The Delta independent., 1891-06-17
THE CAMP FIRE.
WHAT IS GOING ON AMONG THE
...s.s HEROES.
Splendid Record of 90. r i7th Illinois
Cavalary-An Old Veterans Sad Sui.
uide-The Cost OF Late WAR;
The Eleventh PennsylvanIa.
What Wars Cost.


In time of peace the statisticians
count the cost of wars in men and
money, which does rot seem, how
ever, to have any effect whatever In
the way Of prevention. The fact IT,,
neither government nor people want
war in the abstract. though there al
ways exist latent jealousies and ha-
treds and the desire for advantages
which war alone can bring that rem
der it possible at any moment You
cannot make governments count their
dead beforehand, though 1t is easy
enough to count them afterward, while
as for the prospective debt, u nation
assumes 1t in advance as coolly as q
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 2,25O,o0 men, while
there has been expended to carry
them on no less than the inconceiVa-
BILE sum Of $13, 600, 600, 600. OF this
amount France has nearly paid 49,
500, coo. 900 as the cost OF the war
with Prussia, while her loss In men
Is placed at 155, 900. OF these 80, :
900 were killed on the field of battle,
$4,000 died of sickness, accidents or
suicide, and 20, 900 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 All. .42l, the
lives OF many thousands OF whom
were doubtless shortened by their i'll
ness or injuries. According TO DR.
Roth. a German authority, the Ger
mans lost $50, 600 men killed or rem
dered invalid, and s600 600, 600 in
money. this being the excess of ex-
penditure or of the material, losses
over the $l,25o, 600, 900 paid by
France by way o: indemnity.
DR.. Engel, another distinguished
German statistician, gives the follow
ing us the approximate cost of the
principal wars of the last thirty years:
Crimean war, 81, 600, 900, 600; Italian
war OF 1859. $500, 600, 900; Prusso-
Danish war OF 1864. $50, OO0, 900; war
OF the rebellion, north. IS, 100, 600, 900;
south, 81. 800. 600, 900; Prusso- Austrian
war OF 1866. $3.50, 600, 900; Russo
Turkish war, 1925. 900, 900; South
African wars, SS,77O, 600; Afghan war,
$13, 250, 600, Servo-Bulgariau war.
,$l76, 600, 600. All these wars were
murderous in the extreme. The
Crime8n war; in which few battles
were fought, cost $50, 600 lives. only
90, 900 less than were killed or died Of
their wounds, north and south, our
Log the rebellion, The figures, it
must be remembered, are Ger
man, and might not agree pre-
cisely with American estimates. The
Mexican and Chinese expeditions cost
5000, 600, 900 and IS, 000 lives. There
were 25O, 600 killed and mortally
wounded during the Russo Turkish
war. and 45, 900 each in the Italian
war Of 1859 and the war between
Prussia and Austria. In the other
wars the loss of life was relatively
less, which did not make either the
men or money easier to part with in
the more limited areas where they oc-
CURED. And this is but u part of the
accounting. since it does not include
the millions expended during the last
twenty years in maintaining the war
armaments Of the European powers,
the losses caused by the stoppage Of
commerce and manufacturers, and the
continual arrangement of industries
by the abstraction from useful en-
pioyment of SO many millions Of per-
sons held for period of military
service extending from three to five
years. Francisco Chroni Gle.