Show I 1 0 11 E 0 14 A N I 1 y m MUS I 1 PAY nation will never mever be able to make amends for damage FERTILE SOIL IS DESTROYED innumerable unexploded shells will make cultivation precarious doubtful if land can bo reclaimed I 1 by WRIGHT A PATTERSON what must germany 1 pay ay for that question cuu cau be adequately answered only when it Is that gei germany many star started ted the terrible conflict iu in europe for no reason other than that of conquest ind and loot started it only to satisfy the selfish ambitions of a selfish people for world dom domination that is being admitted today by what Is left of the german nation it is admitted by those who were directly responsible for the war and it 1 t is because germany started this conflict for no reason other than that of conquest and loot that germany owes to the world full foil payment for all the devastation which the war has bas brought not only in so far as she can pay now but in so far as she can pay for generations yet to come com C among the many many sections of belgium and northern france that I 1 personally covered following closely on oil the heels of the retreating run hun army was that which lies between what were the cities of ypres cypres and approximately 20 miles apart here before the coming of the invading boche was what was considered the most productive soil of the world and the most intensely cultivated here in a number of farm villages lived the belgian peasant families happy thrifty people each family cultivating tiva ting the small fields which it owned no fences separated these fields no hedges cut them off from the roadways and the families that cultivated the fields lived not on the little farms but in closely built villages of I 1 from to 50 people each devastation Is complete it Is hard to realize today bodny that these villages ever existed that the land along this long straight road was ever cultivated ever produced foodstuffs for a people in fact it is hard to realize today that this was ever an inhabited country of these peaceful villages the living places of these farm people there is no DO trace left there are not even plies of debris of brol broken en brick ind and stone and lumber to mark the spots where I 1 they stood there is no single thing by which w tell the return returning in peasants wearily dragging themselves back to that which had been home to them and to their ancestors for almost countless generations can mar mark lb he place where not only their ho home me but biti village had bad stood I 1 have seen old men and women wearied by four long years of exile stand beside this road and gaze longingly over the devastated landscape in an effort to locate some familiar object that would remind them of the T he spot they had bad known all their lives and then turn away with tears on the their ir cheeks because tiley they could not find even one small object that would tell them of the homes the only homes they had bad kiowa it was G german id aman ambition german cruelty german lust german wantonness Gerin german lin brutality that were the cause ofa of th 13 I 1 destruction edest ruction of these homes of the agonies of a peaceful thrifty people keople what can possibly compensate these people for their loss for far the misery they have suffered and roust must still sut suf for for the homes and the associations that are gone forever no germany can never pay in full but she can continue on to pay and pay and pay until there has been bred out of the german people that desire for war that love of conquest that brutality that it has taken centuries almont to breed into them and which has resulted in laying P e whole world it in all that 20 miles between cypres ypres L and merln on both sides of that long straight road I 1 am sure I 1 did not see one square foot of soil that was not a palt pait of a shell crater cr itar what hall had once been the richest soil of the world Is today but a waste made so by tile shells that fell upon it because germany sought world domination this soil I 1 has ms been destroyed by countless thousands ot jr shells falling actually one upon another each digging deeper into the earth until the very subsoil b has r is been guined guinea over and the land made worthless for cultivation for years to come if indeed it can ever be reclaimed reclaim ed unexploded shells bu buried led in soil there lie toda today y on oil tile surface of tills this land many thousands of unexploded fc hells and there are buried in the soil many many thousands th more each one of thorn them a menace to tiny farmer who attempts to put a plow into tile the soil in an effort to reclaim it and this land Is destroyed as the homes were destroyed because of german ambition of german cruelty of aci gelman man lust of german wantonness and german brutality who Is to pay for it who is to risk destruction that it may again be put into condition condI tIo a for cultivation that it may serve the purposes of the hu man race shall the peaceful belgian i peasants who had no part in the starting of tills conflict suffer their loss without i compensation shall these peasants who have endured more than four long years of homeless agonies who have suffered not alone the loss of homes and land but the loss of relatives and friends as well fie e the ones to risk destruction in the effort to again bring those these lands back to n 1 condition where cultivation is possible shall they be blown to bits by the bursting of these shells hidden ns 1 I they are beneath the surface of the ground when the plow strikes and explodes them if undisturbed those shells continue to be n menace for years to come but who are to risk their lives in removing them could the american people generally and especially the american farmers have seen the sights I 1 have seen i 72 I 1 I 7 1 1 1 I 1 I 1 1 I 11 N I 1 I 1 I 1 r 4 A k a 1 I 1 e 1 I ak I 1 2 I 1 I 1 J 1 1 64 1 P 11 4 jl I 1 4 1 I 1 11 I 1 I 1 I 1 I 1 i va 67 q 4 I 1 I 1 am 1 V al 4 yi K av M I 1 I 1 I 1 I 1 ir Y 1 I 1 1 10 i I 1 W s I 1 I 1 I 1 F gal 7 7 k I 1 5 P 1 I t e I 1 I 1 I 1 I 1 ak 71 1 1 1 T f T r av A 7 p 4 I 1 f 11 4 I 1 S 1 q I 1 1 I 1 I 1 I 1 d I 1 1 s I 1 1 I 1 I 1 t P el t I 1 50 N i il 1 11 f A alo I 1 if I 1 Z V I 1 1 I 1 I 1 A I 1 I 1 1 I 1 I 1 I 1 I 1 14 4 1 1 if 1 1 T I 1 P 11 t A 1 I 1 I 1 1 I 1 I 1 I 1 1 I I 1 I 1 f L ak g 7 i 1 t 5 I 1 1 M tf li I 1 A I 1 I 1 al 1 1 11 11 g 41 1 rk r k tn 3 ka I 1 IN t e k f I 1 11 0 VM I 1 M r 71 I 1 wt 1 I 1 IF n 4 11 p 14 I 1 1 11 1 tk ye ay iy ry A 1 M 1 it diw I 1 il I 1 4 st s 1 I ZA g A q r 1 I 1 1 I 1 A M S VA X I 1 I 1 11 1 IF n t j P I 1 aa I 1 kz MM k ar f I 1 1 ll 1 I vi ai 4 I 1 1 t kM 9 ground pulverized by bursting of big shells along this long iong straight road between betwee 11 ypres cypres ind and they would say as I 1 say it is the german who must pay it Is the german who jiust dust risk destruction st in the effort to put this land again into condition for cultivation I 1 believe that h one e condition of the pe peace ace treaty should be that germany german Y either cither as one nati onor proportionately from the several small nations that may he be formed out of the alie german empire should call its military classes to the colors each year as it has done in the past but in place of putting guns gung into the hands bands of the these e men and training them for the purposes of war a war of conque conquest st that it should put these men into the territories she has bus devastated to reclaim the soil and to rebuild the villages the towns and an d cities the runs huns have destroyed let these s germans under guard of belgian troops take the risk of destruction let them guide the plow that may strike the lyle plodded shell and lot let germany pay thern them the meager waged of tile the german soldier while they are doing this should pay and pay and pay that would be the nearest thing to an accounting that germany can render to the world but she should p pay ay all that it is humanly possible for a people to pay who have so ruth ruthlessly lessl y despoiled the world her people should d P pay ay and pay and pay until they have learned beyond the shadow of a doubt that war tor for the purpose of conquest tor for the purpose durpos ze of loot tor for tilt the gratification fi of selfish ambitions ambition Is the most alost unprofitable business they could possibly engage in and remember that tile the devastation to be seen along the road from cypres ypres to Is but nn an example of all the terrible destruction to bo be found throughout belgium and northern france and serbia and other country coun countries tri S that have been overrun by the con quest seeking armies of the boche boch e and remember too that it Is not alone alo no the devastation that Is to be paid for but it is the work and the tenis and the economic loss of every nation that iva was called into the struggle to defeat the selfish purposes of a selfish people that the world might be a decent place in which tree free men might live |