Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-06-05
THE SCIENCE OF WAR
Camille Flammarion Applies
Common Sense to the
Crime of Nations.
FORTY MILLION KILLED
In Every Century, or Forty-Si1 for
Every Hour of the Day.
TIE ACTUAL QUANTITY OF BLOOD.
4 Suggestion That the Worlds Battles
10 With Men of Wood.
FACTS on FINANCES AND POPULATION
FORTY MILLION KILLED
TIE ACTUAL QUANTITY OF BLOOD.
Suggestion That the Worlds Battles
10 With Men Of Wood.
FACTS on FINANCBs AND POPULATION



Can human folly, regarded from some
special point of view, be considered a sub
ject for scientific observation? We do moi
hesitate to answer in the affirmative, al
though up to the present time it has never
been classified, and although it forms 9
whole too vast and too complex to belong
to any special genius or determined cate
CORY. Its magnitude and universally have
doubtless hitherto kept it outside of posi-
tive studies, properly SO called. Even now
we do not pretend to treat the immense sub
feet in its full extent, but simply wish to
examine one of its most interesting and
serious phases, and one most worthy OF
attention: namely, the military system Of
the /, 400, ,0oo, 900 human beings who at this
moment people the strange little planet
which, since the beginning of the world,
has been wandering between Mars and
Venus
Humanity is continually at war against
itself without ever having taken time to
reflect and ask the reason why. 1t opens
its veins for the simple pleasure of seeing
Its noble blood flow, blood that is always
young and continually renewed.
Figures on Inexcusable Slaughter.
How many men are destroyed by war in
q century? Official reports and documents
preserved in the best accredited historical
treatises enable US easily to caicslste the
number of soldiers who have been killed or
have died during modern wars. Thus. for
example, we know that during the unac-
countable Franco-German war of 1901.
$50, 900 victims were slain on the two sides;
that during the useless Crimean war of
1S54-55, 7S5, 900 were slain; that during the
short Italian war of 1859, 63, 900 men fell on
the field of battle or died in hospitals; that
the game of chess between Prussia and
Austria in 1866 deprived $4,000 individuals
OF life: that in the United States the strife
between the North and South caused the
death of 1000 men in 1S60-6i; we know
also that the wars of the first empire poured
out the blood of 5000, 900 Europeans, and
moreover that France mas taken up arms 20
times since 1915 On adding the number of
victims of war during the last century
total Of 70, S4O, 900 is reached simply in the
civilized countries of Europe and in the
United States
Commencing with the Trojan war, the
case has been the same in all ages of his
tory. Certain remarkable battles, fought
hand to hand with knife or club, have had
the memorable honor of leaving as many as
100000 men dead on the field; as examples
OF this we cite the defeat of the Cimbrians
and the Teutons by Marius and the last
exploits of Attila- The crusades in partic-
ular merit honorable mention, as much for
their mildness as for their usefulness.
Forty Millions Killed Every Century.
Without losing ourselves in details, let rs
be content 10 prove that an average of IS to
20 million men are killed every century in
Europe by the enlightened institution of
MAJ Of
age, should join hands they would form
line 4,500 leagues long, crossing all Europe
and Asia; the European epidemic of war
gradually attacks them like an electric
storm, killing and stretching them on the
ground; every century a similar line springs
from the earth to fall in tine same way.
The nations of the extreme Orient (the
Chinese and their neighbors) form second
human consolidation, and shed about the
same quantity of blood. We call to mind
their glorious heroes Gengis Khan and
Tamerlane. who marked their routes with
pyramids of severed heads Barbarous na-
tions also are engaged in perpetual COM
bats, seldom killing fewer than 1000, 600 to
600 rational beings in the same space
OF time.
The total number destroyed by humanity
every century in its incessant political, re-
ligious or international wars is at least 40,-
OO0, 600.
General statistics prove at the same time
that, since the Trojan war 5000 years ago,
that Is, since the beginning OF history, not
single year has elapsed in which some war
has not killed its proportionate number
What am L saying? Since the Trojan war!
There Were EattIes in Heaven.
If one may believe Christian tradition,
had not the angels already fought in
heaven? AND is it not on the defeat of the
rebellioGs angels that the existence of the
devil, the temptation of Eve the fall of
Adam, original sin and the coming of the
Redeemer, that is, the very foundations of
Christianity, are firmly established?
During the so centuries which have
elapsed since the beginning of Asiatic and
European historv-since the time of Sesos-
iris and David, Of Xerxes and Cyrus-a loss
of 100000 a century makes the total
number destroyed by war to be 1,2OO,-
O0O, 900, number very nearly representing
the total population of the globe at the
present day.
Thus, in the last 3, 900 years, in the wars
OF the Pharoahs, in the Mongolian and Chi
nese inyGsions, and the conquests of Alex
suder, etc, etc, as many human beings as
now inhabit the globe have been slain hon
orably and officially, very often while sing
lnC caaticles to their gods or drawing
strains OF joyful music from their instru-
men;E.
Twelve hundred millionsl What Is this
number?
1t Is day and the sun sheds its light and
heat upon the world. The country is green,
the cities full OF life and the villages sur
rounded with laborers. Millions of men are
living, acting and producing.
Picture of Destruction.
Science is developing its splendors for the |
contemplation OF intelligence: history and |
romance picture the different groups that |
people the world; industry transforms the |
lace OF nature, mountains are lowered, val !
leys elevated, seas recede, the equator and |
the poles join hands; steam annihilates |
time, rules The seas and burrows continents:
electricity causes Europe and America to |
palpltate with common life; the husband |
leads hls bride 10 receive his grandn,other's
benedIct!on, the child plays in the sun: life
uniolds its joyous and divine radiance on
the surface Of the globe
But behold the sun gone to rest: behold
black night and melancholy silence.
Funereal Death descends from somber
heights, holding in his hand scythe of
steel. DE passes like bird of night whose
flight makes one shudder, extends his hand
10 the tour cardinal points, trayerses shnd-
owy space and disappears in the dep,hs:
this gesture has arrested humanity in it's
course this passage Of the necrophorc has
sent all human beings to their last sleen. TO.
morrow morning none of US will waken: the
sun will shine upon a land of the dead. MOI
q single human being remains to look upon
the scene. Paris, London, New York. ST,
Petersburg, Vienna, Berlin and Rome are