The Redwood gazette. [volume] (Redwood Falls, Minn.) 1873-1940, 1919-02-12
WHAT is OUR PART

T HE following paragraph are taken from
a letter written by an officer in the Third
Army of Occupation in Germany to a friend
in Redwood Falls. The Gazette publishes them
without comment, and as supplementary though
to the editorial "The War Mo- Yet Over" which
we reprinted last week from the Christian Sci
ence Monitor.
"The attitude of the Huns toward us has been
of most cordial friendness on The whole and it
is a friendness of which suspicious. In
it we can see without much imagination, the
directing hand of the general staff, or the pro-
visional government, which seeks to quickly gain
the sympathy of the Americans, make US, in our
good nature quickly forget the abonnable afro
cities of their soldiers and again welcome them
back into the fold to tho standing they once had.
1--WE are refusing the bait! The American army
once learned at great cost in the PHILIPPINES, the
danger of indulging people long used to defer
ence 70 strict authority, as goes without saying
and that contempt is thing we shall not per-
nit. Fraternizing is thing strictly forbidden
in this Third Army of Occupation.
Judging from what we read in the German
papers, from fragments of conversation and from
observations made by special officers, these Ger
mans still have large pride in their army Man
for man they believe it Incompatible to any 9TH
body of troops in the world, invncible yet as
army, unbeaten in the field They say the arm
istice was forced not by weakness in the army,
but by the pressure of discomfort of the civilian
Already they talk of the wars of the future most
casually, as if war were but national industry
Atrocities and outrages were but phases of a war
which to be forgotten with shrug of the shul-
ders, for after all, ''What is War between
friends"
"That is an actual attitude, though I do not
know how general can only suspect.
81 have today seen our abbreviated copy of the
worlds news in the Paris edition of the Chicago
Tribune dated as late as January l. Also has
come copy of the New York Times to our Y. NJ
C. A. dated November "a. Once in while we
find out wha. is going on in the world. At pres
ent am rejoicing to read every skit of an account
on Wilson's visit to Europe believe this visit
is of most wonderful consequence and that we
shall have a great peace, worthy of free peoples
cannot write you all that wish about our rela-
tions with England but this to say that we here
see in Wilson's visit most happy and memorable
cementing of English speaking peoples, one of
the big representatives. against future wars
.'There is another thing. shall hope we Ameri-
cans will not let altruesm run away with our good
sense in too easily welcoming of Germany back
into .he fold. We may run a foul by a misunder-
stood and premature forgiveness Away with
the hate diatribes and all that stuff, but never
let-up on the stern terms which Germany must
pay before her readmission into decent society.
Censorship rules, liberal as they are, forbid my
writing you as | would wish, but if | can put it
in few words America is not yet free from the
damnable reach of German power and propagan-
da and any There, there, don't cryi | am sorry it
had to be sol" stuff, must not go.
Il fear these Germans come Lringing gifts.
They are naturally kind naturally friendly, but
20 an extent that we almost resent it. They are
making wonderful play FOR our friendship, not
just here but at home. lean assure you this army