The potters herald. [volume] (East Liverpool, Ohio) 1899-1982, 1946-12-05
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1
There are other things more ex-
citing.
But what about those vandals
Goering & Co.?
Why was it so wrong to try
them and hang them?
The argument contra seems to
be that it was a court of victors
and that it all roots back into
more primitive days when victors
marced off the field taking the
vanquished in chains, or other
wise.
So it was court of victors.
Where else could there have been
court?
This was in international job
and we had no standing Tor sit
ting) international court.
Now to be very serious about
this business. For years there had
been a shadowy something called
international law.
There were certain accepted
principles supposed to have the
sanction of international law.
1t wasn't clear and it was good
only until some thug busted
through it and got away with it.
Well, what shreds of interna-
tional law existed, could be gather
ed up and used as a sort of base
pattern.
Rules of evidence were created
by the allied nations. They were
considered carefully and they were
amalgamated out of the best law
codes in the world.
The accused were given full
opportunity to make a case. They
actually had their day in an order
ly court of law.
Here was no case of victor grab
bing his foe by the hair and haul
ing him away at his horses heels.
Here was trial, full and fair and
the accused went down under
overwhelming mountain of eyi-
dence.
They had done a vicious, 'crimin-
al thing and they were convicted.
There has been no such thing
as the establishment of the prac-
tice of victor trying and punish
ing vanquished.
i.,f
Of the establishment Of something
that can be called properly an ac-
tual body of international law. Not
vague network of more or less
agreed-upon practices and princi-
pies, but written, definite code
upon which the nations of the
world can build until the jurispru-
dence Of the world is known and
tangible thing.
IL there had to be a start, here
was the place for it.
Let's say it again: The principle
now established is, not that victor
tries vanquished. 1t is that the
world tries AGGRESSORS!
That, ladies and gentlemen, is
something different.
The men who were tried and
convicted, not because they had
been at war, or because they were
beaten, but because they had CON
spired and planned to wreck the
world and bring it all under Nazi
domination. THEY FORCED WAR
AS A MEANS TO RLUERSHIP.
1t does not follow. that had the
Nazis won they would have tried
the allies.
1t could have followed and prob
ably would have followed that the |
Na2is in victory would simply |
have lined up those they didn't |
want to have around and shot them
cold.
They had a long and vicious
record of murder.
What does matter a great deal is |
that at last, after ages of the prac-
tice that victor works his will with |
we have come now to
the creation of a definite body of
law, under which there is trial up
on evidence and sentence accord
ingly.
That looks like a tremendous
step in advance. The potential ag-
gresSor now knows what will hap
pen unless he licks the world, just
as the potential individual murder
knows what will happen if he fails
TO commit the perfect crime.
The United States made some
contribution to the
shaping of this new body of world
aw and this new procedure. That
IS creditable.
There are plenty of criminals
yet at large and they probably
are a badly scared lot. Who's do
ng the crying about what may
happen to them? If they cry, let
hem remember that an emerging
and vital world law is an essential
% future orderly world.-CMW.