The sun., 1919-10-26
then, at the most solemn moment. this
disillusion was to be my fateP'
Treaty Is Called Unjust. 4.

Treaty OF Peace for the benefit Of the
German Michael, saying God knows we
cannot call 1t a just treaty" and sug-
gesting that It will be utterly impossible
for Germany TO live up to It's conditions;
but at the same time he counsels Michel
to get 1t through his head that he will
accomplish more by admitting and con-
ceding what is good in the treaty. keep
Ing In mind German conduct after the
Treaty Of Brest-Litovsk and the Treaty
OF Bucharest. Coming to the cases OF
the German officers accused of atrocities,
Capt. Perslus gives as his opinion that
they should be tried for their crimes and
punished. duty Germany has neglected
for nearly year. E,
THE only exception" he observes, "is
the Fryatt case. and we had better not
mention that exception. The decision
Of the commission appointed to examine
Into the charges involving treatment of
prisoners of war in Germany, in viola
tion of international law. is enough to
bring the blush of shame into the face
Of every human being" He adds:
Now our enemies are going to re-
spond to the worlds cry for justice and
will place on trial the criminals who dis
graced huminity 'Dishonored Is ma
tion that submits to that clause in the
peace treaty! tho pan-German gang at
Weimar was shouting. The same shouts
were heard all over Germany. and sleepy
Michel. still sleepy and unconscious OF
the fact that only a nation that refuses
to punish its criminals Is really dishon-
ored and disgraced. repeated the hollow
roar. cdr
HE is weakling who suffers an ul-
Ger to destroy his body without attempt
Ing to free himself by an excision. Now
this operation will be performed by our
enemies. We ought to thank our enc
mics for this operation. and IL we don't
the operation is not likely to be of bene-
f1t to us.
1T will be a tough job to drive It
into Michers head: You owe thanks to
your enemiesl' He still hears It all
around Our brave U-boat and Zeppelin
commanders merely did their duty.
Whatever they did they were acting un-
der orders from some one higher up.
Those brave men must not be dragged
into an alien court"
No Reason to Get Excited.
80 far there is no reason to get ex-
cited The British Government, claim
Ing to have evidence against twenty
commanders of German U-boats, wants
to bring them to trial. Hands off our
protesting simpletons are shouting
Those commanders of U-boats merely
obcyed the commands of their superiors
iE rank. Had they not obeyed they
would have been punishd for breach of
discipline or even for treason. We must
not permit the enemy to try our hero
cfficers!'
THE enemy, however. does not at all
contemplate trying our officers for
obeying the orders of their superiors.
Il he had any such notion he would
want to try every single one of our
U-boat commanders. The enemy Is GO
Ing to try only twenty of them, not a
hundred. They are not going to be
tiieG for obeying military orders, that
Is for sinking ships without warning in
the barred zone, but for acts they COM
mitted going beyond their orders.
There are or were a number of Ger
man U-boat commanders In England as
prisoners Of war. Nobody ever thought
OF dragging them to court for this SIM
pic reason nobody ever accused them of
cruelty and atrocity. They obeyed their
orders and no more
When our enemies demands became
known to us our first and immediate anl
swer should have been: We are glad to
be placed in a position where we may be
able to disprove charges that possibly
are absolutely unfounded. We welcome
chance to restore the unsullied shield
of honor of which every one OF our naval
/ officers has been proud. We only regret
that no German tribunal was formed to
try these accused officers in Germany
Asks for Cleaning Up.
Charges made against U-boat COM
manders, as contained in those newspa-
per articles, are of the same nature as
accusations made against other mill
tafy officers whose extradition is de-
manded Let us begin n cleaning up all
around. Let us not be content with the
trial of officers whose extradltion is de-
manded. Let us try some of them our
selves in cases where our enemies ara
not interested. Let us collect the evil
dence, to be submitted to judges humane
and just not to military officers and OH
cials lost in a maze OF legal fgments.
Let us get at the honest truth.
"The mass of evidence will soon bs
mountain high. Slowly and gradually
many things have become known OF late
things that throw a sinister light upon
dark passages. The Emperor blames his
generals claiming they acted contrary
10 his orders T; his son accuses Ludendorff
and Tirpitz: Tirpitz accuses Bethmann-
Hollweg and the latter accuses the for
mer in turn.
For instance, II Wilhelm is right thu
execution of Miss Cavell was ordered by
a general who happened to be drunk.
Well. why has this general not been
tried? Where Is our State tribunal?
If it does not try this general or II IL
merely whitewashes him. we ought to
thank our enemies for cleaning up, even
only in part. the Augean stable we our
selves fail to clean.
"In addition we have to thank our
enemies for delivering us from the octo-
pus OF militarism. that terrible cancer
which was destroying the life Of our
nation and is still poisoning our system.
Clemenccau in addressing the German
peace delegation said the Germans did not
seem to comprehend what abo@shment of
military service meant to them-releas-
ing for labor hundreds OF thousands OF
hands formerly occupied in the unpro-
ductive pursuit of militarism Only
militarist whose mind Is stunted by the
fungus growth OF pan-German madness
will fail to share Clemenceaus opinion.
But the note issued by the French
Prime Minister made no impression on
US. Our newspapers failed to comment
on it, Why? Because the note in many
respects explains in words of sincerity
many ob<cure parts of the treaty that
seem to be cruel and unjust,
Read it; read It carefully you Ger
man Michel. read ii without prejudice
and hate; read it without bias against
those with whom you fought only re-
Gently; read ii filled with an honest de-
sire to serve your people, conscious OF
the sins committed and to be atoned II
we ever are again to work in unison
with the other nations OF the globe and
be permitted to assist in the reconstruc-