Twice-a-week plain dealer. (Cresco, Howard County, Iowa) 1895-1913, 1899-09-22
GIVEN HIS LIBERTY.
Dreyfus Is Pardoned by French
Council of Ministers.
HIS PLEA FOR REVISION WITHDRAWN
No Excitement Follows Announce
ment of the Decision in Paris
His Friends Say Fight for His
Honor VIII Continue.

His Friends Say Fight for His
Honor Will Continue.
Paris, Sept. 2O.--The council of min
listers decided Tuesday to pardon Drey-
fus in principle. The pardon will take
effect in few days. Dreyfus has re-
linquished his appeal for reversal OF
the Judgment of the court-martial.
"In principle" is an idiom sometimes
used in semi-ofiicial announcements of
Forthcoming actions. 1t seems to have
but slight bearing on the matter, eN-
cept, perhaps, that it requires the full
fillment of various formalities before
the pardon is actually issued, thereby
qualifying the announcement OF the
pardon with slight tentativeness. 1t is
not vet known whether the pardon in
cludes amnesty.
VIII BE sent Abroad.
1t is said that Dreyfus will be sent
abroad, before the PRONUNCIATION of his
pardon, in order to avoid demonstra-
tions.
Appeal Withdrawn.
The Presse says: Dreyfus withdrew
his appeal Tuesday. This was the va
rious formalities" mentioned in the Off
cial communication as remaining to
be fulfilled" before the pardon would
be signed. The traitor will now be set
free and be able to give lectures in Eng
land and America on the secrets of the
iron safe in the etat major bureaux."
VIII Continue the Campaign.
Pardoning Dreyfus does not drop the
curtain on the drama. The Dreyfusards
are determined to pursue the campaign
against the generals and other officers
of the general staff, who they declare
have lied and committed gross illegali-
ties in order to keep the prison door
closed on the victim. The Aurore, the
leading organ of the Dreyfusards, pub
fishes an article in this sense by Francis
De Prossenz, the distinguished jour
in the revision movement. In the ar
ticle, which is headed, "Pardon-And
What Afterwards" the writer says:
"If the president, by pardoning Dreyfus
wished to spare France the ineffaceable
shame of judicial crime, this exercise of
his prerogative called mercy, so far from
impairing the necessary work of justice,
will only prepare and facilitate it, For we
must speak straight out. If it was imagined
that immunity for criminals could be pur-
chased by pardoning an innocent man; if
1t was thought that the friends of law
would barter amnesty to the ScoundrelS
who perpetrated those crimes for the
bruised body of the man from whom they
have torn out the soul, then we throw from
us this degrading and deceitful offer. Drey-
fus would be the first to reject as an in
fanny such traffic with his honor. No, the
pardoning of Dreyfus can only be the natu-
raj, legitimate and spontaneous action by
which the representa- of the civil power
refuse to associate themselves with the OBJ
stinate iniquity committed by the military
judges 1t is the government of republican
France repudiating with horror any part in
this denial of justice AS for us, we shall
pursue with increased ardor the task of
public salvation to which we have devoted
ourselves. There have been crimes and
offenses committed in obscurity by gang
of pretorian conspirators with MERCER at
its head. We are going to pursue more en-
ergetieally than ever the work of obtaining
their chastisement."
NJ. DeProssenz goes on to declare that
when the generals have been punished,
the Dreyfusards will continue the cam
paign until courts-martial have been
abolished, and iron and fire have been
carried into the sores of the diplomatic
corps and society,""
The foregoing article clearly outlines
the militant attitude of the Dreyfusards
and shows that France will not be al
lowed to rest quietly, even though
Dreyfus be set at liberty. The cam
paign for his release has given the So
cialist party a weapon of which they
will avail themselves to the utmost, and
Dreyfusism will be extended more and
more into socialistic agitation. More
over, the lola trial and Nine Henri's
prosecution of Joseph Reinach for de-
flaming the memory of her husband
wi4-shortly come on, and they will be
used by both sides as levers again to
excite public feeling.
Satisfies All But Extremists.
New York, Sept. 20. = A dispatch to
the Journal and Advertiser from Paris
says that the pardon of Dreyfus is not,
in the ordinary sense of the term, reg
ular, for the reason that the prisoners
demand for appeal is still pending, but
the situation has been placed before
1IItS LUIS anu LIS lIlGuuS lldNe DeeIl dSkeQ
to induce him to withdraw his appeal in
view of the pardon. This unusual
course is part of the general policy
of amnesty adopted by the present gov
eminent and is the logical outcome of
the incongruous verdict.
By formal condemnation the military
chiefs are satisfied and pressing reasons
for their prosecution is avoided. A
campaign for the retrial of man enjoy
ing full liberty can never evoke much
sympathy, and the fact of the mans
second condemnation by the court-mar-
tial must, to large extent, exculpate
MERCER, Gonse, Roget and the other
generals. Thus the latter will not be
prosecuted and all contemplated pro-
ceedings against them will be aban-
doned.
By this means the government will
come as near as possible satisfying the
great bulk of moderate opinion in
France, only extremists on both sides
desiring to keep up the fight. Public
opinion seems to have anticipated this
result, from the time of the verdict