Shepherdstown register. [volume] (Shepherdstown, Va. [W. Va.]) 1849-1955, 1919-04-03
The Moral Collapse of Germany.


moral nation is shown in many ways,
but none more terribly vivid than in
the loathsome photographs carried by
the Hun soldiers. 1t is necessary for
the world to know what sort OF mon
ster it is dealing with-a monster
that has made Berlin what Sodom
once was. The Americans do not pose
as saints but there is decency about
them and the British and French that
resents the bestiality Of the Huns and
the horrid depravity which flourishes
in what Capt. Carl Edes calls their
"dirty minds" Probably nothing
among the many amazing things now
coming to us from France is more in
dicative of the moral depreciation of
Germany than in the pno 'Grapl car
ried apparently by nearly all the Ger
man prisoners captured-discloSing
the vile subjects upon which an army
of rapists would naturally dwell.
The Manufacturers Record has re-
Gently printed from DR.. Hills and 9TH
ers statements in regard TO this as
founding revelation Of the German
mind and character. Following is a
quotation from an article by Dr.. Hill
lis.
zone late September afternoon,
north of Cambria, on the Peronne
road, we saw hundreds of German
prisoners coming back from the
lines. Completely surrounded, they
threw, up their hands. About 80 pris-
oners were taken in the morning, and
these were set to work to build barb
ed-wire cage. Later 500 more Hun
prisoners were brought back, and the
prisoners had to enlarge the cage for
their comrades, to whom they were
shouting welcome. The British intel
ligence officer stopped the Huns in
groups of ten just before they entered
the gate. He made the Huns give up
every scrap of paper, every picture.
and map and told them that if they
dSobeyed, and later search revealed
secret papers, they would be tried by
court-martial, and if found guilty they
would be shot. The alacrity with which
the officers and men emptied their
pockets was very eXhilerating to an
American. When the entire 500 had
passed by, the letters and photographs
filled large gunny sack, perhaps two
feet wide and three feet high.
"Now, the amazing thing about
these papers was this fact, that every
sixth or seventh prisoner put down a
bunch of degenerate photographs.
held together by rubber 5lnd. But
the intelligence officer told lis plainly
that tile reason why the other five or
six Huns did not have a bunch Of
these depraved pictures was because
they had left them in their dugout or
kits. More amazing still was the fact
that multitudes of these views and
pictures were kodak views of the sol
dier himself and of some white slave
that he had held in the trench. 9th
ers carried the imprint of different
houses in Munich, Leipsic
or Berlin. No words can tell the full
degeneracy. Perhaps no head of So
ciety for the suppression of vice ever
witnessed such examples Of devilish-
ness. The Internal regions alone Of
fer an explanation. 1t made one be-
lieve that there must be devil that
can pull men down to the level of the
lowest beasts and feed with the vilest
passions, debauchng the intellect and
depraving the heart Not until ones
eyes look on the white throne of God
can the memory of these sights be full
ly cleansed away"
The Manufacturers Record also
prints letter from Mr.. c. W. Barron,
of New York, who witnessed the sur
render of 1900 Germans and writes as
follows:
"They were lined up in squads, and
an American, serving as sergeant in
the British army and speaking every
German dialect from Tyrolese to Ber
linese, gave the orders of command.
The front platoon of a double file of
soldiers stepped three PAGES forward
and faced about. Then both lines of
prisoners, facing each other, emptied
their pockets upon the ground. Diar-
les, post cards, and letters were gath
cred in bushel baskets for careful eX-
Bushels of photographs have to be
burned. They will not pass muster
with the English, and any attempt to-
pass them through the United States
mails would subject the offender to a
fine and imprisonment under the An
thony Comstock laws.
"The sergeant said: 81 have EXAM
ined 100000 German prisoners, and
every fifth or sixth man carries such
photographs
81 have since been informed at Eng
lish headquarters that the percentage
is very much larger. Indeed, it has
been said that they are in almost un-
iversal use in the German army.
Zone thus gets an insight into cer-
tain features of this war that have
made the world shrink with horror at
the thought OF any further Hun in
vasion Of civilized country. That
horror has nerved the arm of father.
husband and brother to strike with full
strength in civilizations defense.
"The Germany in this war is de-
generate Germany, corrupted to the
foundation of life. and lured into mir