Bismarck daily tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1881-1916, 1915-02-02
BERLIN, IN. WAR Time, GOES ABOUT
ITS BUSINESS WITHOUT EXCITEMENT
Correspondent Finds Life Apparently as day.a Before the Con.
fct, but Catches a Glimpse Of Tragedy When He Passes
Office Where the Casualties Are Posted-Cafes Doing
Business as Usual-Marked Contrast to London

Hatred. the most intense concef1
able, for the English. s0...
/ found the most profound respec
for the kaiser. He is looked upon a
the savior Of the national existence
and his conduct of the war and tn
state under war is accepted as marvel
Gus.
German Life Normal.
= German life has been kept so norma
everywhere-there is not a sign o
lack Of employment, not a sign of dis
tress, not q sign of a tight money mar
ket-that gratitude to the powers thai
be is seen on every hand.
rs it not wonderful" every German
you meet asks you, that we do not
feel any effects here of this terrible
world-war? You would not know that
there was a war, would you?"
And IL you truthfully answer you
say you would not.
At least you would not until by
chance some day you pass the war Of
fee on Dorotheen strasse just at the
corner Of the great Tiergarten.
And then you know!
The war Office is a great, gray build
ing, with a foundation Of smooth gran
lite on which has been put a high pol
ish. This building must be 500 feet
long and certainly half as wide. The
granite base makes an excellent place
to paste lists of the "~verwundet." And
"verwundet" means wounded"
e Post Lists Of Wounded.
And, as you will find if you study the
lists closely, ~"wounded' often means
KILLED"
You can find "gefallen" after a name
on these lists almost as often as you
can "verwundet." A cynic in Berlin
told me more often. And he had
watched them for five weeks.
You wonder what the crowd is
which chokes the road. You skirt the
edges.
Periodically you watch someone-it
is generally q woman-detach herself
from it and start toward the paper
posters on the walls of the war office.
Sometimes she goes directly to it, but
more often she stands stock still when
she is some three feet away.
Women Afraid to Look.
Then she turns quickly and walks
away. Walks away-without looking!
She'll come again-in Is minutes"
said my cynical friend. She'll keep
coming until sometime she forces her.
self to the liststo see il his name is
there. And NO doubt she'll faint if she
reads 'Gefallen,' after it. She may, in.
deed, il she reads only 'Schwer yer.
wundet'- heavily wounded. d
Many of them do. For l myself saw
three women and an old man faint.
Also l saw one woman go mad there.
l only went along Dorotheen strasse
once. Z. k"
All over Germany, with the above
and n other exception, l found moth.
ing but courageous hearts-hearts
that believed the fatherland is fighting
for actual existence. The one other
place I mention was in the socialist
camp! a"
Socialists Are Dissatisfied.
l had asked a group of the leading
socialists in Berlin, members of the
reichstag, when l was having lunch
with them, why they voted for the
war.
we were told" they replied, by
the government officials that the Rus
slams had already crossed our eastern
frontier. There was nothing to do in
such a case but to vote for the wa..
And we had to accept in such a crisis,
the governments word as the TRUTH
But do you now think that it wasl
true" asked. AFTER these months?"
my FRIEND" said one of the men to
me, a socialist whose name is famous
around the world, I'VE are not living in
America. We cannot say what we
think. Martial law prevails in this
land. But We believe that we, as we'll
as the socialists of every other country,
were not told all the truth about the
reasons leading up to this war.
And we have not deserted our
brothers in England and France. Nor
have we Lost faith in them. And we
have learned things-a war will never
be engineered in Europe again that is
not thoroughly understood and
thrashed out first by the socialists"
One Note Of Dissent.
That lunch conversation constitutes
the one note of dissent in Germany in
regard to the great world.war. 1t
seemed only a fragment of a tone com.
pared with the laundering diapason
that Is going up in accord from all the
other threats in the kaiser's empire,
but it may, in time, swell until it
dominates the entire symphony.
It is too early to say but, in a way, it
was the most interesting thing l heard
in Germany. For 1t is the first sugges.
ton that the outside world has been
given that the great host of German
socialists are not shoulder to shout.
der in mind, If they r in body, with
the imperialists Of "das deutsche
Reich"
Shoe Factory In Theater.
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