The Birmingham age-herald., 1915-03-17

| look. Statesmen and military HIGH hdNe been busy partitioning off in advance the territory of their enemies, without con I sidering what the sentiment Of their own
 countries and the sentiment of the world will permit them to do. But 1t IS not uh- i likely that when it comes to a hnai set tlement they will find that the people m all the countries concerned will insist on having a voice in the decision, and that
 the rulers and statesmen who plunged Europe into war without asking the per i, mission of those who were to be slaugh- tered or bereaved will discover that the millions of men and women behind them
 may compel the adoption of peace basis very different from what the leaders have | in mind
 l Trea ties of peace and international al- dances, just as declarations of war, have always been the work of few men. The
 masses in Great Britain France, Ger many, Austria and Russia have no real quarrel with each other. Many of them are excited and bitter now, but they do not wish any harm to the individuals, to I the human beings, in the enemy's coun- l try The great majority are kind-hearted I folks who ordinarily would go out of their way to do each other favor. There | is a quiet but very potential minority in Great Britain. France and Germany even now who regret this war and who will come to the front as soon as it is over Their thought and their influence will make themselves felt in the great confer ence that will be held to arrange peace terms, and the humanity, the philosophy and the common sense of the people or their countries, will support them. The only lasting peace that can be made VIII be a peace based on broader foundations than international lines. Such a peace must rest on considerations of humanity and the rights of man, not on considera- tions of diplomacy nor of the balance or power.
 Louisville Courier-JournaI: Impress sive as is Great Britain's plan for starving Germany" Germany's pro-
 gramme for counteracting these efforts is scarcely less impressive. When the two are set side by side the spectacle is convincing that no very swift effec- tiveness need be expected from Eng lands scheme-whatever success un- wearied persistency may bring to it in
 the course of time. The programme
 worked out by German economists and
 distributed with the governments in dorsement is characteristic of German
 thoroughness and genius. There is no disposition to belittle the extremity that
 the nation is facing; it is a plain recog- milton of that extremity, accomplished by a scientific and comprehensive plan for meeting it. It is interlined, more over with impressive appeals for the cooperation of the people in this most serious condition of the conflict that Germany has yet encountered.
 There is that in the situation that contributes to the belief that Germany month or two months. If England is to have an early decisive victory over Ger many she will have to gain it in the
 field. Those who are claiming that pressure from within" will bring the war to a hasty end with the first pinch of privation have no understanding of the German people.
 But this is not the same thing at all as saying that prolonged hardship will not have its effect as contributing to the success of English arms. The country will be able to feed itself for 8 considerable period; there is no deny ing that. In normal times Germany i'm. ports not more than per cent of her foodstuffs. But 1t will be a strain, never theless, and 1t cannot go on indefinitely. The strain, too, will become more pro- nounced as the weeks pass; privation is not one of the conditions that be- come easier with custom.
 There seems to be no doubt about the spirit of the German people in this war. They have endured much; they are prepared to endure a great deal more But there is no reason to be- iieve that the German people are dif- ferent from other peoples, and history Is too plain on the effects of starvation to permit of any but one belief of the ultimate outcome here. The dispiriting effects of privation will be communi- cated from Geermany to her soldiers in the field; it is here that England will reap the benefit of her starvation pro- gramme. A succession of German de. feats in the field, against 8 background Of starvation at home, would prove too much, we may believe, for the morals Of the Kaiser's soldiery-and in the event too much for the spirit of the German people.