The Washington herald., 1915-08-08
SAY OFFICERS
/ TORTURE men
Accusations Made by Social
lists in the German
Reichstag.
DISCUSSION KEPT SECRET
Instances Form Darkest Spots on
Military System. Declares
Leader of Party. !
By STEVEN BURNETT.

Berlin. Aug There recently oc-
CURED some rather uproarious scenes
III the German Reichstag, when Ger
tain Socialist members brought for
ward evidence showing that German
officers now in the midst of the war.
when thousands CT men are daily sac
riticing their lives for their country,
had once more relapsed into their old
Eabi, of Iorturing and abusing private
soldiers The accusation was dealt
with in secret session, and the press
WAS forbidden to make any reference
20 II. while every line i'll the Socialist
papers has been scanned TO make sure
that no revelations were made in An
underhand manner.
In the meantime the facts are COM
mon knowledge among Socialist lead
erE, and they will, of course. eventu-
ally leak out TO the masses, with per
haps exceedingly disastrous result 10
the naughty officers caste.
have just had an Interesting talk
on this subject with 4 very prominent
Socialist leader, whose name I shall
not mention. though he has not asked
me to keep it secret, but my readers
viii know who ] mean when / say
that he is the most fearless and most
feared Socialist member Of the Reich
stag, and that his military and official
enemies have more than once tried to
get rid of him by scheming to send
him to the most exposed parts of the
front, in the hope to have him killed,
as he is still of military age.
Not Considered Surprising.
You say that these instances of
abuses on the part of defenseless PR
Yates in war time surprises YOU he
said OF me, but to me it is rather sur
prising that they have not occurred
before. As you know. officers here
always have abused and tortured SOL
diers who happened to displease them.
Ii seems that this is of the evils
which are inseparable from compulsory
military service as we know it in Ger
many and when apparently several
months passed after the outbreak of
the war without any bad cases of this
kind YOU must not suppose that TINS
was because the military tyrants had
suddenly learned to love their men
whom they might at any moment have
10 order into the jaws of certain death,
but ii was simply because our officers
realized that the private soldier in war
time is not quite as defenseless as in
the barracks in time Of peace and
that Il bullet from a German rifle
might easily put an end to the life of
an officer who incurred the hatred or
the mon under mis- command,
Gradually. however. this fear of re-
prisals on the part of the privates wore
off. the officers once more adopted
their usual naughty manner and we
legan to hear of soldiers being sub
united 10 the old time tortures in the
'T'Tches
Form Dark Spots.
These abuses and tortures of private
o,diers in nv opinion. are one of the
.'arkcSt spots on German militarism,
especially Dec:IuSe the highest military
"uthor.tics always have refused 10 abOl-
ish this crying evil. though individual
offenders whose guilt had become too
evident have occasionally been pun
ishsI although in justice to the
Eciser il must be said that nc has re-
I'eatSdly expressed his condemnation of
them.
Il want to emphasize that the spirit
of!hatred is not in the spirit of the great
German people. but merely the result of
A system the days of which are num-
bered even in PRUSSIA. no matter whether
we win or are defeated in this war
The German people do not consider it
a crime to show sympathy with and as
siss unhappy brethren. he they German.
French Russian or British We do not
consider it "grober unfug" tserious OF
ieuseD to give bread to starving en-
envy prisoner. whose only crime Is that
he has oheyed the orders of his authori-
ties and fought for his country as we
order and expect our men to fight for
Germany.
II am glad to have been given an OPP
portunity to say this to the people OF
America They must not judge the soul
of our people from what they see now,
when we are nearly all of us tools or
dupes OF cruel system. for the true
German spirit will manifest itself only
after we shall have become a free people
and that time is not very far away"