French Broad hustler. [volume] (Hendersonville, N.C.) 1916-1919, 1918-06-06
WHY U. S. AT A
(Cnntinned from page 81

VIII NJ SS
Continued from page By
to follow our lead in republican lib
ertv. The old German proverb-
"No grass ever grew where the morse
of Attila, king of the Huns, had
must have been in the mind OF the
modern hun (the Kaiser) when they
were forced to retreat IN n spring
of 1917 from northern France: They
left it a dead country-The Empire
of Death"-a death which lays his
shrivelled hand upon all the works OF
men and all the bloom of nature: NO
farms or villages r left standing;
wells are blown up or poisoned; Wlres'
cables, and pipelines destroyed; a
and railroads made impossible; thou-
sands of stately trees which, for miles
lined the highways and CONSTITUTING
their charm were needlessly cut
Administrative work of syste-
matte murderers of nature. burnt
ont ruins, with a spark glowing here
and there from the Pickering hres,
are the only vestiges left of the past
A scene of desolation relgns every
where. On looking back toward this
desert full of wretchedness, a Ter
man military officer is heard to ex-
claim: Farewell comrade OF n
Somme! The earth which drinks your
blood is uphaved and torn asunder; II
is made unfruitful, and your graves
made free from the dwellings OF men;
those who tread your desert Will De
greeted with our Shells"
We fight Germany because OF Eng
land-from whom came the laws, ira
ditions, standards of life, anu inher-
ent love of liberty which we call
Anglo-Saxon civilization. We de-
feated her once upon the land and
once upon the sea. But Australia,
New Zealand, Africa and Canada r
free because of what we did; and
they are with us in the fight for the
freedom of the seas.
We fight because of other peoples,
with their rising hope that the world
may be free from the government of
the soldier.
Germany has violated our trust
and undermined our confidence. We
believed her promise to respect the
neutral flag and the rights of neu-
trails, and we held our anger and out
rage in check; but later we saw that
she was holding us off with fair prom
ises until she could build her huge
fleet of submarines; for when spring
came she blew her promise into the
air, just as at the beginning she had
torn up that "scrap of paper" and in
February, 1917, defied US, sinking
American and neutral ships without
warning and without mercy to their
crews and passengers. Paid German
spies have filled our cities; officials
received as the guests of this nation
have lived with US to bride and ter
r~orize, defying our law and the law
of nations; while we were yet her
friend-the only great power that
still held hands of-she sent the
Zimmerman note, calling to her aid
Mexico, promising her Texas, New
Mexico and Arizona, and hoping to
lure Japan into war against US;
through her agencies-even through
her embassy at Washington, she com
mitted acts of intrigue and treachery
against US within our own country,
while protesting to be our friend
placing bombs on ships sailing from
American ports, producing strikes
and blowing up factories in the
United States, plotting in this neutral
country to blow up bridges and
tunnels. The nation that would do
these things proclaims the gospel that
government has no conscience, no
reverence for the things of the spirit,
no respect for international law, no
mercy for those who fall before its
force.
We fight Germany because we
know that she wanted the war, and
with Austria forced it upon her un-
willing opponents, the allies. For we