Tensas gazette. [volume] (St. Joseph, La.) 1886-current, 1914-08-14
the DEFENSE OF lIEcE.
lvicksburg Herald

that with its encircling forts lay across
the German line of advance could have
been expected. As only 5000 or 1000
of the garrison are claimed to have been
taken, it is probable Liege and Brussels
are still in the possession OF the Belgians.
The only cause of surprise is that the city
which was so suddenly and unexpected
" assailed by probably over a hundred
thousand men sustained so long de-
fense-that it was not, az calculated,
walked over. While the accounts OF the
killed and wounded OF the assailants can
only be Appropriated, the nature and
number of the assaults, and the charac
ter of the Notifications, warrant belief
i'm the estimate of %, 900 of killed and
wounded.
Such a casualty total marks n most
creditable account of themselves by
troops in action for the first time and
subjected to an overwhelming cOncentra-
ton OF fire of modern guns. This was
more than the armies that served Ger
many i'm 1870 sustained in any one bat
tie; the heaviest killed and wounded be-
ing in the pitched battle at Gravelotte,
where 81 900 Germans and 1900 French
fell. And yet the vast German total loss
Of $1,000 is of large significance only in
the message borne back from the fight
ing: That the people realize fully that
they have taken up arms to defend their
country, their nationalism, their liber-
ties; that the war is one of spoilation and
conquest; tor the establishment of a one
man and. one nation power in Europe;
for the enforcement of autOcracy over
the ruins of constitutional government.
There is noted a patriotic effort of Ger
man and Austrian writers i'm American
papers to controvert such belief in the
nature of the struggle, and its issues; as
has set the sympathies and the Judgment
of the American public against their
countries. They vainly seek to impress
Americans with the idea that Germany's
arrogant wage of battle against the An
glo-Saxon and Latin people OF Western
Europe, is incidental to clash between
the Teutons and the Slavs OF Central
Europe. Writing i'm the Boston Herald
Professor Hugo Munstenburg seeks to
work that t'rabbit fOotD as follows:
In this historic situation neither Rus
STA nor Germany could really act other
wise. The great conflict of civilizations
was necessarily stronger than the mere
wishes OF peaceful individuals. But if it
is such a gigantic conflict Of Slavic and
Germanic culture, the sympathies Of the
progressive American nation ought not
to be whipped into the camp Of the Cos
sacks. Americans ought not to rejoice
when the uncultured hOrdes of the East
march over the frontier and aim toward
I the most eastern German city, toward
Konigsberg, the town of Emmanuel Kant.
The facts of historic European conflicts
of the past two centuries stutify such
line of cleavage of civilization. At that
remote period there were three buffer
nationalities-the Poles, the Magyars and
the Slavs-standing between the advance
of the ''uncultured hordes" of the East,
the Turks and COssacks, and the German
and Latin civilization. On the wane of
the Crescent menace, there next came
the rise of the Muscovite, the Slav and
COssack first called into Western Europe
by Frederic of Prussia, against Austria
Where was the line of Gigantic con-
quest" then? Or when the two German
powers allied themselves with the great
Slav power for the destruction of the
called Slav Russia in to protect them
from Republican France, and when Ma
poleon sought to rid Europe forever from
the dread of the Cossack? How was it
fifty years later, when Austria, with the
aid of Russia, crushed out the whole buff
fer state, Hungary, and the Magyars
who had saved them from the Turk?
Where were the sympathies of the two
great German. or Teutonic, powers, when
AnglO-SaxOn Great Britain and Latin
France and Italy took up arms to halt
the advance of Slavic Russia, in 1856?
Is it not historic truth, that Germany
and Austria first looked on the Slav with
hostile eyes, when Austria was told by
Bismarck to look for compensation for
her lost German states, in the Slav coun-
try, to the East?
We note supplement of the Harvard
professors protest in the Springfield Re-
publican; by Capt. Hugo Starrak, a ma
rOoned officer of the Acknowledgements
army. He informs the American people
that "only the fools and misled people
can assert that we want more Slav terri
tory, that We want to conquer Servia.
Lord preserve us! know that country
just IS we'll as know this lovely Lenox,
and ] know it well enough" Bosnia aud
Herzegovina are Slav states, just like |
THAT country" They were, neverthe-
less, conquered and annexed by Austria
without plea or pretext of justifica-
ton, and over the bitter and united,
though feeble, resistance of the people.
And in that act OF gravest wrong, the
seed OF the assassination of the Austrian
Archduke-a violent anti-Slav who was
destined to rule over the two Slav states
was sown. 1t Was in protest or revenge
Tor the annexation of Bosnia and Herze-