The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1899-06-04

The final scenes are being enacted in the Dreyfus
melodrama. With the confession of Esterhazy and
the arrest Of Du Patty lie Clam there remains little
between the prisoner and his freedom.
In other country of Europe would such an
event be possible as the arrest conviction and i'm
prisOnment of innocent man, his subsequent vim
dcation attended by the refusal of the authorities
to undo the crime that had been committed the in
famed condition of public sentiment which deferred
public officials from acting according to the demands
of common justice and the subsequent reconsider.-
ton of the action of the public authorities
panied virtually by the enforced release of the ac-
cused The Dreyfus incident will pass into history to
be judged according to the judgment of future ger-
erations. By the contemporaries of Dreyfus and his
prosecutors it will be forgotten save as mere
incident which demonstrated the innate worthlessness
of the entire system of existing government In
France.
NJ Emile lola take a grim delight in con-
sidering the present plight of his own Jew-baitng
prosecutors. There was nothing more at the bottom
of the selection of Dreyfus as the victim of these
self-confessed scoundrels than his being Jew They
conceived that their sc0undrelsm would be more
likely to be accepted unqucstionngly when the vic
tim OF 1t member of this prosecuted race thar,
otherwise. And bhey right. Had Dreyfus not
been Jew he Would have been released long time
ago, and doubtless without the necessity being i'm
posed on public officials of every grade of periurins
and stultifying themselves
To an entirely liberal-minded race this is q most
extraordinary circumstance Race prejudice conceded
~ exists in almost every land. But the spirit which
could conceive or the public sentiment which could
tolerate the subsection of any the series of in
human crueltes visited Dreyfus represents state
OF civilization which is generally supposed to have
passed away many centuries since among the en-
ightened races of Europe. Strange is indeed that
the man who himself has suffered so much of de-
nunclatIon for his work in depicting the most &C.
graded phases of French social lfe and whose works
many OF his critics have chosen to regard as the
mere reflection of his debased mental and moran
personality should have unaided and alone forced
the French nation to undo wrong as brutal as any
ever inflicted in the Europe of the fifteenth century
on a member of this heroic race
But the Dreyfus incident has a great value 70
the French race. Like the Panama canal incident II
reveals the dangers and Weaknesses of the social
ana pohtlcaI life OF the nation 1t shows to the peo-
pie if they have the to observe it. the rotten
ness which is incident in the rule of miltarisn =
demonstrates the wicked folly Of claiming down tba
national energies of that ought to be free 40
the nature of their political institutions would in
dIcate them to be, to the hopeless cause of winnine
back again by force the lost provinces of AIsaoa
ana Lorraine 1t should teach them to conserve tber
own matchless powers people by cuItiyatne the
pre-eminent position which they occupv AMONG ths
nations of the world the guardians and nrenoters
OF science and the fine arts whose children and vbos
chdrens children. unlike those of every pation N
Europe, are content to die in their own lapo
ana whose history offers inspiration to all who watch
FOR the development, of the human mind and soul r.
their highest artistic and spiritual ideals