The Birmingham age-herald., 1914-08-14
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should be jealous and eager to again add these two provinces to her possessions is natural, whether any more rightful, is another question:
 Russia, on account of her needing the moral support and alliance of the Balkan states. did not favor the acquisition by proclamation or otherwise by Austria of Bosnia and Herzegovina. two provinces which Austria needed to have sea front and to enable her to build. maintain and utilize navy. To say that Austria should have done otherwise and without navy, would be as far-fetched and utopian asking the United States to forever forego control of the Philippines, or supervision of Cuba, whether that control or super vision be exercised and achieved by means of direct government or by indirect means.
 England, aroused by Germanys and Austria's, and for that matter by Frances building in the last 40 or 10 years re- spectively and fired on by Germans ex- tensive and successful colonial acquisitions throughout the world, has kept step with, and in advance of, these countries as n sea power. and her navy has been i'm creased rapidly and enlarged necessarily, in the same manner in which Germany, Austria and France and the United States have built up their navies
 Well indeed does the Engineering News. a purely scientific and trade paper, com ment on "A Catastrophe Without Pa rallel." a follows
 Tt Is not our function to discuss the historic causes which have precipitated this catastrophe upon the world nor to portray-what no words can portray-the incalculable suffering and misery which 1t brings to countless millions. We may properly. however. point out here that in the opinion of many observers the cause Of the war is to be traced not merely to l,A, | .t..1t md hatred but to the vast preparations for war which Europe has made. There is an economic limit to the burdens which nations can bear. The competitive strng- gle for superiority in armament had reached the breaking point The Europe of today has spent more by far on war fare in time of peace than the Europe of Napoleon spent to wage war. The time had come when these vast armies and navies must either he set in motion or reduced, and no nation could reduce it's powers of defense without inviting con- quest by its rival The best that may be hoped from the present terrible con- flict is that when 1t Is ended in peace 1t may be peace accompanied by uni versal disarmament, a peace that shall relieve the nations. from those crushing burdens of preparation for war and leave them free to solve those problems of so- cial readjustment which are the press ing problems of this century,
 With all nations then ready to be pre- pared to fight and to go to war on short notice and upon least provocation. is Ger many to be criticised If she called for a showdown when the hands of others were being filled, as well as hers, in this gi- gantic game of draw and when the only result of a finally unavoidable general conflict, if left to be started by others, who perhaps not entirely ready yet were mobiizing their armies and getting ready to concentrate their armies along lines of Qualifications near the German frontier. or were getting these armies in readiness to hurl them into German country across the border when, we say, the result of such an eventual and not to be delayed conflict. with Germany not prepared in every possible way and manner. would have meant for her much greater disad- vantages to fight under. then the disad- was ready for the fray, and the balance of the countries-all three of them perhaps not quite as ultra-ready as herself.
 Why blame it all on Germany's Elm peror. man, who even this year only was considered fit and well fit candi- date for the Nobel peace prize. a man un- der whose reign the Vaterland has pros pered. has lead in teaching and in learn ing. in science and industry, in agriculture and commerce. in peaceful pursuit and for war?
 Where would Germany be today If she. as long as peaceful disarmament Is as much hoped for but unbelievable utop- ian dream in America AS in Europe or the far east, would have prepared herself less and held herself in readiness less than others?
 fight of incomprehensible magnitude is hers in the immediate future, and well aud valiantly will her cohorts have given account of themselves when peace reigns again and the roll call has been sounded. Of glorious history, of grandeur in achive- mcrts. of unbroken spirit in defeats in past centuries. of victorious. hard-fought and at great cost won battles, of splendid men and citizenry, of such country do German Americans descend. and may well be proud, whether born here of German ancestors or German-born themselves.
 The battle is on, and though the cost not only for the country of the birth Of German-Americans. but for the countries of all others. will be appalling Germany, though first in war, as first in peace. will bc among the leaders of the future, whether victory or defeat may perch on her hanners. Not fin the defense of the divine right cf kings. of monarchy or ruling power but in defense or her posi- tiou as an industrial and commercial lead CT of the world as the land where mind and body are trained together to the highest efficiency among the great ma sses O. the people, as a land where necessarily preparedness for war is the prime and silrest guaranty for peace and years of peace. as such is Germany fighting today against the nations of Europe opposed to her.
 And though this war. in the overcrowded and close populated condition of Europe necessitated the overrunning and travers- ing of otherwise so-called neutral ter ritcries their burden is but part of the penalty of common fault and human err TOT, barely to be corrected as long as nations shall last.
 Of such country of our fathers or of our birth may we well be proud. We the living, salute. and those who are left be- hind by those who fall in defense of right and self protection, will together as a more than ever united Germany again fol- low the pursuits of peace and happiness. However awful the cost. the fault is not one country's. no more Russia than Ger mans or Frances; no more Great Brit aims or Austria's, but when the fight is over and tired bodies rest from the hard ships of the fray, then will anew the German spirit, unda unted and undefeated produce and reproduce the harvest of it's brain and energy and endurance
 R. c. ROETHER
 Birmingham. August l2. 1914 1901 Seven teenth avenue, soutfs