Idaho County free press. [volume] (Grangeville, Idaho Territory) 1886-current, 1917-09-27
GERARD SPEAKS IN
BUTTE ON kAISERISM
German Wage Conditions Bad-Teuts
Cruel to Prisoners-Tells What Prus-
sian Domination Means

dresses in Montana during the past two
weeks During the whole of Mr.. Gerard IS
four years residence in Berlin, Mr..
Gerard was a most industrious student
of conditions and he has brought back
some reminders that are very timely.
For instance, in his address at Butte
last Tuesday when he addressed 10000
people, Mr.. Gerard said:
- DO YOU know how the working men
are treated in Germany? Ask some of
the working men who come from there,
Ask some Of the Slavs how they IKE
the rule of their Hungarian masters in
Hungary. Ask them what wages they
receive. Why, the miners in Germany
do not get 80 day, and they have to
pay more for their food than you do
here, because, in order to benefit the
handwriting noble classes, they have put
a duty on the importations of food. Ask
the farmers who have lived in Germany
what wages they received Why, |
have seen the women on their knees in
the field, women and girls VINO live
III houses with none of the conveniences
that you have in this country, working
from early sunrise until after sunset
(and that means "A long time in that
northern land) for about 80 cents a day.
Their high wages at harvest time are
IS cents "A day. DO you German sympa.
thizing friends want to 90 back to those
conditionsR DO they want to go back
and be showed off the sidewalk by a
German officer and struck in the face
with a whip by a Prussian drill ser
geantl What are they after? do
not know. They had right to sympa-
thize with Germany at the beginning of
the war, but now that we are in the war
forced into it because we could not with
honor keep out, we expect all of our
citizens to be loyal.
Mr.. Gerard also had timely word for
those Irish -Prussians or those of Irish
descent who have inherited all of the
intense, old time bitterness against
England without intelligence enough to
appreciate the changes time has
wrought. He said:
"And now for our second class and
am thankful to say that it is very
small class-the Prussian-lrish. | wish
that the Prussian Irish had gone with me
to see that camp at Limburg; to see the
sufferings of those lrishmen there after
they had refused to join the German
army. ! wish that they could have seen
those poor Irishmen who had remained
true to their oath being starved to
death, going insane from their treat
ment and being shot-because the Ger
mans commenced to shoot them on the
most flimsy excuses.
"Once ] went down to the camp to
investigate a death of an freshman who
had been killed by one of the guards.
They refused to allow me to talk to
the witnesses. They refused to allow
me to see any of the people connected
with ehnn An hn
morning that was there they had killed
another of these unfortunate prisoners
and they concealed that from me. al
though it was their duty to inform me
of it.
81 would like the PruSsian- Irish to
see the sufferings of the men in that
camp. And | want to tell them that we
are not going to be ruled by a minority
If they do not like this country that
gave them every opportunity; that wei
coined them as no nation was ever wei
coined by another, why. they can get on
that same ship that we are going to
load with some of the Germans and
float back to Europe
You know some of the people talk of
having Il war prejudice. They say we
should not he over there fighting Eng
lands battles. We are not fighting
England 5 battles. We are fighting
our own battles think it is better to
fight our battles in Flanders than it is
IN Butte. And if you saw II man across
the street who was fighting with two OF
three on his side against two or three
Others and this man called out to you
and said, Wait until | finish with
these fellows. and | m coming over to
lick you, don / YOU think it would bt
Il part of the most ordinary prudence 10
90 over aud take hand in that scrap?
Mr. Bryan said the other day that
there were only two side to this war;
that if our allies were crushed, we Were
crushed; that if one of our allies were
crushed it put so much more weight OF
us, and he said that every American
must he on one side and that side the
side of the United States.
Il tell YOU that the time is cominl
now when every man must decide
whether he is traitor or IN Amer
ran.
Perhaps the most impressive part OF
Mr.. Gerard 5 Butte address was that re
lating to Prussian domination. On
this subject he said:
You cannot realize what the horrors
OF Prussan domination mean. | have
been in northern France III that par
under the occupation of the German
and | have seen with my own eyes tn,
long lines of women and girls who wer
torn from their homes without notice
without even a chance to pack few
belongings in satchel and carried out
forced to do work in the fields, the pro
duee of which was used for the Ger
man army. These women and girls wer
seized just as the women and girls o
Butte might be seized, carried off b.
German non-commissioned officers am
soldiers, sent out to military posts t
live alone with these soldiers for five 0
six months. And it was not until afte
that time, not until the whole world, til
pope, the king of Spain, President Wi
son and even the Germans themselve
had protested that these unfortunat
women ana girls to the number {
L l.. III L. L. Il.