ar.
To-day she lies in solitary confinement. But her suffering only
inspires the others. In March 750 women walked to the Reichstag.
At the entrance they halted. As the members entered they
shouted, 'We will have no more war; we will have peace.' Quickly
the police dispersed them, and the order went forth that no
newspaper should print one word of the protest. Still the women
work on. On April 8, an International Socialist Woman's Congress
was held at Berne, Switzerland. Ten nations were represented,
including all the belligerents.

The task of peace propaganda in Germany is gigantic. Neither by
letter nor by Press can news be spread. Both are censored. The
work must be carried on by spoken word passed from mouth to
mouth. The courage of the little band of women I had met was
stupendous. Through them I learned to love Germany. So my life
in Berlin became a double one. I ate and slept, and was
unregenerate in one part of the town, and only really lived when
I escaped from respectability and, strange contradiction of
terms, became a criminal fighting for peace.

But wherever I was, one fact grew omnipresent. Germany was
magnificently organised. Here lay the country's power and her
weakness. Her power because it made Germany a unit. There were
no weak links in the chain. Her weakness, because it robbed her
people of individuality, made them cogs in a machine.

"Germany no longer cares whom she hurts," runs another passage in this
letter; "like an unloved child at bay she means, to smash and kill. The
pity of it! Never was there a more generous, soft-hearted, kindly
people. Germany, the land of the Christmas tree and folk songs, and
hearthsides and gay childish laughter, turned into a relentless fighting
machine! But each individual is a cog firmly fixed in the machine, which
will go ever on as long as the ruling power turns the crank."[73]

TWO SOLDIERS' LETTERS.

"If I were not firmly convinced that even this war will help to
establish the Kingdom of God I could hardly endure it. But I believe
that after passing through this hell humanity will come to itself and
learn to believe in the reign of human brotherhood.... I cannot tell you
the moral suffering I go through. These butcheries are utter madness. I
cannot forget for a moment that our enemies are men, and consequently
our brothers." So wrote a young German soldier stud