The Birmingham age-herald., 1916-01-30

Tex.
 Mir. and Mrs. G. w. Greet have moved from Trussvile to North Birmingham to make their home.
 power. The war is killing aristocracy | Everywhere the ratio of dead is highest | in the highest classes. Being best fed and cared the richer classes and aristoc- racy supply the largest proportion of | fighters; also the bravest and most en- | terprising; and these are perishing in disproportioniate numbers Liberty will l not flourish after the war; the strong state grip needed in war will remain, but l there will be more equality, because the 1 weakened aristocracE will not be able to | keep in subjection claimants to power 1 from other classes This will tend to- ward American conditions. There will be | state interference in many matters which ] European states have so far left alone, l but the interference will be sugared by I the fact that state and citizen will be one and the same.
 "The hereditary landed classes" writes | the Prussian genealogisr, Kexule von Stradonitz, will lose half their power, l because they are losing land and num- | bers. Through the death of heirs on | the battlefield the estates will go to heir esses who will marry business men. Once | that happens Prussia's estates will pass 1 from hand to hand. We shall still have aristocracy of a. kind, but it will be an | American changing aristocracy, the aris- 1 tocracy of the strong, energetic man l who is on top for the day; and may to- morrow be supplanted by men with more I strength and energy.
 WILL UNITE TO RESIST Far sighted men. who see beyond the present hatreds, declare that Europe. after bringing about through it's disunion 1 Americas hegemony, will unite to cast | that hegemony off. It will unite on | American lines. A great customs union with free trade within it will be neces- sary for the restoration of economic equilibrium. At present the aspiration of
 Europe to free trade is suppressed by
 war passions. Germany threatens to form with her allies free trade unit ] with prohibitive duties against the en- l tente powers. That is the meaning of
 the policy Berlin Bagdad," for Turkey alone can supply Germany with goods
 heretofore imported from oversea. The
 entente powers likewise have plans of closer commercial union, with low duties
 or no duties against one another, and
 prohibition against the German group. l These economic boycotts will never be realized. They are ba sed the as-
 sumption that the present political enmi- ] ties will persist In the last few years Europe has seen many economic boy ] cots. Turkey boycotted Austria and l Italy; Bulgaria, Greece and Servia boy | cotted one another-the boycotts never i la sted more than a few weeks. Austria S
 Reichsrat member Gantz, a leader of the
 free trade movement, declares that the proposed prohibition or boycott groupings
 are impossible. Europe will be ruined by the war she will be forced for salvation l to adopt the most economical systems of production and distributions and if she is
 to escape complete American domination she will have to abandon anmosities
 which have nothing to do with trade
 America's system of free trade for nearly l q whole continent is the most economical system of production and distribution Every reduction of the free trade asea 1 is waste, and after the war Europe will | not be able to afford waste.
 | Pantz predicts that after the war Amer
 ica will pour into Europe streams oi l goods and materials to repair damag ge 1 and replensh exhausted stocks. At first | Europe will welcome this, as she cannot | Go without the goods, and they will be l paid for out of American loans. The Americans will get a grip on European | business which in view of Americas su- l erior productive efficiency will be harc to shake off. As soon as Europe has re- [
 sire to shake Americas grip off Her one
 expedient will be high protection. This
 will not be single-state protection, but
 continental protection. The countries
 now neutral, being unravag ged and rich
 can afford to stay out, but all the i'm
 poverished belligerent states will have
 to come in.
 "It is certain that within five years oi
 the ssnaturesof peace we shall see Eng land, France, Russia, Germany and Aus
 trla- Hungary, with the minor belligeren
 powers in solid commercial alliance tc
 resist America. This free trade ove
 nearly a whole continent will be the sin
 cerest form of hattery for America Ii
 will mean the triumph of an Americar
 ldea. American commercial domina tior
 will be defeated, but the American GUS
 toms system will live''
 Other writers and politicians agree tha
 American influence will spread after the
 War They regard the war as seconc Napoleonic struggle, destined to sweeT
 away political and social cobwebs. anc