The Elbert County tribune., 1917-12-14
Atrocious Treatment Of the Help
less Part of Campaign Plans
of Military Leaders.
POLICY OF FRIeHTFuLNEss
Terrorism Declared Necessary Prln-
c'ple In National Warfare-Bru-
taiitIes May Be Said to Be Di-
reetIy Attributable to the
Emperor Himself.

pamphlet Just issued by the Com
mlttee on Public Information tells of
the horrors deliberately and systemat-
Ically inflicted upon the people of Bel
uium by the German soldiers, under
the orders Of their commanding off
GERS. Quotations given are from docu
ments already made public or in the
possession Of the government at Wash.
Ineton.
For many years leaders in every civ
ilized nation have been irving to make
warfare less brutal. The great land
marks in this movement are the Ge-
neva and Hague conventions. The for
mer made rules MS to the care of the
sick and wounded and established the
Red Cross. At the first meeting at Ge-
neva, in 1864 1t was agreed, and until
the present war 1t has been taken for
granted. that the wounded. and the doc
tors and nurses who cared for them,
would be safe from all attacks by the
enemy. The Hague conventions,
drawn up in 1899 and 1907. made addi-
donal rules to soften the usages of war
and especially to protect noncombat-
ants and conquered lands. Germany
took n prominent part in these meet
fngs, and with the other nations sol
emnly pledged her faith to keep all the
rules except one orticle in the Hague
regulations. This was article A.
which forbade the conqueror to force
any OF the conquered to give lnforma-
ton. All the other rules and regula-
tions she accepted in the most binding
manner,
But Germanys military leaders had
no intention of keeping these solemn
promises They had been trained
along different lines. Their leading
generals for many years had been urg
ing a policy of frightfulness. In the
middle of the nineteenth century Won
Clausewitz was looked upon as the
greatest military authority, and the
methods which he advocated We're used
by the Prusslan army in its successful
by the Prussian army in its successful
cause these wars had been successful,
the wisdom Of Won CIausewitz' meth
DDS seemed to the PrussiiNl army TO be
fully proved.
Policy Of Frightfulness.
Now, the essence of Won Clausewitz'
teachings was that successful war in
wolves the ruthless application of force.
In the opening chapter of his master
work, 'vom Kriege" con War'). he
says:
violence arms itself with the inven-
tions of nrt and science. !. Self
imposed restrictions. almost impercep-
tible and hardly worth mentioning,
termed usages Of international law,
accompany 1t without essentially i'm
pairing its power. -. Now, philan
thropic souls might easily imngine that
there is slsillful method of disarm-
ing or subduing an enemy without
causing too much bloodshed, and that
war. However plausible this may ap-
pear, still 1t is an error which must be
destroyed; for in such dangerous
things as war, the errors which pro-
ceed from spirit Of 'good-natured-
ness are precisely the worst. As the
use OF physical force to the utmost ex-
tent by no means excludes the CO.
operation of the intelligence, 1t follows
that he who uses force ruthIessly with
out regard to bloodshed, must obtain
"A superiority. II his enemy does not
80 use It,"
In 1S77-7S. in the course of series
of articles upon Military Necessity
and Humanity" General von Hartmann
wrote. in the same spirit as Won Clau-
sewitz:
'The enemy state must not be spared
the want and wreschedness of war;
these are particularly useful in shat
terlng Its energy and subduing its Will"
"Individual persons may be harshly
dealt with when an example is made
Of them, intended to serve as a warn
ing. Whenever national war
breaks out. terrorism becomes nec-
essary military principle" at is a
gratuitous Illusion to suppose that
modern war does not demand far more
brutality, far more violence. and an
action far more general than was for
merly the case" "When international
war has burst upon u.s. terrorism be-
comes principle made necessary by
military considerations"
"War Established by God"
In 1881 Won Moltke. who had been
commander In chief of the Prussian
army in the Franco-Prussian war, de-
clared:
perpetual peace is dream and not
even a beautiful dream. War is an ele-
ment in the order of the world estab-
llshed by God. By 1t the most noble
virtues of man are developed. courage
and renunciation. fidelity to duty and
the spirit of sacrifice-the soldier gives
his life. Without war, the world would
degenerate and lose itself in material
ISM" 1.-THE soldier who endures suf-
ferIng, privation and fatigue, who
courts dangers. cnLnot take only in
proportion to the resources Of the
country He must take all that is nee