Page:America in the war -by Louis Raemaekers. (IA americainwarbylo00raem).pdf/128



Germany, in her war against Civilization, has disregarded not only International Law and the ordinary laws of humanity, but has ruthlessly set aside the four great laws of the social order which all civilized nations recognize as having a divine sanction. "Thou shalt not bear false witness." She has broken her treaties and lied openly, frequently, brazenly. "Thou shalt not commit adultery." She has permitted, if she has not given official sanction to rape committed upon a scale never before known in the history of the civilized world. "Thou shalt not steal." She robbed her neighbor's hills of their coal and iron, her neighbor's fields of their standing crops, her neighbor's banks of their money, her neighbor's houses of their pictures, statuary and books, and what she could not carry away she has in mere wantonness destroyed. "Thou shalt not kill." She has murdered thousands of defenceless men, women, children, and little babes, and has done this not in a sudden and feverish rage, but as part of a deliberately conceived and carefully executed policy. One must multiply Raemaekers' picture by the thousand in order to get its full significance.

LYMAN ABBOTT.