Arizona republican., 1917-09-11
Where the People
 May Have Hearing
After the War


 Editor of The Republican, Sir:
 It may be idle or premature to sneru- late as to,what should be done at the termination of the war. But seeds of thought may be planted that might 1uctuate into useful policy after long period of germination. It required nearly three years for the frightfulness of our entrance into the war to grow to full fruition. Let me state my idea.
 The selfishness, ruthlessness, cruelty and brutality of the Hun has been m
 oiled in this war. The thin veneer of civilization that covered him has cracked and the unchanged savage of Caesars day revealed beneath. There is no place in the sun or elsewhere for this anachronism Like a strange, huge reptile of past geologic time liv- ing in mysterious concealment in our midst its existance unsuspected. it rears it's hideous and formidable mass in threatening and hostile attitude against us. This Prussian monster must be destroyed. F'our-fifths of the world have decreed it. The people who nutured it must be put under ef- fective restrain until they see the light. ''On to Berlin" has become the slogan of our deliverance from impending thraldom On to Berlin we must go and there dictate a peace that will be permanent. A negotiated peace is inn possible; to suggest it is immoral. Should we require our representatives to sit down at the council table with the minions of this outlaw nation to haggle over the wording of another scrap of paper?" Is it possible to compromise with a rattlesnake? A treaty is a matter of give and take" What have we to give a blood stained criminal but just punishment and force him to repair a part of the evil he has wrought. Shall he be permitted to contemptuously turn his back upon the destruction he has made and to leave the heavy task of restoration and reconstruction to the victims of his frightfulness while he cooly pro- ceeds with his already matured plans of reinstituting his foreign trade in competition with the nations he has weakened and impoverished? There is but one answer to this question. If | justice is to prevail the Hun will be- 1 come the principle resource for the | restoration and reconstruction of the | devastated countries. The means will 1 be in the hands of the victors. The l great and powerful German army is l skilled beyond imagining in the art of | destruction To be skilled in destruc- I ton implies skill in construction. Here i lies the means at hand. Let the beaten | and defeated German army, disarmed | and subsarvient to the will of the vic | tors be turned back into the wrecked 1 provinces of Belgium and France and there under armed guard of Belgians l and French men be compelled to do | the work of reconstruction and reStora- | tion.
 Nothing can atone for the blood or | the innocents. No restora tlon can | reach the heart of the mother torn by
 the agony of starving children and
 seeing her daughters dragged away by
 the hell hounds of the kaiser. There l is no restoration for lost lives anu l broken homes That is beyond human power But in material way Bel | gium and France can be restored. The
 railroads, highways, canals, bridges
 and docks can be rebuilt Let the mil-
 lions of workers that the defeated
 German army can supply be put to the
 task, Let every cottage, home, pub
 lie building, church and factory be re-
 constructed Let every machine the Germans have destroyed and removed be rebuilt in Germany by German la
 
 reconstructed factory! Let every fence be replaced, every murdered vineyard and orchard replanted, every shell
 crater and trench filled and the fields be brought back to their condition be- fore the invasion of the Hunnish hordesi Let the palaces, property ana l possessions of the Prussian ruling classes be appropriated as a basis fol
 defraying the cost of feeding and clothing the army of recontructior
 while it is at it's taski
 When the last stone and the last brick shall have been reset and the 1 last shovelful of earth shal have beer , moved, then and not unti then, le' the German hordes, chastened by the doing of good deeds, be hearded back
 to their own country to rebuild them
 selves and to restore Germany's for
 eign trade
 R. D. O. JOHNSON.