Macon beacon. [volume] (Macon, Miss.) 1859-1995, 1914-08-21
MANS INDIGNANTLY.

4N
name. the fierce conflict Of arms, going on betwee
the nations .:ross the Atlantic, might be called
The War of MANS humanity to Man.
Greed, a~varice, %envy-love Of money. OF pom
and pageant. and lust Of power and conquest Is a
the bottom of 1t.
Some one-we are under the impression it wa
Victor Hugo in Les Miserables- in writing of Wa
terloo, and making elaborate mention of Bonaparte
says:
HE embarrassed God"
IF that was the case-if Deity was embarrassed
by the then Emperor of France who was the yer!
Genius of Battle, "the Shakespeare of War;
now, indeed. must Deity be greatly Disconnected by
the Kaiser of Germany today who marshals mil
lions and p%anoplies them for war with as much eas'
as the former raised and equipped his armies O.
100, 900 men.
For this is the crowned heads war and the
plain peoples fght-a rich mans war and a pool
mans fght-a war in which almost unlimited
wealth and power contend for limitless wealth
power and influence, and the poor, despised anc
oppressed must do the fighting, sustain the losses
of death in battle and by disease, and endure the
pains of wounds, and the agony of soul incident tc
the hell of it.
In its magnitude and magnificence-in the mil
lions of men and billions of money employed, it is
the biggest martial enterprise ever conceived, not
to say dared and set upon foot, since the dawn OF
creation.
In the woes it will u%nloose, and the sufferings il
will entail upon mortals, it is destined to st nd I'M
rivalled in the annals of Time, unless the God Of
Nations shall, in some way known only to Himself
interpose an especial Providence to forefend frof
all-consuming evil the irresponsible legions nov
following, like dumb driven cattle, the ~respectiv
flags of the respective governments, parties to tn
controversy.
1t is the modern Pandora's box from which ha
escaped hunger, thirst, gunshot wounds. disease
death, heartaches incurable and agonies of soul un
speakable to torment the sons and daughters OF
men in numbers so innumerable as to strange be-
lief and dwarf Imagination.
Although it is difficult to find any reasonable,
j~ustifable excuse for it, it really appears to be one
of those things which had to come. soon or late, an(
it may be, it is better for it to nave come now thai
a few years later.
The sympathies of the American people, it
seems, are for the most part, against Germany.
Ills pIOCCcCo lIOIu iO ul0llhc VII OuI pdIC lUI
the people of Germanp; for to them, it is realized,
the world in the hsighth and depth and breadth OF
its Goth century civilization - in the progress in the
arts and sciences-in the discoveries and inventions
and manufacture of those objects of desire most
essential to the veal of mankind-no race has done,
or is doing, more than the German.
The trouble lies not with the German people
but with their government-with their war lord
the Kaiser, whose unreasonable, i~nsatiate ambi
ton and lust of military fame and glory, and un
comfortable eagerness for conquest, hath made hin
mad-crazed him upon the subject of militaryism
Apparently his every wish and want, hope anC
aspiration leads in the direction of the restless am
bition of Napoleon, who grand, gloomy and pecu
liar" and "wrapt in the solitude of his own origi
nality" played the game of war for his own aggran
dizement without regard to the will or wishes o.
sufferings of others; and, when his victories wer,
won and his foes conquered, made presents O
thrones and principalities as though they wer
mere baubles to delight children and not too costl
a toy for their amusement.
And it may be the end to the Kaiser's dream
of conquering acontinent may come as UNEXPECTEDLY
and as permanently to him in Belgium as it di
there to Napoleon is 1916, after he had measure,
himself with Englund's Iron Duke, Wellington.
The Kaiser has grievously erred in judgment.
He is confronted by conditions much more for
midable than he anticipated.
He did not so much ~overrate the force am
strength of his fighting machine and what it coul
do on land and sea, as he over-estimated the feari
which he was held by his n~eighbors and the infu
ence his own war Preparedness would give hr
over Russia, England, France, Belgium.
The courage and fortitude of Little Belgium
her ability to make an heroic stand for her nations
integrity, and her willingness to do it, has been
tain shock to the armies of his empire.
And so too, the readiness of France to give hr
battle on lines of his own choosing, and the euthu
siasism and promptitude with which Russia defe
his wishes and modified her. LARGE and widely scat