The Idaho Republican. [volume] (Blackfoot, Idaho) 1904-1932, 1918-12-03
THE SOLDIERS LACK OF HATE


| How the soldier views the enemy
is one of the paradoxical, but cheer
ing manifestations of the war. Tho
he has seen hell let loose he can
speak of his brutal foe with calm
that is bewildering to the civilian.
The blood has often boiled as we
have read of wanton destruction of
property and pitiless cruelty to peo-
pie helpless in the Germans hand.
An intimate picture of the French
soldiers attitude toward the Ger
man is given by Dr.. Karl Reiland of
st. Georges church, New York. DR..
IRELAND was asked by the Red Cross
to go before the men in the canton
ments here and present particularly
to them the assurance of the care
their families would receive from the
hed Cross while they were absent in
France. He felt, says the New York
Sun. that 1T was not right for any
man to appear before men who were
going into the inferno of the battle
field unless he, too, knew something
of what they were to go thru" So
he has visited the battle-line from
scissors to Rheims, and his testi-
mony on the particular point we men,
ton is valuable for those who hold
bitterness in their hearts toward q
defeated foe, particularly those of
them who were helpless instruments
in the hands of ruthless leaders.
He says:
I'm spite of what France has suf-
fered at the hands of Germany, her
soldiers have the least hatred in
their hearts and display the most
kindness toward the German prison.
ers of any of the allied soldiers
Why, when l was talking to the little
Boche in the hospital French gen
eral who was passing thru the ward
came up, looked down at him, patted
his blond head, and sighed with a
shake of his head, Too young! too
young for war!'
IT saw another French officer lift
wounded German up and take
pillow from under his head because
the pillow was too high, and when
the ambulance moved or went over a
rut, the Germans head would be
bumped. He held the mans head on
his arm until the stretcher was low
cred, when he put the pillow back.
You can't put down spirit as divine
as that"
That this can be the spirit in face
of Germany's military role is mat
ter for wonder. The thing that is
overpowered at last is not changed,
as is shown in the dispatch dated
November IL to the New York Times
by Walter Ruranty, concerning the
fate in the very last hours of the
struggle of the city that had been
the kaisers headquarters.
even in its death agony German
militarism chung fast to it's principle
of hideous savagery. All this morn
ing the German batteries have been
pouring deluge of high explosives
and pOison-gas on Mezierees, where
10000 civilians-men, women and
children-are penned like trapt rats
without possibility of escape.
words can not depict the plight
of the victims of this browning Ger
man atrocity. Westward the broad
Stream of the Mouse cuts them off
from an army of their countrymen,
whose soldiers, maddened to frenzy,
are giving their lives without
thought in the effort to reinforce
under the pitiless hail-storm their
scanty detachments on the eastern
bank. For the moment no other
succor is possible
"At six last night the torment of
Mezie-es began. Incendiary wounded
were evacuated to the shelter of the
cellars in which the whole popula-
ton was crouching. That was not
enough to appease the bitter blood
lust of the Germans in defeat.
Cellars may give protection from fire
or melinite, but they are worse than
death-traps against the heavy fumes
of poisonous gas.
$50 the murderous order. was
given to-day, and faithfully the Ger
man gunners carried it out. In a
town that has been protected by
miles of invaded territory from wars
horrors there were no gas-masks for
the civilians and no chemicals that
might permit them to save lives with
improvised head-coverings. Here
and there, perhaps, mother fixes
a mask, found as by merical on the
body of dead enemy, across her
sons face, that he, at. least, may es-
cape the death she knows will take
her. Others may pass the she'll
barrier and reach, stunned and torn,
the comparative shelter of the
neighboring woods, but they will
be fortunate exceptions. The great
majority must submit to martyrdom
final testimony that civilization is
thing apart from the unclean bar
barism of the Boclle."