The daily critic., 1890-11-06
WHAT WARS COST.
Millions of Trsasures and Lives Sacri-
hced 20 Man,s EvIl paasIons.


feed TO Mans Evil Passions.
FroB, ne san Fraucisco Chroaiais.
In time Of peace the statisticiau'
count the cost Of wars In men and
money, which does not seem, however
to have any effect whatever In the way
of prevention The fact Is, neither
governments nor people want war In
the abstract. though there always exist
latent iealOusies and hatreds and the
desire for advantages which war gInng
can bring that render II possible nj any
moment. You cannot make govern
menis count their dead beforehand,
though II Is easy enough 10 count them
afterward, while as for the prospective
debt, nation assumes II In advance as
coolly as a farmer places a mortgage
on his farm,
According to the estimates of French
and German statistiCians there have
perished In the wars of the last thirty
years ., $50, 900 men, while there has
been expended TO carry them on NO less
than the inconceivable sum OF $4,000,
600, 900. OF this amount France has
paid nearly SO 500, ,0O0, 900 as the cost Of
the war with Prussia, while her loss In
men is placed at 10000. OF these
so. 600 were killed on the field Of battle,
SO 600 died of sickness, accidents or
suicide, and 10000 in German prisons,
while there died from other causes
enough 10 bring the number up to the
given aggregate. The sick and wounded
amounted 10 Az 42l, the lives of many
thousands OF whom were doubtless
shortened by their illness or injuries.
According TO DR.. Roth, a German
authority, the Germans lost during the
war go 600 men killed or rendered in
valid aud 5000, 900, 900 in money, this
being the excess Of expenditure or OF
the material losses over the 81 l,25O,-
0O0, 600 paid by France by way of IN
demnity.
Or. Eugel, another distinguished
German statistician, gives the following
as the approximate cost Of the principal
wars Of the last thirty years: Crlmean
war, 81 900 O00, 900; Italian war Of 1859,
$500, ,000, 900; Prusso Danish war Of
1854, $35 600, 600; war of the rebellion,
North. S.. 100, 900 600; South, 81 800,
600 600; PFusso- Austrian war of 1866,
$3.50, ,000, 600; Russo Turkish war, Sl25,-
600 600 South African wars, S, no.
600; Afghan war, S13250 000i Servo
Bulgarian var. Sl76, 000, 900 All these
wars were murderous In the extreme.
The CTimean war, IN which few battles
were fought, cost 750 600 lives, only
so coo less than we're killed or died OF
their wounds, North and South, during
The war of the rebellion. The igures,
II must be remembered, are German,
and might not agree precisely with
American estimates.
The Mexican and Chinese expeditions
cost $200, 600 600 and 65, 900 lives. There
WtIe ESQ 600 killed and mOFtally
wounded during the Russo Turkish
war, and As 600 each in the Italian war
Of 1853 and the war between Prussia
and Austria. Ia the other wars the loss
Of lite was relatively less, which did
not make either the men on money
easier 10 part with In the more limited
areas v here they occurred. Aud this
Is but a part Of the accounting, since II
does not include the millions expended
during the last twenty years in maia,
tanning the vast ornaments Of the Eu
ropean powers, the losses caused b. the
stopp8ge Of commerce and manufact
uTes, and the continual arrangement OF
/ industries by the abstraction from use
ful employment Of SO many millions
! Of persons held for military service eX
tending from three 10 i've years.