Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1918-12-11
GERMANY, INVADER,
NOW INVADED.
PROUD NATION is. HUMBLED
AS OCCUPATION is
CARRIED OUT.
BY Frank II. SimonGs.


New YOrk-The real invasion of
Germany has begun. Belgian, Brit
ish, French and American troops are
all on German soil and an occupation
| is beginning the end of which no man
can forecast
One or two years ago such an in
vasion would have been at once I'M
thinkable and of stupendous import.
The prospect of it would have shaken
the very foundations of the German
empire. We have always to remem-
Der that it was primarily for protec-
ton that the German tribes united in
1871, and the cement of national sol
idarity was the assurance that inva-
sion was henceforth impossible
The whole mighty fabric of the Ger
man empire, which dominated Eu-
rope for almost half a century. was
conditioned on a single fact-military
power. With all its evils, once recog-
nized, later forgotten, Prussian dom
ination in Germany brought some
thing which the Holy Roman empire
could not supply, or Austria, Inherit
ing the estate dissolved by Napoleon
|. guarantee.
And now visibly tangibly, the Prus
sian failure is revealed The old roads
OF invasion followed by the armies of
Louis XIV. and Napoleon are now
filled with new armies of invasion.
Napoleon III. told his people that his
empire meant peace; when it proved
to mean unsuccessful war it col
lapsed almost in an hour and to this
day the NapOleonic legend in France
has not revived.
Fact OF Historical Importance.
| The invasion of Germany-unre-
sisted though it be is a fact of en-
during historical Importance because
1t is final proof that the whole theory
and faith which was expressed in the
! German empire were false. Germany
did not gain security at home and an
opportunity TO pillage and plumber
abroad. Her portion was first domes-
tic misery, then foreign defeat, and
| final invasion and occupation
1t is impossible to exaggerate the
value of the demonstration now being
made in Germany of the fallacy of
German reasoning. The Germans oc-
cupled Lille, st. Quentin, Laon, he
planned to annex Flanders and
French Lorraine. Today it is Treves
and Aix-la-Chapelle which received
enemy garrisons and soon it will be
! Cologne, COblenz and Mainz Mean
while Alsace-LOrraine is lost and
Prussian Poland destined to pass to
other hands.
The lesson is lesson that was
necessary and will not be lost. No
victory could be a sufficient victory
which ended the war on French or
Belgian SOIL and left the mass of the
! the German people conscious of fail
ure in aggression but oblivious to the
/ meaning of defeat, still immune from
the consequence of an unsuccessful
raid upon neighboring states.
| When American, British, French
and Belgian troops are along the
Rhine. when German provinces are
patrolled and administered by enemy
garrisons although there is lacking
devastation, the concomitant of Ger
man invasion and atrocity the at
! tendant circumstances of Teutonic
conquest, then there will be the sol
lid, immutable proof that wars be-
gun abroad for conquest invariably
| end at home. end with hostile armies
| in control of the home lands.
| German Idea Collapsed.
| The invasion of Germany is the
| final demonstration of the collapse of
the German idea.
German dream OF world power is
over-the long task of reparation and
restoration has begun. Militarism is
'kaput" Germanism has failed.