People's Pilot, Volume 4, Number 22, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 16 November 1894 — War as an Economic Blessing. [ARTICLE]

War as an Economic Blessing.

Chicago Times. An anonymous article in the Social Economist, a periodical edited by Prof. George Gunton, one of the few “protection economists” in the country, sets forth some entertaining ideas on the subject of war as an economic blessing. “Throughout all history,” says this author, “the nations which have fought most have flourished most.” Even our own civil w r ar he holds to have been a blessing, since without it “there could have been no return to a protective tariff, hence no general and rapid growth in manufacturers, mining and chemical industries, without which the country would not have exceeded 55,000,000 of people.” Oh, the beautiful logic. Post hoc ergo propter hoc. Chicago burned down. Chicago is now a great city. Go all ye lesser hamlets — ye Kansas Citys, Denvers and Spokanes —get yourself cows, kerosene lamps and southwest winds, and burn yourselves up, whithout which you cannot achieve 2.000,000 people. Sometimes, however, the author is more specific in his enumeration of the blessings of war. He finds, for example, that it results in rapidly increasing the birth rate, that “wars cause mote births than deaths,” and he gravely rebukes the late Mr. Malthus for having failed to note that “wars, plagues and pestilences are followed by periods of sudden revival in procreation, which make up for lost time and lost numbers.” The editor of the Social Economist deserves compliment upon his argument. He certainly merits appointment upon the staff of General Miles.