The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1898-01-21
Review OF Facts in
The Dreyfds Case


GP HE interminable "affaire Dreyfus''
has assumed a phase SO import
III ant that 1t seems to many OBJ
III servers to contain a threat against
the very existence OF the French
republic brief general review of the
case Is necessary to full understand
Ing of the situation.
Captain Dreyfus. an officer employed
Oh special duty at the French ministry
OF war was arrested, charged with hav-
ing sold important military secrets to a
foreign government. Captain Dreyfus Is
Hebrew. The impression was that the
foreign government concerned was Ger
many. Chauvinism and anti-Semitism
combined to excite tremendous out
burst OF popular wrath against Captain
Dreyfus, in which there was a very dis
tlnct element of dissatis faction with the
government and its administration of the
army. Dreyfus was tried by court t-mar-
tial in secret, and condemned. on what
proof the public has never been allowed
to know. A most impressive ceremony
was made of his military degradation,
and he was hurried off to his punishment
IN a sufiiciently sensational and spec
tacular manner. Popular indignation
had found victim and was satisfied. At
the time there was, everywhere outside
OF France, Il considerable doubt of Drey-
fuss guilt. and strong impression that
the French government was, for some
unknown reason, playing to the gal
lcry."
This feeling existed among thinking
men i'm France. Soon it began to be cx-
pressed. People began TO realize that
they had no reason, beyond the assur-
ance of the government, for believing
DreyfuS guilty: that they did not even
certainly know with exactly what act of
treachery he had been charged; that
even the identity of the foreign nation
in the case was doubtful. The secrecy
observed by the government was sus-
picious in itself and gave rise to ell
sorts of rumors. Captain Dreyfus be-
longed 10 rich and influential manu-
featuring family in Alsace. His brother
took up his cause enCrgeticaliy and fear
lessly. He accumulated evidence tend
ing 10 cast suspicion on the proceedings
of the court martial He demanded re-
hearing. lie found many influential ad-
herents. Men high in French politics.
some from conviction. others because
they were observation-disclosures, sup
ported his demand openly. Some of the
most influential and conservative French
newspapers allowed it to be perfectly ap-
parent that they favored Dreyfus' cause.
1t would manifestly have been the gov
tlilllltHt = WlStSl course, II IL nau conn.,
dence i'm its case and nothing to conceal,
to have either granted a rehearing or
silenced the demand for rehea ring by
producing the proof of Dreyfus's guilt.
1t did neither. Ii shuffied. 1t evaded. 1t
bullied. 1t gave excuses for the MAIN
tenance of secrecy tnat We're almost i'm
mediately proven futile. 1t alleged that
1t possessed confession from Dreyfus
which ii refused to produce, when chal-
lenged to do so. 1t appealed once more
to the Chauvinistic and anti-Semitic
sentiment to bring down the mob on it's
assailants. 1t raised the absurd cry that
the movement to rehabilitate an officer
of the French army accused of treason
was an attack on the honor of the army.
II acted exactly as if it were guilty of
crime or blunder that it was deter
mined at every hazard to conceal
o
Finally another French officer Count
Esterhazy, was publicly pointed out as