freedom of the seas" proposal, that a settlement should include immunity of merchant shipping from attack during wartime, saying that such a rule would deprive Great Britain of its most effective weapon.

On March 11 the Houses left for France on a ferry that sped across the English Channel escorted by a British destroyer.  In Paris Colonel House met with Foreign Minister Theophile Delcasse, but there as in England he found little interest in achieving peace short of victory.  The Houses then traveled by way of neutral Switzerland to Berlin, where the colonel met with Arthur Zimmermann, the Deputy Foreign Secretary.  Zimmermann likewise showed no inclination to negotiate an end to the war.  Even before House left England, Zimmermann had rejected the idea of a settlement based on German withdrawal from Belgium, with or without an indemnity, saying any such settlement would mean "taking as a basis a more or less defeated Germany."

R.M.S. Falaba

On March 28 R.M.S. Falaba, an unarmed British passenger steamship en route from Liverpool to British West Africa, was intercepted off the coast of Wales by a surfaced German submarine.  The U-boat commander gave Falaba ten minutes to put her passengers and crew in lifeboats, then extended the deadline twice.  When an armed British trawler came on the scene while the lifeboats were still being lowered, the submarine fired a torpedo into Falaba, sinking her.  One hundred and four passengers drowned, including one American, a mining engineer named Leon C. Thrasher.  Mr. Thrasher is the first American to lose his life as a result of a German submarine attack.  His death focuses attention on the language of last month's note in which the United States warned Germany that it would be held to "strict accountability" for any naval action destroying "an American vessel or the lives of American citizens."

S.M.S. Dresden in Cumberland Bay

After her escape from the Falkland Islands following the defeat of the German East Asia Squadron in December, the German light cruiser S.M.S. Dresden became the object of an intense search by Royal Navy forces, now commanded by Captain John Luce of H.M.S. Glasgow.  On March 8, H.M.S. Kent sighted Dresden off the coast of Chile.  Dresden ran to Cumberland Bay on the Chilean island of Mas a Tierra, where Kent, joined by Glasgow, found it on March 14 and opened fire.  Dresden returned fire, but after a few minutes hoisted a white flag.  When Captain Luce rejected Dresden's claim that she was interned under the protection of the Chilean government, Dresden's Captain Ludecke ordered his crew to open the sea valves and abandon ship.  Dresden sank twenty minutes later.

Field Marshal Conrad von Hotzendorf

The Austrian fortress of Przemysl, in the Carpathian Mountains of Eastern Galicia, has been under siege by the Russian Army since October.  In January an Austro-Hungarian offensive under the command of Field Marshal Franz Conrad von Hotzendorf began, designed to relieve the besieged fortress and evict the Russians from Galicia.  The campaign failed, stalled by bitter winter weather and a vigorous Russian counter-offensive.  Przemysl surrendered on March 22, and by month's end the Russian Army had succeeded in driving the Austrians from the Carpathians.

Speaker of the House Champ Clark

In the United States, a weary Sixty-third Congress expired on March 4 without passing the administration's Ship Purchase Bill, which would have put the government in the shipping business by authorizing the purchase of merchant ships, including interned German ships, for use in American international trade.  The shipping industry opposed the bill, not welcoming the federal government as a major competitor.  Another major obstacle to passage was that Great Britain, having just succeeded in clearing the seas of German shipping, objected to the potential reappearance of those same ships under a neutral flag.  A Senate filibuster instituted by Republicans was joined by some Democrats in defiance of the administration, and the bill was returned to committee, where it died.  Another bill that failed to pass prior to the expiration of the Congress would have provided for self-government of the Philippines with a view to eventual independence.  On the positive side, Congress passed the Naval Appropriations Bill, authorizing funds for the development of aviation and for ship construction, including seagoing and coast defense submarines, torpedo-boat destroyers, a fuel ship and, last but not least, five super-dreadnought battleships.  The bill also establishes a Naval Reserve, creates a post of Chief of Naval Operations, and authorizes the ranks of Admiral and Vice Admiral for officers in command of the Atlantic, Pacific and Asiatic Fleets.

Former President Roosevelt

With the work of Congress ended, President Wilson turned his attention to the ongoing civil war in Mexico, where President Carranza's forces, led by General Alvaro Obregon, evacuated Mexico City on March 10, urging Americans to do the same.  Revolutionary troops led by Emiliano Zapata and Francisco ("Pancho") Villa occupied the city the next day.  On March 15, under American pressure backed by the threat of military intervention, Carranza withdrew the gunship that had been blockading the port of Progreso on the Yucatan Peninsula.  Former President Theodore Roosevelt weighed in this month with an article in Metropolitan Magazine entitled "Uncle Sam and the Rest of the World."  The article denounces the Wilson administration's inconsistent policy in Mexico, first supporting Villa against Huerta, then abandoning Villa in favor of Carranza, as "fundamentally as evil a declaration as has ever been put forth by an American President in treating foreign affairs."  He calls for a return to "straightforward sincerity in American public life."

Theatrical Poster for "The Birth of a Nation"

For the first time, a major Broadway theater has been used for exhibition of a motion picture film.  "The Birth of a Nation," which opened March 3 at the Liberty Theatre on West 42d Street, was produced and directed by D.W. Griffith.  It is based on "The Clansman," a novel by Thomas Dixon, and tells the story of Reconstruction after the Civil War from the point of view of the defeated South.  As the novel's title suggests, it presents the Ku Klux Klan in a favorable light.  Efforts by the recently formed National Association for the Advancement of Colored People to prevent its showing have been unsuccessful.  Despite protests, thousands have lined up to see it in Los Angeles and New York.  Dixon, a friend and colleague of President Wilson's from his years on the faculty at Johns Hopkins, persuaded the president to attend a private showing in the White House, which took place last month with Wilson's daughters and cabinet members also in attendance.

Charles Francis Adams, Jr.

Charles Francis Adams, Jr., who died March 19, was the great grandson of the second president of the United States, grandson of the sixth, and son of the American minister to Great Britain during the Civil War.  He fought for the Union during the war, rising from the rank of first lieutenant to colonel and brevet brigadier general of volunteers.  After the war he was active in the railroad business, becoming president of the Union Pacific and later a member of the Massachusetts Board of Railway Commissioners.  He was the author of several books, including a biography of his father.

Lincoln Beachey in a Biplane Looping the Loop Over the Exposition

The famous aviator Lincoln Beachey, who thrilled the crowds on the opening day of the Panama Pacific Exposition last month, was thrilling them again on March 14 when his monoplane crashed into San Francisco Bay.  He was performing a maneuver he had accomplished numerous times in a biplane, shutting off his power and dropping vertically before pulling out of his dive at the last second.  As he attempted to pull out this time, the aircraft's wings crumpled and the machine plunged into the water.  His body was recovered over an hour later, still strapped in his seat.

March 1915 – Selected Sources and Recommended Reading

Contemporary Periodicals:

American Review of Reviews, April and May 1915
New York Times, March 1915

Books and Articles:

A. Scott Berg, Wilson
Winston S. Churchill, The World Crisis 1911-1918
John Milton Cooper, Jr., Woodrow Wilson: A Biography
John Milton Cooper, Jr., The Warrior and the Priest: Woodrow Wilson and Theodore Roosevelt

Patrick Devlin, Too Proud to Fight: Woodrow Wilson's Neutrality

David Fromkin, A Peace to End All Peace: Creating the Modern Middle East, 1914-1922
Martin Gilbert, The First World War: A Complete History

Martin Gilbert, A History of the Twentieth Century, Volume One: 1900-1933
Martin Gilbert, Winston S. Churchill Volume III: The Challenge of War, 1914-1916

Richard F. Hamilton and Holger H. Herwig, Decisions for War, 1914-1917

August Heckscher, Woodrow Wilson: A Biography

Godfrey Hodgson, Woodrow Wilson's Right Hand: The Life of Colonel Edward M. House
John Keegan, The First World War
Nicholas A. Lambert, Planning Armageddon: British Economic Warfare and the First World War
Erik Larson, Dead Wake: The Last Crossing of the Lusitania

Arthur S. Link, Wilson: The Struggle for Neutrality, 1914-1915

Arthur S. Link, Woodrow Wilson and the Progressive Era, 1910-1917

Robert K. Massie, Castles of Steel: Britain, Germany, and the Winning of the Great War at Sea
G.J. Meyer, A World Undone: The Story of the Great War, 1914 to 1918

J. Lee Thompson, Never Call Retreat: Theodore Roosevelt and the Great War

Barbara W. Tuchman, The Zimmermann Telegram