The Birmingham age-herald., 1914-09-09
WAR ECHOES

over by the first of the year. That wouii permit five months of fighting It Is all
 guess. Other wars afford little rreee-
 dent, for never before has war been so
 extensive or engaged in on so vast q
 scale
 The Crimean war lasted nearly a year
 and a half But of this time the siege
 of Sebastopol occupied Il months and
 the result was not long in doubt. The campaign of France and Piedmont against Italy lasted only two months in ls99-
 The Prussian war on Austria is known as
 ''the Seven Weeks War" The Franco 1 Prussian war lasted about six months
 but it Was virtually decided at the be- ginning of the siege of Paris. which came
 only two months after the declaration of
 war. The Russo-Turkish war lasted nine
 months the Boer war nearly three years,
 although the most important fighting was l over in a year, and the Japanese Russian war a year and half.
 Commonly decisive victory has meant
 the rapid closing of the war. For in- stance, in 1859. peace followed the vie- tory of French and Piedmontese oyer the Austrians at Solferlno. where 26o,od0 men were engaged. The Austrian defense went to pieces after the crushing Prus-
 sian victory, of Sadowa. Sedan settled the Franco-Prussian war. Russia had lit tie opposition from Turkey after Plevna. Russia did nothing of importance alter
 the defeat at Mukden, in which the two
 armies lost 10000 killed and wounded and the Russian 4o,00O prisoners.
 But history throws no light on what
 will happen in general war undertaken
 to maintain the balance of power, fought
 with desperation under modern eondi-
 tions
 New York Sun: In an interview printed in the Sun on Friday the Hon. Oscar $. Straus expressed an opinion which needs
 to be pondered by those ardent sympa- thzers with Germany in the present var
 who complain that the preponderanee of
 American sentiment Is not with her:
 Tn my judgment the reason that pro-
 jected England into this war will be of
 highest service to civilization in aeeentl- ating. as nothing else could, the sanctity of international obligation.t for withoat that sanctity, so disregarded by the inva- sion of Belgium, international relations would be thrown back to a condition of international barbarity."
 Belgium, like Switzerland, was state neutralized by agreement of the great powers Germany violated that neutrality as she did that of Luxemburg Tlie im- perial chancellor von Bethmann- Hollweg
 remonstrated to the British ambassador
 at Berlin on the resolve of Great Britain to go to war just for scrap of paper.'
 A solemn international agreement. meant to be permanent, is only "a scrap of l paper.
 In 1S70 during the Franco-Prussian War, l neutralized Belgium went SO far as to prohibit it's subjects from supplying arms and ammunition to- the French, though 1t 1 had perfect right under international | law so to do. It more than performed l the full duty of neutral The German invasion and the ruins of Louvan are | Germany's recognition of that prudent excess of scruple.
 | Not only to the small states of Europe, | like Belgium Holland Denmark, Switzer- | land, long suspicious of German encroach-
 ment but to every civilized nation except l Austria, which in 1908 calmly annexed
 Bosnia and Herzegovina,. thereby making a caluse of the treaty of Berlin and | special agreement between the Austrc- Hungarian and Turkish plenipotentiaries l by which alone Turkey consented to sign that treaty "a scrap of paper, this ab- soute disregard of treaty obligations. l this insistence that might makes the iol,t ;c of | If contracts among nations are "a
 scrap of paper" the world, MT. Stiaus strongly says, Twill be thrown back to
 condition of international barbarity' This view of distinguished publiess of I conspicuous probty and sincerity Gn- doubtedly has great weight with 'eis fel- low citizens and is shared by many of
 them Most of our brethren of German descent, on the other hand, disregard it utterly and esteem the neutrality argu-
 ment as only a pretext of Great Britain. Germany had to enter Luxemburg anl Belgium to make her campaign against the allies. Germany obeyed an imirrious national necessity. To self preservation everything else must yield. treaty is "a scrap of paper when nation is fight Ing for it's life. Roughly, but We hope
 fairly, we have tried to set down these
 opposing points of view
 New York Herald: pr. Constantin Dumba ambassador extraordinary and
 plenipotentiary for Austria Hungary in
 the United States, is the latest entry to the ranks of those persons of greater or
 less renown who have manifested desire
 to edit the Herald's war news Proba-
 bly, because our extensive and compre- hensive news service has been unable as yet to discover anything that resembles victory for the armies of Franz Josef, Dr.
 Dumba in his wrath calls the Herald a
 liar It is an expression hardly in
 comport with the generally prevailing
 view of the language of diplomacy, but
 good many things have happened since
 the outbreak of this war in Europe to
 shatter the idea that diplomatists are dis
 erect, polite and diplomatic persons.
 The cloak of charity should. however, be thrown over acts of diplomat lists charged with the task of creating pro- Kaiser sentiment in this country. They are having troubles enough of their own. Cleveland Plain Dealer: France is fight ing to drive out an invader
 l Russia is fighting because a great non- Slavic power declared war against small Slavic kingdom.