Richmond times-dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1914-current, 1916-10-08
CaptiOes Subjected to
Discipline More Seuere
Than That Found
in Penitentiaries.
10y M.iX N0RDtU.
nk mr. IT

Unnecessary crueltics and artful hu-
Mutations have accumulated The pris-
oncrs have been Systematically deprived
of their personality and declared de-
void of their human dignity. They
were starved. and at the same time
forbidden to buy food with their own
money. at no matter how cXorbitant
prices. They were prohibited from
talking with one another. They We're
subjected to discipline which was
more severe than that in "a penitentiary.
For the most trifinE violation of rules,
which they often neither knew nor UNI
dcrstood, and which were silly, vcXatt-
Gus and provoking. punishment show
cred down upon them which often per-
mancntly impaired or destroyed their
health, such as claiming them for hours
or days. in the cold of the winter. to
IA post, and always constituted the
crime OF lese majestic against mankind.
They were constrained to submission
under so-callcd superiors, without in
struction and education, which was UNI
bearable to the self esteem Of free men,
and they were permitted no protest
against brutalities. They were not
allowed TO write or to receive letters.
and the only newspapers accessible TO
them were those of the enemy. which
systematically and mortifyingly pre-
scented the situation of the war in Il
false manner.
The worse violence committed
against the prisoners of war. however.
is the imposition upon them OF the yoke
of -thialdom. For there is no other
word to describe the position into
which they were forced. We can only
call it slavery when man is COM
PEELED under the threat of the most
barbarous chastisements. such as hun
ger. Jail, and even shooting, to perform
work to which he is not accustomed,
for which he is not qualified. which
skaters his health, which turns him
into brute. against which all his in
stinctS revolt
EDUCATED MEN FORCED
TO DO MENIAL WORK
Professors of universities, lawyers.
engineers, artists. authors have been
pressed to navvies' and miners work.
They have had to do scavengng and
draining of boys. they have been
obliged to break stones on the road and
to drag loads OF their backs. and when,
through the intermediary of ncutrals.
protest has been raised against such
vilencss the authorities have replied
that the occupation of the prisoner be-
fore the war could not enter into con-
sideration, that his Deing profess
sional man was no reason for allowing
him to be idle.
This is exactly the reply OF the Mo-
hammedan North Africans Of yorc when
they forced the author OF Don QuiN-
ote" to do the work Of a beast Of
burden. The modern slave also is
hired out to private employers. OF his
wages he is allowed only an insignif-
cant fraction. All the rest is pocketed
by the state.
For such treatment of the prisoners
of war there is absolutely neither justi-
fication nor excuse. He who is guilty
of il has no claim to the name of a
civilized man. or even Of any kind OF
man, and returns deliberately to the
state of bestialty. He would only be
consequent If. without Hypocrisy. he
avowcd himself frankly the primevnl
brute he is. and tortured and butchered
all the prisoners of war with his own
hands in Pharaonic and Assyriar
fashion.
What Is the only admissible ide;