BELGIUM'S PLIGHT 



437 



There was not a street, there was not 

 an alley, where the shrieking of women 

 did not deafen your ears. 



So they went. Then we saw them come 

 back, too. I read the reports the next 

 day in the paper at Brussels of how Ger- 

 many had announced to the United States 

 that, in her great mercy, she was taking 

 the idle working men of Belgium in order 

 that they might earn enough in Germany 

 to keep their families provided with 

 plenty of funds back in Belgium. Yes, I 

 read this, and every other edict issued by 

 Germany, and I found no truth in them. 



I saw them come back in the cars. We 

 carried the corpses out of the cars ; we 

 carried the poor, broken wretches to the 

 hospitals after three weeks of work in 

 Germany. 



They took me out to the front and I 

 tried to get through. It was impossible. 

 They did not want me to learn the truth. 

 But I got a man through and back to me, 

 and he told me what they did, what they 

 had done with the men there. They tried 

 to put them in the trenches and make 

 them dig. What had been the result? 



THE UNCONQUERABLE COURAGE OE 

 MARTYRS 



Those men, filled with love for then- 

 country, refused to work ; so they took 

 twelve of the best of them and tied their 

 hands to posts outside of the city and let 

 them hang there for thirty-two hours 

 without nourishment, and then they 

 fainted or died rather than fight against 

 their brothers in the trenches ! That is 

 just one of the stories of the courage of 

 those men over there ! 



I see them again across those terrible 

 swamps, up to their waists in the mire 

 and dirt, shot at with blank cartridges in 

 order to make them sign the contracts so 

 that Germany might publish to the world 

 that they were willing workers ; that they 

 had come from Belgium to Germany in 

 order to execute the work they needed so 

 much. 



It is for you to bring these scenes be- 

 fore the public. You cannot all fight, but 

 you can bring these scenes before the 

 public and help those who do fight. 



I will tell you about one man who stood 

 beside me in Valenciennes. He came to 



me in the early morning and said, "I can- 

 not work any more ; I have got to leave." 



I said, "You are the captain of your 

 own soul. You know what you are do- 

 ing." 



"Yes," he said, "I have stood this as 

 long as I can ; I have got to quit." So 

 he quit and left the work because it was 

 too horrible. 



What is the sequel? Today, in these 

 early spring days, he is leading his Brit- 

 ish soldiers into battle because he pre- 

 ferred to fight rather than to see the Ger- 

 man officers opposite him, with his hands 

 tied. He fights the hardest because he is 

 once more approaching that little country 

 which he loves so much. 



ARE WE "THE MOST GENEROUS PEOPLE IN 

 THE WORLD?" 



You are going to make an appeal to 

 this country. You are starting to do so. 

 On behalf of the Commission for Relief 

 in Belgium, six or seven weeks ago, I 

 talked one day in Boston. After the 

 meeting the Bishop of Massachusetts was 

 so kind as to say he would come to the 

 house where I was going to dine that 

 evening. 



You are as well acquainted with the 

 fact as I am that the Bishop of Massa- 

 chusetts made the most successful appeal 

 to this country ever made in the raising 

 of church pension funds. The task was 

 believed impossible — that task in wdiich 

 he succeeded beyond the sum which even 

 he expected to raise. 



He turned to me that evening and his 

 first words were these : "You are going 

 to have the best time of your life appeal- 

 ing to this country for funds. You are 

 going to deal with the most generous 

 people in the world, and you are going to 

 deal with their best impulses." 



I have found it to be the case ! I ap- 

 proached with hesitancy, with timidity. 

 I am no speaker, least of all one who can 

 make a successful appeal, especially to 

 those I have known best. When I asked 

 for hundreds, I received thousands. 

 When I asked for thousands, I received 

 tens of thousands. 



It showed me that our people are alive 

 to the fact that now they must give, and 

 Sfive with both hands ; that now no longer 



