The daily Gate City and constitution-Democrat. (Keokuk, Iowa) 1916-1922, 1917-09-21

4 New 1oTk AlAGS- Inc rev LII
Newell Dwight Hills, pastor OF Ply.
mouth church, Brooklyn, quoting from
official records and aftidavits he had
collected on his recent tour OF regions
in France evacuated by the Germans,
asserted in the first OF a series o;
/ six serno On the war in his church
yesterday that there could no longer
( be any doubt OF the fact that the Ger
man armies had been guilty OF the
( blacklist crimes charged against them
Z DR.. Hills spent last July and Az
gust visiting the areas in France
-y:iEed by the German armies in their
retreat He brought back with him
much evidence OF German brutalities.
( and he placed afidaTits and copies OF
/ Cracial records on the pulpit from
which he preached.
For three yeara German-Americans
! have protested that the stories OF Ger
man atrocities were TO be disbslieyed
as English inventions, Belgian lies,
and French hypocrigies, but that day
has gone forever" he said. When
ever the representatives of the nations
assemble for the final settlement
there viii be laid before the represen-
tatiyes of Germany af1davits, photo
graphs, and other legal proofs that
make German atrocities far better es-
tabIished than the scalpings OF the
Sioux Indians on the western from
tiers, the murders Of the Black Hole
of Calcutta. or the crimes Of the
Spanish tnquisition- On battle line
900 miles long, in every village the
retreating Germans passed, the follow
ing morning accredited men hurried
TO the scene to make the record
against the day OF Judgment.
The photographs Of dead and NUT
Hated girls. children, and old men tell
no lies. Two forms Of testimony are
esteemed by jurists-the testimony
of mature men, who have seen and
heard, and the testimony of children
too innocent 10 invent their state
ments but old enough 10 tell what they
saw. For the first time in history the
German has reduced saVagery TO a
science, therefore this great war for
peace must go on until the German
cancer is cut clean out OF the body"
DR.. Hills asserted that more than
10000 separate atrocities committed
by the German armies had been docu-
mented and were on file in the chan
celleries Of the allied nations for use
when the terms Of peace are to be dis
cussed.
when the German army in Lor-
raine was defeated by one-half its
number" he went on, ut fell north:
ward, passing through French towns
and villages where there were no
Frenchmen, no guns, and where no
shots were fired. During July and
August we went slowly from one
ruined town to another, talking with
the women and the children, compar-
ing the photographs and the full off,
cial records made at the time, with the
statements OF the poor, wretched sur
Tivors, who lived in cellars, where
once there had been beautiful houses,
orchards and vineyards.
In Gerbevillier, standing beside
their graves, studied the photo
graph of the bodies of fifteen old men
whom the Germans had lined up and
shot because there were no young
Soldiers TO kill; heard the detailed
story of q women whose boy Of II
being nearest the age of soldier, was
first hanged TO pear tree in the gar
den, and when the officer and soldier
had left him and were busy setting
fire to the next house, she cut the rope,
revived the strangled boy. only to
find the soldiers had returned, and
while the officer held her hands be-