Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 192, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 23 August 1918 — Autocratic Rulers of Germany. Proven Most Inhuman and Tyrannical Enemies [ARTICLE]

Autocratic Rulers of Germany. Proven Most Inhuman and Tyrannical Enemies

By BARTOW A. ULRICH

Author of **Abraham Lincoln** and “Conititutional Government

William 11, king of Prussia, and the constitutional president of the German empire, with the nominal title of “emperor,” proved at first to be an advocate of peace, and was a popular ruler up to the commencement of the war precipitated with savage haste, after long premeditation and preparation. His entire peace pretentions were deceptive and hypocritical. He and the autocratic rulers of the twenty-five states of Germany, meeting secretly in the bundesrath, behind locked doors,, deliberately planned the hellish scheme of deluging Europe in blood, fire anti desolation. They have surpassed the most treacherous devices of Macchiavelli, as depicted in his celebrated, brutal book, “The Prince. So far the German states, headed by the emperor-king, William 11, have been the most destructive, inhuman, tyrannical and treacherous enemies of the human race which the world has ever known. Emperor William 11, under the German constitution, possesses th? power to control these forces, to stop or continue the carnage, and to enforce civilized methods of warfare. He has misused and still is misusing the powers given into his* hands, without any effort on his part, through the previous labors and devices of Bismarck and the former kings of Prussia. He has trod the continent of Europe like an impersonation of Satan, the arch-demon of destruction, trampling men, women and children in the blood-soaked mire, beneath his cloven hoof. The great conflict now raging in Europe between the central powers and the United States and its allies is a war of democracy against despotic military autocracy, which fights to rule the world. This new entente, including the United States, is fiot only fighting its own battles, but it is also indirectly fighting the cause of democracy, including Germany, heretofore dominated by the Hohenzollern dynasty, which has gradually absorbed the greater part of the German empire. In a book entitled “The Psychology of the Kaiser,” by Morton Prince, it is stated that in the consciousness of the kaiser there is nothing that is more dominant than his increasing and violent antipathy to the great body of citizens constituting no less than one-third of the empire, namely, the social democrats, The empire of Germany is ruled by the representatives of the old Hohenzollern family, with centuries of aggressive wars to its credit, or discredit, through Prussia, Which they control and which comprises two-thirds of Germany. The question now arises, can Prussia and the other German states stem the rising tide of democracy which is sweeping all before it? Are not the people of the central powers weary of the rule find oppression of kings, emperors and czars ?