Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 206, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 15 September 1917 — Do We Dare Resist the Kaiser? [ARTICLE]

Do We Dare Resist the Kaiser?

By James A. Woodburn, Head of Department of History, Indiana University. Have you ever read the indictments brought by our fathers in the Declaration of Independence against George III? There were some charges and most of them weije justified against that stupid German king But George did very little compared with what the Kaiser’s government has done against the American people. To prove it let facts be submitted to a candid world: It has sunk our ships without warning and unlawfully destroyed the lives of our peaceful citizens on the high seas. It is carrying on against us operations to complete the works of death, desolation and tyranny already begun with circumstances of cruelty and perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy of a civilized nation. It has filled our land with spies, and excited domestic insurrections and disorder among us; It has intrigued with Mexico and Japan to attack us, and has partitioned our territory among them, at a time when we are still assured of its unshaken friendliness. This German government has poisoned the minds of a once libertyloving people by glorifying “blood and iron.” It has violated sworn treaties as “scraps of paper.” * It has waged war with unprecedented barbarity, employing weapons and methods hitherto unknown among civilized nations.

It has ravished, enslaved, plundered and starved the non-combatant population of Belgium, Poland and northern France with an efficiency of heartlessness unknown since Attila the Hun. It has bombarded defenseless towns from the air, and its pirates submarines have ruthlessly done to death multitudes of unoffending men, women and children. It is impossible to live in peace with a government like that. Its guilty deeds have created a state of war. We have entered upon this war tb curb this mad power. To the successful prosecution of that war we have pledged to one another our lives, our fortunes and our sacred honor.