The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1892-06-05
cal beginning of nations down to ~.


and happy lives. men continually conss.as
suicide by opening their VEINS and non..a 's
out their best blood in frantic copynIsn.s
Watch humanity in actual life. choos;rsIss.
strongest children, nourishing, educ,ss;Ass
and caring for them till they reach ths sss I,gg
ness of mans estate, then metbod;.sm'-
placing them in line. AS there ara =!
SC, 525 days in century and 40, COO on; ns ~
viduals must be killed during that tim
the knife Is not laid aside single instant.
IL 900 men are killed every day. almost ~
q minute, forty-six every houri ss as
there is no time to lose. for if by chans s.a
single day is omitted 2, 200 condemned ~
await their turn on the morrow.
Behold how men employ themse,v..,
That we may fully appreciate this hich 3.
gree of intelligence, let us make ~ -
comparisons.
The sword of Mars is ceaselesslv d..-
ing blood from human veins. Eioh..se
million cubic meters have alreadv ~
she'd
In summer at Paris the Seine dal;~.
to the two parts of the bridge Pont-Nsn.
about hundred cubic meters of v..aI
every second, moving with a force of 4 "a
horse power. Every hour 800 0fpD cnS;s
meters of water pass under the archss =
the bridge, or S.64o. 900 cubic meters n
day.
Now let US stand on the parapet of po,.
Neuf and watch this rapid, heavy ana
deep dow. Imagine the river to be hi,mas.
blood instead of water, for if the hioaaa
shed in all wars was put altogether int
the basin between the quays il would fo.ss
such river, and we would have TO rem ~
standing on the parapet above the red ana
boiling pillows forty-eight, no, fifty hour
to see it all flow away.
These Hoods of blood would turr =
gantic mills and put in motion turhins.
capable of throwing immense lets ID n.
most distant water conduits. and ~
sprinkling the whole city. Steamho.ts
would pass up and down the river as thev
do today; Darques would rock on the mr.
pie surges. whose penetrating odor vonIa
enter the royal buildings like nauseatne
fumes from the internal regions =
Dante. This quantity of blood weighs
$4,000 900, coo kilogrammes. 1t il n
unfailing stream, which every hour sincs
history began has increasingly poured "a
litres Of blood to dye the royal purple vorr
by the occupants of imperial thrones.
If the 1,20O,OoO,o0O skeletons of the..
tragic sports should rise and climb ons
upon another. the ladder thus formed
would reach the moon, then coil about that
body and, continuing onward, would
mount into infinite space four times A fsS
dt-til tidt 49, C'Os wv Ill uelg0E
The corpses. if thrown into the channs
at Calais, would form the famous bridge =
long planned between France and England
and separate the ocean from the North "a
by weir.
If only the heads of the men slauphtered
in war were taken and placed side by side
band would be formed reaching six times
around the world.
What more can De added to these incon.
parable pictures which are less hideona
than reality? Simply one remark. thst
every month the governments Of Europe
alone, for their good pleasure, kill mora
men than the number of stars seen in the
heavens with the naked eye on q clear
night.
That the grounds for declaring var
are worthless is proved by their insie.
niticance. Since the Trojan war, made
to reclaim an unfaithful wife, down
to that of 1870, made under tho
pretext of preventing the Hohen.
zollerns from sitting on the Spanish
throne, or those of the English in the In.
dies or in Egypt, or those of Servia and
the eternal Oriental question, there has
never been any good reason for training
troops of men, filling them with rage and
making them devour each other like
wolves.
Half century afterward the result Of
all these commissions is shown only BY
change of color on geographical maps.
Sometimes war is supposed to be fatal,
natural and necessary evil. like cpl
denies" says some one else, ito prevent
the human race from multiplying too
rapidly" C!D
The earth could easily support ten times
more people than it now does, and the de-
structions of war only affect in a relatively
feeble proportion the whole human p0pu.
lation, which is perpetuated, as is well
known, at the regular rate of one birth
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 prin.
cipai cause of the barrenness and ruin d
countries.
There are seventy inhabitants to
square kiiometer in France, each man hays
ing his share Of the sun and able to earn
his own living; but in other regions with
as many natural advantages as France,
like North America, with the same ci-
mate and soil, there are only four inhao-
itants to the square kilometer! Also the
earth becomes less and less cultivated.
War is not only an unnecessary scourge
but is more injurious than all Others, fot
IL never comes alone; sickness, ruin and
famine always follow In its path. But
that We may be fully enlightened about
the extent of human folly, no picture
more instructive than that of national
budgets and of the manner in which ms
tional resources are spent.
A great amount of money Is necessary
IN order TO kill in proper manner, for each
man slam costs about $1,000. The con-
tinualiy increasing and multiplying taxes
OF All nations sIlfrlplpnt TO nav
Tor the butchery of human troops. Every
year Europe spends more than 81, 90U,ON'
600 in shedding her children's blood, andn
france alone we spend $4Wvu
every day. The war in America did
not cost less than sixteen billion dollars
Since the Crimean war down to that q
ls70-71, the civilized nations of Europe and
America spent IN destroying one another
ten billion dollars of the ordinary budges
and more than eleven billions raised e.
pressly for the purpose. making total o.
twenty-one billions. The wars of the Las
hundred years have cost the sum OF ~
billion dollars, without counting the s0..
row, the loss of men and other deplorsbH
results.
For part only of this fabulous sum u
the children might have been brought up
and educated gratuitously; all lines o
railways might have been built; provision
might have been made for the 81
tempts to realize aerial navigation;
customs, town dues and all obsta-
Giles to freedom of trade might havs
been suppressed; all destitution
might have been removed except thai
caused by idleness and inhrmity; W
might perhaps already be able to comma'
nicate with the inhabitants of otna
worlds! We might have been able-ou'
what are We saying? We might be happys
and We do not wish TO be.
Ii the son of a family should conduo
himself as do the governments OF the mos
civilized nations Of Europe, he would 9