The Pleasantville press. (Pleasantville, N.J.) 1912-1929, 1917-12-15

Vi lllelu. GlhuES w., btNouSO W
could not keep out. We tried. What
ever may have been our record in the
past, it can never be said of us that
We brought this war on ourselves or
that we failed to use every honorable
method to keep out of the death grip
of Europe. If we were long in coming
to our decision, it was because we res
manned ~incredulous. We were asked
to believe something that was hard to
believe.
So we waited and hoped and stressed
every point of international law to the
breaking point because of this thing
we would not believe. We were a
clean and humane people. We can un-
derstand individual cruelty. We have
he'd sad experiences of the hysteria of
crowds. But we cannot understand.
and today we hardly credit, the cruelty
of a government.
We have ourselves constructed a
government that is digniied, just, slow
to wrath, and humane.
But for three years a conviction has
been growing among US hat one of the
nations in the world war is none of
these things-not dignified, not just,
not humane. Had Germany's cruelties
ceased with Belgium, she might in time
have made her case before the world.
For three years in that wretched coun-
try she has been covering her tracks.
But Germany has bungled. She has
disclaimed frightfulness In Belgium
only to bring it home to the world at
large. She has introduced into war
fare such cruelties of killing, such in
human methods, such destruction, such
contempt of the laws of war as have
set the world pale with horror. She
has added hate to the vocabulary of
war, and hatred is a ~cOntagion.
Yes, persistently and in the face of
the evidence, she has disclaimed the
atrocities in Belgium. She has been
willing to shoulder the sinking of
women and children in unarmed ships.
She is proud of the invention of poison
gases and of liquid fire. She believes
that the Smelling of unfortified cities
and the use of the submarine against
helpless fishing boats will, on her in
i~tiative, be accepted by the next Hague
convention as ethical and legal.
But she continues to disclaim the
atrocities in Belgium. Why should she
not? The thousands who died in pro-
tecting the advance of her army, the
other thousands who were shot with
out inquiry against the brick walls of
cantured towns, those men who were
bayoneted while trying to protect their
women from the assaults of drunken
soldiers, the little children whose bod
les lay unburied by the roadside-none
of them will ever tell the story.
ATROCITIES ON RECORD.
The atrocities in Belgium are true.
They are matters of record. German
soldiers themselves have set down the
details in the diaries their government
gave them. / have read some of those
diaries. Not all German soldiers
turned into beasts in Belgium. There
are some who record that the horrors
sickened them. 1t is not true that the
German government ordered assaults
on women. But it did order looting
and arson and wholesale murder.
The result of that order for looting
was a mob of drunken men, whose VIC
tins today fill great graves.
This is a terrible accusation to bring
against a people. Yet l know the
thing of which I speak. During the
first year of the war I went to that
portion of Belgium which remained un-
UNr-z-~ 7 .0-y r,a. AAHaanc
high in the Belgian army, who had
themselves e that infamous advance
protected by their own people-old
men, women carrying children, small
girls, sturdy boys, with death behind
and death ahead.
It was impossible MOTTO believe. The
accumulation of evidence was too
great. The German army had come
into Belgium prepared for opposition.
They brought fire confetti, which they
flung into the houses while they were
occupied. More than n German
diary tells of the shooting of the In
habitants as they tried to escape.
Drunken German soldiers firing their
guns led sober mes to believe the
civil population was rising, although
1T was known they had no weapons,
and 80 or more leading citizens were
shot without a hearing. Women were
attacked In public places.
But even here there was a chance
for Germany. She could say-anC
she has said-she did not order these
things, although she did order the
shooting of hostages without inquiry
and she did order the looting which
resulted in drunkenness and its thou
sand resulting brutal crimes.
CONVICTED ON ONE COUNT.
But on one count Germany mus
face the world, must be tried and sen
fenced, with no possibility of acquit
tai, She protected her advance will
noncombatants.
l have before me on my desk tn
original copy of an interview witt
Albert, king of the Belgians, durin'
the first winter Of the war. Much tina