Richmond times-dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1914-current, 1915-08-08
WAR INTERPRETERS WITH
LUTHERAN CELEBRATION


On October 81. 1917. it Will be 400
years since the kalser's special friend,
Martin Luther, nailed his ninety five
Latin theses on the doors of the Castle
Church at Wit,cnberg. and before he
surrendered 10 the German military
nlotters who started the present war
The Kaiser had planned q world wide
Protestant festival on that day
The war has hopelessly ruined this
plan. and the Kreuzzeitung recently,
with the kaiser's sanction, published
a revised German plan for the festival.
Under normal circumstances" says
the British Weekly, the event would
have been celebrated throughout the
entire Protestant world. but. looking
across the gulf of two years and two
months. Germany sees herself cut OFF
from all Lutherans outside German
territory. and she now announces that
the quarto-centenary will be observed
only on German soil"
1T was originally intended" says the
kreuzzeitung. that all the Protestant
churches OF the world should hold
Simultaneous services. Owing to the
altered political situation. this idea has
been abandoned. and the German peo-
ple alone Will commemorate the even,
ated with Luther. All Protestant
bodies under the Kaiser's rule Will
have their part in the rejoicings and
fund Is 10 be raised as 'Jubilaums
gabe.' The money will be used for two
purposcs-in the first place, to repair
the injury which the war has caused
TO Protestant Germany and. in the
second, 20 carry out the great tasks
which await the churches, both at homo
and abroad, after the conclusion of
peace
Germany in other words recognizes
that for years to come she will be
solitary among the nations OF the
world. Why otherwise should she ex-
clude the men and women of her own
race IN America from their birthright
In the glorious legacy OF Luther? Is
she afraid that if American professors
and preachers focked to Berlin in the
autumn Of 1917 the ghosts of the Lusi =
tania would accompany them? In the
height OF the speechmaking at Worms,
Eisenach. or Wittenberg. the banquet
ing table might fade away and the
panorama he suddenly dissolved In
these inland towns. amid the autumn
splendor of palace gardens on the
Rhine or the Elbe. there would come
salt Cnili nreath ana moaning from
the uttermost seas.
The United States are shut out. and
neutrals In Europe are hidden TO stand
aloof They have had many proofs
already of the horrors that await the
smaller free nations IL the Central Flu
ropean empires triumph. The obsequi-
Gus hattery Of Sven Hedin has not pro-
cured an invitation for Sweden. On
Holland the War Lord casts his venom :
Gus eyes. Norway's ships have been
torpedoed by submarines. Any fea st
to which the Kaiser could invite the
smaller Protestant peoples would be
like n Borgia banquet The wine cup
would glisten and the strains Of music
would resound. The name Of Martin
Luther would be quoted as the guar.
antee Of piety and good will. But the
footsteps Of the men who buried Bel
GUM would be heard at the doors,
executioners waiting to carry other
victims away. Germany recognizes
that her invitations. for many years
to come. will not be sought after
she might have had repetition on
far grander scale Of the Luther fes-
tival OF 1888 The four hundredth an
niversary of the reformer's birth was
observed with rejoicings in two hemis-
pherea"
ASPHYXIATING GAS
Is FATAL TO USERS
The well-known Russian paper
Novoe Vremya, quotes the following
---