The Logan Republican. [volume] (Logan, Utah) 1902-1924, 1919-04-15

ever been guilty of, perhaps, in history
But the Paris delegates have their hands
full of problems that do concern us and
the world more than any possible ques-
ton of any mans punishment. Half of
Europe is in flames of revolution and the
fire spreads daily. Hanging the kaiser
will not stop bolshevism or advance US
one step towards the peace in which alone
lies the safety of civilization.
But if the case or the kaiser must be
thrust into this crisis we should pray the
Paris conference lays hold Of such COM
mon sense as it can muster and deals with
the problem practically with some regard
for the lessons of experience. Only ex-
pediency can or should govern the deci-
sion. We cannot pretend trial of Will
helm would be anything but solemn
farce. 1t would be the formal conviction
of culprit already convicted The court
would go through motions alreadv deter
mined. If it was intended that he should
be executed, the court would order him
executed; if not, he would be given some
other predetermined penalty.
Waving the embarrassment of setting
a precedent by which any ruler or SUI
pTeIIle dRclC VI d udIlOildl pOllCy AhShV,
in case of defeat, be punished for acts
done officially in the supposed interest
of his country, there is the question of
how to dispose Of the kaiser so as to be
rid of him and his influence. Would
shooting him at sunrise or hanging him
accomplish the result wanted? We doubt
it. The execution of kings in the past
has achieved as little good as their assas-
sination. The British, some of whom are
now clamoring for Wilhelm's head, cut
off that of Charles Stuart something ov-
err two centuries ago. The result, after a
little time, was the restoration of his son
and, after centuries, the persistence of
sentimental devotion which still has its
grotesque though organized survival in
Jacobean societies. When the English
drove the other son of Charles | out of
the land, the Stuart cause became flu
tility.
AS for the French, they once beheaded
king and queen and it was not many
years before they had the family once
again upon the throne. Napoleon escap-
ed with his life and passed his last days
in martyrdom of exile which helped ma
terially to hand down to his nephew an in
heritance of glory colored by sentimental
| pathos.
The kaiser today is nearer down and
| done for than he will be if he is put
through form of trial at which his his
trionic instinct might assert itself and eff
face the disgrace Of his flight from sore
tried army. The kaiser and his kin are
not only done for with their enemies, they
are done for in Germany, for they desert
ed the army and their colleagues and COM
rades in great moment of peril, ran
away ingloriously from their own people
and now are spending their time whim-
pering and apologizing, denying and
Sinking blame upon their agents. What
could be more satisfactory than this
What could be more foolish than to set
them up in the glory of world court OF
in the grim romance of a scaffold? They
are contemplate now and therefore pow.
erless. The Paris conference is foolish
I if it lends them any dignity.-Chicagc
Tribune.
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