The Goldfield news and weekly tribune. [volume] (Goldfield, Nev.) 1911-1947, 1918-10-12
WHAT HISTORY MUST TELL

There is no escaping the conclusion that Germany wants
peace, but she also wants terms" 1t is less than two weeks
sirce President Wilson, in his speech in New York, declared
that 1T isn't a question of coming to terms, for we cannot
come to terms with them, as they have made it impossible.
There will be no parties to peace whose promises
have proved Enthusiastically and means must be found in con-
nrction with the peace settlement to remove that source of
insecurity"
And again the president declared in the same address:
Germany is constantly intimating the terms she will accept
and also is finding that the world doesn't want terms 1t
wants the final triumph of justice and fair dealing" Ger
many had her answer in advance.
And today comes the news that the Belgian government
has issued a statement saying that from the coast to beyond
Bruges the male population of Belgium between is and rs is
being brutally turned from their homes and forced to labor
on German military work. This statement adds:
Belgium has been from the beginning of the "a exposed
to outrages by the German armies and now, at the very 10
ment when the nw chancellor is proclaiming his anxiety for
the happiness of peoples and his will to work for the deliver
of humanity, the Belgian government receives ews of
fresh excuses on the par Of the German armies in occupied
Belgium"
No one individual has done more to reveal the German
national character to the world than the former managing d-
rector of kripps who, when the kaiser first decided upon war
in 1914, was summoned to the royal presence for a confer
ence and at that time voiced the strongest protest he dared to
make. He later resigned and became a voluntary exile in
Switzerland. Although a man of wealth and position, he sur
rendered his position and chose a home in a country where
III his declining years peace could not be disturbed by the
blood lust and passion for military glory of the German war
lords. In interviews and in a number of signed articles con
tributed to the literature of the war, he has emphasized two
points that have been so accurately confirmed that they must
be accepted.
First, he warned the world against the German peace
drive and the duplicity of the German rulers. When Ger
many was winning there was no limit to her passion for con
quest, and when she was losing she was prOfuse in her dec
larations for justice and humanity. When Germany was hard
pressed the reichstag passed the famous resolution of July,
1917, 1enouncing annexations and indemniies. When Rus
STA collapsed this resolution was openly repudiated where not
forgotten, and not a newspaper in Germany opposed either
annexations or indemniGes, while all of Germany came back
to tho policy of taking what territory they wanted with in
IDENTITIES sufficient to cover Germanys expense in the war.
Even the socialist Vorwaerts joined vociferously in this, and
The author warns against this particular newspaper as
one of the most valued instruments of the government in
hoodwinking the German people and the rest of the world.
The other point he emphasized, and on which his judg-
ment has been confirmed by recent evidence, is the fact that
the German is brave only in victory and a physical and moral
coward in defeat. His advice was that the only justice that
could come out of Germany and the only security for peace in
the world would come with Germany beaten. The bludgeon
is the weapon of the Hun and the only law he will recognize
in International affairs.
And it is good to see that the civilized world has def
the Hohenzollerns. The present appeal might be compared
with gun in hand, attempts to discuss what part of the stolen
goods he may keep.
The Hohenzollern dynasty must end with this war. That
is one lesson that history must carry to the generations yet to
come and to the war lords and tyrants yet unborn.
MORAL MADNESS