Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1919-06-28
CERMANY'S DAY OF JUDGMENT
REVEALS A NATION INDICTED
Her Crime Was So Manifest That Her
Representatives Could Not Avoid
Plea Of Guilt

Representatives Could Not Avoid
ou
" ''
GERMANY has pleaded guilty to her
VI crimes and her representatives have
signed the treaty which fixes the penalty.
The consummation which was certain
from the moment America entered the
war is now accomplished.
Versailles today is nor" nearly Ike
the Day Of Judgment than anything
that the word is likely to see again.
Crimes unthinkahle, folly without end
errors and of'cnsoS that, 1t seemed
were cvaded and forgotten years ago,
have to hc accounted for in full at last
and the weight Of responsibility is great
enough to try souls more rcsolut" than
th"s" Of the men who have to bear It,
Decisions such as were made at the
Paris confcrcnr" cannot be sustained by
the will cf statesmen alone. UnqucitIon-
ably the majority opinion Of the world
Of all people who do not cast asld" the
normal human impulses of pity and pas
sion for the academic view-SupportS
the peace Terms. Yet from now on we
shall hear a great deal of criticism
founded in the belief that the terms are
too rigorou, for safety.
Much Of this criticism viii be sincere,
"uIIe' !" "e'"'a''H' MS ~ tI"e' put
nave the innocent S"nere"' ana are 'ney
uHeE'hE' nowhere c'S''
If there Is further war and confusion
IN Europe it will be said naturally that
NOR" charitable attitude toward the
defeated Germans might have insured a
long peace. But who knows what vain
and needy people. dcIudcd still with
sense Of invincibilty might attempt If
they were suddenly gwen the means OF
strength in the presence Of PROSTATE
and tired Europe?
The world Is dealing with new Ger
many and no one can do more than guess
at its intentions. The kaiSer-haterS'
the peop-o who still HIazc furiouSlY at the
name Of the Crown Prince, have missed
the more important lessons Of the war.
If the Allied representatives at Paris
have been displaying only langud in
tereSt N the proposals to try and execute
the two Hohenzo!lCrnS and a crowd of
their military advisers they are manifest
ing evidences of truer sense Of dis
cr'fnIhatloh II th' eHor' [" reach the
rooV oI 'n' "e''''"h h'aIaoE'
The Kaiser was at best only an orna-
ment to the system OF German ag-
gresSlon. Behind him were men far more
able, more reSO!ute and more reSourCCful
who in any final analysis, must be listed
as the real war-makers. There was
Rathcnau, for example. of the German
General Electric Company; the North
German Lloyd interests; the kruppS and
the Berlin banking clques-all con-
secrated to purpose of industrial world
conquest which had miltarism as a mere
by.prOduct.
These men, with the universities and
schools which they dominated, were the
prOpagandists of philosophy half pagan
and half barbaric; brutal, acquisitive,
cruel and disdainful of conscience.
Germany's greatest crime was not
miitarism. 1t was habit of thought
which carried the whole mind of the
nation downward in gradual decline to
a level at which the moral standards that
| sustain civilization were deliberately
| abandoned as troublesome Superfuites.
Events since the armjstico have NOT in
dicated that the Germans have learned
to think in new wavs, that thev feel con-
triton or that thev even admit defeat
Is this one of the reasons why the Peace
Conference preferred to be mcrcjless .
1t is easy to remember the wild talk Of
"unbeaten armies" in the various Germar
cities. He was an unusually charitahIa
man who could observe without di.gYst
the sense of satisfaction that nravaiIod ir
Germany at the contrast hatwoor t,e
bIackened arcas Of northern F,..,co a,r
the peace and green fields "untoncbad b,
war" that began Immediately on tbo on,
posite side of the Rhine.
The "unheatpn armies cannot Lo,,