The Beaufort tribune and Port Royal commercial. [volume] (Beaufort, S.C.) 1877-1879, 1877-04-26
EUROPE AS A VAST MILITARY
CAMP.
The Annual Cost of Six Great Armies-How
Much 1t Requires to Keep Each Soldier
The Amount Expended upon Naval Arma.
ments-The Situation the Same as in 174S.

The ANIMAL Cost oil SIX Great Armies-ho"
Much 1t Requires to Keep Each Soldier
The Amount Expended upon Naval Arma-
ments-The Situation the Same as in 174s.
A short essay, entitled 'The Question
of Money" has been prepared by NJ. de
Girardin, in which it is made to appear
that all existing governments, except
ing those of America and England, are
fast fastening in the direction of bank
ruptcy. Referring to one of the less
great political systems which in recent
years have alternately found favor with
man, NJ. de Girardin says the result is,
Europe is one vast camp" the six pow
ers alone spending close upon $500, 900,
600 annually upon soldiers. On this
subject. he makes minute calculation,
which is well worth reproducing. A
soldier costs England, according to this
calculation, $503. 40, which, for an army
of 106, 900 men, makes her military ex-
penditure $53, 256, $50 per annum. A
soldier costs the French republic only
slightly over 1854, but then her army
amounts to 490, 900 men, and thus raises
her military expenses to $112, 913, 29S.
The czar pays little over $23S a head for
his soldiers, but he has SIS, 900 in the
regular army to pay, and the total cost
of the Russian army for single year is
estimated at the enormous sum of $l37,
034, ,925. The German government pays
little over 1926. IA for each of its SOL
diers, of whom it has no less than 49,
900, costing the empire 1872, 764, ,6O3.
Italy pays less than S1S1.58 a head for
her soldiers, who number in all 205, 600,
and cost the kingdom $37, ,176,0S6. The
Austrian army seems to be intrinsically
the cheapest of those kept up by the
great powers. Each man in it is sup
posed to cost the public $174.30, which,
for an army of 273,SOO, gives total OF
$47, 7O5, 914.
To these sums might have been added
the annual amount expended by the
great powers upon naval ornaments,
which may be roughly stated at $50, ,000,-
900 for England, $35, 600, 900 for France,
S24, 900, 900 for Russia, 81, 500, 900 apiece
for Germany and Italy and S., 600, 600 for
Austria, making total of $135, 900, 600.
The danger of universal insolvency will
never be removed till, in the words of
Victor Hugo, rulers shall have ceased
their search for the philosophers stone
of defnitive and invincible armament;
and leave off first spending money on
ships which no proiectile can pierce, and
then spending additional millions on the
construction of projectiles to pierce the
same ships.
Curiously enough, as NJ. de Girardin
points out, the present situation of Eu-
rope can scarcely be better described
than in the words of Montesquieu, who
wrote in 1749:
ga new distemper has spread over
Europe; it has seized our princes, and
has made them keep up an inordlnate
number Of troops. The disease has its
paroxysms, and necessarily becomes con-
tagious; for as soon as one State has n
creased the numbers of what it calls its
troops, the others Immediately 90 the
same, so that none of them gain anything,
except o share in the common ruin.
Every monarch keeps on foot armies OF
such size as might be raised if his peo-
pie are in danger of actual determination;
and yet they call this state of struggle
of all again pst all peace. True, it is this
state of Struggle which chiefly keeps up
the European equilibrium, because it
wears out equally all the great powers.
And, as matter of fact, Europe is SO ex-
hausted that private individuals who
should find themselves in the condition
in which are now placed the two wealthiest
powers of this part of the world, would
not know how to subsist. We are poor
with the riches and commerce Of the
whole world. The necessary consequence
of such a situation is the perpetual aug
mentation of taxes, and-what cuts us of
from all remedies in the future-States
no longer count on their revenues. but
mako war with their capital. 1t is by 10
means an unheard of thing for States to
mortgage their property in time of peace,
employ, to ruin themselves, means which
they call extraordinary, and which, in
deed, are SO extraordinary that the most
extravagant son and heir in the world
would scarcely imagine them"