Jasper County Democrat, Volume 17, Number 43, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 2 September 1914 — BELGIUM’S LOSS. [ARTICLE]

BELGIUM’S LOSS.

The Ostend correspondent of the London Chronicle says that it is estimated that up to the present time forty thousand Belgians liave been killed in the war. in our civil war there were but 67,058 northern soldiers killed in battle. Counting in those who died of wounds—4o,3l2 —we have a total of 100,070. We make no account of those who died of disease and other causes, for there is no reckoning of these in the Belgium total. If, as we assume, the forty thousand men were actually killed in battle, we must compare this loss with 67,058 who were killed in our terrible war that lasted

four years. But the showing is horrible enough if we compare it with our total killed and fatally wounded — 100,070. Indeed, the slaughter is so enormous that one hesitates to accept the figures. But these are not the only losses. It is said that industry throughout the little kingdom is at a standstill. Here is the picture drawn by the correspondent: Not a single factory or coal pit in the country has been operated in three weeks and not a single penny in wages has been received by the men engaged in the staple activities of the nation since August 1. There is nothing but dire poverty, distress and stagnation even in the areas untouched by the fighting. Provision for the feeding, housing and other care of refugees is being pushed feverishly. More than four thousand refugees are herded in bathing cabins along the beach and in various small public buildings at Ostend. , We trust that the people, at least of the Americas, have not already become so hardened to war, so much given to thinking of it as a great game to be won or lost, as to be unimpressed by the terrible facts set out above. They ought to sink deeply into human consciousness. It is no longer a question of who is right and who wrong, but rather of whether war of itself is. right or wrong. Men must decide whether the time has not come to put an end to war, as they have put an end to so many other forms of savagery. We have for years been trying to make war humane, and indeed we have eliminated some of the old barbarities. But there can, as a matter of fact, be no such thing as a humane war. For it necessarily involves the killing and maiming of men, the starving of women ami children, and often an entire break down of social and industrial organism. It is to the eternal honor of this country that it has stood so strongly and steadfastly for peace. Perhaps when ‘‘the cup of trembling” has been drained to the dregs, good men everywhere will be glad to join with the American people in an effort to lift the race to the level of a life in which no nation shall ‘ learn war any more.” The woes of Belgium—and these are but “the beginnings of sorrows”—ought to kindle jn every human breast a very passion fop pefice—lndianapolis News.