GERMANY, in her war against Civilization, has disregarded not only International Law and the ordinary laws of humanity, but has ruthlessly set aside the four great laws of the social order which all civilized nations recognize as having a divine sanction. “Thou shalt not bear false witness.” She has broken her treaties and lied openly, frequently, brazenly. “Thou shalt not commit adultery.” She has permitted, if she has not given official sanction to rape committed upon a scale never before known in the history of the civilized world. “Thou shalt not steal.” She robbed her neighbor’s hills of their coal and iron, her neighbor’s fields of their standing crops, her neighbor’s banks of their money, her neighbor’s houses of their pictures, statuary and books, and what she could not carry away she has in mere wantonness destroyed. “Thou shalt not kill.” She has murdered thousands of defenceless men, women, children, and little babes, and has done this not in a sudden and feverish rage, but as part of a deliberately conceived and carefully executed policy. One must multiply Raemaekers’ picture by the thousand in order to get its full significance.
LYMAN ABBOTT.
A Scene on the Somme
“INFINITELY interesting is our contact with the American troops. They have occupied the sector immediately beside ours. We have seen them at work, and could form an idea, and it should be told and retold that they are marvelous. The Americans are soldiers by nature, and their officers have the desire to learn with an enthusiasm and an idealistic ardor very remarkable. There is the same spirit among the privates. They ask questions with a touching good-will, setting aside all conceit or prejudice. Naturally they have the faults of all new troops. They show themselves too much and expose themselves imprudently, letting themselves be carried away by their ardor, not knowing when to spare themselves or to seek shelter or when to risk everything for an end. This experience will be quickly learned.
“As for bravery, activity, and discipline, they are marvelous. They absolutely astonished us on a morning of attack. The cannonading, suddenly becoming furious, had just thrown me out of my bunk. No doubt about it, it was a Verdun attack. Taking time to seize my revolver, put on my helmet, and gather up several documents, I descended to the streets. When I arrived there they were already filing by with rapid, easy, decided steps, marching in perfect order in silence with admirable resolution, and above all with striking discipline, to their fighting positions. It was fine. You can have no idea how cheering it was to my Poilus.”
—From a letter of a French officer published in the Paris
“Temps.”
Hollweg as Robespierre
The Kaiser: “He has managed to fool the German
Socialists. Why should he not fool the Russian
Socialists?”