The Kennewick courier-reporter. [volume] (Kennewick, Wash.) 1914-1938, 1918-05-02

.Wounded Russians are killed Win
the bayonet according to orders.
sand Russians who have surrender
ed are often shot down in masses ac-
icording to orders, in spite OF their
heart-rending prayers.
"In the hope that you, as the repre-
sentative of Christian state. will
protest against this, sign mysen,
"a GERMAN SOLDIER AND CHkls-
TAM ..
The third letter, from the western
front, shows the same horror or the
system of which the writer was a wit
ness.
.sTo the American Government,
Washington, q. s. A.
"Englishmen who have surrendered
are shot down i'm small groups. With
the French one is more considerate.
ask whether men let themselves be
taken prisoner i'm order to be dis
armed and shot down afterwards Is
that chivalry i'm battle? 1t is no longer
n secret among the people; one hears
everywhere that few prisoners are
taken: they are shot down i'm 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 i'm the world which can
nut 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
reports of the atrocities committed by
the Belgian civilians and refuse to ac-
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! Its editorial.
entitled sour 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 fate which makes
any help impossibleT Or what should
we say when the Deutsches Officer.
Blatt states that a punitive destruc
ton even of whole regions cannot AT
ford full recompense for the bones Of a
single murdered Pomeranian grena.
der? Those are the desires Of blood
thirsty fanatics and we are thoroughly
ashamed of ourselves because II is
possible that there are people among
us who urge such things"
"Barbarism," Declares vor~aerts.
On the following day, August "a
II 1914. the Vorwaerts returned to the
. attack in an editorial Against Bar.
: barism."
"One might, In the first
place, possibly believe that such de-
mand for bloody vengeance (against
alleged Belgian outragesl emanates
, from a single disease-racked brain
but It appears that whole groups
among certain classes who represent
German kultur want to indulge in or.
gies of barbarism and to devise q
: whole system for the purpose Of or
ganizing "a war of revenge
"What Of law and custom! Such
thoughts do not stir great nation
Thus in leading article Of the Der.
liner Neueste Nachrichten, the de-
. mand is made that all the authorities
In Brussels-one, the second burgomas.
ter, Is generously eXcepted-should be
Immediately seized and subjected to
9 trial In order to expiate the wrongs
which, according to fragmentary and
highly uncertain reports. were said to
, have been committed by the people.
They demand that the captured city
should Immediately pay a fine OF 500.
100000 marks; that all stores Of the
conquered territory be requisitioned
/, without paying the Inhabitants single
, penny for them"
:. vorwaerts In Protest.
Three years later, August %. 1917.
the vorwaerts quoted the following
passage from the Deutsche Tageszei.
tung:
1--WE have a ring Of politicians who
hold that might makes right (Macht.
politiker), who despise the forces OF
the inner life and believe that they
must eliminate all ethical points OF
!. view from foreign and social
politics. For them, Germany Of the
present and Of the future is the coun.
, try of the Krupps and Borsigs, Of the
!, Zeppelins and the U-boats. Any idea
of a connection between politics and
morals is rejected and. any reference
! to the right of moral method of con.
sideration is ridiculed as delusion and
, sentimentality."
, The German officers were provided
, | r,,t,, the forms to be used I'm terror