Middletown transcript., 1915-05-22

there were instances ofplunder, violence,
brutality which were now to be recorded
it would be necessary for every one to
recall that these things inevitably fol-
low war, that similar offences have
stained all flags and remain as perma-
nent reproaches to all armies.
But the thing that is vital in the
present instance is not this. What the
world would know is whether the Ger
man government deliberately authorized
and directed it's generals and soldiers to
do the things which they did, that they
might instill spirit of fear or terror
into the hearts of the Belgian people,
that they might dispose of an opponent,
whose troops were only partially mobi-
lized, by such a reign of fire and MUIR
der among civilians as would intimidate
the military.
In sum, the one pertinent question~is:
Did Germany in the opening weeks of
the war, in the days between Liege and
the Marne, endeavor to apply the prin-
ciple and policy of "terribleness" with
the deliberate design of destroying the
nerve and the spirit of the Belgian and
French people? Did she kill women and
children, burn cities and villages, permit
excesses of licentious character with
an end in view, political end in mind?
Until the sinking of the Lusitania a
very considerable number of Americans
frankly hesitate to believe that Belgian
atrocities" were more than the un-
failing result of war, of all wars, an
cient and modern. A civilized and
neutral world, recalling what it knew
of Germany and Germans, found it inn
possible to believe that the things re-
ported in Belgium represented Ger
many's deliberate and reasoned policy.
All sucn incredulity, so far as the
United States is concerned, sank with
the Lusitania. We know now, we
Americans, reading the death lists of
our own citizens, that German naval
officers do kill women and children. We
know that they wantonly and in cold
blood slay women and children when
their purpose is served by such a mas
.sacre.
Thus. the natural tendency to reject
allegations of violence, the natural
clinging to the faith that, despite differ
ences in race, religion and condition,
men of all nations are united by COM
mon sentiments of kindness, humanity,
pity, has been eliminated in the German
case. With our own eyes, in the case
of our citizens, in the daylight which hid
nothing, we saw Germans murder the
helpless. All that the Bryce committees S
report now asks US to believe, in ad-
dition is that to murder there was added
passion, that while our town women
were only slain those of Belgium were
outraged.
A more terrible, more fatal, prepa-
ration Of the American jury for the new
evidence than the Lusitania affair is in
conceivable. In fact, the truth must
be faced with absolute frankness. What
the Bryce report alleges will be i'm
plicitly believed by millions who will
care little for the confirming evidence
and the corroborating testimony.
For all who know Viscount Bryce,
and no European is better known in this
country, his name attached to the fatal
document is as final as that of the
highest court.
The worst enemy of Germany-anC
in no nation had the Germans more
friends than in America could feel only
= pity for the German people today
e Such anger as exists must be reserved
o for their leaders, for their statesmen
and soldiers and scholars, who have
taught the gospel of "terribleness,' ,
: have corrupted a great and noble people
r with the dreams of empire and blinded
their senses to the true moral turpitud,
4 of the methods and the morals of tn,
course they advocated.
Ouce more, too, as we read the Bryc,
> report we Americans will feel the thrill
: of admiration, of wonder, that cam
e with the first news that Belgium hat
e chosen to fight, to die, rather than sub
!. nit. We who had Lexington, Concor
and Bunker Hill behind US understoo
- and glorified the resistance of Liege an
Is Antwerp.
Today we know better what that re
If sistance meant, what it cost Toda
"a we understand more completely what
the sacrifice of the Belgians who ar
" standing in the ranks with their nobl
ID King, while the women and children re
v main within the German lines expose
IN to all that will make Louvain endul
N with st. Bartholomew's as landmar
in the history of human shame.