The Dickinson press., 1890-12-20
HUMAN CARNAGE.
Slaughter of a%,25O,Oo0 Lives in Wars of
the Last Thirty Years.

Slaughter of 2,25O,OO Lives in Wars Of
the Last Thirty Years.
In time of peace the statisticians count
the cost of war in men and money,
which does not seem, however, to have
any effect whatsoever in the way of pre-
vention. The fact is neither govern
ments nor peoples want war in the alb
stract, though there always exist latent
jealousics and hatrcds and the desire for
advantages which var alone brings that
render it possible at any moment. You
cannot make governments count their
dead beforehand, though it is easy
enough to count them afterward; while
as for the prospective debt, Il nation as
:;umes it in advance as coolly as farmer
places q mortgage on his farm.
According to the estimates of French
and German statisticians there have per-
ishcd in the wars Of the last thirty years
$500. 900 men, while there has been ex-
pended to carry them on no less than
the uncomfortable sum of $4,000, 000,-
600. OF this amount France has paid
nearly 81, 500. 600, 900 as the cost of the
war with Prussia, while her loss in men
is placed ut 1885, 900. OF these $4,000
were killed on the field of battle, $4,000
died of sickness, accidents or suicide and
10000 in German prisons, while there
died from other causes enough to bring
the number up to the given aggregate.
The sick and wounded amounted to
477,42l, the lives of many thousands of
whom were doubtless shortened by their
illness or injuries.
According to DIR. Roth, a German
authority, the Germans lost during the
war 60, 000men killed or rendered invalid
and 5000, DOC, 900 in money, this being
the excess of expenditure or of material
losses owe the $3.50, 000, 900 paid by
France by way of indemnity.
DIR. Engel, another distinguished Ger
man statistician, gives the following as
the approximate cost of the principal
wars of the last thirty years: Crimean
war, 2 1000, 900, 900; Italian war of 1859,
$500, 000, 900; Prussu-D Danish war Of 1864,
$50 ,O0O, 900; war of the rebellion, north
s., 100, 1000, 900, south $1,000, 900, 900;
Pr,lsso-Austro war of 1866, $3.50, DOC, 900;
Russo-Turkish war, $125, 600, 900; South
African wars, Ss,77U,00O; Afghan war,
$13 ,2250, 900; Servo-Bulgarian war. $780,
900, 900.
All these wars We're murderous in the
extreme. The Crilmean war, in which
few battles were fought, cost 100, 900
lives, only $4,000 less than were killed
Or died of their wounds, north and
south, during the war of the rebellion.
The figures, it must be remembered, are
German, and might not agree precisely
with American estimates. The Mexican
and Chinese expeditions cost 5000, 900, 900
and Is, 1000 lives.
There were $50, 900 killed ndmortally
wounded during the Russo-Turkish war,
and 5000 each in the Italian war of
1859 and the war between Prussia and
Austria. In the other wars the loss of
life wa relatively less, which did not
make either the men Of money easier to
part with in the moro limited areas
where they occurred.
And this is but a part of the account
ing, since it does not include the mill
ions expended during the last twenty
years in maintaining the vast ornaments
ofthc European powers, the losses caused
by the stoppage of commerce and manu-
features, and the continual arrangement
of industries by the abstraction from
useful employment Of so many millions
of persons held for Il period of military
service extending from three to five
years.-San Francisco Chronicle.