MORE SOLDIERS SENT TO FRANCE.—­As the troops in the various camps and cantonments were trained they were sent to ports on the eastern coast and embarked for France, their places in camp being taken by new groups of drafted men.  Beginning with fifty or sixty thousand each month, the number sent abroad was rapidly increased until by the fall of 1918 the troops were going over at the rate of more than three hundred thousand a month.  By October 15 there were over two million of our soldiers in France and another million and more under training in this country.

DECREASE IN SUBMARINE SINKINGS.—­The Germans had boasted in vain that their submarines would prevent the transportation of American troops to Europe.  Of the hundreds of transports engaged in this work, up to November, 1918, only two were sunk while on the eastward voyage, and less than 300 American soldiers were drowned.  Moreover, during the year 1918 there was a notable decrease in the destruction of merchant vessels by submarines.  This was due probably to a variety of causes, but especially to the increased protection provided by the convoy system, and to the more efficient methods of fighting the submarines.

It has been found that it is possible to see a submarine at some distance below the surface if the observer is in a balloon or an airplane.  Therefore the submarine hunters do not need to wait for the submarine to show itself.  The sea is patrolled by balloons and airplanes in conjunction with fast destroyers.  When the aircraft has located a submarine, the fact is signaled to a destroyer.  When the destroyer arrives over the submarine, it drops a depth bomb, which is arranged to explode after it has sunk to any desired depth in the water.

It is believed that the submarines are being destroyed faster than Germany can build them, and also that it is increasingly difficult for Germany to obtain the highly trained crews necessary to manage the complex machinery of a submarine.  For it must be remembered that the circumstances under which submarines are destroyed almost always involve the loss of the crew.

SUBMARINES RAID THE ATLANTIC COAST.—­Unable to face the convoys of transports, several submarines paid visits to our coast in the summer of 1918, and destroyed a considerable number of unarmed vessels, mostly small craft.  Many of the victims, indeed, were very small fishing boats, which are, by international agreement, exempt from capture or destruction.

GERMAN PROPAGANDA.—­Before the United States entered the war, our people were divided in their sympathies between the Central Powers and the Allies.  Those who believed that Germany was right were chiefly people of German birth or descent, though a large majority even of this group did not believe in the things for which Germany was fighting.