The Birmingham age-herald., 1915-03-20
WAR ECHOES

Philadelphia Ledger: Between German
 war zone proclamations and British or
 ders in council there is little difference in principle, except that the instruments
 available to the enc country do not per-
 init of search and capture, while in the
 other case they do. That England is per- ] fectly willing to take ships into port and subject them to the jurisdiction of prize
 courts does not mean that she is any more fixed in her respect for international law
 than Germany. . It means simply that it ! is possible and profitable for her to pursue
 this course. If German submarines could
 get their prizes to German ports they
 would be glad enough to do it. It Is about l time that talk of the barbarity of the German naval programme cease in view
 of the general recognition by all of the belligerents that old rules are obsolete and no longer to be observed.
 | England has declared a hybrid embargo
 which resembles in some ways a block
 ade. There is no precedent to support it's righteousness although London is very careful to warn the United States that American dollars will be protected, what ever Happens to American rights. There can be no international law when all of the great powers that make international law, except one. are violating sit and each other. Nevertheless, we are too great a nation to be humiliated unduly. London evidently expects a strong protest from Washington, and that is exactly what the department of state will prepare. We must at least put ourselves right on the record, even if we are unable to maintain our rights on the seas.
 | Francis G. Peabody, in the March num- Among the lessons of this tragic time there is forced upon one's attention the nature and function of religion as fac tor in modern life. All the European na- tions now plunged in war, except Turkey, are by title Christian nations, and great religious tradition has dominated their architecture, art, customs, and law. The
 American abroad is profoundly impressed by the dignity and splendor which Euro pean religion assumes. An established church sems to share the permanence of an established state. The magnificence of European cathedrals makes a fitting frame for the pageant of European poli- tics. How reassuring it is to live where
 religion has deep roots and expanding
 branches, so that the church becomes
 great tree under which nation may rest!
 Then, in an instant, this umbrageous
 beauty of an external governmental nd
 superimposed religion crashes to the
 ground like a tree Nsmitten by tornado,
 and at it's heart there is laid bare an in-
 terior rottenness and decay. The pomp
 of ritual, the pride of heirarchies, the im-
 memorial traditions, which to many
 Americans abroad Lave made religion
 seem so substantial-and permanent sud
 denly prove themselves incapable of pro-
 viding the most elementary support for
 national duty or international brother
 hood. It may not unreasonably be be-
 lieved that Christianity conceived as .
 form of government an external organi-
 zation, state within state, regulating
 a nation from above. can never again com
 mand the loyalty of thoughtful men.
 When, however, one turns from this CO.,
 lossal breakdown of institutional Chris tianity to the religious traditions of 1.mer- ican life he finds no such evidence of a collapse of faith. On the contrary, the very fexibility and freedom of religion in America. its complete detachment from governmental theories and political or ganizations, the spiritual individualism which has seemed so elementary and un-
 organized, turn out to be signs of reality, vitality, and power. Religion in the United States. with all its crudities and defects, is at least rot set apart from life, like medieval cloister where, as me enters, he leaves the world behind. It is, on the contrary, life itself, interpreted and sustained by faith and hope and love-