Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1918-04-23
I |

Special Correspondence Ercnn0 Public Lcd0cr
Berne. March 81.
TTNDER existing conditions term of sew
~ eral years in German "Zuchthaus" is
as a matter Of fact, Synonymous with cap
tal punishment. Only persons with an iron
constitution survive for long this ordeal Of
utterly insufficient food and ill-treatment.
Even before the war Prussian penitentiares
were, in spite of all modern improvements,
noted for their rigorous administration To-
day, with starvation facing the entire popu-
ation, it is easy enough TO imagine what
terrible privatons these political prisoners
must endure, between whom and ordinary
criminals no difference whatever is made.
Friends of Lebknecht i'm Berne tell me his
health is hopelessly impaired and that II
seems extremely improbable he will survive
his sentence. l can well believe. it, Luden-
dorff and his willing tools, the military
Judges know this also. and the knowledge
that they can rid themselves so easily or
their adversaries without pronouncing too
many sensational death sentences fills them
with secret glee.
Sometimes the German papers publish ac-
counts of trials by court-martial In which
the prisoners are acquitted This Is done in
order to make the world believe the mill
tarv Judges are lust and imDartial. The
Kaisers Government naturally does not want
the world to know about its impacable reign
of terror in Germany. But facts will out
in spite of all the precautions taken by the
Prussian censors. An indiscreet question re-
Gently put in the Reichstag by the Socialist
member, Doctor Herzfeld, to Count Hertling
reveals what the military authorities do with
the prisoners officially acquitted" by the
Judges These prisoners, though found mot
guilty" are not released as the law expressly
requires. In fragrant violation of the law
they are kept in custody, taken under guard
TO the police headquarters of the town and
there, by order of the general commanding
the district, placed under preventive arrest"
Preventive arrest or Imprisonment is Ger
mar war invention Which permits the milf
tary authorities to keep people they suspect
of entertaining democratic opinions, or find
irksome in any way, in prison for an IN
definite period without trial. Preventive pris-
oners" are deprived of the benefit of coun-
sci and their relatives and friends are not
even allowed to know what has become OF
them 1t is the Bastille and the "lettres de
cachet" over again, with the difference that
the Bastile prisoners of the French kings
were well treated and plentifully fed, even
eighteenth century despotism making dis
tinction between political offenders and COM
mon criminals. There have been many
stormy debates in the Reichstag during the
war about this Infamous system OF pre-
yentive imprisonment needless to say with
| out any appreciable result
Doctor Herzfeld's revelation in the Relchs-
| tag shows that of all the thousands of per-
| sons of either sex arrested during the strikes
| not one has been released, even the pris-
| oners whom the judges could not possibly
| convict being kept by the military authorities
| under preventive arrest. 1 am, therefore
| thoroughly inclined TO believe a statement
| made the other day by German exile here
| to the effect that there are more than 100000
| political prisoners of one kind or another in
| the German prisons at the present day.
| THERE is no limit to the vindictlva
| cruelty OF the German military dlcta-
tors toward the miserable workers who at
| tempted TO throw off their yoke. Not con-
| tent with all these arbitrary measures. they
| have hit upon a new and truly diabolical
scheme to punish the strikers In their chill
| dren. For the last two years the municipal
| authorities OF many German towns have been
| sending the starving children Of the poorer
classes to the country for few weeks in
summer to board with farmers and peasants
where food and particularly milk is not so
scarce as in the great cities. Lately the
| Government at the instigation Of the mill
| tary authorities, has given orders 10 exclude
| children OF parents who took part in the
strikes from this privilege of spending a
couple OF weeks in the country TO recover
| from the effects Of the terrible foOdless
4 winter months. This seems scarcely credible,
hut Il Is true nevertheless. After all this
/ one no longer wonders that the strike move
ment In Germany failed, and the only sur
i prlslng thing is that the workers ever plucked
/ up courage to strike at all. And Yeti learn
| from Trustworthy sources tnat an active
l propaganda Is again being Carried on IN the
murf1on factories In vlewl Of another and
nnorR aperal strike. Revon& &onafy pamphlets
are on4e more being n lpteq ~ the faoe