The New York herald., 1870-06-19
The Peace OF Standing Armies-The Tax
Of Blood.

fashions.
The Peace OF Standing Armies-The Tax
Of Blood.
When rumor after rumor comes to us of war
and revolution in Europe; when nearly every
telegram and every mail brings us some fresh
account of wrong and outrage, until
THE ear is panied, the soul Is sick
With every days report
of struggling nationalities, protesting bonds
men, toiers driven to the last extremity Of
desperation by bitter, grinding poverty, the
most natural question that springs to every lip
is, "Why such wretchedness among so many
races? What causes all this fearful trouble ?"
Eighteen hundred and twenty three thousand
able bodied men now actually in array in time
of peace and, in case of general warfare, FIVE
millions of the very flower of the youth of
France, Germany, Russia, Switzerland Italy,
Greece and Turkey in Europe, not to mention
the British Islands, not merely withdrawn
from the productive, softening and humaniz-
ing arts of peace, but drilled, trained and
melted by everything that can inhame their
greed and their ambition for the ferocious,
der that humanity groans and writhes beneath
so frghtful burden!
Let us take France, essentially, in fact and
by tradition the most military nation on the
globe, as an example of the workings of this
organized anarchy, which has so revolted her
present Emperor blood relative of the
| greatest warrior of modern times, and the in
heritor of his glory-that he has repeatedly
proposed general disarmament to his great
military neighbors. What do we find there
A peace establishment of nearly half million
| men, framework requiring a field force
| of 647,27l, and grand total of l,350,O00
! soldiers liable to be summoned into service
at any moment. The cost of maintaining the
| peace quota is SAG, 100000 francs or nearly
| $40, 900, 900 per annum, while the war budget
is almost $I30,000,00O per annum or
322, 900 young men who every twevemOnth
reach the age OF twenty, no less than 60, 900
are taken for the Garde Mobile alone Look
at the figures: In five years $3.50, 100000,
with interest, drained from the effective capital
of the nation, and 800, 900 pairs of sturdy arms
| and sets of active brains withdrawn from its
laboring strength. Now, it is the merest folly
! to point to the consumption made by these
uniformed idlers at home. The soldier is the
| minimum consumer in the useful direction.
| AS an artisan, or even as an agricultural
| toiler he would use more commodities in
| quantity and better in quality by far than he
| does as the slave of routine and discipline,
! while at the same time he would be beautifying
the country and multiplying its material
wealth. Moreover, such use of goods as the
| poor nameless private in the ranks can make
is simply waste, resulting in absolutely nothing
but additional impoverishment to himself and
| his compatriots. OF the total of 100, 900 men
required annually to keep the army ranks full,
so, 900 belong to the agricultural class and poor
families in the cities. Of these 40, 900 at least
| are farmer boys. This, in the seven years
term Of service imposed by law, amounts to
| $50, 900 men, or seventy-three apiece for every
! commune in France for that whole lapse
| of time. Thus, as the ablest French
| statisticiaus estimate, an average OF
100000 families have to look elsewhere
| for the aid in their field work which
would have been rendered by the son Of the
house. The substitute has not only to be fed,
but paid, and there is another drain upon tho
feeble resources of the poor farmer. What
misery, what deprivation, what 'hope de-
| ferred that maketh the heart sick" must these
wretched people endure in all the long
period of their boys absence! Why it is
again computed that one hundred thousand
families are kept in positive penury by this
| terrible burden. At last the son returns, ex-
pecting, 1t may be, to find the old hearthstone,
the little field and garden plot, the iowly
cabin, endeared amid all their humblencss to
his childhood In too many instances, alas!
he finds them in other hands; toll, infrinity,
despair, too well seconded by the tax x-gatherer
and the bailif have swept away his home and
consigned his parents, if they still survive, to
the tender mercies, the straw pallet, the black
bread and Cruel Of the parish. And this is the
gallant soldiers reward for seven years faith
full service This is the nations and the indi-
viduals glory! How much more sad The story
when the returning soldier comes totterias