The Tabor independent. [volume] (Tabor, S.D.) 1913-19??, 1918-10-10
BOYS At FRONT ARE
NOT FULL OF hate
Men Who Have Participated In
Battling Have Most Feeling
For Hun Prisoners.
~ LOWELL MEIlETT.
United Press Staff CORRESPONDENT

With the American Army in France,
-(by mail.)-The hardest hating Is
done at home. And the nearer n
gets to the land which is no mans
h less of haste one finds.
In q town well to the rear, q town
safer than Paris OF some rank a. he
was sOundly condemning the conduct
Of an under officer. The latter had
provided food for q young German Of
ficer, enroute through the town as .
prisoner.
Bread and waters good enough for
him." declared the angry superior.
And dry, hard bread at that"
The day before, I had seen a batch
Of prisoners ~ brought into the LIST
headquarters back OF the line. 1t vas
a ~hot day n they were exhausted
by their march. Two sickly looking
lads tainted and fell just as they were
being lined up for inspection Water
a already being carried to the pris-
oners. Some of this vas diverted for
the purpose of resuscitating the two
who had collapsed and the. others were
then given as much as it was safe
for them to drink. Immediately after
inspection all were marched to where
food and hot coffee was waiting for
them.
I asked the officer in charge about
this practice.
Starving prisoners after rev got
'em Won't help defeat Germany" hS
replied. ,a,
He had been in real danger of Ger
man shells and bullets for q month.
could be added, the Germans had been
in real danger from the shells and
bullets he controlled.
Hate emp" responded an officer In
the line, to the query. Sure we hate
'em! We hate 'em with big shells. lit
tie shells, rife bullets, machine gun
bullets, bayonets, bombs and gas. In
fact we're so busy hating 'em hat way
that we haven't time to hate them with
our mouths. But after we've taken
them prisoner 1t isn't worth while hat
ing them, Is It? And, besides, what's
the use of wasting good first class hate
or men you've already captured?"
A British correspondent whose name
Is well known to American readers
went with me to visit an American d.
vision. He was anxious. he said. to get
ut thep~ psychology Of the American pri-
vate, to learn what he was thinking and
what the war meant TO. him. 1t was the
day after the whole British line first
started chuGkling over the Australians
fighters, but too rough" The men we
saw were part of the same force that
had earned this real tribute from the
rough and tumble Australians.
tried to steer the correspondent
into a group Of smooth faced, bright
looking boys. but he made straight for
q lean, leather skinned veteran of the
Spanish a whose tin hat slanted
rakishly down over his eyes, giving
him an appearance of indescribable
toughness. He was chewing tobacco,
which didn't alter the impression.
Presently the distinguished corre-
spondent returned and pulled me aside.
by Jove,' he said, 'it's remarkable!
That chaps fighting for the same
things your president Is. You know
what l mean-says Americas in IL I'M
til Germany learns she licked and
that then we've got to devise a way to
prevent any more wars like this. Says
he doesn't believe in Furnishing Ger
many or anything like that, but he's
willing to see another 1000, 900 or
2.OO0, 900 Of them killed II necessary to
make the Germans understand. He
thinks It will take about a year or a
year and q half"
The correspondent added his belief
| that men who waste their time hating
couldn't fight like men OF the Spanish
war veteran type.
The group Of boys with whom I had
talked offered another proof of the
contention. They didn't talk OF the
Hun" they talked Of Fritz" and
"Heinle."
These are the hateless heroes that
the Australians found TOO rough"