The news scimitar. (Memphis, Tenn.) 1907-1926, 1918-11-06
CHIVALRY WILL ENDURE;
KULTUR MUST PERISH

Already there is an intimation that the only question the
German commander will ask when Foch hands him the terms
OF armistice is, when do we eat"
When a man is sent to the Jail or ~workhouse the obliga-
ton ior feeding him is upon his caPtor. There have been
instances when a man was so cold and hungry that he flung a
brick through a glass window in order to get a bed and a warm
supper.
Reports Of internal conditions in Germany indicate that the
people have been throwing some bricks. They have reasoned
that as slaves OF the mihtarsts they have been both cold and
hungry, and even ii the allies shall lock them up at least they
will be fed. They are counting heavily on eating the dinner
that Hindenburg was looking forward to in Paris, except they
expect it to be brought to them.
Austria is in a mighty bad plight. Those that the Italians
didn't capture or kill, or didn't run themselves TO death, are glad
to make any kind Of terms in exchange for a square meal.
War between nations is not like a fight between two dis
t~nguished gentlemen in the dining room OF an exclusive club,
where they glare at each other for a minute, get up, pass a few
lcks, one is iloored, and then resume their dinner.
When the allies take possession of Germany they will find
the people. like featherless birds, will receive them with their
mouths open, They will protest that the "fathcrland' is no
relative OF theirs.
When we think OF German barbarity. German cruelty, Ger
man kutur and ~cussedness, our first impulse is to give them a
bayonet instead Of bread, and to quench their thirst with liquid
fire instead OF with water. That is because we are fighting,
and before one can fight he must be mad.
But the German is going to surrender a loaded rifle and an
empty bread basket. The allies are going to be the complete
and undisputed masters of Germany, The German never has
been without a master, and he is in a position to welcome one
that will feed him.
Brand Whitlock says he talked with a Belgian in whose
heart welled all the hatred that the human breast could contain.
This Belgian longed to kill, and to see the blood of a German
Hoy as he had seen Belgians killed and mangled. And each
night in Brussels he went out and looked into the face of the
German soldiers, and each looked wan and worn and disguised
with the awful business. And of all the faces this Belgian
beheld he did not see one that was a tit subject for his wrath,
and he thirsted for German blood.
his IS going TO be the problem OF America after the end
OF the war. No doubt the civilian population is suffering. The
armies are being crushed and destroyed. 1t is our business to
Kill as many as we can, But the minute the audacious Hun
becomes a eringlng, covering s%upplcant our attitude will
change,
1t is a big job we have before us. Chivalry is not dead
with us, even in dealing with a race that never had any. Ger.
many must pay a tremendous debt. The nation must assam,
an obligation that will burden II for 100 years. II would not he
Just to permit the German to forget for one moment that he
alone is responsible for all the agony, bloodshed and sorrow that
the war has brought~even to Germany.
We must be relentless in exactng justice in every material
way IRON the German, but we shall not lose our human impulses
even IN association with savagery, for allied chiyalrv was made
70 endure and German kultur was made to be DESTROYED