The Robesonian., 1918-08-08
ON TO BERLIN
A Great Danger to World Morali-
ty and to Civilization Would Be
A Peace Without Punishment.

I. NAA4S ioiAoWliiS editorial from lsiSt
weeks Manufacturers Record was en-
dorsed at meeting of the mayor and
town commissioners of Lumberton
last Friday and The Robesonian was
requested to publish it, which it is
glad to do, for it expresses this papers
sentiments exactly.-Editor
The glorious news which comes from
France, telling of how our troops and
those Of our Allies have beaten back
the army of invaders who have curse
ed every foot of ground over which
they have trod, may well rive heart
to the nation and to all civilization
It would, however, be a serious mis-
| take for US to imagine that this
means the ending Of the war, for It
does not. We are a long way from
Berlin, and until the American flag
fi1es over Berlin as conquered city,
and the terms of peace are written
there, and the HohenzolIerns, 7he
Harsburgs All their leaders in tbs
world horror have paid with their
own .lves the penalty for ehei~ I'M
speakabie crimes. It would t'e prerla-
tur, to 90 much shouting.
HE fight is yet q long and des-
perate one
We may rest assured thai before our
troops cross the Rhine ard bre;i. down
/ the barriers ahead C us there will be
Iea' ful losses, end we shall have to
s,ael Our hearts to full realization
OF the ma agnituie Of the task
Germany, the biackest criminal in
the worlds history, through every in
fluence which it can exert in this and
every other country, seeks to secure
peace whenever its military leaders
find that they are doomed. We shall
have peace talk from some weak
minded ministers Of the Gospel, but,
thank God! their number is few. We
shall have peace talk from many pa
pers-some moved by pro-German in
fluence, some by sickly neurotic SEN
and wherever pro-German deviltry can
carry on its work we may rest assured
it will be done, for many men, claim
ing the livery of Heaven, will be en-
gagged in the work of the devil.
Many will seek to create an impress
ion that Germany must not be pun
ished and that it's people are different
from its military leaders, when every
intelligent man who has studied the
situation now knows that the people
and the military leaders are one and
the same in the support of this war.
The unspeakable individual crimes
which marked the movement Of the
German army through Belgium and
France, crimes which blacl,en the
pages Of human history as they were
never blackened in the past: crimes,
to recount which Secretary Lansing
recently said would sicken a tiger,"I
were not committed individually byI
the kaiser or the military leaders,
but by the people themselves in the!
armies Of Germany, encouraged there
to by the military leaders as part
Of Gernany's Campaign of Frightful-i
ness. These people must be made toj
realize that sin must be punished and
that crime must be atoned for, or else
the blood of the millions Of soldiers
who have died will have been shed in
vain, and the broken-hearted women,
who have suffered as no other women
in all history, will go unavenged.
The great danger which faces this
country today is that there will be al
persistent effort to bring about pre-
mature peace: peace without pun
ishment, which. if ever made, would
be a deep stain on the honor anci
chivalry of this Nation.
The Nation which condones inter
national crime is akin to the criminal
as the individual who condones crime
becomes in effect participator in the
immortality of the criminal.
1t behooves every honest-hearted
man and woman in this country to-
make certain that neither in the pull
pit nor in the press nor in private con-
versation shall there be the lightest
word said in favor of peace until that
peace is written in Berlin, after the|
criminals have paid the full measure
of penalty for their crimes.
con to Berlin!' SHOULD be the un-
ceasing demand of every honest-heart-
ed man and woman, and he who does
not take that view of the situation
is false to all honor and false to all
civilization, it matters not who he