New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1916-12-17
A REPLY TO CRITICS
By ARTHUR GLEASON

Certain points in NY Tribune testimony
have been challenged by persons sitting II
security three thousand miles away from tn
invaded country where, at my own cost and
risk. have patiently gathered the facts on
which have based my statements.
have built my testimony on three classes
Of evidence.
First The things have seen. have
given names places and dates.
Second-The testimony OF eye-witnesses
made to me in the presence Of men and
women we'll known in France, England and
America. These cye-uitnesses | have used
in precisely the same way in which a case is
built up in the courts Of Law.
Third The diaries and letters written by
Germans, in which they describe the atroci-
ties they have committed. ! have seen the
originals OF these documents.
Il is noticeable that the specific fact has
never been challenged. The date has never
been found misplaced, the place has never
been confused, the person has never been de-
clared non-exstent. The denial mas always
been N blanket form.
Clement Wood in the Socialist paper "The
New York CALI says: This book attempts
more Of summing up of German offences
and, being written TO sustain an opinion
rather than TO give impartially the facts
corrospondingly loses in interest and per-
suasivenes5. It's usefulness TO the general
reader or the person who desires an un-
biassed understanding OF the conflict is
slight lie speaks OF "the alleged German
atrocities in Belgium"
Ny statements DO not deal with opinion,
but with things seen. Apparently it is an
offence to take sides on this war. One is q
trustworthy witness if one has seen only
picturesque incidents that do not reveal the
method Of warfare practised b. an invading
army. One is fair-minded only By shutting
the eyes TO the burned houses of Nellie, Ter
monde and Lorraine, and the dead bodies OF
peasants, and by closing the cars TO the
statements Of outraged persons. One is
judicial only by defending the Germans
against the acts of their soldiers and the
written evidence Of their officers and prvates.
"The Independent says: "He saw the
wreck Of the conven. school, but learned none
OF the sisters had been harmed"
Every Bit OF German Evidence
The critic selects that portion Of my testi-
mony on the convent school which relieves
the Germans OF the charge OF rape. As al
ways. have given every BIZ Of evidence in
favor o. the Germans that came my way. !
have told OF the individual soldier who was
revolted BY his orders. have published the
diaries Of German soldiers which revealed
nobility. But il that scrupulous care of mine
q justification TO "The Independent" for
emitting 20 tell the humiliations visited on
that convent school?
~ testimony of bsyoneted dying peasants
is credible In so far as TO testimony from
the other side was obtainable.'
"llr. Gleason also saw the ruins Of bonn
barded Belgian cities"
Is it fair of THE Independent to be in
accurate? by evidence is not Of bombarded
Belgian cities. II is of Belgian cities, burned
louise By house, with certain houses spared
where "Do not burn By incendiary methods
was chalked on the door.
"Otherriso his evidence is at second OF
third hand mainly"
On the contrary, have quoted witnesses
whom can produce.
Tho Times" Of Los Angeles. says lie is
quite rabid. He writes with the frenzy Of a
zcalot"
do not think the coloricss recitation OF
facts, fortified by name, place and date, is
fabid or frenzicd.
"The Literary Digest" says: "of the 'atroc-
ities' in Belgium we find reports OF friend,
or a friends friend or what some one ssr
or heard"
have told what myself saw and heard.
"Fair-mindod readers will be inclined to
reserve judgment"
But in the light cast By sye.witnesses and
German diaries we have reserved judgment
too long Our American Revolution would
have been dresrier affair Il the French had
reserved judgment. In crisis, tho need is
70 form a judgment in time to make il tell
Tor tho cause Of justice. Truth seeking is a
living function Of the mind.