The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1916-1920, 1918-10-13

into and over 1t and left 1t standing.
This time 1t has gone as Louvain
went four years ago. The Hun torch
spared It not.
We mention Bohain because 1t is
Of the type Of dozens or hundreds
Of the towns of northern France,
small spots in the topography Of the
devastated country left behind by
the beaten, fast'retreatlng Prussians.
What they are reported to have done
to Roulers, to Lichtervelde, to Thou
rort, to Lens, to Cambria, to Caudry,
to Inchy, to Guise, to Vouchers and
many other villages, perhaps 30 Douai
before these lines are read--to Douai
with Its great museum, its great IL
brary, It's venerable Hotel de VILE
and belfry, it's precious monuments
of religious faith and secular arts
precisely what they have been doing
ever since their first descent upon
the fair lands and cities Of a Chris
tian civilization. They are ending
as they began.
There Is no military excuse for this
wanton savagery of destruction. No
conceivable military purpose is served
by wiping out of existence these sur
rendered places. There Is not even
that plea of military advantage
gained through the terrorism Of
frightfulness which Prussian ethics
used to offer in extenuation of the
crimes Of the advance. Heaven
knows that the possibilities Of Prus-
sian ruthlessness were sufficiently
demonstrated four years ago. Little
Bohain Is not needed as an example
to supplement the lesson OF LOU
vain. Every principle of the common
law and the common humanity Of
warfare holds 1t immune from the
incendiary's torch. 1t and its fellow
victims are specially protected by
those conventions Of The Hague and
Of Geneva to which the German Gov
eminent was a signatory and an ad-
hercnt in the days when men still be-
lieycd that the Hun was extinct and
that the German spoke the same Ian
guage Of national honor and thought
the same thoughts Of Christian hui
mainly as the Frenchman, the Briton,
the italian and the American.
On water as on land. With Prince
MAxIM1LIAN's application for a parley
over peace terms yet unanswered by
Washington, with the German people
waiting anxiously to learn what its
reception by the American President
Is 10 be, the same Government which
murdered the passengers of the Lusi-
tania and the Essex murders hun
dreds Of men, women and children
on the Leinster and the Hirano Maru.
The capability Of the German sea as
sassins to attack and kill non-com-
batants on peaceful errands and
shielded by the laws Of war has been
sufficiently demonstrated to require
no proof; but the psychology of this
choice Of time for the ostentati re-
sumption Of the damnable business
Is beyond comprehension. They are
ending as they began. As Arthur
BALFoUR said in London on Friday !:
"Brutes they were when they began
the war. So far as I can Judge
brutes they remain at the present
moment"
The effect of these latest enter
prises OF reckless spite on land and
numerous fury on the sea will be to
make immeasurably harder the con-
ditions of peace which Germany must
sooner or later accept as its punish
ment for the crimes of the Hohen.
zollerns and the Junkers. America
and the rest Of the armed forces of
civilization could never have for
gotten Louvain; such deeds as those
ut BOhain serve to accentuate the
recollection of what Prussianlsm
can do. The memory of the Lusi-
tania was ineradicable; but it is
burned in deeper yet by the Leinster
massacre on Thursday last. BY end
Ing as they began the criminal or
criminally insane masters of German
warfare are only pillny higher the
inevitable reckoning.
1t was about two weeks ago that
The Sun pointed out the imperative
need of a systematic and unfiinching
system Of reprisal. The only deter.
rent which can stay the hand Of the
Hun on his homeward way toward
utter defeat and humiliation Is the
assurance that retribution for his
senseless crimes of murder, Of Dill
lage. OF rapine and enslavement and
incendiarism will be dealt out to him
with merclless but even justice. This
retribution must be administered to
him either in kind by the destruction
OF equivalent cities and villages in
his own territory or by holding the
Inhabitants Of the equivalent city or
village to convict labor until they
shall have worked out the last pfen-
mig Of their Governments shameful
debt Every day lends force to this
suggestion Of reprisal.
In the beginning or at the end the
Hun has shown no mercy. Mercy "a