The Birmingham age-herald., 1914-09-11
WAR ECHOES

the allies in the war with Germany ana Austria.
 The longer the war continues the more important will be the part played by Great Britain and the more loss she will infict upon Germany.
 Germany has about 5000 vessels. with total net tonnage of about s,50o,oOo. requir- ing 75.000 sailors. The shipping in the Baltic amounts to about 1000 vessels of 100000 net tons. The tonnage of vessels entering and clearing from Hamburg is about 13,000000 year; at Bremen, 2.po, coo
 Practically all of the German shipping, except in the Baltic has been paralyzed by the British fleet. The ports of Ham burg and Bremen no longer import food stuffs from the United States other countries. Germany is obtaining some foodstuffs from Scandinavia, but since she cannot feed more than 5o.0O0,o00 of her peo- pie, even in years of good harvests, she must import food for the remaining 15,00,- coo. and Scandinavia cannot furnish this demand
 German exports are greatly curtailed. The value of her exports of home pro- duction is about g. 25o,Ooo,OOo. A large part of this production cannot be shipped abroad. The market for German manu- factures is virtually destroyed by the British blockade.
 The worlds food output Is about s50o,- 000,000 a year. of which more than one half comes from the British empire. one fifth from the United States, s42,OOoOoo from the Russian empire, and the balance from Mexico and South America. Practi- cally all this gold is shut off from Ger many. The estimated cost to Germany of one year of war is s2. 300 000, GOO. By cutting off Germanys commerce and by driving German ships from the ocean, the British fleet is doing more. in the long run. to defeat Germany. than is be- ing done by the allied armies. With an assurance of supplies and gold from abroad and a market for her products, Germany could withstand indefinitely an | assault by the Russian army, and prob ably could permanently annex Belgium and Conquer France. But with her fac l tories paralyzed and the cold grip of the British fleet about her throat. Germany
 must fight with redoubled vigor to bring
 the war to a close before starvation con quers her.
 Charles F. Spears in American Review
 of Reviews: War always brings out the
 fact that the resources of individuals are
 far greater than suspected and that won
 derful vitality underlies what may seem impoverished surfaces. Witness Mexico
 in the last two years. ridden by revolu-
 tion 60 per cent of it's transportation sys-
 tenn out of commission, all but one of it's eastern ports and gateways for commerce | closed, and agriculture and mining aban- l doned in the northern states and still
 supporting great army with every money
 market of the world opposed to it.
 Bismarck never believed that France
 could pay the s1.o0O0Oo.0O0 indemnity in | Dire came tithe, and the debt was l liquidated in few months
 If the figures presented by the Amer.
 ican Society for Thrift are approximately l correct, the people of this country spend each year for intoxicants. soft drinks, to- bacco, candy, chewing gum, motor cars, | theatres. moving pictures and other ex- l travagances the sum of s4,000 900 0O0 This is about what different economists have | reekoned to be the total cost of the pres | ent European war.
 1 Europeans are not so careless of their money as Americans, but they are not % per cent more thrifty than we The popu- | lation of the nations engaged in war is four times that of the United States. So. if we estimate that 25 per cent of all Q r,,aX he int
 the earning capacity of another 9 per
 cent be affected by it we can see where
 enforced economy would supply the re- serve for many war bills.
 Cleveland Plain Dealer: There is no
 braver nor more efficient race in Europe
 than the Hungarians. They are excellent
 soldiers and admirable administrators The German Austrians, the other domi-
 nant race of the dual monarchy, are, like their brothers of the German empire, one of the most enlightened peoples of the
 world, leaders in science and the arts, and fine soldiers.
 Besides the Magyars and the Germans of Austria the Hapsburg empire con- tains great mass of Slavic peoples; Czechs, Poles. Ruthenlans Slovenes, Croats. Serbs; all good fighting men, l From such material one might believe an army as efficient as that of Germany
 should have been developed by the mili- tarist government whici dominates Aus tria- Hungary as completely as Hohenzol- lernism dominates Prussia
 l Yet the record of the Austrian arms in I the present war is one of disaster. The invasion of Servia has been a complete failure, and Servian and Aontenegrin
 armies are winning repeated victories on
 Austrian territory. In the greater field of war in Galica and Poland the Aus
 trians have been practically crushed by the Russian forces.
 The contrast between the effectiveness
 of the Germans and the innffectiveness of
 the Austrians naturally leads tu an effort
 to seek an internal cause, and one readily 1 appears. The Slavic constituents of the Austrian armies are unwilling fighters
 either against Russia or against Servia. They have no love for the "fntherland,'
 such as that which animates the soldiers
 of Germany. With the exception of 3
 section of the Poles and minority of
 the Ruthenians of Galicia the Slavs of
 Austria Hungary have long been agita- . tors against Magyar-Gernan domination
 They are not eager to fight for the per petuaton of a mastery against which
 they have long protested.