The Birmingham age-herald., 1919-03-11
MEN. WOMEN
 AND THINGS

things. Take. for instance, the day that it came flashing over the wire that Serbian student had fired a shot and killed an archduke.
 | Now. as a newspaper man, I knew 1t was a great piece of news, but so far as 1 connecting it with serious trouble for | America it seemed too remote to be eYen thought of as in the range of possibilities Even those of us who had made study of the eastern question" were sure the war cloud would be blown away. Then came the trial, and we saw the Austrian press grow more inflamed, and witnessed gerat\actiyity in all the Euro pean chancelleres. but American diplo- macy was little perturbed, for we had kept out of foreign entanglements so long i that we felt immune, and that as mat ter of fact it was none of our bssiness. And then the sinister hand of Germany began to show, and war grew nearer. How eagerly we read the .Assoclateu Press in those days, for we all sensed that big news was about to break. The Russian bear was growing and the Eng lish lion was restless, and every now ano then letting out roar. and above them both could be heard the scream of the German imperial eagle.
 But with an easy confidence character istio of our American optimism, we laughed at the idea of war, for we had so many good reasons why world war
 in the twentieth century was an impossi- blity. We were informed that in the first place the bankers would not permit it This fooled lot of folks. It fooled me for bit and then I began to think a little for myself and I wasn't so sure that the money lenders could keep na- tions from fighting if they got mad through and through.
 I figured it out this way: A nation IS made up of individuals, and human naturo is very much alike the world over, allow ing, of course, bit for race, climate and geography. They say the cry of the baby is the same around the world. l am com ing to be more convinced every day that civilization is only skin deep, and that you don't have to scratch far to find the ele' mental man.
 I am now talking in terms of theology. am not committed to the above oehef' because of any orthodox view concern ing original sin," for a man has but to look into his own heart and under the urge of great temptations realize that he is skating on thin ice, unless restrained For held in leash by power gerater than himself Times come when individuals have brainstorms and run amuck
 
 I have lived in towns where life was held cheap. I was born and reared in the l south, where man holds his honor dear, anc to use colloquialsm, ''is ready to fight at the drop of the hat have wit messed many personal encounters. where men of position and high responsibility used their fists, knives, or guns with great freedom, and if no advantage was taken, if troubled with litigation, the fines were light and prison sentences rare
 Now, I am long time getting to what started out to say. and that is it has been my observation that men fought without any regard whatever to their bank balances, and never first got con- sent of the custodians of their funds or even looked up their creditors before re- sorting an insult but invariably the blow l passes when the lie is given whether they l have a dollar in their pocket or the hope l Of any one going their ball.
 Now, I make no apology for being | swept off my feet by reading ''The Flu ture of War; in it's technical, economical | and political relations. by Bloch, the 1 great Polish economist and banker of Warsaw, which appeared in a translation in this country about 20 years ago, with l preface, or rather predatory converse ton with the author by the famous w. T. Stead whose hobby was a United States | of Europe.
 '"The Future of War;" the title of M. de B,ochs voluminous cyclopedia on the art misleading for his thesis was that there i Was no war to come, that war had al ready become impossible. M. Bloch con. tended in all sober seriousness that war a great war Tn the usual acceptation of the wordxhad already, by the natural and normal development of the art or science of warfare, become a physi- cal impossibilty And being a banker and an economist, he also banked on the fact that the bankers would not finance a modern war as it would bankrupt The nations.
 Ii was great study and most reada- be book and gets credit of having influ- elced the Czar to issue his famous peace tribunal But by strange fatality, Stead, the great English publicist, who sf ared with Bloch his idea that war was an impossibility, was the victim of a Ger man submarine. Yet let us hope that 1 Poland, the home of NJ. Bloch, win be free, and that Stead's dream of a United States of. Europe may find it's fulflment in a league of nations, and that out of tho war they could not see will come that peace for which they prayed and dreamed.
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