Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1918-08-30
Congress in Mood to
Punish Kaiser and
Aides After War

| Washington, Aug. 30. The great
German peace drive Of the coming fall
and winter is to be met, in America at
least, by an implacable sentiment that
the men Of Berlin and Vienna respor-
sible for the war and all its Hunnish
cruelty shall pay the supreme penalty
| for their. unspeakable crimes against
humanity.
| Thru those numberless lines of COM
munication which keep the national
capital in contact with the rest of the
country repeated word comes to Wash
lington of growing wave of feeling
that a mere settlement OF the war
along geographical and chronological
lines will not suffice.
| Germany thought this year to storm
| her way to peace with the sword-to
a hard German peace" which she
1would dictate to the world. Her des-
peratc plunge. her stalking of million
humble German lives on this last great
gamble Of the war-mad Hohenzollerns,
! has failed. The German army has be-
gun it's last retreat. There Is no play
| left on the board for the kaiser except
| the appeal for peace which will still
leave his throne intact and permit
Germany, after perhaps another forty
years of preparation, to strike again
| at the throat of the world.
This Is not the sort Of peace the
American people will permit. Instead
of the soft peace" for which Germany
will cry, now .that she can not impose
her hard peace upon helpless world
| American sentiment will demand that
some part of the misery OF more than
| four years Of war be wiped out with
| the blood of the men who made Europe
a shambles and who have made the
sea the open grave of hundreds of in
nocent victims.
Pendulum Of Fate to Swing.
There existed prior to 1914 certain
well-defined and internationally &C
| copied rules of civilized warfare. Ger
many deliberately has violated virtual
lily every one Of these COW
enants and conventions. She violated
| them because she believed she was go
ing to be victorious and there would
| be no one in the whole wide world to
hold her to strict accountability. But
now the pendulum Of fate is swinging
against her.
l hSLuIIl1IE REPRESENTATIVES, dIli oCH"
| tors, as we'll as visitors to the capital,
have told of the remarkable determine
ton which has fixed itself in the minds
Of the people that the kaiser must be
taken before the war can be regarded
as fully won. American public opinion
has fixed upon Emperor William the
personal responsibility for starting the
war and has decreed that he. above all.
must pay personal penalty in exile
or on the gallows.
| II is apparent, however. that many
Americans who speak with influence
| and authority are convinced the pun
| ishment of the kaiser alone will not
he sufficient They go SO far as to in
sist that there shall be a trial by court
martial Of the entire German high
command. and that the hand of inter-
national Justice shall reach out even
farther than this and take within it's
relentless clutch every German COM
mander who can be guilty ofan atroct-
GUS act. This would include every
| prisonkceper who has been cruel in his
treatment of the allied and American
prisoners of war.
| 1t would include every German Of
ficer responsible for the manifold out
| RACES in Belgium and northern France.
The German high command has slate
black enough for Its own undoing. but
there are many underlings as yet un-
known who 1t is felt must be searched
out In the end and made to pay for.
the manner in which they have made
others suffer.
The American people are not natu-
rally vindictive. Neither, are they a
warllke people. They were forced into
the European war reluctantly, after a
long suffering patience had been COM
pletely exhausted. But now that they
| are In the war they are lighting 80 no