Page 29 - 1919 September - To Dragma

22 TO DRAGMA OF ALPHA OMICRON PI

REPORT O F WAR-WORK COMMITTEE

L I L L I A N M C C A U S L A N D , Chairman

B EFORE making this report, I wish to state frankly that in my
youth I attended a German school, where only German was
spoken, that I am supposed to speak the language as well as my native-
tongue, that I knew intimately the customs of the country, that I was
taught to believe in the might, power, and unfailing right of Ger-
many, that I believed that the placing on the Brandenburger Thor
of the decoration captured from the French was the crowning act of
glory in the winning of the Franco-Prussian war. I knew that
Wilhelm I I was not the Emperor of Germany but the German
Emperor and King of Prussia. I knew the literature and art of the
country, and after leaving school, kept in touch with the advancement
of scientific discoveries. I n other words, I believed the Germans a
quiet, gentle, studious nation. I was predisposed i n their favor.
When war was declared I was astounded, and when the advance was
made on Belgium I was appalled. A t that time I saw one of the
early productions of the Battle Cry of Peace and was so impressed
that I made a remark that was much quoted to me afterwards: " I ' d
like to have a hall and have every millionaire i n this country i n it,
and show them that film. I , for one, am going to learn to shoot."

Even then, the war seemed more or less vague, far away, and im-
personal. But almost at once, it came nearer to me and was very
real. I was asked to collaborate in the translation of some letters,
written by people in Belgium to an acquaintance of mine, who had
lived there for eighteen years. They were very personal and intimate,
the sort of letters that you receive from your best friends. They
gave the truest picture of the German invasion that it is possible to
have known. They told how troops entered homes, how they killed
the writer's chauffeur by pulling out his lungs with an automobile
hook, how they tortured the cure' of the village for no fault at all.
how they herded all the men for a considerable radius in the public
square and shot them. One of the letters was from a man whose
wife went down on the Lusitania. Although it was before America
entered the war, we did not dare to publish certain parts of these
letters.

When the Americans entered the lists, we all responded. Our
youth went across; all the reserves of .the world were out. We who
were left behind had work to do. just as vital and necessary as that
which the boys were doing in the trenches, on the sea, in the air. We
had to send aid. The call came and our fraternity responded. Our