The Birmingham age-herald., 1914-08-03
WAR ECHOES

York Times: The Statist will say Friday bring economic advantages to the United States. It will enable 1t to sell its great crops in places which will give a much greater income than if there was no war
 Almost every industry will derive more or less advantage American investors and bankers should get in much profit from the ability to buy back from Europe great quantities of securities at attrac- tive prices in payment for the foodstuffs and raw material exported from the United States.
 "The United States can become, as il has this week, the worlds greatest market for capital, and if the American people rise to their opportunity they can do a great deal to mitigate the disastrous eco romic consequences which would other wise result in many countries from a gr eat European war.
 ''It is obvious that for the time being the money markets of Europe will be closed to the demands for new capital of Canada, Brazil. Argentina, Mexico and other countries, and at such time the prestige the United States would be i'm place of Europe and meet the pressing needs of these borrowing countries.
 Tt Is possible that the United States may participate in the great loans that will have to be raised in Europe if all most the whole continent becomes engaged in war. Possibly the participation will be indirect rather than direct.
 For the United States to gain bene- fit from the position as the wealthiest nation in the world. it is essential that American investors should not only have confidence in the future of their owr country, but also believe that war or no war; the world will continue to pro- gress.
 Tn brief, a great war in Europe will give the United States an opportunity oi assuming the post of world banker, by supplying capital frely to countries and individuals in all parts of the globe who need it and can provide the required se- curity. Should the American people take advantage of the golden opportunity af- forded them by the outbreak Of war. it will mean not diminished but increased prosperity for the United States" Wall Street Journal: With a small | army, and a navy only doubtful third in the worlds list. this country stir dis purses upward of 60 per cent of its tax alton upon wars past, present and pros- pective. But the burden here Is mitigated in ways which would be impossible among the overarmed nations of Europe. This | country's natural resources, it's great pop | ulat tion and Its growing per capita wealth are able to sustain the burden.
 But when Germany started to eat up it's capital in war taxes it marked what may 1 well be the beginning of the end The | danger of war in Europe lits in the fact 1 that the burden of militarism is becoming ! intollerable, not merely to the inarticu- | late peasant. but to ever-growing com l mercial interests with an increasing voice l in national policies.
 l Underlying the declaration of war against Servia by Austria (which would have been impossible without the cog nizance of Germany is the great fight Of militarism to justify it's existence The I business world will have none of it. On two previous occasions, in the annexation of Bosnia and Herzegovina by Austria in l defiance of the Berlin treaty, and in the I Agadir incident, the nnanciers of the world acted for the worlds producers and | consumers, averted a general European 1 war.
 1 Can they do so this time? Germany is | confronted with a Russia incomparably stronger than the state which was forced to back down in the first of the two in- stances quoted. She has been fortifyfns her gold stock and reducing her indebt- edness abroad. It may be that the mili- tarist party in Germany. realizing that the capitalist and the workman are united against 1t, may reason that the time has
 come for demonstrating the necessity ot
 their existence, and that delay will only
 make the opposing forces more formid. able.
 It has been rashly said that the German
 Emperor has it in his power to preserve
 the peace of Europe It would be more
 true to say that he might have done SC
 before che Austrian army crossed the Ser
 vian frontier. It is easy to talk of local
 izing the Austro-Servian campaign. Btu
 Russia, with all her pledges to the Sla,
 races, cannot permit Austrian aggrandize
 ment at their expense, however the cam
 paign may develop.
 Norman Angell was right when h,
 pointed out the utter unrea son of war
 The victor is as hard hit as the van
 quished. But war is made by unreason
 able people, and, in deed. largely at tn, Ebehest of the mob that cannot reason
 This Is the menace of the European situ
 ation. It is the great struggle betweel
 feudal militarism on the one side and in
 dustrial progress on the other.
 London Special to the New York Times
 The question whether Great Britai,
 will be drawn into continental wa
 10 being hotly debated. Whether sh,
 will or not future developments alon
 can show The best information ob
 tainable was given in these dispatche
 last week, and nothing has occurre,
 since to make the statement less likel.
 to prove a correct prediction.
 ] The press is divided into two campa