A, , 'I- " 0 EVENING PUBLIC LEDGER PHILADELPHIA, WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 31, 1919 it Cardinal Mercier s Story Including His correspondence with the German authorities in Belgium during the war, 1914 to 1918, edited by Professor Fernand Maence of Lourain University and translated bv the Bene dictine Monks of Si. Augustine's, RsmK.te. England. Government General of Belgium, lirusscls, June ',, 1916. f0 Ht3 Eminence Caidinal Merrier, Archbishop of MalineB. Your Eminence will agiee with vie in regretting the breaches committed by priests againtl the oc cupying power and the convictions that have been tw inevitable result. From the petitions for pardon addressed to me I am bound to infer that a multitude .of hardships arise from the fact that priests, have to be torn from their ministry to go arid suffer the pen alties incurred. These convictions must beyond meas ure be regretted, since the respect and dignity be longing to the priestly state aie thereby impaired Yet tVe people do not cease repeating that the fire of patriotism ts a valid excuse for these priests. On the other hand, they try to find extenuating circum stances for them by saying that they are constrained to respond to the patriotic spirit of the population, even though they are aware that by acting in Ihii manner they are transgressing my regulations. I must declare that this opinion misconstmes completely the juridicial position of the population in the occupied territory toward the occupying power. For The Hague convention (Article XLIU), which im poses on vie the duty of watching over the good order and well-being of the country, was ratified in 1910 by the representatives of Belgium. It has thus the binding force of a law of the land, to which all the population, the clergy included, are bound to 3ttbmit. I should have to reproach myself with breaking the law if for special reasons I agree to make an exception in favor the clergy. In the administra tion of justice, the law does not allotv any distinction of persons. I should place myself in conflict with the prerogative of pardon if I consented to remit alto gether in favor of the condemned the punishment in- regf flicted-on them, without, at the same time, taking vnlq account iiui me case oj certain ruipaoie pneai.s, wno have been brought to trial, exclude every act of par don. There is but one way for priests to avoid these condemnations; they must observe a calm attitude and vot meddle in politics. And it is on that account that I appeal to your Eminence and beg of you to prevail on your subordinates, in the exercise of their ministry and in their general conduct, to abstain from all political activity, and still more vot to render themselves guilty of grave breaches of regulations. I attach the utmost importance to this, that they keep from circulating clandestine publications, an of fense of which latterly they have often been guilty. May I implore your Eminence to inform me if I can count on your co-operation for this object? Moreover, I only ask for the observance of the pledges which the bishops have given for the correct ness of the clergy's attitude. I present to your Eminence the expression of my sincere esteem. (Signed) BARON VON BISSING, Lieutenant General. Archbishop's House, Malines, June 23, 1916. To His Excellency Baron von Biasing1, Governor Gen eral, Brussels. Your Excellency kindly writes in your esteemed letter of June 4 (No. 5139) that you deplore the penalties inflicted on our priests by the military tri bunals. But, ns to these penalties, you regard them as fully justified, because necessary for tho main tenance of public order, of which The Hague conven tion Intrusts to you the keeping. The clergy, moreover, can lay no claim to a priv ilege that would withdraw them from justice, nor to a continuous application of a right to pardon. Thern is only one method by which the clergy can escape judicial penalties, namely, to abstain from political action. Your Excellency begs my co-operation for the attainment of this result; and you appeal to the understanding come to by the Belgian bishops, in the name of the clergy, with the occupying power. Such is, I believe, a faithful summary of the dis patch of June 4 to which my ministerial engagements have to my regret hindered me from replying sooner. Your Excellency has good reason to deplore the severe treatment which our priests have to suffer. I also render homage to the loftiness of this sentiment and I share it with you very heartily. Belgium Is Still Independent With you I am concerned for the public order, but I do not agree with you as to the means of Bafeguarding it. The bishops and the clergy have a dutv to be the foremost unholders of order. Thev Ij" know it, but they know also that Belgium, their coun- ' trv. ia still, thank God. independent and that it would be iniquitous and rash to .treat it like a conquered country. Germany, which today occupies a very great por tion of our provinces, but which the fortune of war may tomorrow driye back across our borders, is a belligerent nation. Belgium is also a belligerent nation. Neither of the two is victorious; neither has the right to enslave the other. In spite of the military occupation of a great part of her provinces, our Belgian fatherland has not ceased to be of right an autonomous sovereign nation. Our respect and lovo for the soil ancj for our Belgian liberties are then for all of us an honor and u duty. To realize this honor and to preach this duty forms part of tho clergy's social mission. In theso troubled times in which we live each soul has the right to ask of bis pastor; What is my duty? Who represents in my case authority? What have I to do to render to God the things that are of God and to Caesar the tilings that aro Caesar's? Well, sir, apart from some heated expressions ', Vhicn escape at times from even the most cautious, r BELGIAN FATHERLAND HAS NOT CEASED TO BE SOVEREIGN NA TION" "Still Independent' Cardinal Mercier Says, "and It Would Be Iniquitous to Treat 4i j; It Liho-.aConquercd Country" "Sole Authority for Conscience Is ,. King Albert and His Government?' Explanatory Comment H"IHE legal argumenta'advanced by Cardinal Mercier In tho appended letter to Von Bissing were closely in accord with tho prevailing sentiments of tho leading members of the Belgian bar. Prominent among theso patriotic spokesmen was tho Batonnier Theodor, president of the Order of Advocates in Brussels. At a comparatively early date in the period of the Gorman occupation Maitre Theodor addressed a courageous protest to the Governor Genetal. It wnq typical of the Cardinal's viewpoint from tho beninninc I "Rogardlng matters as a whole, without passion or paitiulity, tho lawyer," insisted Theodor, "cannot fall to recognize that everything in the German judicial organization in Belgium is contrary to the principles of justice. It is justice without a check; the judge is committed to himself that is to his impressions, his prejudices and his environment. The prisoner is abandoned in his dishess to an unaided struggle with his all-powerful adversary. "This justice, which is controlled and, theiefore, without guarantee, constitutes for us the most dangerous and oppressive illegality. Wo do not regard justice ns n judicial or moral possibility without freedom of defense. Freedom of defense that is to say, light shed upon all the elements of the trial; tho public making Itself heard In tho hoart of tho praetorium, the right to &ay everything in the most tcspectful manner, and also uio courage uj uaro ovqryuniir, piucuu iic me service of misfortune, justice and inn law. u i one hi ine conquests of our domestic history; it is the foundation stone of individual libeit. "What are your sources of inf orcnation ? "Apart from the judges of the court, they ate the secret police and the infoimeis." in the heat of delivery and which cannot be taken literally when it is a question of estimating the gencial spirit of n social class, the preaching of the clergy has not overstepped, in safeguarding patriot ism, the limits which I have just defined. A score of times 1 have personally examined the sermons that have been denounced by the civil authority or by the military couit.s. I have always found that the ac cused preacher had simply affirmed, without affiont to the occupying power, that the Belgian fatherland is whole and united, that the sole legitimate authority lor the Belgian conscience is King Albert, his gov ernment, his magistracy and his army. Von der Goltz's Promise Were you willing, Excellency, to grasp this ele mentary truth of jurisprudence, the conflicts be tween us would come to an end. Your picdecessor, the late Karon von der Goltz, had understood it. It is a rash thing for you to wish to do violence to the noblest feeling of a people's conscience. "I asl: of no one," he said in a proclama tion issued at Biussels, September 2, 1914, "I ask ot no one to l enounce his patiiotic sentiments." Your Excellency h:m not disavowed this noble pioclamation. It is in showing lespect for our patiiotic feelings that the occupying power will find the most solid guarantee for public older. The Belgian bishops an ticipated this lespect when, on February 5, 1915, in the agreement to -which your letter alludes, they wrote: The bishops have no intention to stiike a blow at public older; and if ever a member of the clergy, were in this tegaid foigetful of his duty, or if the Geiman authorities regarded him at, such, we ask but one thing, namely, that the case be bioughl befoie the bihhop of the diocese to which this mem ber of tho clergy is found to belong." Your Excellency appeals to Article XL.III of The Hague convention and reminds us that Belgium was a party thereto. Wo ure awaie of it. We make all the articles of the convention our own and earnestly demand their application. But this Aiticle XLIII precisely requires the occupying power to insuie as far as possible public order "by respecting, except in the cse of absolute necessity, the laws in force in the country occupied." Apply to us the Belgian constitution wheiever it refers to the liberty of religious preaching, biing be fore our ecclesiastical court doubtful cases. In this way you will do what is most prudent and most just to insure the order of public life, "by respecting, save in absolute necessity, the laws in force in the country." Has not the nuthod adopted by the Belgian epis copate and followed by the clergy established its repu tation ? Very soon two years will nave elapsed since our people have haa to put up with the foreigner, bis icquisitlons, his domiciliary visits, his threats, his condemnations; but not a si'igle revolutionary blow has been struck. Not one of jour soldiers has been molested. In my own tuin, Baron, I confidently state my conclusions. We are bound both of us, one in the civil and military order, the other in the religious and moral order, to work together for the public wel fare. As our point of departure let us take the law, I mean the law both natural and intei national, which lecognizes the moral sovereignty of Belgium as a country. Without attacking the occupying power and beyond any danger of revolt, let this Christian pa triotism be maintained which, in a pastoral letter long before the war, I did not hesitate to call a re ligious virtue, i. e., "the piety of patriotism." I do not deny that you have your part to play when you close all avenues leading abroad, and you arrest those of our fellow countrymen who attempt to cross the frontiers; but do not treat as traitors these heroic young fellows who, at the lisk of their liberty and their life, have the ambition to go and enroll themselves in our armies. Tolerate no longer the military courts that regard the purest civic vir tue as treason. No longer condemn the teachers of youth for having approved, or for not having disapproved, a legitimate desire for the exercise of valor; do not inflict imprisonment or fine for their ailing to de- nounco to the vengeance of your tribunals a pupil, perhaps a spiritual son. , WOULD YOU? By FANNIE HURST Mrs. Yanci Itifkin lends her daugh ter, Lee, in her place as mannikin to a polo game on tho day before her eighteenth iccdding anniversary, to exhibit a suit made by Mr. Itifkin, a tailor. Yanci and Zctta, her sister-in-laic, go for a walk, and Yanci, who is not feeling well, stops at the doctor's. Alir.ANK-l'ACnO, sinister-looting door when rlosod, mid from the stiff t not unlike the blind face of n G r a e a . who, waiting for her eye, looks in wmd. When slip emerged from thnt door ngain, the w arm sun had Kone, leaving the g r n y niicll which s 1 1 o t c h c s, like a gnng Iilnnl; from ilny over into darkness. In the square of park, walks w ere sml A wintry staie - ..--mm w?xjAiwm iJLs. . ?''..! '.; ss a. I ,SSSfc. r.Nvii: urnsT denh i linn of eliildien nod set m As she stood for n moment upon the topmost stop, in her obvious blouse and the while llesh gleaming through, n piank of wind lolloped up. ediljing around hei She did not shiver ; walked iinn n (lie steps and southward five h!n(li until Second nenne meets Twelfth itreet The red was so cleurlv 'defined now thnt her cheeks spread from It stiu I; white. At nn apartment house piiliuriu', hanked on two sides by a coiifn tioner's and n iljelng and clean ing establishment, she tinned into a doorway tilled with dusk. When she cntcied the front room ot her apart ment two flights up, the furniture sank into the hnlf-daikness with the white keys of the upright pinno grinning through that darkness, Miss Zctta Itif kin. in the kitchen scraping a knife agninst fish scales, sang as she scraped : I love my love in the springtime, 1 loe mv love In the fall: Through all the changing seasons, Mrnin mm, ninim mm, in nun in -m -in. Mrs. Itifkin sat down on the edge ot the first chair in the loom She was tiemhllng now. and sitting then' in the dimness a chill took hold of her and quick tiemors inn up and down beneath her skirt. I love my love in the xpiingtimo. 1 low my loe in the fall! Her hut, flushed backward against the w.ill. fell to the lloor and she scraped tier chair forwnid to I each for it, hut sat back ngnin, hugging herself ngulnst nervous shudders. "Yniii'i. that jou?" "YesZctt." 'Tor the love of heaven, when- jou been keeping yourself?" She nppuued suddenlv in the door way, the yellow light fioni the kitihen for background, sparser and taller in a long-sleeved apinu arid franklv indo lent et heniug. "I'gh, I I'm told." "Then, what you sitlin' heie in the dark foi V" "Don't, don't: No light '.HI !" With n quick forvvaid step Miss Itif kin giasped the hunched liguie by Hie shoulders, shaking her. "Yanci, you sickV Yanci? "iuuie go. 'I'akc your hands off. Quit!" She jerked back fiom the close si asp and moved sideways into the uedioom, garilant and eyeing her vaillv "Yanci, you gone rituyV" "You lemme alone!" "Yunci, let Zettie light the gjs What's got vou. darling? Sunslioke? Hydrophobia? Tor God's sake, wli.it"'" The loom sprang into yellow glaie and a biass bedstead, heavily dressed in liiufcHels net over pink, and u diesser festooned w ith the same lfrus-cls net nnd laid out in nil the (ieimau silvei artiiles of u woman's artifices. A tier man silver vase of pink paper iom fiand against tho mirioi." On the Brussels net spread, she '.it down loosely with her back round and her eyes storms out ahead. She was still tienibllng. "auci, if jou don't tell me whin s got you, I'll go crazy. You been run over, girl? Hit In the hc.iil? Doped?" She could not articulate but sat there, her two hands pressing against her throat, "Yanci, you been hit In tho head. There's your pocka-book, they didn't get that I Lookn, Yanci, you'ro home safe. Sec, sitting on your own bed with Zett got you In her old arms." "I I " "That's right, darling, tell Zett. Don't let j'our jaws get stuck like that. Tell Zettie. You was walking along and all of n sudden " "No. No. No." "Yanci, you been to the grand old man? Is is it anything to do with the grand old man? Yanci!" "I I'm gone, Zett." "(lone where? In God's name, Yanci, gone where?" She fell to whimpering and lying for ward with her face Hearing her knees. "Gone. You don't know it, but I'm gone, Zettie " "You got something - something catching?" She would only weave to nnd fro, plucking up the new coveilet. "Ynnci, you won't tell your Zettie? Your old Zettie you used to come to with all jour troubles when you was nothing but a little whip stitcher in the shop. Ynnci?" "I no no." "Ynnci, jour old Zett' Why long nfoie Ilemy hlsself even knew there was such a person ns his little wife Nitting up theic nt five a week taking oiilns o n me, wnsn't you runnln' to jour old Zettie with everything? Huh? Huh. Ynnci?" "Oh God." "Thnt time your old landlady down in Attorney street got to locking you guls out nights. Hcmemlier? And the lninbin' 1 give jou nnd that fast crowd of gnls jou got to runmn' with. Ite ineinber? And how it straightened you out. You jou was the gient one way back thcie for runniu' to your old Zettie, nil right. You sure wua, Ynnci. You gone buck on your old Zettie?" "1 can't cnn'tl" "Itemeniber that lime, dniliu', you was riding around with thnt fat old geeer, Jerry Kessler, and I put a stop to it. showing you how he wns riding jou to hell In that little slick runubout of his. Itemeniber the night Henry tiist nsked jou to walk out with him, how you came runniii' to jour old Zettie nnd " "Oh, God, Zettie, I icmeiiihci I le ineiiihei. Hold me tight, Zettie. Hold me tight." Ten is came so fast and flowed so scnldingly over her words that she was In a choking fienzy, beating her small tight fists and bieuthing in sluuldcis iltitvvn deep from the inneis of hei. "1 I vvuit in Zett, went in jou know, just just nut thiukln'." ' In where, Yanci?" "lie's smli an old lodge, always guv in' nnd Uddtn', nnd 1 I jitt wnsn't thinkin'." Who. Yanci? Who!" "I says to him, 1 mijs. when the gill let me in. 1 says, 'Hello gland old man, it's a fine dav for spring hats and spring fever.' .lust like that guyin'." "Uh-huli!" "He he kindn laughed nnd kept pullln' at his bean), jou jou know the way ho does, Zett." "Uh-huh!" "And and put me over in that kind of dentist's chair next to the window and took oft my hat hlsself and kept smoothing down mv hair and me never thinkin'. and and oh, my God, it should have come over me then, the Special Offer fo Your Blue, Brown Army Overcoat Dyed BUck or $3Q0 Send by panel post If nut of town. Mo cult nnd del her. I'lionc; I'oplnr 7000 1113 Clirotnut St. S. H. Cor. Rid A, iiimani Sts. 5517 Grrmantown Atrnue CLEANERS AND DYERS JlSi wmK 1616-28 N. 21st Street HAPPY NEW YEAR $2.00 TURKEY DINNER SERVED FROM 1 P. M. TO 8 P. M. MENU M OYSTERS Rockajr Salti on tho JUlf Shell SOUP Clear Oreen Turtlo on tis; Oslery Queen Olivet FISH filet of Solei Florentine PoUtcei Ducheise ROAST Stuffed Vermont Turkey Cranberry Sauce Mashed Potatoes or Sweet Potatoes Impertil ritlts Pott A'U FnncaUo . Combination Salad DE8SEBT3 Mlnoo, Pumpkin Flo er Enrlith Plum Fuddtnr, Hard Sauce Neapotltamlce Crenm . .. Fncy Cakes CAFE NOIH After Dinner Mints FAMOUS SHORE DINNERS M:icvr.n am, dav TURKEY ON THE LAST COURSE "Do Not Punish Charity" No loiter make it a crime for generous .souls to furnish a morsel of bread, an alms, a temporary shel ter to tho man of the people who tears himself away from his fireside to fly to the defense of his father land. Do not punish charity. Do not set traps for noble young fellows by in viting them to furnish or transmit correspondence or uncensored documents to keep recruits and to be tray companions in misfortune. When a wretched young fellow is arrested, do not uselessly prolong his preventive detention. Grant him counsel to sustain him and to defend him before his judges He has that right; sec to it that there is some proportion between the crime and the pen alty. Stop the promiscuous awarding of penal servi tude, the pain of death, as deterrent to breaches of the law. We claim for the clergy neither exceptional reg ulations nor a systematic application of the right of pardon. We only want a genuine interpretation of the law. Is it not astounding, in truth, that Belgians are reduced to ask for strict justice ? When the German army invaded our territory, the Chancellor of the empire avowed in the face of the world that Germany was violating our rights; ho promised to leave nothing undone to repair our wrongs. It is not then tho simplo respect for justice that we ought to look for at her hands but earnest good-will, n spirit of reparation, an efficacious desire to reduce for us to a minimum all tho dfsagrceablo consequences of an occupation unjustifiable from Its very inception. Receive, sir, the assurance of my slncero esteem. (Signed) D. J. CARDINAL MERCIER, Archbishop 'of Malines, (CONTINUED TOMORROW) VunuripM, 1919. by Jublia Ledger Co CoDvrtoht, Canada, I J 19, 6y Public l.(igtr Cn, International Copyrluht, 1SIV. py i'tiKie Loiter Co. 'osemotifc Gale 14 So.2ndSt. "ffljfc 1 seldom fails to relieve itching That torturing rash from which you suffer can be speedily relieved and doubt less cleared away by using Resinol Oint ment. It is a mild, healing preparation, prescribed by doctors for many years, and used not only for severe skin troubles, but as a general household remedy for burns, scalds, chafings, etc. It is so gentle and soothing, it can be used on the tendcrest and most irritated skin without fear. Sold by all druggists way ho kept looliln' nt me. It should bave." "What, ynnci?" "ltut It didn't." "What didn't?" "I Just lnlil back and looked up sassy anil Kays, 'Well, grand old man.' I nays to hi in, I snyo, 'Ih It the tired-fcclInK ward for mine?' IIo didn't answer and kept lookln' at my card all the time, and he turned to mo, Zott, and lie fays to me, he snys, "Mrs, Klfkln he says, 'can your husband come here with you later In the afternoon?' All of. a sud den Zett, when he said that, it It was like somebody bad took iny heart in their hand like It wni a bird. I I Rot up out of the chair quiet like and I snys, 'No, Doctor Stowoskl; why?' Oh oh" "Yes, jcs. dnrlin'." "He tapped his filasscs on big finser nnd kept lookin' out of the window. 'Why?' I snys again louder. 'You got a condition there,' ho sa4 to me. A condition he called it. 'A condition I wannn talk over with you and your " "Oh. my darlln'." " 'Whut condition. Doctor." I savs, crnbbin bli arm. I hollered it, Zettie; I couldn't lulp It. Oh. my God, right nway from his face something seemed to tell mo something. J-I can't tell no more, Zett. Cun't! I I just got it out of him. somehow. I got it out of him, getting him where be he couldn't ilnssn't IIo. Ho didn't wanna toll me. I5ut I got it, Zettie got it out of him !" "Wlint Yanci?" "I got something so jaw-breaking the mntter with mo, darling, you can't say it after inc. ltut I understand. First time he (.aid, 1 knew it by heart. Fun ny. It it uoer struck mc before my symptoms and all. It's what Lilllo I.egliisku had, Zott " "No. No. No." "I'er pernicious nneniia " "Yiincl, my (!od. Nn. No." "My blood's gone, Zett. All gone. Funny? Turning white Red cor eor-puH-eli'H all gone. Seen it on a piece of glass he showed mc. Nothing In Ood's name can bring 'em bark. At my stage a a year, ho said, Zett, a year at the outside. A year left for mc, Zett, and so much to dol Ho much to do I So much to do!" And slio fell forward, a huddle. Tho minutes marched post, broken with the sobbing nnd tho strangling ncd the weeping noises of two women, A cnt with a bell on Its neck anihle In bumping Us sleek sides along Miss Itifklu's outflung foot. "He's lyin', Xancll" Tho grnnd old man don't lie. Can't you sco joursclf, nil ot a sudden now. Ynnci, how Just like mc and UlHo used to lay down her hands In her lap with no strength In 'cm and kind of panting for breath like." "Oh, my God!" "Hold mo, Zcttlo. Hold m tight." "My little darling. We nlwan told you that you'd kill yourself, slicking too close to tho job." "Ho much to do, Zett, and only a ycnrl Ho much to dol" CovurtoM, tilt), lu Wheeler Sinttteatu (CONTINUDD TOMORROW) 1872 1920 We wish you Health, Happiness and Prosperity during the New Year Accept our thanks for favors received during 1919 S. Kind & Sons, mo chestnut si. DIAMOND MERCHANTS JEWnLIinS SILVERSMITHS fffiogogo , -ggfgg STRAWBRIDGE &CLQTHIBR Happy New Year! rHE STORE will be closed to-morrow. New Year's Day. It is like the boundary be &K. tveen two States not visibly different from the days either side of it, yet univer sally observed as a holiday, when we all of us pause to look backward and forward, considering wherein we might have done better and wherein we shall do better in the year ahead of us. This Store has had a successful year, and it may not be out of place to say it has served its customers well. We believe those who have de pended upon us have enjoyed certain advantages, as regards satisfying assortments, reliable quali ties of merchandise and excellent values. , We are in a position to assure our customers of equally great advantages during the coming year, and the first practical demonstration of our ability in this regard will be our January Sales, beginning Friday, January 2. These Sales are economy events of unusual import ance. Very large stocks of merchandise, owned at much below present market value, will be sold at prices based on the lower cost. If you need merchandise in any of these lines, you cannot afford to miss these Sales : Muslin Underwear and kindred lines; Women's Suits, Coats, Dresses, Furs and Waists; Men's Winter Clothing; Housekeeping Linens and Bedfurnishings besides January Clearances of re mainder lots and special purchases in other departments. STRAWBRIDGE & CLOTHIER mmrrM-sm We Want Moderate Accounts N'O one need hesitate to open an account here because his balance will be small at first. - Wc are glad to have moderate accounts be cause it has been our experience that many small accounts increase steadily and if you arc consider ing opening a bank account however small we should be glad fo have you call on us. Commercial Trust Company City Hall Square West Member Federal Reserve System V i v x. rr i. . -ItfiwUt; wrtte.ji mmmspmaem