The Brinkley argus., 1918-07-12
Why We Fight
 No. ? Because Gerrnany's LawIs the Law of the Jungle and Her Doctrine Might Is Right
No. ?
By CLARENCE L. SPEED

We are at war with Germany be- cause Prussia dominates Ger many, and from the days of Freder- ick the Great, Prussia's law has been the law of the jungle, her doctrine Might is Right and her policy, in dealing with other nations, one of rob- ping the weak and terrOrizing the strong. Germany has grabbed terri tory and exacted tribute from her neighbors and finally, her greed De- coming greater, has looked out over more distant lands, and has commit ted herself to a policy of world dom1- nation which menaces the continued free existence of every nation which will not submit to her will.
 Germany's policy is not an acciden- tai one. It has been carried out With remarkable singleness of purpose from generation to generation of Hohenzollern rule, from the time of the Great Frederick until to- day. Germany's atrocities are not accidental. They are deliber- ate, well thought out part of this Hohenzollern policy, which was to break down the resistance of her op- ponents, not only by fighting and de- feating their armies but by killing. torturing and terrorizing the civil populations.
 The German rulers committed them" selves to the doctrine of the survival of the Attest. Through generations of teaching they made the German peo- ~Jo lo1; +ho+ fhou q1nnn were the fit.
 We have the words of the German rulers and German warriors and Ger man leaders of thought for all of this. More than that we have the perform ance of German officers and German armies in conquered lands to prove 1t.
 Let's start with Frederick the 1 Great in presenting the evidence. This monarch, who earned his sou briquet through despoiling his neigh 1 bors, rather than through any real l qualities of mind which he showed, said, in a letter to his minister, Rad, ziwill:
 eff there is anything to be gained by it, we will be honest; if deception is necessary, let us be cheats. One takes what one can, and one is wrong only when obliged to give back"
 This philosophy, applied to present conditions, means that Germany was right when she took Belgium, and will be wrong only if she is not able to hold it.
 From Frederick the Great to Bis.E marck is a long jump in the matter of time; but we find the Prussian pol-E icy unchanged. Speaking before theE military committee of the PrussianE Chamber of Deputies in 1862 Bis. marck said:
 "Not by speeches and resolutions of majorities are the great questions of the time decided, but by iron and blood"
 Then, with blood and iron. Prussia went out and despoiled Denmark of territory in 1864, beat and robbed Aus tria in 1866, and finally, in 1870. brought France to her knees and took her richest provinces.
 Here is what the present kaiser told his troops when, in 1900, they were about to depart for China to put down the boxer uprising:
 "Use your weapons in such way that for Q thousand years no Chi nese shall dare to look upon a German askance. Be as terrible as Attilla's Huns.'
 Coming on down to the present war we find a German minister accredited to a neutral state far across the sea one which one would think should be free from the entanglements of world politics-writing home to his govern ment, in state paper, advising the sinking of two ships from this neutral nation, in such a manner that no trace be left. Dead men, he believed tell no tales.
 It was Baron Luxburg, minister pleni- potentiary to Argentina, who wrote this amazing dispatch on May 10, 1917:
 q beg that the small steamers Gran and Guazo which are nearing Bordeaux be spared if possi. ble, or else sunk without trace be ing left"
 This telegram was intercepted in the United States and published. 1t sent a thrill of horror around the world. Chancellor y0n Bethmann-Hollweg is ! true disciple of Frederick the | Great, Bismarck and his royal master. In a public speech on January 31, 1917. he said:
 "When the most ruthless methods are calculated to lead us to victory. swift victory, they must be employed"
 So they were used, and are being used today. They include sinking of hundreds of neutral ships, the burning of cities, the deliberate devastating of the fair lands of France, the ravish- ing of women, the enslavement of workmen and the murder of little chil- dren.
 Horrors such as these are told in de- tail in '"The Prussian System" by r. c. Walcott, who, for long time, was en- gagged in behalf of America in trying to