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“Why We Are at War” Contest Won By Corp.Ruddell
GERMANY FORCED
AMERICA TO FIGHT
By Corporal William J. Rud
deil, Headquarters Company,
109th Infantry.
WINNER OF FIRST PRIZE.
Germany has forced America, as it
has forced practically the entire world,
to defend itself by arms. We are fight
ing this war because Germany has
made war Upon us. America is a
peaceful nation; we have no lust for
conquest, no desire for annexation of
territory; we are defending ourselves
against Gerriiany because the German
government entered upon a program
which meant the destruction of all
American institutions.
When we finally recognized that
Germany was waging war upon us, we
had seen more than 225 Americans,
among ‘hem many women and children,
killed by Geran submarines; hospital
ships had been sunk and unfortified
towns 'bombed and bombarded. Medals
had been awarded in honor of the
sinking of the Lusitania, the murderous
act by v*iich so many of our men, wc<
men and children lost their lives. Ger- ,
man officials had treated the United ,
States, a neutral nation, as an enemy. I
Strikes were organized in this country, '
plants were blown up, pro-Gcrman
publications were founded and subsi
dized, and hatred of America was sys
tematically sought to be inculcated
among our foreign-born inhabitants.
Every effort was made to involve us]
in trouble with Japan and Mexico.
Our repeated notes of protest were'
met with explanations and promises
which were little better than insults.
The imperial German government
finally proclaimed the unrestricted de
struction of neutral ships upon the high
seas. It was the notification to the
United States that our people were no
longer sovereign and that if we would
sail the seas in safety we must conform
to conditions laid down by a govern
ment that defied international law, hu
manity and elemental morality.
A. policy of terrorism has been sys
tematically applied by Germany since
the outbreak of the European war.
American Red Cross units in their mis
sions of mercy in Erance and Belgium
haye been disregarded and blown up
without warning. Not only has Ger
many grossly encroached on the rights
and liberties of every freedom-loving
nation, but it has disregarded the stan
dards of humanity, especially Upwards
womanhood. The latter has been shown
in gruesome tales of their cruelty to
innocent women in captured towns in
France and Belgium.
This is why America has gone into
the war, —in defense of American honor
and American rights; and as an ally
of the Allies to rid the world of auto
cracy and militarism, and make the
“world safe for democracy.”
Safety of Commerce
Important Factor
We can hardly believe that this query
remains unanswered in the minds -of
any American of today. However, we
may expect to find a few, who through
their selfish ideas or a lack of knowl
edge -of the atrocities which have been
committed by our present enemy, can
not understand why we have entered
this world war.
There are direct and indirect causes
that have led us into our present posi
tion. The former, on account of a di
versity of opinions, might occasion au
number of arguments. Our direct cause
of most importance was the jeopardy
in which our commerce was placed.
Realizing the importance of this trade,
it is necessary that we should give fair
consideration to the Aerican people
who are depending on it for a liveli
hood. As indirect causes we may men
tion democracy and humanity, and as
a nation foremost in representing these
principles it is our duty to protect
these great privileges.
In reverence to our fathers and our
grandfathers who built, protected and
preserved this land, we have accepted
our military positions conscious of our
Christian duty and have pictured in
our minds the unpleasant experience it
would be for them to witness and other
but a willing response to our nation’s
call or in event of the opposite how
they with bowed heads, would mur
mur to themselves, “Have I endured
such hardships and so many of my
comrades sacrificed their lives to pre
serve this country and now my children
subject it to the possible conquest of
a nation exercising the principles of
old.”
If a nation of but a few hundred
years’ growth has attained such a high
degree of progress and civilization, is
it not well worth the while to preserve
it and promote to other peoples the
principles upon which such a nation
was founded?
GROVER C. WHITMAN,
Third Infantry Band, now with
103rd Sanitary Train.
Copy for next week’s Trench
and Camp must be in by Sat
urday afternoon. Get busy I
TRENCH ANDI CAMP 1
Decision of The Judges
First Prize, $5.00; Second Prize, $3.00;
Third Prize, SI.OO.
December 15, 1917.
Editor Trench and Camp:
In response to your request for the selection of a
committee to decide a contest of excellence between
certain essays submitted by contestants on the subject
“Why We Are at War,” I beg leave tb say that the com
mittee consisted of the following:
LAWTON B. EVANS, Superintendent of Schools,
T. H. GARRETT, Principal Girls’ High School,
J. W. FARMER, Dept. English, Boys’ High School,
We wish to report that after carefully reading all
of the papers submitted, it is the opinion of the commit
tee that the first prize should be awared to CORP. Wm.
J. RUDDELL, Headquarters Co., 109th Inf.; the second
prize to PRIVATE LEO L. CARROLL, Co. D, 110th
Inf.; and the third prize to PRIVATE WALTER A.
ANDERSON, Co. E, 111th inf.
The committee bases its decision upon clearness of
statement, forceful expression and literary form. In the
opinion of the committee the paper of Corp. Wm. J.
Ruddell shows these points in a higher degree than the
others.
Very respectfully,
LAWTON B. EVANS,
For the Committee.
FIGHTING GOVERNMENT
NOT GERMAN PEOPLE
By Private Walter A. Anderson,
Company E, 112th Infantry.
WINNER OF THIRD PRIZE.
After vain efforts to bring the world
war end in a satisfactory way to each
and every one of the European nations
involved in it, congress, after a long
and deliberate session, finally declar
ed war on the Central Powers, April
4, 1917. At that time the reasons for
our taking part in the struggle were
clearly given. It was not for the pur
pose of slaughtering the German peo
ple or the gaining of additional terri
tory, but to do away with the auto
cratic form of government and to
establish a rule of democracy through
out the world. It is not the people we
are fighting but the form of govern
ment of those people. We declared
war in order to make that day past,
when one man or a few, men can hold
the fate of an entire nation in the hol
low of his hand and drive peaceful citi
zens to-the battlefield in order to satis
fy his own greedy interests and to gain
fame and glory, that his name, as a
great conqueror, might also go down
in history with those of his ancestors.
And so we enlisted to go across the
sea, not only to uphold the honor of the
United States, but to help our breth
ren in a foreign land to attain that
form of government under which we
have so long lived in peace and pros
perity; to take the yoke of autocracy
from off their burdened shoulders that
they might also establish a govern
ment, by the people and for the peo
ple; and to create that greater spirit
of brotherhood which can never come
to them under tKeir present form of
government.
Fighting To Help
Cause of Humanity
The American people are at war to
day, to help the cause of humanity,
not only for ourselves, but for other
nations as well, that we may live in a
state of democracy and independence.
We are not only preparing ourselves for
a greater army, but also for a greater
Christianity. We can plainly see that
the prophecies of the Bible are being
fulfilled.
We men enlisted to help the cause of
freedom and for our country and the
flag we hold dear; and also to keep
the race clean.
Let kaiserism dominate and we could
not call our birthright our own. Also
to help keep our country as we have
had it —a republic first, last and al
ways. We enlisted to help win this
war. There is to be no alternative.
We must win. When we go across
“over there,” we do so of our own free
will.
To do the things expected of us by
the good people of the United States,
we must take the Lord with us and
spread the good word here and there in
His name, and we do expect to fight in
the cause of Christianity, freedom and
independence, so that others, if nqt our
selves, can enjoy the everlasting bless
ing of freedom.
CORP. PHILIP HOFFMAN,
Co. I, 111th Pa. Infantry.
WARRING BECAUSE OF
MANY HOSTILE ACTS I
“This government of the people, for
the people, by the people, shall not
perish from the earth.” Are not these
words of Abraham Lincoln sufficient
cause for these United States of Amer
ica to declare war on Germany?
We are at war because of the many
hostile acts which were committed
against us, the exciting cause being
the sinking of the Lusitania, which
was considered an overt act. Were
we to allow a nation to dictate to us by
telling us to stripe our ships in bright
colors in order to avoid destruction?
No, no more than a citizen would ac
cept the dictates of another citizen in
common every-day life. The seas are
free for all countries, therefore R is
our duty to keep them so.
By responding to the calls of the Al
lies, we not only aid them but we save
ourselves the trouble of fighting Ger
many later on, when she has had the
chance to recuperate and fit herself for
another war.
Germany had designs on America for
a long time and war was inevitable so
it was to our advantage to oppose her
now while she is weakened and we
have the help of the Allies. We regret
very much that we didn’t participate
sooner, because delays are dangerous,
but we surely will be victorious be
cause we are fighting to annihilate au
tocracy and Prussian militarism, al
though it may take longer than if we
had been participants from the stark
We love the very ground we walk on.
also the flag which floats over it in
more places today than ever before and
it is our bounden duty, as true Ameri
cans, to keep the ground hallowed and
free from the measured tread of a hos
tile army and to uphold the principles
for which Old Glory stands.
' CORP. I- S. HOLDER.
Band, 107th Machine Gun Battalion.
Germany Would
Conquer the World
On April 4th, 1917, war was formally
declared on the Central Powers. The
future existence of the world demand
ed that a superior power be linked
with those already at war against these
powerful nations in order that the
democracy and humanity of the world
would not be dethroned from the
high pedestal which it had attained.
In entering our forces in this war, we
have taken in our hands a problem, the
importance of which cannot as yet be
fully realized- But when the time
comes and we are confronted by a full
J realization of the great task before us,
!we will not be taken unprepared. We
I are preparing ourselves now to fight
against a power that would conquer
the world, using all forms of brutal and
inhuman methods to accomplish their
designs.
To nut an end to this fiendish intent
and bring the worlj to a civilization
that can only be known by us being
the victors, is why we enlisted, and
when we get “over there,” we are go
ing to prove that the entrance of the
U. S. in this crisis is the great turn
ing point toward this attainment.
CORP GEO. A. BRECKER
Co. E, 112th V. S. Infantry.
Dec. ,w; .190;
HOHENZEOLLERN CURSE
MUST BE REMOVED
By Private Leo L. Carroll,
Company D, 110th Infantry.
WINNER OF SECOND PRIZE.
The United States is at war today to
crush an organization which was slow
ly, but nevertheless, surely winding
its tentacles around all the nations in
the world. The brutal dominancy be
hind the clever German intrigue was
already beginning to be felt by not only
the lesser nations of the civilized world,
but by America itself.
Concealed behind a widely advertis
ed veneer of culture, Prussian autocra
cy, the governing factor of the (Cen
tral powers) has for the past forty
years been assembling its might, that
the dreams of the Hohenzollerns would
ultimately become a thing of perma
nence. And those dreams have been of
a "world empire,” wherein every man,
woman and child would bow to the
German throne. And this is what you
shall do if Germany wins this war.
The majority of the people do not un
derstand the strangle-hold which Ger
many had upon this country, at the
time of our declaration of war. Few
people could understand it, for it was
too intricate and subtly concealed by
them, to be readily observed. How
ever, it was a fact, for which we ot
our government were not to blame, for
we have always been a free and peace
loving people and our shores have al
ways been as open arms to the down
trodden of Europe.
Had England and France been de
feated in this war, America would
have been forced to bear the financial
bur<jen imposed upon it by the German
empire. For it is a fact that Germany
intended that America, being a moun
tain of wealth, should pay her war ex
penses.
We all know, or at least , have an
impression of, the extent of the indem
nities which Germany would have de
manded from this country, And, though
we are a great and strong nation, she
would have collected these indemnities,
for we were unprepared, and being
unprepared, what choice could we
have? Only one of two. Either sub
mit to their demands or have our coun
try drenched with our own blood by
the Prussian military machine. And
if there is any American today who
doubts whether Germany would have
slaughtered our men, women and chil
dren, in order to force her will upon
us, just picture the sinking of the
Lusitania and the war-swept fields and
villages of Belgium.
At the outbreak of this great war we
were living in a “Fools Paradise.” Be
lieving ourselves secure because we
were separated from the conflict on
both sides by vast bodies of water, we
continued to shout our disapproval of
among the nation.
Soap-box orators and German in
triguers. backed by unlimited amounts
of the Hohenzollern’s gold, scattered
propaganda from coast to coast, for the
purpose of defeating all efforts of those
who would strengthen our defenses.
How long would these same soap
box specialists retain a section on the
American front in France today?
Would their flowery language and wild
gesticulations avail them security if
they shouted across “No Man’s Land,”
to the Prussian foe? So much for
German intrigue of this sort.
Yet we cannot fprget that the peace
at any price exponents are two of the
means and perhaps the best, which the
Prussian government used to more
firmly wrap its tentacles of dominancy
around us.
We all know how near she came to
succeeding, for our declaration of war
found us confronted with the' enor
mous task of building a mighty army
and navy capable of overpowering a
war machine which has forty years
of concentrated effort behind it. A war
machine that has been built with the
hope of making the world bow to the
believers of “divine right.”
We do not believe in the divine right
of the kaiser to rule the world. Neither
do we believe in his ruthless submarine
warfare nor the atrocities of his troops
in Belgium and France.
Therefore we are at war with Ger
many end at war to stay until the
Hohenzollerns, — the curse of peace
loving people— have been removed from
the German throne.
For Eternal Peace
,
Dear Editor:
I reply to your article, “Why We Are
At War:”
For Freedom, Humanity and an Eternal
Peace.
I '.enlisted Because I am a pacifist and
I love Peace.
I think I could write a book on this
i subject.
Private Enrico Überto,
Co. B, HCth Infantry.
Copy for next week’s Trench
and Camp must be in by Sat
urday afternoon. Get busy!