The Leavenworth echo. [volume] (Leavenworth, Wash.) 1904-current, 1918-01-25

whom he himself has chosen for his
infamous plan, without consulting
the people, and without regard for
their wishes; and these are accom-
plices he has selected after men of
honor have refused their services.
In the spring of 1914, by an over
whelming vote of lack of confidence,
the Reichstag showed its distrust of
the only man whose signature the
emperor needed for mobilization and
declaration of war, Bethmann-Hol-
veg, his imperial chancellor. In
no modern civilized state would it
be possible for minister to remain
office after being openly branded
by the representatives of the people
as unfit, but any Germany any
criminal may become and remain
imperial chancellor at the will of the
chancellor alone. Punishment has
already found him out. Another
lackey has been promoted to lackey-
in chief without consultation with
the German people and their repre-
sentatives.
This murderer is the German EN-
peror with his accomplices; but not
the German people, the poor people
defrauded and exploited by their
government; not the poor soldiers
who are driven to slaughter by these
knaves under the iron shackles of
military law, like the miserable
galley slaves of old.
Comrades, how long is it your
wish to put up with this ?When will
you rouse yourselves? When will
you take arms on the side on which
every man of honor must now fight
on the side of humanity and civili-
cation against this gang of slayers
When will you free our poor, down
trodden famished people from its
tyrants and again establish justice.
liberty, morality reason and civiliza-
ton in Germany?
JOIN FIGHT ON
SIDE OF JUSTICE
Why not come over to fight on
the side of justice, of truth, of free
dom, all of you; the side on which
all civilized nations as we'll as the
noblest and most far-seeing of your
own people have taken their stand?
I know the reasons which hold you
back:
1. Your ignorance; the false doc
trines with which you were inocu-
lated in your school days in all
matters of history, civil life and pol
itics; the pretentious lies of the Ger
man press, whipped into line by a
military dictator; your implicit con-
fidence in your "god-given" leaders.
2. Fear of your masters, espec-
tally of the officers. But these
hangmen of the Kaiser are cowardly
and hide themselves in time of dan
ger behind cover. Shoot them down
like mad dogs if they get in your
way. Rather that they die than
the hundreds of thousands of honest
Industrious fathers of families whom
they have already hunted into the
Jaws of death; hunt which day by
day goes on.
8. Fear of committing an unpar-
donable crime, and of being unable
to return home even if you escape
punishment But the laws by which
the murderers maintain their power
and make you trucking slaves shall
be blotted out before the war is at
an end, and you will be jOyfully well
coined home without disgrace, and
more than that, with the highest
honor, as true heroes and liberatOrs
of your country.
a. Fear of injuring our fatherland
if you go over to the French and
English, and more than that if you
fight on their side, which is mat
ter for your own choice.
Comrades, I pledge you by all that
we hold holy, am a son of the Ger
man people, I love them with every
fibre of my being, more than ever
Hohenzollern loved them; and the
honor and welfare of my fatherland
stand above all else, and are the
only lodestars of my destiny. !
know the war, the events leading up
to it, its causes and its progress
more than the Kaiser's government
likes. assure you that the welfare
of the German people demands that
you come over; aye, that you turn
your cannon around, that you join
the entente and march with them to
the Rhine and over it, and wrest our
land from the claws of its destroyer.
for now and for all time.
FREE MANKIND FROM
AN INSANE CRIMINAL