Great Falls tribune. [volume] (Great Falls, Mont.) 1921-current, 1921-12-18

Of Kapp and other royalists. rode into
| Berlin at the head of a revolutionary
army. Their coup enjoyed a brief
success. President Ebert and his gov
eminent were frightened into bur
| lesque flight to Stuttgart, but then the
| monarchists were frustrated by their
own colossal incompetence for the task
! they had undertaken and by the gen
eral strike of industrial workers.
| Whereabouts Eyerybody's Secret
| The legend is that after their defeat
the Kappists fled into hiding. AS a
matter of fact their whereabouts has
been everybody's secret. They regu-
larly visited their old friends and CO.
conspirators at their country homes,
unmolested by the police, who simply
entered .'unfindable'' against their
names on the complaint register and
let it so at that.
The government, though it has al
ways shown itself miserably weak to-
ward the wretched military politicians
and adventures of the Luttwitz type.
ought at least to have had the courage
to liquidate the affair at once, whether
in a stern or a mild manner. But ut
that time the prisons were full of con-
demned communists and extreme So
cialists and as result the $50 political
murders which lie at the door of the
nationalist party have gone unpun-
ished.
But some example had to be made.
The millions of German workers would
have regarded the prosecution of
the kapp revolters as a grave class
Injustice, and SO the government blum
dered into half and half policy-only
the advisers and actual leaders were
brought to trial, while the 'misled'
followers were amnested. This ex
plains the present absurd farce at
Leipzig.
Never Intended to Follow Kapp
Two junkers, one a favorite of Will
helm II, the other an agrarian and a
third leader. writer, have been placed
on trial All pretend that they never
intended to follow kapp because he
was attempting to overthrow the gov
eminent but on the contrary, they
wanted to have every paragraph of the
constitution carried out to the letter.
Yet Ludendorff participated in all the
conferences with Chancellor" kapp,
which were held daily for weeks.
An obscure dentist named Schnitzler
was the subterranean spirit of the
whole plot, but he has not been accus-
ed-only called to testify. He swears
he knew nothing of any reasonable
intent on the part of those now on
trial and extols Luttwitz as a model
republican and guarding of the consti-
tuition.
With such testimony as stated, it is
easy for anybody to imagine the tone
adopted by the high politicians and mill
tary nabobs who also are i'll the list of
witnesses.
The German minister of justice In
charge of the prosecutions is social
democrat, ex-professor in kiel univers-
ity, an intimate friend of many of the
communists now in Jail for political
offenses and reputed to be strong
radical. Yet the kappists on trial for
treason are treated like grand sieg-
neurs. They are not under arrest and
they lived at the most luxurious hotels
Unusual Courtesies
When the presiding justice addresses
them he begins:
MAY l ask question" and then
realizing how ridiculous it sounds, says:
Excuse me-" and recommences. AT
least 10 times day he gives partici-
pants in the trial their titles of gen
eral, admiral" "Mr. Minister your
excellency,' where court procedure re-
quires that they be named simply 1.-THE
accused" or 1.-The witnesses"
Everybody present at the trial seems
thoroughly convinced that the defend
ants and particularly their absent ac-
complies are noblemen deserving the
fatherland's undying gratitude, though
admitting that they acted perhaps bit
rashly. There is a childish belief
among the reactionaries that the spec
tacle Of this trial can change the popu-
lar verdict and made martyred heroes
of the kappists.
This week in thousands of papers
there has been warm discussion of
the historical syllabus written at Amer
ongcn by Wilhelm II, assisted BY his
tory professor and just. published.
There is nothing new in it and the al
LACED facts have been refuted hundreds