The Birmingham age-herald., 1914-10-05
WAR ECHOES


 medical observation. Now the spectacle
 of daily mammoth butchery has become as familiar as our breakfast table, We
 knew all these millions of men could be
 called into the field, but we had compla-
 gently accepted the theory that they
 never would be because of the, destruc-
 tive consequences of such a war. Hu-
 manity would never stand for it, states
 manship would never permit it, business
 would never tolerate it. Yet no consider
 ation of religion, of civilization, of self
 interest, of worldly wisdom. availed to
 stop it. And now in two months we have
 grown so accustomed to such a scene as
 has never been witnessed in the world before that our first feeling of horror is wearing off and we are becoming a little ca1lous. The savagery of war is deadening our moral senses and the daily stories of slaughter do not affect us as
 much as single disaster in peace for
 merly did Let us hope that this abnor- mai and insensate condition may soon 1 pass away and that this period of world
 madness may be succeeded by clearer,
 saner vision than ever prevailed before. 1 Pearson's Weekly: None of the powers at present warning with one another use the same type of rife, nor are any mod ern rifles of the same pattern as those in use at the time of the Franco-Prusslan war.
 Rifles, indeed, are continually being Il fh irln In, Iac years, for instance, Great Britain alone
 has had a dozen different types of rifle. while other countries have altered their
 weapons just as much. The rifle now
 used by the expeditionary force, how
 ever, is undoubtedly the finest all-round
 weapon in the hands of any of the sol-
 diers on the continent.
 | The last time the British rifle was al-
 tered was in 1907, and the one now used l is what is known as the short Lee-En- field. It is only feet S1a inches long, the shortest of all rifles on the conti-
 nent, but it is sighted up to 2SOO yards, and win actually send a bullet two miles,
 further than any of the rifles of the other nations at war.
 | The LeeEnfield Is only the result of series of improvements upon the rifle of | 1887. It is what is called a magazine | rifle, that is to say, it has compartment or magazine for holding cartridges to | save the soldier from reloading every time he fires. The British rifle will fire | Il times without reloading, twice as often | as any other rifle except the one used by France, which fires nine.
 
 ish rifle is superior to those used on the continent: First of all, it carries more cartridges; secondly, it Is some inches shorter and also lighter, and, thirdly, it carries a bullet farther and more ac- curately than any other continental rifle. The weapon used by the French is known as the Lebel. It is not only half pound heavier than the English rife, but 1t is nearly seven inches longer. It has one great fault. and that is that only nine shots a minute can be fired with it, compared with 34 shots a minute of the British rifle and 40 shots a minute of the German.
 The German weapon, the famous Mauser. in fact, can fire more rounds in minute than any other rifle used by the continental powers. The Mauser bull let, too, is considerably heavier than the Lebel or Lee-Enfield bullet. The German gun, however. is not sighted anything like as far as the one we use, falling short by over 600 yards.
 The heaviest bullet fired by the fight ing forces is one from the Austrian rifle. the Mannlicher. The Mannlicher bullet 1,f oA 227 grains of the Mauser 215 grains of the Lee-Enfield and the 19S grains of the Lebel
 The Russian rife is an improvement on one invented in 1894 and known as the "3-line" Nagant. It is a quarter of a pound heavier than the Lee Enfield and | over seven inches longer.
 Philadelphia Public Ledger: Privateer- ing. which played so large a part in war well into the nineteenth century, is no longer recognized by the law of na- | tions. It meant, practically private war for profit, and too often became mere piracy. Yet there Is still distinction between the laws of war on sea and on land. The government commerce destroy CT does all that the privateer used to | do. It seizes the merchant ships of the enemy, or even of the neutral, if they carry contraband cargo or unauthorized | passengers. It may sink them or carry | them to port In the present war the Germans have preferred the former course. chiefly for the reason that they have very few ports available The Brit ish habit of saving the ships, however. is of no advantage to the owner. His own ership ceases with the capture.
 Private property on land is supposed to be inviolable, except under strong military | necessity. Though 1t belong to the ene- my, 1t Is neutralized. There may be oc- casions for disregarding this restriction, | but they are assumed to be infrequent. The burning or footing of public or pri- vate houses in the wholesale fashion i'm puted to the Germans in this war is a breach of the spirit if not the letter, of international law. To be sure, they give vouchers for supplies taken, to be hon ored when the war is over But the N holesale destruction which has deso- lated Belgium can never be made good. It | is hardly an exaggeration to say that
 Germany makes no distinction between | the law of the land and the law of the 1 sea.
 Various efforts have been made to
 amend the latter in the interest of the | shipowner, but they have so far proved