The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1899-06-02

"Pnt Down the Mighty From Their
Seats"


Seats"
From the New York World.
On Jan. 5, 1s95-more than four years
ago-a captain in the French army. OBJ
scure, frlendless. personally uninteresting,
was degraded from his rank and sent away
to spend the rest of his life on a tropical
death island as a punishment for having
in petty way been traitor to his coun-
try.
AS they were tearing off his shoulder
straps and breaking his sword he cried:
I am innocentr' But the drums rolled
ana the bugles blared and his protest was
drowned and lost.
That voice, so feeble and so insignificant.
was as all the world now knows, the pro-
test of outraged and trampled Justice But
how the powerful men of the general sta Y
OF the French army who knew the truth
must have laughed at that still. small
voice, mat single, puny hand uplifted in
protest amid that multitude of glitterins
bayonetsl
The members of the condemned mans
tamliy cried out, and their cry was taken
up oy the monarchist press of England
ana the continent, ever eager 90 attack
france. But this agitation only served
pie. The more France was sneered at.
With the fate of Dreyfus as the excuse.
the more 1rmly convinced the French peo-
PIE became that Dreyfus was a traitor
ana mat the agitation in his favor was
merely an evidence of hatred of France
IL soon became impossible to reason with
even the most enlightened open-minded
frenchmen upon the subject.
Inc months heightened into a wear 4
third. And the prisoner of DeviTs Island
seemed doomed beyond hope The French
people almost to man seemed ready TO
pour out their last drop of blood I'm resist
ing any attempt TO release "the traitor"
into TINS posture came the DreVfus case
IN the winter of 1898 in order that the
whose world might see a miracle wroucht
by the unaided power of a moral idea
Inc time was at last ripe, and Emile
Aola learned the truth. learned that his
country and his countrymen were wrong
and that this unjustly condemned man.
who had he died in ordinary circum-
stances would have had less than two lines
IN Paris newspaper. had become CO.
lossal embodiment of outraged justice
Emile lola spoke out. Al once he was
practically alone in a nation of frenzied
enemies. From the very top of French
society-its statesmen. its generals, its
SSiiOldIS' It's men OF tdme In literature
10 the very dregs, ran a frenzled scream:
Cruelty him! Cruelty the Dreyfusard
Cruelty the traitor who is conspiring with
the enemies of Francev'
But lola TRANSPORTED by the splendor
of the moral idea which possessed him.
stood firm, repeating his winged words OF
truth. Il accuse" he said, pointing az
the eminent generals and statesmen who
were accessories in the crime against JUS
lice, some before and some after the fact.
They mocked him and flung him out OF
France-an exile. hated by all French
men. But the miracle had begun to work
The University, the Academy the army
the state, the people-the brains and the
Drawn of that imposing French civiliza-
tion-continued to shout, continued to de-
nounce. But though the tumult was in
fiuitely louder than the rolling of all those
drums and the blarlng of all those bugles
in 1895, the ''still, small voice" grew and
grew in volume, in intensity in strength
until it penetrated every nook and corner
of France.
To-day that voice, so feeble four years
ago, is making the conscience of the
French people quake. To-day that puny
hand, so impotently raised in protest -four
years ago, is reaching up into the high
places of France where injustice sat Sc
cure behind bayonets. behind passion, be-
hind prejudice. And thar hand will put
down the mighty from their seats"