Trench and camp. [volume] (Augusta, Ga.) 1917-1919, 1918-03-13
BY CORPORAL ROBERT L. HARDER,
1nZ&L. M q Raktalinn.

expr eSSienS are heard by all OF us so OFTEN
hat it shows the men. of the battalion are
thinking of those things. WHY we are
going across, and why we ARE going
ecross.
We are going across because United
States, the lover of peace, the home Of
Freedom has been forced in self-defense
INTO the most gigantic, most cruel and
Bloody war in the worlds history. She
#nust fight or fizZle, and she will not fiz-
sle. A nation crazed with lust of con-
fuest, with the most brutal army since
he days of the savage aims to gain world
Bower, wealth and mastery of the world
.Sby crushing out with blood and iron the
#ife of those nations that obstruct the
bath of her helIish purpose. Freedom of
lations, our nation; the very progress of
civilization is to remain or go. Civiliza-
* ion means simply being civil to be kind,
lust, right, persuasive, trustful in dealings
f individuals and nations as against brut-
llity and force. Might was the law of the
bavage. Right became recognized as civ
slization advanced and there came hap
piness, the blessings of humanity helping
bach other Today might is trying to
Hown right, the right of free sef-govern-
nent, the right of living Embossed by an
pther government, unoppreSSed, unfearful
III another'S treachery and power.
AS Americans we had difficulty in I'M
Herstandng Germany; in fact we did not
Understand her. I'll was hard to believe
#canadian soldiers, that they ran out blaZ-
ing oil onto the wounded on No-Man's
IS land; that they made hospitals and
&Aurses a target for shells, that they raped
Ind mutiliated Belgian women; that Ger
nan soldiers bayonetted babies and bore
Them aloft as they marched; that they
ore families apart and bore people into
S Slavery. We doubted because 1t was re-
|rolting to our sense of humanity.
We were like the farmer who visited
The zoo and beheld a giraffe and as he
beheld it exclaimed, "Auch there amt no
&uch animal" The animals OF his farm
knowledge were so unlike the long necked,
bdd, ridiculous looking giraffe, it was so
apart from what he thought could exist,
THAT seeing he doubted. But had the gl-
#affe suddenly kicked out and Killed the
Farmers wife or bitten and killed children
Me would have awakened. 1t was When
#Serniany turned upon us, killed our fellow
americans, blew up our ships at sea, our
Industries at home plotted to destroy our
beace by embroiling us in war with Mex
leo and Japan and finally practically or
#ered us to keep off the free seas or die,
lhat we awoke to the fact that % diff
Nerent kind of beast was raVaging nations
And aimed at us.
Our failure to understand Germany was
Mot a matter of accident. The ideals OF
&he two nations are as far apart as heaV-
Nm and hell. We have followed different
Mnodels.
In Germany, Frederick the Great stands
Sbre- eminent. He reigned at the time of
Muir revolutionary war, a great, crafty
Honniving, powerful, great king He is the
slattern so admitted of the present kai-
Ter. Frederick the Great wrote his ad-
Nice to future kings in which he said
sxings should not keep their pledges if q
breach gains advantage" Bother not
with religion except as it serves your
purpose" In short do anything that
will accomplish your ends"
% At this same time tho American pa
riots were founding this nation on the
lock of freedom, equality, the rights OF
all The Declaration of independence
and the spirit of the day breatheS the OPP
fA E'T2Ha riCE tf,t Great and Ger
|@nans of his day.
vi Bismark. the great German statesman,
&nspirer of German thought and leader of
Herman aims and purposes about forty
10 ears ago, summed up this purpose in
his words. mot with sort words but with
blood and iron has German achieved her
greatness" A few years before Lincoln,
Nt time when we were engaged in the
bitterest of brotherly wars wrote to Con-
sress with malice toward none, with
charity for all, with frmness in the right
Is God gives us to see the right
ST. Today the same clash of aim is as pro-
#lounced. European students Of America
2narvel at us as a people without hate.
in Germany hate is cultivated as noble
baSsion and we have German chief of
taft declaring that there is nothing finer
Hhan to awake in the morning after haV=.
ing spent the night in dreams of hate,
hatred of other nations. We have Kali
"a er Williams own words brazenly written,
From childhood I have been influenced
BY five rnen-AIexander the Great julius
Caesar, Theodore II, Frederick the Great
s. Ind Napoleon. Each of these men dream
Nd a dream of world empire. They failed.
have dreamed a dream Of German world
.mpire and my mated fist shall succeed"
In his message to Congress when at the
outbreak of the war we declared neutral
Mty President Wilson said: 1--WE are at
S,eace with all the world and want to re-
8nain so. We want nothing of another
Nations and ask only that we be let alone
hat we may be the friend and helper Of
ILL"
ri Our great men have been big in prin-
#iple The American has been taught,
,raised and naturally followed his mod
Ills. The German has followed his
models his teaching of the virtue and
,lorv of war and we have a nation that
Tor years joyous, waited the day. when
#t should fight out the golden dream of
world dominion.
What we have heard of Germany is
rue We are going across because we
want to keep hell for the next world and
A,revent the German devil and his murder,
ruelty, savagry and destruction from
#eigning in this.
n Bernhard, in his book on Germany
Ind the next war;" told of Germany's plan
10 reduce France, crush Russia, bring
England to her knees and invade America,
8,lacing upon this rica nation an in
II emnitly that would pay her war debts