Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1918-03-14

declaration of war, Bethmann-Hol-
veg his imperial chancellor.
Another Lackey Promotcd'
In no modern civilized state would
| 1t be possible for a minister to re-
main in office after being openly
branded by the representative of the
people as unfit, but in Germany any
criminal may become and remain
imperial chancellor at the will of the
emperor alone. Punishment has al
ready found him out Another lackey
has been prom oted to lackey-in- chief
without consultation with the Ger
man people and their representa-
tiN eS.
This murderer is the German en-
peror with his accomplices; but not
the German people, the poor people
defrauded and exploited by their
government: not the poor soldiers,
who are driven to slaughter by these
knaves under the iron shackles of
military law, like the miserable gal
/ ley slaves of old.
Comrades, how long is it your wish
to put up with this? When Will you
rouse yourselves? When will you
take arms on the side on which
every man of honor must now fight;
on the side of humanity and civiliZa-
ton against this gang of slayers?
| When will you free our poor, down
! trcdden, famished people from it's
tyrants, and again establish justice,
| liberty, morality, reason and civiliza-
| tion in Germany?
'Rcasons Which Hold You Bacl<?"
| Why not come over to fight on the
side of justice, of truth, of freedom,
all of you; the side on which all civil
! lied nations as well as the noblest
and most far-seeing of your own
| people have taken their stand?
/ L know the reasons which hold
you back:
| l. Your ignorance; the false doc
| trines with which you were inoculat-
! ed in your minds by the German
. press, whipped into line by a mill
! tary dictator; your implicit conn-
| dence in your God given" leaders.
/ 2. Fear of your masters, especially
| of your officers. But these hangmen
OF the kaiser are cowardly and hide
| themselves in time of danger be-
! hind cover. Shoot them down like
mad dogs if they get in your way.
Rather that they die than the hun
dreds of thousands of honest indus
trious fathers of families whom they
have already hunted into the Jaws of
death; hunt which day by day
goes on.
8. Fear of committing an unpard-
enable crime and of being unable to
return home if you desert. But the
laws by means of which these muir
you enslaVed will be done away with
before the war is at an end, and
you will be joyfully welcomed home
without disgrace, and more than that
with the highest honor, as true
heroes and liberators of your coun-
try.
a. Fear of injuring our Father
land II you go over to the French
and English, and more than that IL
you fight on their side, which is a
matter of your own choice.
Comrades, pledge you by all that
we hold holy, l am a son of the Ger
man people. l love them with every
fibre of my being, more than ever a
Hohenzollern loved them, and the
honor and welfare of my fatherland
stand above all else, and are the only
lodestars of my destiny. I know the
war-the events leading up to it, it's
causes and its progress-more than
the kaiser's government likes. / as
sure you that the welfare of the Ger
man people demands that you come
over; aye, that you turn your can
non around, and that you join the
entente and march with them to the
Rhine and over it, and wrest our
for now and for all time.
There are only two possible ways
of ending this war: Either humanity,
without you, without the cooperation
of the German people, will annihilate
Prussian Junkerdom and will starVe
out the German people that thus
they may free mankind for now and
forever from curse which rests
upon them with the weight of AL
pine SHOWS; from an insane criminal
on throne who, by q stroke of the
pan may change millions of men into
corpses and cripples and ruin the
industry and welfare of a nation;
either this or you yourself will as
sist in the task of freeing mankind.
Peace will not come one hour before
this goal is reached, but not one hour
later.
"You VIII Be Ground to Ruin"
But if this goal should be reached
without you and in spite of you, you
will be ground down into ruin, and,
what is more, the people of our Ger |
man fatherland will be given over TO |
the will of the conquerors. Then your
intellectual and political leaders, the
true leaders who are not the lackeys ,
of the emperor, will have no right
and no opportunity to interpose a !
word concerning the future order of
the world and or Germany. But If !
you cooperate, and that with all
your might, to carry out this purpose.
the honor of the German people,
which is to-day scorned as merely
an insensate tool in the hands ofl
murderers, will be RESTORED; and
more than that, you will have a voice
in the establishment of the new or
der of the world and of Germany. /
And, take my word for it, we shall
have peace, and we can have it on
such terms that the German people |
will be happier in the future than
they ever were before the war. But
leave us in the lurch, and we must
recognize with sullen rage and scorn
that we are the fellow countrymen
of hopelessly deluded slaves, upon
whom will rest the blame for their
own ruin and for the annihilation of
Germany.
Comrades in war, you have taken
an oath of allegiance to your flag.
But the emperor too took an oath at
the beginning of his reign, an oath
of allegiance to the German consti-
tuition. The confederation which
forms the German empire was es-