The Lamar register., 1919-03-19
GERMANY's SPECIAL PLEADER

President, Hon. Jonathan Bourne, Jr.,
today gave out the following state
ment from its Washington headquart-
ers:
There is one fundamentally import
ant fact that President Wilson persists
in ignoring-that the war was deliber-
ately planned and prccipitatcd by the
German government with the coopera-
tion of the German people, and that
the war was conducted in the most
/ barbarous and inhuman manner by the
German people. Every life that was
lost, every injury that was sustained,
every indignity that was endured.
every dollars worth of property that
was destroyed-all these are charge
able directly to the German people.
because of that diabolical destruc-
tiveness of life and property, the peo-
pie of the United States have had
placed upon them burden of probably
S45 ,000, 900 ,00O-a sum of money that
has been absolutely wasted. That S45,-
OO0, ,0OO, 900 would have built million
miles of permanent hard-surfaced
highway at the high cost of $4,000
per mile. A million miles of highway
would traverse the country more than
300 times. That S45. 900, 900 900 would
have built-a million schoolhouses at an
average cost of s45 900 each. 1t would
ha. oil 81
at similar expense for each.
ut is needless to add other illustra-
tions of what that forty-five billion
dollars would do to add TO the happi-
ness and prosperity of the American
people. 1t takes only moments cal
culation to ascertain that instead of
supplying ourselves with all the con-
veniences and needs which this money
would have procured, we have should
cred burden equivalent to an average
of about $4,000 for each family in the
United States.
with these facts before him. and
with the knowledge that the Ameri-
can people must labor and economize
and sacrifice for the next quarter of
a century in order to pay off the war
debt, President Wilson chooses to shut
his eyes to the question of RESPONSE
bility. compensation and reparation.
Far worse than that, he proposes to
burden the American people further by
voluntarily placing them under the
bondage of an alliance with European
nations with an obligation to partici-
pate in their every quarrel and to help
them perpetuate their monarchical sys-
tens of government.
'In the attitude he has taken, he
ignores every principle of equity and
justice. For the time being, at least,
he assumes that to the looter belong
the spoils. Atonement is evidently the
last thing he will demand of the sin
ner. The righting of wrongs is post
poned for the consideration of alb
stractions which carry much of mem
ace but little of promise.
Red blooded Americanism, actuated
by desire for a square deal, demands
restoration, reparation, and punish
ment. Warm blooded Americanism is
not lacking in sympathy, but it has
sympathy for the victim, not for the
criminal. America seeks no aggrand-
izement, no advantage, no revenge.
But America still has before her eyes
the picture of devastated Belgium and
France. where the most brutal barbar-
ian in the the history of the world
committed every crime a depraved
mind could conceive America is will
ing to bear the burden that has been
thrust upon her, but she is not will
ing and will not consent to bear that
burden and let the Hun go free. If
floating the next Liberty Loan shall
be difficult of accomplishment, Presi-
dent Wilson may fairly take to him
self the responsibility, because of his
apparent disposition to place new bur-
dens upon the people of this country
while taking no steps to exact even
handed justice from the nation that
has thus far suffered least in the
world war which it precipitated with
out provocation and prosecuted with
fa,.oc;t,,