The Chesterfield advertiser. [volume] (Chesterfield C.H., S.C.) 1884-1978, 1919-05-22
THE EMPIRE THAT WAS

has published in an editorial, the fol
lowing excellent summary. of what
has happened to Germany.
The Peace Treaty is stern docu.
ment. The condition. which it i'm.
poses on the German nation are ter.
>rible in their severity. But the stern
ness is the sternness of righteous
ness, the severity is the severity of
justice. To the German nation and
the German people is being meted out
not vengeance but retribution.
The rulers of the German Empire,
with the fierce approval and the un-
stinted cooperation of the German
people set out to impose the will of
German autocracy upon the world by
ruthless force. But there was a
moral power in the world which,
working through other peoples, would
not let it be. The German Empire is
no more. Its people sinned the un-
forgiveable sins of unrighteous am
bition and the rejection Of every
moral standard. The punishment was
long in coming; at times it almost
looked as though it might not come
at all. But the moral law will not be
denied. The righteousness which ex-
'alteth nation is deliberately reject
ed at peoples peril.
The German Empire was great
power. 1t was steadily becoming
greater. But it desired to be not
merely great, but omnipotent. What
is the German Empire now?
In 1914 the German Empire in
cluded an area of nearly million and
q quarter square miles. Over mih
lion square miles of territory were
outside Of Europe, some 100000
square miles on the European CONT
nent. When the peace treaty is
signed-for it will be signed practi-
cllly without change-the German
Empire will have shrunk to an area
of 100000 square miles. 1t will have
been stripped of every possession be-
yond the limits Of Europe. 1t will
have lost Alsac-Lorraine with two
great cities, Strasburg and Metz;
parts of S,lesia, West Prussia, Posen
and East Prussia with the prosperous
port Of Danzig; and bits along the
Belgian frontier. There will be taken
away in Europe nearly $4,000 square
miles, and in the rest of the world
over a million square miles.
The German army and the German
navy, the instruments which were to
have put the neck of the world be.
meath the heel of German autocracy.
are to become mere shadows Of their
former Haunting power. Germany
may have an army of only 100000
officers and men and navy of six
small battleships, six light cruisers,
twelve torpedo boats and no subma-
rines.
Germany must abolish conscrip-
ton, destroy the Notifications of the
of the German navy, He'll
Yoland, build no forts overlooking the
Baltic or within thirty miles of the
French and Belgian frontier, main
tain no military or naval air forces,
import or export no munitions of
war and manufacture only specified
minimum of such materials, open the
Kiel Canal to the merchant end war
ships of all nations. German mill
tarism is no more. 1t was over
whelmingly defeated on the field of
battle by the armed forces of the de-
Tenders of humanity. 1t is now, with
merciless logic, rendered impotent to
make another attempt to dominate
the world by force. The world has
been made safe from that particular
manifestation of autocracy.
Germany is compelled to accept
full responsibility for all the loss and
damage to which the Allied nations
have been subjected and to pay the
bill for reparation and restitution
which the Allies will assess. The bill
will be as large as Germany can pay.
The first payment alone will amount
to five billion dollars. 1t will require
all the energy and industry Of the
German people for long time to
co'ne to liquidate that portentous in
debtedness; there will he little energy
left for the renewal of plans of ag-
grsssion.
Germany is forced to replace the
merchant shipping destroyed by the
unholy submarine campaign by hand
ing over all it's merchant ships of
large size and building others to the
amount Of million tons also to be
delivered to the Allied powers. So
Germany must begin all over again
if it will seek to reconquer the trade
Of the world.
Germany must agree to the trial
by an international tribunal Of the
former German Kaiser for "a SUI
oI