New-York tribune., 1918-11-08
Sentence!

Sentence!
Germany, a titanic barbarian among
nations, declared war on all civilization.
She meant to fasten Kultur upon the
world by force.
She is beaten She has lost the war.
But she has lost it on foreign soil.
One by one her allies sacrificed them
selves upon the altar of her terrible
ambition. She herself is still intact.
Her factories, her railroads, her mines
and shipyards are untouched, and she
has preserved in foreign lands-even In
this land Of ours-a sinister and power
full organization, which. upon the cessa-
ton Of hostilities, will begin at once to
disseminate political and commercial
propaganda designed to bring about the
moral and material rehabilitation of
Germany.
And now civilization, horribly wound
ed in the struggle for preservation, Is
about to consider what kind of peace to
make with the thing that sought and
nearly accomplished it's utter destruc-
ton.
An epoch Is at hand.
1t lies within the power Of civilization
TO make the world different place for
ever.
Bagehot once said that many times in
the history of mankind it had seemed
that people were ready to take a mo-
mentous step forward, under conditions
miraculously prepared. But just when
everything was ready, at the very last
moment, the people had looked back for
one farewell glance-and then never
advanced.
Here, again, is that opportunity. What
will we do with it?
\ There are two elements Of peace
material and moral-or, as we might
say, ponderable and imponderable.
The material elements have been con-
sidered. Compensation, economic ar
rangements, territorial adjustments,
guarantees and sureties-these have all
been discussed. They are more or less
understood. And it is just that Germany
should pay material price commen-
surate with the worlds loss, though Il
should take generations of toll to dis
charge the debt
But the danger is that civilization vii,
be tempted to settle with her as in a
court OF equity. There is still higher
court for moral judgments, and if Ger
many escapes trial there, civilization will
have failed to justify itself.
The material things required of Ger
many, of and in themselves, would in
time appear in the light of assets to the
victors. Germany could say: eve lost
the war because we were not strono
enough to defend our conouests. Our
enemies, in the name of justice, took
from us things of great value to them
selves-mortgages, colonies, money and
opportunities. 1t is, as we said from tho
beginning, world in which might ia
right
And they might never know what tho
var was about
We know that the war was fought On
our side as a life and death struggle
between two mutually antagonistic prin-
ciples of existence; that it was a war
between right and wrong, and that right
prevailed because it is invincible.
How shall we make the Germans he
iieve this? There is only one way. That
Is to impose upon them moral sentence
Let us say to the Germans: "You
have wantonly violated treaties. There
fore, you shall be for ten generations de-
erived of the right to make treaties"
Let us say to the Germans: "You have
Abused the privilege of citizenship in
oreign lands, turning it against the gov
ernments that harbored your emierant
children. Therefore. for five generations