The Hardin tribune-herald. [volume] (Hardin, Mont.) 1925-1973, 1946-02-07

"~'O oSA vASCs AOAO Eye StEeet, n. w.
Washington, d. C.
Back in this beautiful country
where houses have roofs, furnaces
have coal and larders have food in
them. and cigarettes are thrown
away haf-smoked, I find it hard to
realize that what I saw in wracked
and aching Europe is other than an
ugly nightmare.
For that reason I am less stunned
by the American attitude which Dor
ders on Indifference as to what
happens across the Atlantic. Less
stunned, yes. Not less alarmed.
When you walk among the ruins it
never occurs to you that Ameri-
cans who are the most generous,
the most sentimental and kindly
people in the world. who will empty
their pockets for ADMINISTRATOR,
hood-drenched. fre-swept folk from
Murmansk to Cape Horn, are not
willing and anxious to help rebuild
what others have torn down. Last
winter people died Of exposure In.
side their own homes in the city Of
Paris. This winter will be worse for
vast sections Of many European
countries. Trees have been cut down
and burned for fuel, clothing has
been worn out, bedding has been
refashioned into crude garments,
the Tapping sheets Of canvas which
patched bombholes in the roof have
been shredded by the wind and
sleet.
But all that Is far away. Far
away from me and I find that when
I lean back and look up from my
keyboard at the tip Of the WASH
ington monument, hazy as it Is in
the distance, it appears a real, liv-
ing and adjacent thing. compared
to the scenes Of which l was a part
such a short time ago. The things
I saw with my eyes. the voices I
the emotions I felt seem so
unreal now that they form only a
strange shadow-show In the re-
Of my mind.
How, then, al you and I, going
about Jul business, reading a few
In newspapers and periodi-
Gals, listening to a husky voice on
the radio, seeing the quick flash
Of events in the newsreels Of these
distant folk, realize that we are
still. as we were in the days Of
Cain and Abel. our brothers keep
er?
Seek to Curb
Aggressive War
Since I returned. the question
asked most often of me concerning
the Nuremberg trials is the very
same one the Germans asked me
before the trials began: why don't
they shoot those rats and get /: over
(To the Germans the pzis-
oners n the men who led them to
bondage and defeat.)
And SO I have to repeat. YEARLY,
the realization that most people
nave missed the whole point of the
that the miserable prisoners
the dock, despite the fact that
heir names were once blazoned
across the world as the arch.
Of history. r unimpor-
ant. That it is far more important
convict in open court, through
lue process Of law with all the volu.
ninous evidence, the ideas for
which a Goering. or a Keitel or a
1on Papen. or q Schacht, stood,
han to convict the men themselves.
That is the purpose Of the trials
which are dragging their slow.
length across the pages
II current history: to convict the
prisoners as conspirators in the
planning and the carrying out Of ag-
.,ressive warfare; to establish in
he law we recognize. that such
warfare is Illegal.
Many lawyers bubble over the
echnicalities Of the process but l
hink when this case is studied
n the perspective Of history, it will
re clear that the creation Of the
which it seeks to estab-
ish is worth all the time and money
md effort which has been expended
lpon it. The law makes precedents
s we'll as follows them. This prece.
lent. If established. will serve as the
stone in a structure Of
objective security, a structure we
'annot build as long as we are blind
o the evil Of q nations deeds,
which we accept as q crime when !
hey are done by the individual. |
I reported in my nrst article from
that there was doubt
hat certain Of the prisoners could
e convicted. that the military lead.
70 ~toht ncooHa nm <hn c1anlo, /