New-York tribune., 1919-04-19
DIR. Butler Arraigns
German Scientists
In College Protest
TeutOn Professors Failed to
Complain About Many
Atrocities During War,
Says Columbia President

DR.. Nicholas Murray Butler has re
piled for Columbia University to n
protcs, made by German universities
against tho Outrageous action" Of the
French High Command toward the
scientists and scholars OF the Univcr-
sity of Strasbourg. The French gave
the German scientists and scholars
twonty-iour hours to clear out Tho
rector and senate of the University of
Leipzig and representatives of the
University Of Heidelberg and the
Heidelberg Academy joined in pro
test to neutral educational institutions
A copy of the protest was sent to Co
lumbia BY the Swedish University Of
Upsala.
The president Of Columbia replied
to the rector of Upsala University, in
letter made public yesterday, that
before passing on the Outrageous ac-
ton of the French at Strasbourg he
would like to know what protest Ger
man professors entered against the
German vandalism at Louvain sand
against thirty specified crimes
committed by German troops. He
called to mind also the eagerness with
which German professors rushed to
the defence Of the war in 1914. Plain
titfs must come into court of equity
with clean hands, he declared.
Dr.. Butler gave the following list
of crimes charged against Germans:
Massacre of civilians, putting to
death of hostages. torture of civilians,
starvation Of civilians, rape, abduction
of girls and women for the purpose of
enforced prostitution deportation of
civilians, internment Of civilians under
brutal conditions, forced labor Of
civilians in connection with military
operations of the enemy, uSurption of
sovereignty during military occupa-
tion compulsory enlistment as soldiers
among the inhabitants of occupied ter
ritory, plllage. coniiscatlon OF property,
eXaction Of illcgitimate or cXorbitant
contributions and acquisitions, de-
basement OF currency. issue of spu-
rious currency, imposition of collec-
tive penalties, wanton destruction and
devastation Of property, bombardment
of updctended places, wanton dcstruc-
tiOn of religious, charitable. educatiOn
al and historic buildings and monu
mcnts, destruction of merchant ships
and passenger vessels without cXami-
nation or without warning, destruction
of fishing boats and relief ship,
DOmDardment or hospitals, attack on
and destruction of hospital ships,
breach of other rules relating to the
Rcd Cross, use of delcterious and
asphyxiatng gases. use of exploding
and expanding bullets, directions to
give no quarter, ill-treatment of pris-
oners, misuse of flags of truce and
poisoning of wells.
eve have not forgotten the amaz-
ing prostitution OF scholarship and
science to national lust marked by
the formal appeal to the civilized
world, made by German professors in
September, 1914. That appeal was an
unmiXed mass Of untruths, and the
stain which it placed upon the intel
lcctual and moral integrity of German
scholars and men of science will for
ever remain one of the most deplor-
able and discouraging events of the
war which German militarism and
Prussian autocracy forced upon the
peaceful and liberty-loving nations of
the world y