The Laurens advertiser. (Laurens, S.C.) 1885-1973, July 17, 1918, Image 7
fERMANS EXCUSE
ATROCIOUS ACTS
Murder, Pillage and Arson Part
of Deliberate Scheme of
Warfare.
HIGH OFFICERS GO ON RECORD
No Possible Evasion of Responsibility
for Bestial Acts Which for Centu.
ries Have Had No Parallel.
Officially Indorsed.
The people of the United States
are beginning to learn the truth con
cerning the conduct of the war by
Germany. Proof is offered that Ger
man officials deliberately lied in
their statements concerning atroci
dies committed by the Belgians and
allies. That their own soldier. were
disgus8ted by the 'cruelties practiced
at the order of high officers of the
kaiser is shown. Extracts taken
from pamphlets issued follow:
The Vorwaerts of Berlin, October 22,
Z1914, said:
"We have already been able to es
iablish the falseness of a great number
of assertions which have been made
with great precision and published
everywhere In the press. concerning al
eged cruelties conmitted, by the popu
itions of the countries with which
IGermany is ti war, upon German sol
diers and civilians. We are now in po
sition to silence two others of these
fantastic stories.
"The war corres)on(lent of the Ber
liner Tagebhitt spoke a few weekR
ago of cigars and elgarettes filled with
powder alleged to have been given out
or sold to our soldiers with diabolicti
'intent. le even pretended that he had
seen with his own eyes hundreds of
this kind of cigarettes. We learn from
an authentic source that this story of
cigars and cigarettes is nothing but a
,brazen Invention. Stories of soldiers
whose eyes are-alleged to have been
torn out by frunes-tirmurs are circulat
ed throughout Germany. Not a single
case of this kind hais been ofilially es
Itablished.
"it matters little that reports of this
nature hear an appearance of positive
certitude, or are even vouched for by
eye-witnesses. The desire for notoriety,
the absence of criticism, and personal
jerror play an unfortunate part in the
'days in which we are living. Every
nose shot off or simply bound up,
levery eye removed, is Immediately
transfornied Into a nose or eye torn
away by the francs-tireurs. Already the
iVolkszeitung of Cologne has been able,
contrary to the very categorieal asser
tons from Aix-la-Chapelle, to prove
4 t there was no soldier witf' his eyes
rn out in the field ambulance of this
1w. It was said, also, that people
wounded in this way were under treat
vnent in the neighborhood of Berlin,
'but whenever Inquiries have been made
In regard to these reports, their abso
lute falsity has been demonstrated. At
length these reports were concentrated
at Gross Lichterfelde. A newspaper
published at noon and widely eircn
Inted in Berlin printed a few days ago
In large type the news that at the
~Izafetto of Lichterfelde alone fhere
~w re 'ten G~erman soldiers, only slight
iwounded, whose eyes had been wick
edly torn out.' But to a request for
informat tion by Coinrade Liehknecht
the following written reply was sent
'by the chief medical officer of the
above-mentioned field hospital, jlated
jthe eighteenth of the month:
"'Sir: Happily there is no truth
iwhatever in these stories.
'Yours obediently,
I'PRIOFERSORI RAUTENBERO,'"
German Soldiers Protested.
Thus the teachings of the German
'War Book and of the German apostles
of frightfulness, suspicion and hatred,
had now begun to bear their natural
fruit. But the voice of protest was
not entirely silent. A considerable
number of letters by German soldiers
who were shocked by the German
strocities were sent to Ambassador
Gerard, because he was the representa
tive of the United States, the leading
neutral nation. The three letters
which follow, in translation, were re
ceived by the American ambassador
from German soldiers.
Here is the protest of a German sol
d11cr, an eye-witness of the slaughter of
JRu /pn soldiers in the Masuirlan lakes
. Hf wnmps:
iU~twas frightful, heart-rending, as
i.mns maage, of,,upuan beings. were
driven to destruction. Above the ter
'rible thunder of the cannon could De
1heard the heart-rending cries of the
Ruissias: 'O Prussians ! 0 Prussians !'
-but there was rno mercy. Our captain
had ordered : 'Tihe whole lot must die;
so rapid fire.' As I have heard, five
men anid one oflicer on our sidle went
mad from these heaet-rending cries.
'But most of my comrades and the offi
eers jloked as tihe unarmed and helpless
Riussians shrieked for mnorey while
they were being suffocated in the
swamps antd shot dIown. The order
was : 'Close up and at it harder !' For
days afterwards those heaitrt-rending
yells followed me nnd I (dare not think
of them or I shall go mad. There is no
God, there is no morality and no ethies
any more. There tire no human beings
ony more', but ('nly beasts. Down with
"if You are a truth-loving main,
please re-ceive these limn from a com.
mol Prussian soldier."
iFolowinag Is the te'stimonmy of another
German soldier on the eastern front2
"Russian Poland, December 18, '14.
"In the name of Christianity I send
you these words.
"Wounded Russians are killed with
the bayonet according to orders.
"And Russians who have surrender
ed are often shot down in masses ac
cording to orders, in spite of their
heart-rending prayers.
"In the hope that you, as the repre
sentative of a Christian state, will
protest against this, I sign myself,
"A GERMAN SOLDIER AND CHRIS
TIAN."
The third letter, from the western
front, shows the same horrOr of the
system of which the writer was a wit
ness.
"To the American Government,
Washington, U. 8. A.
"Englishmen who have surrendered
are shot down in small groups. With
the French one is more considerate. I
ask whether men let themselves be
taken prisoner in order to be die
armea and shot down afterward? Is
that chivalry in battle? It is no longer
a secret among the people; one hears
everywhere that few prisoners are
taken; they are shot down in small
groups. They say naively: 'We don't
want any unnecessary mouths to feed.
Where there Is no one to enter com
plaint, there is no judge.' Is there
then no power in the world which can
put an end to these murders and res
cue the victims? Where is Chris
tianity? Where is right? Might is
right.
"A SOLDIER AND A MAN WHO I
NO BARBARIAN."
Socialists Oppose System
Many of the Germans, as has been
already indlented, do not believe The
reports of the atrocities committed by
the Belgian civilians and refuse to ac
cept the system of frightfulness. The
Vorwaerts, the Vnading soelallt paper,
which has a very wide circle of rend
ers, has opposed the polley of fright
fulness. All honor to its editors who
have so courngeously opposed the pow
erful military authority! Its editorial,
entitled "Our Foes," published Augus$
23, 1914, rends as follows:
"What should one say when even
such an organ as the Deutsches Offi
zier-Blatt exprep-!es its sympathy with
a 'demand that 'the beasts' who are
talien as francs-tireurs should not be
killed. but only wounded so that they
may then be left to a fate 'which makes
any help impossible?' Or what should
we say when the Deutsches Offizier
Blatt states that 'a punitive destruc
tion even of whole regions' cannot 'af
ford full recompense for the bones of a
atigle niurdered iomeranian grena
dier?' Those are the desires of blood.
thirsty fanatics and we are thoroughly
ashamed of ourselves because it is
possible that there are people among
us who urge such things."
"Barbarlem," Declares Vorwaerts.
On the following day, August 24,
1914, the Vorwaerts returned to the
attack in an editorial "Against Bar.
barism."
. . ."One might, in the first
place, possibly believe that such a de
mand for a bloody vengeance [against
alleged Belgian outrages] emanates
from a single disease-racked brain;
but it appears that whole groups
among certain classes who represent
German kultur want to Indulge in oe.
gies of barbarism and to devise a
whole system for the purpose of or
ganizing 'a wnr of revenge.'
"What of law and custom!i Such
thoughts do not stir a 'great nation.'
Thus in a leading article of the Ber
liner Neueste Nachrichten, the de
mand is made that all the authorities
in Brussels--one, the secondhburgomas
ter, is genezously excepted--should be
immediately seized and subjected to
trial in order to expiate the wrongs
which, according to fragnmontary and
highly uncertain reports, were said to
have been committed by the people.
They dlemand that the capturied city
should immediately pay a fine of 500,
000,000 marks ;that all stores of the
conqiueredl territory be requisitioned
without paying the inhabitants a single
penny for them."
Vorwaerts in Pretest.
Three years later, August 26. 1017,
the Vorwaerts quoted the following
passage from the Deutsche Tageszei
tung:
"We have a ring of politicians who
hold that might, makes right (Macht
politiker), who despise the forces of
the inner life andl believe that they
must eliminate all ethical points og
view . . . from foreign and social
politics. For them, Germany of the
present and of the future is the coun
try of the Krupps and Borsigs, of the
Zeppelins and the U-boats. Any idea
of a connection between politics and
morals is rejected and any reference
to the right of a mortnI method of con
plderation is ridiculed as delusion and
sentimentality."
The German. officers were provided
with the forms to he used in terror
izing the conquered people. The comn
mon soldIers were provided with
phrase hooks wvhieh would enable themi
to impose their will upon the terrified
people. Minister Blrandl Whitlock in
his report to the state dlepartment on
Septembler 12, 1917, w"rites:
"The. Geraman soldiers were provid
e~d wvith phrn-se b'ookms- giviag alternate
translato! in (Germnmu andt Frmench of
such seat ences as:
'lands up. (It Is the very first
senltence 31n the book.)
"'Carry out all tihe turnlt~ire.
"'I am thirsty. Binlg me somne beer,
gin, ruam.
" Toui haive to supply a barrel of
wine' and a keg of i'eer.
"'[I'ad melt to thea wf.ilthIilest Iihbi
innts of this village. I ayove Oer t~o
reqluirit: n several barrels o'f wine.
"'Show ius the wnty to --. lI you
Lead n astrny. you will be sho,"
BRITISH SCORE
VICTORIES IN AIR
Nearly Four Thousand Machines
Downed in Year. Army and Navy
Busy.
London, July 3.-In one year on
the British Western front the royal
air force has accounted for 3,233 en
emy airplanes. In the game period the
naval airmen shot down 623, a total
of 3,856.
An official statement deajlne with
these operations says:
"The royal air force during the year
beginning July 1, 1917, on the British
Western front destroyed 2.150 hostile
machines and drove down out of con
trol, 1,083. In the same period the air
force units working in conjunctior:
with the navy shot down 623 hostilE
machines.
"During this period 1.094 of our ma
chines were missing. 92 of these were
working with the navy.
"On the Italian front from April to
June, 1918. the British destroyed 15
,hostile machines and drove down six
lout of control. Thirteen of ours were
|missing.
"On the Saloniki front betw
nary and June 21 hostile mit
were destroyed' and 13 were 6
down out of control. Four of t,
were lost.
"From March to June in Dgypt a
Palestine, 26 hostile airplanes wer
destroyed and 51 were driven down
out of control. Ten of ours were miss
Ing.
"In all the theaters of the war the
British air superiority and strength
progressed rapidly and continuousl..
From this it is safe to assume tha!
when the new factor of America's out
put, both a!rcraft and personnel, en
ters the situation of the , fighting
zonaes, the aerial ascendancy of the
entente allies should give them very
great advantages."
Timely Dramna on the Sereen.
With the eyes of the world centered
upon the great events which are trans
piring across the water-the stories
that come back of the boys goi
"over the top" and the unflinching he
roism with which each one is "doing
his bit"-the events that are vividly
shown in Francis Ford's stirring
scireen-Vtory, "Beriin (via Amer ica'',
hit close to the heart. For who
mong us has not sent a son, a bus
nd, a sweetheart or a brother on in
o the great adventure with a smilc
nd a hidden tear.
It is the story of an American boy.
ne just like your own--who even
(ie sacrifice of his good name, works
fo the cause' which is dear to him.
Frncls. Ford directed the production
and enacts the leading role. Opposite
him plays Edna Emerson and a no
table e,ast including Jack Newton. Wil
Ham Cntield, Lois Scott, Dell Coyne
and Emma Warren.
Alanager. Gilbert M. Tyler has ob
tained "Berlin via America" for the
Opera House and ' l be shown two
days, next .onday add Tuesday.
To Clean Off Church Grounds.
Everyone who has relAtives, or who
is interested in any way, are reqiuestod
to meet at Beaverdam church on
Thursday, August 1st for the purpose
of cleaning off the church grounds.
SUBSCRIBE TO "THE ADVERTISER'
'Notice of Scholarship Examination
T1IIE CITADEKL
Cbarleston, S. .
Courses In Engineering, Sciences,
and Art. B. S. and C. E. Deigrees. Mili
tary instruction of unsurpassed excel
lence. Classed by the War Depart
ment as "Distinguished Military Col
lege".
One vacancy in the State Scholar
ships for Laurens County will be filled
by competitive examination on August
9th. These scholarships provide for
nearly all expenses, and only those
candidates who are unable to pay are
eligible for them. Necessary blanks
can be obtained from the Superintend
ent at the Citadel.
A limited number of pay cadets will
be received. Expenses, including
board, uniforms, tuition, and all hep
fees. $337. Next session begins Spt.
20th. Catalog sent on request. Address
Col. 0. J. BOND. Superintendent,
TIlE CITAIsEL
Charleston, S. C.
52-4t
Lame Shoulder.
This allment is usually caused by
rheumatism of the muscles. All that
is needed is absolute rest and a few
applications of Chabnberlain's Lini
ment. Try it.
Howdy P. . P.
PURITY AND PROGRESS
LOYAL ORDER of MOOSE
Welcome Brothers
THERE ARE NO MOOSE IN POTTER'S FIELD!
THERE E NO HUNGRY MOOSE!
WE IN
ARE700000 AMERICA
Lodges in all the princi- Notice Organized 1889
pal cities of the United OEning
States.. ' Club rooms open R ooms With anh
every day 8 a. m. to 11 Laurens Lodge
p. m. Open Charter Lounging Roomst
Open Charter Fee Only G. M. Tyler, at Opera House Games, Music and other
$6.00 ForAppicatic for Memberip entertainments f r e e to
Regular Fee $25
Regla Fe 25"Texas" A. B. Rit .hie members. .Free; ocation
Join Now and Save $19 At Opera House, July 19 al education for the child.
BenefitsDistrict Supervisor
Bene itsSupeme odgeof he Wrld ren of deceased members.
$7.00 a week Sick and Order M
Accide t Benefits, $100
B u r i a I Benefit. Free After 1,500 in Laurens County. while chldren are in school
Medical Attent on for Self Join now and build your own home, if she desires to accom
and Family. Dues $1.00 P. S. See and hear Texas*Ritchie
per month ;no assess'ments. at Op- House Friday, July 19. pany them.
Wht ThOp ArCharter
The oyalOrdr ooGs i. nTylr an i Ope oyalreroMosdesntter
surace oganzatin. tis n exJFo r Apli ate ino r ern withoesreip. r oii
cia Ode wtflbeefc T eat xs" Ardi cal viwsoitirScaindsus
thrbbig tar abveSth pres Lg of the Wol
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(lea, te lve o wiead Jfin no an bideours a free h m n.
Over 0,00 in te nCharolxa inasThsieea