The Pensacola journal. (Pensacola, Fla.) 1898-1985, 1918-08-06
OPPOSES PEACE WITHOUT PUNISHMENT

OPPOSES PEACE WITHOUT PUNlSHMENI
While the following editorial from the Man.
ufacturers Record voices bitterness toward the
whole German people which many Americans are
rot yet ready to approve, the presentation is so
forcefu that every reader viii find in it food for
though and reflection:
The glorious news which comes from France,
telling CT how our troops and those of our allies
have beaten back the army of invaders who have
cursed every foot of ground over which they
have trod may well give heart to the nation and
to all civilization. 1t would, however, be a
serious mistake for us to imagine that this
means the ending of the war, for it does not
We are long way from Berlin and until the
American flag flies over Berlin conquered
city, and the terms written there, and the
Hohenzolerns, the Hapsburgs and their leaders
in this world horror have paid with their own
lives the penalty for their unspeakable crimes, it
would be premature to do much shouting.
The fight is yet long and desperate one.
We may rest assured that before our troops
cross the Rhine and break down the barriers
ahead of us there will be fearful losses, and we
shall have to steel our hearts to full realization
of the magnitude of the task.
Germany, the blacklist criminal in the worlds
history, will, through every influence which it
can exert in this and every other country, seek to
secure peace whenever its military leaders find
that they are doomed. We shall have peace talk
from weak-minded ministers of the Gospel, but,
thank God their number is few. We shall
have peace talk from many papers-some moved
by pro-German influence some by sickly neurotic
sentiment against punishment of crime-and
wherever pro- German deviltary can carry on its
work we may rest assured it will be done, for
many men. claiming the livery of heaven, will be
engaged in the work of the devil.
Many will seek to create an impression that
Germany must not be punished and that it's
people different from its military leaders,
when every intelligent man who has studied the
situation now. knows that the people and the
military leaders are one and the same in the sup
port of this war;
The unspeakable individual crimes which
marked the movement of the German army
through Belgium and France crimes which
blacken the pages of human history as they were
never blackened inthe past; crimes, to recount
which Secretary Lansing recently said would
scken tiger" were not committed individually
by the Kaiser or the military leaders, but by the
people themselves in the armies of Germany, en-
couraged thereto by the military leaders as a
part of Germany's Campaign of Frightfulness.
These people must be made to realize that sin
must be punished and that crime must be atoned
for, or else the blood of the millions of soldiers
who have died will have been shed in vain and
the brokenhearted women, who have suffered as
no other women in all human history, will go I'M
avenged
The great danger that faces this country today
5 that there viii be persistent effort to bring
about a premature peace; peace without pun
ishment which, if ever made, would be a deep
stain on the honor and chivalry of this nation
The nation which condones international crime
is akin to the criminal, as the Individual who