The gazette-times. [volume] (Heppner, Or.) 1912-1925, 1918-04-25
WHY WE ARE
AT WAR WITH
GERMANY
BY
EPHRAlM DOUGLASS ADAMS
Executive Head, History Depart.
ment
Leland Stanford Junior University

menace and the actual power of vast
military establishment controlled by an
irresponsible government, which, havino
secretly planned to dominate the world,
proceeded to carry out the plan without
regard either to the sacred cblieations
OF treaty or the long established prac-
tices and long cherish ed principles of in
ternational action ard horcr; This
power is not tire German people. 1t is
the ruthless master of tie German geo
pie. II Is our business to see to
1t that the history of tie rest Of tie
world is no longer left to its handling :"
President Wilson, August 27, 1917.
GERMAN RUTHLESSNESS AN IN
CULCATED BARBARISM
A government asserting its right to
conquer the world denying any duty
except that of increasing it's own
power andf people drilled in this
theory, produce a nation whose acts
horrify humanity. Yet those acts are
but the logical result of a ruthless
ness in war deliberately planned. II
was at first said by Americans: yes.
there are occasional German atrocities
no doubt. but so there are in every
war" We now know that cruelty and
Darbarism are definite part of the
German method Of making war.
First the teachers and professors:
Where German soldiers had to seize
the incendiary torch, or even to pro
ceed to the slaughter of citizens, II
was only in pursuance of the rights
Of war" "One single highly cultured
German warrior represents a higher
intellectual and moral lifevalue than
hundreds of the raw children of nature
whom England and France, Russia
and Italy, oppose to them" Even II
there were no question of vengeance
the crime of opposing the de.
relopment of Germany is so great that
the most trenchant m easures are
scarcely a sufficient punishment fc'
it, THE more pitiless is the ude
uctiS, the greater is the security
the ensuing peace. In the days of ole
conquered peoples were completely
initiated. Today that is PHYSICAL
impracticable, but one can imagi-,
conditions which should approach yer,
closely to total destruction"
Next the army officers: "By steep
ing himself in military history an
officer will be able to guard himself
against excessive humanitarian no
tions; It will teach him that certain
seventies are indispensable to war
nay, more, that the only true humanity
very often lies in ruthless applica
ton Of them" "The warrior has need
Of passion It must not be
regarded as a necessary evil; nor con.
demned as regrettable consequence
OF physical contact; nor must We
seek to restrain 1t and curb 1t as
savage and brutal force"
Last the clergy: one incident, and
one quotation from an address on the
Sermon on the Mount is enough for
Americans. Whoever can not prevail
upon himself to approve from the
bottom Of his heart the sinking of the
Lusitdnid. and give himself
up to honest delight at this victorious
exploit of German defensive power
him we judge to be no true German"
German teaching has borne fruit and
the world is aghast. Yet we have be.
come so accustomed to German
atrocities that some of our horror at
them has waned 1t is tUiser to re.
member. Volumes are needed to liet.
merely, the prored cases Of barbarity
for Germany by refusing investiga.
tion through neutral jury proposed
by Cardinal Mercer, has confessed
guilt No, rather, she Acknowledges
the acts charged against her and glo
-ifies them.
But let as not forget that German
soldiers, in 1914 1cith no rcstraia4
raped the women of Belgium anf
France in the first advance: that the,
placed screens of children befor,
them that they executed, as a lcal4
:ng against feared Belgian rising
fifty innocent Catholic priests am
thousands of innocent citizens; tha
they gave themselves up ''in a hun
dred different places, to plundering
incendarism, Imprisonment, rflassacres
and sacrileges" Cardinal Mercier)
that in France they have deliberately
made desert Of territory in retreat
with an object, not of this war, but
Of destroying productivity for at least
a generation to come; that Germany
openly applauded Turkey upon the
massacre Of nearly one-half the popu
lation of Armenia; that Germany, by
the cruel starvation and deportation
of conquered populations is attempt
ing to "Germanize" the lands of Pc
land and Russia; that she torpedoes
hospital ships with "defenseless
beings, wounded or mutilated in war,
and women who are devotng them
selves to the work Of relief and char.
ity" (protest of the International Red
Cross Committee at Geneva; that no
other government, in the worlds his.
tory, ever ordered or approved a
LuSttnnia
This Uar is lost, and greater ,oill
folloW it, unless it Is fought to the
point phere Germany knoms for all
time that such acts are, in the end.
fatal to the government that commits
them.