(p^^ 
 
626 
 G3 H63 
 
 If you would help save this country from even greater horrors than Belgium 
 and France have suffered, then buy Liberty Loan Bonds. 
 
 Rev. Newell Dwight HiUis' 
 
 Picture of Germany "^s War Plans 
 
 and 
 
 Her Atrocities in Belgium 
 
 and France 
 
 Reprinted from MANUFACTURERS RECORD, October 18, 1917 
 
 Dr. Newell Dwight Hillis, one of America's foremost ministers, pastor of 
 Plymouth Church in Brooklyn, spent July and August in a personal investiga- 
 tion of the battlefields of France and Belgium from which the Germans had 
 been expelled, in order to learn for himself the exact conditions prevailing and 
 to find out whether all of the reports of German atrocities would be confirmed 
 by this personal study. The following pages tell the story . 
 
 Manufacturers Record Publishing Co 
 BALTIMORE. MD. 
 
 Price of this Pamphlet: 
 $3.00 Per Hundred. 
 Single Copies 5 Cents. 
 
 / 
 
HERE SPEAKS A MAN 
 
 OTTO H. KAHN, THE GREAT BANKER OF GERMAN BIRTH, TELLS HOW 
 GERMANY SOLD ITS SOUL TO THE DEVIL 
 
 [Otto H. Kahn, head of Kuhn, Loeb & Co. of New York, one of the foremost inter- 
 national banking-houses of the world, is of German descent, and his house has long been 
 intimately identified with German finance. From the beginning of the European war 
 he saw its true meaning, and even then believed that this was our war as well as 
 Europe's. If any confirmation were needed of what Dr. Hillls has said and the reasons 
 therefor as to the downward road to moral degradation which for 25 years Germany has 
 been pursuing, of the fearful atrocities committed, of its plans for world domination, 
 and of the fact that from the very beginning our own safety demanded that we stand 
 by the side of the Allies, it would be found in this speech of this eminent international 
 banker of German descent who has known Germany intimately. — Editor Manufacturers 
 Record.] 
 
 Brief extracts from Mr. Kahn: 
 
 speech published in full in the Manufacturers Record of 
 September 27, 1917. 
 
 I speak as oue who has seen the spirit of the Prussiau 
 governing class at work from close by, having at its 
 disposal and using to the full practically every agency 
 for molding the public mind. 
 
 I have watched it proceed with relentless persistency 
 and profound cunning to instill into the nation the 
 demoniacal obsession of power-worship and world- 
 dominion, to modify and pervert the mentality, indeed 
 the very fiber and moral substance of the German 
 people — a people which until misled, corrupted and sys- 
 tematically poisoned by the Prussian ruling caste, was, 
 and deserved to be, an honored, valued and welcome 
 member of the family of nations. 
 
 I have hated and loathed that spirit ever since it came 
 within my ken many years ago, bated it all the more as 
 I saw it ruthlessly pulling down a thing which was dear 
 to me, the old Germany, to which I was linked by ties 
 of blood, by fond memories and cherished sentiments. 
 
 The difference in the degree of guilt as between the 
 German people and their Prussian or Prussianized 
 rulers and leaders for the monstrous crime of this war 
 and the atrocious barbarism of its conduct is the differ- 
 ence between the man who, acting under the influence 
 of a poisonous drug, runs amuck in mad frenzy and the 
 unspeakable malefactor who administered that drug, 
 well knowing and fully intending the ghastly conse- 
 quences which were bound to follow. 
 
 From each of my visits to Germany for twenty- 
 five years I came away more appalled by the sinis- 
 ter transmutation Prussianism had wrought amongst 
 the people and by the portentous menace I recog- 
 nized in it for the entire world. 
 
 It had given to Germany unparalleled prosperity, 
 beneficent and advanced social legislation and not 
 a few other things of value, but it had taken in 
 payment the soul of the race. It had made a 
 "devil's bargain." 
 
 And when this war broke out in Europe I knew that 
 the issue had been joined between the powers of brutal 
 might and insensate ambition on the one side and the 
 forces of humanity and liberty on the other, between 
 darkness and light. 
 
 The duty of loyal allegiance and faithful service to 
 his country, even unto death, rests, of course, upon 
 every American. 
 
 But, if it be possible to speak of a comparative de- 
 gree concerning what is the highest as it is the most 
 elementary attribute of citizenship, that duty may 
 almost be said to rest with an even more solemn and 
 compelling obligation upon Americans of foreign origin 
 than upon native Americans. 
 
 For, we Americans of foreign antecedents are here 
 not by the accidental right of birth, but by our own 
 free choice for better or for worse. 
 
 Woe to the German-American, so-called, who in this 
 sacred war for a cause as high as any for which ever 
 people took up arms, does not feel a solemn urge, does 
 not show an eager determination to be in the very fore- 
 front of the struggle, does not prove a patriotic jeal- 
 ousy, in thought, in action and in speech, to rival and 
 to outdo his native-born fellow-citizen in devotion and 
 in willing sacrifice for the country of his choice and 
 adoption and sworn allegiance and of their common 
 ;iffection and pride. 
 
 He who shirks the full measure of his duty and 
 allegiance in that noblest of causes, be he German- 
 American, Irish-American, or any other hyphenated 
 American, be he I. W. W. or Socialist or whatever 
 the appellation, does not deserve to stand amongst 
 Americans or indeed amongst free men anywhere. 
 
 He who, secretly or overtly, tries to thwart the 
 declared will and aim of the nation in this holy 
 war is a traitor, and a traitor's fate should be his. 
 
-^^l 
 
 Rev. Newell Dwight Hillis' Picture of Germany's War Plans 
 and Her Atrocities in 
 
 ■"J'l'rrorisni is a priueiiile iiiudo necessary by militaiy 
 considerations." — General Von Ilartmann. 
 
 "Strike him dead. The Day of Judgment will :isU 
 you no questions." — Inscription on the nhiininiiin token 
 carried by the German soldier. 
 
 Kvery American who has passed through l'"niuce and 
 the edge of Belgium this year has returned home a per- 
 manently saddened man. German cruelty and French 
 agony have cut a bloody gash in the heart, and there 
 is no Dakin solution that can heal the wound. Here 
 upon this pulpit rests a reproduction of an iron coin 
 given as a token to each German soldier. At the top 
 is a German portrait of Diety, and underneath are 
 these words: "The good old German God." To en- 
 courage the German soldier to cruelty and atrocity 
 against Belgians and French the Diety holds a weapon 
 in his right hand, and to dull his conscience and steel 
 his heart to murder the token holds these words: 
 "Smite your enemy dead. The day of Judgment will 
 not ask you for your reasons." To this native character- 
 istic Goethe was referring when he said : "The Prus- 
 sian is naturally cruel ; civilization will intensify that 
 cruelty and make him a savage." The German atroci- 
 ties of the last three years simply illustrate Goethe's 
 words, for we must confess that Gorman c(R<ieiu y 
 reached its highest point in the discovery of new ami 
 horrible devices for torturing old men, helpless women 
 and little children. 
 
 For three years German-Americans have proteste I 
 that the stories of German atrocities were to be dis- 
 believed as English inventions, Belgian lies and French 
 hypocrisies, but that day has gone by forever. When the 
 representatives of the nations assemble for the final 
 settlement, there will be laid before the representatives 
 of Germany affidavits, photographs, with other legal 
 proofs that make the German atrocities to be tar better 
 established than the scaplings of the Sioux Indians on 
 the Western frontiers, the murders in the Black Hole 
 of Calcutta or the crimes of the Spanish Inquisition. 
 <Jn a battle line 300 miles in length, in whatsoever vil- 
 lage the retreating Germans passed, the following morn- 
 ing accredited men hurried to the scene to make the 
 record against the day of judgment. The photographs 
 of dead and mutilated girls, children and old men tell 
 no lies. Jurists rank high two forms of testimony — the 
 testimony of what mature men have seen and heard and 
 the testimony of children too innocent to invent their 
 statements, but old enough to tell what they saw. 
 
 For the first time in history the German has reduced 
 savagery to a science ; therefore, this great war for peace 
 must go on until the Oermnn cancer is cut clean out 
 of the body. 
 
 Belgium and France. 
 
 The cold calaloj^ue of German atrocities no\» docu- 
 mented and in the government archives of the different 
 nations makes up the most sickening page in history. 
 Days spent upon the records preserved in Southern Bel- 
 gium, Northern France or in and about Paris, days 
 spent in the ruined villages of ALsace and Lorraine, 
 leave one nauseated, physically and mentally. It is one 
 long, black series of legally-documented atrocities. 
 Kvery solemn pledge that Germany signed a year and 
 a half before at the Hague Convention as to safeguard- 
 ing the Ued Cross, hospitals, cathedrals, libraries, 
 women and children and unarmed citizens are scoffed 
 at as a "scrap of paper." These atrocities also were 
 committed not in a mood of d"unkenness nor an hour 
 of anger, but were organized by a so-called German effi- 
 ciency and perpetrated on a deliberate, cold, precise, 
 scientific policy of German frightfulness. It is not 
 simply that they looted factories, carried away machin- 
 ery, robbed houses, bombed every farm houso and 
 granary, left no plough nor reaper, chopped down every 
 pear tree and plum tree with every grapevine and 
 poisoned all wells ! The Germans slaughtered old men 
 and matrons, mutilated captives in ways that can only 
 be spoken of by men in whispers ; violated little girls 
 until they were dead; finding a calfskin nailed upon a 
 barn door to be dried, they nailed a babe beside it and 
 wrotu beneath the word "Zwei" ; they thrust women and 
 cliililrrri hctwien themselves and soldiers coming up t» 
 (1. f.ii.i iliiir niitive land; bombed and looted hospitals. 
 U.fl (r.iss hnildings; violated the white flag— while the 
 worst atrocities cannot even be named in this mixed 
 audience. 
 
 The Kaiser Branded His People as "Huns." 
 
 No one understands the German iieopie as well as 
 the Kaiser. Our President, in a spirit of magnanimity, 
 patience and good-will, distinguished between the Kaiser 
 and the Prussian Government, and over against them 
 put the German people. But Germany's Chambers of 
 Commerce, Hamburg's Board of Trade and certain 
 popular assemblies would have none of this, and in 
 the fury of their anger passed resolutions, saying: 
 "What our Government is we arc. Their acts are our 
 acts. Their deeds and military plans are our plans." 
 Knowing his people through and through, the Kaiser 
 called his soldiers before him and gave them this charge : 
 "Make yourselves more frightful than the Huns under 
 Atilla. See that for a thousand years no enemy men- 
 tions the very name of 'Germany' without shuddering." 
 Why do the German people say they feel so terribly 
 because the authors of the world call them "Huns" and 
 "barbarians?" Who named them "Huns'/" Their 
 Kaiser. Who christened them barbarians? Their 
 
Kaiser. Who likened tlae German soldiers to blood- 
 hounds held upon the leash by the Kaiser's thong as they 
 strained upon the leash with bloody jaws, longing to 
 tear their French and Belgian prey? With bloody 
 fingers the Kaiser said : "I baptize thee 'Hun' and 
 'barbarian.' " Let the Kai-ser's words stand — "For a 
 thousand years no man shall speak the word 'IIuu' 
 without shuddering." 
 
 All wise men trace deeds, wicked or good, back to 
 the philosophic thinking of the doer, just as they trace 
 bitter water back to a poisoned spring. What the in- 
 dividual or the nation thinks in his heart, that he does 
 in the life. Judas thinks in terms of avarice and greed, 
 and his philosophy results in treason and murder. The 
 Kaiser. Nietzsche, Von Bethmann-HoUweg, Von Bissing 
 and Plauss think and teach the theory of iron force, 
 the right of big Germany to loot little Belgium or Norfh 
 France and drill them in the belief that Germany's 
 right is the right of the lion over the lamb, and that no 
 questions will be asked by a just God on the Day of 
 Judgment. 
 
 This war began in a conference in the Potsdam 
 Palace in 1892. The pamphlet distributed by the 
 Kaiser begins with these words: "The Pan-German 
 Empire : From Hamburg on the North Sea to the Per- 
 sian Gulf. Our immediate goal : 2.50,000,000 of people. 
 Our ultira?ite goal : the Germanization of all the world." 
 The explanation of the Kaiser contains these words : 
 "From childhood I have been under the influence of 
 five men— Alexander, Julius Caesar, Tneodoric II, 
 Frederick the Great, Napoleon. Each of these men 
 dreamed a dream of world empire — they failed. I am 
 dreaming a dream of the German World Empire — and 
 my mailed fist shall succeed." He printed one map 
 headed "The Roman Empire," with all the great states 
 captured and their capitals— Athens, Ephesus, Jeru- 
 salem, Alexandria, Carthage — reduced to county-seat 
 towns, paying tribute to Uotne. But the Kaiser prints 
 side by side with that map another world map, with 
 Berlin the capital; and by 1915 St. Petersburg. Paris 
 and London were to be county-seat towns, subdued 
 provinces of Germany — and Washington and Ottowa 
 were to follow, with the word "Germania" stamped on 
 the United States and Canada. That is why the Kaiser 
 told Mr. Gerard : "After this war I shall not stand any 
 nonsense from the United States.!' The President 
 heard, but he did not tremble. 
 
 The originator of this world war was the Kaiser: 
 Treitschke was its historian: Nietzsche its philosopher ; 
 A'on Bissing and Von Hindenbiirg its executives. The 
 murder of Edith Cavell, hundreds of women and chil- 
 dren on the Lusitania, the rape of Belgium, the assas- 
 sination of Northern France, were the outer exhibition 
 in deeds of the inner philosophy of force. Their great 
 master, whom they celebrate and never tire of praising, 
 Nietzsche, judges Germany aright. On page 38, in his 
 Ecce Homo, Nietzsche says: "Wherever Germany ex- 
 
 tends her sway she ruins culture." On page 124 of 
 the same volume he says : "I feel it my duty to tell 
 the Germans that every crime against culture lies on 
 their conscience." By "culture" Nietzsche means paint- 
 ing, sculpture, cathedrals, international laws, the Athen- 
 ian sweetness, reasonableness and light. "Germany's 
 goal should be a super-Hercules or Goliath, with the 
 club. Germany has no gift for culture of the intellect. 
 As to that there is no other culture beside France." 
 
 Consider the reflex influence of Germany's philosophy 
 of militarism upon her statesmen and diplomats. In 
 pne of his greatest speeches Edmund Burke speaks of 
 "the peculiar sanctity attaching to the word of a for- 
 eign minister." From Phocion to John Hay prime 
 ministers have been jealous of their pledges. Lincoln 
 speaks of the failure of a government to make good its 
 word as "a crime against civilization." Business men 
 scoflE at the trickster, who does not count his written 
 pledge more precious than life itself. 
 
 With the standards of civilized states in mind, recall 
 the intellectual and moral atrocities of the Kaiser and 
 Bethmann-Hollweg. In 1911 the German Eoreign 
 Ofliee reaffirmed the Treaty with England and France 
 to observe the neutrality of Belgium in the event of 
 war with France. On July 31, 1914, the Kaiser's 
 Prime Slinister telegraphed Lord Grey that Germany 
 would of course keep her treaty obligations as to Bel- 
 gium. The French and English governments now have- 
 full knowledge of the conference between the Austrian 
 Emperor and the Kaiser at the Potsdam Palace on July 
 5. with the agreement to launch the vv'ar August 1. 
 When the war proclamation was delayed until August 3, 
 the Kaiser's representative used this sentence in his 
 speech in the Reichstag: "We must not postpone the 
 agreement entered into with Austria at the conference 
 of July 5." For more than three weeks, therefore, 
 before war was declared Germany and Austria were 
 preparing cannon, guns, equipment, and as soon as the 
 last buckle was on the harness and the last rifle in the 
 hands of the soldiers, on August 3, war was declared. 
 Then Bethmann-Hollweg sent out this statement to 
 the world as to why the Kaiser and himself counted an 
 international treaty a "scrap of paper." 
 
 He said : "As to Belgium — we are now in a state of 
 necessity, and necessity knows no law. The wrong — I 
 speak openly — that we are committing we will endeavor 
 to make good as soon as our military goal has been 
 reached. We have now only one thought — how to hack 
 the way through." So the international burglar's excuse 
 is that he must hack his way through the neighbor's 
 house and kill his family because that house stands be- 
 tween himself and the Frenchman's vault whose gold 
 he wants to steal ! 
 
 That is why our President, answering the Pope, said 
 that no treaty signed by the Kaiser and his government 
 means anything. And here is Bernstorflf. German Am- 
 bassador in Washington, who forgets that cannibals 
 
1111(1 savngos, ivoii, consider ihnt enliiig salt in anolini- 
 Indian's tent or white man's house is a pledge o£ Irnth ; 
 while this Jndas Aniboaandor dines nt tlie White House 
 111 night and goes on plotting seditions in Mexico, blow- 
 ing up of our munition factories and the killing of our 
 people. Hernstorff smiled and smiled as he kept one 
 hand above the table and in the other hand under the 
 lahle whetted a dagger on his boots with which to stab 
 his host in the back. 
 
 Witness the discovery of treachery to Norway two 
 iiKiiitlis ago. After several Norweigiaii stoaniers had 
 been mysteriously sunk at sea the (Jeriiian Consul was 
 round traveling back and forth from the Foreign Office 
 ill Berlin, filling his trunk with bombs and glass tubes 
 containing the cultures of glanders to spread one of 
 the most deadly diseases, to annihilate men, horses and 
 cattle, and protecting these instruments of death by 
 the seals of the Berlin Foreign Office. The substance 
 of Germany's answer to Norway's protest was the 
 sneering answer: "What are you going to do about it?" 
 While Germany's Ambassador to the ArgentineRepublic, 
 advising the sinking of Argentine ships so as to leave 
 no trace behind is a part of the same cunning, devilish, 
 German diplomacy that exhibits these German Ambas- 
 sadors as a composite Judas, Macchiavelli and Mephis- 
 topholes, united and carried up to the nth power of 
 (liiibolism. No w^ondir llie Kaiser baptized them "Huns" 
 and "barbarians!" 
 
 German Philosophy Degrades German Officers and 
 Soldiers. 
 
 (iflicers and men. Later on I shall give a detailed ac- 
 count of the devastated regions of Northern France, 
 but here and now let us confine the observations to the 
 ruined villages and towns of Eastern France. Pulling 
 his iron token out of his pocket— that exhibited Deity 
 as a destroying soldier — the German officer and private 
 reads the words beneath : "Smite your enemy dead. 
 The Day of Judgment will not ask you for your rea- 
 sons." Having, therefore, full liberty to loot, these 
 (iermans became the wild beasts. The plan had been 
 "Brussels in one week, Paris in two weeks, London in 
 two months." and then two pockets filled with rings, 
 bracelets and watches from Paris or Nancy for the 
 sweethearts at home. 
 
 When the German army in Lorraine was defeated 
 liy one-half its number, it tell northward, passing 
 ilirough French towns and villages where there were no 
 Frenchmen, no guns, and where no shots were fired. 
 During July and August we went slowly from one 
 ruined town to another, talking with the women and 
 the children, comparing the photographs and the full 
 official records made at the time with the statements 
 of the poor, wretched survivors, who lived in cellars 
 whi-rc once there had been beautiful houses, orchards, 
 vineyards — but now was only desolation. 
 
 Ill tJerbevillier, standing beside their graves, I 
 studied the photograph of the bodies of l.") old men 
 whom the Germans lined up and shot because there 
 were no young soldiers to kill ; heard the detailed story 
 of a woman whose son was first hung to a pear tree 
 in the garden, and when the officer and soldier had left 
 him and were busy setting fire to the next house, she 
 cut the rope, revived the strangled youth, only to find 
 the .soldiers had returned, and while the officer held 
 her hands behind her back, his assistant poured petrol 
 on the son's head and clothes, set fire to him and, while 
 he staggered about, a flaming torch, they shrieked with 
 laughter. When they had burned all the houses and 
 retreated, the next morning, the prefect of Lorraine 
 reached that Gethesmaiie and photographed the bodies 
 of 30 aged men lying as they fell, the bodies of women 
 stripped and at last slain. 
 
 In the next village stood the ruined square belfry 
 into which the Germans had lifted machine guns, then 
 forced every woman and child — 275 in number — into 
 the little church, and notified the French soldiers that 
 if they fired upon the machine guns, they would kill 
 their own women and children. After several days' 
 hunger and thirst, at midnight these brave women 
 slipped a little boy through the church window and bade 
 their husbands fire upon the Germans in the belfry, 
 saying they preferred death to the indignities they were 
 suffering. And so these Frenchmen turned their guns, 
 and in blowing that machine gun out of the belfry 
 killed 20 of their own wives and children. In a hun- 
 dred years of history, where shall you find a record of 
 any other race, who call themselves civilized, who are 
 such sneaking cowards that they could not fight like 
 men or play the game fairly, but in their chattering ter- 
 ror put women and little children before them as a 
 shield. 
 
 Proof overwhelming. Here are. in brief, the records 
 of more than a thousand individual atrocities that go 
 with the original photographs, affidavits and documents 
 resting in the archives of France against the day of 
 reckoning. What is more important still, here are the 
 letters taken from the bodies of dead German soldiers 
 with their diaries. Out of the large number, note 
 these : Photographs of the dead bodies of aged priests, 
 some of whom were dead because they had been staked 
 down and used as a lavatory until they perished. Dead 
 girls, with breasts cut off — and for this reason : every 
 German soldier is examined for syphilis by the sur- 
 geon of the regiment, and only healthy ones receive the 
 card giving access to the camp women. If the syphilitic 
 German contaminates the camp woman, his disease is 
 handed on to his brother soldier, and that means he will 
 be shot. This syphilitic soldier, therefore, finds his only 
 chance with the captured French girls, but, having 
 contaminated a girl, he fears that she in turn will con- 
 taminate the next German soldier, and, therefore, he 
 mutilates her body to warn away (Jerniaiis. The girl's 
 
life weighs nothing against a German soldier's lust or 
 the possibility of the brute's handing his contamination 
 to the next soldier. 
 
 Here is German efficicncj- for .vou— and organized by 
 the devil himself. Take these pages found in the diaries 
 of German soldiers August 22; note book of Private 
 Max Thomas: "Our soldiers are so excited we are 
 like wild beasts. Today destroyed eight houses, with 
 and a girl of IS. The little one almost unnerved me, so 
 innocent was her expression." Diary of Eitel Anders : 
 "In Vendre all the inhabitants, without exception, were 
 brought out and shot. This shooting was heartbreak- 
 ing as they all knelt down and prayed. It is real sport, 
 yet it was really terrible to watch." 
 
 "At Haecht I saw the dead body of a young girl 
 nailed to the outside door of a cottage by her hands. 
 She was about 14 or 10 years old." Page 21. Affi- 
 davits H-67. 
 
 In returning from Malinos eight drunken soldier.s 
 were marching through the street. A little child of two 
 years came out and a soldier skewered the child on 
 his bayonet and carried it away, while his comrades 
 sang. D. 10-45. 
 
 Withdrawing from Hofslade, in addition to other 
 atrocities, the Germans cut off both hands of a boy of 
 IG. At the inquest affidavits were taken from 2."> wit- 
 nesses, who saw the boy before he died or just after- 
 wards. 
 
 Passing through Haecht, in addition to the young 
 women whom they violated and killed, affidavits were 
 taken and the photographs of a child three years old 
 nailed to. a door by its hands and feet. Affidavits 
 D. 100-8. 
 
 That all these atrocities were carefully planned in 
 advance for terrorizing the people is proven by the 
 fact that on the morning of August 2.5 the officers who 
 had received great kindness from Madame Roomans, a 
 notary's wife, warned her to make her escape imme- 
 diately, as the looting and killing of all the citizens, 
 men, women and children, was about to begin. 
 
 These records could be multiplied by thousands. Upon 
 the retreat from one city alone, inquests were held upon 
 the bodies of over 600 victims, including very aged 
 men and women and babes unborn, removed by the 
 bayonet from their mothers. It is the logical result of 
 the charge of the Kaiser to his army : "Give no quar- 
 ter and take no prisoners. Let all who fall into your 
 hands be at your mercy." The general staff of the 
 German army published a manual several years before 
 they began this war. They explicitly charged their 
 soldiers to break the will of the enemy by cruelty. Wit- 
 ness this page from the War Manual on page 52 : "A 
 war is conducted with energy merely against the com- 
 batants of the enemy states and the positions they 
 occupy, but it will and must in like manner seek to 
 
 destroy the total intellectual and material resources ot 
 the latter." 
 
 And witness this injunction to atrocity, page S'i : 
 "By steeping himself in military history, an officer will 
 be able to guard himself against excessive humanitarian- 
 ism. It will teach him that certain severities are in- 
 dispensable to war. Humanitarian claims, such as 
 the protection of men and their goods, can only be taken 
 into consideration in so far as the nature and object 
 of the war permit." Therefore, the War General gave 
 each German soldier his token, large as a silver dollar, 
 bidding the soldier "Strike him dead. The Day of Judg- 
 ment will ask you no questions." Jesus said : "Take 
 heed that ye offend not one of My little ones." The 
 Kaiser says : "I have done away with Jesus' teachings." 
 The Master who loved the little children said : "I was 
 an hungered and ye gave me no meat. I was athirst 
 and ye gave me no drink. Therefore, depart from me 
 into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his 
 fellows." The war staff answers : "Don't be afraid. 
 Look at your token. The Kaiser will take care of you 
 in the Day of Judgment. Kill old men and little 
 children, loot merchants' houses, violate women ; the 
 Kaiser will see that the God of Justice asks you no 
 questions." The result was logical and inevitable. 
 These horrible atrocities ! On August 27 General Ton 
 Lieber gave out this proclamation : "The town of 
 Waevre will be set on fire and destroyed without dis- 
 tinction of persons. The innocent will suffer with the 
 guilty." After this town was destroyed and all the 
 inhabitants killed, from the body of a soldier slain on 
 the retreat we find this page in his diary : "We lived 
 gorgeously ; two or three bottles of champagne at each 
 meal ; all the girls we want. It is fine sport." Are we 
 surprised that many of the letters and journals taken 
 from the bodies of Germans quote General Von Hart- 
 man's sentence : "Terrorism is a principle made neces- 
 sary by military considerations." German-American 
 objections that these towns were destroyed because the 
 inhabitants had fired upon the invading army from the 
 windows of their houses is conclusively met and an- 
 swered by another letter, written by a German officer 
 to his wife : "On approaching a village a soldier is 
 sent on in advance to insert a Belgian rifle in the 
 cellar window or stable, and, of course, when this 
 weapon is found we take it to the Burgomaster, and 
 then the sport begins." 
 
 On a little board in one ruined village I read these 
 words : "Marie ; aged 16 ; dead August 24, 1915. Ven- 
 geance is mine ; I will repay, saith the Lord." The 
 hundreds of atrocities personally investigated only serve 
 to interpret Ambassor Morgenthau's statement as to 
 Armenia — that the Turkish soldiers and German offi- 
 cers massacred in Armenia half a million people, that 
 they might move into their farm houses and little shops 
 and stores. 
 
German Philosophy of Militarism Has Debauched 
 Germany's University Professors. 
 
 scholars, with their love of truth niul tlu'ir stiiiiih'ss 
 lives. We have had oiir civiliziition at the hands of 
 men who loved the truth supremely, pursued the truth 
 iternally and cherished the truth above their fear of 
 hell or hoi)e of heaven. The world has its liberty, its 
 science and its law at the bauds of the heroes who pre- 
 ferred the truth above life. Concerning the patriots, 
 llie reformers and tlie statesmen, we can only say they 
 were stoned, they were sawn asunder, they were cruci- 
 lied in Jerusalem, poisoned in Athens, tortured in 
 lOphesus, exiled in Florence, burned at the stake in 
 (J.xford, assassinated in Washington, crucified in Jeru- 
 salem. But the iron autocracy and militarism of Ger- 
 many debauched her university men. Here in my hand 
 is an address to the civilized world, signed by 93 Ger- 
 man professors. They all receive their salaries from 
 state endowments. Any hour the Kaiser or Bethmanu- 
 IloUweg can cut oft their iucome. When the indigna- 
 tion of the civilized world flamed out against Germany 
 in the winter of 1015, the German Government asked 
 these professors to sign a document, and these men had 
 been so degraded by the German philosophy of mili- 
 tarism and autocracy that they obeyed — losing their 
 souls to save their salary. And consider what they 
 signed ! In the previous August Bethmann-Hollwi'g 
 issued a statement to the W'orld, sayiug that as the 
 violation of Belgium's neutrality, "the wrong — I speak 
 openly — that we are committing," etc. 
 
 These 93 professors signed a statement, sayiug : 
 "It is not true that we wronged Belgium." In the 
 Kaiser's address that he himself has published, he says : 
 "Give no quarter, take no prisoners. Let all who fall 
 into your hands be at your mercy. Make yourself as 
 terrible as the Iluns." Now, this address was circu- 
 lated in postal cards all over Germany. Uealiziug the 
 mistake, these professors sign a statement, saying: "It 
 is not true that our soldiers ever injured the life of a 
 single Belgian." Socrates or Dante, or even Galileo, 
 Savonarola, or Milton, or Victor Hugo, or Lincoln, 
 would have died a thousand deaths by faggots, or upon 
 the rack, rather than have signed their names to such a 
 statement — to lies. The Kaiser and Bethmann-Hollweg 
 must have been desperate and bewildered when they 
 had to endeavor to counteract their own documents :it 
 the beginning of the war by asking their professors 
 to contradict these documents during the middle of the 
 war. It makes every university i>rofessor almost 
 ashamed of his calling. Think of Harnack and Eucken. 
 with their moral cowardice and their intellectual im- 
 potency '. Plainly that is what Nietzsche meant when 
 he said (page 134 Ecce Homo) : "Every crime against 
 culture that has been committed for 100 years rests 
 upou Germany." 
 
 The Frenchman's Love of France. 
 
 All ini'u I'lvc' their n:itiv.' lainl. Iiiit thv FriMuhman's 
 love has a unique quality. The patriotism of the Eng- 
 lishman is undemonstrative. The Britisher surrounds 
 his home and his garden with a high brick wall, con- 
 ceals his finer feelings from his closest friends, and when 
 he enters his club on Tall Mall and disappears behind 
 the threshold, the door is closed upon a tomb. The 
 American's patriotism is largely academic; national 
 safety through isolation breeds contempt for danger. 
 The time was when his love of country was voc'ifer- 
 ous on the Fourth of July, but the enthusiasm has died 
 down,. until he is now ready to extinguish even a fire- 
 cracker. The occasional speaker deals in historical 
 statements about the four wars fought by our country. 
 But the Frenchman's love of country has a tender, 
 gentle, wooing note. lie speaks of La Belle France 
 as Dante spoke of Beatrice, as Petrarch spoke of Laura, 
 and the name of France lingers upon his lips as music 
 trembles in the air after the song is sung. The reason, 
 doubtless, is found in the fact that the French people 
 have carved the hillsides and smoothed the valleys 
 and adorned the ridges and mountains with viue;drds, 
 until the whole land is a thing of radiant beauty. It is 
 love that has made France beautiful, just as the lark, 
 after completing the nest, makes it soft and warm by 
 pulling the down out of her own bosom. The French 
 people love France as an artist loves his own canvas, 
 as Bellini loved the missal he had illuminated, and as 
 that young architect loved the little Uoslyn chapel upon 
 whose delicate capitals he had lavished his very soul. 
 
 Would you have an emblem of France in the month 
 of June, with her wide, fat valleys, her green pastures 
 and the hillsides up which the pines climbed in serried 
 regiments? If so, take a great robe of green velvet 
 lying loosely on the floor, the creases and velvet ridges 
 answering to the rivers and the valleys and the hills, 
 and then fling a handful of rubies, pearls and sapphires 
 down, so that these gems will lie within the creases as 
 the lovely French cities at the foot of the hills and be- 
 side the rivers, and you have France, the beautiful; 
 France, the mother of the modern arU and sciences; 
 France, full of sweetness and light— that France con- 
 cerning which Heinrich Heine exclaimed : "Oh, France, 
 thou daughter of beauty ! Thy name is culture !" 
 
 The three great enemies of farms and towns and cities 
 have been fire, flood and earthquake. Witness the city 
 of St. Pierre. An interior e-xplosion blew off the cap 
 of the mountain and a flood of gas poured down upon 
 the lovely city, asphyxiated the citizens, and left not 
 one house standing. Witness that mighty convulsion 
 in San Francisco, that brought thousands of bricks 
 crashing down in ruins. Witness the fire in Chicago, 
 that turned the great city into twisted iron and ashes. 
 In New Zealand there is a lake called Averniis, the 
 birdless lake. Poisonous gases rise from the lilaik 
 
flood of water, and soon the lark, with its song, and the 
 eagle, with its flight, fail into the poisonous flood. 
 
 But all these images are quite inadequate to explain 
 the desolation, the devastation of France upon the re- 
 treat of the Germans. About 40 miles north of Paris 
 one strikes tlie ruined region. Then hour after hour 
 passes, while with slow movement and breaking heart 
 one journeys 100 miles to the north and zigzags 125 
 miles south again through that black region. The time 
 was when it was a wild land, rough, with forests filled 
 with wolves. Then the Frenclimau entered the scene. 
 Jle subdued all the wild grasses to which Julius Cae-sar 
 referred in his story of his war in France; he drained 
 the valleys and widened the streams into canals. lie 
 enriched the fields, and made them wave with gold. He 
 surrounded the meadows with odorous hedges, and 
 banked where there had been a swamp with perfumed 
 shrubs. Slowly he threw arches of stone across the 
 streams and carved the bridges until they were rich in 
 art, while everything made for use was carried up to 
 outbreaking beauty. The roof of the barn had lovely 
 lines; the approach to the house was upon a curved 
 road ; the highways were shaded by two rows of noble 
 trees. The stony hillside was terraced, and there the 
 vines grew purple in the sun. How simple was his life ! 
 What a sanctuary his little home! With what rich 
 embroidery of wheat and corn he covered all the hills ! 
 He was prudent without being stingy, thrifty without 
 being mean. He saves against old age with one hand 
 and distributes to his children with the other. 
 
 And, having lavished all their love upon the little 
 farm house, the granary and the barn; having pruned 
 these grapevines with their clusters of white and pur- 
 ple until each seemed like a friend, dear as that miracu- 
 lous picture was to Baucis and Philemon, having at 
 last made every tree to be shapely, their little world 
 was invested with affection and beauty. 
 
 Do you remember how that Florentine artist, after 
 his day's stint was done, toiled upon his studio, slowly 
 carving the capitals, collecting a little terra-cotta from 
 Cyprus, an old manuscript from Athens, a lovely head 
 of Apollo from Ephesus, and iridescent glass from 
 Pei-sia, with a bit of old Tyrian purple lending a spot 
 of flame in one corner and a little mosaic from Thebes 
 colored another, when he saw the end was approaching, 
 while on a visit to Egypt, asked that he might be car- 
 ried home to die in the studio, which he ninde rich with 
 his soul'.' 
 
 What the Hideous Hun Has Done. 
 
 In some such way as that the French peasants loved 
 their land, and then lost it. One morning the enemy 
 stood at the gate. The farmer with his pruning knife 
 was no match for a German with a machine gun, and 
 down he went under the plum tree he was pruning. The 
 devastated regions of France are like unto a devil 
 world. All the pear and plum trees have fallen over 
 
 under the stroke of a German axe, and are dead and 
 dry. Here and there one sees an occasional tree where 
 a half inch of bark remains, and, sympathizing with 
 the peasant's sorrow, the roots have sent a flood of 
 sympathetic tears and sap out into one little branch, 
 amidst the death of a hundred other boughs that flamed 
 in May its rose and pink of bloom, then in August gave 
 its red glow of clustered food. But as for the rest, it 
 is desolation. Gone all the beautiful bridges — they 
 have been dynamited. Gone all the lovely and majestic 
 thirteenth century churches. Gone all the galleries, for 
 every city of 5000 people in France has its quarterly 
 exhibition of paintings sent out from Paris, and some 
 of the finest art treasures in the world have perished. 
 The land has been put back to where it was when 
 Julius Caesar described it 2000 years ago — a wild land, 
 and waste, growing up with thorns and thistles. That 
 proclamation on a wall tells the whole story : "Let 
 no building stand, no vine or tree. Before retreating, let 
 each well be plentifully polluted with corpses and with 
 creosote." The spirit was this : "Since we Germans 
 cannot have this land, no one else shall." 
 
 Tour eyes never saw a more exquisite bit of carving 
 for the corner of a roof than this (a spray of myrtle 
 leaves, carved in stone, after the Germans had destroyed 
 the Cathedral of Arras). Look at this firebrand. Every 
 German company of soldiers carried one automobile 
 lorry filled with these firebrands, with a tank of gaso- 
 line hanging beneath the axles. One of the historic 
 chateaus is that of Avricourt, rich in noble associations 
 of history. It was one of the buildings specially cov- 
 ered by a clause in the international agreement between 
 England, Germany, France, the United States and all 
 the civilized nations, safeguarding historic buildings. 
 For many mouths it was the home of Prince Eitel, the 
 Kaiser's second son. 
 
 Forced to retreat, the aged French servants, who un- 
 derstood the electric lighting and the gas plant and 
 served Eitel during his occupancy, when the judge and 
 jury held the trial at the ruins of the chateau stated 
 that they heard the German officers telling Eitel that 
 he would disgrace the German name if he destroyed a 
 building that had no relation to war and could be of 
 practically no aid or comfort to the French army, and 
 he would make his own name a name of shame and 
 contempt, of obloquy and scorn. But the man would 
 not yield. He brought in great wagons and moved to 
 the freight cars at the station absolutely every object 
 that was in the splendid chateau. And, having promised 
 to leave the building uninjured, he stopped his car at 
 the entrance and exit gates of the ground, ran back to 
 the historic building with a can of oil that he had 
 secreted, filled the asbestos in this ball of perforated 
 iron, ran through the halls and waited until the flames 
 were well in progress, and then ordered his men to 
 light the fuse of a dynamite bomb. 
 
 AH the testimony was taken immediately afterward 
 
rroiii ii^-i'd si'i'vniils ami from llu' litlli' iliildii'ii. unci 
 llio ik'goiiui-aiy rovoali'd lias not Ixon surpassi'd sinci- 
 llic first fliiiplor of ICoiunus was written on the nn- 
 naturnl crimes of tlie ancient world. Tlioro are tlio 
 ii>l)ies of the affidavits. In the ruins, had beside lh<' 
 lilack marble steps, I picked up this firebrand with 
 which I'rincc Eitel assassinated a building that belonged 
 to the civilized world. I hope to live long enough to 
 see Germany forced to i-epay at least one debt, in addi- 
 tion to 10,000 others. Conceived by the Gothic archi- 
 tects, after 400 years of neglect, the Germans, about 
 1S75, completed the Cathedral of Cologne. When this 
 war is over, every stone in that cathedral should be 
 marked. German prisoners should be made to pull 
 those stones apart: German cars be made to transport 
 every stone to Louvain. and German hands made to 
 set up the Cathedral of Cologne in Louvain or Arras. 
 For a judgment day is coming to Germany, and, though 
 dull and heavy minds doubt it, men of vision perceive 
 its incidents and outlines already taking shape. 
 
 But the ruin of his bridges, his schoohouse, his 
 churches, his farm houses, his vineyards and orchards 
 is the least of his sorrows. In a little village near Ham 
 dwelt a man who had saved a fortune for his old age — 
 mO.tXM) francs. When the invading army like a black 
 wave was approaching, he buried his treasure beneath 
 the large flat stones that made the walk from the road 
 up to the front step of his house. Then, with the other 
 villagers, the old man fled. Many months passed by, 
 while the Germans bombarded the village. At last the 
 German wave retreated, and once more the old man 
 ilrew near to his little village. There was nothing, noth- 
 ing left. After a long time he located the street, which 
 was on the very edge of the town, but could not find 
 the cellar of his own house. Great shells had fallen. 
 K.iploding in the cellar, they had blown the bricks away. 
 Other shells had fallen bard by and blown dirt to fill 
 what once had been a cellar. The small trees in front 
 of his house had been blown away and replaced by shell 
 jiits. In Paris Ambassador Sharp told me that the 
 aged man had up to that time failed to locate his house. 
 much less his treastiri". Itiit what trifles light as air 
 are houses ! 
 
 At the officers' chateau late one night after returning 
 from the front a general and a captain were recount- 
 ing their experiences. Among other incidents was this 
 one : During the winter of 131.5, months after the 
 Germans had occupied that territory, several Knglish 
 officers and a young French captain were recounting 
 their e.\periences. In saying the farewells before each 
 man went out to his place in the trenches to look after 
 his men, the English boy exclaimed: "Xext week at 
 Ibis time I will be home. Five more days and my week's 
 leave of absence comes." Then suddenly remembering 
 that the French captain had been there a long time, he 
 asked when he was going home. To which came this 
 low answer: "I have no home. You men do not un- 
 
 derstand. Your Kiiglish village has never l)e-n invaded. 
 WIhu the Gernmns left my little town, they destroyed 
 every little building. My wife and my little daughter arc 
 both expecting babies within a few weeks. I, I — I — " 
 and the storm broke. The two Englishmen fled into 
 the dark and night, knowing that there was a uight 
 that was blacker, that rain was nothing against those 
 tears, for all his hopes of the future were dead. His 
 only task was to recover France and transfer all his 
 ambitions to God in heaven. 
 
 That is why there will be no inconclusive peace. Do 
 not delude yourself. Whether this war goes on one 
 year or five years or ten years, it will go on until these 
 Frenchmen are on German soil. Nor will the German 
 ever learn the wickedness of his own atrocities and the 
 crime of militarism until his own land is laid waste, 
 until he sees the horrors of war with his own eyes, 
 and hears the groan of his own family with his own 
 ears, and sees his own land laid desolate. We may be- 
 lieve that vengeance belongs unto God, and we may 
 argue and plead for forgiveness, but it will not avail. 
 You will remember that passage in Proverbs, in which 
 the penalties of nature become automatic, and where 
 an outraged brain and nerve and digestion are personi- 
 fied and speak to the transgressor: "I warned you. 
 but ye would none of my reproof. I stretched out my 
 hand and pleaded, but ye would not listen. Now I will 
 laugh at your calamity ; I will mock at your desola- 
 tion, when desolation comes as a whirlwind and fear 
 and destruction are upon you." The dam that held 
 back the black waters has broken, and it was the (ier- 
 man who dynamited the dam and released the flood of 
 destruction upon his own people and his own land. 
 Whether it takes another summer or mauy, there is no 
 British nor Canadian officer.s, no French nor Italian 
 whose face does not turn to granite and steel whenever 
 you suggest that he will not walk down the streets 
 of Berlin and institute a military court and try a Kaiser 
 and his staff for murder. That is one of the things 
 that is settled, and about which discussion is not per- 
 mitted by soldier regiment^. 
 
 Priceless Rkeims Cathedral Deliberately Destroyed. 
 
 One of the things that has horrified the civilized 
 world has been the ruin of Uhcims Cathedral. Ger- 
 many, of course, was denied the gift of imagination. 
 It belongs to France, to Italy and to Athens. Heinrich 
 Heine, her own poet, says that Germany appreciates 
 architecture so little that it is only a question of time 
 when, "with his giant hammer, Thor will at last spring 
 up again and shatter to bits all Gothic cathedrals." 
 This gifted Hebrew had the vision that literarlly saw 
 the Germans pounding to pieces the Cathedral at Lou- 
 vain and Ypres, In Arras, in Baupaume. in St. Quentin 
 and Rhcims. 
 
 The German mind is a hearty, mediocre mind, that 
 can multiply and exploit the inventions and discov- 
 
crips of the otlior races. The Germans contributed 
 practically nothing to the invention of the locomotive, 
 the steamboat, the JIarconigram, the automobile, the 
 aeroplaine. the phonograph, the sowing machine, the 
 reaper, the electric light. Americans invented for Ger- 
 many her revolver, her machine gun, her turreted ship 
 and her torpedo submarine. In retrospect, it seems 
 absolutely incredible that Germany could have been so 
 helplessly and hopelessly unequal to the invention of 
 the tools that have made her rich. But that is not her 
 gift. If Sheffield can give her a model knife, Germany 
 can reproduce that knife in quantities and undersell 
 Sheffield. The German people keep step in a regi- 
 ment, in a factory and on a ship, and therefore are 
 wholesalers. The French mind is creative ; stands for 
 individual excellence, and is at the other extreme from 
 the German temperament. The emblem of the German 
 intellect is beer ; the emblem of the English intellect is 
 port wine ; the emblem of the French mind is cham- 
 pagne ; the emblem of an American intellect, like 
 Emerson's, is a beaker filled with sunshine — my knowl- 
 edge of these liquors is based on hearsay. It is this 
 lack of imagination that explains Nietzsche's state- 
 ment that for 200 years Germany has been the enemy 
 of culture, while Heinrich Heine declared the name of 
 culture was France. 
 
 It is this total lack of mental capacity to appre- 
 ciate architecture that explains Germany's destruction 
 of some of the noblest buildings of the world. She 
 cannot by any chance conceive how the other races 
 look upon her vandalism. Her own foreign government 
 exprps.sed it publicly in one of her state papers : "Let 
 tlie neutrals cease chattering about cathedrals. Ger- 
 many does not care one straw if all the galleries and 
 churches in the world were destroyed, providing we 
 gain our ends. Guizot, in his history of civilization, 
 presents three tests of a civilized people : First, they 
 revere their pledges and honor ; second, they reverence 
 and pursue the beautiful in painting, architecture and 
 literature ; third, they exhibit sympathy in reform to- 
 ward the poor, the weak and the unfortunate. 
 
 Now apply those tests to the Kaiser and his war 
 staff, and you understand why Rheims Cathedral is a 
 ruin. Xo building since the Parthenon was more 
 precious to the world's culture. What majesty and 
 dignity in the lines '. What a wealth of statuary ! How 
 wonderful the twelfth century glass ! With what light- 
 ness did these arches leap into the air ! Now the great 
 bombs have torn holes through the roof; only little 
 bits of glass remain. Broken are the arches, ruined 
 some of the flying buttresses; the altar where Jeanne 
 d'Arc stood at the crowning of Charles is quite gon". 
 The great library, the bishop's palace, all the art treas- 
 ures are in ruins. 
 
 Ancient and noble buildings do not belong to a race: 
 they belong to the world. Sacred forever the threshold 
 of tlie Parthenon, once pressed by the feet of Socrates 
 
 and Plato; thrice sacred that aisle of Santa Croce in 
 Florence, dear to Dante and Savonarola ; to be treas- 
 ured forever the solemn beauty of Westminster Abbey, 
 holding the dust of the men of supreme genius. In 
 front of the wreck of the Cathedral of Rheims, all 
 blackened with German fire, broken with the German 
 hammer, is the statue of Jeanne d'Arc. There she 
 stands, immortal forever, guiding the steed of the sun 
 with the left hand, lifting the banners of peace and 
 liberty with the right. By some strange chance no 
 bomb injured that bronze. Oh, beautiful emblem of the 
 day when the spirit of liberty, riding in a chariot of 
 the sun, .shall guide a greater host made up of all the 
 peoples who revere the treasures of art and archi- 
 tecture and law and liberty and Christ's poor, and will 
 ride on to a victory that will be the sublimest conquest 
 in the annals of time ! 
 
 "Either God Is Dead or Germany Is Doomed." 
 
 Over against the greatest military machine that was 
 ever forged and controlled by merciless and cruel men, 
 who have given up all faith in God, who practice the 
 Ten Commandments with the "Not'' left out, who have 
 stamped out of the souls of their soldiers every instinct 
 of pity and sympathy, are our Allies. Here is Bel- 
 gium, after all- her agony, ready to die to the last man 
 rather than submit to a cruel master, the Kaiser. And 
 here is England, and all her colonies. How glorious 
 this land ! "The land of such dear souls, this dear, dear 
 land," as Shakespeare said. She has already sacri- 
 ficed one third of her total wealth, a million of hei- 
 sons ; and here is France, not bled white, but tired after 
 three years of grievous toil. Her bankers are tired, 
 her business men are tired, the women and the little 
 children are tired, for they have struggled unto blood 
 striving against a cruel militarism for which they were 
 unprepared. 
 
 The French boy is like unto one who carried food 
 and drink a long way unto perishing men until the heavy 
 burden forces his fingers to relax — but give the youth a 
 little time, and he will take up his task afresh and bring 
 water to the thirsty soldier. The CQming of the Amer- 
 ican troops has been a tonic to France and rested her 
 weariness. Said the French wife as she sent away her 
 young husband with smiles and words of pride : "I 
 give him gladly ; I am only his wife — France is his 
 mother." And here is Great Britain, whose fleet today 
 holds the German battleships behind the Kiel Canal and 
 safeguards our republic. New York and Boston. On 
 one side of the silver dollar write these words : "In 
 God we trust," and on the other side of the dollar write 
 the words, "And in England's navy." Every force that 
 makes toward justice, humanity and liberty is on our 
 side. Soon or late, an unseen Providence will take off 
 the wheels from the chariot of the Enemies of Truth 
 nnd Justice. That dying German officer in Rove packed 
 
the genius o{ a moral uuivcrsc into n few words. 
 Wounded Inst winter tlirough the spinal cord, unable 
 to move the lower part of liis body, for weeks be waited 
 for death. Two aged French women cared for the dying 
 man. Little by little the wings of the Angel of Ueatli 
 fanned away the mist before bis eyes. One day the 
 (ierman ollicer sent for the village priest and told him 
 that the Von Hindonbnrg line was nearly complete; 
 that the order to retreat had been given: that the home 
 of these aged women who had cared for him so tenderly 
 would be burned : that not one church, house, barn, 
 vineyard or orchard would be left. The news crushed 
 ilie old priest. In his dying hour a righteous wrath 
 tilled the heart of the German prisoner. These are his 
 last words, as I transcribed them from the lips of that 
 man of God, standing one day in Noyon : "Curses 
 upon this army ! Curses upon our Kaiser and his War 
 Staff! Ten thousand curses upon my country! Kither 
 (Jod is dead, or Germany is doomed I" The officer had 
 come to understand that soon or late the wheels of God 
 will grind to nothingness those who wrong God's chil- 
 dren. "Woe unto the man who offends one of My 
 little ones. It were better for him that a millstone 
 were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowne.! 
 in the depths of the seas." 
 
 Vision of a Just and Lasting Peace. 
 
 I'etter days are coming. We may have to cuter the 
 wilderness, but soon or late the pilgrim host will enter 
 the Promised Land and hang out the signals of victory. 
 Truth is stronger than error; liberty is stronger than 
 despotism ; God is stronger than satan ; right makes 
 might, and must prevail. In this faith we must strive 
 on for a peace that will safeguard democracy, defend 
 the frontier lines, vindicate the rights of little lands, 
 destroy militarism and autocracy. During the January 
 snows a dear friend and noble surgeon at the head of a 
 hospital at the front wrote me a letter which stays my 
 heart as the anchor the ship in time of storm. The 
 ground was deep with snow, many wounded men had 
 been carried in from the field, but at midnight, when 
 his work was done, the physician wrote me this letter : 
 
 "This war is of God. Sometimes it is peace that is 
 hell. The soldier's life is a life of poverty, obedience, 
 self-sacrifice ; we know what the civilian's life is. But 
 for the chastisement of this war, Berlin and Vienna, 
 r>ondon and Paris would have descended into hell 
 within three generations. I once spoke in your Plym- 
 outh on the blessings of peace ; if ever again I have that 
 privilege, I shall speak on the blessings of war. I 
 never dreamed that men could be so noble. For three 
 months I have slept on the stone: for three months 
 before that in a tent : for six months I have not been 
 in a bed ; but I have never been so happy. I have ac- 
 quired the fine freedom of a dog, and, like a dog, I 
 wear a metal tag around my neck, so that they may 
 know to whom I belong when it happens that I can no 
 
 longer speak. And never was n man engaged in a 
 cause so noble. I have seen Belgium ; I have seen a 
 lamb torn by the wolf ; I am on the side of the lamb. 
 I know the explanations the wolf has to offer — they do 
 me at this battle for your own good, for right here at 
 this Western front this war will be decided, just where 
 all the great wars of history have alwa.vs been decided. 
 It is decided already, but will take the enemy some 
 time yet to find it out." 
 
 What does this noble scholar mean? History makes 
 that meaning plain! No wine until the purple clusters 
 are crushed. No linen until the flax is bleeding and 
 broken. No redemption without shedding of blood. 
 No rich soil for men's bread until the rocks are 
 ploughed with ice glaciers and subdued with fire bil- 
 lows. Five forms of liberty achieved by our fathers, 
 for which they paid over 3000 battlefields, blood down. 
 This war was not brought by God, but, having come, 
 let us believe that His providence can overrule it for 
 the destruction of all war. When Germany is beaten 
 to her knees, becomes repentant, offers to make restitu- 
 tion for her crimes, then, and not till then, can this 
 war stop. Autocracy, too, must go. There is no room 
 left in the world for a kaiser or a sultan. The hang- 
 man's noose awaits the peasant murderer, and already 
 the hemp is grown to twist into the noose for a Kaiser's 
 neck. At all costs and hazards, we must fight this war 
 through to a successful issue. Our children must not 
 be made to walk through all this blood and muck. The 
 burden of militarism must be lifted from the shoulders 
 of God's poor. Any state that will not forever give up 
 war must be shut out of the world's clearing-houses and 
 markets through finance and trade. 
 
 Geologists tell us that the harbor of Naples, protected 
 by islands, was once the crater of a volcano like unto 
 Vesuvius, but that God depressed that smoking basin 
 until the life-giving waters of the Mediterranean stream 
 flowed in and put out that fire. Oh, beautiful emblem 
 of a new era, when God will depress every battelfield 
 and every dreadnought and bring in the life-giving 
 waters of peace. Then will come a golden age, the 
 Parliament of mankind, the Federation of the World, 
 a little international army policing the lan^l : a little 
 international navy policing the seas ; a great interna- 
 tional court deciding disputes between Germany and 
 France. To this purpose let our sons dedicate them- 
 selves, to the end that we may achieve a just and last- 
 ing peace between ourselves and all nations. Let us 
 consecrate not only the income of our rich land, but also 
 all our property. Back of our boys' bayonets let us put 
 our own bonds. Let our subscriptions to this Liberty 
 Loan be so vast that we will have the right to say to 
 our enemy : "You shall not crush the hopes of Abraham 
 Lincoln. You shall not grind mankind beneath the 
 iron heel of militarism. You shall not make govern- 
 ment of the people for the people, by the people, now 
 or ever, to perish from the earth. 
 
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 
 
 021 803 433 
 
 AMERICA'S RELATION 
 
 WORLD WAR 
 
 Shall Our Nation Live or Perish? 
 A 52-page Pamphlet 
 
 Second Edition 
 
 As viewed by the Editor of the 
 MANUFACTURERS RECORD 
 
 COLONEL ROOSEVELT'S VIEWS. 
 
 September 8, 1917. 
 My Dear Mr. Edmonds: 
 
 A8 an American citixen, I wish to congrat- 
 ulate you Kith all my heart on the pamphlet, 
 "America's Relation to the World War." 
 That's straight patriotism! 
 Faithfully yours, 
 
 THEODORE ROOSEVELT. 
 
 TEN CENTS PER COPY