nders-in-chief.

35. This armistice to be accepted or refused by Germany within
seventy-two hours of notification.

CHAPTER LIV

PEACE AT LAST

War came upon the world in August, 1914, with a suddenness and an impact
that dazed the world. When it seemed, in 1918, that mankind had
habituated himself to war and that the bloody struggle would continue
until the actual exhaustion and extinction of the nations involved,
peace suddenly appeared. The debacle of the Teutonic alliance was both
dramatic and unexpected, except to those who knew how desperate were the
conditions in the nations that were battling for autocracy. Bulgaria was
first to crumble, then Turkey fell, and Austria-Hungary deserted
Germany. The Kaiser and his military advisers, left alone, appealed to
the Allies through President Wilson, for an armistice during which peace
terms might be negotiated. Prince Maximilian of Baden, a statesman whose
liberal ideas were rumored rather than demonstrated, was chosen to open
negotiations. President Wilson, acting in concert with the Allies,
referred Prince Maximilian to Marshal Foch.

While negotiations were pending, a cabled message was received on
November 7th to the effect that the armistice had been signed and that
all soldiers would cease fighting on two o'clock of that afternoon. It
was a false report, but it spread with incredible speed throughout the
country. Celebrations which included virtually every American, made the
country a gala place for twenty-four hours. The American people with
characteristic good nature laughed at the hoax next day and settled down
in patience to await the inevitable declaration of an armistice.

The true report arrived about three o'clock, Eastern time, in the
morning of November 11th. Shrieks of whistles, the booming of cannon,
and the clangor of bells, awoke millions of sleeping persons, many of
whom trooped into the streets to mingle their rejoicings with those of
their neighbors. For a day there was high carnival in town and country
throughout the land, then the nation settled down to face the imminent
problems of reconstruction.

One of these had to do with the immediate reduction of governmental
expenditures during the approaching year. President Wilson had appealed
to the voters to elect a Democratic Congress as an evidence of approval
for his administration. The reply was a Republican House of
Representatives and a Republican Senate.

The Congress that had been