Grand Forks herald. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1916-1955, 1918-10-19
can't you do the decent thing. and let
me have possession now!"
ITO be Continued.)
The German Colonies
fFrom Nav york Times.)

\ Are negroes peopAo .I..,.
SO to Judge BY the German way OF
discussing the future disposition OF
the German colonies. Germany pre-
tends to accept President. Wilson's
series Of points, oneaof which was nal
the interests 81 the people should pei
consulted IN theS disposition made OF
the lands wherein they live; but AZ
never enters their heads that the In
terests OF the peopleaof Kiao-Chaut or
of Southwest Africa could be consult
: indeed. SO far as Southwest
Africa is concerned, there ARE not SO
many peopleeleft to consult; Germany
has killed more than half Of them.
It is doubtless true that the natives
Of Africa cannot be left to govern
themselves when they have pushing
white Iheighbors all around them. our
w indians are proof enough OF that.
Nevertheless, their interests are go1n8
to be consulted; there must be no
more of that ruthless enslaving OF .
tive populations, their robbery by
! swindling treaties and their murder
by wholesale. These things disgrace
the records Of all colonizing nations
in a rougher, more brutal ages but
mankind has advanced, and colonial
ton for the benefit of, the native as
well as of the colonist is the rule now.
It is not, however, the rule, for g
many, which e%nslaVes, fortunes n
murders in the true spirit Of the con-
querors Of Peru four hundred years
ago. And Germany must cav
Africa, since she knows nothing to do
with Africans except to enslave and
kill them. There may be some who
take a more unitarian view of 1t, who
say that these countries must be de-
veloped at whatever cost. Well. by
that rough test, too, Germany fails.
She cannot COLOMBO, she does not
Know how. Her only idea Of making
a cplonytis to put up a replica Of
Germany On African soil, without the
slightest regard to whether it fits that
soil Or not.
No, colonist could do business with
out consulting Berlin; and since col
onization, to be successful, requires
initiative n does not thrive under
delays. German colonization was
strangled in its cradle. The govern
ment imposed so heavy a tax on dia-
monds that the amount smuggled is
believed to be more than the amount
regularly exported. The heavy hand
per mines almost unproductive.
Meanwhile the colonists have been
loaded down with heavy taxation.
What they got to show for it was
splendid public buildings, statues in
the best style of German art, immense
schools with few pupils in them, and
SO on.s
n natives were treated as the
Conquistadors treated the ancient
except that the Conquista-
doris did seem to know how to- make
their slaves work. Germany's African
history has been a long procession Of
war" that is. massacres, tort1rings,
and deportations. In Southwest
Africa they reduced the native popu-
ltion from 100000 TO $4,000 in three
wears. They drove women and chill
dren into the desert to die Of thirst,
and this not as the ordinary brutality
OF ignorant settlers. but as a military
operation. General Won Trotha's
lanai to the Herrera nation,
dated Oct. 2, 1904, contains this:
The Herrero nation must now
leave the country. If the people
40 1T not, I will compel them with
the big gum. Within the German
h frontier, every Herrero with or
without a rifle, with>or without cat
tie, will be shot. I will not take
over any nor women and chill
dren, but / will either drive them:
l pack to their people or have them >
+, fired on. These are my, words to
the nation of the Herreros.
Thus-leaving aside all questions-of
humanity-thus did the good German
sword, drive out all the prospective
laoorers In the country and leave the
overtaxed, harassed white colonists
surrounded by statues and public
buildings. It is full time that Ger
many. which does not know how to
~colontze, should retire from Africa in
lavor Of somebody who understands
the business.
RESURRECTION OF BELGIUM.
There is good news from all the bat
tle fronts, but there is no individual