The Birmingham age-herald., 1916-05-28
great interests of civilization which it

great interests of civilization which it affects.
 With its causes and it's objects we are not concerned. The obscure foun- tains from which it's stupendous flood has burst forth we are not interested to search for or explore. But so great a flood, spread far and wide to every quar- ter of the globe, has of necessity en- gulfed many,-a fair province of right that lies very near to us. Our rights as a nation, the liberties, the privileges and the property of our people have been profoundly affected We are not mere disconnected lockers on. The longer the war lasts the more deeply do we become concerned that it should be brought to an end and the world be permitted to resume it's normal life and course again And when it does come to an end we shall be as much concerned as the na- tlons at war to see peace assume sin aspect of permanen2e, give promise of days from which the anxiety of -uncer- tainty shall be lifted, bring some assur- ance that peace and war shall always hereafter be recisoned part of the com mon interest of mankind We are par ticipants, whether we would or not in the life of the world. The interests of al! nations are our own also. We are partners with the rest. What affects man. kind is inevitably our affair as well as the affair of the nations of Europe and of Asia.
 One observation on the causes of the present war we are at liberty to make, and to make it may throw some light for ward upon the future as well as back ward upon the past. 1t is plain that this war could have come only as it did, sud- denly and out of secret counses with out warning to the world without dis oussion, without any of the deliberate movements of counsel with which it would seem natural to approach so stupendous contest. It Is probable that if it had been foreseen just what would happen just what alliances would be formed, just what forces arrayed against one another, those who brought the great contest on would have been glad to substitute con ference for force If we ourselves had been afforded some opportunity to ap- prlse the befllserenls oi the attitude which it would be our duty to take, of the policies and practices against which we would feel bound to use all our moral and economic strength, and in certain cir. cumstances even our physical strength, also, our own contrib bution' to the coun- sel which might have averted the strug gle would have been considered worth weighing and regarding "A
 And the lesson which the shock of being taken by surprise in a matter so deeply vital to all the nations of the world has made poignantly clear is. that the peace of the world must henceforth depend upon a new and more wholesome diplomacy. Only when the great nations of the world have reached some sort of agreement as to what they hold to be fundamental to their common interest and as to some feasible method of act
 ing in concert when any nation or group or nations seeks to disturb those funda- mental things, can we feel that civili- zation is at last in way of iustifying its existence and claiming to be finally established. It is cl ear that nations must
 in the future be governed by the same high code of honor that we demand of individuals.
 We must, indeed, in the very same breath with which we avow this convic-