The commercial. (Union City, Tenn.) 190?-193?, 1918-04-12

Army is proVerbially stringent, and
its obedience implicit. Not from
any special ferocity of the troops,
for whoever has travelled among the
German peasantry knows that they
are as kindly and good -natured as
any people in Europe. and those who
can recall the war of 1870 will re-
member that no charges resembling
those proved by these dispositions
were then established. The excuses
recently committed in Belgium were,
moreover, too widespread and too
uniform in their character to be
mere sporadic outbursts of passion
or rapaeity.
The explanation seems to be that
these excuses were committed-in
some cases ordered, in others allow
ed-on system and in pursuance of
a set purpose. That purpose was to
strike terror into the civtl popula-
tion and dishearten the Belgian
troops, so as to crush down resist
ance and extinguish the very spirit
of self-defense. The pretext that
civilians had fired upon the invad-
ing troops was used to justify not
merely the shooting of individual
francs-tireurs, but the murder of
large numbers of innocent civilians,
an act absolutely forbidden by the
rules of civilized warfare. CAS- to
this, see, in appendix, the Rules of
The Hague Convention of 1907, to
which Germany was signatory)
In the minds of Prussian officers |
war seems to have become a sort of
sacred mission, one of the highest |
functions of the omnipotent State,
which is itself as much an army as
a State. Ordinary morality and the
ordinary sentiment of pity vanish in
Its presence, superseded by a new
standard, which justifies to the sol
der every means that can conduce
TO success, however shocking to a
neutral sense of justice and HUI
nanity, however revolving to his
'wn feelings, The spirit of war is
leified. Obedience to the State and
is war lord leaves no room for any
'ther duty or feeling. Cruelty be-
zones legitimate when it promises
'ictory. Proclaimed by the heads of
he army, this doctrine would seem
o have permeated the officers and
Effected even the private soldiers,
eading them to justify the killing
# noncombatants as an act of war,
nd so accustoming them to slaugh-
er that even women and children
ecome at last the victims. 1t can
lot be supposed to be a national doc
rine, for it neither springs from nor
effects the mind and feelings of the
German people as they have hereto
tore been known to other nations. 1t
IS a specifically military doctrine,
he outcome of a theory held by a
'uling caste who have brooded and
bought, written and talked, and
ireamed about war until they have
allen under its obsession and been
ypnotized by its spirit.
The doctrine is plainly set forth
n the German Official Monograph on
he usages of war on land, issued
Inder the direction of the German ,
'taff. This book is pervaded thru
ut by the view that whatever mill
airy needs suggest becomes thereby I
awful, and upon this principle, as :
he diaries show, the German officers i
cted. ("Kriegsbrauch i'm Land I
riege," Berlin, 1902, in Vol. VI, in
he series entitled "Kriegsges- =
hichtliche Einzelschriften," pub
ished in 1905. A translation of this 9
by Professor j. H. Nor I
an, has recently been published.)
If this explanation be the true I