Manchester Democrat. [volume] (Manchester, Iowa) 1875-1930, 1917-07-11


pleasure upon this picture of guilt
and infamy, or excuse it because it
is war. War? War has been defined
as hell. But the most diabolical per-
sonage who has ever figured as devil
in the crazy imaginations of Caligula
or Nero has never been the author
of such damnable pieces of villany
as has been enacted by the German
autocrats upon the now consecrated
soil of Belgium.
When Germany thus wrote "liar
and craven" upon it's brow by these
and other uncomfortable acts in Bel
GUM, England saw that its treaties
with such a government were worth
less, and unless it wished to be made
the victim of other such atrocities
it had to manfully enter the war. 1t
did so enter What was at stake?
Have you ever asked that question, my
fellow-American? The power of Eng
land upon the high seas? No, a thou
sand times, no! Was it the far-fung
battle line of the Empire? No,
thousand times, no! Was it the large
commercialism of the empire? No.
a thousand times, no! What then was
it?
1t was a culture out of which our
freedom has come; history that has
in it, no doubt, many stains, but a
history of the birth and victory of the
individual; history of parliament
which has fought tyranny on thou
sand fields and conquered every time;
a history in which literature and song
and art and religion have ever been
on the side of the common man, and
which history has ever been our in
heritance. Destroy English culture
and English history and Magma Char
ia, the Bill of Rights, the legal de-
cisions of her courts through the
ages, which have bulwarked our
rights, the martyrs of Smithfield, the
brave stand for liberty of the seven
bishops are all things of the past,
and we are to be dominated by
"kulture" whose central idea is the
divine right of kings, the supremacy
of an entity called the state, which
INTERPRETED in terms of common sense
means only the dominancy OF the ia
vored few, of the power of force. of
the Hohenzollerns. Sheer if you will
at old England, God bless her-and
she has differed with us l know, and
her aristocracy has been our oppon-
ent frequently; her people never
but when England is destroyed our
pride is humbled, our history in part
blotted out, and by silent processes
we become the adopted child Of a
cruel step-father, whose only aim
would be to make us his tool to do
his ungodly work. Take your place
on the side of the "kulture" Of Ger
many, if you desire; as for me, as
long as England stands true to its
essential ideas of right, progress and
freedom, I am on England's side.
France and Her Part.
But even though you may salve
your conscience with your dislike OF
England, to desert the cause at this
time, as our position has been so ably
pointed out by our president, marks
as craven every American who can
value friendship and remembers what
others have done for us.
Once more I ask you to bear in
mind the admitted facts in this con-
flict. Little Serbia had been brought
to her knees; she had agreed to ev-
cry demand of Austria in order to
amicably settle an admittedly serious
matter, but the one which in essence
despoiled her of her sovereignty.
Austria began to mobilize to compel
her to acquiesce in this last out
rageous demand. This stirred Rus
STA, who had constituted herself
the defender of the Slavic races. Ger
many was, no doubt, silently work
ing the machinery Of statecraft for
her own ends; three years of war
fare justifies this conclusion. She at
once objected to Russia's mobiliza-
ton. Russia persisted and Germany
remember Germany not Austria
declared war against Russia and i'm
mediately started her at all times
modified troops for the front. What
front, Russia's? No, but to the French
front. This shows where her eyes
and thoughts were. Russia was auto
cratic; France was republican. Rus
STA could wait, but the panther sprang
upon the one member, which, II de-
feated at the beginning, would mean
victory for Germany. Had Germany
any reason to hate France? France
had not raped her Of colonies; France
had not demanded of her any great
indemnity; France had not filled her
land with spies; France had not ap-
preached her with a Machavelliai
smile while hiding a dagger under
her cloak Who had cause, great
cause to hate and be prepared for
war? Why, France of course. But
France had not moved.
Germany had for forty years been
scientifically preparing to annihilate