According to a great mass of official records, all of those barbarous, cruel, inhumane and wild-animal acts have been done by Germany, on well-nigh countless occasions. The evidence is thoroughly conclusive. The German soldiers and sailors, both officers and men, are the most cruel and brutal criminals of all the world. In Servia the Austrian record is almost as rotten.
In 1898, Count Goetzen said, regarding the treacherous designs of Germany on France, England and America: "If you do speak of this, no one will believe you, and everyone will laugh at you!"
To-day, the American people as a mass do not know more than one one-hundredth part of the crimes of Germany during the past three years. The reason is that it is impossible to place before them the great mass of publications and documents, such as that which now lies before me, that is necessary to convey full knowledge of this ghastly subject. Without this evidence, or at least a lengthy digest of it, the utter depravity of the German Germans is, to a clean and humane American, absolutely incomprehensible. It takes strong nerves to go through these thousands of pages of printed documents, and scores of ghastly pictures, without becoming thoroughly shaken.
It is not a pleasing task to set forth the details of revolting crimes, but it now has become very necessary that all Americans, of South America as well as North, should be shown the true character of the soldiers and civilians of Germany, and the men in high places who have ordered and fostered the high crimes of the past three years. This is no time to side-step the truth regarding the deadliest foes of human liberty and the rights of man.
By way of illustration. Consider the character of the German crown prince,—the hero(?) of Verdun. When in Zabern the highborn German Captain Forstner beat a lame Alsatian shoemaker with his sword, for being "short" in love for his German masters. When a great outcry was raised outside of Germany, the precious crown-princeling telegraphed the brave and gallant Forstner, "Fester d'rauf!" which means "Hit him again!" Forstner was promoted, for gallantry on the field, of course. (New York Times, July 15.)
In making up this all too brief exposition, I shall set down neither facts nor conclusions save those that are supported by an abundance of evidence such as might well be offered in any court of law. The most damaging evidences of German crimes and atrocities are those that have been collected from German sources!
The "peace resolutions" introduced in the German Reichstag say:
"Germany took up arms in defense of its liberty and independence, and for the integrity of its territories."
All the world now knows that both those statements are brazen lies, and that the people of Germany started the war as a war of conquest, and nothing else. But the lying leaders of Germany, including the 70 men of science who signed and sent out their now famous manifesto late in 1914, have for three long years been injecting that falsehood into the ignorant masses of Germany, to make them feel like fighting and going hungry.