New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1916-02-20
THF GERMAN STEAM ROLLER
German and fsed by German AH0
eandE nfocedWo o utoS
Breaking hcNh atoms
To the Editor Of The Tribune.

To the Editor Of The Tribune.
Sir: Germany uses three methods In turn
ing free nation into a vassal state. By
SPY system, operated through years, she saps
the national strength. BY sudden INVASION
accompanied by atrocity, she conquers the
territory. already prepared. BY continuing
occupation she hattens out what is left Of
once independent people In England and
North America she has used her first method
France has experienced both the spy and the
atrocity. IL has been reserved for Belgium
to be submitted to the threefold process.
have already told in these columns OF
the spy and the atrocity. | shall describe
here the steam roller This final method
now operating in Belgium to fatten her Tor
all time is the most deadly and complete
Of the three. 1t is calculated process to
break the human spirit. People speak as
if the injury done Belgium was a thing OF
the past. It is at its height now. The spy
system, with its clerks, walters, tourists,
business managers, reached directly only
some thousands of persons. The atrocities
mutlated and killed many thousands OF old
men, women and children. But the German
occupation and sovereignty at the present
moment are endeayoring to denatlonallze
more than six million people.
The German conquerors operate their
steam roller by the use Of clever lies, thus
separating Belgium from her real friends;
by taxation, thus breaking Belgium economi-
cally; by enforced work food supplies,
railways and ammunition, thus forcing
Belgian peasants to feed their enemy's army
and destroy their own army, and so making
unwilling traitors out of patriots; by fines
and Imprisonment that harass the individual
Belgian who retains any sense Of nationality;
by official SANDER from Berlin that the
Belgians are the guilty causes Of their own
destruction; and. finally, by the fact OF
sovereignty itself, that at one stroke breaks
the Utmost spirit Of q free nation.
What the Peasants Endure.
One noon at Oordegem there was firing
a couple of miles up the road. The innkeep-
er's wife was nervous. Her face was
troubled, and she walked from one point to
another Of our group. We made an offer 70
the innkeeper. We said: "The Germans are
at Alost They are reported TO be coming
on this road. Does your wife wish 10 return
to Client with US? We will take her in our
car"
This was translated for her into the
Flemish by our driver.
when are the Germans coming" she
asked.
If they were coming OF once, then she
would like TO fly with US. If they decided to
20 in another direction, then she would be
more comfortable right in her own inn. She
did not come with u.s. There you have the
way they think revealed in one flash That
is the attitude Of the peasantry everywhere.
They cluster around the last outpost OF
Belgian troops, waiting for the Germans to
come. perhaps they won't come, then why
leave our house2 If they do come, we'd like
to take a look at them before running away
from them"
In burned town a stout man with q
gray mustache of abundance talked with US.
lie stood twenty feet from heap of ashes
surrounded by few pieces OF wall. "Ihat
Ia nv own house." he said. What do YOU
think Of it?"
He was CHEEKY and laxative. There was
no gloom among the people. There was
stolidity. a sense Of bewilderment. In few
~ the Inhabitants there was a slight excite
ment. There was one woman who had re-
NAMED in her house and watched the troops
ride in past her window, and then had seen
her town burn down around her, the TO"
If dwellings In which she lived spared. She
said the sight was alarming, that it had
given her fear. Surely that is not an over
statement. II was amazing, the universal
calmness of these people who have lost their
relatives. their property all the old land
marks Of life. Think of rising each morn
mo for. say, sixty years of life, like the
owner of the house with whom we talked
and looking out on the familiar streets win
their attractive half-moon curve, like the
blade of scythe. looking on the familiar
faces of the white-front houses bright in the
norning sun. and then in one day of hand
grenades administered house by house having
all that accustomed aspect Of life wiped our,
so that YOU see a world that is wrecked so
far as your own bit Of it extends.
The Hospital Burned.
Another old man, the one most moved IN
his emotions of all whom we met, told OF
the day Of fire with his eyes showing pam
MS If he saw over again while he talked what
he had seen on the Saturday. lie said that
some of the leading men had run away be-
fore the Germans. He had seen his fellow
townsmen shot, he had seen the sick re-
moved from the hospital on the Rue de
lFglise and carried TO the ramparts, and
then the hospital fred.
A handsome priest, perhaps six feet IN
height, walked few steps ahead OF Us
down the chief street, the Rue de fEglise.
This street is, for seven-eighths of It's eN-
tent a ruin. As the open-faced young father
picked his way over the heaps Of burnt brick
and rubble he pointed the way where we
could safely step and warned US where there
was danger
"Yonder is my house." he said. He stepped
up to a white plastered front, behind which
there was nothing but waste OF orieNs'
lie peeped through the window into the
go, tbeu he steuped back to