him. For
to stand indifferent, taking no part in the mightiest events of
history, is a degradation of humanity.

The neutrals in this world-war are, therefore, to be pitied rather
than esteemed happy. Either they are only legally uncommitted, but
have, in feeling and thought, taken the side of one of the belligerent
parties: in which case it must weigh heavily on their hearts not to be
able to come out openly for that side and to aid it with all their
power; or they hold to neutrality as a positive political ideal: then
the ethical solution of the dark questions of the right and wrong of
the war, and the methods of warfare become a torturing and hopeless
problem, and, in considering the future, the weakness and
impracticability of what one has accepted as a legal precept becomes
evident.

If the world-war should last much longer, then neutrality, as such,
will probably go bankrupt. The economic injuries of the war weigh on
neutrals as heavily as on belligerents. But they are far harder to
bear when one has nothing to hope from the outcome of the war, when
one must make continued sacrifices in sheer passivity, without knowing
why. One would finally fall into despair, and accept anything that
would bring this intolerable condition to an end. We hope that this
extremity will not be reached, but rather that the decision of the war
will come early enough to permit neutrals to preserve their attitude.
That this should happen, is the common interest of mankind. For, in
the collective life of civilized nations, neutrals have their own
mission. Just because they share only the sufferings of the war, but
do not partake of its inspiring and exalting forces, they are, of
necessity, opponents of war, the providential mediators of the idea of
peace, of international understanding, of the development and
strengthening of international law. They can, during and after the
conclusion of peace--if they unite and go forward with clearly formed
ideals--have a notable effect. It will, in part, depend on their
wisdom and firmness, whether it will be possible, within a conceivable
time, to heal the deep wounds of humanity and international comity.

Chlorine Warfare

_A Reuter dispatch, dated Amsterdam, June 26, 1915, reports that the
"Koelnische Zeitung," in a semi-official defence of the German
employment of gases, says:_

"The basic idea of the Hague agreements was to prevent unnecessary
cruelty and unnecessary killing when m