Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1914-05-31
||fNSION RIFE N GERMAN ARMY |snt Questions in House Fail to Move the
 Government.
|SH IT KEPT SECRET
stories Constantly Appear in ,srspapers Telling of Suicides and Citing Cases of
 Cruelty.

,rlin, May 3O.-If the Socialists in
 Reichstag are to be believed, dis
 linn is. rife in the German army.
 pnt questions in the house, how
 have failed to move the govern
 ht and reports are constantly ap-
 ring in the newspaper telling of
 tides and citing terrible cases of
 ety, In the Reichstag a few days
 a number of Socialist deputies
 led attention to complaints of cru
 to soldiers in the Strassburg gar
 bn. The speakers claimed that the
 cers harassed the men night and
 to such an extent that there had
 bn numerous assertions and sever
 suicides.
 Fhe government refused to be hwn out on the subject, and it's bresentatives said they were sure facts could not be as stated by E Socialists, and that they could do khing. It was further bluntly de- hred to be no business of the eichstag to concern itself with what Sssed in the army, or to interfere in ly way with the manner in which |e emperor's officers thought it their hty to train the troops placed un- er their orders.
 every day fresh causes ill-treatment are recorded despite le fact that the affairs are usually ppt as quiet as can be by the author ies. Some idea of the reputation hich infantry regiments are getting ay be obtained from the fact that a W days ago an apprentice named auch committed suicide after declar- g that he preferred death to doing ilitary service in line regiment, as Id fallen to his lot.
 Recently also non-commissioned Her named Wolker was sentenced
 court martial to fifteen days ar
 ] for Kicking and hitting one of
 men. He was brought up on )hplaint of a bombardier who had Id his jay broken by a blow. Again, it is reported from Leipzig at, maddened by ill-treatment he d received, a soldier named Meyer, longing to the tooth Grenadier regi- pnt, attacked non-commissiOped licer with hammer and killed him. le murderer afterwards committed icide
 Last week an official inquiry was Id into the suicide some weeks ago
 two soldiers at Neuss, in Silesia, ter they had assaulted a general to- nom they were attached as order $. .a5s
 The general had an extraordinary bit of waking his orderlies in the lddle of the night by pouring buck Of icy water over them. On this casion the men resented his action lile they were half asleep, and when ey realized what they had done ey thre wthemselves in front of a ain. No punishment is suggested the general.
 Yet Germany is apparently not the ny country where suicide is common the army. It appears that in 1905 fewer than IA cases of suicide cured in the Russian army. In following year the number rose l92. Since then it steadily kept on owing, being 210 in 1907, 324 in oS, 263 in 1909, 26S in 1910, 347 in Il, and 405 in 1912. Within seven afs, therefore, the number of sui les increased about 150 per cent. The first eight months of 1915 owed 377 cases of suicide and 1S9 ses of attempts at suicide. Of the { cases of suicide just mentioned, occurred among officers.
 II has recently been calculated that ice 1870 the total number of Stsf- les Ill the German army has nounted to 10,459, which makes out so.ut 24O cases per annum. In ad- non, there yearly occur, on an av- age, Tn the German army, from 1SO loo attempts at suicide.