The Brookings register. [volume] (Brookings, Brookings County, S.D.) 1903-1971, 1918-11-14

Germany stood were fostering sores
in the body polite of the world. The
canker had to be destroyed lest it
infect, possibly destroy, the healthy
tissue of modern enlightenment. The
time had come when the ideals of the
German people and the principles of
the German government were destruc.
lively ~antasonistic to the ideals and
the principles which make the advance
of the human race possible. The two
could no longer live side by side. One
must destroy the other, because they
could not be coexistent.
1t is a question If the benefits to
the present age and to the ages to
come do not repay all the suffering
and death and misery and p~rivation
and agony the redemption has cost.
No mind can grasp the magnitude of
these things. No heart, save those
concerned, can measure the sacrifice
Of loved one Blu mankind does have
which the overthrow Of Germanism
for this and generations yet
unborn. The evil could not have been
exterminated except by the sword.
The redemption of the world from the
curse of Prussian militarism could
only be made in brave and noble
blood.
The victory is a triumph of the
armies in the field. The power of the
force Germany invoked to master the
world has brought ruin to the men and
the nation which invoked it. 1t is a
victory of inspired valor over decad-
ent blind obedience to a fetish. 1t is
a victory OF civilization over barbar-
ism. Above all it is a triumphant vic
tory of right over might. 1t is an in
tensiied victory of the right of the
people to rule, over the right of one
an TO rule because of the accident Of
birth. 1t is a victory OF democracy
over autocracy which all these com
prehensiye terms imply,
Standing out against the horizon of
hope the destruction of the German
dynasty looms large. William Hohen-
Zollern sought TO the last to retain
his power and hold fast to his throne.
Like his t%yrannical and ambition
crazed prototypes, he came to his in
evitable end. The world is too far
advanced TO tolerate the right of one
man to order those equally human
slaughtered as a part of his scheme
Of ACKNOWLEDGEMENT and pleasure. It
matters not whether such demon be
a Tiberius. a Nero. a Charles |, a
Louis XVI or a William II, he has no
place in the world, and his elimina-
ton either by the dagger, the cell, the
gibbet. the guillotine or the firing
squad is the only method by which lib
erty progresses. The destiny of the
deposed emperor will be that which
belongs to all his class in whatever
age they have fourished.
How fimsy is the pretext of roy
atty How fallacious the belief of
divine right! How puerile the pre-
tentions of individual authority, How
hollow the mockery of ermine robe, of
crown and throne! How worthless
the puppetry of men whose minds are
of the ages when mankind was break
ing through the bounds of
the gaud and tinsel which attracts the
savage and entices the weak. These
things William Hohenzollern pos
sessed and used t their fullest value.
When weighed against the bravery of
freemen and the power of people dis
enchanted at home, they were nothing
more than the trash of vanity. When
the power to dominate by word was
taken from him the former despot be-
came a raven and a fugitive. He
did not have the inherent manhood
to face his destiny like Gen. Lee at
Appomattox. He demonstrated the
yellow u streak by fleeing to a neu-
trail country, leaving his victims to
survive or perish as they might. He
could not have helped them. He
could not have saved them. He was
the n thing they would destroy. A
brave man would have died with his
face to the foe rather than expose
his back to it's vision. 1t is the dom.
mating element of the shoddy ruler
and the element he has inculcated in
to his deluded subjects. They could
strike down the helpless in the most
hideous Inc They could execute
and butcher those who could not re-
sist. But neither soldiers nor EN-
peror could face manhood and equal
power. The determination of this
beast with all his influences, his loath-
some mentality, his hideous barbar-
ism. purifes the world and records
an epoch in the history Of mankind
that will forever be a warning to those !
who would follow in his footsteps.
Wv. s. s.