4
How fhe Crusaders Fared in
France.
Last week, I gave a moderate statement of the
barbarities practised upon our soldiers in France,
by their own officers.
If the Germans had committed these atrocities
upon enemy prisoners, the Allies would probably
have raised the Black Flag.
Indeed, there was much said in the newspa¬
pers, during the early period of the War, about the
brutal treatment of French, English, and Italian
prisoners by the ermans; but, as I recollect those
charges, they bore no comparison whatever to the
admitted facts in regard to the cruelties inflicted
upon American soldiers by American officers.
When we bear in mind that these soldiers were,
mere boys, who were suddenly snatched away from
the fields, the stores, and the mills; and who were
suddenly thrown into cantonments to be made in¬
to an army overnight, as it were, our astonishment
grows, that Gen. Pershing, Gen. Harts, and other
officers in command, should have been so unmerci¬
fully hard upon them.
The New York American summarizes the
case against these officers, as made out by the
sworn testimony of returned soldiers:
1. They were beaten senseless with
fists, sticks and blackjacks, and their
bleeding bodies sprayed with a hose to
remove traces of the assault.
2. They were starved till they had
to beg food from Chinese coolies, and
forced to sleep in the mud, often without
blankets.
3. They were stripped and scrubbed
with mud for smoking, handcuffed and
leg-ironed and left sitting in the road
while hungry dogs licked their faces.
4. They were robbed of clothing,
money and other property by American
officers in charge of the prisons.
5. They were tortured by guards
seeking to extract from them information
ttiat would incriminate their fellow pris¬
oners.
6. For all these things, not one man
above the rank of lietenant has been pun¬
ished, though responsibility for the situa¬
tion was placed as high as Brigadier
General W. W. Harts.
Further details given by ex-soldiers to the
Congressional Committee—of which Hon. Royal
C. Johnson, of South Carolina is Chairman—in¬
clude such almost unbelievable cruelties ar.d suffer¬
ings as the following:
“A prisoner was smiling and an offi¬
cer said: ‘Take that smile off, or I will. I ?)
A. II. Mendleburg, 1419 East Fayette
Street, Baltimore, who served with base
hospital 42, testified. “The officer did try
rolling the man in the mud,” Mendleburg
added.
“Did you get that officer’s name?”
asked Representative Flood, Democrat,
Virginia.
“I m too -sorry I did not take his
name,” answered Mendleburg.
BLACKJACKED BY OFFICERS
When telling of poor food, Mendle¬
burg said that “if you asked for an extra
piece of bread you were flat on your
back.” Meals, he and others said, consist¬
ed of a stew, made from canned beef, one
slice of bread and part of a cup of coffee.
Sometimes only the stew was served, wit¬
nesses said.
Charles Goldburg, 320 Central Park
West, New York City, a corporal in Com¬
pany G, Thirty-eight Infantry, Third
Division, said that while at the "brig" he
was knocked down by an officer and one
of his teeth knocked out when he refused
to surrender his money belt. Drawing a
blackjack, the officer and Goldberg fought
a few minutes, but the witness said he was
forced to surrender because of the pain he
suffered from blows on the arms.
“Once, when I was scrubbing a floor,
a sergeant swung a club at my head every
five seconds,” Goldberg testified.
ATE DIRTY POTATO PEELINGS
Paul Boggs, Baldwin, N. Y., 318th
Field Signal Battalibn, said men at the
were often so hungry that they were
“glad to eat dirty potato peelings.* He
said that he dipped a tinoup in a swill
barrel so as to get some grease that he
would eat “with a relish.”
“Instead of giving a command, it was
generally given with a club," asserted
Bogg, who said he saw at least 50 men
beaten.
Alvin Bates, 42 Hawthorne street,
Brooklyn, who was with the headquarters
troops, Second army, said “whenever there
was a formation a man was beaten up
every five minutes” at- the prison farm. He
and Boggs said that a Pole serving in the
American army was brutally beaten, and
scx>n afterward the prisoner cut his throat
with a razor.
SICK MEN BADLY TREATED
“Medical inspection was a farce,” said
Bates, referring to the farm. “You went
in one door and were kicked out another.”
Last, week, I told of the gallows at Gievres,
upon which an American soldier was hanged,
cvejy morning, and which was then waiting for
THE COLUMBIA SENTINEL, HARLEM, GA.
A Common Sense Warning
Against Sentimentalism.
By Grover C. Edmondson.
If our people value the liberties for which our
ancestors fought during seven bloody winters and
summers, we ought to be willing to devote our ser¬
ious thought to these priceless principles of self
government for which our forefathers gave their
precious life-blood.
Sentiment is a great thing, but liberty is
greater.
France is rich in sentiment and America has
not been slow to remember what France, did f<& us
when we were struggling for our freedom and
waging a war with England to that end. Adven¬
turous Frenchmen .helped us, just as adventurous
Pulaski and certain adventurous Germans helped
us to force Great Britain to leave us free. We
have paid that debt, wholeheartedly.
Is it not asking too much from this nation,
separated as we are by three thousand miles of
water, to guarantee the existence of a sister repub¬
lic, at. the risk of losing the natural defenses given
us by nature?
The architect of nature is the great God above
us. He protects those who protect themselves* by
taking advantage of the natural defenses He gi ves
them. He has given us protection from all foes' re¬
gardless whence and how they come to attack us,
in the miles of water separating us from the other
nations of the world; to this He adds a mountain
range on either coast that all the armies of Jthe
world could never climb against our defense. Tjius
has Almighty separated us from Europe and her
troubles. Shall we surrender it all to sentiments?
Likewise has aimghthy nature granted pro¬
tection to France in the western bank of the
Rhine, recognized by Foch and Clemeneeau. Dav¬
id Lloyd George recognized it, too. But, our one
man government, convened in Paris, denied
France this natural protection, and to off-set it our
one-man government proposed a treaty to take the
place of the western bank of the Rhine. This
treaty proposes to substitute man-maefe defenses
for God-made defenses, and as a part of this man¬
made defense we will donate the lives of a million
American boys, maybe two or three millions; may¬
be more.
The English Channel has protected England
from invasion since the time of William, the Con¬
queror; the Carnic Alps stand between Italy and
her enemies; the Vistula stood between Germany
and Russia bettor than any stone-wall; and the
same God has been far more generous to us, by
giving us an ocean on either side of our far home-
fifteen condemned privates:
President Wilson has told the American peo¬
ple that none of their sons were put to death in
France, without his 0. K. of the sentence.
Did he know of these daily executions at
Gievres ?
If he knew of them, did he O. K. them?
If so, what was the offense for which these
hoys were hanged?
If he did not know, who is responsible for
keeping him in the dark?
hold in my hand the fragment of a letter
from a soldier to his home-folks, cautiously hint¬
ing at the startling disclosures that will be made,
when the ex-soldiers feel that they are safe in talk¬
ing about what happened in France.
One line reads—
“/ saw a soldier put to death a short time ago,
and his lost words were — ,
White mother that i was not guilty.”
General Grant was loved by his men, during
all the years of the War; and, during all the years
that followed the War, they continued to love him,
in spite of his political blunders, and his disastrous
commercial failure.
But you will not find many of the soldiers
who were under his hardhearted rule in France,
that lovo Gen. Pershing.
The mass of the army hate him.
General Lee was loved by his men, all during
the War; and even at Appomatox, where his
splendid sword was sheathed in utter defeat, his
men wept more for him, than for themselves.
“General, God bless you! God bless you, Gen
emir
And the devotion they felt for him, in the
hour of his surrender, they felt for him as long as
ho lived.
Without exception, the Confederate Veterans
who still survive, are moved by reverential memo¬
ries when they speak of Lee.
But the men who served under Pershing—
they hate him with a bitter hatred based on-his
heartless treatment of them in France.
“If rite mother that / was not guilty .”
Do you know of this case, Mr. President?
Did you o. k. his execution?
If so, what was the accusation against him,
and what vms the evidence?
His mother is “Somewhere” in the Sunny
South: her boy lies in a dishonored grave, “Some¬
where in France!”
Mr. President, if I furnish you the name of
this Southern mother who gave her son to the SLT
vice of “liberty,” will you tell her why Gen. Per¬
shing had him killed?
It's as little as you can do, Mr. Preside’iit.
Will you no it?
If so, I’ll furnish you the name, the place, and
the date of the tragedy.
land. Can we afford to surreinder our God-given
protection ?
No nation is a free nation with a large stand
ing-army in the body politic. Large armies, in
time of peace, are natural enemies of freedom.
Militarism respects no principle of liberty, of law
or anything else. President Wilson called for »
standing-army of more than a million men, only
last week. Remember this is to become our regular
army in peace-times. What is it for? Are you
willing for your country to be. converted into a
Military' Autocracy? Militarism is the same thing,
regardless where it is found. Locations do not.
change the thing itself. Military autocrats are
PETITION FOR CHARTER
GEORGIA—Columbia County.
The petition of C. L. McCord,
William Thomas, Jule Lanle Thom¬
as, Henry Bell, A. C. Cummings, H.
B. Brinscn, Joe Bailey and Isaiah
Dorsey and their associates, all of
said State and County, respectfully
shows:
(1). They desire for them¬
selves, their associates and succes¬
sors to be incorporated and made
a body politic as a benevolent insti¬
tution for the relief of the sick and
burial of the dead and Hid in fam¬
ilies of deceased, under the name
and style of BANNER OF LIFE
NUMBER FORTY-NINE
( 2 ). The term for which peti¬
tioners ask to be incorporated is
thirty (30) yekrs with the privi¬
lege of renewal at the expiration of
that period.
(3). The location and princi¬
pal office of said corporation shall
be located in Columbia County.
(4). Said corporation has no
capital stock and it not organized
for pecuniary gain, but is purely
benevolent in character.
(-5). Petitioners desire to pur¬
chase and hold such real estate as
may be necessary for the conduct of
its business or to sell or incumber
by mortgage, lien or security deed
or otherwise the same for the pur¬
pose of the corporation.
( 6 ). The officers of said corpor¬
ation shall consist of a President.
Vice President and Secretary and
Treasurer with the right to com¬
bine the Secretary and Treasurer
as one office as the by-laws may
provide.
(7). The right to enact by-laws.
(8.) The sole object of the cor¬
poration is to assist and relieve the
sick, bury the dead and render aid
to the families of deceased mem¬
bers as may be provided for under
the by-laws.
WHEREFORE, petitioners pray
to bo incorporated under the name
and style aforesaid, with the privi¬
leges and immunities herein set
forth as are now or may hereafter
bo allowed a corporation under sim¬
ilar character under the laws of
Georgia.
JOHN T. WEST.
Filed in office this the 4 th day
Georgia Railroad
Passenger Train
Schedule.
Corrected to January 1,1919.
Departure of Trains at
Harlem, Ga.
West Bound Leave
No. 1 For Atlanta 8:50 A. M.
No. 7 For Atlanta 3:53 P. M.
No. 9 For Barnett 7:37 P. M.
East Bound Leave
No. 10 For Augusta 7:12 A.M.
No. 2 For Augusta 12:28 P. M.
No. 8 For Augusta 9:52 P. M.
Wanted orders preparations.—MAR¬ Lady Agents and sell to toiiet take
SHALL DRUG CO., Lexington, Mo.
Club Cards Now Ready, $7.50 For
A Set of Five.
Good For One Subscription
12 MONTHS
For
TO
, THE COLUMBIA SENTINEL
The Columbia Sentinel,
Agent. By.
military autocrats, whether named Ilindenburg or
Pershing—or “Hard-boiled” Smith. All autocrats
are of the same stripe. No Prussian ever treated
his soldiers meaner than certain soldiers of curs
were treated in the war just closed. I know what
I am talking about.
Do you want a million Pershings and “Hard
boiled” Smiths standing over you in free Ameri¬
ca? With a standing army of the size and char¬
acter he demands, President Woodrow Wilson
could proclaim himself Emperor of this nation
and the people would be almst helpless.
If this country rs to be saved, we haven't a
MINUTE TO LOSE.
of August, i§ 19.
L. E. BLANCHARD, Clerk,
GEORGIA—Columbia County.
X, L. E. Blanchard, Clerk of the
Superior Court of said County, do
hereby certify that the foregoing is
a true and correct copy of an ap¬
plication for a charter of the Ban¬
ner of Life Number Forty-nine as
the same appears on file in this
office.
WITNESS my official signature
and seal of said Court, this the 4th
day of August, 1919.
L. E. BLANCHARD, Clerk,
of Superior Court of
Columbia County, Ga.
ESTRAY NOTICE
GEORGIA—COLUMBIA COUNTY,
The following is a copy of an es
tray appraisemnt and discription,
which has this day been handed to
the undersigned.
This is to certify that Fred Stur¬
gis has this day exhibited to the un¬
dersigned freeholders of the 129th
Militia District of said County a cer¬
tain oow said to have been taken up
within said District as an estray, the
following is a discription of said ani¬
mal: A golden Fawn Color Jersey
malo weight about 500 lbs, about
1 % years old, of the short horn
strand of Jersey. We estimate said
animal to be worth ?30, and award
?7.00 to the said Fred Sturgis for
the taking up of said animal as
reasonable and just compensation
under all the circumstances.
This 12th day of July, 1919.
J. D. HOWELL, (F. II.)
R. R. MARSHALL, (F. H.)
This 22nd day of July, 1919.
P. B. MUNDY, Ordinary.
CITATION
GEORGIA—Columbia County.
To All Whom It May Concern:
John Bivens having applied for
guardianship of the persons and
property of Louise Bivens, age 20;«
Rachel Bivens, age 18; and Viola
Bivens, agel5; sisters of Barney
Bivens, late of said County, deceas¬
ed, notice Is given that said appli¬
cation will be heard at my office at
ten o’clock A. M., on the first Mon¬
day in Sept., next.
F. B. MUNDY, Ordinary
Coiumbia County.
This 4th Aug., 1919.
In his book
“SQCiALiSTS^MD SOCIALISM’'
Thos. E. Watson covers the
ground from a to z.
Price 25c Postpaid.
JEFFERSONIAN PUBLISHING CO.,
Thomson, Ga.
CITATION
GEORGIA—Columbia County.
Whereas, Mrs. John F. Carlisle,
Administrator of the said A. J.
Wheeler, represents to the the
court in her petition, duly filed and
entered on record, that she has
fully administered as required by
law on the A. J. Wheeler estate.
This is, therefore, to cite all per¬
sons concerned, kindred and credi¬
tors, to show cause, if any they can,
why the said Administrator should
not be discharged from her admin¬
istration, and receive Letters of Dis¬
mission on the first Monday in
September, 1919.
P. B. MUNDY,' Ordinary
Columbia County,
GEORGIA—Columbia County.
NOTICE AS TO LEGAL
ADVERTISEMENTS
The public is hereby notified that
on and after September 1st, 1919,
all legal advertisements for Colutn
bia County will be published in the
Columbia News, a newspaper pub¬
lished at Harlem, Georgia, instead
of in the Columbia Sentinel, wk^e
it has heretofore been published iy|
P. A. CRAWFORD, Sheriff,
Columbia County, Ga.
GEORGIA—Columbia County.
We, P. B. Mundy, Ordinary, P. A.
Crawford, Sheriff and L. E. Blan¬
chard, Clerk of the Superior Court
of Columbia County, hereby select
the Columbia News published at
Harlem, Georgia, Columbia County,
as the newspaper in which the offi¬
cial or legal advertising of the
County is to be pablished on and
after September 1st, 1919, instead
of in the Columbia Sentinel, the
paper in which the legal advertise¬
ments have heretofore been publish
ed.
This the 6th day of August, 1919.
P. B. MUNDY. Ordinary.
P. A. CRAWFORD, Sheriff
L. E. BLANCHARD, Clerk
GROVER C. EDMONDSON,
Attorney & Counsellor at Law,
Will handle litigation anywhere in Georgia
Offices: Moultrie, Georgia.
lilantaH W lull to soli one Aeto Sparkier. Oily Bed six
Ull weeks Address Ike Sentinel, Hadera, Gaj
