The Pascagoula chronicle. (Pascagoula, Miss.) 1905-1920, 1918-10-05
WHAT WILL AMERICA DO
WITH GERMAN PRISONERS.

l read the Other day tnat the GerNldi
and Austrian prisoners now in Rus
sia had resolved, almost to a man, tina
they would not go back to their for
mer homes when the war ended, bu
would emigrate to the United State
and Canada. What will our twin courl
tries say to them?
Come right along, brother! Max
yourself at home. Take this chair. |
has higher back and thicker cush
ion. Have glass of ice-cold beer will
me. I'll tell the wife and she will cool
up a mess of sausage and make som'
| biscuits and open her best canned frui
for you. Let me adjust this stool un
der your trench shoes and offer cigal
to while away the time, till the dinner
is ready"
Will we talk like that Oh, will we
II we do | shall start out on hike
into the frozen north and begin tc
live on the whale steaks and seal blub
Der.
Isn't it about time for us to begin
to plan? Should we go on with our
job of licking the Hun and never look
ahead to the time when he Is going tC
become an economic question? Should
we let things slide till he is on the
sea, coming over in any old bottom
that he can rake up, prepared to grab
off lot of new world coin and land
and help us make our laws nice and
easy for the Hun at home?
Or will we tell the Hun in Europe
to get inside the Hunnish lines and
stay there, while he works out his own
salvation? Shall we say to the Hun
who, being in America and enjoying
it's advantages, has elected to 60 back
to Hunland and join, in the frightful
ness that has been the backbone OF
Kaiser Bills plan, that it was no more
than should be expected and he is
welcome to come home to us?
Shall we open our internment camps
and let them spew out upon our land
the rotten messes they now hold
Having a clean dish and wholesome
food, shall we defile it with propagand
lists and spies and enemy agents
Having made our bed with clean
sheets and pillow slips and blankets
shall we turn the covers back and let
the wallowing swine from the road
side mudhole creep within?
There is only one line of conduct
that we can follow with honor and
common sense, and that is the line that
will keep our bed and food and home
clean. The line that will maintain the
purity that we have attained through
the refining by fire. We must say
to the Hun in Europe, in America, in
Asia, anywhere he may be ound:
Get to work within the confhes OF
your own country. Build up and puri-
fy your land Purge it of the filth
that clogs it's spirit. Wash it clean of
the evil it has clung to so long. Re-
fine it with years of sacrifice and
earnest work for the right. Then,
after the leaven has worked and pass
ing decades have carried away the
last grain of the old devilish doctrine
and beliefs, then it is possible that the
nations may grant you amnesty and let
you go out through the world at large
once more. 1t is up to you. Get to
work on yourself"
Letting the Hun wander at will after
this war is over will be like leaving
the line of fuse burning and merely
cutting off the dead end after the spark
had crawled inward toward the maga-
zine.
Allowing him to have the same old
freedom to come to our shores would
be as foolish, and as disastrous in
the end, as it would be to smother
a fire with cotton loosely piled.
President Wilson and his advisers
have great many matters to handle
and many questions to decide. Let lis
not leave them to do all the thinking
or all the talking on this question.
The American people are concerned to
such degree in this matter that they
should not delegate to any man or
body of men the task of thinking for
them. They should do their own
thinking and when they have had time
to formulate a plan that looks feas-
ible and thoroughgoing, they should
say to their servants at Washington,
from the President down:
Here, You put this through along
the lines we have laid down. 1t is no
time for fooling or for doing party
politics. Put up the bars and spike
them fast, so no one can slip them.
We have a stomachful and we must
have time to digest it before we swal-
low and more"
Then get busy with the American
of foreign birth and Americanize him
or throw him over the bars, to the
soil that bore him. We have no room
in America for the man who shouts.
"Hurrah for America, and follows it
with a whisper of "Gott sci dank, Ich
bin Deutscher"
Wv. .S.S.