World War, 1914-1918 -- Personal narratives, American
"Well, I don't know about that," I said, "but whatever you may say, I do
know this: I know that those poor fellows out there in the mud have
given all they've got to make the world safe from Germany, and we ought
to do the same. The one who is a pacifist now, is a slacker, a traitor,
and in reality, a murderer. He is prolonging the war and thus
sacrificing additional lives. I know that the Man who gave His life on
the cruel cross, two thousand years ago, gave it for liberty, the same
as these soldiers are doing today, and when I read in the American
papers now and then of some of the obstructionists in our own country,
who are railing at the President and scoffing at what is being done to
prepare our army, I can't express myself."
"You must be patient though," she said, "for such men will come to their
deserts, and I am so glad that I have had the pleasure of knowing you,
and as you take your departure, I want you to know that I shall always
remember you in the first capacity in which I knew you, as an ambulance
worker, and because of your activity in saving lives--for that above all
is the one thing I am interested in."
CHAPTER XLII
THE HERITAGE OF HATE
The blackest aspect of the sin which Germany has committed in this war
is not to be found in the ruined churches and the devastated homes. The
vandalistic crime which asserted itself in destroying school-houses and
libraries and works of art, in desolating the fields and laying low the
country, sinks into the background when compared with the wickedness of
sowing that heritage of hate in untold millions of hearts--a hate which
will endure and bear fruit against her long after the present conflict
has passed into history.
Ernest Lissauer, in his well-known "hymn" expressed the venom and hatred
of Germany for those of other nations who do not concede her the right
of world conquest, and was decorated for it by the Emperor. And although
an attempt was made to suppress the hymn after the Germans realized its
detriment to themselves the seed had been sown far and wide and could
not be recalled. Germany had spread race hatred in the world, and that
is the greatest barrier there is to human progress.
[Illustration: _Copyright, Underwood & Underwood, N. Y._
DESTRUCTION OF A FRENCH HOSPITAL BY A GERMAN BOMB.
Utter disregard of humanity's laws is the German way of fighting. The
photograph shows the basement of a hospital after it had been
deliberately bombed by the Germans. To the left can be seen a mass of
iron beds and human bodies intermingled. Such is German "Kultur."]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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