The daily star-mirror. (Moscow, Idaho) 1911-1939, 1918-10-18
Small. GERMAN CITIES Be
CAPTURED OR DESTROYED

0VlO0HC ITOH TSdOlIS VI tils
American press that Germany only
arouses a fierce desire for revenge
by the ruin and pillage that blacker
the line of retreat. "Ruthlessness
is blade of two edges" remarks
act of destruction avoidable in the
ordinary progress Of warfare Ger
many must pay. If Germany surren-
ders, there must be indemnity, and eff
the war goes over the Rhine, there
must be destruction in kind This
thought is voiced by sundry other
journals, including the Washington
Post, which tells us that "if the allies
will give notice that the destruction
of Brussels will mean the destruction
of Berlin, and then faithfully. execute
their threat, the insensate Germans,
from Junker to peasant, will know
and remember for all time to come
that civilization will surely punish
them for crime.'' We should know
we'll enough by this time, says the
it is useless to appeal to the enemy's
sense of decency and right. He must
be controlled by fear, and now that he
is beginning to fear the invasion of
of his home soil, he should be given
to understand that strict retribution
will be exacted for acts of vandalism.
The Baltimore Sun. recalls that in his
retirement in 1917 Hindenburg made
"as complete a desert of the aban-
doned terrane as could be found any
where on the face of the EARTH" and
reports now coming from France and
Flanders indicate there has been no |
change in the policy of incendiarism |
and desolating cruelty" The Seattle
Times notes that German leaders |
openly gloat over the fact that the |
Empire has been spared the suffer
ing and the losses inflicted by its |
armies upon France, Belgium, Servia,
Poland, and Rumania, and it main
tains that "to make peace before
Germany has experienced a measure
of the wanton suffering it now plans
to inflict upon Belgium and the por
ton of northern France which it
still holds, but which it will be fore
ed to relinquish, would be hideous
travesty on justice" The Charles
ton American, which before our entry
into the war was never suspected of
being pro-Ally, thinks that a warning
of reprisal to Germany by the Allies
would be something curious" for
IF it be, as we are led to believe,
the determination Of the allies to rend
Germany in a thousand tatters, what
is the meaning of this warning, which
likewise implies an agreement; for
surely if Germany desist in her course
the meaning of the note must be that
the allies will be equally gentle and
considerable, and all the tremendous
destruction which Germany has al
ready committed will be unavenged.
1T is stated that the United States
will be asked to join in these remon-
strances. 1t is a matter well worth
whether after all this is
a wise course" 4-t,.ss
Much as it revolts the natural kind
ly sentiments of our own people to ex-
act reprisals, observes the Philadel-
phia Inquirer, is must be remembered
that 1--WE are not treating with civil
lied men, but with brutes," and if
we give the Hun a dose of his own :
medicine he will begin to whimper for .
for every brute is cow
ard, and the German is particularly
cowardly when he is at a disadvant-
age" A semiofficial statement on
German wantenness is given by Mr..
Jules Cambon, the former French am
,assador at Washington and one of
he foremost figures in French af-
airs, who is quoted in an Associated
Press dispatch from Paris as saying: {
AT the moment the Central Emp
res address themselves to President
Wilson to obtain an armistice and be-
,in negotiations for peace the Ger
nan armies renew the horrors they
AVE been committing in all the oc- q
upied territories.
est. Quentin, Lens, Cambria, Douai I
re all burned, mined, ruined. Hav- "
ng formerly been Project of the De- g
artment of the North, / know what fl
his new terror means to the regions *
evastated by the German armies.
hese represent the richest territory =,
f France, where the largest French
ldustrial establishments are located. =
ii these centers have glourious =. .e
asst. They are all filled with splen- Y
id monuments and museums and IL &C
raries of priceless treasures. In &c
ambria stands the tomb of the illus yc
Gus Fenon. OF
"One can not view without pro- ri,
'und sadness all the ruins the Ger
an invaders are leaving behind u,
lem-ruins that represent not only ~.
aterial losses, but also moral losses. - =,
"The conduct of the German armies |. :"
an outrage to civilization and hu De
anity." INT
The Buffalo Express notes that the OF
ty of ST. Quentin had population MI
$4,000 when the war began, and fla
nen the French recovered the place
ey found not one man, woman, or kn
lid to be rescued. Even the aged, 10
e infants, and the invalids had ~,
en- removed or were dead. The city W
badly damaged and homes have "e
en- looted of everything valuable spt
lere they have not been destroyed. he
eaking Of this despicable deed, the .
evidence Journal says that organ his
ID wickedness sums up the whole :,
rman four-year campaign, and q
that is repellent in the /.
mitive savage is made more re- :.
lent by the trained ingenuity of !
!, veneered barbarian" The Chi
20 Post urges that the Allied Coun- my
in note to "his Satanic Majesty In ]
Potsdam," solemnly pledge them
yes that for every city hereafter foil
troyed by his "retreating imps" Tor
lily Of like size in Germany will
burned to ashes beginning prefer