Europe Is Calmer As The War Begins.

New York Times 100 years ago today, October 20, 1912:
Bourses Reassured by Big Financial Powers and the Conflict Will Be Localized.
AMERICAN BUYING A HELP
Anglo-German Relations Change for the Better Amid the General Turn to Optimism.
Special Cable to The New York Times.
    LONDON, Oct. 19.— With the opening of the Balkan war have disappeared many of the tremors that preceded it.
    The general European outlook is now regarded almost as optimistically as a little over a week ago it was regarded pessimistically. While the great political powers of Europe have been unable to prevent hostilities, the great financial powers of the world have succeeded in removing most of the fears with which the outbreak was associated.
    Finance has made diplomacy its handmaiden in one important particular. Aided by the declarations from the European Chancelleries, the leading financial institutions of the Continent were able to check the huge sales of securities brought about by fear that the Balkan flames might cause a European conflagration.
    Another prominent factor has been the situation in America and the readiness which the United States has shown to buy up American shares offered by timid European investors. The good crops are expected to realize so much that the amount of American money available for investment is estimated at a figure greater than any previous total. In fact, as The Statist says, "this sum will probably exceed any figure that has hitherto been considered possible, and the strength of the financial situation in the United States and the certainty that American investors will buy great quantities of securities in the next few months are a factor in the situation the importance of which it is not easy to exaggerate."
    The political aspects of the situation have undergone equal improvement. The inherent dangers, of course, are not disregarded, but at the worst they are unlikely to crystallize until the Balkan war is over and questions of the settlement come up for discussion.

War Will Be Localized.
    For the present, the prevailing view is that the war will be localized, and while opinion is fairly divided as to the probable victors, there is an almost unanimous belief that the result of the contest will be much the same, whichever party is successful. It is, in fact, expected that the great powers will not permit Turkey to deal any serious blow at the welfare of the allies, and, on the other hand, it is taken for granted that the great powers will prevent the allies from making any appreciable rectification of their frontiers after the admonition they received before the war.
    It is a noteworthy fact that the more confident spirit which has grown up this week in regard to international relations, as affected by the Balkan war, has extended to Anglo-German relations.
    Prince Lichnowsky, the newly appointed German Ambassador to Great Britain, has been giving the English correspondents in Berlin a series of interviews, which are indicative of a strong belief that Anglo-German relations are entering upon a period of improvement.
    From another quarter it is understood that considerable progress has been made toward an Anglo-German understanding over the Bagdad Railway, in which question England's opposition has always been regarded in Berlin as one of the most significant evidences of the British determination not to let Germany obtain that place in the sun which she desires.
    In England, too, there has been of late a marked amelioration of sentiment toward the Teuton. This is evidenced by the reception given to a letter published this week by Sir John Brunner, which is in effect an appeal to the Government to follow up the entente with France by a similar entente with Germany and take certain practical measures for removing the friction between the two countries, which has endangered the peace and progress of Europe for the last few years.

Business Men for Entente.
    It is thought certain that Sir John's propositions will be indorsed by the National Liberal Federation, and Premier Asquith and his colleagues are not likely to ignore such a manifestation of opinion. Indeed, as The Economist points out:
    "The desire for an Anglo-German entente has been strengthening steadily ever since the Morocco crisis last Autumn. Business opinion is practically unanimous on the subject, and Sir Swire Smith, one of the foremost authorities on the woolen and worsted trades, has been pointing out what the vast extent of British-German commerce is.
    "An Anglo-German conflict between two great customers who have nothing to quarrel about except dreadnoughts is unthinkable and would be impossible but for the existence of a few firebrands on either side of the North Sea."
    With regard to the present war the same journal thinks that if hostilities are localized and war loans are steadily refused in Paris and London, the conflict may come to an end in a very few weeks for want of money.
    The Russo-Japanese war, it says, could hardly have been begun if the two combatants had been unable to borrow the surplus savings of the British and French peoples.