What They Say | AdventAI

California Conference of Seventh-day Adventists · Oakland, Cal. · Dec 3, 1874

What They Say.

War in Europe.

On the Continent the sky is dark and lowering, and it is impossible not to feel that a storm is brewing, yet nobody can tell in which direction to look for the first flash. There are no distinct quarrels ready for fighting about, but the relations of several important States exhibit just the sort of feverish irritation which may at any moment precipitate a collision. It may be assumed that France and Germany are bound to fight some day; but France, though busy with military preparations, of which every traveler through the country brings over startling accounts, is not yet ready for war; and on the other hand, it is difficult to see what more it can be possible for the Germans to get out of another conquest. There can be no doubt, however, that Germany is just now in rather an explosive condition. The people are groaning bitterly under the strain to which they have been subjected, and which has still to be continued in order to maintain the enormous armament which is deemed necessary as a check upon reprisals by France. At this moment Germany is probably the strongest power in Europe; but the question is how long it can maintain itself in this position. It is at the highest point now, but the cost of this supremacy is fearfully exhausting. Every year the country becomes less capable of enduring the drains upon it in men and money, and every year, while Germany is thus at the best only barely holding its ground, other powers are growing rapidly in strength and confidence. Hence the idea which is supposed to have taken possession of Bismarck, that the policy of Germany should be to strike while it is at the top of its strength, and while other countries are weaker, and thus to obtain an opportunity of lessening its military expenses by paralyzing its chief opponents while it still has power to do so It must be remembered that it is not merely France by itself that the Germans have to reckon with in the future, but also the papacy and the Czar—two very formidable opponents, who would each be pretty sure to do all in their power to help France against the power which has already defied the one, and is suspected of a similar intention in regard to the other. The European situation, therefore, comes pretty much to this—that Germany, despairing of becoming any stronger, and more than doubting its ability to maintain its strength at its present standard, would be glad of an opportunity of trying to cripple its antagonists at once in such a way as to secure for itself some amount of ease and peace for a good while to come. Whether this opportunity will be found, nobody can say; but there can at least be little doubt that Germany is bent on creating an opportunity if it can, and that it will avail itself of any that offers. It is no wonder, then, that with such a state of things on the Continent, there should be doubt and perturbation in the financial world. Almost anything may happen before spring.—London Cor. N. Y. Times.