The globe-independent. (Hagerstown, Md.) 1943-19??, 1946-10-10

ly.
The trial of the German leaders,
which has dragged on for SO long
that one feared they would die of
i old age before justice could be done,
has been conducted in most nett
culous fashion. The whole procedure
has been on a level of severe but
high-minded competence and the
verdict is, for the most part, what
could be expected in the face of the
sickening evidence.
It is to be hoped that the key
men Of the brutal and perverted
Nazi hierarchy, who will pay for
their folly at the ropes end, have
had time, in the months between
the collapse of their world and the
reading of their sentences, to reflect
upon the enormity of their crimes
and repent in some degree.
1t is doubtful, however, that such
abysmal lapses from the status of
human beings as Goering, Julius
Streicher, Won Ribbentrop, Hans
Frank, Fritz Saukel, Ernest Kalten-
Drummer ct al are capable of feel
ing any great remorse. Neither
humility nor humanity have been
part of their characters.
AS they mount the steps to the
gallows and bid farewell to their
country, which they have ruined,
and world which they have left
a shambles, they will, one supposes,
feel regret. Regret that they lost and
that their bloody dream of a con-
quered world turned out to be an
other German nightmare.
How many of them know, or
remember, one of the most significant
things that the great, good Goethe
ever wrote. It was Goethe, the poet
and scholar, whose passionate love
for his country was a brooding and
sorrowful thing, who said: "There is
l1ll1CIC1lC III ClAS Gc1Illo41 1ldJuIC
streak of brutality and bestiality
that will, at intervals, assert itself
to upset the civilized world"
Let the remnants of the civilized
world remember this on October Is
when a few men pay with their
terrible lives for the sorrows of
countless millions of their fellowmen
and the devastation of most of Eu-
rope.
All in all it's been quite a week.
First l find myself agreeing with
Drew Pearson - and event so I'M
precedented that it scared me-and
next I'm caught out heartily agree
ing with the Russians
Pearson's recent think" column,
on affecting better understanding |
with the Russians, struck me as be-
ing eminently sensible, if a bit i'm
practical under existing circum-
stances.
Briefly, in case you didn't read it,
Mr.. Pearson suggests a sort of whole
sale exchange of students between
ourselves and the USSR; radio sta
tons which would broadcast our
views to the Russians, and the Rus
slams ideas directly to us, at stated
intervals and without censorship;
free exchange of the uncensored i
press; and tours of this country by
the Russian State theatre, Ballet, ct
Get, in exchange for our Theatre
Guild and the Rockettes. a.
In short Mr.. Pearson would like
to bypass the Kremlin and get di-
rectly to the Russian people AS /
say, think it's sound idea and
one of the only ways to build real
understanding between ourselves and
a people with whom we have no
quarrel.
That Mr. J. Stain would give any
such project his unqualified approval
is, at this point, most unlikely.
Thus far there have been no COM
ments from the Kremlin anent Mr..
Pearson's proposal, so that, of course,
isn't what I'm agreeing with the
Russians about.
I'm in agreement with their i'm
mediate protest at the acquittal of
Won Papen and Hans
Fritsche. Without the able, and more
hearty, assistance of fnancier
Schacht, the German war machine
could not have been built. And it
was the grey fox, Won Papen, whose
ntrigues laid the ground work for
outsch after putsch. And why Frits-
The, deputy propaganda minister and
light arm of the late monster, Goeb-
oels, should have been freed on all
counts defeats me-
I'll go a little farther than the
Russians and pr0tnct a1co tbo cay,