Part 2

"The theory of 'frightfulness' in the conduct of warfare which Germany now preaches and practices is no new discovery. On the contrary, it is a very ancient one,--so old, in fact, that long ago it came to be discarded and superseded in European warfare, and passed into the limbo of forgotten things. There, until resurrected by your countrymen, it lay for generations, along with much else that the human race had overcome and left behind in the progress of culture and humanity,--a progress achieved by strenuous toil, sacrifices and suffering in the course of many centuries.

"=And what have you gained from your 'frightfulness'?= Your victories have been due to quite other qualities. =By your 'frightfulness' you have steeled your enemies to the utmost limit of sacrifice; you have embittered neutral opinion; you have disappointed and grieved your friends, and sown dragon's teeth, the offspring of which will arise against you many years, even after the conclusion of peace.="

These are indeed words of wisdom and truth. Even after the conclusion of peace, the exponents of "frightfulness" and the knights of the "skull-cracker" will be accorded a hell of their own.

8. THE BLUNDER AS TO AMERICANS OF GERMAN DESCENT.

One of Germany's colossal blunders was her estimate of the sentiments and principles of German-born people who have made their homes in America, and the American sons and daughters of German-born parents. German statesmen whose criminal wishes shaped their thoughts sincerely believed that the admiration and love of the Kaiser's despotism, including even the military iron heel, was so great that the influence of American liberty, open-hearted hospitality and vast opportunity would count for naught when the Kaiser cracked his whip.

The Simple Simons of Wilhelmstrasse actually believed that in any struggle with America, all Americans of German ancestry necessarily would be traitors to their own hearthstones, and would rise en masse, fully-armed, cobra-like, to strike the government of the United States. Being themselves ruthlessly devoted to the idea of might and conquest, and the merciless subjugation of small and weak nations, they judged their kindred in America by their own rotten standards. They foolishly assumed that a German forty years in America would willingly become a black-hearted traitor to the land that for years had sheltered him, and made much of him,--simply because the ruthless builders of modern Germany had endeavored to keep a grip on him, and had willed that he should obey their orders.

But the people of America made no mistakes of that kind. They recognized that so long as the United States was not at war with Germany, the sympathy of all Americans of German descent would be against the Allies. That was as natural as it is for water to run down hill. But when war with Germany was declared, after a multitude of insults and injuries and too many efforts at avoidance, the native American felt no serious misgiving regarding the great body of Americans of German ancestry. All that they did fear was the crazy possibilities of individual hot-heads; and it was pointed out to German-Americans that the insane and treasonable acts of such irresponsibles might easily involve great masses of perfectly innocent people. The Americans of German descent sternly forbade all such folly by their people, and it will be a pleasure for the historians of these times to record the fact that the German-born Americans have, as a mass, elected to be Americans first, and the others have wisely feared to be openly hostile to the United States.

Except the Anarchists, Socialists and I.W.W's., American ideals have made lasting impressions upon many of our people whose veins contain foreign blood, though not upon all. Young Ernest and Heinrich are in the National Guard, and lads August and Herman are in the Boy Scouts, busy saluting the flag; and all are quite ready to fight for the only home country that they know. They are not in the ranks of the alien malcontents who are organized to fight all American efforts at national defense. But we will deal with that element.

The brutal German government, and the odious Junkers, now frantically lying to the people of Germany and ruthlessly concealing the truth from them, have few allies in the United States save the spies and traitors planted here for spy purposes. There will be no "uprising of Germans" here. The extinguishment by the Providence _Journal_ of the reptilian Bernstorff, the chuckleheaded Boy-Ed, the blundering Papen, and Dumba the easy mark, effectually ended the treasonable plots that aided very materially in opening the chasm between the United States and Germany, and driving the United States whole-heartedly into the war. Dumba has been decorated for his part in all this, and we hope his fellow plotters will be equally appreciated.

But there are some capital blunders that Germany never makes. Her people are an absolute unit, in body, spirit and resources, in backing up the leaders of the nation in the hour of strife and danger. She does not make the mistake of tolerating traitors and assassins at home. If her soldiers mutinied on the firing line, and refused to fight the enemy, as some rotten-hearted Russian soldiers recently have done most disastrously, Germany would not make the mistake of letting one of them live to tell it. In solidarity, unity of purpose and devotion to the nation's policy, the German people are a shining example to America. They are more devoted to a bad cause than our slackers and traitors are to a good one. It is high time for us to teach our traitors some severe lessons; and I warn them, one and all: =Beware!=

And now what about Germany's crimes? In the next chapter, let us see.

II. The Crimes of Germany.

In the affairs of the individual and the state, we hear a lot about "crime" and "criminals"; but it is an idiotic fact that the greatest of all crimes, those committed by nations on a vast scale, rarely are spoken of as crimes, and easily are condoned after the fighting stops. The world calls them either "wars" or "atrocities"; and the men who instigate them never are spoken of as criminals, and never are punished as such. Is it not curious?

Still less is the author of an inexcusable war, or a series of brutal atrocities, hanged, or shot, or even permanently imprisoned for his crimes. What fools these mortals be!

In our civilization, a wife who ends long years of torture by killing a brutal husband, always is tried, sentenced, and either imprisoned for life, or executed. This asinine world is most virtuous in the punishment of weak individuals; but we notice that it rarely tackles the job of meting out real justice to the greatest of all criminals. After this war is over, will any criminal, either at Berlin or Constantinople, be hanged or shot for the deliberate slaughter of 1,500,000 helpless Armenians, or for any of the hideous crimes committed in this war? Not on your life. Mushy-hearted individuals will advise that they be treated "magnanimously," and will urge that we "become friends."

The world has grown hardened to the habit of lumping the crimes and atrocities of organized conflicts together under a short and easy word. "War" is made to cover and gloss over millions of the bloody and malicious crimes of millions of men who ought to be punished according to their deserts. I am thinking of the Kaiser, Stenger, Tirpitz and Hindenberg, and the Young Turks en masse.

The Hague conventions did their utmost to reform the world's war practices, establish an international code of war ethics, and thereby reduce the horrors of armed conflict. But with what results?

Closely following those well-meant and humane efforts, two nations, Germany and Turkey, have given the world a continuous performance of wholesale murder, rape, burnings, drownings and starvation such as the world never before saw, even in the bloodiest days of barbarism. The Turkish crimes in Armenia must be computed in millions, and the wanton murder of a million Armenians is directly chargeable to the rulers of Germany, who deliberately permitted it to be done.

And even now, many good people who refuse to concern themselves with the woes of men and women who are far away, will decry all attempts to punish the Germans and Turks for their crimes. They will talk about "magnanimity in peace terms," and a quick return to ante-bellum friendships. Think of a treaty of friendship with ravishers, and with the murderers of women and children and prisoners!

All sensible men know that the proper punishment of criminals is necessary for the protection of society from wolves and dragons, and for the general welfare of mankind. Unpunished crime always encourages and produces more crime. The world must not mistake softness of head for soundness of heart.

It is indeed high time that criminal nations should be punished for their crimes. Are any nations before the bar of the Court of Nations charged with deliberate and premeditated crimes against helpless humanity?

Yes; two. Germany and Turkey are so accused; and =no power on earth can stop the trial=! Austria comes next.

Let us call first the case of Germany.

In opening the worst of these two cases, we distinctly leave out of our specifications all those acts which may be put down as chargeable to the ordinary and inevitable horrors of war. At the same time we must remember that even the most brutal prize ring has its rules and its ethics, which are rigidly enforced. Even a fighter whose face is being beaten to a pulp may not bite, kick, gouge, or strike below the belt; no, not even when defeat and ruin stare him in the face. The fighting must be "fair," or the decision is at once given to the recipient of the "foul" act.

Until Germany invaded Belgium, and Turkey went to work to exterminate the Armenians, the world supposed that the Christian nations had reformed, that all civilized nations recognized the latest international code of ethics in war, and would live up to it. It was then against the rules of civilized warfare to shoot, stab, burn or beat to death the civilian populations of captured territory, to starve prisoners, to kill prisoners and wounded men, to use expanding bullets, to rape women, to force women to become soldier's prostitutes, to poison wells, to use poison in any form, to destroy maliciously works of art, science and literature; to sink merchant ships at sea without assuring the safety of passengers and crew, and to bombard cities from the air for the slaughter of their helpless civilian inhabitants.

According to a great mass of official records, all of those barbarous, cruel, inhumane and wild-animal acts have been done by Germany, on well-nigh countless occasions. The evidence is thoroughly conclusive. The German soldiers and sailors, both officers and men, are the most cruel and brutal criminals of all the world. In Servia the Austrian record is almost as rotten.

In 1898, Count Goetzen said, regarding the treacherous designs of Germany on France, England and America: "If you do speak of this, =no one will believe you=, and everyone will laugh at you!"

To-day, the American people as a mass do not know more than one one-hundredth part of the crimes of Germany during the past three years. The reason is that it is impossible to place before them the great mass of publications and documents, such as that which now lies before me, that is necessary to convey full knowledge of this ghastly subject. Without this evidence, or at least a lengthy digest of it, the utter depravity of the German Germans is, to a clean and humane American, absolutely incomprehensible. It takes strong nerves to go through these thousands of pages of printed documents, and scores of ghastly pictures, without becoming thoroughly shaken.

It is not a pleasing task to set forth the details of revolting crimes, but it now has become very necessary that all Americans, of South America as well as North, should be shown the true character of the soldiers and civilians of Germany, and the men in high places who have =ordered= and =fostered= the high crimes of the past three years. This is no time to side-step the truth regarding the deadliest foes of human liberty and the rights of man.

By way of illustration. Consider the character of the German crown prince,--the hero(?) of Verdun. When in Zabern the highborn German Captain Forstner beat a lame Alsatian shoemaker with his sword, for being "short" in love for his German masters. When a great outcry was raised outside of Germany, the precious crown-princeling telegraphed the brave and gallant Forstner, "=Fester d'rauf!=" which means "=Hit him again!=" Forstner was promoted, for gallantry on the field, of course. (New York _Times_, July 15.)

In making up this all too brief exposition, I shall set down neither facts nor conclusions save those that are supported by an abundance of evidence such as might well be offered in any court of law. The most damaging evidences of German crimes and atrocities are =those that have been collected from German sources=!

* * * * *

The "peace resolutions" introduced in the German Reichstag say:

"Germany took up arms in defense of its liberty and independence, and for the integrity of its territories."

All the world now knows that both those statements are brazen lies, and that the people of Germany started the war as a war of conquest, and nothing else. But the lying leaders of Germany, including the 70 men of science who signed and sent out their now famous manifesto late in 1914, have for three long years been injecting that falsehood into the ignorant masses of Germany, to make them feel like fighting and going hungry.

No. Germany's whining plea that she is "fighting for her very existence" is no excuse whatever for her diabolical crimes. No one is, or has been, seeking to "destroy" Germany, or anything German, save only her domineering, dangerous and thoroughly accursed military power. Even in the prize ring all such excuses as that are ruled out; and the fear of being beaten in a fight is no excuse for crime, nor even for brutality in method.

One curious psychological fact is to be noted at the very outset. It is this:

The moment the average German dons a military uniform, and becomes a soldier, with deadly weapons in his hands, he is at once transformed as if by magic into a cruel monster. Frequently he becomes a savage and bloodthirsty dragon; and it would be a gross libel on the lower animals to call him a beast. He becomes a stranger to the feelings of the home-loving husband, father, son or churchman. In the name of "Germany," and "war," he is ready to commit any atrocity and write it down, exultingly, in his diary. Ah! those soldier diaries! There is where German efficiency unwittingly provided instruments for the punishment of German crimes.

* * * * *

But the German in uniform is not the only agent of hate and brutality. "The people of Germany" are only one short step behind him. Let every person who doubts this send five cents to the _Saturday Evening Post_, Philadelphia, for its issue of July 14, 1917, and on page 16 read "Englander Schwein" ("English Swine") the diary of Corporal Edwards, of Canada's top regiment, the Princess Patricia's C.L.I., who was captured by the Germans. Read it, if you have in your heart even one soft spot for "the people of Germany."

It is a story of revolting filth inflicted upon refined gentlemen, of three days utterly needless hunger torture inflicted on half-starved men taken out of their cars three times a day, lined up and compelled to watch German soldiers stuffed with food by German women, with "Nein!" "Nein!" to them when they begged for food. It is a story of horribly neglected wounds, arms rotting off, slow starvation in the prison camp on food consisting of 200 gallons of water to one small bag of potatoes, and so forth.

Of the murders and mutilations in the trenches there is not time to speak. But read this account of the treatment the Canadians received along the railway from the women of Germany,--even "gentlewomen":

"The mob surged around us, heaping on us insults and blows; =particularly the women=. They spat on us, with hate in their eyes. We had to take that, or the bayonet. These were the acts not only of the rabble, =but also of the people of good appearance and address=. One very well-dressed woman came rushing up. Under other circumstances I would have judged her to be a gentlewoman. She was screaming invectives at us as she forced her way through the crowd. 'Schwein!' she screamed, and struck at the man next me. =Then, drawing deep from the very bottom of her lungs, she spat the mass full in his face.="

* * * * *

In essaying to give in one article even an outline sketch of the crimes of Germany, one is perplexed by the many different kinds of atrocities, and the great mass of instances and proofs bearing upon them. Out of it all there thrusts up the ugly fact, like a spear from a pile of corpses, that many of these crimes were committed intentionally, with malice aforethought, and often were deliberately =ordered by German officers, both high and low=. For example:

General Stenger issued a printed order to kill all the wounded;

Bissing was the refined torturer of all Belgium, in many orders;

Manteuffel was the chief murderer at Louvain;

Bulow and Schonmann were the wild beasts of Ardenne;

And it was Bayer at Dinant, Bohn at Sommerfeld and Termonde; Nieher at Wavre; Wittenstein at Clermont-en-Argonne, and so on until you are tired.

1. THE MURDER OF CIVILIANS.

This flourishing German industry began at Louvain, at the very outbreak of the war, and has continued right down to the present. It is astounding to see how quickly murders began, with the most revolting brutality, immediately after the Germans entered Belgium! Sometimes the excuse was made that "Mann hat geschossen",--that "civilians have fired";--and then the indiscriminate slaughter began.

The thick volume of "Evidence" taken by the Bryce Commission on the German Atrocities is crowded full of testimony; and so are many subsequent publications of the British and French governments. The stories written down in their diaries by German soldiers are both terrible and amazing. In an uncountable number of villages old men, old women, boys, girls, women and children were shot by dozens and by hundreds; and hundreds were stabbed to death by bayonets.

There are sickening accounts, from eye-witness testimony, of German soldiers =bayoneting children= and girls, but the most spectacular crime of that kind was committed at Malaines (d4, Bryce Evidence), when a German soldier walking down the main street, singing, "drove his bayonet with both hands through a living child's stomach, lifting the child into the air on his bayonet, and carrying it away on his bayonet, he and his comrades still singing." (Page 82.)

In the village of Sempst, an Uhlan cut off the breast of a woman with his sword; and a little boy was burned to death in an attic. (K. 33.) At Aerschot a girl of 18 or 20 was found "absolutely naked, with her abdomen cut open", and "her body covered with bruises, showing that she had made a struggle." Jack the Ripper in a spiked helmet!

And again at Aerschot (C. 38) did the German Jack get in his work on another girl of 18. She was found (dead) with "her arms nailed to the door in extended fashion, ... her left breast cut away, and numerous bayonet wounds in the chest, some piercing through to the back." (Told by a Belgian soldier, who helped to recapture the place.)

A British subject saw on September 15, 1914, in the Wetteren Hospital, a girl of 11 from Alost with 17 bayonet thrusts in her back, "practically flayed, and at the point of death." (F. 13.) "Out of the 1300 inhabitants of Noumeny, at least 150 were killed (murdered) by the Germans." (French Police Report, Aug. 24, 1914.)

This list could be extended by hundreds of other cases; and a long chapter could be filled with such instances as the above. Geographically they reach all the way from Louvain to the beginning of the great German defeat before Paris.

In order to form estimates of what the quiet little country villages of New England might expect if the armed wolves and mad dogs of Germany ever gained a foothold here, let us consider a few figures compiled from official reports and published by the _Illustrated London News_. They relate solely to the murder of unarmed, inoffensive civilians--old men, women, girls, boys and children.

In Brabant 897 persons shot or bayoneted. In Luxembourg Province, over 1,000 " " " " At Arlon 119 " " " " Dinant Arrondissement (Fr.) 606 killed, from 3 weeks to 77 years old. Neufchatel 18 shot. Etalle 30 " Hondemont 11 " Tintiguy 157 " Izele 10 " Rossignol 106 " Bertrix 21 " Ethe about 300 shot; "530 in all missing." Latour only 17 men left. Maissin 12 shot, 1 a young girl. Aloy 52 men and women shot. Claireuse 2 men hanged.

--and so on, indefinitely. On the most trivial pretexts, or none at all, the Germans slaughtered unresisting non-combatants who were in their power. Out of a lot of 40 German soldier diaries, only 6 express disapproval or disgust, and at least 30 diaries treat murders either exultingly or as being merely a part of the day's work.

The slaughtered innocents of Belgium, France, Servia and Poland would, in each of those countries, undoubtedly run far up into thousands if it were possible to count them.

Thanks to the diligence of the British and French governments in collecting evidence now while evidence is procurable, there is already enough printed testimony to damn Germany in the eyes of the world for at least two centuries.

2. KILLING OF PRISONERS AND WOUNDED MEN BY GERMANS.

The crimes of Germany under this head have been literally innumerable. Judging by German, French, Belgian and English evidence, it seems as if German soldiers have slaughtered probably 100,000 defenseless prisoners and wounded men. Prof. J.H. Morgan states that von der Goltz, the evil genius of Turkey, "predicted some years ago that the next war would be one of inconceivable violence"; and he declares that "the Germans have no sense of honor in the field." He was hideously correct.

German prisoner murder began before Antwerp on October 6, 1914, when the Captain of the 85th Regt. IXth Corps, 4th Company, said to his men: "=I do not want to see any Englishmen prisoners in the hands of this company!=" To which the company cried, "=Bravo!=" And Richard Gerhold, 71st Regiment Reserve, 4th Army Corps (killed in September, 1914), wrote in his precious diary thus: "Great atrocities are =of course= committed upon Englishmen and Belgians. =Every one of them is now knocked on the head without mercy.="

The famous Stenger order of August 26, 1914, brings us to a capital case. A German Brigadier-General, Stenger by name, issued this written order to his brigade:

"=To date from this day, no prisoners will be made any longer. All the prisoners will be executed. The wounded, whether armed or defenseless, will be executed. Prisoners, even in large and compact formations, will be executed. Not a man will be left alive behind us.="

The instances of the murder of helpless prisoners by Germans are far too numerous to be cited in detail. Beyond reasonable doubt, a hundred thousand soldiers were murdered on the Stenger basis.