The Parker post., 1918-01-05
GERMAN
WAR PRACTICES
BOOK JUST ISSUED BY U. S. Gov
ERNMENT GIVES DETAILS OF
UNCIvILIZED PRACTICES OF
GERMANS.

Some of the blacklist pages in all
history, comprising a documentary
record Of "deeds that make one des-
pair of the future of the human
race" are found in a book named
| German War Practices" which has
just been issued at the government
| printing Office by the committee on
public information for free distribu-
| ton. 1t is edited by Prof D. G.
Munro, of Princeton, and other
scholars.
| The dumbfOunding evidence which
this book presents to the jury of man
kind is drawn mainly from German
and American sources, and includes
official proclamations and utterances
of the responsible heads of the imper-
ial German government, letters and
diaries of German soldiers, quota
tions from German newspapers, and
material drawn from the archives of
the state department which may lay
bare the story of inconceivable Ger
man atrocities. .
| The purpose of the book is to show
that the system of frightfulness, it
self the greatest atrocity, is the def
mite policy of the German govern
ment, so sinister that German soldiers
have themselves at times revolted.
Individual acts of wanton cruelty and
| barbaric destruction are cited only
to illustrate the operation of the re-
morseless system.
The book supplements the Bryce
report which was the first official
survey of the path of horror, ruin,
and death left by the German army
on the lands of innocent and defense
less people. The book is supplement
tai also to the official reports by the
| Belgian commission and the French
minister of foreign affairs, and it re-
veals more of the damning German
| war philosophy as expressed in the
| German White Book and various
Official utterances, extenuating re-
Voting crimes on the grounds of ex-
pediency and the advancement of
that "Kultur" which now mocks it's
own name throughout the civilized
world. The humanity of German
soldiers was so torn by the system
of brutality that they cried out in
letters to Ambassador Gerard, one
expressing his protest against the
slaughter of the Russians in the Mas
urian lakes and swamps by saying,
There is no God, there is no moral
ity, and no ethics any more; there
are no human beings any more, but
only beasts
The Illuminating reports of Brand
Whitlock, minister to Belgium, tell
of miseries inflicted upon the Belgian
people, Mr.. Whitlock saying: Zone is
so overwhelmed with horror of the
thing itself, that it has been, and
even now is, difficult to write calmly
and just about it,"
Herbert Hoover, writing for this
book of his experiences in Belgium,
says: "The sight of the destroyed
homes and cities, the widowed and
fatherless, the destitute, the physical
misery of the people but partially
10 of
men by tens of thousands to slavery
In German mines and factories, the
execution of men and women for pal
try effusions Of their loyalty to their
country, the sacking of every re-
source through financial robbery the
fattening of armies on the slender
produce of the country, the denuda~
t1on OF the country of cattle, horses,
and textiles; all these things we had
to witness, dumb to help other than
by protest and sympathy during this
long and terrible time land still these
are not the events of battle heat, but
the effects of grinding heel of
race demanding the mastelship of
the world. All these things are
known to the world-but what can
never be known is the dumb agony
OF the people, the expressionless faces
OF millions of those whose souls have
passed the whole gamut of emotions.
And why? Because these free and
democratic people dared plunge their
bodies before the march of autoc-
racy."
Frederick c.. Walcott's descrip-
tion of devastated Poland compre-
hends the monstrous woes inflicted by
the Prussian system upon defense
less people.
In statement, prepared for the