Ottumwa semi-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1916-1918, 1917-10-02

! for a new Mitteleuropa from Ber-
lin to the Bosporus! Is all this
done in sheer defense?
And. il Britain will not suffer
Belgium to be made an enemy
land; if France will not abandon
\ Alsace-Lorraine, which was torn
from her in 1871; If the free ma
lions of the West will not leave
the smaller States OF Eastern
Europe to be victims of Hapsburg
tyranny-this, forsooth, the ALI
Highest Liar tells the world Is
rank spoliation and conquest. And
some recreant Labour men, some
ribald journalists, whom the real
Labour and the honest Press dis
own, adopt this impudent paradox.
Recreant Labour men, r1bald
Press men, listen to a man VINO
stood back to back with the great
leaders Of the trade-unfon emanci'
patton, who for fifty years has APP
pealed to the Press in every cause
OF reform. l tell you that the stal.
warts of Labour In that day. and
the Press which worked for them
in those hard times, would turn
from you with pity and with
scorn.
The savagery, the greed, the
mendacity Of these three years OF
war were no exceptional outburst
Of wickedness. Not for three
years, but for thirty, nay, for fifty
years Prussian militarism has
been the enemy of civilization. Its
orgy OF lust and robbery began
with the dismemberment of Den
mark in 1864, when Bismarck, be-
gan to rule. Two years later. by
a sudden spring, he made Austria
his tool. Four years later he tore
the eastern provinces from France.
For forty-four' years he and his
successors have plotted, bullied,
undermined their neighbors to
gain the domination Of the world.
until in 1914 they engineered the
most hideous catastrophe in the
history of man. And now that the
civilized nations have Joined to
put down this infamy they cry out
that to make them disgorge some
Of their plumber is rank oppression
and thirst for conquest. And
some workmen and some writer's
are so silly, so dishonest. as to be-
lieve this patent trickery. Why,
if a footpad robbed an honest man
on the highway, or a burglar was
caught breaking into his safe
would you paciflst bystanders~ cry
out, "Oh! don't use your revolver.
pray loose your grip on his throat!
He has had enough now, he says
he will go home" ?-of course,
with his swag! .
German soil We would not take
it even as a gift, as "deodand.
Indemnities in cash we can hardly
look for from bankrupt Germany.
doubly bankrupt Austria, trebly
bankrupt Turkey. The just, per-
haps the only practical reparation
for the unfathomable ruin they
have wrought would be the occu-
patton for generation OF their
railroads. factories, docks and
mines. until some small percent
age of their devastation had been
repaid.
Hard upon the Prussian people.
pacifist may say. But the Prus-
sian people are OF one mind with
Kaiser and Army. In all the
worlds history no race has been
so drilled. schooled, sermonized
into a sort Of inverted religion OF
hate. envy. jealousy, greed, cruel
ty, and arrogance. Man and wo-
man. girl and boy, have been
taught from childhood this inhu-
man vain.glory and lust Of power.
1t has grown to be their sole Cos
pei, Creed, Hymnal and Prayer
Book. Britons and Americans can
not comprehend how a great and
intellectual people can have come
to a cult so Satanic. But history
tells us how the fanaticism OF
Loyola, the fanaticism of Cal
win, once schooled whole popu'
lations into fervent belief in
crime as a religious duty. So the
Thugs Of India used to organize
assassination into holy profess
sion. Today we are in arms to
put down Thuggism in Europe.
Il is a libel on Attila to call the
kaiser a Hun. He and his are
Thugs. Assassination, conspiracy,
plumber, forgery are their state
religion. And the only way to
cure Thuggism is to make the
Thug feel that it is too dangerous
a cult for the worshippers of Dew
to practice.
If. as they blasphemously pre-.
tend, their 'old German God
were really the God of Moses and
Aaron. OF Joshua and Samuel. the
Pharaoh of Potsdam and his host
would indeed see wonders" and
Berlin would be as sat - any city
Of the Plain!
After three years Of war, this is tn
view Of Germany an
he German people. 1t is worth r.
'eading and careful study, this lette'
I Is a translation into the language G
he layman of the dignified declar;
ions contained in President Wilson
.eply to Pope Benedict.