The Lakeland evening telegram. (Lakeland, Fla.) 1911-1922, 1918-02-12
TO FREE THE SLAVES
by Edith M. Thomas of The
Vigilantes.)


Vigilantes.)
If a persistent rumor be true, there
are already on the other side and
waiting to engage the Common En-
envy a khaki troop-the" in
bronze" they have not unsuitably
BEEN called And of this troop it may
be said, with only the appearance OF
paradox, that they, the direct de-
scendants of slaves who were freed
by the supreme try-out of war, are
in Europe at this moment for the
purpose of freeing other slaves!
These auxiliary black men, who are
not unwarrantedly expected to be
splendid fighters when their hour
strikes are in Europe to free WHITE
men now in the bonds of a slavery
verse than the socalled African" of
two generations ago in this country!
| have not the figures" before me
as | write; but are they needed? Ev-
eryone, by this time, knows that the
virtual slaves of the Imperial Ger.
man government run into the hun
cred thousands-men, women AMI
GIRLS II have not for nothing added
and UNDERSIGNED that last WORLDLY
These slaves, of most pitiless he
lcsage, have not the "patriarchal
care from their masters, which used
to be alleged-and not without truth
Ill many instances, of the old system
here. which South as we'll as North
was at last thankful to be delivered
ftom.-No! The slaves of Germany
stlll await their Uncle Toms Cabin"
annallst who shall yet more burning
~ lire the heart of the world with
their wrongs-wth the ruthless d.
vision OF families, the robbery of the
Weil-to-do, and the stripping of the
poor-the whole unparalleled story Of
inc "deportations" in Belgium and
in Occupied" France.
We have all supped full of these
horrors-but, as such suffering en-
dareth no extreme" we have. in a
way dismissed them from our minds
Let us not do so. Let us keen ever
before us on the tablets of remem.
Drahce Tor of graphic vision) the
ia"ts about these hundreds of tbou-
sands still in the iron grin of their
'@nd our) bitter foe; let us especi-
a'ly remember that this slavery does
Lot alone break the body but also tbe
spirit or the subject-that under
threat land we know not what of
physical penance) these slaves are
ihaoe to forge stronger the chains Of
thelr own captivity through their
masters employing them upon mill
tary labor, or as substitute laborers
1oi those civilian Huns who are
thcreby released for army service.
Yes, the purpose of this war is in
large part, to FREE THE SLAVES,
There is, at this moment, no actual
freedom on the face of the earth
save the freedom-to-fight and so. ia
remove the lettering implication IN
on us all, IF we would tolerate
through any manner of inert indif.
ference this enslavement Of any Dor.
ton of the human family. We wbo
nave not in the past tolerated the en-.
slavement of the BLACK, shall we
Low tolerate that Of the WHITE
though the latter be 5000 miles
away"
lt is probably anti-climax TO the
aDove idea, to add that, by the win.
h'hs OF this war we shall set fire.:
several million other slaves (wbos.
moral condition is of less "hanp,
estate" than their Imperial masters
belgium and French slaves)-I mean
the hoodwinked, serpent-charmed
inhabitants of Germany itself-Anv.
how, since we Americans love what
we are won't to call Slogan" lei
us adopt, from now on, the following
TO FREE THE SLAVES!