The Tabor independent. [volume] (Tabor, S.D.) 1913-19??, 1918-04-11

"In the name Of Christianity | send
you these words.
Wounded Russians are killed with
the bayonet according to orders.
"And Russians who have surrender
ed are often shot down in masses &C.
cording to orders, in spite of their
heart-rending prayers.
in the hope that you, as the repre-
sentative of a Christian state, will
protest against this. I sign myself,
"A GERMAN SOLDIER AND CHRIS
TIAN."
The third letter. from the western
front, shows the same horror Of the
system of which the writer was q wit.
ness.
ITO the American Government,
, Washington, y. s. A.
"Englishmen who have surrendered
are shot down in small groups. With
the French one Is more c%onsiderate. l
ask whether men let themselves be
taken prisoner In order to be dis
armed and shot down afterward? Is
that chivalry in battle? 1t is no longer
q secret among the people; one hears
everywhere that few prisoners are
taken; they are shot down in small
groups. They say naively: we don't
want any unnecessary mouths to feed.
Where there is no n to enter COM
plant, there is no judge Is there
then no power In the world which can
put an end to these murders and res
c,,n fhn ,,snftpooo yVhn,o sn Cb,t,
tianity? Where Is right? Might is
right.
"a SOLDIER AND A MAN WHO IS
NO BARBARIAN"
Socialists Oppose System
Many Of the Germans, as has been
already indicated, do not believe the
reports of the atrocities committed by
the Belgian civilians and refuse to &C.
cept the system of frightfulness. The
Vorwaerts, the leading socialist paper,
which has a very wide circle Of read
ers, has opposed the policy of fright
fulness. All honor to its editors who
have so ~courageously opposed the pow
erful military authority! It's editorial.
entitled "Our Foes" published August
%, 1914, reads as follows:
"What should n say when even
such an organ as the Deutsches OFF,
zier-Blatt Expresses It's sympathy with
n demand that the beasts who are
taken as francs-tireurs should not be
killed, but only wounded so that they
may then be left TO a fate which makes
any help impossibleT' Or what should
We say when the Deutsches Ofizier-
Blatt states that n punitive destruc-
ton eve of whole regions cannot 'af-
ford full recOmpense for the bones Of a
single murdered pomeranian grena.
dicrT Those are the desires Of blood
thirsty fanatics and we are thoroughly
ashamed of ourselves because 1t liz
possible that there are people among
us who urge such things"
"earbarlsm," Declares Vorwaerts.
On the following day. August "a,
1914, the Vorwaerts returned to the
attack in an editorial Against Bar
barism."
Zone might. In the first
l'nNr' HpScltlA btlleNc lDdt SuNu a. z
mand for a bloody vengeance ragainst
alleged Belgian outrages] emsnates
from a single disease-rscked brain (;
but II appears that whole groups
among certain classes who represent
German kultur want to indulge In or
gies Of barbarism and to devise q
whole system for the purpose of or
ganizing a war of revenge
"What Of law and custom Such
thoughts do not stir a great nation
Thus in a leading article Of the Ber-
liner Neueste Nachrichten, the de-
mand is made that all the authorities
in Brussels-one, the second burgomas-
ter, is generously excepted-should be
Immediately seized and subjected to
trial in order to expiate the wrongs
which, according to fragmentary and
highly uncertain reports, were said to
have been committed by the people.
They demand that the captured city
should Immediately pay a fine of $780,
100000 marks; that all stores Of the
conquered territory be requisitioned
without paying the inhabitants a single
penny Tor tnem.
vorwaerts In Protest.
Three years later, August 26, 1917,
the Vorwaerts quoted the following
passage from the Deutsche Tageszel-
tung:
1--WE have a ring of politicians who
hold that might makes right (Macht-
pOlitiker), who despise the forces Of
the inner life and believe that they
must eliminate all ethical points Of
view . . . from foreign and social
politics. For them, Germany of the
present and of the future is the coun-
try of t',e Krurrs and Borsigs, Of the
Heppclins and the U-boRts. Any idea
of a connection between politics and
morals Is rejected and any reference
to the right of a moral method of OF
sideration is ridiculed as delusion and
sentimcntality." :
The German officers were provided
with the forms to he used IN terror
izing tho conquered people. The coIn-
,,1pt, cr1,ltnn. me- gA-At.f1pf yr-itl I