San Antonio light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1911-1993, 1923-01-31
AN APPEAL THAT WILL FAIL

What an opportunity Germany would
have for gaining sympathy in America
now if the kaiser's hordes had not been
so brutal in the world war. French
troops are overrunning the Ruhr valley
Germany's richest industrial district-and
as the native residents are naturally re-
sentful and stubborn, incidents of a dis
agreeable nature are to be expected. AL
ready the Germans are sending to this
country tales of harsh treatment accorded
them by tie French soldiery, and some
of the stories may be true. But II the
Germans hope thus to arouse the right
eous wrath of America they will almost
surely be disappointed.
There are two reasons for the assump-
ton that Americans will not be greatly
affected by such reports. One is that it
is extremely difficult TO ascertain whether
there is more propaganda than truth in
Germany's allegations of mistreatment at
the hands of the French the Germans
themselves propagandaized the world to
a nauseating degree during the early
stages of the world war; The second
reason is that the Germans themselves,
during that conflict, inflicted upon the
French and Belgians cruelties that the
neutral world regarded as incredible until
corroborated by disinterested investiga-
tors.
At first the English and French &C
counts of Germany's treatment of : nom
ombatants-helpless children among
them-were regarded in the United States
as mere propaganda. Finally, when proof
was presented, Americans refused to be-
lieve any reports at all from German
sources, and were inclined for time to
believe nearly all reports from English
and French sources.
The present attitude of .Americans-or
what is most likely to become their atti-
tude, if none of definite nature has al
ready been assumed-can hardly be re-
garded as a result of hardening process
attributable to experience. Americans
have not lost their sense of sympathy
they are not unmoved in the presence Of
suffering. They have simply learned to
expect propaganda from European sources,
especially propaganda designed to play
upon their symathies and elicit aid where
none is merited.
If the French are subjecting Germans
to brutal treatment, so vuch the worse for
theSformer in their future relations with
US. We cannot grant them justification
on the ground that they are merely giving
Germany measure of the kind of treat
ment she gave them in the world war.
Revenge of that kind has no place in our
national philosophy.
Nevertheless, Americans cannot but
realize that, although they themselves
would not employ such methods, any
cruelties which the French may be prac-
ticing upon the Germans constitute a
form of retribution which is older than
any other of mans devising. Americans
have their own ideas Of right and wrong,
but in spite of those ideas it is a fact
that some peoples live by the old doctrine
of ian eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth.
In other words, it is only to be expected
that in some parts of the world brutality
will be returned in kind. II the Germans
did not realize what they were doing from
1914 to 1918, they do so now.
The stories coming from Berlin may
not be true. In any case, it, is only
natural for Americans to discount them
in the light of world-war experience. But
if they are true in the fullest measure
Germany's world-war record is an insur-
mountable obstacle that lies athwart the
path she is pursuing in her apparent at
tempt to reach the heart Of humanity.