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PENALTY FOR GERMANY Most and we hope all Americans heartily ap ¬ prove of President Wilsons statement of the reasons why the United States is involved in the great war the purposes sought to be accomplished and the declaration that it is not a war of conquest conquestThese These statements cover the aims of this country in the enormous sacrifices which are being made now and in the assumption of the burdens which must be carried throughout the years to come comeThese These future burdens may be best comprehended by a consideration of the fact that if the war shall continue for three years our part of the cost will equal the total present value of all the real prop ¬ erty in the country and must be paid from the earnings of that property propertyThe The world is to be made safe for democracy but no territorial aggression to be sanctioned so far as the United States is concerned concernedThe The United States can for itself properly say no territorial aggression but should that be her i osi tion with reference to other of the allied coun ¬ tries Every patriotic American citizen has within him a grim determination that without regard to cost this war must be won and that its winning must be so decisive that the allies can make the terms of settlement Prussianism must be crushed so completely crushed that it must sue for mercy and be obliged to accept such conditions and such conditions only as the allied councils believe to make for the safety of democracy democracyCan Can anyone believe that a reorganized German Empire will ever l e anything but a menace to world safety AVill the temporarily subdued Prussian be else than u Prussian still resentful of defeat filled with hate for his conquerors and obsessed with the hope of retaliation retaliationGerman German thrift and German skill had made for Germany a pathway to the industrial supremacy of the world worldGerman German disregard of the rights of women has made for her a population which would have con ¬ quered Europe but for the advent into the struggle of the American armies through which alone will the tide be turned and democracy made to triumph triumphIs Is it safe to permit this process to begin over again Is it fair to the world to allow the animus which in 1S72 began preparation for the present conflict to again nest its foul brood AAe have be ¬ guiled ourselves with the thought that we are fighting the German government and not the Ger ¬ man people AAe are beginning to comprehend that the German people are at one with the German government and that it is the German idea it is Prussianism which is to be conquered and when tills is done then must every possible hope of its regeneration be exterminated The German people must like malefactors with inherent possibilities of reform but put under control of beneficent gov ermuents to be taught the elements of brotherly love and kindness to be taught industry for the sake of human happiness and not as a preparation for wholesale human butchery butcheryThe The German government has forfeited all right to existence It has been guilty of the greatest capital crime of all history The infliction of the death penalty is all too light a punishment for its brutal offence Let the German government be dis ¬ membered and its territory be divided among the allied surrounding nations both for the future safety of the world and also to recompense to a small extent those nations whose territory lias been desolated and desecrated Germany by vir ¬ tue of its premeditation of its great world crime was able to save her own territory from the de ¬ vastation which has come to Belgium to France and to Italy The property damage to these coun ¬ tries is enormous Germany cannot make repara ¬ tion for the loss of life caused by her rapacious cruelty She can in part make redress for the financial loss which her brutality has deliberately created To exact less would be an intolerable in ¬ justice To grant more would be to perpetuate those forces which in due time must call for another world war Shall we turn loose the unreconstructed criminal and furnish him with the tools and the opportunity for another world outrage or shall we make certain once for all that Prussianism is dead deadThis This is the prime requirement to insure universal peace 1 That the elements which premediate world conquest shall be so situated as to make such in ¬ tent hopeless 2 That all nations may have warning that ex ¬ tinction is the certain penalty for starting a war in violation of world comity and in deliberate and shocking outrage of the moral sentiment of the world Let Belgium France and Italy divide the territory and assume to the nations of the world the obligation of humane governmental control and continuing protection against future world turmoil Mining Congress Journal
