New-York tribune., 1918-11-15
The Three Paths

There are three ways in which the
Allies can treat Germany. There are
three attitudes which we as individual
Americans can assume toward her.
The first would demand revenge.
The second would treat her with SEN
timental tenderness.
The third would seek justice.
The two extremes we conceive to be
equally dangerous, equally irrational,
equally destructive of the finer stuff Of
our hearts and minds. The mean of JUS
tice, difficult as it is to cleave to, holds
the one hope of peace and right and
progress.
Alike in the spi irit of revenge and in
the mushiness of sentimental tenderness,
easy feeling blots out reason and all
finer emotion. Brute, binding anger and
hate are the springs of desire for re-
venge. If we gave way to these primi-
tive emotions we should demand an eye
for an eye, we should murder and rape
in Germany as German soldiers mur-
dered and raped in France and Belgium.
We should dismember and enslave the
German nation. By so yielding we
should end war begun in the defence
Of law and right and for the protection
of the weak in chaos of brutality. We
should indeed sink ourselves to the level
of our enemies.
The other extreme is based on a mass
of soft emotions that are fine or foolish,
NJ oJ
to right and controlled by intelligence.
The parallel is complete Anger and
hate are fine and true and ennobling
when they are righteous and unselfish.
They are part, and an important part, Of
every stalwart right-doer. 1t is only
when they reach the point of blind rage
and extinguish reason and the sense of
right and wrong that they become evil.
SO with pity and kindness and tender
ness and mercy. They are part and
parcel of our finest civilization. But
when they envelop and dissolve all other
emotions and all thought and reduce a
human being to quvering, shuddering,
non-resistant they become a positive
menace.
You can observe these two extremes
in the bringing up of children, in the
punishment of criminals. The angry,
cruel parent harms irretrievably both
himself and his victim. The too lenient,
sentimentalizing parent, who is too ten
der hearted to rebuke or control or pun
ish, does surely not less harm. We have
aha udOppd o1r old prjsor ~, athoIS no
cause they were destructive and brutal.
But there is another extreme, equally
dangerous in which the sentimental and
kind-hearted person shuts eyes to the
facts and would treat the criminal as
sort of martyred hero, to the destruction
OF the community.
Justice, the golden mean, is no easy
road to travel. 1t means vastly com
plicated decision, based on q clear knowl-
edge Of the facts, doing right by all con-
cerned, community as we'll as criminal.
1t demands patience, resolution, wisdom
In the case Of Germany it means first of
all insuring, so far as possible, the safety
of the world against repetition of Ger
man crimes, by either Germans or others
For this there must be punishment, both
for the education of the German heart
and as warning to others To let Ger
many now go scot free and to welcome
her at once back into the family of ma
tions as an equal would be to commit the
same sort of error which the weak. fool
ishly tendey mother commits when she
refuses to punish her child who does
something positively dangerous to other
children. If we are wise and lust we
shall bring home the enormity of Ger
man crimes against civilization by the
very homey and normal method that
every parent uses Of making Germany
repair, so far as possible, the damage
she has done. We shall then hold her a
prisoner of civilization for period Of
probation. Such sentence must neces-
sarily be indeterminate. 1t may not
operate equally against al the Central
Powers. Time alone can tell.
There is no real quarrel between the
punishment due the world for it's pro
lection and the punishment due TO Ger
many for her salvation. Save in a world
Of revenge the goal is identical in each.
We must reform Cerrgany, If we can,
for the good Of the world az well ag for
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