The Farmington times. (Farmington, St. Francois County, Mo.) 1905-1926, 1919-01-17


king seventeen times over, not to
speak of many other things that he
was and that he thought he was,
could take walk down the Rhine,
just now, he would hire a poet to re-
wise the words of his national anthem.
The Rhine has been conquered by
American doughboys smiling into the
hearts of little children.
"Dear Fatherland, no danger thine
Firm stand thy sons to watch the
Rhine"
said the song. They watched it still,
but through wondering eyes. They
do not watch over the sights of guns,
nor from the battlements of fortress
es. They watch it in the possession
of American soldiers who came across
5000 miles of green water to take the
Rhine, which they said they would do,
and which they have done.
An accredited correspondent of
this newspaper on the ground tells an
eloquent story of the conquest of the
Rhine by these American doughboys.
1t is a story eloquent from every an
gle.
IL appears IHdJ IIIG HcIUldIlS, WIN
both feared and hated the brown
checked troopers Of America, who had
suddenly taken possession of their
country, could not stand out against
the historic and generic smile that
the brood of the bald eagle habitually
wears upon its face.
1t caught the children first. An
American soldier at home or away
from home naturally loves children.
He can't help playing with them. He
wants to hoist them upon his broad
soldiers and to fold them under his
overcoat against the warm beat of his
heart.
1t doesn't make any difference to
him whether they are German children
or Hottentots, only so they are "kids".
Far from his own land, the children
of the alien were something that he
could soothe his inconsistencies with.
And so he smiled at them, and no
child, anywhere, can stand out against
smile.
Besides, the children of the Rhine
didn't know anything about "kultur"
or frightfulness or hate. God hides
those hideous things away from chill
dren. And so the smile won them,
and they came to the doughboys and
climbed happily on their shoulders.
Back of the children stood the
mothers Of the Rhine. They saw
what the American soldier is. They
got glimpse of the shining gold of
his heart, the radiance of his soul
CLEANED upon their sight.
Open, then, were flung the doors
and windows of the once sullen guard
ian river of the fatherland. The haus-
fraus of the Rhine went out and asked
to come and eat Christmas dinner with
them.
There can be lot of sick sentiment
talism over a thing like this. A lot
of maudlin tears can be wept. All of
which would be in the nature of a mis-
take. But it would be q mistake also
to blind our eyes to what it means.
In the first place, if the American
soldiers on the Rhine are not burning
with a desire to kill the population,
but, instead prefer to fraternize'with
them and to play with their children,
where do we get the authority to hold
meetings and cheer for the fre-eating
orators, who declare that the Rhine
should be made to look like the Shen
andoah Valley once upon time after
everybody got through with it?
Shall we send a delegation over to
the Rhine to tell our soldiers that we
want them to quit smiling and turn
in and kick the Teuton around like a
hound dog, because he certainly would
do that to us were the tables turned?
Who will volunteer to serve on the
committee which is to frame the mes
sage up and carry it to the boys on
the Rhine, which they first conquered
with guns and now have conquered
with smiles?
Well, but if those Germans were ov-
err here on the Mississippi or the Ohio
or another of our rivers what would
they be doing to us? Is it not for us
to do to them as they would do to US
if they had the chance?
1t seems that God has made the
doughboy wiser than He made us. 1t
seems still to be true that the bravest
are the tenderest. And it is abso-
lutely certain that there will be lot
of old German Bibles opened now
wherein is written the Golden Rule,
which says: "Do unto others as We
would that they should do unto you"
And it will dawn upon them that
America practices the golden rule.
They will see that the strongest and
the mightiest of all the nations har-
bors no vengeance in its heart, even
against foe who has outraged the
very name of mercy.
Little nations Of small soul could
never bring themselves to a thing like
that. But America is not little ma
ton, and its soul is the soul of Him
who spoke His deathless words on the
dusty trails of Galilee.
There is no possibility that Ger
many will be permitted to escape re-
sponsibility for the crimes and depre-
dations that she has committed
against civilization.
The kaiser must be brought to the
bar of justice and made to suffer as
any other murderer, proved guilty,
has been made to suffer. The mem
bership of the Prussian Government
that brought about and prosecuted
the war should be made to suffer the
supreme penalty also.
And we should go farther than that.
No effort should be spared to hunt
down every individual soldiar xubo