The Detroit times., 1917-03-08
= War Correspondent
u Prince Of Traitors If
Psciflsts Are Traitors

=
War. in the opinion of pacifsts, Is an
nvxful thing; barbarous thing and a
more barbarous thing because it is an
unnecessary thing.
Pacifsts realize that wars are not
fought By those who share in the profits
Of war.
They realize that war is fostered and
wars are fought to satisfy greed Of capt.
til and lust for power, and that the hard
ships, the suffering, the bleeding and the
dying are done by brothers on their re-
spective sides who have nothing in God $
world against each other.
They realize that the weeping is done
by sisters who have nothing against each
other, either.
Because they have given the matter OF
var THOUGHT, and because thinking
has opened their eyes to the truth OF
war. and because they are brave enough
20 express and support their convictions
pacifsts are charged with lack Of patri-
ctism: are called spineless towards and
other names.
Pacifst senators in Washington who
opposed what they deem to be too much
authority to be vested in an individual
n democracy. have been called traitors,
and one of them has been hanged in
eRi9y as such, yet William Philip Simms
fuss unpunished for the part he played
md continues to play.
n the pacifsts of our country are
sh,itors," then William Philip Simms is
~ arch-traitor; he is prince of our Ben
odict Arnolds.
For the service of William Philip
S1usns to treason" such as our pacifists
NJ accused of, is the making of trait
en-"
william Philip Simms is war cor
respondent.
He u the representative in the war
Yome Of the United Press which serves
yuu through The Times with news from
the front.
A day or two ago he stood where the
Germans had evacuated their trenches in
their rstreat along the Ancre, and there
- harmed the reason for their evacua-
~.
It was because the German soldiers,
~ wrote, in their positions that had been
tw,sd into stencil pits too horrible for
knrnan nerves to stand, were fast be-
enufng garrison Of gibbering lunatics.
Maybe you read what Simms had to
ropoKt-
II rou did, read ii again.
IT, an hour that calls for its reading
many lines over.
This il what Simms saw, in his own
words:
1 ~ the nrst American permitted to pene-
tvoto across the ground evacuated by the Ger
nnnns q fnr an Thflloy towards Bapaule.
noma. Tussaud's wax works chamber OF horrors
~ cheerful compared with this neld OF terrors.
rn3nful1y pictured NJ each step. There ! saw
1onnnnf ceaspools and interlocking shell era
ongs n which the water was the exact color
I fDuad myself stepping on German bodies
wntcA Uttered the region They were IN all
imneinahle conditions and positions-sometimes
~ several deep. l saw arms sticking full
IcnN1h out OF the mud that concealed all else
= he bodies 10 which they were attached There
vu6u logn, feet. half bodes-or heads alone
rro1xu6lng- Some lay face down. some were
Dspos q their backs, exactly as II asleep.
~ mother place on pile several deep lay a
1oy1Gh ofncer, fair "a girl with his arms thrown
ooe1 and his blue eyes staring 70 the sky. His
10y hair had been brushed back modishly by
II rain
lmagfns scenes like this covering miles
lmAo1ne every trace OF vegetation long. long
olnce blasted away. Imagine the earth powder
4n1nod and churned up from 10 to so feet in
go. Imagine mud so bottomless that the
German prisoners claim their men frequently
vore swallowed up whole in attempting 70 cross
49, A>pt