El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1917-03-24

Human Life Has Become
Thing OF Little Value,
Says War Writer.
MOLTEN METAL IS
POURED Outlying
Atrocities Practiced Among
Civilized People Are
Declared Appalling.

= ONDON, ENG, March 24.-FriEhA-
1ul medieval cruelty. such as
- would have been considered q
thing only OF the distant past four
years ago. now lives again, says Sidney
Dark. writing in 8 London newspaper.
Human life has become 4 thing OF
slight moment and human suffering Of
even less account
Since the outbreak OF war there
has been among ths mass OF psopis n
The belligerent countries . concentrz-
ton on national rather than personal
interests and this. has been sccon-
panied by q cheerful readiness to die
which is a little appalling 20 those Of Us
who are still swaddled in 18Th century
cotton wool
We had supposed that the prog
ress OF civilization had made ba-ba--
Gus and calculated cruelty Impossible
We have seen during the past two and
half years the most scientifically edu-
Gated people in Europe adopting and
applauding the appalling methods %
massacre and torture employed by ne
dleyal mercenaries and By the Huns
OF AtLila-
Pour Molten Lead on ASSISTANTS.
All OF Us have shiversd al stories O.
LlG EEDp4Gc OF OGlEaE- urea cites DOur-
Ing molten lead on the heads OF their
assailantsi The Germans have SPRAYED
their enemies with liquid fire and have
nutfec poisonous gases in their faces.
mis- sort OF thing being done on one
side is Immediately and necessarily
copied 5y the other. 50 that a modern
battlefield becomes 2 scene OF calcu-
lated torture that might well fiji the
neart Of an ancient Italian swashbuciS-
Ter with envy.
Try 20 compare the battlefield OF
CrecS with the battlefield OF the
Somme! In the one case you had men
killed by clean wounds inflicted BY ar
rows and men bashinE each other over
the head with clubs and battle axes
mere must have been elation and sx-
element In the combat. and Il was
conducted according TO chivalrous and
on the modern battlefield the SOL
Qler seldom sees the enemy. He fires
horrible Devastating Internal ma
ehlnes az him from guns miles away,
He riddles him with machine gun bull
lets He pOisons him and burns him
Wounded Left 20 Die.
ne wounded are perforcs left Il
where they fall. What a monstrous
Joke i is in face OF all this that we
should talk Of progress and vauut our
selves the moral superior o. our fore
fathers,
The city vas taken and the women
ana children were put 10 the sword
This IS "A commonplace Of the history
OF the past. but all the nassacres that
the Tcrlo has ever seen have been out
shone by the calm methodicaI kfIHng
or the Armenians by the Turks
Assassinate 100000.
Try TO imagine what il means 70
9ssasslnate 100000 peopisi These IN
Iortunates were butchsred to make a
Turkish holiday
The whole thing IS not only hor-
rible. but il Is utterly and hopelessIy
DeWildering- On the one hand We are
astOunded BY the extraordinary hero
ism Of common average men. On the
other hand we are stunned BIZ discov-
erlnS that bestial cruelty can still b.
nerpetrated as part OF q definite DO
litical policy. Just as i was ner5s-
trated by the worst or the Roman en-
perors and by the most evil decadents
who ever ruled in Byzantium"