The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1899-09-10
DREyFus AGAIN CONVICTED.


The confessed conspirators have tri-
umphed. Dreyfus has been found
guilty a second time. Maurel is vindi-
Gated. MERCER is saved. Zurlinden is
happy. But France is shamed and JUS
tice has been trampled under foot.
The outcome of the trial proves there
is no such thing in France as justice.
according to the American idea. In this
country a prisoner receives the benefit
of the doubt. There he gets the full
benefit of suspicion. Here he is pre-
sumed to be innocent until his guilt is
established. There he is considered
guilty from the moment he is accused.
The burden Of proof is upon the prose-
cution here. 1t is on the defense In
France. 1t is absolutely essential to the
administration of justice that courts
should be impartial, unprecedented and
secure from the intimidation of the
mob. At least we think so in this coun-
try. But in France the judges are
prosecutors, prosecutors and agitators
of public sentiment against the prison.
er. We have an idea that it is better
for nine guilty men to escape than that
one innocent should suffer. To the
French mind it is better to punish nine
innocent men than allow one who is
guilty to escape.
Owing to this perverted sense of
right it is a pitiable fate in store for
friendleSs wretch around whom some
Lecoq or Vidonq has wound a chain of
circumstance and suspicion. Even ali
bis are cast aside when the dramatic
situation requires conviction or the
theory of the police is sufficiently IN
genious or plausible to win the popular
approval. From the moment of his az
rest he is treated as a villain too vile
to live. He is tainted. insulted, starv-
ed, misrepresented and subjected to the
most unreasonable and mind-racking
inquisitions from judges. iailers and
gen d'armes.
In the disgraceful persecution Of
Dreyfus, which has covered a period of
five years, he has been brow-beaten and
abused by the officers of. the different
courts, his counsel have been bullied
and insulted by the presiding judges,
his witnesses have been hustled off to
Jail on one pretext or another. Net
only in the Dreyfus trial, but in all
those which have grown out of it, the
prosecution of Picquart, the conviction
Of lola, have these peculiarities OF
practice been exhibited.
What would be thought of an Amer
he ,dc he foto of
human being rested, to whose discre-
ton the honor of the commonwealth
had been entrusted. in whose keeping
the peace of the republic was confided,
saying, as one of the judges said to
lola: you contemplate scoundrel!
Have you the audacity to deny your
cuilt?''
This is the system under which Drey-
fus was tried in 1894. 1t is still in
vogue. lola was convicted by it in
1898. Esterhazy was cleared by it. Patty
de Clam was whitewashed by it, When
judges are prosecutors it is easy enough
to turn the scales of justice either way
1t is infamous, do you say? It's GER
tainly Frenchy.
Dreyfus has been sentenced to ten
years imprisonment For what? There
was no evidence upon which to convict
him? No. But there were the opinions
of the real culprits. They expressed a
belief in his guilt, and they are men of
influence. They represent the honor
of the French army. 1t was their senti-
ment and it found an echo in the court
Better thousand Jews should per-
ish than the confidence of the people in
the army should be shaken 1t means:
Better every honest man in France
should die than the real traitors should
be exposed.
r But will the guilty be able to wash
away the black stains of their treach-
cry in the blood of Dreyfus? Have not
the proceedings been a monStrous reve
lation to the French people? Have they
not laid bare to the whole world the
rottenness in the French social system,
upon which the vulture of militarism
has fed until, gorged and sick, lit wall
lows in its own corruption? The vic
tim is mere point of location. The
disease is deep seated. 1t threatens
the republic. Heroic treatment may
be necessary, as it was century ago,
but we trust not. The remedy, how
ever, does not lie in any fantastic coup
d'etat, or dramatic reaffirmation of al
legiance to France. 1t may be found In
the honest suffrages of the French peo-
ple-in their contrition, in their ability
to put away prejudice, to close their
eyes to the glitter of gold braid, to get
away from themselves in fact and be-
gin life over again.
The verdict is not disappointment,
but it is a disgrace. id.
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