Almost immediately upon the invasion of Belgium the German authorities, in pursuance of their system of terrorization, shipped to Germany considerable groups of the population.  On October 12,1915, a general order was issued by the German military government in Belgium providing that persons who should “refuse work suitable to their occupation and in the execution of which the military administration is interested,” should be subject to one year’s imprisonment or to deportation to Germany.  Numerous sentences, both of men and women, were imposed under that order.

The wholesale deportation of Belgian workmen to Germany, which began October 3, 1916, proceeded on different grounds, for, having stripped large sections of the country of machinery and raw materials, the military authorities now came forward with the plea that it was necessary to send the labor after it.  The number of workmen deported is variously estimated at between one and three hundred thousand.

“The rage, the terror, the despair” excited by this measure all over Belgium, our minister, Brand Whitlock, reported, “were beyond anything we had witnessed since the day the Germans poured into Brussels.  I am constantly in receipt of reports from all over Belgium that bear out the stories of brutality and cruelty.

“In tearing away from nearly every humble home in the land a husband and a father or a son and brother, the Germans have lighted a fire of hatred that will never go out.  It is one of those deeds that make one despair of the future of the human race, a deed coldly planned, studiously matured, and deliberately and systematically executed, a deed so cruel that German soldiers are said to have wept in its execution, and so monstrous that even German officers are now said to be ashamed.”  Poland and the occupied parts of France experienced similar treatment.

CHAPTER VI

THE HOUR AND THE MAN

A beacon among the years—­trying period for president Wilson—­Germany
continues dilatory tactics—­peace efforts fail—­all honorable means
exhausted—­patience ceases to be A virtue—­enemy abandons all
subterfuge—­unrestricted submarine warfare—­German intrigues with
Mexico—­the Zimmermann note—­America seizes the sword—­war is
declared—­Pershing goes abroad—­first troops sail—­war measures—­war
operations

An enormous beacon light in history will attach to the year 1917.  The outstanding feature of course was the entry of the United States into the great war—­the deciding factor in the struggle.  It marked the departure of America from the traditional policy of political isolation from Europe.  History will record that it was not a voluntary, but a forced, departure, due to the utter disregard by Germany of our rights on the seas, at home and elsewhere.