Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1919-06-24
THE PEN AS WELL AS THE SWORD
BRINGS GERMANY TO BAY

Justice Is Served and the Peace Confer
ence MagnficentIy Vtndcated as the
Dtssraced Nation Bows to the
Inevitable
THE Calmness with which Germany's
l acceptance of the treaty was received
striking contrast to the ecstasy which
accompanied armistice day. None the
less, June %, 1919 is much the more
significant date, the vivid rubric on the
ccaselcss calendar of history.
It terminates with decision and finality
an epoch uneXampled for its woe and for
its JOY, for its disgrace and for its glory.
II reveals the capacity of stern and just
defenders of civilization for the roles of
stern and just makers of civilizations
peace.
Perhaps the thrill to which liberty-lov-
ing mankind yielded so readily last
November can never be regained.
Dramatic CELEBRITY is the kccncst of spurs
to the emotions. Appreciation of what
happened yesterday is bound to be less
snowy, but cumulative and, in the end,
more solid Reflection and the fight of
time are certain to produce valuation of
the weary months Of treaty making very
different from the sort of estimates so
prevalent during the critical interreg-
mum.
The full meaning of the stupendous
performance in Paris even now eludcs
those observers who were most persist
entity optimistic Its broad outlines,
however, are visible, and they are of such
magnitude that ordinary human con-
sciousncss cannot rush beyond the i'm
mediate event and those happenings of
the last five years Of which it is a culmi
nation.
Small wonder that the streets are not
now clouded with paper storms, that the
air is not rent with horn and whistle
blowing and cannon booming and that
high carnival is not spontaneously de-
creed. The finite mind of man has
right to be both staggered and sobered in
the presence Of the epochal.
OF this nature is the humiliation of the
empire which set forth in 1914 to sub
iect the world to the tenets of its mad
and tyrannous "kultur." The uncondl-
tional Eyes" which the Weimar assembly
has wired to Paris is the long-desred
affirmation that the power of this insane
creed is forever obliterated. 1t is also
evidence that the force of the doctrine
Yields only to superior force of sword and
of pen.
Armed Justice registered its verdict
last autumn. The inscribed variety, at
tainable only through grueling delibera-
ton and exhaustive investigation of
fac,s TO be co-ordinated with principles,
at last informs the momentous peace
treaty.
Naturally the time consumed in win
ming this goal, though perfectly justitia-
BILE, was capitalized to the full by the foe.
Thus the world has been afflicted with
the spectacle of a blackly guilty but in
famously unrepentant Germany thunder
ing against just pact as iniquitous and
seeking by every means available to
nation shorn of armed strength to dis
credit the Peace Conference, to split the
associated powers and to becloud issues
which logically admit of no equivoca ton.
In furtherance of her designs she
counted less upon treason than on the
aid of sensation mongers, impractical and
chronic malcontents and upon half
baked theorizers fearful because the mil
lennium has been postponed.
Of course it has. So it will ever be.
But if worldly perfection be impossible
worldly betterment of the most substan-
+ial order is not, and the road TO that ac-
complishment is only to be taken by
facing facts.
If is to the eternal credit of the Paris
conference that this is what it has su
nerbly done. UnmoveI by all the ire
sponsible forces set in motion against
them, the peacemakers have considered
facts in the league f-nations plan and
facts of terrible magnitude in the treat
ment of vanquished Germany.
The simplicity of the latter array rem
ders it no less hideous. German infamy
is proved, is not debatable. 1t has per-
sisted, regardless of governmental mas
ouerades, to the end as the disgusting
exhibition of unscrupulous spite and per-
verted cowardly sentimentality at Scapa
Flow sensationally attests.
The treaty, while it permits of Hun re-
covery with justice, permits of none with
ont that inextinguishable ingredient. In
the last reply to Germany which the as
sociated powers will ever make to her as
= helIiperent in the world war she is in
formed that she will be held responsible
for the execution of every stipulation of
the treaty"
The stern and solemn principles of
reparation and atonement upon which the
document is based are thus assured of
vitality. The day of hedging and shuf-
fling has passed.
The Hun hope that it had not was
.:LI i, oil tbe orgy of bluster manau