The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1915-08-23
From the New New York Tribune.
|"HE present moment is perhaps ap

TINE present moment is perhaps ap-
propriate for calling attention
4 once more to certain phases of the
world conflict now in progress as they
affect the people of our own nation.
ferent aspects; it Is at once a war of
nations and war of ideas
To the extent that the great war is
Ii war of nations 1t has no real con-
Germ for the United States. A struggle
between Germany and Austrai on the
one hand and France, Great Britain,
Russia Italy, Belgium and Servia on
the other would affect Americans as
their sympathies might happen to fall
AS we admired France, Germany or
England, we should desire to see the
battle turn. In 1870 a majority of
Americans sympathized with Germany
In the wars of the French revolution
beleaguered France, our old ally, long
held American sympathy
But a war of ideas is a wholly diff
ferent thing. Two ideas are now fight
ing in Europe, and the successful con-
ception will shape our thoughts and
tons to come. America not less than
Europe, Asia and Africa, as well as
the narrower confines of the present
continental battle ground, will be af-
fected, dominated by the idea which
trlumphs in the contemporary contest.
Now the recent German note to the
United States is an admirable indica-
ton of the German idea. 1t asserts.
emphasizes, declares that the will of
one nation supersedes the rights of all
nations. The international law, the
relatively minor conventions that man
across the centuries has devised to
mitigate in some degree the horrors
of organized murder and collective
killing, may be ignored, abolished, at
the pleasure of one nation. The world
has established certain privileges;
placed them beyond the question of
armies. These are the sanctuaries, as
1t were, of civilization. and these Ger
many asserts the right to violate.
Precisely in the same fashion man
kind has proclaimed the neutrality of
certain states whose smallness takes
them out of the area of conflicting
ers. Belgium, Switzerland. until 1914
these were countries by common con-
sent withdrawn from battle. Exactly
in the same way all neutral nations
were conceded certain rights All this
represented the accumulated gain Of
mankind in long centuries In our
own time it had been the basis of great
er and nobler dreams of world peace,
OF arbitration, of the end of war.
Against all these conventions, agree
ments, rights bestowed upon the weak
or the neutral the German idea frank
Is makes war. The German chancellor
asserted on the eve of the invasion of
Belgium that the violation of faith
was justifable only on the ground of
necessity The German foreign min
lister now tells Americans that the
murder of the Lusitania's American
passengers was defensiible in view of
the war made upon Germany by Eng
land. In sum he asserts the right of
Germany to disregard all law when the
law bears down upon German inter-
csts.
1t is idle to attempt, as all of us
with the German idea on the ground of
our conceptions of right. of civilization,
of morality. The fact Is that the Ger
mans have repudiated the moral sys-
tenn of other nations. They have de-
vised their own code of laws. They
have proclaimed and exercised their
right to live outside the law of the
rest of humanity. They did 1t before
the war in all the considerable ltera-
ture of national thought that was
created from 1890 to 1914. 1t. is as just
to quarrel with Mohametan and de-
nounce him for his failure to live In
accordance with Christian doctrine as
to assaii German people because they
follow other gods than we. than the
rest of the world.
But there Is none the less the neces-
sity to defend our own gods, to repei
I he German idea SO far as it invades
our rights, assails our liberties We
do not believe in the law of necessity.
We do not believe in the idea that a
nation can invade neutral state, MUIR
ncr its citizens, ravage its fields, dis
honor it's women. merely because the
interest of the invading nation is thus
served. We do not believe that a ma
ton can blow up a passenger ship and
drown scores of American women and
children just because the ship flies I.
British flag and Germany is at war
With Great Britain.
Today we are making the same mis-
take that all nations of Europe have
| made in recent years. We are attempt
ing to negotiate with Germany Oh the
basis of our conceptions of interna-
tional law and universal humanity. We
sle endeavoring to persuade Germany
10 act in direct conflict with her idea,
with What the people believe. With whaJ
her rulers believe. We are endeavos-