Middletown transcript. [volume] (Middletown, Del.) 1868-current, 1918-05-11
GERMANY MUST PAY in FULL

ERMANY must be utterly crushed,
" just as any wild beast flying al
YOUR throat. Her brutal crimes, hel
more than savage cruelties, her treach.
cries, her lies, have stamped her the
Outlaw nation amenable neither to the
laws Of God nor man, no more bound
by honor, or pledged word, or solemn
treaty than the ravening beasts of the
forest. Germany knows no law but
that of force. is moved by no higher
feeling than that Of pain or fear-pre-
cisely as the untamed tiger or lion that
roams the jungles in search of prey.
Even if Germany were to agree to
decent peace terms, what would be the
value of the promise or treaty of ma.
ton sunken so low in frauds, lies and
dishonored promises that her statesmen
boast of the very infamies that shock
all mankind Her professed code OF
ethics is shameful; no just or righteous
thing has any value in her eyes further
than it can minister to her own profit.
Her diplomacy, evidenced both in the
writings of her statesmen and in her
practices, holds no treaty. no agreement
however solemn and just, sacred or
binding when her own interests de-
mand its reputation. Agreements
other nations hold so sacred they are
willing to yield their treasure and blood
to maintain, she contemptuously styles,
scraps of paper, "a disgraceful
phrase that was old in German diplo-
macy before Bethman- Holweg gave it a
dishonorable notoriety.
To return to our first figure, Germany
IS a mere wild beast, and can only be
dealt with, when finally conquered as
she will be. like any other brute from
the jungle. Her fangs must be drawn.
and she be so hobbled and chained that
never again can she attempt to devour
mankind. Her military system must
be totally abolished; the autocratic dy-
nasty Of the Hohenzollerns the German
people so adore, must be destroyed. and
the naughty Kaiser and his cubs, Hin
denburg, Tirpitz and few more Of
that militaristic clique of assassins, if
not hung as they richly deserve, must
be banished to some lonely St. Helena
for life.
Herein will later arise a new danger.
The pacifcists, those ignoble creatures
''too proud to fight" and willing to make
''peace at any price" whom it took two
years of German insults and murders
to arouse, will begin pleading for easy
terms for dear Germany-to ''let by
cones be bygones"-''to forget the
past" etc. ETC.
Americans should and will demand
that this arch Criminal pay to the
last farthing of restoration and resti-
tuition for her wholesale crimes; and no
matter how much certain pro-German
pacifcists may desire to let Germany gov
practically scot free of her nunberless
villanies, the plain outraged people of
this land will sternly cry, ''No-throttle
the wild beast -
This is written May 7th-the third an
niversary Of Germany's Lusitania as
sassination, and when one views the
feverish rush at this eleventh hour to
do that which three long years ago
should have been begun, one appreci-
ates the size of the national folly that
for two whole years, even in the face
of such awful warnings as this slaughter
of lis American men. women and babes
and many other murders on the sea of
our citizens, refused to lift finger in
the way of national defence much less
to avenge these fiendish assaults.
Candid men Of all parties now freely
admit that then was the time we should
have acted. if not to fight at least to
pick our flints. And when before long
the sad death lists of our patriot de-
Tenders begin to come in-England's
has for long time averaged $4,000 a
month-then will the national soul with
added sternness demand the fit judq-
ment of angry Heaven upon all this
colossal iniquity of blood and tears that
was made in Germany"