The Tupelo journal. (Tupelo, Miss.) 1876-1924, 1917-09-28


lish Governments now have full
knowledge of the conference be-
tween the Austrian Emperor and the
Kaiser at the Potsdam palace on July
S, with the agreement to launch the
war August l. When the war proc
lamation was delayed until August 8
the Kaiser's representative used this
sentence in his speech in the Refer
stag: 1--WE must not postpone the
agreement entered into with Austria
at the conference on July s."
For more than three weeks, there
fore, before war was declared, Ger
many and Austria were preparing
cannon, guns, equipment and as soon
as the last buckle was on the harness
and the last rifle in the hands of the
soldiers, on August 3, war was de-
clared Then Bethmann- Hollweg
sent out his statement to the world,
as to why the Kaiser and himself
counted an international treaty al
sscrap of paper
That is why our President answer
ing the Pope, said that no treaty
signed by the Kaiser and his Gov
eminent means anything And here
is Bernstorff, German Ambassador in
Washington, who forgets that canni-
balls and savages, even, consider that
eating salt in another Indians tent
or white mans house is pledge of
truth-while this Judas Ambassa-
dor dimes at the White Hou@ at night
and goes on plotting solutions in
Mexico, blowing up our munition
factories and the killing of our peo-
pie. Bernstorff smiled and smiled, as
he kept one hand above the table
and in the other hand under the
table whetted dagger on his boots
with which to stab his host in the
back.
Slaughter of the Innocents.
Does the sunlight in photography
tell lies? Are the German soldiers
liars in writing to brothers at home
or keeping the record of events in
their diaries, thus leaving on their
bodies the indubitable evidence of
the highest order of truth? Stand
ing in the village of Herimenil a boy
of sixteen and his mother showed
me twelve bullet marks against the
stone wall where a young mother,
aged twenty-three, with a babe on her
breast, with her young sister and sis
ter-in-law of sixteen and seventeen,
were shot by twelve German soldiers
-four brave and heroic Germans
shooting at each girl.
The glory of every great city and
country is its scholars, with their
love of truth and their stainless
lives. We have had our civilization
at the hands of men who loved the
truth supremely, pursued the truth
eternally, and cherished the truth
above their fear of hell or hope of
heaven. The world has its liberty,
its science and its law at the hands of
the heroes who preferred the truth
above life. Concerning the patriots,
the reformers and the statesmen, we
can only say they were stoned, they
were sawn asunder, they were cruel
fed in Jerusalem, poisoned in Athens
tortured in Ephesus, exiled in Flor
ence, burned at the stake in Oxford, /
assassinated in Washington But
the iron autocracy and militarism of /
Germany debauched her university /
men.
Here in my hand is an address to
the civilized world, signed by ninety
three German professors. They all
receive their salaries from state en-
dowments. Any hour the Kaiser or
Bethmann-Hollweg can cut off their
income. When the indignation of the
civilized world famed out against
Germany in the winter of 1915, the
German Government asked these pro-
fessors to sign document, and these
men had been so degraded by the
German philosophy of militarism and
autocracy that they obeyed-losing
their souls to save their salary. And
consider what they signed
These ninety-three professors
signed statement, saying, "It is
not true that we wronged Belgium"