The Birmingham age-herald., 1914-08-16

The Germans never cease declaring that thd great and growing navy is based upon necessity of defending their commerce. Ea| Power believes ill the possibility of being tackled by the other, and not only so, but ttl any weakening Of their defensive naT strength would immediately invite and bril on the attack. The vast armies of Europe d raised and maintained on similar assumptioj Our brilliant and most capable Minister Marine, MT. Churchill, tells us that-"the VI to make peace secure is to be so strong tN victory over your enemy will be certain"
 That phrase has good ring about it, butt it a maxim for England only? Or is it to apI to any potential enemy of hers as well. or every firstclass Power?
 If so, how is it applicable and how canl problem that vitally interests two parties stated satisfactorily in terms of one? Il truth is that such an axiom is not an axid of defense but of aggression, far from intd tional, I admit, but sub-conscious, and is reality the base from which every ambitio conqueror has started since the world begd If peace can only be made secure by evd nation being so strong that victory over enemy is certain, we are all of us caught vicious attack of absurdity, and there nothing before us but financial and comm} cial ruin.
 The grave part of the matter is that eve great European Power is to-day acting as MT. Churchilps axiom was sound and true. TlI only proves once more how little facts cou5 and that what really counts is our socallI belief about them
 Where, then, is the door of escape? Arn| ments piled upon armaments obviously off no solution. Are we driven to conclude tn here in the civilized heart of Europe we al to remain forever armed to the teeth, awal ing the attack of neighbor the moment vii lance relaxes, occasionally finding ourselv caught by internecine war, and that this Is be accepted as a normal state of affairs al the defnitive form of society?
 Is the relief from our intolerable burden col ing not from politicians and statesmen, u from the school of thought and the domain ideas, permeating the minds of the peoE themselves? If an atmosphere can be creat| in which men, and especially the young, WI complete this examination of the internatid alization of finance, common interests, col mon partnerships, the interdependence of Il workers of one nation upon the workers another, bonds multiplying year by year, may find in the exposure of false theories, the correct instead of the incorrect interpI tation of national rivalry in the fatuity of a gressive actions, and in the absence of I'd sonable menace the solution of our proble1 Of national defense.
 If so, the ultimate remedy Is not in the han or rulers or bureaucracies but in the intel gence and pressure of the ordinary citizen.
 The advance of ideas, which leads to t1 abandonment of these old convictions. is oil achieved by the destruction of elaborate the rems with which the past covered simple, VI ible facts. Were it not so, we should still burning witches or massacring each other cause of the shade of our religious beliefs.
 am asking you to consider the important of cutting away the overgrowth of opini( about fhe glory and value of successful wa in order to be sure what, when all has bel counted, victorious nation really achieves
 First let us count the cost of war itse Then, the cost of systematizing war, the u told wealth, the devotion of the finest int lects, the sacrifice of invaluable effort by ns of culture and intelligence to the art of hum; destruction, and all this amid civilization, 1t IS called. on higher plane than that Greece and Rome and two thousand yea after the advent of the Apostle of Peace
 Suppose. 1t has been suggested, all this va expenditure of wealth and intelligence deyotl to the systematlzing of peace
 Is not that an ideal worthy of any peon sarily clash with a noble and supreme fef in the destiny of ones country?