Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1917-12-27
OUTSIDE PALE
OF HUMANITY
rrsel'e'uoness Taught BY German
Leaders Belongs to Age Of
6arbarism.
SOLEMN PLEDGE MERE WORDS


IN giving to tho American people
0s knowledge of German inhuman-
sy ~ Belgium. says q pamphlet IS
sued BY tho committee on public in-
formation. tho evidence Is draun
~sasnly from German and American
sources. The German sources an
essds ofcia! proclamations and
other official utteranccs, letters and
diaries Of German soldiers. and quo
tatioms from German newspapers.
The Rules for Field Service" of the
German army advises each soldier
to keep such q diary while on active
ssryics.
In the wars waged in ancient times
1t was taken for granted that con-
quered peoples might be either killed,
tortured, or held as slaves; that their
property would be taken and that their
lands would be devastated. "vae vic
tis " to the conquered! For two
centuries or more there has been a
steady advance in introducing Ideas of
humanity and especially in combining
the evils Of warfare to the ~combatants,
The ideal seemed to have become SO
thoroughly established as u part of IN.
ternational law that the powers ut The
Hague thought 1t sufficient merely to
state the general principles in Article
XVI OF the regulations: "Family hon
ors and rights, the lives of persons
and private property, rs well as re-
ligious convictions and practice, must
be respected. Private property cannot
be confscated." Germany, in common
with the other powers. solemnly
pledged her faith to keep this article.
but her military leaders had no inten-
ton Of doing so. They had beer
trained In the ideas voiced by Gen. Won
Hartmann 40 years ago: "Terrorism
Is seen to be a relatively gentle pro.
ceiure, useful to keep the masses Of
the people In q state of obedience"
This had been Bismarck's policy, too.
According to Moritz Busch, Bislnnrk's
blographer, Bismarck, exasperated by
the French resistance, which was still
continuing in January, 1871, said:
If In the territory which we occupy
we cannot supply everything for oar
troops, from time to time we shall send
. flying column into the localities
which are recalcitrant. We shall shoot,
hang and burn. After that has hap,
pened a few times. the inhabitants will
finally come to their senses"
Horrors Told In Soldiers Diaries.
The frlghtfulness taught by the Ger
man leaders held full sway in Belgium.
This is best seen In the entries In the
diaries Of the individual German sol
oilers.
"During the night Of August 1876
Engineer Cir gave the alarm in the
town Of Wise. Every one was shot or
taken prisoner, and the houses were
burnt. The prisoners were made to
march and keep up with the troops"
(From the diary OF noncommissioned
officer Relnhold Koehn Of the Second
battalion Of engineers, Third army
c0rps.)
"A horrible bath Of blood. The whole
village burnt, the French thrown into,
the blazing houses civilians with the
rest" (From the diary of Private
Hassemer Of the Eighth army corps.)
I'm the night 1t August 1919 the vii
lage Of Saint Maurice was punished
for having fred on German soldiers by
being burnt to the ground by the Ger
man troops 1.-TWO regiments. the
Twelfth landwehr and the Seven.
teenth.) The village was surrounded.
men posted nbout 4 yard from one an,
other, 81 TINT NO n could get out.
Then the Uhians set fire to 1t, house
by house. Neither mnn. woman, o
child could escape; only the greater
part of the live stock we carried oil.
as that could be used. Anyone who
ventured to come out was shot down.
All the inhabitants left In the village
were burnt with the houses" From
the diary Of Private Karl Scheufele Of
the Third Bavarian regiment and land.
weir infantry.)
AT ten O'Clock IN the evening the
flrst battalion Of the One hundred and
0eventy.eighth marched down the steep
incline into the burning village to the
burning village to the north Of Dlnant.
A terrific epectacle Of CHASTITY beauty.
At the entrance to the village lay about
ffty dead civilians. shot for having
fred upon our troops from ambush. In
the course Of the night many others
were also shot, 20 that we counted over
400. Women and children, lamp In
hand, were forced to look on at the
horrible scene. We ate our rice Inter
In the midst Of the corpses. for we Ind
had nothing since morning. When we
searched the houses we found plenty
Of wine and spirit but no eatables.
Captain Hamann Was drunk" (This
1sst phE1ss In shorthand.) (From the
diary IL Privats Philip Of the One
HundtVd ana Seventy-eishth regiment
q infantry, Twelfth army corps.)
4 Writing from Belgium n 1915 Irwin
4. Cobb mia: J%N
sDtia6y what raw was this: I saw