of the Prince of Monaco, and the records of the
Potsdam council over which the Kaiser presided, secretly convened one
week after the murder of the Prince. There were present the generals,
diplomats and bankers of Germany.

DECISION FOR WAR.

The matter of possible war was carefully considered. To the earnest
question of the emperor, all present assured him that the interests they
represented were ready, with the exception of the financiers who desired
two weeks' time in which to make financial arrangements for the coming
storm. This was given them, and the council adjourned. The emperor, to
divert suspicion, hurried off on a yachting trip while the financiers
immediately commenced disposing of their foreign securities. The stock
markets of London, Paris, and New York during that interval of time bear
eloquent testimony to the truth of these assertions. Two weeks and three
days after the council adjourned, Austria sent her ultimatum to Serbia.
The truth of these statements is vouched for by Henry Morgenthau,
American ambassador to Turkey.

Thus were unleashed the dogs of war. For four long years they rioted in
blood. To advance dynastic ambitions and national greed, millions of
Armenian Christians were tortured, outraged and murdered; hapless
Belgians were ravished and put to the sword, their cities made charnal
heaps; millions of men--the fairest sons of many lands--gave up their
lives, and anguished hearts sobbed out their grief in desolated homes,
while generations to come will feel the crushing financial burdens this
struggle has entailed with its heritage of woe.

We must now gain a general view of the events of the war. Every
well-informed man or woman feels the necessity of such outline
knowledge. It was not only the greatest war in history, but it was our
war. Our liberties were threatened. Rivers and hamlets of France are
invested with new interest. There, our American boys are sleeping; they
died that our Republic might live. We may regard the annals of other
wars with languid interest; those of this war grip our hearts, our
breath comes quicker as we read; we experience a glow of patriotic
pride. We shall let each year of the war tell its story. Of necessity we
can only record the main events, the peaks of each year's achievements.

EVENTS OF 1914.

A state of war was declared to exist in Germany, July 31, 1914. Four
days later Germany had mobilized five large armies with full supplies on
the exten