The Birmingham age-herald., 1914-08-13
WAR ECHOES

. l. r their price and destructbility. outrang'
 to ar incredible degree any that hay, ever been employed previously. Guns tha have an accurate ranse of nearly 1' miles. shells that can lift more thar , 1ooo0 times their own weight bomb
 dropping aeroplanes that can hover di-
 rectly over Qualifications impregnable tc
 direct attack, submarines that may prove
 more deadly even than super-dread-
 naughts, and all these controlled by powers aggregating in population more
 than 800, ,o00,00o people whose sinews of
 wealth are in billions almost beyond com-
 putation, there indeed Is the world eli
 max, the stage set for rne vast pageant
 of death.
 The war will be on land and sea and it
 is quite conceivable that the triple en- tente may secure victory at sea to be de- prived of it's fruits by disaster on land.
 And the difficulty in making any esti-
 mate of the probabilities of success lies in the fact that both on land and sea there will be employed instruments of
 war that never before nave been tried. No one today really .xnows how su- per-dreadnaught will stand up to torpe-
 does, or resist the dropping shells of the
 water plane. Naval air-craft' is a new
 and seemingly contradictory term, but
 it twill soon be a familiar one. And there will be demonstrated both the capacity of
 the dreadnaught to resist the attempt to
 make it submarine" by mammoth su- per-dreadnaught and also the dread | <.fA.
 like attack of water plane or sea plane. There is nothing in naval history to guide 1 in prognostication. All snat happens will :; be quite new, and make the whole his- tory of sea and land fighting obsolete and useless, placing It's volumes among romance.
 | The destructiveness of the present en- gires of war is so great that the sea fighting could not be prolonged through what at the time of the armada were called spacious days" But in view of the strength in population and resources of the continent of Europe. the land fight ing might continue for very long time; and most paradoxical UT all, might re- suit in chess players stale mate. But if one Of the great triumvirate should appear to win decided victory, it would be at a cost similar to that of a man who, to save his life. submits to an opera tion and loses his legs For it will be a lamed and maimed Europe that will present itself again upon the worlds commercial highways after the war. Lamed financially and maimed physically, the Europe of 12 months from now will have to be remapped and remade. Not the least probable result would be the overthrow of many thrones and the es- tablshment of republicansm.
 Bridgeport. Conn.,, special to the New York World The submarine boat plant of this city has been put under strict government espionage during the last week, owing, it is said here. to the discov- cry of European government agents in Bridgeport.
 Though 1t is rumored that attempts were made within the shipyards to get drawings and details of the mechanism of submarines being cqfstructed for the United States government, so strict are the injunctions issued to employees that they even refuse to admit their connec- ton with the works
 It is known that every foreign-born employe of the company has been dis charged and that every workman has
 been ordered to sign an agreement where by he practically becomes a government employe, subject to fine of 5000 or six months imprisonment should he be caught disseminating information, draw ings or photographs of the boats under construction.
 London Special to the New York Sun:
 The Spectator says: "The great war has | come, as every sensible person knew it | would come-very suddenly, without ap- parent reason. Germany and Austria Hungary are already at war with Rus sia, France, Great Britain, Belgium and | Servia. At any moment Germany may
 be at war with Holland. Italy and Rou-
 mania are almsot certain to come In as soon as Russian troops appear in strength
 on her frontiers.
 Russia wants Pennsylvania and it's | 100000 Roumanians, now oppressed by Austria. Denmark and Switzerland may very easily be forced to take a hand. for the small powers are beginning, to realize that the issue for them Is one of life or death. If the Germans win there will | be no place left for the little independent
 nations. They know that they will al ways have genuine friend and protector | In Great Britain.
 | What caused the war? Our answer is | that Germany was ready and determined She thought that we, Russia and France
 were neither ready nor determined and | she therefore struck. Germany began | her preparations for war as soon as the l I<iel canal was finished, that Is, as soon
 as in her belief her readiness was at it's
 ma aximum. The German government has always been firm believer in the im- portance of material preparation as well
 as in the idea that war is not a matter
 of self-defense.
 An American, referring to the Specta- tors article, said:
 1 "The new England is not fighting for
 dominion nor to deprive any power of it's right or independence, Realizing this,
 with that instinct for justice and right common to our race, thfs idea cannot be
 expressed in better words than those of | the greatest American, Abraham I-in-
 coin. in his second inaugural address,: With malice toward none. with charity for all, with firmness in the right, as | God gives us to see the right let us strive