Evening Republican, Volume 22, Number 19, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 22 January 1919 — GERMANY MUST PAY HEAVILY [ARTICLE]

GERMANY MUST PAY HEAVILY

COLONEL GEORGE H. HEALEY SEVERELY CENSURES GERMAN CRUELTY. (Fourth Installment.) I visited the German 34th division headquarters. They must hav# abandoned this very hurriedly for it was left in considerable disorder and there was left behind a vast amount of material. It was fairly well concealed in a dense woods of small trees. The barracks were well built, the store houses convenient. 'There was all sorts of ammunition from the small arms to the 155 cms. There were all sorts of flares and hand grenades and fuse caps and powder sacks. There were tons of nails of various sizes and thousands of feet of lumber. There were German rifles scattered about the woods and many cases of machine gun ammunition. There were canteens, mess outfits, helmets, hammers, wire cutters, saws, axes, picks, shovels, blankets, overcoats, boots, shoes, bayonets, stoves, and-kegs and kegs of bolts and screws. I procured a number of souvenirs but have no idea that I will be able to get many of them home with me. I saw a rifle lying alongside a shell hole and near it a helmet with a 'bullet hoile through it. A German boot protruded from' the ground and one of the officers caught hold of it and found that a partially covered German body was attached. He beat- a hasty retreat; I got the helmet but it was stolen before I got back to Langres. ' • I took a couple of keys from the houses that the Germans had built on the hillside overlooking their camp and the country for many miles around. These 'houses were well built The commanding general had a fiveroom brick house with a porch extending across the front and with a tunnel from the rear into the 'large dugout in the side of the hill. The houses of other officers were along the hillside A duckboard walk extended 'down the hillside some 400 feet and between all the houses of the officers. Five great tanks almost on the 4 crest of the hill furnished water for the entire camp. Observation posts were on the top of the hill commanding a view of the French positions for many miles. The whole camp had been built with the apparent idea that the occupants had come to stay. It was beyond the range of our artillery but some forward buildings had been struck and there were evidences of a hasty departure. A railroad switch ran into the very heart of the camp. The stables for the animals were well built. There were tons of barbed wire. , ,

One gets tired looking at the -shattered buildings, yet each tells the story of war’s relentlessness. Occasionally a tall wall stood alone, supported by only a few stones and looking as though it might tumble over any moment. It marked a sign post of German horror. And when a calm council of the nations that brought the mad rulers of Germany to a halt is gathered to assess the toll I can see no reason' why every stone should not be figured in the cost. I remember saying one day when the United States seemed committed to take a hand in the conflict that there was no such thing as being ankle deep in the war. Some thought we would never send troops to France but they came and fortunate they did. There is no doubt what the result w’ould otherwise have been and with Germany controlling France and England and the seas America

would have been in a sad plight. It has cost heavily but it has saved the world for democracy and there have arisen great new duties and responsibilities. We should take steps to secure for America greater advantages of the sea. We have the future as wel las the present to consider. In fact it is the future with which we should particularly concern ourselves. We have lived too much in the present. The story of the war will gradually unwind. The people at home will have their eyes opened to the needless sacrifices of the war. They will learn at what tremendous cost it was fought. They will learn that even at last we were without artillery, without aeroplanes, without trained officers, without equipment, without sufficient trucks, without hundreds of things that might have been provided had the lessons of the Spanish-America nwar been considered. There will now be a tendency no doubt, with the hope for a world perpetual peace, to forego further preparation. But we should consider that preparation is against war and that in preparedness lies our greatest security. (Concluded tomorrow.)