Grand Forks daily herald., 1914-11-20
SAYS WORLD would STOP WAR IF
nbUT knew THE HIDDEN HORRORS

your name. Do not tell it to me-"
The man who regards war as a
trade Is not to be blamed for this
newsphobia. No newspaper man can
have any personal feeling against the
kitcheners and Joffres of this war.
The reporter Is the only man in the
world who can spoil their trade.
Did you hear the latest story?"
asked an officer in one of the Calais
hotels the other night. Its Jolly
good. Our mess laughed over it last
night
That officer was q clean-shaven,
well-set-up, gentlemanly chap of 80
odd. When he was not at war ne
wouldn't watch a dog fight. He would
condemn the man who goes to chicken
fights as a hopeless brute Unless his
appearance bellies him. he is full of
good instincts and kindly sentiment,
Discover what war has doneto him.
Wholesale Murder Plans End of
Deccncy.
Learn that wholesale murder has
sent decency to pot. This is his story:
The Belgians." said he. stopping
to laugh, ARE sniping German soldiers
all over Belgium, and stealing their
boots; Haw! Haw! Jolly absurd,
what?"
In cold blood the statement that
men are lying behind hedges all over
- SCehSA yoAuO ehHu OIHoT
men In order to steal their boots is
apt to horrify. But it didn't horrify
the officers listeners. They are pot
companions with death. Most of them
laughed. No wonder newspaper men
are not popular at the front in this
war.
at was the stencil that sickened
me- said Red Cross man-one of
the catch-me-alive-Oh' at the front.
| stayed because J. couldn't help it.
But when l got sick I was sent back
to the base"
1t is this mans Job to deal with
human suffering. FIe is hardened to it.
He told of wounded men-unable to
inove-lying helpless on a field swept
way day. no matter whether the sun
shone blistering hot on fostering
wounds. or the poor wounded lay in
their sodden clothing under welter
of rain, they did not cry out. There
seems to be some law which governs
our poor humanity in this. From all
over the field Of war the same story
comes.
Cries for Aid ut Night From Field.
But at night" said he. they used
to cry for us to come and get them"
That didn't seem to affect him. He
told of one man pierced by four
wounds, who lay in the open for"four
NoS' HSApA u lA<@ WthS lSSCuesu-dHU VIII
get well. He had no word of COM
ment on that callous Indifference to
suffering that both sides manifest in
this war, so that neither will grant an
armistce. that the wounded may be
/ gathered and the dead buried or burn
ed. 1t seemed to him quite a matter
I of course that the clothes are often
stripped from the dead men before
their poor. naked bodies are heaped
in one common trench. But he could
I! not bear the stencil. He. apologized
for it. He regarded this as an untnan-
ly weakness.
{, IT suppose 7 was marked before
birth,' he said in excuse. J.
For throughout France and Belgium
there are hundreds--thousands
square miles where the tumbled dead
are. lying. They have been lying there
Under the sun and. rain for days and
weeks. They have, undergone those
loathsome processes by which Mother
Nature takes back her own. until now
4 upon a defiled land, They are all
alone. Long ago the birds. affronted
by the thunder of guns. fed from this
torn territory Only the dead are there
and the great buzzing black flies
that swarm about this charnel house
that once was France.
1t isn't really to be marveled at that
u,
the warehouse men Of death-do not
want the whole story of their work
published. They have blandly approx
ed of international congresses of peace
of prettily gabled palaces of futility
at The Hague--of resolution passing
clubs of theorists and climbers. But
they repress reporters with heavy
hands. It is the reporter who will end
war, if war is ever ended.
The reporters cannot help them
selves. Every man who has reached
the front has been arrested. Those
who are at these base towns are in
! hourly danger of arrest. They dare not
approach staff officer for news, and
only the staff officers have even q re-
mote idea of what is going on over
! the theater of operations. The line Of
| fcers know only the pin point on the
map where they lost men or ran away
or chased the enemy. It is a vast
blur to them-a series Of movements