The weekly times-record. (Valley City, N.D.) 1912-1922, 1918-11-21
EMBLEMS OF
DEATH in TOYS

Toys! For whom? For the inno-
cents carried down when the "Lusi-
tania" sank? For those tear-eyed
Belgian children who stretch forth
little arms from which the hands were
struck off by the swords of German
officers? For those French boys and
girls with pitiful sightless eyes? For
those whose little bodies rest in the
churchyards of Italy, that died in pain
from poisoned Hun candy? For those
other children slowly starved to death
in Poland or massacred in Armenia?
Toys? Toys made by Huns to
whom innocence and childhood are
but toys to be played with and then
crushed and broken? Toys whose
very contact contaminates and leaves
upon the touch of babyhood invisible
clots of blood? AS we'll bring dead
ly serpent into the home to spew it's
venom on the cradle. Why shall we
befoul and taint the purity of Ameri-
can childhood with a remainder Of the
tiendish treatment the Huns have
glor!fied in ever since that fateful Au-
gust Of 1914? Can one even look upon
Noah's Ark "Made in Germany" and
put from his mind those hundreds of
helpless innocents whose silken locks
are twined with seaweed? Can one
hold a German doll in her arms and
forget the thousands dead from ia
mine who once made glad mothers
arms? Can boy find delight in the
contortions of'a mechanical Hun clown
and forget those brave young men
who writhed in agony when crucifed
on castle walls by these same Huns?
Can a ball colored with the red of
Huns fail to suggest the flame from
bursting grenades hurled by arms up
lifted in the attitude of 'kamerad?"
Let those who would invite fearsome
ghosts into the home to hover round
the Christmas tree buy German toys.
If one would hang the boughs with
evil omens, and bid the wall of agon-
lied spirits float through the branches
and fan the Pickering fame Of candles,
let him buy German toys. Let those
who can, make merry with the pro-
duct of those very hands which even
at this moment are eagerly filling
shells with poison gases and deadly
flames and hurling them against our
own flesh and blood
And what Of the merchant who for
sordid gain would barter these souv-
enirs of loathsome nation and insult
the loyalty of lisping lips? What
could more delight the cunning Hun,
what more quickly bring the sneering
smile to cruel faces, or gladden. heart
less hearts, or encourage him to hope
that even now we tolerate his brutal
lty and welcome what he wants to
sell? If now, when as a nation we
are in universal condemnation of Hun
ism, yet do we hold out our hands to
accept his works, what will he think
and with what measure shall he esti-
mate the sincerity of our expressions
OF repugnance and horror at what he
has done since the sun rose this morn
ing? What mitigation can we claim
in the thought that America was not
yet overseas when these trinkets were
fashioned? Even while the gaudy
paint was yet fresh upon these trim
kets were Belgian girls being dragged
into slavery worse than death.
We do not lack, for toys; toys by
trainloads made in American factor
les, by hands which are clean; toys
also by carloads made by our ally in
Japan, where childhood is sacred; and
love, not hate, is taught at mothers
breasts. Even were there none, far
better our boys and girls should 90
without than find pleasure in the hand
iwork of a nation which made a public
holiday to celebrate the loss Of the
'Lusitania," and which in these latter :
days is stepped in the "glory" of mon
strosities. Could our little men who
sacrifice many childish pleasure to
buy war stamps and contribute pen
MES to the Red Cross, and our little
mothers who knit so pationetly with
hands that can barely hold the needles,
would one of these knowingly find any
pleasure in any toy "Made in Ger
n IT WJNSOP