The Birmingham age-herald., 1915-02-11
WAR ECHOES

Cleveland Plain Dealer: Consider Mon- aco. It is an idylic independent state. smuggled at the foot of the Maritime Alps-eight square miles of territory and somewhat less than 10000 inhabitants. i There is a prince, who gives his time to oceanography, and voyages much about the Mediterranean and elsew here on his l handsome yacht. There are no taxes. either Surely the 20,000 Monacans should be the hapipest of people.
 | For the gamblers have attended to | everything that needs attending to in | Monaco. They pay the taxes and sup ply the police. They keep the principality spick and span, and give the prince s35o,- | GOO year so that he may be unhampered in his oceanographical pursuits The gam 1 blers are still further friends of the peo- pie in maintaining a strict rule against gambling by citizens of Monaco. The Mo- nocan lives by gambling, but he cannot gamble himself
 1t was before the war a paradise for all concerned. paradise for the citizen, because they did not pay taxes, and were relieved from all the duties of citizen Siiip. A Pdi abiSc TUT tHt pllDCtt WiO maintained fine castle and oceanograph- ical museum. A paradise for the gamblers who made money by the safest and surest of methods, that of fieecing men and women who wished to be fleeced par adise for travellers, who came to be vic- timized, and who were never disap- pointed.
 Now Monaco is no longer a paradise. The willing victim. victims with money loosely attached, are not coming. A far greater game is being played in the world; game so great that the excite ment of the puny roulette wheel is tame and without allurement. The great casino is empty. The proprietors are facing ruin. The prince is facing a diminution of revenue for his scientific research. The people are facing the necessity of going to work and of paying taxes. Truly a dis nal prospect for an idyllic principalty, struggling among the seawashed rocks at the foot of the Maritime Alpsl
 Philadelphia Public Ledger: Germanys amazing attempt to close the highway of the world to neutral traffic is likely to
 
 many blunders which have characterized Berlin diplomacy. As 'blockade'' it is unquestionably of the paper variety, and as such unrecognized by interna- tional law. To assume to declare the whole of the British coasts to De in state of blockade, without the power to make such a blockade effective, is to run back the hands of time for more than a century, and to ignore not only the Declaration of Paris of 1856, which dissolved the confused counsels growing out of the Napoleonic wars and formu- lated sane rules on the subject of block ade, but of the Declaration of London as well. While the latteAis considered in some quarters to be null and void, with out the formal ratification of all the powers, it laid down no new principle of blockade, but defined those rules already universally accepted.
 It is the height of insoence for a power which today hardly dares to send a the British navy to presume to close the North Sea and the avenue of approach to the northern neutral powers The pre- tense of submarines constitutes a men ace to neutral shipping, but is far from making blockade effective, by which alone a blockade is made binding. No one will pretend that an occasional sub- marine constitutes "a force sufficient really to prevent access to the coast of an enemy" which is the London defini- tion of 'an effective blockade"
 The more serious aspect of the ques- tion, however, Is the effect of the decla- ration of the German admirality upon the rights of neutrals. It is unnecessary and unfair. to read into the text of the ad- miralty's announcement more than it really contains, but that it coveys direct menace designed to make neutral vessels chary of venturing into the prohibited zone is undeniabble. Even the assurance that neutral food ships will not be mo- tested, a palpable after-thought, will not remove the danger of accidental injury' to neutral shipping. Moreover, Germany's fragrant disregard of International law, of the German indifference to every con- sideration of humanity where she con- siders her interest at stake, fully justi- fies the fear expressed by Mir. Samuel Dickson, in his letter published in these columns yesterday. If Germany. under takes to make the paper blockade ef- fective by sowing mines in the ocean highways, in defiance of every rule of law, then the neutral powers must hold Germany responsible for the results. Such a procedure would be unquestionably a hostile act, and though MT Dicson seems to doubt the firmness and resolution of the Washington administration, we can not believe that either President Wilson or Secretary Bryan will fail to uphold the rights of American shipping against an attack so utterly at variance with international law and the rights of neu- trals.