OCR Text |
Show Complete Trial Needed To Legally Outlaw War By BAUKIIAGE Newt Analyst and Commentator, WNC Servlc. 1616 Eye Street, N.W.. Washington, D. C. As the Nuernberg trials draw to close, I continue to hear two questions ques-tions repeated ad Infinitum in the TZTjB&k" market places I ' ' J i and bazaars, in f 1 the coffee houses and the couloirs i?$f lj (not to mention fjpJi' tlie lecture halls). jFi'' V Jl One is: Why on I .. I I earth are they L-V"" M I dragging out Zf a ' these trials; WVS it,L aren't they ever MftV going to end? , rr. The other Is: tj t Do you think any ImbhhJmSSI of these fellows (the prisoners) are going to get ofT? The intelligence of the questioners question-ers and the number of times I hear the questions assures me that the main purposes of the fc'ial are still widely misunderstood. Associate Justice Jackson knows as well as anyone else that news from Nuernberg has long since departed de-parted inconspicuously from the front page. He knows, from reading read-ing the American newspapers which reach him not too belatedly, thanks to the ALS (the army's special courier service), that his role In the Nuernberg case will never bring him a tucces de scandal. He knows his presence is needed In Washington Washing-ton on the Supreme court bench. In any ' case, he knows that he Is adding to his fellow justices' burdens, bur-dens, t not their annoyance by remaining re-maining away from the Job. Certainly Cer-tainly he realizes that time Is not increasing the prestige which he undoubtedly achieved when he engineered en-gineered the trials and mode his ringing opening address. He has nothing to gain personally by remaining re-maining longer in that dreary, pulverized pul-verized Bavarian city. Why, then, does he tarry? ' Full Documentation Is Required By answering that question, one can answer the other two I mentioned men-tioned at the beginning of these lines. One: Why is this thing being dragged out forever. . . . ? Answer: Because this trial Is not merely a trial of a handful of international inter-national criminals. These evil villains vil-lains are only a small part of the drama, even if It is they, and not what is behind their castigatinn, which sometimes still produces headlines. The trial is a great process proc-ess of legal documentation. It is the recording of history, for the first time In history, of history written in blood, and Ink hardly yet dry. It must be a complete record; rec-ord; the record of a crime which, until it is so recorded, may never be admitted as a1 crime in the eyes of international statesmen and lawyers. The Allied military tribunal (operation (op-eration Justice, as it was known in the army) was planned, and Is being be-ing conducted to Its long and apparently appar-ently Infinite end for the purpose of blueprinting a legal precedent for holding ai punishable criminals, the heads of states who plot and carry out aggressive warfare. That Is the answer to question one. Question two: Are they ever going go-ing to convict these fellows? I answered an-swered that in part when I said that the proceedings were far more than the trial of the defendants defend-ants who sit daily In the prisoners' dock of the court house at Nuernberg, Nuern-berg, or in their lonely cells near by. And for those who fear that Justice Jus-tice will be cheated, let me say that most of thow men, If It cannot be established that they took official part in the planning and execution of an aggressive war. are probably wonted on other charges In local courts. If they go free from Nuernberg, Nuern-berg, the local courts will try them, as the "Beast of Belsen" and others oth-ers wore tried and convicted for their separate and private crimes. It Is possible, for instance, that the sadistic, degenerate Stretcher, Jew-baiting wlolder of a Jewelled whip that was a symbol of his rsy-chosis rsy-chosis as well as an Instrument of his perverse desire, will not be convicted con-victed by the IMT. He Is so low that his fellow prisoners won't speak to him; so crooked that even when he was a Gauleiter, he couldn't be trusted to sign a single order of national or international significance. He Anally stole so much from the Nazi party Itself that he was Incarcerated. ' The Nuernberg trials will continue con-tinue until the record is completed. Justice will not be cheated. And it is to be hoped that aggressive war, on the basis of the proceedings of this court, will become Illegal. How can the United Nations hope to outlaw out-law war unless they establish with I sword, scales and woolsack that war is illegal? There Is one war which will have my whole-hearted support though I j hope it can be fought with brains I and without bloodshed. Such a conflict was referred to recently as a possibility by a writer In the New Republic. Perhaps it will be, he says, "as inevitnblp as was the Civil war within the ! United States." It would be in the nature of a civil war within the 1 United Nations to establish the sov-! ereignty of the United Nations and i preserve its unity, Just as it was necessary to establish the sovereignty sover-eignty of the federal government of the United States and preserve the union. No other war is worth fighting because any other would merely be the continuation of all the sanguinary sanguin-ary struggles, unwanted by the people, peo-ple, for the power and the glory of single nations. Washington Hat Small Town Air Out of the doors of the stlll-unftn-ished cathedral which crowns Washington's highest hill, through the court In a gentle rain that set the yews to weeping and the young leaves of the privet shining In aqueous green, the solemn procession proces-sion moved. The President and his entourage, the members of the Supreme Su-preme court, the cabinet, the congress, con-gress, and the others slipped away as the family of Chief Justice Harlan Har-lan Stone bore him gently to his Inst resting place In beautiful Rock Creek cemetery. Another great American had chosen the nation's capital where he served for two deendes, as his long, liit home. And I could not help thinking of something I have said before In these columns Pennsylvania avenue, ave-nue, from the capltol grounds to the Potomac, and past the White House, Is only an extension of a thousand Main streets, which run through the "plaza." the "court house square," or Pic "commons," on past the First National bank and the opera house, the department store, and the Ice cream parlor, to the free fields and woods beyond. So much a part of America Is America's capital city, and so much a part of Washington are all the towns and cities clustered about their rivers, their main streets, their city halls, and post offices, that when one long serves the nation here. It becomes his second home;, often first in choice for his declln-Ing declln-Ing years and his last resting place. I am sure that former President and Chief Justice William Howard Taft loved his native Ohio no less than the federal city; here the bridge upon which he could be seen taking his dally walk now bears his name; he lies In Arlington with our other soldier dead. I know that retired Justice Hughes lacks no love or loyalty for the Empire state. Oliver Wendell Holmes, deeply rooted In New England Eng-land as he was, lived here, and when he died, bequeathed his home to the nation. These are but three of many who chose lo live here when their duties no longrr mode It necessary. There Is something about Wash-Ington. Wash-Ington. a city virtually without in-dustrles. in-dustrles. or the other Institutions which make a metropolis, that bears the mark of smalltown America. Washington Is the only capital of a great nation whirh Is not thst nation's metropolis. There Is also something else about this big-little town which, for thousands of us who follow our humble ways here, make It home. My own prairies are as dear to me as ever, and I never cease to thrill when I move across the border bor-der and over the ft black soil of Illinois: I have warm memories of tha mists that blow In from the Pacific too; the hills and the lake-lands lake-lands of western New York; New England's green-crested mountains and rocky coast where I have been more than a transient guest. But I can well understand how those who have moved along the quirt avenues of this city. IOse vistas run far back Into the begin, nlngs of American history, choose this city beside the broad Potomac at their final home. |