“ Our laboring class has endured everything with the utmost calm and the most impressive dignity, repressing its sufferings, its complaints and heavy trials, sacrificing everything to its ideal of liberty and independence. But the measures which have been announced will make the population drain the dregs [of the cup] of human sorrow; the proletariat, the poor upon whom unemployment has been forced, citizens of a modern state, are to be condemned to forced labor without having disobeyed any regulation or order. ”

“ To-day it is no longer war, it is cold calculation, intentional destruction, the victory of force over right, the debasement of human personality, a cry of defiance to humanity.
"It depends upon you, Excellency, to silence these cries of a revolted conscience; may the good God, whom we call upon with all the ardor of our soul for our oppressed people, inspire you with the pity of the good Samaritan! ”

“ No other act of the German Government has aroused such horror and detestation throughout the civilized world. Thousands of helpless men and women, boys and girls, have been enslaved. Families have been broken up. Girls have been carried off to work—or worse—in a strange land, and their relatives have not known where they have been taken, or what their fate has been.
This system of forced labor and deportation embraced the whole of Belgium, Poland, and the occupied lands of France. ”

“ True, it has been asserted that the work which is offered to them will be nonmilitary in character; but voices have replied on every side: 'in taking the place of a German workman, the Belgian workman permits Germany to increase the numerical forces of its armies.' The most odious work is that whose results are used against the fatherland. To serve Germany is to fight against their own country. ”

“ In the name of the families of workmen among which the most painful anxiety reigns at present, whose mothers, whose fiancées, and whose little children are destined to shed so many more tears, we beg Your Excellency to prevent the accomplishment of this painful act, contrary to international law, contrary to the dignity of the working classes, contrary to everything which makes for worth and greatness in human nature. ”

“ The sight of the destroyed homes and cities, the widowed and fatherless, the destitute, the physical misery of a people but partially nourished at best, the deportation of men by tens of thousands to slavery in German mines and factories, the execution of men and women for paltry effusions of their loyalty to their country, the sacking of every resource through financial robbery, the battening of armies on the slender produce of the country, the denudation of the country of cattle, horses and textiles ”

“ Hence, ardently as I hope that all war may cease, I hope that this war may not cease until Germany realizes that the civilized world simply will not allow such horrors as those for which Germany is responsible in Belgium and France to be any longer possible. ”

“ Candidly, they preferred not quite so much starvation; it might get on the nerves of the German soldiers. But, starvation being present, it must work for German purpose. Taking advantage of this wretchedness, the working men of Poland were to be removed; the country was to be restocked with Germans. It was country Germany needed—rich alluvial soil—better suited to German expansion than distant possessions. If the POLAND that was had to perish, so much the better for Germany.
Remove the men, let the young and weak die, graft German stock on the women. ”

“ Since the beginning of this atrocious war we have looked on impotently and with our hearts torn with every sorrow at terrible events which put our civilization back into the ages of the barbarian hordes. ”

“ Do not permit our past of liberty and independence to be ruined. Do not permit human rights to be violated in its holy of holies. Do not permit the dignity of our working classes, which has been acquired after so many centuries of effort, to be trodden under foot. ”

“ The Government of the United States has learned with the greatest concern and regret of the policy of the German Government to deport from Belgium a portion of the civilian population with the result of forcing them to labor in Germany, and is constrained to protest in a friendly spirit but most solemnly against this action which is in contravention of all precedent and those humane principles of international practice which have long been accepted and followed by civilized nations in their treatment of noncombatants in conquered territory. ”

“ The possibility of national labor being thus suppressed, there remained one alternative to the workman: to work for the German Empire, either here or in Germany; or to remain idle. Some thousands of workmen, under the pressure of fright or of hunger, accepted, with regret for the most part, work for the enemy; but four hundred thousand workmen and workwomen preferred to resign themselves to unemployment, with its privations, rather than injure the interests of the fatherland ”

“ You fear that continued unemployment may depreciate the physical and moral status of the workmen. We, who know them, have more confidence in them. We have seen them suffer with a stoicism which exists only in proud and high souls. Did not the splendid idea come from them, of organizing throughout the entire country a vast chain of educational work for the unemployed in order to develop their technical knowledge and to increase their professional value? The Comité National was not, alas, authorized to undertake this magnificent enterprise. ”

“ By steeping himself in military history an officer will be able to guard himself against excessive humanitarian notions; it will teach him that certain severities are indispensable to war, nay more, that the only true humanity very often lies in a ruthless application of them. ”

“ The Secretaries and representatives of the socialistic and independent labor Unions of Belgium have, with a painful disappointment, taken cognizance of the answer which you were good enough to make to their petition of October 30th, concerning the deportation of laborers to Germany, and it is in the name of the working classes as a united whole that we are making a final effort to prevent the consummation of an act, without precedent, directed against its liberty, its sentiments, and its dignity. ”

“ We wish to show ourselves humane and friendly towards those whom the fortune of war has played into our hands as prisoners. But we wish also to be humane towards our foes on the field. We must fight them. ”

“ Frightfulness advocated by German generals.
"The enemy State must not be spared the want and wretchedness of war; these are particularly useful in shattering its energy and subduing its will." "Individual persons may be harshly dealt with when an example is made of them, intended to serve as a warning. * * * Whenever a national war breaks out, terrorism becomes a necessary military principle." "It is a gratuitous illusion to suppose that modern war does not demand far more brutality, far more violence, and an action far more general than was formerly the case." ”

“ In addressing ourselves to you, we denounce to your Government, as well as to our sisters, the women of the nation which you represent in our midst, the criminal abuse of force of which our unhappy and defenseless people is a victim. ”

“ Permit us, Excellency, to remind you that the allied powers manifested very clearly their intention to permit the importation into Belgium of raw materials required by our industries, provided, with a very natural provision, that no requisitions should be made, except those mentioned in Article 52 of the Hague Convention, that is to say those necessary to the 'occupying army,' and that an international commission, the Commission for Relief in Belgium, should have the right to supervise the destination of the manufactured products. ”

“ Public sentiment has not been deceived and in reply to the grievous complaints of the victims, there echo the indignant protests of the entire population, as expressed by its representatives, its communal magistrates, and those persons who constitute the highest incarnation of law in our country.
"Furthermore, the arbitrary and brutal manner employed in the execution of these sad measures has raised all kinds of doubts regarding the object in view: the need, above all, is to obtain workmen in Germany, for Germany's profit, and for the success of its arms. ”

“ It is to law and humanity that we appeal, solemnly and with the hope of being heard, for we have the profound conviction that by our voice, at this tragic hour, the great voice of the working class of the entire civilized world expresses its sorrow and its protest. ”

“ Speaking on August 29, 1914, at Münster, of the extreme measures which the Germans had felt obliged to take against the civil population of Belgium, Gen. von Bissing said:
Statement by von Bissing.
"The innocent must suffer with the guilty. * * * In the repression of infamy, human lives cannot be spared, and if isolated houses, flourishing villages, and even entire towns are annihilated, that is assuredly regrettable, but it must not excite ill-timed sentimentality. ”

“ A new application of 'hostage right' was practiced by the German Staff in the war of 1870, when it compelled leading citizens from French towns and villages to accompany trains and locomotives in order to protect the railway communications which were threatened by the people. Since the lives of peaceable inhabitants were, without any fault on their part, thereby exposed to grave danger, every writer outside Germany has stigmatised this measure as contrary to the law of nations and as unjustified towards the inhabitants of the country. ”

“ The requisitioning of everything from food to furniture, from farm animals to the blankets and mattresses from the beds, has been carried to such an extent that the people live on nothing, amid nothing. These requisitions in the earlier days had a more or less official seeming in that quartermaster's bons were given for the things taken. Even then the German sense of humor too often made the bon a crude jest. False receipts for requisitioned property. The bons were written in the German language in German script, illegible and beyond the understanding of the simple natives. ”

“ PROTESTS AGAINST DEPORTATIONS HEARD IN REICHSTAG.
"Thousands of workmen in the occupied territory have been compelled to forced labor; we earnestly ask the government to restore to these workmen their liberty, especially in Belgium. In truth, we [the Germans] find no sympathy in neutral countries; even the Pope has made a protest against this procedure, and several neutral states have done the same. Common sense itself demands that we abandon this procedure which moreover is in opposition to the Hague Convention to which we have agreed." ”

“ As soon as you come to blows with the enemy he will be beaten. No mercy will be shown! No prisoners will be taken! As the Huns, under King Attila, made a name for themselves, which is still mighty in traditions and legends to-day, may the name of German be so fixed in China by your deeds that no Chinese shall ever again dare even to look at a German askance. ”

“ People rely on the neutral powers.
"Sometimes inhabitants of the invaded territories speak with a note of discouragement, crying apparently: 'We are forsaken by everyone.' We, on the other hand, are hopeful, Monsieur le Président, that the energetic intervention on the part of Neutrals, which the French Government is sure to evoke, will soon bring to an end these measures which rouse the wrath of all to whom humanity is not an empty word. ”

“ The German War Book with its "cold-blooded doctrines of the nature of war and of the means which may be employed in prosecuting war," did its work in training the German military officials. Of this book it has been well said: "It is the first time in the history of mankind that a creed so revolting has been deliberately formulated by a great civilized State." The generals gave their sanction to this policy of frightfulness. Gen. von Bernhardi was quoted in an interview in the Neue Freie Presse of Vienna, as follows:
"One cannot make war in a sentimental fashion. ”

“ For two centuries or more there has been a steady advance in introducing ideas of humanity and especially in confining the evils of warfare to the combatants. The ideal seemed to have become so thoroughly established as a part of international law that the powers at The Hague thought it sufficient merely to state the general principles in Article XLVI of the regulations: "Family honors and rights, the lives of persons and private property, as well as religious convictions and practice, must be respected. ”

“ No shadow of excuse for deportations.
"Mr. Minister, the crime which is now being committed under your eyes, namely, the deportation of thousands of men compelled to work on enemy soil against the interests of their country, can not find any shadow of excuse on the ground of military [Pg 70] necessity, for it constitutes a violation by force of a sacred right of human conscience.
"Whatever may be the motive it can not be admitted that citizens may be compelled to work directly or indirectly for the enemy against their brothers who are fighting. ”

“ All this must not in our eyes weigh as much as the life of a single one of our brave soldiers—the rigorous accomplishment of duty is the emanation of a high Kultur, and in that, the population of the enemy countries can learn a lesson from our army. ”

“ Nevertheless, the occupying power is forcing thousands of men to this monstrous extremity, which is contrary to morals and international law, both these men who have already been taken to Germany and those who to-morrow will undergo the same fate, if from the outside, from neutral Europe and the United States, no help is offered. ”

“ And proudly praise the Belgian workman.
"You state also that unemployment is caused by the laborers' hostility to work. The whole past of our working class protests against this accusation with every bit of energy that still remains in them. Where is there to be found in the whole world a working class which has made of such a small country such a great industrial and commercial power? ”

“ Poor folks by thousands lined the streets, leaning against the buildings, shivering in [Pg 87] snow and rain, too weak to lift a hand, dying of cold and hunger. Though the rich gave all they had, and the poor shared their last crust, they were starving there in the streets in droves.
In the stricken city, the German governor of Warsaw issued a proclamation. All able-bodied Poles were bidden to go to Germany to work. If any refused, let no other Pole give him to eat, not so much as a mouthful, under penalty of German military law.
The policy of starvation. ”

“ And we, who for the last 25 years have been the enthusiastic witnesses of the magnificent efforts of our brother workmen, in the matter of their material and moral betterment, we proudly affirm that it is not among their ranks that one can find men so degraded as to prefer to receive a charitable assistance which barely furnishes them with sufficient food to an honest wage given in remuneration for free and fruitful work. ”

“ Nevertheless, as civilization has advanced during the last centuries, so has likewise steadily advanced, especially in war on land, the distinction between the private individual belonging to a hostile country and the hostile country itself, with its men in arms. ”