Meade County news., 1917-12-20
GERMANY GUILTY
OF BARBARITI TIES
IN WAR CONDUCT
AtrociousF Treatment Of the Help
less Part Of Campaign Plans
Of Military Leaders.
POLICY OF FRIGHTFULNESS
TerrorIsm Declared a Necessary Prln.
eiple In National Warfare-Bru-
talities May Be Said to Be d.
rectIy Attributable to tho
Emperor Himself.

A pamphlet Just Issued by the Com
mlttee on Public Information tells Of
Ihe horrors deliberately and systemat-
IcaIIy inflicted upon the people Of BEL
nium 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.
lngton.
For many years leaders in every CIV
ilized nation have been trying to make
warfare less brutal The great land
marks in this movement are the GeA
neva and Hague conventions The for
mer made rules as 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 It 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-
tional rules to soften the usages Of war
and especially to protect noncombat-
ants and conquered lands. Germany
took prominent part in these meet
1ngs and with the other nations SOL
emnly pledged her faith to keep all the
rules except one article in the Hague
regulations. This was article A.
which forbade the conqueror to force
any of the conquered to give informa-
tion. All the other rules and regula-
tions she accepted in the most binding
manner.
But Germany's 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 were used
by the Prussian army in its successful
by the Prussian army in its successful
cause these wars had. been successful,
the wisdom of Won Clausewitz' meth
DDS seemed to the Prussian army to be
fully proved.
Policy Of FriehtfuIness.
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" ("on War"), he
says;
evidence arms itself with the inven-
tions of art and science. Self
imposed restrictions, almost impercep-
tible and hardly worth mentioning
termed usages Of international law,
accompany 1t without essentially i'm
pairing It's power. Now, philan'
throplc souls might easily imagine that
there is a skillful method of disarm-
ing or subdulng an enemy without
causing too much bloodshed, and that
this Is the true tendency of the art of
war. However plausible this may )ap-
tear, still it 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
mat he who uses force ruthlessly, with
out regard to bloodshed must obtain
superiority, If his enemy does moi
30 use It."
In 1877-78, in the course Of series
of articles upon military Necessity
and Humanity" General Won Hartmann
wrote, in the same spirit as Won Clau
sewitz:
'sThe enemy state must not be spared
the want and wretchedness Of war
these are particularly useful in shat
tering its energy and subduing its will. v
''Individual persons may be harshly
dealt with when an example Is made
of them, intended to serve as warn
ing. Whenever a national wal
breaks out, terrorism becomes nee
essary military principle" 1T Is
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 us. terrorism be-
comes principle made necessary by
military considerations"
"War Established by God"
In 1881 Won MoItke, who had been
commander in chief Of the Prussian
prrnv in the Franco-P o-Prussian war, de,
elared:
Perpetual peace is dream and moi
even beautiful dream. War Is an ele
meHt in the order of the world estab
!. lished by God. By 1t the most noble
virtues Of man are developed, courage
and renunciation. fidelity to duty and
the spirit of sacrifce-the soldier gives
his life. Without war, the world would
degenerate and lose itself In material
ISM" "The soldier who endures suf
fering, privation and fatigue, who
courts dangers, cannot take only in
proportion to the resources of the
country Qe prst take all that Is nee