The watchman and southron. [volume] (Sumter, S.C.) 1881-1930, 1918-08-14
VICTORY AND PUNISHMENT
y Great Danger to World Morality
and to Civilization Would lie Il
Peace Without Punishment.
(Manufa cturers Record. }


The glorious :,ews which comes
from France, telling of 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 patton and to all. civiliza-
ton. 1t would, however, be a serious
mistake for us to imagine that this
means the ending Of the war, fer it
does not. We are a long way from
Berlin, and until the American flag
flies over Berlin as q conquered city,
and the terms Of peace are written
there, and the Hohenzolleras, the
Hapsburgs ard their leaders in this
world horror have pcid with their
own lives the penalty for their un
speakable crimes, it would be premaS
ture to do much shouting.
The fight is yet a long and desper-
ate 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 10 full
realization of the magnitude of the
task.
Germany, the blacklist criminal in
the worlds history, will, through ev-
cry influence which it can exert in this
and every other country, seek to Sc
cure peace whenever it's military lead
ers find that they are doomed. We
shall have peace talk from some
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-Gern1an
influence, some by sickly neurotic SEN
timent against punishment Of crime
and wherever pro-Gernan deviltry
can carry on its work We may rest
assured it will be done, for many mer4
claiming the livery of Heaven, Will
be engaged in the work of the devil.
Many will seek to create an impress
sion that Germany must not be pun
ished and that it's people are different
from it's military leaders, when ev-
cry intelligent man who has studied
the situation now knows that the peo-
pie and the military leaders are one
and the same in the support 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 in the past; crimes,
to recount which Secretary Lansing
recently said would sicken a tiger,
were not committed individually by
the Kaiser or the military leaders.
but by the people themselves in the
armies of Germany. encouraged there
to by the military leaders as a part OF
Germany's Campaign of Frightfulness-.
These people must be made to real
ize that sin must be punished and
that crime must be atoned for, or
else the blood of the millions of SOL
diers who have died will have been
shed in vain. and the broken-hearted
women, who have suffered assno 9TH
Eer weraensin sali b uns any h
go unavenged.
The great danger which faces this
country today is that there will be:
persistent effort to bring about a
premature peace: a peace, without
punishment, which, if ever made,
would be deep stain on the honor
and chivalry of this nation.
The nation which condones interna-
tional crime is akin to the: criminal
as the individual who condones crime
becomes in effect participator in the
immortality Of the criminal.
It behooves every honest-hearted
man and woman in this country to
make certain that neither in the pull
| pit nor in the press nor in private con-
versation shall there be the lightest
word said in favor of peace until that
peace is written in Perrin, after the
criminals have paid the full measure
/ of penalty for their crimes.
.'On to Berlin!" should be the un-
ceasins demand of every honest-heart-
ed man and woman, and he who does
not take that view Of the situation ls
| false to all civilization. it matters not
who he may be, or what his position
in life.
Richard H. Edmonds.