The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1899-08-07
N Is ALL POLITICS.
There Is Nothing Else In the Dreyfus
Affair.


New York Aug. IN. ]. Cornelly
Of the Paris Figaro cables to the
Herald:
THE Dreyfus affair will not be ended
with the trial at Rennes.
Suppose Dreyfus is condemned. The
adversaries of the army will not aban-
don the campaign they have started
against it and which, for that matter,
has not produced any appreciable re-
suit, since it has not diminished by a
centime the appropriations made for
military purposes, nor Hghtened the
sacrifices which the country gladly &C
cepts for its army nor interfered in the
least degree with the discipline that
obtains in that same army
so in the same way, the Intellect
uals' who have reasoned out their con-
viction of the prisoners innocence will
not renOunce that conviction on the
strength Of a trial with closed doors,
secret documents, or gratuitous as
severatiOns. They want good current
in verdict of guilty 1t will be neces-
sary to prove to them by irrefutable
arguments that they have been mis-
taken.
IF. on the other hand, Dreyfus is
acquitted, one must be excessively
naive to imagine that the people who
have played their last card on his guilt
will accept their failure without a word
and betake themselves quietly to their
homes saying, we shall have better
luck next time
THE fact of the matter is that the
Dreyfus affair is the Dreyfus affair
only for a few simple and honest peO-
pie like you and me. As far as the
others are commemorative political
sharpers and the immense crowd of
their dupes-'the affaire Dreyfus' is
merely a new episode in the stubborn
fight they have been waging for a quar-
ter of a century to possess themselves
of the power they lost by their blunders
and imprudence. The political parties
1ax r-ai Ga6 fhaiT dG nd zT1ff
which way the wind is blowing. The
BoulangiSt coalition has been renewed;
the anti-Semites and Nationalist are
on the Warpath; the CaeSarean army is
being reconstructed; the Bonapartists
come out followed by the ROyalistS,
cherishing a fond hope of making the
movement serve their purposes.
These parties are well aware that
successful street risings are no longer
possible and that even were they pos
sible they would not be in favor of re-
action. Popular disturbances, however,
would give the reactionists a chance to
gain control of the army. But would it
not be an even more admirable plan to
gain control of the army without any
street disturbances
THAT is why the honor of the army
was invented. The reason for the in
vention of all those absurd and deceit
full catch phrases intended to persuade
the man in the street that the army
has been dragged in the mud and that
it will only be rehabilitated when, hav-
ing become master of the government,
it can riddle with shot and cut down
with it's sabres the people who entertain
doubts of the guilt of Dreyfus.
''Weu, that is preparing the way for
civil war. 1t is a criminal undertake
ing which would dishonor the army if
it could possibly prove successful.
And it is for this reason that the
Dreyfus affair is not merely the Drey-
fus affair. It is a screen behind which
are gathered the anti-Semitic and
Caesarian legions. Now as we have
nothing and nobody to put in the place
of what now exists in France, as the
victors would necessarily quarrel among
themselves, the day after their victory;
as military governments are always
bellicose governments, IS the campaign
that has lasted over two years has
shown us the intolerance. malice and
want of capacity of all this rabble, with
nothing better to offer US than renewal
of the revocation of the edict Of Nantes,
or a st. Bartholomew day, or the
dungeons of the inquisitiOn, 1 PERSONAL
ly trust that we are about to obtain
an undeniable patent and public proof
of the guilt Of Dreyfus-or his acquit-
al