The Goldfield news and weekly tribune. [volume] (Goldfield, Nev.) 1911-1947, 1919-04-26
LEAVE THE KAISER TO THOSE HE ASSAULTED

The news from panis-what is permitted to reach us-is
to the effect that the French and British view of the proper
method of Furnishing the former kaiser favored a tribunal, but
the American view favored moral indictment without recourse
to prosecution.
This is in entire harmony with the American attitude FROM
the beginning. There has been a strange unwillingness ~
visit a prompt, righteous and adequate punishment on Ger
many as a nation or on any of the individual German offend
ers. The theory seems to have been that the worst punish
ment they can possibly suffer is the punishment of memory
and regret, the penalty inflicted by failure, humiliation and
a realization of the worlds hostile opinion.
But what would happen if we applied that jellyfish the
DRY to our everyday peace-time system of justice? What
would the average criminal care for a punishment of that
sort? He would merely regard us with scorn and con-
tempt, and repeat his crime at the first opportunity. And
what is Germanys regret today except for her future?
No doubt the report that "the American view" at Paris
favored the moral Indictment of the former kaiser is true
so far as it applies to the American peace delegation, or to
the one overshadowing theorist who imposes his will upon
his colleagues of the delegation, but it is not the American
view in the broad sense of the word. The American peo-
Pile take no stock in any such policy. They have no patience
with the notion that Wilhelm should be left to his own bit
ter reflections, branded simply with the academic disapprov-
al Of the world.
1t is of course true that there is a penalty which he is
condemned to suffer irrespective of anything the nations of
the entente may do or leave undone. But that does not re-
lieve us of our duty.
Here we have the most conspicuous criminal of the age
and one of the worst criminals of all the ages. He seeks to
evade the responsibility for the world war, and, according to
a recent report from Amerongen, takes the gound that in
spite of his imperial ~trappings he was no more than a pup
pet In the bands OF unscrupulOus military leaders who utilized
and deceived him. This goes badly with his fire breathing
of the last quarter century. All through his imperial career
he proclaimed himself the chosen of Jehovah, answerable to
no human being whatsoever, nor to any parliament of hui
man beings. And it will be a piece of wholesome justice to
assess him now at his familiar self-valuation.
A policy of moral Indictment may appeal to Mr.. Will
son and such pacifists as. his secretary of war. 1t NAV seem
allsuficent to the flabby philosophers who have too often
been at his ear, but it does not suit the American people,,
who believe that anything short of a direct, personal and
physical penalty in the case of the infamous head of the
house of Hohenzolern, and of rigorous punishment for the
cruel nation that eagerly conformed to his insane ambitioann
would be not merely a travesty on justice, but a threat to til
future safety of the world.
The american view" is that the punishment Of the
kaiser should be left to the countries he has assaulted They
are his suffering ~neighbors.