seventeenth
assured popular election of Senators. The eighteenth made prohibition
national. The nineteenth, following upon the adoption of woman suffrage
in many states, enfranchised the women of the nation.

In the sphere of industry, equally great changes took place. The major
portion of the nation's business passed into the hands of corporations.
In all the leading industries of the country labor was organized into
trade unions and federated in a national organization. The power of
organized capital and organized labor loomed upon the horizon. Their
struggles, their rights, and their place in the economy of the nation
raised problems of the first magnitude.

While the country was engaged in a heated debate upon its domestic
issues, the World War broke out in Europe in 1914. As a hundred years
before, American rights upon the high seas became involved at once. They
were invaded on both sides; but Germany, in addition to assailing
American ships and property, ruthlessly destroyed American lives. She
set at naught the rules of civilized warfare upon the sea. Warnings from
President Wilson were without avail. Nothing could stay the hand of the
German war party.

After long and patient negotiations, President Wilson in 1917 called
upon the nation to take up arms against an assailant that had in effect
declared war upon America. The answer was swift and firm. The national
resources, human and material, were mobilized. The navy was enlarged, a
draft army created, huge loans floated, heavy taxes laid, and the spirit
of sacrifice called forth in a titanic struggle against an autocratic
power that threatened to dominate Europe and the World.

In the end, American financial, naval, and military assistance counted
heavily in the scale. American sailors scoured the seas searching for
the terrible submarines. American soldiers took part in the last great
drives that broke the might of Germany's army. Such was the nation's
response to the President's summons to arms in a war "for democracy" and
"to end war."

When victory crowned the arms of the powers united against Germany,
President Wilson in person took part in the peace council. He sought to
redeem his pledge to end wars by forming a League of Nations to keep the
peace. In the treaty drawn at the close of the war the first part was a
covenant binding the nations in a permanent association for the
settlement of international disputes. This treaty, the President offered
to