Evening capital and Maryland gazette. (Annapolis, Md.) 1910-1922, 1918-01-04
BLACKLIST PAGES
IN ALL HISTORY
As Told In. German Var Practices"
Book Issued By Government
Frighifulness Of System

history. com pflSlng u0IuuleuluEN
record of deeds that make one de-
SPAR 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. c.
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 I'M
perial German Government, letters
and diaries of German soldiers, quo
tations from German newspapers, and
material drawn from the archives Of
the State Department which lay bare
the story of inconceivable German
atrocities.
The purpose of the book is to show
that the system of frightfulness, itself
the greatest atrocity. is the definite
policy of the German Government, so
sinister that German soldiers have
themselves at times revolted. Indi-
vidual acts of wanton cruelty and bar
barrie destruction are cited only to
illustrate the operation of the re-
morseless system.
The book supplements the Bryce re-
port 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 defenseless people.
The book is supplemental also to the
Official reports by the Belgian Com
mission and the French Minister OF
Foreign Affairs, and it reveals more
OF the damning German war philoso-
ply as expressed in the German White
Book and various official utterances,
extenuating revolving crimes on the
grounds of expediency and the adj
vaneement of that "Kultur" which
now mocks its 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
Masurian lakes and swamps by say
ing, There is no God, there is no
mortality, 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. Whitelock saying: zone
is so overwhelmed with the horror of
the thing itself, that it has been and
even is difficult to write calmly and
justly about it."
Herbert Hoover, writing for this
book of his experiences in Belgium,
says: 1.-THE sight of the destroyed
homes and cities, the widowed and
fatherless, the destitute, the physical
misery of the people but partially
nourished at best, the deportation of
men by tens of thousands to slavery
in German mines and factories, the
execution of men and women for pal
try illusions 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-
ton 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, and still these
are not the events of battle heat, but
the effects of a grinding heel of a
race demanding the mastership OF the
world. All these things are known
to the world-but what can never be
known is the dumb agony of the peo-
pie, the expressionless faces of mill
lions whose souls have passed the
whole gaunt of emotions. And why?
Because these, free and democratic
people, dared plunge their bodies be-
fore the march of autocracy"
Frederick c. Walcott's description
of devasted Poland comprehends the
monstrous woes indicted by the Prus-
sian system upon those defense1ess
people
In a statement prepared for the
book, Vernon kellogg said: Il went
into Belgium and occupied France a
neutral, and / maintained while there
a steadfastly neutral behavior, but I
came out no neutral. / went
in also hater of war, but came
out a more ardent hater of war; but.
also / came out with ineradicable con-
vicfion, again, that the only way in
which Germany under its present rule
and in its present state of mind can
be kept from doing what it has done
is by force of arms"
The book gives excerpts from the
diaries Of German soldiers of which
these are specimens: an the night of
August 1919 the village Of Saint
Maurice was punished for having fired
on German soldiers by being burnt to
the ground by the German troops.
The village was surrounded.
men posted about yard from one
another, so that no one could get out.
Then the Uhlans set fire to it house
by house: neither man, woman, or
child could escape; only the greater
part Of the live stock we carried of,
as that could be used Any one who
ventured to come out was shot down.
All the inhabitants left in the village
were burnt with the houses
"A horrible bath OF blood The
whole village burnt, the French
thrown into the blazing houses. civil
ians with the rest"
That the reign of frightfulness was
ac.L- IT, 20 49, rro,.r,4or,