The circle banner. [volume] (Circle, Mont.) 1914-1939, 1917-11-09

COulu not Keep out. we lrleu- w Hal
ever may have been our record in tn
past, it can never be said of us tina
we brought this war on ourselves o
that we failed to use every honorable
method to keep out of the death grill
of Europe. If we were long in coming
to our decision, it was because we re
manned incredulous. We were asked
to believe something that was hard tt
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 6
clean and humane people. We can un-
derstand individual cruelty. We have
had 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 dignified, just, slow
to wrath, and humane.
But for three years a conviction has
been growing among us that one of the
nations in the world war is none of
these things-not dignified, not just,
not humane. Had Germany's crueIties
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 frightfplness 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 unfortif1ed cities
and the use of the submarine against |
helpless fishing boats will, on her in |
ltiative, be accepted by the next Hague |
convention as ethical and legal.
But she continues to disclaim the !
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
captured 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. l have read some of those
diaries. Not all German soldiers
turned into beasts in Belgium. There
ere some who record that the horrors
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 1ooting I
was a mob of drunken men, whose vic
Tins today fill great graves.
This is terrible accusation to bring
against a people. Yet I know the
thing of which I speak. During the |
first year of the war I went to that
portion of Belgium which remained I'M t
There I saw men, officers t
high in the Belgian army, who had g
seen that infamous advance 1
protected by their own people-old
men, women carrying children, small I
girls, sturdy boys, with death behind
and death ahead.
1t was impossible not to believe. The
of evidence was too
great. The German army had come t
nto Belgium prepared for opposition. b
They brought fire confetti, which they t
lung into the houses while they were l
occupied More than one German t
liary tells of the shooting of the in n
labitants as they tried to escape. n
Drunken German soldiers firing their il
runs led sober ones to believe the 4
,ivil population was rising, although t
t was known they had no weapons, e
ind so or more leading citizens were b
shot without hearing. Women were d
stacked in public places.
But even here there was chance k
he has said-she did not order these "
hings. although she did order the t
shooting of hostages without inquiry, t
md she did order the footing which r
esulted in drunkenness and its thou t
and resulting brutal crimes.
ON ONE COUNT.
But on one count Germany must
ace the world, must be tried and SEN s.
enced, with no possibility OF acquit-
al. She protected her advance with
K
/ have before me on my desk the O
ririnaI copy Of an interview with e
lbert, king Of the Belgians, during q
he first winter of the war. Much that Z
"a said during that interview has
ever been published and will not be G
now. ! have not the kings