Ottumwa semi-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1916-1918, 1917-11-16
AMERICA MUST
WAKE TO PERIL
ONLY UNITED LOYALTY CAN OFF
SET GERMANY'S AD-
vANTAGES.

| SOleSe PRESIDENTS. LIT. fOWell mas pu'
recently returned from Europe, where
he visited the battle zone on a semi
| official mission.1
BY DR.. LYMAN p. POWELL.
Geneva, N. Y, Nov. 15.-These are
indeed the times that try mems souls
Never before has it been so necessary
j in the history of the world for right
minded men to see straight. Before
war was declared men might perhaps
honestly differ with respect to loyalty
to Germany or to the allies. Since the
United States has entered the war
there has been but one, issue before us.
We are either Americans or we expose
ourselves to that Interpretation of trea-
son, which includes giving aid and com
fort to the enemy directly or indirect
ly. ! went to Europe to study educa-
tional conditions, but ! found much
more to interest, to thrill to grip me
than the educational problems / have
described in the November Review of
Reviews.
ATTACKED BY U-eoATs.
found the world on fire. l realized
as l had not before that it is impos-
sible to visualize the situation In print.
One must see for ones self. One must
have experiences. I both saw and I
had experiences.
Twice. the submarines tried to get
us, and brought home with me the
affidavit and the story Of the captain
of vessel which was sunk by sub
marine, and who with the members OF
his crew in the ifeboats were in turn
attacked by the submarine and barely
escaped with their lives.
I was in the worst air raid London
has known, and it beggars description.
Though any moonlight night London
must be ready for attack. the London
people are brave, grimly determined to
fight the battle out, and all England
has set its hand to the plow and every
German atrocity merely strengthens
its resolution.
1 went through the devastated re-
gion in France, and want to give you
my personal assurance that nothing
you have read about the horrors Of it
are exaggerated. The refinements of
cruelty to which thousands Of thrifty
and honorable French people have
been subjected are enough to stir the
blood OF the meanest man on earth.
GERMANY'S kULTUR.
have seen shade trees and fruit
trees by the thousand cut down by
Germans merely to prevent them from
yielding shade or fruit to those in need
in years to come. ! have seen whole
villages and even big towns laid In
ruins, and to prevent their rebuilding
in many instances, found that the
Germans had even c1umbled up the
bricks. / know personally from
sources no man in his right mind
would for moment doubt, that French
boys have been taken off into Ger
many to make munitions with which
the Germans may fight the French,
and that French girls have been car
ried across the Rhine, as Germany now
officially admits, to work, but as is
well known to serve purposes beside
dream.
FOE HAS RESOURCES.
The call to the best in all of us to
do our bit was never so loud as it is
now. Not all Of us can go to the front
and fight. But all Of us can encourage
those to go who ought to 90. Germany
is going to be beaten, but Germany is
not yet beaten. She not merely has
resources, but she, with her interior
lines of communication and her eff.
cient organization, can at an expense
that which we would ex-
pend, hurl her soldiers in few hours
where she needs them most, whether
to drive Russians into the Masurian
swamps or to force from Italy's hand
the achievements Of two years.
We are going to win, but we must
not underestimate the resources Of our
enemy. We must fight with all our
might, and prepare as though the war
were to last ten years instead Of, as we
hope, to find an early victory.
The government must have complete
support from every American, no mat
ter what his nationality. 1t must be
enabled to hurry to the relief of our
allies, who have been dying more than
three years past that we may live, and
who will keep on dying with smile ON
their faces if it should be necessary.
But ask you as an American, if it is
fair and square to such noble allies as
we have to let them go on suffering
one minute longer than is necessary.
We must help our government to help
our allies. Men must ask not how lit