The Hartford republican. (Hartford, Ky.) 18??-1926, 1918-08-16

We talk of war in Europe.
we used language with accuracy, W
should not talk of war in Europe
There is no war in Europe. There is
posse comitatus summoned from tn,
various civilized nations of the worlC
to protect the peaceable nations o
the world, to protect the peaceabl'
nations of Europe from the worst anC
most efficient brigandry the civilized
world has ever seen.
The classical definition of war i,
furnished by Charles Summer in an
address on the Grandeur of Ma
ton" delivered in Boston in 1S45
based on authorities then and there
by him cited, and accepted ever since
as an authoritative definition. 1t is
substantially in these words war is
a conflict between the armed forces
of nations under international law
to determine a question of justice be-
tween them"
There are two things necessary to
make a conflict war. 1t must be to
determine a question of justice, and
it must be under international law.
There is no question of justice at is
sue in Europe today. When this war
was begun in Germany, her prime
minister said to the Reichstag,
I'VE are going to do an act of injus-
tice to Belgium; we shall try to re-
pair it afterwards"
Recalls Bernhardi's Words.
In 1918, the year before that de-
claration, Bernhard, 'one of the lead
ers of the military party in Germany
had said, I'VE are going into this war
among other things, to so crush
France that she can never cross our
path again"
few weeks ago, paper appeared
before the public issued from the pen
of a German prince. who, in 1914,
was the German ambassador to En-
gland. In that paper, he declares ex-
plicitly that Germany egged Austria
on to make war against Servia, that
Germany refused the urgent entreat-
les of Italy, France, England and
Russia to attempt a peaceable settle
ment of the controversy. He unmis-
takably declares that Germany is
guilty of having brought this war up
on Europe. With that paper was pub
lished another by an ex-director of
Krupp,s carrying home to the Kaiser,
the Emperor of Germany, that guilt
I go back eighteen years. In 1900, !
the Kaiser, in the dedication of the |
monument, declared that his ambi- |
ton was to re-establish a Roman en-
pire, giving to Germany the same !
domination of the world that the |
Roman empire had in the first GEN.
fury.
In the face of these facts, it is ;
impossible to say that there is any
question of justice to be determined
in this war. must call it war because
there is no other short word to use.
Thou Shalt Not"
Nor is this war conducted under
che sanction of International Law.
Germany has openly ,fagrantly, avow-
eddy and with frankness, let us give
her credit for that virture-she has
openly and avowedly declared that
she does not recognize the laws of
war, that she does not recognize the
laws of humanity, that she does not
the laws of God. u
Thou shalt not steal" She has
robbed France and Belgium of their
ron and their coal; she has robbed
heir churches of their treasures;
she has robbed the homes of their
pictures and their statuary and their
and what she could not
carry away, she has, in her want
1nness, destroyed.
Thou shalt not kill" She has not
only killed soldiers in open warfare
she has murdered men, women and
by the score, by the hun
lreds, by the thousands
Thou shalt not commit adultry."
Her soldiers, with the apparent sane
ion of the government, certainly
with no opposition from the govern
nent, have raped more women than
has ever been known before in the
history of warfare.
could not at first believe these
Kings to be true. ! thought them, at
first, the exaggerations of newspa-
per reporters. Then, thought them
o be the extravagant outbursts of in
iividual soldiers in violation of law.
But | have compared more or less
carefully the reports of commissions
ssued first by Belgium, then by
France, then by England, in which
hese Outrages have been investigat-
"a NTH na,,ac datae and nlacpS given