The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-02-15
WHY FRANCE is EXCITED
INWARDNEss OF THE DREYFUs CASE
AS VIEWED BY AN FRESHMAN.
Fear of German-Jewish Mastery Con-
stantfy i'm the Minds OF Leading
Frenchmen-A Reign of Terror.
4. p. o'connor. in london Sun.

| up the Paris papers you are inclined to
| rush to the conclusion that the one sub
ject about which Paris thinks, writes,
| speaks, dreams at this moment is the case
of Dreyfus. The first question you are
asked, or, indeed, you ask. is what is your
opinion, is Dreyfus innocent or guilty?
Regarding it as a simple question of GRIM
inal procedure, you express either your
opinion or your absence of opinion openly
and temporarily, but you always observe
that IL you are speaking to a Paris journal
list he finds it necessary to lower his voice.
to look almost furtively around and espe-
cially if he believe in the innocence of Drey-
fus he expresses his opinion with palpable
timidity. You begin to appr eciate that you
are dealing, not with a mere trial of sim
gle Individual but with one of those COM
pick affairs which, like the pebble dropped
in the well, ever widens, divides and wdens
until it is hard to know where it will all
end. Indeed you hear all kinds of state
ments which make you think that you are
dealing with some event the end of which is
as impossible to foresee or to measure as
the forces set in motion by the simple peb
BILE from the well. A popular French paper
announced few days ago that France was
no longer dealing with a simple case of JUS
tice but the whole social future was threat
ened. Others take the less extreme view
that simply the existing institutions are
passing through a severe trial, while, as
will presently be seen, there are more to
abuse the whole business as a mere tempo
rary skeleton-a transient and exaggerated
episode
While there is a good deaf to be said for
the last scene, it would be absurd to deny
that the case has produced universal and
ministerial perturbation, that it touches on
all the machinery of the state, and that it
deals with passions and feelings which will
continue to profoundly influence the course
of public affairs in France for long time
to come. Let me try to explain how it comes
to pass that a simple military trial can have
such tremendous results. have to go back
for a second or two Everybody knows that
for some years the whole of France has
been shocked by successive revelations, Dy
universal and base corruption in high places.
Nobody seemed to be above suspicion.
Some years ago NJ. Burdeau, the president
of the Chamber of Deputies, was regarded
as the very highest type and nobleSt en-
bodiment Of the ideal Republican citizen,
which, a century after the close OF the
French revolution, still shines before the
French imagination as secular SsllnthOod, as
the typical martyr or missionary appeals to
the imagination Of the Christian. His pre-
mature death was lamented as national
calamity; he got great state funeral, and
his wife received a big pension. Well. some
years after all this, eviuence-whether good
or bad ! can't SAYS produced which re-
ports this austere and heroic Republican as
the leader in the treacherOuS scheme OF
parliamentary corruption. man of almost
equally great renOwn. one who had been
prime mmister-the late NJ. F1oquet-was
charged with being another of the instru-
ments of the Panama syndicate of corrup-
ton; and though | believe, 1t is fully adj
mitted that the hands of M Floquet were
clean and that his pi ematUre death through
a broken heart was a tragic confederation
of his denials. still the suspicion remained.
Other men who have held positions as high
the still living M. de treycinet, for in
stance-have been charged; iii fact, nobody
has escaped / cannot sum up the situation
i'm this respect better than in the words of
Il French deputy-a stanch Republican-as
sad words | have ever heard on the de-
scription of national condition. In the
days of the empire we believed in every
thing, now We believe in nothing
UNIVERSAL SUSPICION.
IL you go into this business little deeper
you will find how successfully this unver-
sal suspicioa, justified so largely by wide
spread and proved corruption, goes down to
the very roots of the French nations exist
ence. The matter does not end with the
fact that if the great parliamentary assem-
bly, of the Nation and its rulers are cor
rupt the Nation is in constant peril
though, of course, that is danger enough
A brave and well-organzed army, for in
stance. might under the Imaginable circum-
stances be able to defy even the villainies
and the corruption of senator's but that is
just where the last straw that has broken
the camel's back of French patience has
come in the present conflict. 1t is said that
some years ago there We're or two in
diViduals-the late M. Renach. who COM
nlitted suicide is one of them who had
all France under their thumbs. There was
a possibility at one moment of the whole
telephone service of the country, for in
stance, being in the hands of one of these
foreigners. one can understand what use
could be made of such a power in times of
peace, and still more in times of war. Then
there are quite appalling stories of how
army contracts-the supply OF food on
which any army depends for existence and
effectiveness as on arms and ammunition
having also been within an inch of coming
under the control of one of these foreigners
ana you can understand what a patriotic
Frenchman feels when he thinks that his
army might be starved or poisOned-for i'm
the first morbid state of the public mind
no suggestion is too evil or too horrible
at the signal of some foreign enemy to
whom the whole fate of the army had been
betrayed by a corrupt politician.
1t Will now be understood why it is that
the charge against Dreyfus came with such
Il shock on the public of France. Here was
q realization of the darkest and most ter
rible fear OF what use were the tremen-
dcu sacrifices which the country was max
ing every year for the maintenance of the
army-the sacrifice of billions of money, the
even greater sacrifice of years of the lives
from every child of the country-and when
the Aiolicut Ol cOllIllcl came the WnOle
army was ready to be handed over to the
eLomy-betrayed, Sold and prepared for
slaughter, so that the pockets of some
greedy and heartless foreign financer
might be further swollen with il-gotten
gold! 1t was most unfortunate for Drey-
frs-it was still more unfortunate for
France-tt was most unfortunate of al for
the Jews of France-that Dreyfus was q
jew AT once an element of prejudice was
introduced. and of prejudice that did not
stop with Dreyfus alone. 1t is not enough
that Freedmen are convinced that Dreyfus
had fair trial. and they point to the fact
that the Dreyfus case Crea ted stir, and.
therefore, demanded and obtained a
81 eater and minuter care than
IL he had been a Christian as a
proof that his religion and his race did NOT
initiate against Dreyfus. Unfortunately
treason IS not an unknown offense in the
French or, indeed. in other armies and
within the last few years there have been
two or three cases in which there was pre-
ciSCly the same charge as in that of Drey-
fUs. In those cases there was almost the
same conviction, and the difference lay in
the fact that these convicted men were al
| lowed TO get their punishment without noise
appeal in their favor. On the other hand,
II would be impossible to deny that the
prejudice against jews is powerful ia many
sets of French society still and that the
prejudice has been greatly strengthened by
the fact that some of the foreigners who
Jews. and. what is worse, were Jews Of
German birth. IT IS not remembered, of
course, that the men corrupt ed were al
most without an exception Christians and
Frenchmen; social and religious prejudice
is not so rational in its judgments. The
resented. is more conspicuous than the
crimes of one hundred Christians, but that