Daily capital journal. (Salem, Oregon) 1903-1919, 1918-04-03
WHY WE ARE
AT WAR WITH
GERMANY
BY
EPHRAIM DOUGLASS ADAMS
Executive Head, History Depart
ment
Leland Stanford Junior University

"The object of this war is to deliver
the free peoples of the world from the
menace and the actual power Of vast
military establishment controlled by an
irresponsible government, which, having
secretly planned to dominate the world,
proceeded to carry out the plan without
OF treaty or the long established prac-
tices and long cherished principles Of In :
ternatlonaI action and honor; -. This
power Is not the German people. II ls
the ruthless master Of the German peo-
pie. 1t Is our business to see to
II that the history Of the rest Of the
President Wilson, August 27, 1917.
GERMAN RUTHLESSNESS AN IN.
CULCATED BARBARISM -.
A government asserting its right to
conquer the world, denying any duty
except that of increasing its own
power, and people drilled in this
theory, produce a nation whose acts
horrlfy humanity Yet those acts are
but the logical result of ruthless
ness in war deliberately planned. 1t
was at first said by Americans: Yes,
there are occasional German atrocities,
no doubt, but so there are in every
war;" We now know that cruelty and
barbarism are definite part of the
German method of making war.
First the teachers and professors:
Where German soldiers had to seize
the incendiary torch, or even to pro-
ceed to the slaughter Of citizens, 1t
I was only In pursuance OF the rights
of war" Zone single highly cultured
German warrior represents a higher
intellectual and moral life-yalue than
hundreds of the raw children of nature
whom England and France, Russia
and Italy, oppese to them" Even If
there were no question of vengeance,
the crime Of opposing the de-
VeIopmtesst Of Germany is SO great that
the most trenchant me asures are
scarcely a sufficient punishment for
it." "The more pitiless is the vac
OtctiS, the greater is the security of
the ensuing peace. In the days of old,
conquered peoples were completely an
initiated. Today that is physically
impracticable, but one can imagine
conditions which should approach very
closely to total destruction"
Next the army officers: "By steep
ing himself in military history an
officer will be able to guard himself
against excessive humanitarian no
seventies are indispensable to war,
nay, more, that the only true humanity
very often lies in a ruthless applica-
ton Of them" THE warrior has need
of passion. 1t must not be,
regarded as a necessary evil; nor con-
demned as q regrettable consequence
of physical contact nor must we
seek to restrain 1t and curb it as a
savage and brutal force"
Last the clergy: one incident, and
one quotation from an address on the
Sermon on the Mount is enough for
Americans. "Whocver can not prevail
upon himself to approve from the
bottom of his heart the sinking of the
LuSitantd, and give himself
up to honest delight at this victorious
exploit of German defensive power
him we judge to be no true German"
German teaching has borne fruit and
the world is aghast. Yet we have be-
come SO accustomed to German
atrocities" that some of our horror at
them has waned. 1t is g0iseT to re-
member. Volumes are needed to list.
merely, the preTsd cases of barbarity
for Germany by refusing investiga-
tioR through a neutral jury proposed
by Cardinal Mercier, has confessed
guilt. No, rather, she acknowledges
fh0 l.
rifles them.
But let as not forget that German
soldiers, in 1914 NTH no restraint
raped the women of Belgium and
France in the first advance; that they
placed screens of children before
them; that they executed, as a l0drn-
ing against feared Belgian rising.
Hfty innocent Catholic priests and
thousands of innocent citizens that
they gave themselves up Gin a hun
dred different places, to plundering,
Imprisonment, massacres,
and sacrileges' cardinal MsFcier);
that in France they have deliberately
made a desert Of territory in retreat,
with an object, not of this war, bpk
Of destroying productivity for at least
a generation to come; that Germany
openly applauded Turkey upon the
massacre Of nearly one-half the popu-
alton of Armenia; that Germany -hv
the cruel starvation and deportation
of conquered populations is attempt
ing to "Germanize" the lands Of Pc.
and and Russia; that she torpedoes
o pital ships with "defenseless |
beings, wounded or mutilated In war,
and women who are devoting them
selves to the work Of relief and char
Ity" cprotest Of the international Red !
Cross Committee at Geneva); that no |
other government, in the worlds his
.ory, ever ordered or approved a
JNsitdnia
This i0ar is lost, and greater DiT
'OIIos0 1t, unless 1t Is fought to the 1
point tOhere Germany knOi0s for all |
line that such acts are, in the end, |
iGtOI to the government that commits
hem.
This ls the fourth Of a series Of ten
trtieles by Professor Adams.