The Union times. [volume] (Union, S.C.) 1894-1918, 1917-08-17
HOW GERMANY
MAKES WAR
Manufactures Record)

WSlc0tt gives some 1actS In regard TO
the war in which Germany makes
war, startling in their horror if we
have not already reached point
where nothing that Germany does can
startle us. In the course of his article
Mr.. Walcott says:
I went into Belgium to investigate
conditions, and while there had op-
portunities to talk with the leading
German officials. Among others
had a talk one day with Governor
or four weeks ago, man 72 or 73
years old, man stepped in the "sys-
tem,' born and bred to the hardening
of the headt which that philosophy
develops. There ought to be some
new word coined for the process that
a mans heart undergoes when it be-
comes stepped in that system.
| said to him: Governor, what are
you going to do if England and France
stop giving these people money to
purchase food?"
He said: eve have got that all
worked out and have had it worked
out for weeks, because we have eX-
pected this system to break down at
any time"
He went on to say: "Starvation
will grip these people in 80 to &c
days. Starvation is a compelling
force, and we would use that force
to compel the Belgian workingmen,
many of them very skilled, to go into
Germany to replace the Germans, so
that they could go to the front and
fight against the English and the
French.
GAS fast as our railway transporta-
tion could carry them, we would trans
port thousands of others that would
be fit for agricultural work across Eu-
rope, down into Southeastern Eu-
rope, into Mesopotamia, where we
have huge, splendid irrigation works.
All that land needs is water and it
will blossom like the rose.
Kidding the Land of the Weak.
"The weak remaining, the old and
the young, we would concentrate op-
posite the firing line, and put firing
squads back Of them, and force them
through that line, so that the English
and French could take care of their
own people"
1t was a perfectly simple, direct,
frank reasoning. 1t meant that the
German government would use any
force in the destruction of any peo-
pie not its own to further its own
ends.
I had never thought in such terms.
1 had read Va nBernhardi and others,
but l did not believe them, and the
whole point of view was new, but
gradually the truth of it all began to
dawn upon me.
Going from Belgium to Poland, Mr..
Walcott tells the story of the loss by
the Russians of Lodz and the horrors
which followed. On this point he says:
81 motored along those roads, the
two running toward Petrograd and
the one toward Moscow. The German
officers and the Poles who were with
me, with whom l consulted, agreed in
this estimate, that in about six weeks
time, a year ago last fall, approx
mately 100000 people along that
southern road were made homeless by
the burning of their dwellings, and of
this 100000 people at least 100000
died in the flight along that one road.
"Of the balance approximately half
were saved and gathere by the Ger
mans later into refugee camps, and
today, according to the Central Re-
lief Committee of Poland, approx
mately 100000 of those miserable
refugees who escaped with the Rus
sian army are now in Russia, many of
-, @1o-
alive.
Human Bones for Fertilizer.
at is those people whom the COM
mittee has been trying to relieve, be-
cause nobody has been able to get
food or help to Russian Poland prop
er, with the exception of one under
taking of the Rockefeller Foundation.
GAS motored along that road, only
a few weeks after that terrible re-
treat, began to realize something of
what had happened. Both sides of
the road were completely lined for the
whole 230 miles with Undiscovered and
rain-soaked clothing. The bones had
been cleaned by the cSows, which are
in that country by countless thou
sands. 1t is rich alluvial country.
Three-quarters of the people are agr.
culturists and one-quarter industrial
"The Prussians had come along and
gathered up the larger bones because
they were useful to them as phos-
pilates and fertilizer. The little fin
ger bones and toe bones were still
there with the rags of clothing.
"The little wicker baby baskets that
hold the baby as he swings by rope
or chain from the rafters of the peas
ants cottage were there by hundreds
upon hundreds. I started counting