The Birmingham age-herald., 1915-05-03
WAR ECHOES

1 Louisville Courier-Journal: If it is true, , as reported by an Athens newspaper, that | the British used an "auxiliary fleet or donkeys'' which were driven into the
 Turkish trenches laden with ignited tins l of netrol the horrible annals of this most
 horrible of wars contain nothing more sickening than the record of this atroclty perpetrated upon the most patient of beasts by the brutality of men.
 Throughout human history the innocent bystander has received the larger num- Der of hard knocks. The bloodiest wars have not inflicted upon soldiers such hard ships as have been inflicted upon unof- lending. helpless noncombatants and up on animals The war horse, his "brav- cry in battle' mere excitement plus dis cplinary training and inability to under stand the nature of the dangers awaiting
 him; the draft mule. who has been made to draw the cannon into exposed positions and otherwise brought under fire, have
 been part of the machinery of war. They
 have been sacrificed under the lash or necessity. Incinerating donkeys by setting
 fire to their burdens of petrol is an act of irredeemable savagery. It is by no means warranted by the probable military
 value of the use of the ''auxiliary fleet spoken of by the Athens Times. Neither international law nor usage considers the rights of animals, but no German atroci- ty" so far reported is more sickening than this. The reports as to the use to which the donkeys were put differ. Possibly the Lemnos correspondent of the Athens Times is in error
 Pittsburg Sun: The coming of spring has had a tremendous effect on the man agement of the contending forces in the great European confiict-it could not be otherwise. The advance of vegetation has brought a complete change to the land scape, as some of the correspondents have pointed out, and officers find them selves quite unfamiliar with places they knew perfectly in the days of no foliage and no grass. Now many of them have to become acquainted once more with their surroundings. The men in the ranks also find that spring has altered materially the methods that prevailed in the days of snow and frosy.
 But one of the marked changes con- cerns the tiller of the soil All the fight ing men, regardless of the side they are on, realize that if the war is to be kept up there must be crops to harvest when the fall comes and that during the spring and summer opportunity must be given the farmer to do his work. The impor- tance of husbandry is being impressed on the men, and plowed land and growing crops are treated with consideration, and only where it Is unavoidable are they dis turbed Even in such cases the farmer | is repaid for the damage done, and ne at once sets to work repairing the in- | jury.
 | Naturally the greater part of the field
 work will fall on the women, but that will not be a physical hardship for they are used to it. In times of peace the | women work in the fields alongside the | men, and in the majority of instances they can do their share of the labor They are vigorous, muscular creatures
 who when they are transplanted to the villages as house servants bemoan the 1 fate that has taken them from the oper
 air and the health labor. The
 methods of the continental farmer oiiei
 entirely from our own. due in measure
 to the small acreage of land titled by the individual But they are thorough ano
 produce results. In spite of the war ano | it's horrors farming will go on in Flu
 rope. even up to the firing line, and crops will be harvested as in the past. It IS al most impossible to crush the indomitaole l snirit of the continental peasant.