German Atrocities: Their Nature and Philosophy

by Newell Dwight Hillis

The Tribute of the British

Americans oftentimes marvel at the praise that the British and the French bestow upon the armies of the other. Each insists upon considering the other superior to himself. One August day, in a Paris restaurant, a young English captain, quiet, reserved, modest to a degree, was praising the French soldiers and officers whom he had met. Having just returned from the front of Ypres and La Bassée he was so filled with admiration for the fortitude, the endurance, and the heroism of the French soldiers, that he sought in vain for words bright enough with which to describe their achievements. Asked for the reason of his eulogy, and his conviction as to the supremacy of the French, the British captain answered, "You must remember that the Frenchman is fighting for his native land, while England has never been invaded by the Huns." Then the captain went on to praise the British rifles, machine guns, their military tactics, and the skill of their soldiers. "When my company march, they are so perfectly drilled that their one hundred right legs swing like the single stroke of a pendulum. I will put my men against the soldiers of the world. Still," he said, "so far as I now recall, no English division ever brought in at one time more than one fourth their number as prisoners."

A Picture of the French Fight

"But," added the captain, "look at the French soldiers at Verdun. One had a helmet, one a hat, some were bareheaded; some had new rifles, some old rifles, and some only a bayonet and revolver. When they were within ten rods of the German trench they lifted up their bayonets and sent out their battle cry, and hearing the hoarse voices, the Germans flung away their guns, climbed out of their trenches, ran like rabbits and bellowed like bulls; that night when the French division came home for supper, they brought ten thousand Germans along with them. You can't beat the French—they are fighting for their native land." That is a reason, but it is not the reason. The reason is this—the Frenchman counts himself dead already. If he survives to-day's battle, he says, The morrow will give me another chance to die for God and beautiful France. The Frenchman never knows when he is defeated, and therefore he cannot be beaten.

One day a lawyer from Paris came to the front to bring Jean a message from a cousin. "The Americans have come, the Latin Quarter is reviving, the shops are reopening, and your cousin offers to take down the shutters that have been up for three years and try to make a little money to take care of you if you are wounded, and have it ready for you when you return." Jean shook his head,—he was not interested. He said that he never expected to return; that his cousin must take the shop, that everything therein was hers; that he asked only to die for France. The lawyer could not reason with him, and so the attorney hastily wrote out a paper, giving the cousin full power to act as if the property were hers, and then the French soldier hurried back to the trenches, having no time for even a farewell. If to-day every civilized city and country looks with contempt upon Germany, and thinks of her as a wild beast let loose to rend the white flesh of humanity, every country in the world hails France, and admires and loves her for her chivalry, her heroism, her fortitude and her faith.

The Next Step

In this critical hour national unity is become an imperative necessity. Men who have travelled up and down the country realize the intense patriotism of one city and section, and the apathy of another section. Always the explanation is to be found in the fact that some outstanding newspaper or public man has become the center of enlightenment and patriotism or the reverse.

As for the papers, the cost of the cablegrams, the expense of telegraphing news across the country into the South, the West, or the Pacific Coast cities, the high price of print paper, has all but destroyed the financial resources of many papers, in towns west of the Alleghanies. But the flame of enthusiasm is fed by the fuel of ideas. The men who sacrifice are the men who know. The time, therefore, would seem to have come for the government, during the period of the war, to see to it that the people in the villages, rural districts, and remote towns, should receive the full facts, every morning, so that daily one hundred millions of people should be assembled in one vast speaking gallery, and rise to the news of the same victory, and resolve with one mind and one heart to defend humanity. All the millions must think as one, and feel as one, and save and serve and sacrifice, and have one resolve to back up our President in the pledge to make democracy safe for our earth.

The Mobilizing of the Women

To win this war our girls and women must join the world movement. The outstanding lesson of the first two years of the war for Great Britain and France is that the beginning of their victories came with the entrance of women into the war. The steel wedge splits the log, not alone by the sharp edge, but the thick head that crowds forward the cutting edge. The American army is the cutting edge, but the one hundred millions of people behind lend driving power to our regiments. There are three million women in Great Britain either in the munition factories or industries allied thereto. Every twenty-four hours they produce more small cartridges than all England did the first year of the war. Every two days they turn out more large cartridges than all England did the first year of this war. Every six days, with the help of expert men, they produce more heavy ordnance and cannon than all England did the first year of this war. These English women pour the molten steel, tool the shells, run the lathes, make the aeroplanes, mix the explosives, and they literally hand the shells to the British soldiers to aim the cannon. They are driving the munition trucks upon the streets of England and the road to France, they are sowing the fields, reaping the wheat, threshing the grain, and performing ten thousand tasks once given over to men. The daughters of professional men, bankers, manufacturers, as well as of the business classes, are helping to equip the soldiers at the front. If our government should to-morrow commandeer ten thousand luxury-making plants for munition factories, throw them open to millions of women, by next autumn we should be doing our part to help win this war.