The Abbeville press and banner. (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, February 11, 1920, Image 4
ESTABLISHED 1844.
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The Press and Banker
! ABBEVILLE, S. C.
The Press and Banner Company
PUBLISHED TRI-WEEKLY
Monday, Wednesday and Friday.
Telephone No. 10.
i
Entered as second-class mail matter at post office
i4 in Abbeville, S. C.
Terms of Subscription:
One year $2.00
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Three months .50
WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 11, 1920.
AMERICAN JURISTS SENTENCE THE KAISER.
Should Holland accede to the demands of the
Allied nations and surrender him the question naturally
arises,?
What penalty shall be paid by William Hohenzollern,
ex-War Lord of Germany? What is the j
rmnor mpnsnrp of this one man's responsibility for
the ruined homes of Belgium and France, the thirteen
million dead soldiers, and the forty million
wounded in the world's greatest war
Sometime a?o The Literary Digest prepared a
brief questionnaire which was forwarded to the
Justices of the State Supreme Courts, to District,
Ccunty, and Circuit Judges, and to the heads of the
R;, legal departments of American universities. This
p questionnaire asked for their opinions regarding ths
penalty which should be imposed, provided the j
Kaiser was found guilty both of conspicuous re- i
sponsibility for the war and of authorizing military
fu violations of international law. The following wa9 j
the verdict of 328 American jurists in this case: i,
For exile, 137.
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For capital punishment, 106.
For imprisonment, 51.
For other penalties, 7.
IP', Against any trial, 27.
rat ) This resuine shows conclusively that the ^ maIjority
of the judges of America believe that the
Kaiser can legally be tried and convicted as a result
of evidence brought out in an impartial trial. EighJ
teen of the jurists to whom the questionnaire was
addressed state that there exists no body of laws {
under which the Kaiser may be brought to trial. j
Prof. Ernst Freund,?note the name?of the Law
Department of the University of Chicago, is among
those most bitterly opposed to the idea. The Kaiser
should be "drawn, hanged, and quartered," he
writes. "The head should be exhibited in principal
cities of Allied and associated nations." The irony
of these statements comes out in the concluding re- j
mark of the professor: /"Since the proceedings will i
violate every other principle of American constitutions,
why not also that forbidding and unusual
Speaking for those who favor capital punishment
Judge Thomas J. Seehorn, of Missouri says, "The
axe and guillotine were dignified by the fate of
Charles I. and Louis XVI. and if responsible for the
world-war, William Hohenzollern should 'stretch
Egg?; hemp.'"
Among those favoring the predominant verdictexile,
Judge B. F. Long of North Carolina, has this
to say: <
"He should be.tried in Belgium by a court of j
judges selected from Belgium, France, England, and
the United State: with probably two selected from
neutral countries. Whilst the death-penalty would
not be too severe for the guilty, it is doubtful if,
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flf?'.- ' in a state trial of this kind, agreement will be ]
found among international jurists. It is more probable^hey
will agree upon imprisonment for life, or
. exile for life. If exile for life?he and his chief
6$ ' associates?at some place far removed from Ger'*many
and its influences. Jts object-lesson "tp the j
%' ' would-be autocrats would have a deterring, ai.. it !
B may be wholesome, effect for half a century. The
world Lat this time will not be patient of technicali- !
ties. It craves rather justice?even-handed justice, !
' unhindered, undelayed. If it takes as much time to
k- ( try the Kaiser as is required to get the terms of
peace signed, the benefit of the trial to mankind j
will be largely lost."
1 Speaking for the jursists favoring imprisonment
for life, Judge Cockrell of Missouri, states:
"All punishment should, one way or the other, j
|r\,. be constructive. The world needs, for its happiness, j
tu have the German people see that their standards |
, .
have been wrong and their practise even more so.
Their own people will be the only effective judges.
The Kaiser andsthose responsible with him for the
atrocities pract;~ed and for the standards which led
to those atrocities, deserve punishment, regardless
if its result, but such punishment may do the rest \
of the world more harm than good. It can not, I
?.!&' believe, do such harm if it is to continue only so
long as they refuse to help undo the wrongs they
have done.
"Therefore the punishment should terminate ;
whenever the Kaiser is ready to go about in his own !
Sfc- . I
country preaching the truth as to the wrongs that i
he and the German people as his supporters have
H"; > done, and what they should do to right them."
Among some of the other penalties than those
enumerated above is that of Judge Burns, of VirK"
ginia, who declares that in addition to the sum 1
aised by the confiscation of all his property, William
Hohenzollern's shame should be made, in some !
way, to contribute financially to the many innocent
people who may have suffered 'through his acts.
"He could be sent to Belgium and imprisoned there
and when tourists viewed him the money should be
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given to the Be?gian Government." Judge Wurdeman,
of St. Louis, Mo., ironically suggests that he
be given the herculean task of discovering what |
has become of President Wilson's fourteen points.
To those who believe there is no existing law un
dsr which the Kaiser may be tried, we suggest that
a precedent for his trial and punishment was set
when a special military court in session from August
to October, 1865, convicted one Henry Wii*z, a
Swiss, superintendent of Andersonville prison, of i
"maliciously, wilfully, and traitorously conspiring
to injure the health and destroy the lives" of
Union soldiers at Andersonville, and of "murder in ,
violation of the laws of war."
i
Wirz was not only convicted, but was hanged on j
November 10, 1865. by order of the court.
V UVUUVU V I
V V
V THE OPINION OF OTHERS. V
V V V V V V V V V V V V VV VV V V V V |
FINANCIAL TIMIDITY.
The ::oot of the disorder of the exchanges is that
we have too many goods for our own use, and that
fcreign buyers have too little money to relieve us
of them. The alternatives are that we should consume
more than is good for us, or that foreign buyers
should go without what they ought to have to
keep themselves in health. The crisis in the exchanges
of currencies is different from the indi- i
gestion of securities which troubled us a few years
ajro. Our {roods are digestible enough, just as our
securities were, and only a little time was necessary
to show their solid worth. An indigestion of goods
b more serious, for it threatens an ecoonomic and i
industrial crisis. 'We are already consuming above
a normal amount of everything. Our extravagant
indulgence has already occasioned remark. When |
our friendly competitors in the world's markets ;
are tightening their belts and increasing their effi- j
ciency we are making future troubles for ourselves / j
by unduly reducing our productive capacity and I
increasing our consumption. If there were a me- j
thod of selling all that we have in excess of normal j
wants, and of producing what the world is suffer- {
ir.g fbr, that would be like walking downstairs in- |
stead of jumping off the roof. That is the difference
between deflation in an economic mannej; and j
reaching the same result by constriction of credit i
to sound borrowers who will devote the funds to !
taking the weight of excess 'Hoods off our market.
Consider the reduction of the credit for export- ;
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Even so conservative a force in our official life as
Senator Glass when Secretary of the Treasury favored
allowing $150,000,000, reduced later by a
small fraction in consideration of similar grants
from other sources. But Representative Kitchen
cbjccis fov politica. reasons to allowing even $50,(.?00,uu0.
What are political considerations worth
when the' cable reports that "the whole of Europe
is? being pressed toward starvation and ruin?" Is
i: in our interest that our best customers should be
starved? Can it be possible that it is beneficial to
cur producers of foodstuffs that their prices should
shrink in the manner of hogs at Chicago, instead of j
leing exported? What will happen >to prices of
farmers' products generally when the Grain Corporation
is liquidated, according to the bill Senator
Gronna reported yesterday? The proposal is that
the profit of $50,000,000 shall be returned to the
Treasury. Americans should blush to pocket such
profits when there are larger profits in cash and
humanity to be made by using at least those profits
for exporting more foodstuffs. Consider further
that the Edge bill, specially provided for relieving
our banks from the burden of financing exports,
has not yet been of any considerable help. Even .
the rules for operating under that bill are not yet
ready. Even the action of our Federal Reserve is
not operative as intended. It was intended to reduce
the finance paper in the Reserve banks, and
the idea is a good one. But the discounts against
Liberties last week were $1,457,000,000, against
$1,386,000,CCO a week ago and $1,357,000,000 a
year ago. All other discounts are smaller, while
bank clearings are larger and rediscounts are larger.
The national debt has already been reduced by
$1,000,000,000, and that was necessary considering
our sermon to other Governments. But it is :
open to question whether there is unalloyed benefit
in that.
The cable provides contrasts by which we may be'
r.ble to judge whether our policy is braver or wiser
than that of those whose conditions are more disturbing
than c't-s. Consider the collapse in our cotton
market anci e bold front put on the situation
by the British coi. umers of cotton. The bold
British take this time to establish a gold standard
for India, while one of our Senators on the same
day reopens the flirtation with bimetallism. Th/
vigor of British banking attests a conviction in
\ ganking principles which we profess, but hardly
practice. England believes that now is the time
to be liberal with the right sort of credit. We hear
notning aoout alarm in JLonaon over call money |
rates. England is selling on credit to the weakernations
of Europe the goods which are bought for
cash in dollars, at a premium, and is less worried
by the balance of trade against her than we by a
too large balance in our favor. There will come a
time when England will profit by her boldness, just
as now we are paying the penalty of excess of caution.
The world of trade lies at our feet, and we
are faint-hearted.?New York Times.
The Department of Justice has arrested ud to
*
date 895 food profiteers and hoarders. How about
sending them to Paris to join the 896 Germans arraigned
by the Supreme Council for war atrocities??New
York Tribune. j
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jj II Departm
I II l?m Abbeville,
Mores
|( Hardwj
When we opened our h
the intention of carrying ?
variety to meet the requi;
County.
In order to do this we Y
have a Hardware Wareh<
We have taken in the bi:
Store for this purpose, w
room in our Hardware Si
room for Farm Machinery
orrpatlv pnlaroprl.
You will find here man]
Riding Cultivators, Stalk
of all kinds.
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We are agents for Bloui
|j and carry a stock of repai
We are increasing our ,
added an Automobile Tir<
and a Paint Department.
We are agents for Mille
!( stock.
We have Peaslee-Gaull
a full line of Alabastine,
New Goods are arriving
our stock will prove inter*
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lilding below our Dry Goods
hich not only makes more
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Cutters, Harrows and Plows
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and Accessory department,
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