The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1918-11-15
FRIDAY, NOVEMBER Is, 1913
THE PUNISHMENT
OF THE KAISER

A good deal is being said by the
newspapers and in private conversa-
ton, Just now, with regard to the
punishment of the Kaiser for the
crimes he has committed against
civilization and international law
The following editorial from the New
'ork Times, we think, expresses the
opinion of most thoughtful persons
on the subject. Writing under the
caption, "The Punishment of Will
helm," that paper says:
"Many ill-considered opinions have
been expressed as to the penalty that
ought to be inflicted upon the de-
throned German Kaiser by world
into which he has brought so much
misery. The feeling is almost uni
versal that his crimes transcend the
provision of criminal law, for he is
the worlds greatest criminal and
even the most terrible statutory pen
alties fall miserably short of his
desert. The weakest suggestion is
that he be extradited to England to
be tried there under the murder in
dictment brought against him in the
Lusitania case. To begin with, no
extradition writ would be honored.
But suppose he were tried, found
guilty, and executed. Would not
that end his sufferings? Retribution
would cheat itself if so soon his suf-
ferings were ended.
Why should not every civilized
human being pray that this man of
altogether unspeakable sin may live
forever to under go through the un-
ending years of time those mental
tortures, far surprising any con-
ceivable physical pangs, which we
may be sure are affecting him at
this moment? Remorse he may not
feel; we cannot well know the men
tai and spiritual nature Of this in
comparable malefactor. But he must
feel the immeasurable difference be-
tween his present despised state and
that high position from which he
lros fallen. Excruciating as that
torment must be, it is only the be-
ginning. He knows that earth's mil
lions detest him, loathe him, hate
him with a hatred never before Wis
tied upon mortal man. They will
shun him, or seek him out for hot
reproach and reviling. The guilt of
ten million murders rests upon his
soul, for he is the man, the one man,
who might have stopped the war be-
fore it began; he was the greatest
exemplar, preacher, and practitioner
of that theory of rule over men out
of which the war was born. "Thou
art the man" is what the world has
said to him from the beginning.
Sc lct him live, let him live
thro,.gA such days of anguish and
nights OF s,eepless torment that he
will rage furiously against any who,
speaking from a sense of pity and
belated loyalty, may cry out "Long
live Wilhelmw Lucretia's prayer
Ter the punishment of Tarquin, as
Shakespeare has given it form, be-;
fits the case of him who was the
German Kaiser:
Let him have time to tear his curled
hair,
Let him have time against himself to
Let him have time of Times help to
f., despair.
I.ct him have time to live loathed
slave,
Let him have time a beggar's sort to
crave
and time to see one that by aims
doth live
Disdain to him disdained scraps to
give.
Time without limit, unending time
spent in torment without any rc"-
pite, ccaseless, hopeless, that is the
punishment appropriate to the crimes