Belding banner. (Belding, Mich.) 1889-1918, 1917-10-03
PRUSS|AN|SM.--THE
GERMAN POLICY OF
BLOOD AND IRON
WHAT THE GERMAN WARLORDS
BELIEVED; THEIR FIENDISH
TOOLS OF BUTCHERY

Eternal God, but it is a joy to see
the Huns crazed and smashed by the
allies titanic pile-driver on the
French front. 1t is joy to have
such diabolical methods Of destruc-
ton turned on their creators.
The Germans believed absolutely
that they could start this war and
| finish it all inside few weeks, just
as they did their earlier war against
Austria and France. An American
doctor of German birth who was in
Berlin at the time the war broke out
informs us that he offered to serve
the German hospital service but was
while, as the war would "all be over
inside, of three weeks"
The Prussian geniuses of blood and
| iron planned that they would pass
bright through Belgium unhindered,
dictate peace in Paris and secure an
| indemnity which would make the war
| the biggest success ever scored in the
robbery line. Such a vast aggrega-
ton Of warships, airships, mines, big
guns, machine guns, poison gas, gen.
orators, flame electors, high explos-
i've shells, bombs and other engines of
destruction had they amassed in the
course of many years that these war
lords never entertained the slightest
doubt that they could blast their way
through to Paris.
They knew their neighbors were
not prepared and they believed that
victory was a foregone conclusion.
They would never have ventured into
the struggle if they had even remote
! ly imagined that their opponents had
any chance to win. Every detail of
their Internal plans was worked out
| in advance,
They had tons of iron crosses all
made to distribute to the soldiers who
| first entered Paris, and Kaiser Will
helm boosted that he would eat his
Christmas dinner there. They even
made the blasphemous claim that all
| this murder and destruction was ap-
proved by the Almighty.
But they reckoned without their
host. Little Belgium threw herself
into the breach and saved civilization.
The Prussian hordes were held up un-
til the French and British could pre-
pare; and now we see the advantage
swung to the allies side.
1t is now the Germans who are
having to stand up and be blown to
pieces; and the eternal justice of it is
that they are being blown to pieces
by the very same devilish means they
! themselves so cunningly perfected.
| They are now having to take their
own medicine. War is being brought
home TO them; not the offensive war
which they counted on; not the war
which was to saddle all the misery
onto the other side, but defensive
war in which it is they who must bear
the brunt of the suffering-a war
which strikes at their heart, and in
which they find themselves indeed
| fighting for their very existence.
The mills of the gods may grind
slow, but they grind exceeding fine.
| Strong men all over the world are
having their faith in Providence re-
vived because they see that the AL
mighty is not going to permit the
schemes of these Prussian fiends to
prosper. Instruments are being forg-
ed by humanity, under the inspira-
ton of righteous wrath, which will
utterly crush these maniacs of de-
struction.
No wonder people at the beginning
of the war began to ask how an all
wise Creator could allow such mon
strous injustice, for it looked as if
all civilization was to be ground un-
der the iron heel of Prussian mill
| tarism. But gradually but surely
the latent virility of the free nations
asserted itself until now Germany
| finds herself confronted by a world in
arms. vowing her destruction and
punishment.
No wonder she is desperate; no
wonder she resorts to every vile trick
to try TO evade the doom which is in
store for her. Little did she dream
! that the Frankenstein war monster
which she had built up with such pa
thence and ingenuity was to turn and
vent its vengeance on her. She be-
lieved that the shafts of destruction
which she had called forth would
strike only others, but they were
colossal boomerangs which recoiled
on herself.
Premier yd-George in a speech,
some time ago said: Eve have driven
the great army of Germany under
ground. When great army is fore
ed to such tactics it is the beginning
of the end; it means that we are
pounding a sense of inferiority into
every part of the German military
mind. This is good for the war and
it is good for after the war. As long
as the Prussians have an idea of SUI
periority in their minds, Europe will
not be a decent place to live in peace.
1t will be easier after this. The
Prussian has many virtues, but a
sense of humility is never among
them. But he is now being taught
the virtue Of humility, by fierce and
relentless LASH"
This is all true that Lloyd George
says. The fundamental fault with
the whole German state of mind has
been that it assumed superiority for
everything German. Even the very
ministers of the gospel in Germany
every Sunday upheld and apotheosiz-
ed the Prussian system and the Ger
man "kultur"-which were to be i'm
posed nthe rest of the world with
or without their consent. people
chosen of Cod; "the salt of the
earth; "heralds Of Gods will'; Sup
ermen destined to oversee the world
such are the expressions (actual
quotations) used in describing the
n Lxr "a