ABSTRACT
Above all we have observed this – because in the midst of so many horrors it should suffice to choose the most revolting – we have seen the press, the squalid press, continuing to defend a French officer [Esterhazy] who has insulted the army and spat on the nation. We have witnessed some newspapers excusing him and other newspapers qualifying their condemnation of him. Why has there not been a universal cry of revulsion and execration? What has happened that this crime, which at another time would have prompted a furious demand for immediate action from the public conscience, has been excused on the grounds of extenuating circumstances by the very same newspapers which are so sensitive on matters of felony and treason?
