The watchman and southron. [volume] (Sumter, S.C.) 1881-1930, 1918-12-07
Don't SIop Over.


Every tear shed by the hypocritical |
liars and looters and outragers of !
Germany in pleading for an easier |
armistice and for foodstuffs is merely
a, coward's effort to reach the maudlin
sentiment of a nation, many of whose
people have often been inclined to
Weld to wrong in preference to
standing for the right, thus permit
ting a cotton string to represent their
backbone. The future Of civilization
would be endangered if we should
give any heed to these appeals to
the neurotic sentiments Of habby-
minded people.
Generosity to beaten foe is an ap-
peal which touches the sympathy OF
men and women who foolishly think
of this war in terms of the wars OF
other days. But this was merely a.
nlan to murder in order to rob. The
frightfulness which made the hell or
Belgium and France and other over
run lands violating every law OF map
and God, was merely the fulnlment
of the longtime teachings OF the
whole German people.
The women Of Germany appealed
for easier peace terms and for an ar
mistice on the hypocritical plea OF
their sufferings, and thus caught
few American men and women OF
that neurotic temperament when pc
decks che cells of the rapist with
flowers and fills It with scented notes.
We should remind the German women
of the dying babies Of Belgium ana
France, of the women outraged
through the long four years Of war,
of the poisoned wells and of all the
other horrible atrocities which have
marked the accursed work of nation
Of fiends against which German Wo-
men never protested. The man or
woman in this country who is not
willing to stand firmly for eternal
justice in the punishment of the 1rur-
derer or the rapist is morally ana
mentally weak and is without
character worthy of the respect OF
decent, honest people.
America, sentimentally inclined
and easily misled by asitators in pub
lie as we'll as in private life, is al
ways in danger Of stopping over. This
fact is often seen when some atrocious
criminal having been sentenced to
death, Immediately evokes the maud
lin sympathy of neurotics, who, en-
tire!y forget the sufferings Of the VIC
tim.
In thinking Of Germany we must
think of that nation as Of a whole
people definitely for years commit
ted to the criminality of the last four
years. IF we should count as of no
avail the deaths Of millions of SOL
diers who have been murdered by
Germany, if we should shut our ears
to the walls Of the women and babies
who died on the Lusitania, if we
should close our eyes and our hearts
to the sufferings Of the mangled chill
dren and of the women of France,
Belgium, Italy and elsewhere dlshon-
ored by and with the approval OF the
German government and the German
people. we would still be bound IN
duty to all the civilization of the
ages to come to stand firm and un-
ninchingly for the punishment Of Ger
many.
A Baltimore business man o. Ger.
man descent, knowing Germany and
the German people for many years.
has within the last few days said that
| the whole German people are laugh
| ing in their sleeves as they see the ef-
feet which their appeals for mercy
are having in this country. He
knows the German people. He says
Americans do not. He is of German
descent and intimately in touch with
German life, and he voices the views
! of intelligent men and women every
where who, knowing Germany, know
that the entire German race upheld
the war, gloated in it so long as sue
cess seemed certain, rejoiced In the
hope of looting the world, cared not
that the women and children of Bel
gium and France and oher Invaded
countries were treated as never were
women and children treated before in
human history.
Now these cringing hypocritlcal
liars. these Iooters and robbers and
highwaymen, these deep-dyed villain
Gus murderers are rolling their eyes
to heaven and asking for sympathy,
ard yet not one single word Of penl-
tence has come out of Germany. Not
a single word has been uttered by
German men or women which indl-
Gates any sense of sin or shame, nor
have German women expressed any
regret for the horrors inflicted upon
the people of France and Belgium
and Italy and Serbia and Poland by
their fathers and husbands and sons.
These unrepentant criminals appeal
for ympathy-sympathy for them
selves, but not for their victims. |
Such is the appeal Of the German wo-
men who so long as Germany was VIC
torious on the battlefield made no ef-
fort to stop the war in order to re-
lieve their suffering, but now that
they have been forced to stop by the
allied police Of civilization, and are to
be brought before the bar Of justice, I
they are like hypocrites pleading for
sympathy and mercy. Sympathy for
such a nation would be on a par with
sympathy for the Devil himself. The