Idaho semi-weekly world. [volume] (Idaho City, Idaho Territory) 1875-1908, 1891-02-06
HUMAN CARNAGE.
Slaughter of 2,250, 900 Lives in Wars of
the Last Thirty Years.


Slaughter of e,a5o, 900 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
jealousies and hatreds and the desire for
advantages which war 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, nation as
sumes it in advance as coolly as farmer
places a mortgage on his farm.
According to the estimates of French
and German statisticians there have per
ished in the wars Of the last thirty years
$500, 600 men, while there has been ex-
pended to carry them on no less than
the inconceivable sum of $l3, 900, 000,-
600. Of this amount France has paid
nearly So, 500, 600, geo rs the cost of the
war with Prussia, while her loss in men
is placed at $4,000. OF these 50 600
were killed on the field of battle, $4,000
died of sickness, accidents or suicide and
20, geo 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, 421, the lives of many thousands Of
whom were doubtless shortened by their
illness or injuries.
According to DIR. Roth, German
authority, the Germans lost during the
war GO, 600 men killed or rendered invalid
and 5000, 100000 in money, this being
the excess of expenditure or Of material
losses over the $1,000, 000,000 paid by
France by way of indemnity
DR.. Engel, another distinguished Ger
man statistician, gives the following as
the approximate cost of the principal
wars of the last thirty years: Crimean
war, 81 600, 600, coo, Italian war Of 1863.
$500 000, 600; Prusso-Danish war of 1864,
1876, 600. 900; war of the rebellion, north
$500, 600, coo, south $4,000, 600 600;
Prusso- Austro war of 1866, $3.50, goo 000;
Russo Turkish war, 1925, 600; South
African wars. $3,T0, GOO; Afghan war,
$1,000 600; Seryo-Bulgarian war, $i76,-
O00, 600
All these wars We're murderous in the
extreme. The Crimean war, in which
few battles were fought, cost $50, 900
lives, only 10000 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 $500, 600, GOO
and G5,000 lives
There were $50, 600 killed and mortally
wounded during the Russo-Turkish war,
and IS. 600 each in the Italian war OF
1859 and the war between Prussia and
Austria. In the other wars the loss 81
life was relatively less, which did moi
make either the mon or money easier Il
part with in the more limited areai
where they occurred.
And this is but part of the account
ing, since it does not include the mill
ions expended during the last twenty
years in maintaining the yastarmament'
of4he European powers, the losses causo(
by the stoppage of commerce ana manu-
features, aud the continual derangemen
Of Industries by the abstraction from
useful employment Of SO many millions
of persons held for period of military
service extending from three to fy,
years. San Francisco Chronicle