El Paso daily herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1881-1901, 1899-08-28

|
PREPARE to receive Diaz.
The Real Defendant at Rennes.
New York Times.
With slow, deliberate, and dia
bolical maneuver the drama at Rennes
| beheld, with the crumbling or an
Inhalation of the merest atom of proof
existing against the prisoner, the ut
terances upon the witness stand with
| increasing hate and contumely of the
vilest, most inhuman trade of personal
abuse that has ever poisoned the at
mOsphere of court of justice, even in
France,
While the world has stood aghast at
the appalling spectacle a change has
been wrought. The prisoner and his
prosecutors have changed places. Mer-
cier and his fellow criminals are re-
sorting to every desperate device in
| their power to have a cOurt-martial of
the republic, which, by curiously ia
tai circumstance. now stands for the
French people, honor, approve, and
perpetuate great crime deliberately
committed.
1t wes the somewhat unprecedented,
yet possibly judiciOus, programme of
the Walddeck-Rousseau ministry to
allow the verdict at Rennes to place q
permanent seal upon tie chose jugee.
There were to be no reprisals. A mis-
take, terrible mistake, was to be
acknowledged. Whatever else it was.
the programme was one of general
pacification. 1t remained only for the
witnesses for the prosecution to per-
decided otherwise, however. They
boldly confess that Dreyfus was illegal
ly convicted and that Esterhazy, the
real traitor, was protected by their
consent, if not by their personal
Vaccinations. In fact, their very con-
fessions form the bases of their rule of
action. But more than this, they as
sail the integrity of the supreme court
of appeal of France, and daringly give
the lie to official representatives of
Germany, Italy, and Austria-Hungary.
1t is most desperate and alarming
proceeding.
And yet their aim is certain and
evident. Their unity of action re-
veals master criminal hand. Not on
ly is the court-martial in the most
formidable manner possible forced to
choose between Mercier and Dreyfus,
but between the prisoner and the en-
tire general staff of the French army
between q solitary prosecuted Jew and
the army itself. It's traditions and all
that France has held dear for genera
tions. This Is the question that the
generals and exministers are daily and
propounding before the
judges and before the people of
France. Will you sacrifice us-your
generals, the soldiers who would have
died for you, the men who symbolic
your glorious past and who have laid
bare their breasts before you? Will |
you sacrifice US for this one man?
And, to stimulate the judges with |
their spirit of defiance and to make |
hem and all France partners in their |
desperate undertaking, the conspira-
tors cunningly insult the members of |
the triple alliance and spurn with the
foot the respect of the world.
The alternative now presented is
terrible. If the judges re-
fuse to reconvict Dreyfus, nothing can
'tay the attempt to prosecute the men,
oers of the conspiracy against him.
The government will be moved to un
1ertake it not only because the evil
lence of their criminality has been
iaunted in the face of the world, but
certain international consid-
,rations will force it upon them.
Every word that has been uttered by
hows that they invite such
'ctIon and believe themselves prepared
or it. Should the judges render a
Ierdict against the prisoner q great
NATIONAL calamity cannot possibly be
.voided. Internal strife will ensue.
Ior is it to be supposed that the mem
'ers of the triple alliance will COM
'letely ignore the giving of the lie, /
ven though approved and sustained :
" the verdict of a French court
martial.
But right is right and wrong is
vrong. There is but one course open
o the judges which will preserve for
heir France the respect of the world
nd for themselves the honorable ap-
rotation of future generations of /!
'renchmen. Are they brave and true !
nough to take it?