Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-06-05

1 VIC HAuScdllug OuOr OI Lulllloub Va uSSohAo
posing bodies; from deserted buildings to
the mute shores of long rivers, from great
pest-stricken cities to the immeasurable
plains, giant Silence, seated on the ruins of
the globe, sleeps in the midst OF this vast
field of the dead, in the midss of this pros
trated army of ], 20o, 600, 900 corpses.
This immense cemetery of all mankind,
seen at one view, is the real measure of the
victims destroyed by war from the histori-
cal beginning of nations down to the year
Of grace in which we live.
Human folly is so great that, instead OF
leading tranquil, industrious, intellectual
and happy lives, men continually commit
suicide by opening their veins and pouring
out their best blood in frantic commissions.
Watch humanity in actual life, choosing its
strongest children, nourishing, educating
and caring for them till they reach the full
ness of mans estate, then methodically
placing them in line. As there are but 3d.
525 days in a century and 100000 indi-
viduals must be killed during that time,
the knife is not laid aside a single instant:
II, 200 men are killed every day, almost one
minute 46 every hour! And there is no
time to lose. FOR if by chance single Cay is
omitted 9, 200 condemned men await their
turn on the morrow.
Behold how men employ themselvesl
That we may fully appreciate this high de-
gree of intelligence, let us make few COM
parisona
The Blood That Flows.
The sword of Mars is ceaselessly drawing
blood from human veins Eighteen million
| cubic meters have already been shed. In
| summer at Paris the Seine delivers to the
two parts of the bridge Pont-Neuf about 100
cubic meters of water every second, moving
with force of $500 horsepower. Every
hour 900 cubic meters of water pass
under the arches of the bridge, or 8,640, 900
| cubic meters in day.
Now let us stand on the parapet of Pont-
Neuf and watch this rapid, heavy and deep
flow. Imagine the river to be human blood
instead of water, for if the blood shed in
all wars was put altogether into the basin
| between the quays it would form such
| river, and we would have to remain stand
| ing on the parapet above the red and boiling
! billows 4S, no, 30 hours, to see it all flow
| away.
these floods of blood would turn gigantic
| mills and put in motion turbines capable of
| throwing immense Jets to the most distant
water conduits, and of sprinkling the whole
city. Steamboats, would pass up and down
the river as they do to-day; barques would
rock on the purple surges, whose penetrat-
| ing odor would enter the royal buildings
| like nauseating fumes from the internal
regions of Dante. This quantity of blood
weighs Is, 900, 600, 600 Kilograms 1t is al
unfailing stream, which every hour since
history began has increasingly poured $50
| litres of blood to dye the royal purple worn
by the occupants of imperial thrones
A Comprehension of the Figur,s.
If the 200 million skeletons of these
tragic sports should rise and climb one upon
another, the ladder thus formed would
1. oha,,f .l,,th halx
and continuing onward, would mount into
infinite space tour times as far again; that
is, 500, 700 leagues in height. The corpses,
if thrown into the channel at Calais would
form the famous bridge so long planned be-
tween France and England and separate the
ocean from the North Sea by weir. If
only the heads of the men slaughtered in
war were taken and placed side by side, a
band would be formed reaching six times
around the world.
What more can be added to these incom-
parable pictures which are less hideous than
reality? Simply one remark-that every
month the Governments of Europe alone,
for their good pleasure, kill more men than
the number of stars seen in the heavens
with the naked eve OH a clear night.
That the grounds for declaring war are |
worthless is proved by their insignifcance. |
Since the Trojan war, made to reclaim an |
unfaithful wife, down TO that of 1870 made |
under the pretext of preventing the Hohen-
zollerns from sitting on the Spanish throne, |
or those of the English in the Indies or in |
Egypt, or those of Servia and the eternal |
Oriental question, there has never been any |
good reason for training troops of men, fill |
ing them with rage and making them devour |
each other like wolves
Half century afterward the result of all
these convulsions is shown only by a change
OF color on geographical maps.
One of the Arguments for War.
Sometimes war is supposed to be fatal,
natural and necessary evil, 'like cpl |
denies, says someone else, s'to prevent the |
human race from multiplying too rapidly"
The earth could easily support ten times |
more people than it now does, and the de- 4
structions of war only affect in relatively |
feeble proportion the whole human popula- |
tion, which is perpetuated, as is well |
known, at the regular rate of one birth I
second. On the contrary, there are not |
enough hands on the earth, and each family |
would be much richer if humanity had |
twice as many in its service. In fact, the |
condition OF permanent armed peace, the |
European military system, is the principal |
cause of the present barrenness and ruin of |
countries.
There are 20 inhabitants to a square kilo-
meter in France, each man having his share |
of the sun and able to earn his own living: |
but in other regions with as manv natural |
advantages as France, like North America,
with the same climate and soil, there are |
only four inhabitants to the square kllo- |
meter! Also the earth becomes less and |
less cultivated.
War is not only an unnecessary scourge |
but is more injurious than all others, tor it |
never comes alone; sickness, ruin and fam
inc always follow in its path. But, that |
we may be fully enlightened about the e1-
tent of human folly, no picture is more in
structive than that of national budgets and |
of the manner in which national resources
are spent
Costs $1,000 to Kill a Man.
A great amount of money is necessary in
order to kill in proper manner for each |
man slain costs about s., 600. The continu-
ally increasing and multiplying taxes of all
nations are never sufficient to paw for the
butchery of human troops. Every year
Europe spends more than 81 ,200, ,000. 900 in
shedding her children's blood, and in France
alone we spend $500, 900 every day. The
war in America did not cost less than
SIG, 900, 100000. Since the Crimean War
down to that of 1901 the civilized nations
of Europe and America spent in destroying
one another $40. 600 900, ,0G0 of she ordinary
budget and more than S11, ,O00, 600, 600 raised
expressly for the purpose, making total OF
S2l ,000 600, 600. The wars of the last 100
years have cost the sum OF S140 600, O00, 900,
without counting the sorrow, the loss of
men and other deplcrable results
For a part only of this fabulous sum all
the children might have been brought up
and educated gratuitously; all lines of rail-