The commonwealth. (Scotland Neck, N.C.) 1896-1929, 1918-01-18

German scidiei. on the eastern front:
Russian Poland, December 1S, IA.
I'm the name CT Christianity 1 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 ac-
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, sign myself,
"a GERMAN SOLDIER AND CHRIS
TAN"
The third letter, from the western
front, shows the same horror of the
system of which the writer was a wit
ness.
'"To the American Government,
Washington, q. S. A.
"Englishmen who have surrendered
are shot down in small groups. With
the French one is more considerate. l
ask whether men let themselves be
taken prisoner in order to be dis
armed and shot down afterward? Is
that chivalry in battle? It is no longer
a 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 one 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
cue the victims? Where is Chris
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
II ,rts 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 one say when even
such an organ as the Deutsches Off
zier-Blatt expresses its sympathy with
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 q fate which makes
any help impossible?' Or what should
we say when the Deutsches Of;zier-
Blatt states that a punitive destruc
ton even of whole regions cannot 'af
ford full recompense for the bones Of 8
single murdered Pomeranian grena
dierT Those are the desires Of blood
thirsty fanatics and we are thoroughly
ashamed of ourselves because 1t 4
possible that there are people among
us who urge such things"
"Barbarism," Declares Vorwaerts.
On the following day, August "a
1914, che Vorwaerts returned to tn,
attack in an editorial "Against Bar
barism"
E. zone m hit, In I'VE mrs
place, possibly bell. ;e that such de
mand for bloody vengeance [agains
alleged Belgian outrages] emanate
from a single disease-racked brain
but it appears that whole groups
among certain classes who represen
German kultur want to indulge in Or
gies Of barbarism and to devise
whole system for the purpose Of or
ganizing "a war of revenge
o. -
thoughts do not stir a great nation.
Thus in a leading article of the Der
liner Neuaste Nachrichten, the de
mand is made that all the authorities
in Brussels-one, the second burgomas
ter, is generously excepted-should b.
Immediately seized and subjected tt
trial in order to expiate the wrong:
which, according to fragmentary AM
highly uncertain reports, were said t,
have been committed by the people
They demand that the captured cit.
should Immediately pay a fine of 500,
100000 marks; that all stores of tn
without paying the Inhabitants singh
penny for them"
Vorwaerts in Protest.
Three years later, August 26, 1917
the Vorwaerts quoted the followin
passage from the Deutsche Tageszei
tung:
1--WE have a ring of politicians VIII
; hold that might makes right (Macht
politiker), who despise the forces o
; the inner life and believe that the
J must eliminate all ethical points o
view from foreign and socia
; politics. For them, Germany Of tn
present and Of the future Is the coun
try of the Krupps and Borsigs, Of tn
Zeppelins and the U-boats. Any ide
) of q connection between politics an
morals is rejected and any referenc
! to the right of q moral method Of cor
, sideration is ridiculed as delusion an
Sentimentality"