MURDER MOST FOUL!

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 169, 6 April 1918, Page 10

MURDER MOST FOUL!

ATI: AMERICAN PREACHER ON HE 1 WESTERN FRONT j ' . . • THINGS SEEN THAT ALL i SHOULD'REMEMBER ; I (By Dr. Newell Divigbt Hillis.)

Dr. Newell Dwight Hillis, ono of America's foremost ministers, of Plymouth Church, Brooklyn (of whioh tile first pa stor was Henry Ward. Beecher), spent Ju]y and August in a per&onal investigation of.. the . battlefields of France and Belgium from which the Germans had been expelled. He. desired to leari 1 . for himself the exact conditions and. to find out whether all the reports of German atrocities would be confirmed by a personal study. I Since he returned to America, Dr. Hillis has delivered a number of public addresses. The discourse priuted below was delivered , from the pulpit at Baltimore to a! Church . packed'to the doors. It attracted enormous: interest, enabling Americans to gwpvthe -meaning of Prussia's war against civilisation, Christianity and democracy.

To many in Great Britain the facts Bet out by. I)r. Hillis are known. But they are not known to all. They should he known to all. Once the truth of this indictment sinks, into the heart and mind of every citizen, anil the date wljen the war will end is determined.'. The war can only end when the Prussian ■ Government, responsible for these fearful outrages, is shorn of its power for evil. ("We are accepting this .challenge of hostile purpose," declared President . Wilson,, -''because- we knowthat in 'subH. a 'Governmerit following ; such methods wo can. never : have a friend; arid that in the presence of its organised power, 'in,' wait to accomplish we know not what purpose, there can be no assured security for the democratic Governments of the world." Would you have an emblem.of France (ri the month of June, with her wide, Fat. valleys, her green pastures, and the hillsides up which the pines climbed in serried regiments? If so, take a great robe of green velvet lying loosely oil the floor, the creases and ,volvet ridges answering to the rivers and the valleys and the hills, and. then fling a. bajidful of rubies, pearls, and sapphires down, so that these gems will lie within tie creases as the lovely French cities at the foot of the hills and beside the riveis, .and you have France, the ■beautiful; France, the mother of the modern arts and-sciences; France, full of. sweetness and light—that France concerning which' Heinrich Heine exclaimed: "Oh, France, thou daughter or beauty I Tny name is culture! , /The three great enemies of farms and town and cities have boen fire, flood, and earthquake. Witness'the city of St;' Pierre. An interior explosion blew off the cap of the mountain and a flood of gas poured down upon the lovely city, asphyxiated the citizens, and left not one house standing. Witness that mighty convulsion in San Francisco, which brought thousands of bricks crashing down in ruins. Witness the fire in Chicago, that turned the great city into twisted iron and ashes, In New Zealand there is a lake called Avernus, the hirdless lake. Poisonous gases rise from .the, black flood of j water, and soon the lark, with its song, and the eagle," with its flight, fall into the poisonous flood. ' But all these images are quite inadequate to explain the desolation, the devastation of Franco upon the retreat-of the Germans. About .forty miles north of. Paris one strikes.the ruined region.. Then hour after hour. passes,' while 1 with slow movement and breaking heart one journ'eys 100 miles to the north and zig-zags 125 mjles south again through that black region. The time was when it was a wild land, rough,' with forests filled with wolves. Then the French-1 man entered, the scene. Ho subdued all the wild grasses to which Julius Caesar referred in his storv of the war in France; he drained the' vallevs and widened, the streams into canals. He enriched the fields, and made them wave with gold. He surrounded the meadows with odorous hedges, and hanked where there had been a swamp with perfumed shrubs. Slowly he threw arches of stone across the streams and carved the hridges until they were rich in art, while everything made for use was carried up to outbreaking beauty. The roof of the ham had lovely lines; the approach to the house was unon a curved road; the highways were shaded hy two rows of noble trees. The stony hillised was and there ' the vines grew purple in the sun. How simple was his life! What a sanctuary his little home! With what Tich embroidery of wheat and corn he covered all the hills!, .He..was prudent without being stingy, thrifty without being mean. ,He saved.against old age with one hand and distributed to his children with the other.'' And, having lavished all his love upon the little farmhouse, the granary, and the barn; having pruned these grape vines with their clusters ; of white purple until each seemed like a friend, dear as that miraculous picture was to' Baucis and Philemon, having at 1 last made every tke to be shapely, his little world was invested -with affection and beauty. . j Do you remember, how that Florentine artist, after .his day's stint v as done, toiled upon his studio, s'owly carving the capitals, collecting a little terra-cotta from Cyprus, an ,cld manuscript from Athens,' a lovely head of 'Apollo from Ephesns, and iridescent I i glass from Persia, with a. hit of old T.vrian purple, lending a. snot of llarnc in one corner and a little mosni;! "cm Thebes colouring another? When he saw the end was approarhieg, "liile on a, vi£it to Egvpt, ile asked that he might be carried home m die in the studio, which he made rich with his soul. What the Hitfeous Huri Has Done, In some such wayjis that the French peasants loved their land, and then lost it. One morning the enemy, stood at the gate. The farmer with his pruning knife was no match for a German with a machine-gun, and down he went under the plum tree he was pruning. The devastated regions of France are like unto a devil world. All the pear and plum trees have fallen over under the stroke, of a German -axe, and are dead and dry. Here and there one sees aii occasional tree where a . half-inch of bark remains, and, sympathising with the peasant's sorrow, the roots have sent a flood of sympathetic tears and sap out into one little branch.' amidst the death of a hundred other houghs, that flamed in May its rose and pink of bloom, then in August gave its red glow of clustered food. But as for the rest. it is desolation. Gone all the beautiful hvid<res—they have been dynamited. Gone all the lovely and majestic. thirteenth . oentnrv churches. Gon" all the galleries, for "very citv of oeonle in France had its quarterly exhibition of, paintines sent, out from Paris, and some of the finest art treasures in the world hav nerished. The land has out hack to whpre it. was when Julius descried it ?nOO rears nso—a v'ld land, end waste, frowipg un with thorns an/ 1 tKtyle*. prijclamat'Ti 'iii/th" "-"H tells th« whol» storv: "Let no bnildine stand, no vine or tree. Before, retreating M e.ich well bo nlnntifnllv polluted with corns'" and creosote." The snirit. MS fill's; "pi'nc" W« o«rmpne rinnot, lie™ this land, no one else shall." Tour eyes never-saw a mora exquis-

its bit of carving for the comer of a root man tms (a bp ray or myrtle leaves, carved in stone, imer iue Germans had destroyed the cathedral of Arras). Look at tins firebrand. Every German company of soldiers earned one automobde lorry failed with these hrebrauds, with a tank or gasoline hanging beneath the axles. One of the historic chateaux is that ot Avncourt, rich in ltoble associations of history.'' It was one of the buildings spcclaily covered by a clause in the international agreement between England, Germany, France, the United biates, and all the civilised nations, safeguarding historic buildings. For many months it was the home of tripco Eitel, the Kaiser's second son. , Forced to. retreat, the aged French .servants, who understood the electric lighting and gas plant and served Eitel during his occupancy, when the judge and jury held the trial at the ruins of the chateau, stated that they heard the German officers telling Eitel that he would disgrace the German name if he destroyed a building that had 110 relation to war and could be of practically no aid or comfort to the French Army, and he would make his own name a name of shame and contempt, of obloquy, and scorn. But the man would not yield. ,He brought in great wagons and moved to the freight cars at the station absolutely every object that was in the splendid chateau. And, having promised to leave tlie building uninjured, he stopped his car at the entrance and exit gates of the ground, ran back to the historic building with a can of oil that he had secreted, tilled the asbestos in this ball of perforated iron, ran through the halls, and waited until the flames were well in progress, and then ordered his men to light tho fuse of a dynamite bomb. . _ j All tho testimony was taken imme-1 diate'v afterward from aged servants : I and from the little children, and the I degeneracy revealed has not been sur- I passed since the first chapter of Rom- I ans was written on the unnatural j crimes of the ancient world. There are j the copies of the affidavits. In the ; ruins, hard beside the black marble j steps, I picked up this firebrand with > which Prince Eitel assassinated a build-1 ing'that belonged to the civilised world. ! A Mind That Can Multiply and Exploit. One of the things that has. horrified the/civilised world has been tne ruin [of Reims Cathedral- Germany, of j course, was denied the gift of imagination. It belongs to France, to Italy, and to Athens. Hcinrich Heine, her own poet, says that Germany appreciates architecture so little that it is only a question of time when, "with his giant hammer, Thor will at lastspring lip again and shatter to bits all Gothic cathedrals.' 1 This gifted Hebrew had the vision that literally saw tho Germans pounding to nieces the cathedrals at Louvain and Ypres, at Arras, Bapaume, St. Quontin, and Reims. > ■ The German mind is a hearty, mediocre mind, that can multiply and exploit; the inventions and'discoveries of the other races. The Germans contributed practically nothing to the invention of the locomotive, tho steamboat, the Marconijram, the automobile, the aeroplane, the phonograph, the sewing machine, the reaper, the electrio light. | Americans invented for Germany her revolver, her machine-gun, her turreted ship, and her torpedo submarine. In retrospect, it seems absolutely incredible that Germany could have been so helplessly 1 and hopelessly unequal to tho invention of tho tools that have made her rich. But that is not her gift. If Sheffield can give her a model knife, Germany can reproduco that knife in quantities and undersefl Sheffield. The German people keep step in a regiment, in a factory, and on a ship, and therefore are wholesalers'.^' ine' French mind is creativestands for individual excellence, and is at tne other extreme from the German . tempera- j ment.' It is this lack of imagination i that explains Nietzsche's statement | that for 200 years Germany has been ! the enemy of culture, while Heinrich ! Heine declared the name of culture was | France. | Why Germany Destroys Cathedrals. I It is this total lack of mental capa-1 city to appreciate architecture that explains Germany's destruction of some of the noblest buildings of the world. She cannot by any chance conceive how the other races look upon her vandalism. Her own foreign government expressed it publicly in one of her State papers: "Let the neutrals cease chattering about cathedrals. Germany does not' care one .straw if all the galleries and churches in the world were destroyed, providing we gain our ends." Guizot, in his history of civilisation, presents three tests of a civilised people: Firslj, they revere their pledges and honour; second, they reverence and pursue the beautiful in painting, architecture, and literature; third, they exhibit sympathy toward tho poor, the weak, and the unfortunate. Now apply those tests to the' Kaiser and his War Staff, and you understand why Reims Cathedral is a ruin. No 'building since the Parthenon was more precious to the world's culture. What majesty and dignity in the lines 1 What a wealth of statuary! How wonderful the twelfth century glass! With what Jightness did these arches leap into the air I Now the great bombs have torn holes through the roof; only little bits of glass remain. Broken are the arches, mined some of the flying buttresses; the altar where Jeanne d'Arc j stood at the crowning of Charles is 1 quite gone. The great library, the j bishop's palace, all the art treasures ! are in ruins. j Ancient and noble buildings do noi belong to a race; they belong to the world. Sacred for ever the threshold j of the Parthehofi, once pressed by the feet of Socrates and Plato; thrice sacred that aisle of Santa Croce in Florence, dear to Dante and Savonarola; to be treasured for ever the solemn beayty of Westminster Abbey, holding the dust of the men of supreme genius. In front of the wreck of the Cathedral of Reims, all blackened with German fire, broken with the German hammer, is tho statue of Jeanne d'Arc. Th'er© she stands, immortal for ever, guiding the steed of the sun with the left hand, lifting the banners of peace and liberty with the right. By some strange chance no bomb injured that bronze. Oh, beautiful emblem of the day when the spirit of liberty, riding in a chariot of the sun, shall guide a greater host made up of all the peoples who revere the. treasures of art and architecture and law and liberty and Christ's poor, and will ride on to a victory that will be the sublimest conquest in the annals of time I Over against the greatest military machine that was ever forged and controlled by merciless and cruel men, who have given up all faith in God, wl/o praction the Ton Commandments with the "Not," left out, who have stamped out of the souls of their soldiers every instinct of pity and symnat.hy, are our Allies. Here is Belgium, after all her agony, ready to die to the last man rather than submit to a eru»l master., th" Kaiser. And h°re is Fnirland, and all Jit colonies. How Morions this land! "This land of such dear souls, this dear, dear land." as Shakespeare said She • has already sacrifi'-pd one-third, of her total wealth, a million of her sons; and here, is France, not hied white, hut tired after three vears of grievous toil. Her bankers are tired, her business men .are tired; 'the women and the little children are tired, for they have struggled unto blood striving against a cruel militarism for which they were unprepared. "Either Cod Is Dead, or Cermany is Doomed."

The French hoy is like unto one who

carries food and drink a long way unto perishing men until the heavy burden forces his fingers to relax—but give the youth a little time, and he will take up his task afresh and bring water to the thirsty soldier. The coming of the American troops has been a tonic to France and hns rested her weariness. Said the French wife as she sent away her young husband with smiles and words of pride: "I give him gladly; I am only his wife—France is his mother.' 1 And hare is Great Britain, whose fleet to-day holds the German battleships behind the Kiel Canal and safeguards our republic, New York and Boston. On one side of the silver dollar write these words: "In God w'e trust," and on the other side ol' the dollar write the words, "And in England's Navy." Every force that makes towards justice, humanity, and liberty is ou our side.' Soon or late, an unseen Providence will take off the'wheels from the chariot of the enemies of Truth and Justice. That dying German officer in Rove packed the genius of a moral universe into a few words. Wounded last winter through the spinal cord, unable to move the lower part of his body, for weeks he waited for death. Two aged Frenchwomen cared for the dying man. Little by little the wings of the Angel of Death fanned away the mist before his eyes. One day the German officer sent for the village priest, and told him that the Von Hindenburg line was nearly complete; that the order to retreat had been given; that the home of these aged women .who had cared for him so tenderly would be burned; that not one church, house, barn, vineyard, or orchard would be left. The news crushed the old priest. In liis dying hour a righteous wrath filled the heart of i the German prisoner. These are his last words, ias I transcribed them from the lips of'that man of God, standing one day in Noyon: "Curses upon this army! Curses upon our Kaiser and his War Staff! Ten thousand curses upon my country! Either God is dead, or Germany is doomed!" The officer had come to understand that soon or late the wheels of God will grind; to nothingness those who wrong God's children. "Woe unto the man who offends one of My' little ones. It were better for him that a millstone were hanged about-his neck, and that he were drowned in the depths of the seas."

Better days are coming. We may have to enter the wilderness, but soon or late the pilgrim host will enter the Promised Land and hang out signals of victory. _ Truth is stronger than error : liberty is stronger than despotism; God is stronger tlian Satan; right makes might, and must prevail. In this faith we must strive on for a peace that will safeguard democracy, defend the frontier lines, vindicate the rights of little lands, destroy militarism and autocracy. During the January snows a dear friend and noble surgeon at the head of a hospital at the front wrote me a letter which stays my heart as the anchor the ship in time of storm. The ground was deep with snow, many wounded men had, been carried in from the field, but at midnight, _ when his work was done, the physician wrote mo this letter:

"This war is of God. Sometimes it is _ peace that is hell. The soldier's life is a lifo of poverty, obedience, selfsacrifice ; we. know what tho civilian's life is. But for the chastisement of this war, Berlin and Vienna, London, and Paris, would have descended into hell within, three generations. I once spoke in your Plymouth'on the blessings of peace; if ever again I have tho privilege, I shall speak on the/blessings of war. I never dreamed that men could be so noble. For thrco months I have slept 011 the stone; for three months before that in a teiit; for six mouths 1 haVo not been in a bed; but I. have never been so happy. P hate acquired tlic fineifrecdom of a dog, aiid, like a dog," I wear a metal tag around my neck, so that they, may know to whom I belong, when it happens that I can no longer speak. And never was a man engaged in a cauJo so noble. I have seen Belgium; I have seen a lamb torn by the wolf: lam on the side of the lamb. I know tho explanations the wolf has to offer—they do mo at thin battle for your-own good, for right here at this Western front this war. will be decided, just whore all the great wars of history have always been decided. It is decided already, but will take the enemy some time yet to find it out." What does this noble scholar mean? History makes that meaning plain I No wine until the purple clusters are crushed. No. linen until tho flax is bleeding and broken. No redemption without shedding of blood. No rich soil for men's _ bread until the rocks are ploughed with ice glaciers and subdued with fire billows. This war was not brought by God. hut, having come, let us believe that His providence can overrule it for the destruction of all war. When Germany is beaten to her knees, beftofnes repentant, offers to make restitution for her crimes, then, and not till then, can this war stop. A LIFETIME CAR. • .Mr. John W. Bate, the great efficiency engineer, has, in designing the "Mitchell, aimed at a lifetime tar. Two Bate-built Mitchells; still in good condition, have run over 200,000 miles apiece. Seven of them are known to have averaged over 175,000 miles apiece, or more than 30 years' ordinary service. So far as we know, no other car ever built has approached those endurance records. ■ Those records, however, were made by Mitchell, built under former standards of 50 per cent, over-strength. That was tho standard Mr. Bate adopted years ago. It made him, at that time, seem an extremist. Other engineers argued that in ordinary driving no such margin of 6afety was necessary. But that ovev<?trength' is what made .Mitchell Cars render their marvellous service. But three years ago Mr. Bate spent a year in Europe. There 110 found a standard, amongst foremost engineers, of 100 per cent, over-strength. That standard was based on European roads. It would . not mean '.hat much margin here. Bnt it suggested to Mr. Ba'te the same double strength, based on less favourable conditions. Since then Mr. Bate has constantly iVorked to double our margins of safety. He has worn out fifty cars in learning the needed strength. He iias invented tests to prove that every- vital part has twice the strength required. This year, for the first time, we announce that Mitchells in all important p;irts have 100 per cent, over-strength. That i«, they are built to twice the strength standards of the Mitchells which made those records. Over 410 parts are built of toughened steel. All parts which get a major strain are built of'Chrome-Vanadium, and built over-size. Axles, gears, steering and driving parts are constantly tested for this double strength.- The factory .malyse all steels to ensure it, and parts are subjected to tremendous factory tests. Call and inspect the latest 5 and 7nasseneer Models at INGLIS BROS. AND CO., LTD., , 24-20 Harris Street, Wellington.—Advt.