The Plague 
 
 of 
 
 Kaiserdom 
 
 o 
 
 By WILLIAM V. COWAN 
 
 State Chairman, "Four -Minute Me 
 
 2 
 
 Issued Under the Auspices of 
 
 THE STATE COUNCIL OF DEFENSE 
 
 Sacramento, California 
 
 February 15, 1918 
 
 California State Printing Office 
 
 Sacramento 
 
 1918
 
 THE PLAGUE OF KAISERDOM. 
 
 Not many years ago the world was congratu- 
 lating itself on having emerged from the Dark 
 Ages; much was said about the abolition of war; 
 peace palaces were built, and every crowd gave 
 its applause at the mention of a world-wide 
 brotherhood. 
 
 The Story of the Past had been written in the 
 terms of human misery and, as it had been told 
 and retold, we turned the pages indifferently. 
 Hungry lions devouring men and women in the 
 arena; Nero playing his harp happily while 
 Rome burned; the human sacrifices to Baal; 
 the rack, the ordeals, witchcraft, the savagery 
 of redskins ; all these were taught in school only 
 as mere matters of history. 
 
 There were also tales of the ancient ferocity 
 of the Germans. How they had drunk human 
 blood from human skulls and how they had car- 
 ried oft captive women into the Black Forests. 
 
 But that, too, was mere history. It did not 
 concern us much. We boasted of our wondrous 
 civilization; how human nature had improved,
 
 and we said that if in the remote possibility of 
 things there should be a war, it would be a 
 humane war. 
 
 Had not all nations signed a contract to this 
 effect? 1 Was there not honor among nations 
 particularly great civilized nations? 
 
 And so we built our Peace Palaces, basked in 
 the sun most of us and smoked our pipes of 
 contentment. 
 
 Particularly did we so in America. Yet, not- 
 withstanding our own good feeling toward man- 
 kind, the thunder cloud rolled across Belgium 
 and into France, across Poland and into Russia, 
 across Serbia and into Asia. But we heeded it 
 not. We looked on in bewildered apathy as if 
 ira/ing at an intense panorama in a moving pic- 
 ture house. And so some of us continued to 
 count our shekels and reach out for more ; others 
 looked on indifferently and said: It is not our 
 affair. 
 
 And^then there came a day when the Lusitania 
 and those other ships were sent deep into the 
 sea. We looked up from our pipes for a moment, 
 said a few naughty words, listened to weak apol- 
 ogies, and then returned again to our pipes. 
 
 The tinkle of coins, the ease of luxury, the 
 complacent knowledge of latent power, the 
 worryless contentment of peace at any price, 
 lulled us into drowsy indifference. 
 
 'Regulations of The Hague. 
 ( 4 )
 
 Now and then, for a short afternoon, we 
 would strut about with our swagger-stick, and 
 believe that we had frightened the lawless ones. 
 
 Hut a plague is a plague. A malignant dis- 
 ease can not be driven away by rhetoric or 
 Fourth of July speeches. 
 
 For a decade and more Prussian writers and 
 army men wrote of the unkind things that 
 they would some day do to the rest of the world. 
 With cynical frankness Bernhardi proclaimed 
 the ultimate crushing of the British and the 
 French ; proclaimed that might is right ; that war 
 is justifiable and is smiled upon by Providence. 2 
 Others brazenly spoke of the time when Germany 
 would subdue and plunder America. But in the 
 main such preachments fell on deaf ears. 
 
 ' ' The desire for peace has rendered most civ- 
 ilized nations anemic, and marks a decay of 
 spirit and political courage," said Bernhardi. 3 
 
 ."Woe and death unto those who oppose my 
 will. Death to the infidel who denies my mis- 
 sion. Let ;ill the enemies of the German nation 
 perish. God demands their destruction," 
 said Kaiser AVilliam II. 4 
 
 "Bismarck would have never made the mis- 
 take of asking for his country ;i military equip- 
 ment sufficiently powerful to (i^lil England, 
 
 "Germany and the Next War," by F. von Bernhardi, 
 912 
 
 '"Germany and the Next War," page 17. 
 4 "Out of Their Own Mouths, page 4. 
 
 1912 
 
 ( 5 )
 
 Prance and the Slav masses, only to keep it 
 unemployed during long years of peace," said 
 Maximilian Harden in 1913. 
 
 "Of late years we (tcrmans have had cause 
 for political irritation with the United States, 
 due largely to commercial reasons" . . . 
 
 "The question for us to consider is what 
 plans must eventually be developed to put a 
 stop to the overreachings by the United States 
 which are detrimental to our interests. It is 
 by armed action that we must ultimately en- 
 force our will upon that country," wrote Baron 
 von Edelsheim in 1901. 5 
 
 And then the Baron went on to tell how it 
 should be accomplished. Among other things he 
 would seize Atlantic seaports and levy upon 
 them heavy war contributions. 
 
 In fact, German military and naval men fre- 
 quently and frankly boasted of plans to subdue 
 England, France and America. "In our next 
 war, 'World power or downfall!' will be our 
 rallying cry," said Bernhardi. 6 
 
 At all this France looked on unbelievingly; 
 England turned up her nose in contempt; Amer- 
 i ,-i LTJIVO an extra quarter to the fiddler, heaped 
 In ) banquet plates and danced merrily to the 
 ; 1 didn't raise inv bov to be a soldier." 
 
 ""Out of Their Own Mouths," page 80. 
 See, also, "Gems (?) of German Thought," by William 
 Archer. 
 
 (6)
 
 But it happened. It happened. 
 
 It was a sunny day in a sunny month. 
 
 The French were busy with their fashions. 
 In Paris there was revelry and song. 
 
 The Belgians toiled in their fields in innocent 
 happiness and content. In Brussels they made 
 their lace. 
 
 The English fox-hunted in sportive chase. 
 From Liverpool ships pursued the commerce of 
 peace. From Manchester there was a ceaseless 
 Ho\v of the implements of peace. 
 
 *But it happened. 
 
 Like a thief in the night, when his powder- 
 house was filled, the Kaiser touched the match. 
 
 In a Serbian village, a degenerate son of Haps- 
 burg was assassinated. There is strong belief it 
 was by German intrigue. 
 
 But any excuse will do when an excuse is 
 needed. 
 
 Then came the interminable tramp of Prussian 
 troops. 
 
 All day long and all night long. 
 Tramp, tramp, a ceaseless tramp. 
 
 (7 )
 
 And then, out of the tumult and noise of 
 battle, beyond the dugout and the screech of 
 shell, came the agonizing cry of noncombatants. 
 
 There were stories of debauchery, of rape and 
 of murder stories of cities and towns being 
 wiped from the earth hellish stories of hellish 
 scenes. 
 
 France doubtfully investigated. 
 
 England disbelieved. 
 
 America laughed at the very idea. 
 
 But the proofs came thick and fast. Affidavit 
 upcn affidavit were filed in government archives. 
 Judicial testimony was taken. Voluminous 
 diaries of German soldiers were collected. 
 Bryrr and men of like character were selected 
 to make investigations. Neutral visitors wrote 
 and talked. 7 
 
 And too, there were those that escaped across 
 the fields of liquid-fire wounded men and 
 maimed women, prisoners and priests, nurses 
 and nuns and children. 
 
 And the stories were the same. 
 
 "In Christian countries murder is a gravi- 
 crime; amongst a people where blood-ven- 
 ircanci- is a sa<-n-<l duty it c;m be regarded as a 
 moral act. and its nculiM-t as a crime," Avrote 
 Bernlianli in 1912. 8 
 
 'See "The Deportation of Women and Girls from Lille," 
 by the French Government. 
 
 "Germany and the Next War," page 3. 
 
 (8)
 
 ' ' The German people is always right, because 
 it is the German people. Our fathers have left 
 us much to do," wrote Von Tannenberg in 
 1911. 9 
 
 "Be as terrible as the Huns under Attila," 
 said the Kaiser to his soldiers a few years be- 
 fore the war. 10 
 
 And so churches were profaned, priests mur- 
 dered, boys driven into exile, women-folk handed 
 over to the lust of licentious soldiery, homes 
 burned and destroyed, towns and cities oblit- 
 erated. 
 
 History reveals no greater savagery. Not in 
 darkest Africa or the pioneer forests of 
 America. 
 
 "As the German troops passed through the 
 communes and towns of the arrondissements of 
 Ypres. ITaxebrouck, Bethune and Lille, they shot 
 indiscriminately at the innocent spectators of 
 their march; the peasant tilling his fields, the 
 refugee tramping the roads, and the workman 
 returning to his home. * * * Old men and boys, 
 and even women and young girls were shot like 
 rabbits." 11 
 
 '"Out of Their Own Mouths," page 79. 
 
 '/rf. Proclamation. 
 
 ""German Atrocities" by J H Morgan. See, also "The 
 Crimes of Germany," issued by the London Field ; also, 
 "Germany's Violations of the Laws of "War," issued by the 
 French Government. 
 
 ( 9 )
 
 People in hiding in the cellars of houses have 
 heard the voices of women in the hands of Ger- 
 man soldiers crying all night long until death 
 or stupor ended their agonies. 12 
 
 Living screens of priests, old men, and women 
 with babes at the breast were thrust between 
 German troops and the enemy. 13 
 
 "Soft-hearted men put the French wounded 
 out of their misery with bullets; the others hew 
 and stab whenever they can * * * but whether 
 they are slightly or mortally wounded, our brave 
 musketeers save the Fatherland the costly care 
 of numerous enemies." 1 * 
 
 A hairdresser was murdered in his kitchen 
 win-re he was sitting with a child on each knee. 15 
 
 Priests in particular were insulted by the sold- 
 iers who cried incessantly, "Down with Cathol- 
 icism ! Death to Priests ! All priests should be 
 shot!" 16 
 
 Twenty-five priests were held as prisoners in 
 one place and continually insulted by guards. 
 
 12 "German Atrocities," page 89. 
 
 ""German Atrocities," page 43. (Reported by France 
 and Britain.) 
 
 "German officer in newspaper article "Out of Their O\vn 
 .Mouths," page 191. 
 
 "Bryce Report, page 15. 
 
 ""The Germans In Belgium," by L. II. Grondys, page 24. 
 
 ( 10 )
 
 At another place two priests were made to pump 
 water tAvo hours for a company of soldiers; an- 
 other was hung three times and left for dead. 17 
 
 A young Jesuit prirst of Belgium \\Tote in his 
 note book: 
 
 "AVhen formerly I read that the Huns 
 under Attila had devastated towns, and that 
 the Arabs had burnt the Library of Alex- 
 andria. I smiled. Now that I have seen with 
 my own eyes the hordes of today, burning 
 cli arches and the celebrated Library of Lou- 
 vain, I smile no longer." 
 
 In punishment therefor lie was shot in the 
 presence of thirty priest prisoners Avho were 
 made to watch his death agony. 18 
 
 At Andenne, Belgium, after placing her hus- 
 band close to a machine gun and shooting 
 through him. soldiers ransacked the wife's home, 
 piled up all eatables in a heap on the floor and 
 relieved themselves upon it. 1 ' 1 
 
 At Malines one witness saw a German soldier 
 cut a woman's breasts after he had murdered her, 
 and saw many other dead bodies of women in the 
 streets. 20 
 
 17 "The Germans in Belgium," by L. H. Grondys, page 27. 
 1s "The Germans in Belgium," by L. H. Grondys, page 89. 
 "Bryce Report, page 15. 
 -"Bryce Report, page 25. 
 
 ( ID
 
 "I am sending: you a bracelet made out of a 
 piece of a shell," wrote a Bavarian soldier to his 
 betrothed. "This will be a fine souvenir of a 
 German warrior, who has gone through the whole 
 campaign and has killed heaps of Frenchmen. I 
 have also bayoneted a good number of women. 
 During the battle of Budonwiller, I did away 
 with four women and seven young girls in five 
 minutes. The captain had told me to shoot these 
 French sows, but I preferred to run my bayonet 
 through them." 21 
 
 At Boort Meerbeek, a German soldier was seen 
 to fire three times at a little girl of five years old. 
 Having failed to hit her. he subsequently bay- 
 oneted her, but was himself killed with the butt- 
 end of a rifle in the hands of a Belgian soldier 
 who from a distance had seen him commit the 
 deed. 22 
 
 At llaecht a child of two or three years old 
 was found nailed to the door of a farmhouse by 
 its hands and feet. 23 
 
 Near Malines a German soldier thrust his bay- 
 onet through a suckling child after having killed 
 its father and mother, then put his rifle on his 
 shoulder with the child on it. "Its little arms 
 stretched out once or twice," said a witness. 24 
 
 "Letter of Bavarian soldier to his betrothed, "Out of 
 Their Own Mouths," page 195. 
 -Bryce Report, page 27. 
 ^Bryce Report, page '28. 
 :4 Bryce Report, page 25. 
 
 ( 12 )
 
 The village of Lienden was fired because one of 
 the inhabitants killed a German soldier. The 
 latter, along with a companion, had violated a 
 young girl after tying her parents to chairs. The 
 father freed himself from his bonds, seized a gun, 
 and slew one of the aggressors. The German 
 officers ordered fire set to the house, and the par- 
 ents of the young girl, bound again to their 
 chairs, perished in the flames. 25 
 
 A Sister of Mercy, wearing the sign of the Red 
 Cross, was seized by the Germans and Austrians 
 on the Russian front, beaten with swords and 
 pricked with needles because she refused to give 
 information regarding the Russians, and was 
 later lodged with lustful German officers. 20 
 
 ' ' A private of my regiment and I in searching 
 for doors for a roof for our dugout in a shell- 
 ridden cottage in the vicinity of Ypres which was 
 recently vacated by German soldiers, on entering 
 the kitchen saw a woman dead in an upright posi- 
 tion, her two hands, one on top of the ether, 
 nailed to the wall. On a lamp hook hanging 
 from the ceiling was a boy about three or three 
 and a half years of age. The hook had been run 
 through the back of his neck. The body was 
 covered with blood which indicated he was 
 hanged there during life. No other wound was 
 
 ""The Germans in Belgium," by L. H. Grondys, page 24. 
 ^"German Atrocities," page 88. 
 
 (13)
 
 on the child or woman. Both had been dead 
 apparently sonic time. This occurred ;d>out 
 April 22,1915."" 
 
 "German military usage has methods also of 
 dealing with children. They have little hands 
 that are delightfully easy to cut off. Their feet 
 are barely attached to their legs at all. M. Le 
 Senateur Henry Lafontaine Nobel prizeman 
 and famed for moderation and pacifism has tes- 
 tified in public meeting that children's nostrils 
 and children's ears have been burnt with the 
 flaring stumps of lighted cigars." 28 
 
 "The scene is a country-house near Antwerp. 
 A merchant of the city has chosen to remain in 
 his home, with his two daughters, aged respec- 
 tively twenty and seventeen years. Both are 
 beautiful, with that placidly joyful beauty that 
 has distinguished Flemish women from the time 
 of Rubens onwards. After the fall of Antwerp, 
 the Germans spread about the neighborhood and 
 several officers quarter themselves on the mer- 
 chant, who has had the rash courage to stay on 
 in his country house. Being a man of means he 
 receives them with all the hospitality possible. 
 The most comfortable bedrooms are given up to 
 them; for the first evening an abundant dinner 
 is prepared. Five German officers sit down to 
 
 "Sergt. Albert Goads of British Army at San Francisco 
 in IKter to author. 
 
 *" Belgium's Agony," page 32. 
 
 ( 14 )
 
 i his nif.-il. ;it which there is every promise of 
 pli'iitit'ul wine as well as food, ("nfoi-lnnately, 
 however, drunkenness can not he pleaded in their 
 defense. llefore the feast begins at all, the Ger- 
 man captain, the oldest and senior officer of the 
 five, orders the owner of the house to be thrust 
 into his own cellar, and the door guarded by two 
 sentinels with loaded rifles and instructions to 
 shoot, if necessary. 
 
 This precaution having been taken, the two 
 girls are commanded by the revellers to undress. 
 They protest, resist, implore. All in vain. As 
 answer to their prayers the captain orders some 
 of his men to strip them naked and hold them 
 during the meal before the leering eyes of the 
 diners. At last, sated with eating and pleas- 
 ingly drunk, the savages, before the amused eyes 
 of the common soldiers, themselves reeling with 
 drink, take the two poor children for their 
 amusement. You will forgive me for not repro- 
 ducing here the further details quoted by the 
 [Minister of War. It is enough to say that when, 
 the following morning, the merchant was set free 
 from his prison, his daughters had been handed 
 over to the tender mercies of the common sold- 
 iery. One had gone raving mad; the other has 
 sine,- killed herself in shame and grief." 29 
 
 This last, s;iys Yerhaeren. is the German pro- 
 cedure for women who are not pledged to marry. 
 
 -""Bel si urn's AK<>".V," pages 30-31. 
 ( 15 )
 
 And so on in Belgium almost ad finitcm. 
 And so on in Belgium ad nauseam. 
 
 In that lovable land the Kaiser smeared the 
 pastoral scenes with red in late summer with 
 burnt-umber in early autumn. There are vol- 
 umes and volumes telling the horrid details. It 
 makes one's blood pressure go up. No wonder 
 the wounded boys in France fret to return to the 
 battle front. 
 
 And thereafter thereafter ! 
 
 After these scenes of butchery and pillage 
 and debauchery came 
 
 Starvation ! Deportation ! Slavery ! 
 
 Perhaps the little babe on the bayonet's end 
 was happier after all. 
 
 In June, the Belgian peasant smilingly began 
 to save his mite for the Christmas to come. 
 
 In December on a cattle car he was carried off 
 into Saxony. 
 
 Breathing the air of freedom in June a 
 slave in December. 
 
 But it is useless to try to describe it all. The 
 pen falls helplessly. Vocabularies are inade- 
 quate. History records nothing like this; hence 
 there are no words to fit, no phrases that fully 
 apply. 
 
 (16)
 
 But this is only Belgium. 
 
 And still there is Northern France ! 
 
 And Poland and West Russia! 
 
 And Serbia ! 
 
 And Armenia! 
 
 In Poland there was systematic starvation of 
 a mighty people ; also, a coal famine scientifically 
 produced with German precision. 
 
 Coal famines make cold homes. Cold homes 
 breed tuberculosis. 
 
 And Prussia has found tuberculosis a useful 
 implement with which to eliminate undesired in- 
 habitants of conquered provinces. It saves 
 powder, does not dull bayonets, and is more 
 scientific. 
 
 And so, it is said that in Poland there are no 
 children under seven years. 
 
 And then there are other stories many 
 many ! 
 
 Horrid, horrid tales of Pan-Germanism. 
 
 Tn West Russia the peasants and all fled 
 before the German advance. 
 
 All day long; all night long; wearily, wearily 
 they traveled eastward. 
 
 On foot, by wagon, or horse. 
 
 The procession moving no one knew whither. 
 
 (17)
 
 "Info llic unknown,*' says Doroshevitch, 
 
 "Silently, al)ovc ;ill. 
 
 The over-wearied horses do not shy when 
 motor cars pass them. They do not even pi-iek 
 up their ears. 
 
 And the dogs don't bark. 
 
 The people in the carts do not talk. 
 They have said all they've got to say. 
 
 They move like gray shadows, like the dead. 
 
 The peasant women are silent. 
 
 Even the children do not cry. 
 
 At the relief points, where thousands of 
 people are gathered together, you are im- 
 pressed by the silence. 
 
 What a silent country it is! 
 
 You can go for tens and for hundreds of 
 versts and still meet an almost uninterrupted 
 stream of grey carts. 
 
 Like a series of spectres. 
 
 And silent, silent, silent. 
 
 Nothing but hopeless boredom and grief in 
 their eyes. 
 
 Weary and indifferent faces, as of convicts 
 being marched along the road. 
 
 And only by the new white wooden crosses 
 along the side of the road can you see how 
 much suffering has silently passed there. * * * 
 
 Along this 'Way of the Cross' takes place 
 A selection. 
 
 A terrible 'natural' selection. 
 
 All the weak ones perish. 
 
 Both of people and cattle. 
 
 They are tried by sickness, hunger and cold. 
 
 From Baranovitch to Bobruisk, from Bob- 
 ruisk by way of Dovsk to Koslavl. and in 
 Uoslavl, all the weak ones remain behind." 1 " 
 ""The Way of th.- Cross," 1>> V. I >..r,.sli.--vit<-h.
 
 Hut what; is tin: use ol' multiplying tales of 
 horror.' Why a<j,urava1e Hie bitterness of feel- 
 in. ir/ Why rake over (he oft'al and liuinaii debris 
 in the Prussian path? 
 
 There is a reason. 
 
 In America there is a special reason. 
 
 Here we have hardly begun to realize it all. 
 The horse-laugh of unbelief has barely died from 
 our lips. 
 
 For a time, when we were watchfully waiting, 
 insidious propaganda raised a doubt. 
 
 It is reason enough. 
 
 But there is another why and wherefore. 
 
 Public opinion ! AVorld-wide public opinion ! 
 
 "We should be informed. Speakers, public 
 servants men, women and children should 
 know. 
 
 For the sake of Posterity, we should know. 
 
 "It is a safeguard against a relapse to 
 barbarism," says Mr. Bryce. "Spread the 
 knowledge so that war will become even a 
 greater curse in the minds of men." 
 
 Our children and their children should know. 
 Should be taught to shrink from the plague. 
 And thus, perhaps, prevent a recurrence. 
 And too, they who stay at home should know 
 what manner of foe our boys go forth to fight. 
 
 Hut mainly, if these stories do not move you 
 you and each of you to a resolute purpose to 
 
 ( 19 )
 
 bend every thought and every act toward blot- 
 ting the origin of this plague from the face of 
 the earth, then the telling perhaps has been 
 
 useless. 
 
 But the deed can not be done by words or by 
 noise, or by a false sense of security, or by an 
 exaggerated idea of American valor, or by list- 
 lessly leaving the matter to Fate, or by boasting 
 of what we have already done in this war, or by 
 singing "Over There," or by serving on com- 
 mittees at noon and attending Hooverized ban- 
 quets at night, or by reading about Molly Stark 
 and Barbara Frietchie, or alone by buying Lib- 
 erty Bonds, or by marching in parades, or by 
 having war bread and a meatless meal only when 
 we invite our friends in, or by saluting the flag 
 or standing when the band plays "The Star 
 Spangled Banner," or by following numerous 
 fads and fancies, or by shutting our eyes to the 
 truth, or by believing every report of a riot or 
 revolution in the enemy's country. 
 
 For remember, the enemy hears like tales of 
 riot and revolution in your country. 
 
 And remember, too, thus far Germany is the 
 victor in this war. 
 
 For two years and more she has had forty 
 millions of people working for her as slaves. 31 
 
 Peace today means a Prussian victory. Peace 
 today will endanger American freedom of to- 
 morrow. 
 
 31 Major G. M. P. Murphy, formerly In charge of Amer- 
 ican Red Cross inTSurope, on his return in January, 1918. 
 
 ( 20 )
 
 True it is that German manpower is dimin- 
 ished, that she has thrown millions into the fiery 
 furnace. So have England and France. 
 
 Regretfully, I fear, so must we. 
 
 How many must we sacrifice? 
 
 That depends upon how earnestly we enter 
 into the fight. That depends upon what sacri- 
 fice you have made you you in your cozy chair 
 at home near the fireside. 
 
 Have you begun to sacrifice? If not, perhaps 
 it is not yet too late. Soon it will be. 
 
 And if it be too late, do you know what may 
 happen? Can you realize ? Do you understand? 
 Have you thought of it seriously? 
 
 May God preserve the British Navy. 
 
 May He sustain the thin line at the Front 
 French and English and Italian and the rest. 
 
 All Heaven knows we need them. They are 
 protecting America! 
 
 They can not defeat the Hun's forty years of 
 preparation but God grant that they can hold 
 the line hold it until we in America are ready 
 to drive the hordes back. 
 
 But if this thin line should fail ! 
 
 If Britain be starved! If her Navy be 
 scattered ! 
 
 Then, added to the fifty millions in Europe, 
 there may be the wail of a hundred million in 
 America. 
 
 (21)
 
 Impossible, you say ? Stop ! You do not 
 know the truth. You do not understand. You 
 still hear those flamboyant July orations. 
 
 Then, it may be but God forbid all day long 
 and all night long; wearily, wearily Eastern 
 Americans will travel westward. 
 
 - And then our churches too will pray: "0 
 Lord, remember those who wake this morning 
 under the open sky." 
 
 And like in Belgium, women and children A\ ill 
 .become the playthings of German lust! :!2 
 
 And like in Poland, there will be orgaui/ed 
 I'M mi ne and scientific starvation especially in 
 populous centers. 
 
 And like in Belgium and Poland millions will 
 become beggars. 
 
 And like in France, the only social function 
 will be the meeting to hear the list of wounded 
 and dead, where the women folk will crowd for- 
 ward to listen and then some will drop a tear, 
 some will smile hopefully, but many will sob 
 with a breaking heart. 
 
 There will be insolence that knows no pity and 
 feels no love. 
 
 For the ruthlessness, the contempt for human 
 life, the somber fatalism, the indifference to 
 personal liberty, the chicanery, the love of es- 
 pionage, the brutal bestiality of Prussia will be 
 \vreMked on Anieriea. 
 
 " 2 Seo "Dor Tag for Us," by Samuel Blythc in Saturday 
 cniny Post, Dec. 22, 1017. 
 
 ( 22 )
 
 Can we hope otherwise? 
 
 Germany says she bore no hatred toward 
 Belgium 
 But look at the ruins! 
 
 "When the Lnsitania wont down, and the 
 mothers and little ones on it, Germany declared 
 a holiday and her children marched joyously in 
 parade. 
 
 O the Plague of Kaiserdom ! The Plague of 
 Kaiserdom ! 
 
 For a quarter of a century this pestilential 
 knltur germ has thrived in the Prussian Hot- 
 house until Germany has gone mad until she 
 has run amuck. 
 
 Her whole people seem afflicted with the ac- 
 < -ur:sod maladv. 
 
 Hear the poet Vierordt. 
 
 "0 my Germany, into thy soul thou must etch 
 a deep and terrible hate. . . . Retribution, 
 vengeance, fury are demanded; stifle in thy 
 heart all human feeling and hasten to the fight. 
 
 "O Germany, hate! Slaughter thy foes by 
 the millions and of their reeking corpses build 
 a monument that shall reach the clouds. 
 
 (23 )
 
 "0 Germany, hate now! Arm thyself in 
 steel and pierce with thy bayonet the heart 
 of every foe ; no prisoners ! Lock all their life 
 in silence; turn our neighbors' lands into 
 deserts . . . Beat in their skulls with rifle butts 
 and with axes." 
 
 Hymns of Hate ! All Germany sings the 
 chorus 
 
 Even the children, while old folk approve. 
 
 Even the clergy who pronounce a benedic- 
 tion on blood-dripping hands. 
 
 Do you understand what this means ? 
 
 You you farmers who dream of bigger crops ; 
 
 You miners ; you workers in shop and factory ; 
 
 You laborers, you greatest in numbers, who 
 toil and sweat and strive and toil, 
 
 but return at night to a snug nest and re- 
 freshing sleep ; 
 
 You commuters who rush to your daily grind : 
 
 You women smothered in feathers and furs, 
 and in lace and linen; 
 
 You men who follow your bent; 
 
 You dreamers of luxurious homes in days to 
 come; 
 
 You other men who make your business or pro- 
 fession your religion and your god ; 
 
 (24)
 
 You housewives whose daily moil is never at 
 an end; 
 
 You giddy gigglers who skim the surface and 
 seldom scratch into depths below ; 
 
 You, all of you Americans all 
 
 Is it possible you can not or will not compre- 
 hend? 
 
 Is it possible that you do not realize that the 
 boys in the shell-shocked trenches are fighting for 
 YOU for YOUR freedom, for YOUR protection? 
 
 For your right to work for a living wage 
 instead of working as a Prussian slave? 
 
 For your right to have your home, to read 
 your paper, to express your every thought? 
 
 For your right even to enjoy your family 
 and to keep your little ones playing unharmed 
 about your feet? 
 
 Where the Prussian blot has fallen, where the 
 ITohen/ollern has touched his reeking finger, all 
 these little simple things of life have been denied 
 the laboring folk, the farmer folk, and all. 
 
 Therefore awake! Awake you farmers and 
 laboring men, you housewives and all Awake! 
 
 TlIIS IS YOUR FIGHT ! 
 
 (25)
 
 Awake now ! Must you wait until the front 
 page of the press be covered with red lists of 
 dead and dying before you see the peril ? 
 
 Before you discard the useless things ? 
 
 Before you strain every arm in the fight? 
 
 Will you listen to words, or must you first see 
 blood? 
 
 Will you heed the indisputable pictures drawn, 
 or must you first look on the stark, stiff corpses 
 of women and children, of innocent men run 
 through, of soldier-prisoners crucified on dugout 
 doors? 
 
 Must it first be proved to you logically, sta- 
 tistically and in cold judicial reasoning? 
 
 Where is the Red Blood of your ancestry? 
 Has it stagnated in your scramble for greater 
 ease and comfort? 
 
 Until this danger, this red risk be passed 
 let us forget profit, ambition, partisanship 
 every little thing that does not help to win. 
 
 The boys in the trenches endure the ceaseless 
 swarms of lice and the sleek, hairless, vile- 
 smelling rats ; they dig in the mud through long 
 winter months of homesickness and discomfort 
 and still they smile as they go. Surely you and 
 I you and I in our cushioned chairs and soft 
 beds can deny ourselves a few pleasures in order 
 that those boys shall not have died in vain. 
 
 (26)
 
 For if we remain indifferent, if we hesitate 
 to sacrifice if we fail to rush into the fray, it 
 may be too late. 
 
 And then the millions of French and Belgians 
 and the others, will have died in vain. The world 
 will go back to the Dark Ages and human 
 freedom will be lost. 
 
 The Plague of Kaiserdom! 
 
 On the Ganges there have been times when 
 folk died by the hundreds of thousands from the 
 pestilence. 
 
 But the Plague of Kaiserdom ! 
 
 It is festering and festering in Europe. 
 
 Calculating, precise and cold-blooded; 
 
 Subtle, stealthy, insidious and uncanny ; 
 
 Its cankered poison crept into the flesh of 
 Italy ; and into the vitals of Russia. 
 
 And America has not escaped. 
 
 Insidious propaganda, spurious tales, sly 
 phrases, cunning remarks, rumors, malicious and 
 mendacious, whisperings secret and subtle, creep, 
 knowingly and unknowingly, into the press and 
 the pulpit, into the club, the lodge, and the 
 home. If a public servant be zealous in his 
 patriotic work, if a public or private institution 
 does noble service in the fight, then soon there 
 are whispers about 
 
 (27)
 
 Rumors, whispers and rumors: 
 
 The man is not what he should be, or 
 
 The institution is useless, or 
 
 What's the use, there will soon be peace. 
 
 And so forth. 
 
 The base chord of prejudice and the high 
 chord of passion are played upon in every varia- 
 tion. There are lies that spring from nowhere. 
 There are stories that can not be traced. 
 
 So do not be deceived, you mothers, every pro- 
 German statement is a direct shot at the life of 
 your boy in France. 
 
 Wilhelm has a great Secret Army in America. 
 It digs in among the ultra bigots, the govern- 
 ment-destroyer, the greedy, the pacifist, the over- 
 ambitious, the thoughtless everywhere. 
 
 As villainous as the sleek rats that dig into 
 shell-craters and fatten on the dead, these secret 
 soldiers of his not always his countrymen 
 fatten on the putrescence of dead patriotism. 
 
 Therefore beware, America! Beware the plague 
 of Kaiserdom ! 
 
 There is grim business ahead. 
 
 (28)
 
 It is well that all America be aroused to anger 
 
 Not to sing bitter hymns of hate and rejoiee 
 in butchery 
 
 But with anger enough to go at this grim 
 job with relentless determination. 
 
 It is regrettable, but there is no other way. 
 
 For we can not toy with leprosy, nor can we 
 compromise with murder. 
 
 t 29)
 
 000 011 551 
 
 Date Due
 
 
 IN regard to these essential rectifications of wrong 
 and assertions of right we feel ourselves to be 
 intimate partners of all the governments and 
 peoples associated together against the imperialists. 
 We can not be separated in interest or divided in 
 purpose. We stand together until the end. 
 
 For such arrangements and covenants we are 
 willing to fight, and to continue to fight, until they 
 are achieved. * * * 
 
 The moral climax of this culminating and final 
 war for human liberty has come, and they (our 
 United States) are ready to put their own strength, 
 their own highest purpose, their own integrity and 
 devotion to the test. 
 
 WOODROW WILSON, 
 Message to Congress, January 8, 1918. 
 
 ****** 
 
 "I made the mistake of my career, when I had the 
 opportunity, that I did not remove the Hohenzol- 
 lerns from the throne of Prussia. As long as this 
 house reigns and until the red cap of liberty is 
 erected in Germany, there will be no peace in 
 Europe." 
 
 Napoleon at St. Helena.