The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1898-02-15
WHAT WILL COME OF IT.
Leading Paris Editors on the Zola
Situation

New York, Feb. ia dispatch to the
Herald from Paris says:
What will be the upshOt of the whole
business?" is a question that may be
asked with some profit at this juncture of
the Zola trial. The gravest anxiety OBJ
tains and the Gaulois goes so far as to
complain editOrially that anarchy pre-
street" and calls upon NJ. Felix Faure to
exercise his constitutional power and put
a stop to this state of things.
Following are the views of well known
Partisan journalists experienced in read
ing the signs of the times
CASTOR Calmette of the Figaro said: "a
fault has been committed, a fault which
should be attributed to the course of af-
fairs rather than to the men who have
brought about this campaign of revision.
The proper position to take is a strictly
legal one, and to ask but one question
in the parliament which communicated
against Dreyfus, without his knowledge,
to the court martial If he has been con-
victed in connection with a document
which he knows nothing about and of
which his counsel knew nothing then the
law, matter what was the fault of
Dreyfus. has been violated and the mat
ter should be revised
THE whole question is wrapped up in
that. Everyone could associate himself
in this Campaign, so far as justice is con-
cerned, but no one could do so properly
before the revision takes place, nor with
certainty have set in motion the question
of the innocence of Dreyfus. If the mat
ter had been viewed in this light, France
would have avoided one of the most ter
ribIe crises she has undergone since 1870
I speak of the republic, and this is the
first danger to the republic whuch can
involve such incalculable consequences. I
refer to the danger of the antago1lism now
springine into existence between the ju-
dicial system and the army. between the
gown and the sword, the antagonism be-
tween the political world and our army
staff
Henri Rochefort says: "zola will be
convicted. There is so great a pressure
of public opinion acting on the jury that
ore catnot M otG Psnd zoia does not
seem to be well defended and his counsel
seems to be dragging the affair out as
II don't think zola will go to prison. nor
do I think he will be obliged to pay fine.
After the trial is over its conclusions will
be considered by the court of cessation.
But suppose Zola is acquitted He will
not be able to show himself in public in
Paris, nor, for that matter, anywhere IN
France without personal danger to him
self He could not very Wen live in
Paris with bodyguard continually ABOUT
N. Judet of the Petit Journal says: 'T
consider the present situation very grave.
and this gravity is owing to the weakness
Ferdinand Xau of the Journal said:
1.-The extreme gravity of the situation
does not lie in the question of culpability
or Innocence of Dreyfus, but in the pas
sions of the various parties. The ques-
ton tends to separate into two camps, or
better yet. into two sects, the nation
whose unity has been in force and which
less than century ago proclaimed the
rights of man-that is to say, liberty of
opinion as regards politics and religion.
That is why there is reason to fear that
If some grain of common sense does not
enter into our heads. If our politicians
make use of divisions as a SPRING
board during the coming elections and
scatter hatred instead OF preaching ap-
peasement and Cancellation. or rather re-
Cancellation. the question will remain open,
paralyze business ana spread rum ana
discord in the country, what the heart
discord in the country What the heart
desires is to be left to work in peace,
sT1sI demands the right to consecrate itself
wholly and for its greater glory to the
success of a peaceful manifestation"