Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1917-12-13
NUMBER IS


AFTER an interval Of nearly eight
hundred years, Jerusalem il again in
the hands Of the Christians.
The PotOsi journal seems welded
to the belief that the Allied press is
devoted to deception and lying propa-
ganda. 1t saysi
We approve the war; We want to
see the Kaiser licked; we want to see
world wide democracy unseat auto
cratic tyranny, but We can not
bring o1rself to revile the memory of
our gentle mother and Kindly father
by believing those frightfui stories OF
the depravity and cruelty OF the peo.|
pie OF their race which are now fed to
US from day to day by the city dailies.
1t Is asking too much of as. Win this
war we must, but let Us win II decent
ly.
Incredulity neither establishes nor
disproves. 1t is not dependable AZ a ba.
sisior anything except a determination
to discover the trutp az far as within
us ID possible. Just now that is a
bounden patriotic duty we owe not
only to ourselves but to those with
whom we are c~ontending. At the be-
ginning Of the war | myself received
the stories Of terrible, inhuman out
rage committed upon an %inoffending
people, with doubt, with the hope
that much was false and the rest
grossly exaggerated. How could a
cultured and naturally kindly hearted
people be guilty Of such atrocities? l
remember the German as l knew him
in the days Of my youth: Industrious,
frugal, and OF kindly manner, withal.
1t was difficult for me to conceive of
the spirit Of hatred and cruelty now
bred In him by sixty years Of training
and lying kultur. From the imperial
throne down into the pulpit he has
been taught that all the world outside
his " country was filed with hate
toward him; that war is the chief good
known to earth, and that mercy il an
attribute of weaklings. That the good
soldier cannot recognize sex, age or
condition in desolating tho land of his
foe. II you think this statement is
overdrawn, read the following from
the farewell speech of the Emperor to
the troops drawn up ready to embark
for China In 1900;
"As oon as you come to blows with
the enemy he will be beaten. No
mercy will be shown! No prisoners
win be taken! Az the Huns, under
King AttiIa, made u name for them.
selves, which IL still mighty in tradi-
tons and legends to. day, may the
name OF German be 80 fixed in China
by yeur deeds, that no Chinese shall
v again dare even to look at a
German askanee.. y = Open the
way for Kuitur once for all.n
That the seed sown by the Kaiser
was not cast upon ~infertile ground,
the letters sent home by the soldiers
abundantly proved. Some Of these
were published in the local German
papers, notwithstanding the efforts of
the governmental suppress them. In
1906, the socialist, Herr Kunert, re-
viewing the procedure in q trial of
which he had been the victim In the
previous summer, stated that he had
offered to prove "that German SOL
diers in China had engaged In wanton
and brutal ravaging; that plumber,
pillage, ~extortlon, robbery, as well az
rape and sexual abuses OF the worst
kind, had occurred on q very large
scale and that German soldiers had
participated In them" He had not
been given an opportunity to prove
his allegations, but had been sentenc'
ed to prison for three months for as
sailing the honor Of the "whole Ger
man Army" The outrageousness OF
this sentence WAS made clear by the
revelations, made In the Reichstag
shortly afterwards, Of similar atrocities
committed by German officials and
soldiers in Africa In the campaign
against the Hereros.
Then read this from Pastor Baum
garten, a lutheran minister Of the
Gospel OF Jesus Christ:
"Whoever can not prevail upon
himself to approve from the bottom
OF his heart the sinking Of the LMsi.
tania. whoever can not conquer his
sense OF the gigantic cruelty to un-
numbered perfectly innocent victims
. and give himself ny to honest
delight at this victorious exploit Of
Gernan defensive power-him we
Judge to be no true German"
Such the teaching to the German
subject for nifty years Or more. IL II
4 wonder that the evils implanted and
kultured Ia The hearts Of the later
g~enerationS have transformed them
Into devils? The pssce and safety Of
humankind demand the utter wipipg
out 81 tho German imperial Govern.
msnt, ma blind indeed y he who can.
Inotssc a.