The Columbus dispatch. (Columbus, Miss.) 19??-1922, 1921-08-31
DISARMAMENT

June Goth, on the conference report
on the naval appropriation bill and
the amendment thereto to authorize
the President to invite the countries of
England and japan to send represen-
tatives to conference to discuss with
the representatives Of the United
States the proposition Of reducing
ornaments, Hon. John E. Rankin, our
representative in congress said:
believe in the inexorable law Of
retribution. Whatsoever man SOW
eth that shall he also reap" is di-
vine admonition that is no respecter
Of persons, and it applies no less to
individuals than the nations.
! have often wondered whether or
not the ex-Kaiser of Germany, in the
silence of his present exile, wrapped
in the solitude of his own thoughts"
alone with his conscience and his God,
mas ever really and truly admitted the
weight of responsibility for the de-
struction wrought by the World War.
wonder if during the hours of his
1rooding meditation he ever glances
Town across the once beautiful, art
crowned, garden-cultivated, happy
lomed Europe Of a few years ago,
aow bristling with the crosses that
mark the last resting places Of TO-
100000 men-the very pick and
lower of the worlds best manhood
Who went down to nameless graves
beneath the sword of modern despot-
SIN as result of that policy of mill
.arism of which he was supposed to
)e the living embodiment. | wonder
in the waking hours of his endless
lreams he can see the crepe the war
las placed upon every doorknob in
europe, the vacant chairs it left at
very fireside, the weeping orphans,
broken hearts, and widows weeds in
very home. wonder if in his minds
,ye he can see every park and public
place in Europe, and in almost every
other quarter of the globe, filled with
he manned, the blind, the wounded
md disabled victims of that conflict.
/ wonder if before his miserable
lision there sometimes pass in piano.
annie review the recent belligerent
countries of Europe in their present
leplorable states-homes burned,
property destroyed, cities laid waste,
and towns and villages obIiterated
rom the face of the earth. l wonder
f he can realize that practically every
country in Europe, if not in the en-
ire world, is bankrupt, that revolu-
ion has seized upon almost every ma I
ion, that the grim specter of anarchy
stalks through almost every land,
while the hearts of their peoples are
ank with hatred and their very souls
IRE burning with revenge. | wonder
he can see them in the fruitless
years to come toiling and struggling
Up the hill of the future, stumbling
md fainting and falling under the very
ross of taxation upon which they and
heir children and their children's
ljldren are to be crucified.
7 wonder if he realizes and admits
n his heart that all this is the result
If his own crimes. If so, he must
shrink like a cringing, tortured Grim
nal and must feel like a monster in
human form. With his brow branded
With the mark of Cain, his heart
with the most damnable
.urse of all the ages, his hands reek
ng with the blood of his fellow man,
lis soul writhing under the eXcrucia-
ing lash of a guilty conscience, his
'ery mind will no doubt become a
haunted temple, through whose va
ant aisles and silent avenues will f.,
laily stalk the grim spectres of his {
vii genius, shaking its CORY locks be- :
ore his withered countenance, while ,
rom the abyss Of the unknown will /
constantly come the wailing cries Of
lis murdered victims "shrieking their
urse into his shrinking ears until
e cries out in all the agony Of his
ortured soul, ooh, death, where is thy
ting?"
Shall we profit by his example, or .
hall we disregard the teachings Of J.
istory, as well as the prayers Of the