The Ocala evening star. [volume] (Ocala, Fla.) 1895-1943, 1916-12-25
OCALA, FLORIDA, MONDAY, DECEMBER, 25 1916

1916, authorizes the governors, the
military commanders and the chiefs
of ACCOMPLISHMENTS to order that the
unemployed be conducted by force to
the places where they must work.
This was aIready torcibIe working,
although in Belgium.
"Now it is no longer question of
forcible working in Belgium, but in
Germany, and for the benefit of the
Germans.
"To give an appearance of plausi-
bility to these violent measures, the
occupying power insisted in the Ger
man press, both in Germany and Bel
gium, on these two pretexts: the un-
employed constitute danger to pub
lie order, and a burden on official ben
evidence.
"To this we replied in a letter ad-
dressed to the governor general and
to the head of the political depart
ment, on October 10th, as follows:
"fYou are well aware that public
order is in no wise threatened and
that all influence, moral and civil,
would support you spontaneously
were it in danger.
:" The unemployed are not bur-
den on official benevolence, it is not
from your funds that they receive as
sistance.'
''In his reply the governor general
no longer urges these two first con-
siderations, but he alleges that 'doles
to the unemployed from whatever
source they may come at present,
must finally be charge upon our f.
nances, and that. it is the duty of a
good administrator to tighten such
charges he adds that prolonged un-
employment would cause our work
men to lose their technical proficiency,
and that in the time of peace to come
they would be useless to industry
"True, there were other ways in
which our finances might have been
protected We might have been spar
ed those war levies which have now
reached the sum of one billion francs,
and are still mounting up at the rate
cf 40 millions month! we might have
been spared those acquisitions in kind,
which amount to several thousands of
millions, and are exhausting US.
"There are other ways of provid-
ing for the maintenance of profess
sional skill among our work people,
such as leaving to Belgian industry
its machinery and accessories, it's raw
materials and its manufactured goods,
which have passed from Belgium into
Germany. And it is neither to the
quarries nor to the lime kilns to which
the Germans themselves declare they
will send our unemployed, that our
specialists will go to complete their
professional education.
"The naked truth is that every de-
ported workman is another soldier for
the German army. He will take the
place of German workman, who will
be made into soldier. Thus the sit
uation which we denounce to the civ
ilized world may be reduced to these
terms: Four hundred thousand work
men have been thrown out of work by
no fault of their own, and largely on
account of the regime of the occupa-
ton. Sons, husbands and fathers of
families, they bear their unhappy lot
without murmuring, respectful Of
public order; national solidarity pro-
vides their most pressing wants; by
dint of unself1sh thrift and self-denial
they escape extreme destitution, and
they await with dignity and in a mu-
tual affection which our national sor-
rows have intensified, the end of our
common ordeal.
"Groups of soldiers introduced
themselves forcibly in the home of
these people, tearing the young peo-
pie out of the army of their parents,
the husband from his wife, the father
from his children, at the point of the
bayonet they block the entrances to
the homes preventing wives and
mothers from rushing out to say a
last farewell to them; they align the
captives in groups of forty or fifty
and push them forcibly into freight
cars; the locomotive is under pressure
and as soon as train load is ready,
an officer gives the signal and they
depart. Thus another thousand Bel
gians reduced to slavery, without pre-
vious trial, condemned to the penalty
which comes next in cruelty to the
death penalty; deportation. They
don't know how long their exile is go
ing to last, neither do they know
where they are going. All they know
is that their work will benefit the en-
emy. Several of them have been