The Brattleboro daily reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1913-1955, 1918-01-07


ed are often shot down in masses &C.
cording to orders, in spite Of their
heart-rending prayers.
SIN the hope that you, as the repre- |
sentative of a Christian state, will |
protest against this, / sign myself.
"a GERMAN SOLDIER AND CHRIS
TAN"
The third letter, from the western
front, shows the same horror of the
system of which the writer was q wit
ness.
ITO the American Government,
Washington, q. S. A.
"Englishmen who have surrendered
are shot down in small groups. With
the French one is more considerate. /
ask whether men let themselves be
taken prisoner in order to be dis
armed and shot down afterward? Is
that chiyalry in battle? 1t is no longer
a secret among the people; one hears
everywhere that few prisoners are
taken; they are shot down in 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 in the world which can
put 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
| Norwaerts. the leading socialist paper.
which has q very wide circle of read
ers, has opposed the policy Of fright
/ fulnCss. All honor to its editors who
have so courageously opposed the pow
erful military authority, It's editorial.
entitled Our 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
a 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 OffiZier
Blatt states that a punitive destruc
ton even of whole regions cannot 'af
ford full recompense for the bones Of {
single murdered Pomeranian Crena
dier| Those are the desires of blood
thirsty fanatics and we are thorough,
ashamed of ourselves because 1t /
possible that there are people amont
US who urge such things"
"BarbsrIsm," Declares Vorwaerts.
! On the following day, August q
, 1914, the Vorwaerts returned TO tn
attack in an editorial Against Bar
: barlsm."
zone might, IN the frs
place. possibly believe that such a dc
5 mand for bloody vengeance [agains
. alleged Belgian outrages1 emanate
: from single disease-racked brain
, but it appears that whole group
@ among certain classes who represeT
+ German kultur want to indulge in o.
{ gies of barbarism and to devise
! whole system for the purpose of O.
r ganizing "a war Of revenge.
/ "What of law and custom! Sue
Q thoughts do not stir great nation
G Thus in a leading article of the Be
e liner Neueste Nachrichten, the d
/ mand is made that all the authorize
: in Brussels-one. the second burgoma
r ter, is generously excepted-should |
II Immediately seized and subjected /
It trial in order to expiate the wrong
&c which, according to fragmentary an
q highly uncertain reports, were said |
have been committed by the peopl
b They demand that the captured eli
should Immediately pay fine of 50t
100000 marks; that all stores of Il
conquered territory be requisitions
without paying the inhabitants sing
n penny for them"
5 VorWaerts in Protest.
:, Three years later. August &c, 191
- the Vorwaerts quoted the followi
- passage from the Deutsche TagesZ
= tung:
N 1--WE have ring of politicians w
or hold that might makes right (Macl
n politiker), who despise the forces
10 the inner life and believe that tn
rs must eliminate all ethical points
o. view from foreign and soc
or politics. For them, Germany Of t
present and of the future is the cot
H. try of the Krupps and Borsigs. of t
of Zoppelins and the U-boats. Any id
es of a connection between politics n
morals Is rejected and any referen
as to the right of moral method of CT
no SideratI0n is ridiculed as delusion q