New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1914-09-23
The Crime of Rheims and Herr
Ridder's Vision of Its Atonement.

cxponent In these parts-ProfesSor Munsleroers
evcented-of the cultural value Of German MILL
tarism We quoted yesterday comment of the
New Yorker Herold" on the vandalism at Rheims
TO show that many Of our peaceful German
Americans"-eyen those born here and therefore
MAYER trained to the famous goose step'-out-
Rernhardi Bernhardi in their corvi Ion that Prus-
sian milltarism can never do anything which does
not work for good.
The Kaiser may feel compunctions about the de-
struct,on OF a priceless monument like the sanct-
nary Of Rheims. He may even give orders TO
spare building immunized not only by specific
paragraphs Of the Hague Treaty Of 1907, but by
all the traditions of warfare since warfare became
civilized The head Of the great Church despoiled
of one of its most glorious inheritances may pro"
test against a crime which he says calls Tor Goa
vengeance" But though an ardent member OF
that Church. our neutral" friend Of the stats
zeitung" can see in the bombardment of the Rheims
Cathedral only n unavoidable and therefore hardly
censurable act Of military necessity.
As will he noticed in the editorial which we re,
print elsewhere from yesterdays "Staats-Zeltung
Mr. Ridder holds even the ineffective Instructions
given n the German gunners TO have been super
euous concession to sentmentality. AS he asserts,
Rheims lies on the present line of the French at
tack 1T is the key to success and the gate to
victory" Therefore it justifable to batter
down every building in it, even cathedral pro
,octed alike by its sacred character by its value as
monument of art and by its use as a hospital ana
refuge for the wounded.
we tried to show yesterday that the French
were not holding Rheims as g fortress, but as an
omen town. We are glad to note that Mr.. Rider
j., the military review in yesterdays Stats
Zetungo TO which bis name is appended (athough
no states that if is the work of German expert)
confirms that contention. The review says that
the German armies withdrew-for strategical rea-
sons oply-from the line of the Marine to the line
If the Aisne. selected in advance, on which they
have been recently fighting. The operation was
NOT \ forced retirement, but merely shift from
less desirable position to more desirable one
The present German line runs north of Rheims,
aud the Germans made no effort to hold Rheims
when they fell back from the Marine. Therefore,
according TO the logic of the military review which
Mr.. Ridder indorses, Rheims was not the key to
success and the gate to victory" in the operations
~ the mast week on the German right centre If
il had been such key, the German staff would
not have deliberately abandoned it in order to take
y nosition few miles further north. Mr. Rider S
own expert apparently sustains the French govern
r,o,t,s contention that there was no real military
necessity for INDUCING in the wholesale lombard
ment which caused the destruction OF the Rheims
Cathedral
But questions of military necessity and justih-
cation apart. our neutral friend finds the loss
TO the world Just caused by German vandalism to
he much overrated What does one poor, ancient
cathedral more or less matter in a war for the
spread of German culture? Already Mr.. Rdder
has vision of more grandiose substitute for
the venerable sanctuary smashed by the German
guns. Only let Germany win this war, he says,
and il will rear a structure far more stately than
the architects Of the Rheims Cathedral ever
dreamed Of Thus he consoles a world grieved and
outraged by the loss of one of civilizations richest
treasures:
Germany will be victorious for she must be VIC
torious And out of that victory new and splendid
buildinp will arise, a peace palace with which chat
AT The Hague will not compare. For the Germans
6Vht for the restoration of peace, OF which the
intripIers and the stirrers-up Of trouble and the
envveeaten and the liars have robbed the world
Germany fights for the highest fruits of culture,
which humanity can reap the benefits OF only under
the assurance of permanent peace.
From the bloody seed which is being sown to-day
n new and lordly harvest will be gathered. And its
rpe fruit will be an entirely new era. An era OF
the free competition of all powers-even OF the
powers of the spirit. And cathedral Will be
erected under whose dome permanent peace VIII De
enthroned and in whose aisles the peoples VIII come
together for the common worship OF the hlgnesl
aspirations of humanity.
Therefore Germany will win. German truth ana
German power must conquer against lies ana uecelI
and barbarism in order to build the Cathedral OF
the Future compared with which all the former
splendor of the Cathedral Of Rheims Will appear like
the shabbiness of a goat shanty OF Rocky County,,
Doubtless if things go Germanys way the in
terror Of the Cathedral of the Future will be EN-.
bellished by replcas Of the House of Hohenzollern
statues which now line the Sieges Alice In the
Tbiergarten in Berlin, and on the plaza outside
General Won Bernhard will replace Joan OF Arc.