Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922, 1918-10-14
Germany Must Pay the Price
Frederick Boyd Stevenson, in Brooklyn Eagle.

Frederick Boyd Stevenson, in Brooklyn Eagle
When Germany is defeated, what will hap
pen to Germany?
That is the great question now beginning to
occupy>a foremost place in the minds OF men.
There seems to be practically no deviation of
opinion among the allies as to the answer in
general, which is divided into two parts:
One thing must be done to Germany--pun-
ish heri
One thing Germany must do-pay the price!
The terms of the punishment and the terms
OF the payment are at the present time lndeter-
inmate factors of the final decision, as the crime
is so monstrous and the damage is so colossal
that the human mind thus far has been unable
to grasp their full meaning
Suppose all the crime which has been COM
mitted by Germany and all the material damage
which has been done by Germany should be
concentrated in a single individual. Suppose
one man were guilty OF millions of murders;
suppose he had outraged hundreds of thousands
OF women and girls of ages varying from 80 to
8; suppose he had deliberately burned hundreds
of public buildings and thousands of private
homes; suppose he had n1aciously destroyed
priceless works of art preserved for mankind
through centuries; suppose he had committed
countless acts of larceny-grand and petty; sup
pose he had engaged in wholesale white slavery;
suppose he had brbed and attempted to bride
the citizens of every nation on the face of the
conspiracy to destroy the nationality of every
nation in the world and make it vassa of his
nation.
If captured and proved guilty on all these
counts what would be the verdict of the jury
that tried that man1
What would be the sentence of the 'court
before which he was tried?
All of these crimes are directly conferred in
Kaiser Wilhelm of Germany and from him
they spread with undimnshed viciousness to
the crown prince Of Germany to the war party
OF Germany, to the war generals of Germany
and all of them have been placidly accepted, in
dorsed and executed by the German people
without one word of protest.
The supreme penalty for these crimes can be
melted out to the men who originated them
Punishment for them can be melted out to all
the people of Germany by compelling them for
generations to pay by taxation for the damage
done until the total sum is liquidated.
Germany must pay the price!
1t is apparent that no figures can be given
at this time to indicate the sum that Germany
must pay for the monetary damage she has done
Say she has to pay $l00000000,000.
How could she pay it? She is bankrupt
now. Her credit has gone and it will be many
years before it is even partially restored. After
the Franco-Prussian war great boom came to
Germany. She received $l,0000O0000 indemnify
from France, and her people were generally
elated with their success. Then came a period
of depression lasting for IS years Following
the accession of the present kaiser prosperity
returned and Germany leaped to the front as a
commercial and an industrial nation As an
agricultural state she ranked third in the world.
and her tonnage of mercantile marine also took
third place. If the allies insist that all the ship
ping destroyed by Germany-including that of
neutral COUNTRYSIDE replaced by her tonnage
for tonnage, so far as it will 60 Germany when
she emerges from the war will be shipless.
Germany has lost her trade. In 1914 the ex-
ports of the United States to Germany were
$3440O0,OOO, and in 1915 they dropped to S28,-
100000. while our imports from Germany fell
from $189,9O0,0OO to $9l 100000. Before the war
England imported $3600O0000- of products from
Germany each year, and sent her goods to the
value of 442,0O0000 annually. In 1912 Germany
exported goods to British possessions amount
ign to S477,00O,000, and to Africa, Asia North
and South America and Australasia, sos 100000
more. All this trade has been completely wiped
out.
The public debt of the German empire be-
fore the war was $1,194O000O0, with interest
charges of $58000 900, and the debts of the Ger
man states amounted to 1884, 600, with in
terest charges of $l70,000000 Today, at the
most conservative estimate the German people |
lace QeDt or more than SoU,UOU,UUU,UUU, which |
is piling up at the rate of millions every day of
the war
How, then, can Germany pay the price for
material damage when she is defeated?
When man is declared bankrupt all of his |
available assets go toward liqudating his debts |
SO far as possible. He must give up his personal
and his real holdings. Germany by pyramid
ing her.loans, has given the pretense of taking |
care of herself financially within her own bor- |
ders When the crash comes she may repudi-
ate her debt to the German people. She cannot
do that with the allies. She must pay.
There is no desire ON the part of the allies |
to seize Germany's real estate. How then, can
Germany pay?
When Germany exacted the $l,000,000,000 |
from France, German officers went into France |
and watched over the revenues of that country |
Is Germany any better than France? France !
paid the indemnity in about two years At that |
rate it would take Germany 200 years to pay
damages amounting to $100,000000OOO Ger |
many could probably shorten the time by one
half, perhaps less
Has not Germany set the whole world back
100 years?
And is there any reason why the Germansd
should not be punished for 100 years? 4
The Wind IS BlowinQ RiQht
1t is Foch and Pershing and Haig and Diaz
4 IL.