Omaha daily bee., 1899-03-12

ficers of the general staff should be COM
PEELED to obey tue laws. There is no crime
which its more demented spOkesmen do not
commit, either in imagination or in fact
They glorify forgery, applaud suicide and
openly eXult in the prospective massacre of
thousands of their fellow countrymen.
Everything that is base, everything this ID
dishonorable, everything that is cowardly,
everything that is false, abjeCt and criminal
forms the constant meditation of French
men today Whichever side they belong to-
these are things they impute to each other;
and If they are the party in power, these
arc the things they employ without hesi
tation in their panic stricken warfare
against a nightmare. To such a pass has
militarism dominant brought our once noble
France-France of the revolution, France
of Jeanne dare.
Terrible Pass of France.
1t is easy to see the direct bearing of this
upon the proposal of the czar. In the mid
die ages the knights progressively increased
the thickness Of their armOr until the fight
ing man became a mere iron -cased mummy
He had not sufficient strength to move be-
meath its defenses. In France we see the
same phenomenon in the moral field. Her
moral vitality is no longer sufficient to move
armnments. The old ideas, so distnctively
French, of chivalry, liberty, justice, law
all the sublime ideals which made France
for centuries the knight-errant of hu-
manity-appear to have persisted beneath
the weight of her immense military system
The amour propre of the army, the prestige
Of a STAFF, have superseded the nobler ideals
of national life. Matters are much worse
now than in the middle ages. For the iron
and steel cuirasses of the overloaded knights
We're at least inert matter. But the arma>
ture beneath which the nation is perishing
today has a horrible vitality of its own. 1t
Is, as it were, alive, and believes that the
body exists for 1t, and that brain, heart,
conscience and the ideal, which are collec-
lively the soul of the nation, is a minus
quantity compared with the prestige the
authority and the convenience of the army.
They, If not the ultimate, must at least be
very near the ultimate, stage in the SELF
destructive evolution of modem milltarism.
Nowhere in Europe could the czar find so
terrible an object lesson of the results OF
the baneful system upon whith he is making
war. France is a puissant ally, indeed, in
the great argument for dsal mament
Danger Spot.
The danger spot in Europe is, no doubt,
with amazement and indignation the denial
OF justice to Alsatians Albert Dreyfus in
the lie du Diable is an Alsatian So is
Colonel Picquart. 1t is enough to bear an
Alsatian name to be bounded as a German.
To be Protestant is almost as heinous a
crime as 10 be a Jew. The honest Alsatians
do not understand all this Their patrie, to
whose fortunes they have clung with
touching fidelity, was a different France
from this So they are ruthlessly being
driven from their allegiance and every day
they are more and more strongly tempted
to become more reconCled to the German.
Possibility of sudden Outbreaks.
There Is. of course, a possibility that the
very madness Of the hour may lead to some
sudden outbreak As Count Arnim wrote In
1871: THE French cannot be judged by the
same standard as other nations. They have
no sense of proportion and attach impor-
lance to matters that in reality have no sig
nihcance. In madhouse the merest tribes
may lead to revolt and even if 1t be sup
pressed 1t may first cost the lives of many
honest people" There is a danger here. no
ioubt. But, as Bismarck wrote about the |
same time: Two peoples dwell in France
the French and the Parisians. The former
owe peace the latter writes the newspa- |
'ers and seeks to pick quarrel which the |
'ther then has 10 fight out Both, however, |
hould clearly remember how near the Ger |
nan army Is at Chateau ThieUy" The Ger, !
nan army is no longer at Chateau Thierry. |
But the solid argument Of force is quite as
irresistible today as il was in 1871, perhaps
ven more so. And now there Is added TO
hat ultima ratio regim the fact that the
sar the ally and the friend of France. has
ummoncd all nations to a parliament Of
eace.