Evening Republican, Volume 22, Number 17, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 20 January 1919 — Cost of War in Blood and Treasure [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Cost of War in Blood and Treasure

EE the bank teller at his window. He Is counting $lO bills. His cage Is stacked high with bales of $lO bills. He Is counting 100 bills every He works ten hours a day, seven days a week. He is trying to "imt the money spenFon the wortdwar j ie W in never, never be 4 able to do it —not he, nor his son, nor his son’s son, nor many - generations to come. To count but' In $lO bills the' money spent on the war wduld take more than 1.000 years. Methuselah, who lived to be 969 years old, might have done It by working nights. No other mortal could." —— - . ■ • It must not be overlooked that Methuselah, either in his own time or ours, would soon have run out of currency. The world does not have, and never will have, in money o|J any denomination. the appalling sum Of $221,000,090,000. Something like that is what the world has spent on the war that is passing into history, writes Glendon Allvine in the New York Tribune. These OTe^gpres ! :tim"<mt(listancer hension of ftie wisest man that ever lived. The cost of the war transcends all the monetary conceptions which even a financier can conjure up. Nor is it much easier to conceive the toll of life that the war has taken, v Great Britain alone has the war about 1,000,(XX) men. France lias lost l 100.000 more. In a” general way these figures mean something to us, but an illustration may help visualize these allied" dead. —— - - Not more than 100,000 persons have marched in the greatest parade that Fifth avenue has ever known. Our preparedness parade, and post sibly the TliirdJ Llbefty'lban 'panidt'. totalled that number of mashers. AH"day long -they^marcheil,— and until after sundown. AYe thrilled at the sight of these living Americans. Let us visualize the march of the British dead. At daybreak they start down Fifth avenue, 20 abreast. Their fallen comrades follow a few paces behind, in dose marching order/' Until sundown these men who have “gone west” march down the avenue. The next day there is a similar parade, and the next, and the next. For ten days the British dead pass in review. For 11 days more the French dead file down the Avenue of the Allies. Three weeks of marching dead men. The Russilbs who died fighting for their empire that was would require the daylight hours of five weeks more. And for tha other brave allied fighting men we must reserve a fortnight. Two months and a half for the allied dead to march past a -given .point.— — The enemy dead, although definite figures are not available, number about 4,800,000,- For them to pass in review would require more than six weeks. Throughout all the daylight hours of June, July, August and September, then, the ghastly procession would continue. It is an rippalling picture to contemplate. As preliminary punishment for the fugitive kaiser, for whom so many horrible fates have been suggested, there may be torture available here. For him to stand at attention throughout four hot summer months, while the ghosts? of those he sent to death pass in constant review—surely, that might inflict mental agony enough to appease the most vindictive. Historians will finally agree that $221.000.000,000 —or some such figure—was spent by the nations involved. They will eventually place the toll of dead at 11,000.000 or . thereabout. They may decide that shipping was iestroyed to the value of S2,(MX>,O<X).<MX). But never, in computing the cost of the war, will they be able to estimate accurately these indirect losses: , f. Physical suffering.?" ""Increased Illness, ~ Increased death rate. Lowered race vitality. Decreased birth rate. •—Gurtalled educatigteMoral degradation. Property destroyed. Crops and trees devastated. . Cargoes sunk. Property damaged by idleness. Industry crippled by diversion of men. Production diverted from creative to destructive purposes. Business development checked. Inflation of currency and increased prices. Of these indirect losses to the invaded territory which has been redeemed by the allied armies, Andre Tardleu, French high commissioner to the United States, says: “The Terrttories whlch have been mfder/German - Occupation for four years were the wealthiest part of France,. Their area did not exceed 6 percent of the whole country. They paid, however. 25 per cent of the sum total of our taxes. These territories, which have been occupied again, by ns at the cost of our own blood afljl the blood of our allies, are now in a state of ruin even worse than we had anticipated. The very ground, is torn, overturned, laid .waste,, damaged wttti shell splinters, and for months, maybe for years, unfit for production.—The fruit trees have-been cut, sawed down to the level of the ground. “Of the cities and villages nothing remains buts ruins; 3;50,000 homes have been destroyed. To build them up again—T aiwreferring firthe build-

ing proper, without furnishings—6oo,ooo,ooo days of work will be necessary, involving, together with building material, an outlay of 10,000,000,000 francs. “As regards personal property of every description, either destroyed by battle or stolen by the Germans, there stands an additional loss of at least 4.000,000,000 francs. This valuation of lost personal property does not include —-as definite figures are jacking as yet—the countless war contributions and fines by ther enemy, aiiiOuhting also to billions. “I need hardly say that, in those wealthy lands, no agricultural resources are left. The losses In horses and ln cattle. bovlne andjboviiie species, hogs, goats amount t01,510..000 head—in agricultural equipment to 454,000 machines or carts—The two items worth together 6,000,000,00 P francs. ■ “Now as regards industries, the disaster is even more complete. These districts occupied by the Germans and whose machinery has been methodically destroyed or taken away by the enemy, were, industrially speaking, the very heart of France, They were the very backbone of our production, as shown in the following startling figures: “In 1913 the wool output of our invaded region* amounted to 94 per cent of the total French production. And corresponding figures were. For flax from the spinning mills, 90 per cent; iron ore,* 90 per cent: nig iron. S 3 per cent : steel, 70 per cent; sugar, 70 per cent; cotton, 60 per cent; coal, 55-per £ent; electric power, 45 per cent. Of nil that, plants, machinery, mines, nothing is left. Everything has been carried away or destroyed by the eijemy.. So complete is the destruction that, in the case of our great coal mines in the north,,two years of work will bejieeded before a single ton of coal can be extracted, and ten years before the output is back to. ..the figures off 1913. “All that must be rebuilt, and to carry out that kind of reconstruction only.there wijl be a need oFbVer2,ooo,ooo tons of pig iron, nearly 4,000.000 tons of steel —not to'mention the replenishing of stocks and of raw materials which must of necessity I be supplied to the plants .during the first year of resumed activity. If .we fake Into account,

these different items we reach as regards industrial needs a total of 25.000,000.000 francs. “To resurrect these regions, to reconstruct theso, factories, raw. materials alone are not sufficient; we need means of transportation. Now th?; enemy has destroyed our railroad tracks and railroad, track equipment. Our rolling stock, which in the first month of the war, in 1914, was reduced by__ 50.000 cars, has undergone the wear and tear of 50 months of war. “Our merchant fleet, on the other hand, has lost, more than a million tons through the submarine warfare. Our shipyards during the last four years have not built any ships. For they have produced f<< us and for our allies cannon, ammunition and tanks. Here, again, for this item alone of means of transportation we must figure on an expense of 2,500,000,000 francs. This makes, if I sum up these different items, a need of raw material which represents in cost, at the present rate of prices in France, not less than 50,000,000,000 francs. v i 12 “And this formidable figure does not cover everything. I have not taken into account the loss represented for the future production of France by the transformation of so many factories which for four years were exclusively devoted to wpr munitions. I have not taken into account foreign markets lost to us as y result of the destruction of on-quarter of our productive capital and the almost iota) collapse of our trade. I have not taken into account the economic weakening that we shall suffer tomorrow owing to the loss of 3.000,000 young and vigorous men.” ’ Compared to these, tlieJto3ses_accrning to the United States as a result of the war are, of course, slight. America has scarcely been “bloodied.” It is true that the, war may cost the United States possibly 50,000 lives —every one a precious offering to freedom —but’several times 'as many Americans have died at home during the recent influenza epidemic. . . When we consider'the number of Americans who died in our Civil war. our present losses seem almost trivial. The deaths from all causes ' in the Civil war totaled 618,523—ab0ut t 5 times na many: livesr as the world war.-costdlui. United- ! States. Those killed in action on the Union side al one —110,070 men fighting for the North—out- ' number more than two to one the Americans who hate recently died fighting overseas. has made to- = ward defeating the central powers is magnificent —but comparatively a small sacrifice for the richest country in the world. To date the total war indebtedness of the United State? is $17,852,377,000, distributed as fallows: First Liberty Loan.-..• $2,000,000,00) Secdßa Liberty L0an........ 3.808.000,OQ) Third Liberty Loan 4.1,6.000,000 Fourth Liberty Loan.. 6,989,047,000 War Savings Stamps 8i9.330.000~ A fifth loan is being planned to help defray the cost of the war. The tax bill now under consideration by congress and other taxation will .not net the remainder America has spent, or will spend to'finish up the disagreeable job. But even if. the war finally costs America $35,000.000.00(1 other estimates have varied from ?2ojx>o.ooo,tM)o to $50,000,000.000—4hat is a small portion of its national wealth. How the amount the United States has spept on the war compares with'its economic wealth i and how these figures stand for the principal other belligerents ihay be seen from the following estimates, no exact figures being- available r ' National Wealth. War Cost. Pre-war Debt, T’nited ’ States:...SiW.OOO t OOO.<XIO $35,000.m00051.000. Crwa Britain... 96.Q06.000,000 40.000,000.000 3,500.000.000 France “ ■■ ■ 65.000,000.000 . 48.000.00000 rtnlv 36.000,000,000, 10,000.000.000 2,800,000,000 . Russia 40,000.000,WJ 25.000,000,1)00 i.eoo.oQo.ow . j7■ g 7 $481.000.000.000 4138.000,000,000 $18,400.000,006 .. Ge “ire $ 74,000,000,000 AU Hungary 31,000.000,000 25,000,00p,'b00 3.995.000,000 Total ... Jhfe.OOO.OOOJ.OO $65,000,000,000 $5,160,000,000 Swiss hankers, who from their neutral vantage point have watched 24 nations spend money On a scale hitherto unknowq, have estimated the anthe woiM was plunged in war : $10,000,000,000 I X- 26,600.000.000 88,000.w.0rn 1916 .60x000.000.000 1918 • • • • ■ S7.QQQvQOO.OM>. Tatil Xr. ...5221.000.000,000 The figures used in this discussion, both referring to blood fend treasure, are accurate wherever definite figures have been made available hy the . gQYernmppts involved. The figures for the central powers are, necessarily, estlihSftes.

Four months would be required for men killed in the war to march past a given point

It would take more than 1,000 years to count in $10 bills the money spent in the war.