Middletown transcript., 1914-09-26
CANNON FODDER"


NVER 5000 years ago, to minister to
the vanity of the Egyptian ty-
nt Cheops in building his huge pyra--
ID tomb, relays Of 100000 men sweat
for thirty years at unpaid forced
Dor wherein 12O,O0O of them died like
Is; to make a single royal grave these
Dusands Of better men lgnobly found
eir own!
Probably long before that, certainly
er since, earth's helpless toiling mil
ms have been pouring forth their
7eat and their blood at the bidding of
cir kingly masters. On the worlds
puntless battlefelds swarms Of com
on people-have been driven like
mb cattle to mutual slaughter, suf-
ring and dying there merely to please
me royal ambition or caprice.
The unthinkable number of 1000, 900,
o, five times the present population of
e whole world, is the estimated total
"cannonen futter'', tcannon
dder'', as the Kaiser comtemptuously
yles it-thus offered up on the altars
imperial ambitions.
And amazing as it may seem, even
day millions of toiIers in Europe,
ike the intelligent Germans and the
norant Russians, are as submissively
ending their necks to the war yoke Of
ing, Kaiser and Gear as in that olden
.y in Egypt.
o the pity, the shame, the horror Of
is appalling slaughter upon this al
ost universal battlefield of Europe!
ne wide charnel house where hun
eds of thousands of innocent human
lngs-the very pick and flower of
urope's youth andmanhood, are agon-
ng and dying, leaving behind them
EN- yet greater numbers of suffering
we'd ones in desolated homes prey to
rrow and want!
This is the fearful price the people Of
srmany, Austria, Russia and the rest
paying for their kingcraft fake and
1mpery!
Were the. good folk of Germany, its
ousands of hard-working mechanics.
rmers and laborers Of every sort,
ally so eager to xiii their French and
lglish brethern, that they were glad
10 to slay thousands of their Belgian
others with whom their autocratic
aiser admits he had no quarrel?
Had these millions of German sol
Try, who are giving so plentifully of
cir own hearts blood, been consulted
puld they, after counseling with their
eethearts, wives and mothers, have
ed, eyes, let's fly at these French
d Belgian throats!'
- .
Never! The quarrel whose fearful
Bt they will pay, is none Of theirs,
/ is made possible by the selfish am
ions of a few autocratic monarchs,
10 to maintain and extend their royal
Iendor and power are willing to but
er their subjects wholesale without
morse or pity.
t is the most colossal, damnable
me in all history. But thank God
vast butchery is the last. these
aI autocrats will have the power to
Ter, for this huge, bloody object-les-
of kingly tyranny will penetrate
the ends of the earth, and awake its
lers to realization Of how damna-
their autocratic rulers are abusing |
Bir self assumed prerogatives. Then |
l these peoples to whom in truth
ongs "the divine right of self. gov
ment, either quite abolish their ar
.ant rulers, or by popular constitu-
ms greatly abridge their powers.
lie is blind who cannot see in this
full event the final death of the mon
thical system, and the wider extension
some form or other, of the democra-
idea-the blessed coming day when
all lands this brutally selfish rule of
ngs, Kaisers and Cars will be swept /
D the limbo of oblivion, and the glor-
words of our own Lincoln, ga gov
lment of the people, by the people,
the people," will be universally
alized.