Evening journal., 1899-09-28

lief on their part of the innocence Of
Dreyfus. Nothing of the kind They
have merely used the traitor Dreyfus
as a vehicle for the expression OF their
long-standing hatred for France and
her institutions. But only the highly
and unnecessarily prejudiced section of
the English-speaking race, large as
that section undoubtedly is, will assert
that the courts-martial were courts
corrupt in their inception, and more
than corrupt and unjust in their pro-
cedure and findings. Irrespective Of
the degree Of Dreyfus's guilt This abso-
Lutte innocence Of the crime Of treason
being altogether unworthy Of belief
there can be no doubt but what the re-
cent court-martial at Rennes was, and
is, a strictly honorable sort of govern
ment; a government having for its sole
end and purpose the elucidation of per-
haps the greatest and most complex
scheme OF treason known to the mill
tary world: a government determined
to probe the matter and its minutest
details to the very deepest depth: a
government realizing the vast import
ance Of sitting the grains Of truth from
the fruitful crop of falsehood, in the
shape of sworn evidence: and a govern
ment fully alive to the fact that the
honor of France (for honor exists in
France, as elsewhere) and the very ex-
istence Of her army were dependent
lapon its efforts to reach and adequate
lily punish those who had attempted to
barter away the innermost secrets OF
the military life of their native coun-
try. Indeed, it were folly to attempt
to impeach the procedure, even in mat
ters of detail, of the French court
martial lately assembled at Rennes
=, And no man, no matter what his ma
tionality may be, possesses the preroga-
tive to question either the probity
1 fairness, or impartiality of the judges
who constituted the Rennes court
martial.
- That treason, treason of the blackest
: hue, was afioat in France is a question
n admitting of no doubt whatever. Tt
e the great bulk of the people of othel
= and outside nations the man Dreyful
d has seemed to be the central figure
= the most important issue. These peo
/ pie saw nothing, cared for nothing, be
II yond the question of the guilt or limo
b lcence of this Jewish ex-Captain of Ar
) tillery, their mental horizon beinI
r bounded by that phase of the case, ant
It that phase only. But the guilt or limo
/ cence of Dreyfus-guilt to some minds
n innocence to others-is a small matte
of when compared with the larger an
y more important issue, the question Q
rel whether not only the French army, bu
le France herself, shall or shall not
lel dominated by the Semitic or JEWS
c. element. This is, after all, the burnin
es question; the great, the all-importan
" stake at issue. That the French pee
pie are opposed tooth and nail to an
r, such deplorable influence being the pre-
a siding genius Of their military exisi
s. ence is perfectly natural The antiI
OF athy Of the great majority of Frencl
ne men to any such dominion is alike ma
We ural and justifiable. Would this an
Oh other distinctly anti-Jewish countri'
IS consent to their armies being largel
II, augmented and dominated by d
lc cidedly Jewish element? Would tn
p and other anti-Semitic nations consel
en- to their armies being placed under al
nd such dictatorship? No. The Jev
III have already made more than sufi
IT. Icient headway in the French Republl
ite Their grip upon the financial instit
of tions of that Republic is to-day e
re- eeedingly firm: and their control
he other and civil French organizations
sse on a scale of such magnitude as to e
ng cite grave fears for the safety ana |
ase innate well-being Of the French natio
sh- If the outcome of the Dreyfus case l
OF suits in nothing else, it will, we no
use land believe, result in the compile
md banishment from the ranks of
no French army of everything savoring
be- Jewish rule. And we are very sure Il