The Greenville journal. [volume] (Greenville, Ohio) 1850-1918, 1918-01-24

NOhhA Ah~As N1l
day and year after year, throughout
this age Of slaughter by the actions
of the Germans and their government.
Here and there a German cry of pro-
test is heard; there Is a sound as Of
something human walllng for human
ity on the vast wind Of GermanIsm.
Sometimes for q moment q name is
heard out Of the fatuous hurricane-a
name like Haase or Llebknecht or
Harden-and there seems to come the
murmur as Of q troubled multitude
who do not ride the wind; but the
sounds are uncertain and come to US
but weakly. We can only hope 'that
there Is some one there" Woodrow
Wilson has called to them in a loud
voice, but they have not known how
to answer II they wOuld-Or could.
Would Divide United States.
The German kaiser has really
thought persistentIy Of all nOn-TeutOn-
ic countries in terms Of destruction,
and when he has spoken his private
thoughts, his speech has always been:
Let US find the best way to weaken
and injure them" Those real thoughts
of his came out characteristically
when, on his yacht at Kiel, he said that
Europe had made a great mistake in
not strongly favOring the South during
our Civil war, for thus two weak
countries might have been created to
take the place of the powerful Union.
Something might be hoped for even
yet, he went on, If the East and West
could be sufficiently stirred up against
each other. There is the kaisers for
eign policy and the order of his mind
and of his heart. What he meant was
that it would be q good and beneficial
thing If the people of our Eastern and
Western states could be brought to
kill one another In great numbers and
thus the Union yet be divided.
The kaiser twice played wantonly
and without the slightest provOcation
on the verge of war with the United
States-Once on the coast of Venezuela
and once in Manila bay. While Ger
many was in a state of friendship with
England, he proposed to Russia that
Russia and Germany attack England; !;
and while Germany was in state of
friendship with the United States he
proposed to England that England and
Germany seize Mexico and destroy the
Monroe doctrine. His agent thinner
man, asked Mexico to propose treach-
cry to Japan, that the two together
might dismember and plulder the
United States. His diplomatic agent,
resident in Buenos Aires by courtesy
of the Argentine government, makes
treacherous use of the Swedish lega-
ton to send word to Germans how to
destroy Argentine ships and "leave no
trace" This phrase, with which we
are familiar mainly through the i'm
possible "villains" of the "movies"
and of old-time dime novels and
melOdramas-"leave no trace" mean
ing "sink the ships and murder every
soul on board"-thiS message is not
that of a "stage or movie villain"
Not at all! 1t is a German govern
mental message regarding ships be-
longing to citizens of a friendly power,
and is sent by German nObleman in
the German diplomatic service to other
officials of the German government.
More, it is a characteristic work of the
German governmental kind. And it
Is an actual snapshot OF the person.
ality of the German government.
The government of the United States
and the governments of the world are
literally unable to make peace with the
people thus revealed. -
Why We Entered War.
The people Of the United States
would have borne almost anything
from Germany if they could have be-
lieved that the Germans cause was
originally good one or that the war
was forced upon Germany" But,
knowing what we did, when the Ger
mans, after numbering great numbers
Of our fellow citizens and Qulbbling
for many, many months about these
murders-when they told US to keep
our ships in port or they would sink
them; we found that Germany's con-
duct toward us was not to be dis.
tinguished from making war upon us,
and we decided that our citizens should
not be killed continuously by a coun-
try which was "at peace" with us,
and we would not take orders from
Germany to remain in port and away
from the high seas. Germany does not
make and enforce the laws of and for
the United Statesmen without en-
countering some resistance from Amer"
leans. So we disobeyed Germany, and
would not paint the commanded vel.
low stripes upon the hulls of the one
ship week which was to be permit
ted upon the Atlantic ocean.
We found ourselves in a state of
war because the German government,
having forced a war upon Europe with
the object of dominating that COnti'
nent and subsequently the world, in
cluding the United States, and having
carried on the war with unnecessary
cruelty and the employment of treach-
cry whenever it considered treachery
useful, we found ourselves in state
of war because the German govern
ment was killing our citizens as a
means of enforcing It's will upon us.
That would seem to be war-killing us
to make US obey-no? American citi-
zens have their own government and
prefer to live under their own laws.
That is why we began to fight.
We continue our beginning because
the German government is the same
government that it was few months
ago when we found that 1t was max.
ing war upon us-and we hare no
choice but to fight 1t until either It