Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1919-06-17

cardinal feature of the treaty that
Germany must undertake to make
reparation to the very uttermost OF
her power, for reparation for wrongs
inflicted is of the essence of justice.
That is why they insist that those
individuals who are most clearly re-
sponsible for German aggression and
for those acts of barbarism and in
humanity which have disgraced the
German conduct of the war must be
handed over to justice, which has
not been meted out to them at
home.
Ruined Her Neighbors
That, too, is why Germany must
submit for few years to certain
special disabilities and arrangements.
Germany has ruined the industries,
the mines and the machinery of
neighboring countries. not during
battle, but with the deliberate and
calculated purpose of enabling her
own industries to seize their mar
kets before their industries could re-
cover from the devastation thus
wantonly inflicted upon them.
Germany has despoiled her neigh
bors of everything she could make
use of or carry away. Germany has
destroyed the shipping of all nations
on the high seas, where there was
no chance of rescue for their pas
sengers and crews.
ut is only justice that restitution
should be made and that those
wronged peoples should be safe
guarded for time from the COM
petition of a nation-whose indus
tries are intact and have even been
fortified by machinery stolen from
occupied territories. If these things
are hardships, they are hardships
which Germany has brought upon
herself. Somebody must suffer for
the consequences of the war. Is it to
be Germany, or the peoples she has
wronged?
Not to do justice to all concern
ed would only leave the world open
TO fresh calamities. If the German
people themselves, or any other ma
ton, are to be deferred from follow
ing the footsteps of Prussia; if man
kind is to be lifted out of the belief
that war for selfish ends is legitimate
TO any state; if the old era is to be
left behind, and nations, as we'll as
individuals, are to be brought be-
meath the reign of law, even if there
is to be early reconciliation and ap-
peasement, it will be because those
responsible for. concluding the war
nave had the courage to see that JUS
tlce is not DETECTED for the sake of
convenient peace.
1t Is said that the German revolu-
tion ought to make a difference and
that the German people are not re-
sponsible for the policy of the rulers
whom they have thrown from power.
Ihe Allied and associated powers
recognize and welcome the change.
III represents great hope for peace
ana new European order in the
future.
People Supported War
But it cannot affect the settle
nent OF the war itself. The German
revolution was stayed until the Ger
man armies had been defeated in
the held and all hope of profiting bv
a war of conquest had vanished
throughout the war, as before fine
war, the German peonle and their
representatives supported the war.
voted the credits, subscribed to thn
war loans, obeyed every order. how
ever savage, of their government
They shared the responsibility for
the policy of the government. for AT
any moment. had they willed it,
they could have reversed it. Had thai
pollcy succeeded, they would have
acclaimed 1T with the same enthu-
slaSm with which they welcomed the
outpreak of the war. They cannot
now pretend, having changed thoir,
rulers after the war was lost. that II
is justice that they should escape
the consequences of their deeds.
The Allied and associated powers
therefore believe that the neace
they nave proposed is fundamentally
a peace of justice. They are no less
certa1n that it is a peace of right on
the terms agreed. There can be no
aouot as to the intentions of the AL
ieo and associated powers to base
the settlement of Europe on the
principle of freeing oppressed peopIes
ana redrawing national boundaries
as iar as possible, in accordance
with the will of the peoples con-
cerned, while giving to each the
tacllities to live an independent ma
tlonal and economic life,
Ihese intentions were made clea
not only in President Wilson's ad-
dress to Congress on January <
1918. but in the principles of set
tlement enunciated in his subsequent
addresses, which was the agreed
basis of the peace. A memorandum
on this point is attached to this let
ter"
Accordingly, the Allied and asso-
ciated powers have provided for the
reconstruction of Poland as an indie
pendent state.