Richmond times-dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1914-current, 1919-06-29
Der Tag Comes and Germany Signs

Der Tag Comes and Germany Signs
= ERMANY has signed
~ Again Der Tag for the Hun has come
and gone.
When the first impatiently awaited and
feverishly prepared for Der Tag dawned, it
found Germany drawing its cleaning sword
on peaceful world, the sword that was to
hew down all opposition, lay waste that civili-
cation that was not subservient TO the Hun.
and establish a far-flung empire over which
Berlin's sway would be indisputable For
more than four years the world was bathed
in blood and the nations rocked on the edge
OF abysmal depths before that sword dripping
red with the blood Of millions of men and
women and innocent children. was sheathed.
Then came the second Der Tag
Yesterday, in the Hall of the Mirrors in
the palace at Versailles. where forty-eight
years ago the arrogant Wilhelm l., with a
bleeding, PROSTATE, conquered France at his
feet, was crowned Emperor of Germany a
defeated. crushed and dismembered Germany
signed the peace treaty imposed on 1t by the
allies. 1t had whined and pleaded and
struggled, 1t had exhausted every treacherous
device known to the Hun mind to obtain
greater measure OF mercy and to escape so
heavy a punishment for its crimes, 1t had
bullied and threatened and sulked, it had
truculently refused TO sign, but finally
brought to bay helpless allied bayonets at its
heart and throat. 1t bowed to the inevitable
and signed And so Der Tag passed
No one will be fooled by Germany's sign
ing OF the treaty. On the surface 1t means
that the greatest OF all wars has ended, that
peace really is here at last. that normal con-
dltions can now be restored, the horrors OF
the past forgotten in the great tasks OF re-
construction, and Germany once more ad-
mitted to the family of nations To the
United States and the allies the treaty means
all that, IL it be carried out in good faith
But TO Germany 1t means no such thing To
many OF Its war-weary people the enforced
treaty may be welcome relief to be observed
In good faith, but to the national leaders, the
Junkers to all the Pan-Germans, that treaty
signed yesterday at Versailles Is only SCRAP
OF paper, and as the solemn covenant with
Belgium was ruthlessly violated when the op-
portunity came, SO will this be violated and
contemptuously ignored the moment Ger
many feels itself sufficiently strong to vio-
late and ignore 1t, and to that new Der Tag
Germany is consecrating itself
To maintain that treaty inviolate and en-
force its drastic, though just, terms, now
become the task OF the United States and
the allies, and that new task is scarcely less
important than the one they already have ac-
complished, for with vigilance and military
power once weakened beyond the point of
ability to compel, Germany will seize the mo-
ineH' ~ START anotner connagratlon that may
be even more destructive than the one which
had its nominal inception in the Sarajevo
murders. The mere physical act of signing
betokens no sudden conversion, no alteration
OIL the leopard's spots, no change in the Hun
heart, In which now there are bitterness, rage
and an insane frenzy for revenge Sanity
may return with the coming Of the years,
but until 1t is re-established in the Hun mind,
eternal vigilance on the part of the allies is
going TO remain the price that must be paid
for world peace