These inquiries into German atrocities were begun in the latter part of
September, 1914. Friends who had escaped from Belgium during the latter
part of August brought stories of German frightfulness that filled all
hearers with horror. Being unwilling to accept their testimony without
further evidence, I began a careful research, collecting letters,
magazine articles, testimony of eye-witnesses, books, photographs,
reports of the various commissions, by former Ambassador Bryce and
Professor Toynbee, with those of the Commissions of Belgium, France,
Poland, Serbia and Armenia. Last May, in the interest of the first
Liberty Loan, Mr. Lawrence Chamberlain and I made a tour of eighteen
states, speaking in some thirty-five cities, and often giving two,
three and even five addresses in a single day. Everywhere during that
tour we found public men raising the question, "What about the German
atrocities? Do they not represent falsehoods invented by the enemy
states?"
In the belief that this question was vital to the success of the second
and all subsequent Liberty Loans, and for the full awakening of the
American people, at the request of several bankers of New York, with
Mr. Chamberlain I sailed for France late in June, and returned to this
country in September. As guests of the British and French governments
we had every opportunity of visiting the devastated regions of Belgium
and France, and those long journeys through the ruined farms, villages
and cities brought the opportunity of conversing with hundreds of
victims of German cruelty, who gave us their testimony on the very
spots where the atrocities had been committed. At the request of Henry
M. and W. C. Leland of Detroit, and Richard H. Edmonds of Baltimore,
I have brought together this simple record of the bare facts that
came under our own personal scrutiny. In the nature of the case, many
atrocities that were carefully studied cannot be presented in this
report because the witnesses reasonably fear that their families, just
behind the German lines, might be made to suffer were their testimony
to become known. It should be added that Mr. Chamberlain will shortly
make his report from the view-point of the financier and investigator
of industrial conditions in Belgium and France.
The first two of the following chapters embody the substance of
addresses given in Brooklyn, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Washington,
Chicago, Indianapolis, and some thirty other cities during October,
1917, in connection with the Second Liberty Loan. The third
substantially presents views of addresses in Cincinnati, Louisville,
New Orleans, Houston, Los Angeles, Portland, Seattle, Salt Lake City,
Butte, Denver, and thirty other cities during the First Liberty Loan.
N. D. H.
_Brooklyn, N. Y., January, 1918._