The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1897-05-19
WAR CONSEQUENCES.
What 1t Costs in Men and Money
Some Startling Statistics,

At this time when we have been hear
ing so much of war and rumors of
war" it may not be Improbable to con-
slider for moment the terrible costs
not merely of naval and military arm
ament, but the amount of money spent
in actual warfare. Indeed if the enor-
nous cost of war were kept continually
in the public mind it would be one of
the very strongest pleas for the making
of peace.
The disastrous conflict which is now
taking place between the Turks and
Greeks is costing about a quarter of
million dollars day, and both these
countries are in a deplorable financial
condition at present-Greece has al
ready public debt of $155,000,000 hang
ing over-while Turkey is even worse
Other public debt is over $90O,O000O0,
and for the last few years she has run
behind to the tune of s5,000,000 per year
the principal part of the bonds are
held in England, while Germany holds
| t'G SCDl pioth VI NAiSSN ootiNte' 'iAA'
| fact is now making no end of i'll feeling
between England and Germany, al
| though very little of 1t is allowed to
leak out to the public The recent re-
verses of the Greek troops has made
John Bull laugh in his sleeve, but it's
always we'll to remember that the war
has only just begun and Greece may
yet surprise the British lion.
| Then we have the war in Cuba which
| has now been going on for something
like two years This war has already
cost Spain over $15O,000,000, while it has
| ruined the richest of her colonial pos
sessions. During the last few months
| Spain has been spending about $4,000
a day. Her loss of men is not known,
but it has been very heavy and the
| great majority of those soldiers who
may be spared to survive the war will
return to Spain physical wrecks
| through their hardships and exposures
| in the malarious districts of this west
ern island. So great has been the hor-
ror of the Spanish people to their rela-
| tives being drafted as soldiers to Cuba
that the finance minister has received
as much as half a million dollars in one
| quarter from parents who have pre-
| ferred to pay three hundred dollars (the
price of buying off conscripD rather
| than let their sons go out to meet a GER
| tain death In the deadly swamps of
Cuba. This war will certainly bring
| Spain to bankruptcy and ruin. Brit
aims little war In Dongola last year
| cost over 100000 and the march to
| Coomassie, which was only a tropical
picnic in which a mere handful of men
| Were employed cost the patient British
taxpayers 100000
| For truly appalling figures we have
to refer back to some of the great wars
Of history, the Crimean war-1S54-5--
cost Britain over $3.50 0oo, 900, and out Of
| 100000 men who were slaughtered in
| that mad and unjustifiable struggle
200, 526 We're British. Our own Civil war
| --1861-5in which great principle OF
humanity was at stake, cost us the al
| most Incredible sum of $4,000, 900
and sacrificed the lives of 900 men,
| the north losing S03, 900 and the south
| 600. 1t has been calculated that the
| money wasted In this great conflict, to
say nothing of the awful sacrifice of
life, would have paid the purchase price
of all the slaves eventually set free.
The Franco-German war of 1871 cost
i France alone the enormous sum OF ST.
$50, 900 apart from the war indemnity
of 5000, 600 francs, while the ag-
gregate loss of men was 200 900 At the
battle of Gravelotte alone France lost
1928 men and Germany 1900. Nearly
two millions and half of human lives
hnNa hpan capyi3aa1 n 3tp Ell a
year 1850. Some Of the greatest slaugh-
tiers have just been mentioned. But
one or two others should be noted-the
Russo-Turkish war of 1877-claimed
225,00o victims; the Franco-Italian war
Of 1859, $4,000 men, the Austro-P russian
war Of 1866, 10000 men; the Indian mu-
tiny, and the Chinese war three years
later took away $1,000 lives, The Brit
ish wars in Afghanistan, 1850; Zulu
land, 1879; Transvaal, 1881; Egypt, 1892
Soudan, 1886; Burmah, 1885, all involved
the slaughter of over sixty thousand
men, while the China and Japan war of
1896 had twenty-five thousand victims.
The loss of life In the recent French
| war in Madagascar and the Butcher s
bill in Cuba will be terrible heavy one
| when it comes to be reckoned up.
In addition to the loss of human life
in war there is also a very heavy loss of
animal life, hundreds of thousands of
horses and camels being slaughtered al
most as a matter of course, so far as
war reports are concerned, for one sell
dom sees any notice taken of this item
of the butchers bill and statistics are
very difficult to find. But an instance
may be given. In the Soudan war of
1885 there was a terrible slaughter of
camels. Out Of seven thousand camels
purchased for the British army during
the campaign, four thousand persisted
An eyewitness writes: "Camels and
mules were hamstrung by the score
the poor MANNED brutes-one sees hob
bling on their knees all over the des-
ert'' The deaths of non combatants
are also problematic Dr. Cyrus Ham
lin, an American missionary to Turkey
in 1877, stated that after the war be-
tween Russia and Turkey the dead bod
les of about a thousand children were
taken out of single river in Turkey.
Even the very prospect of war with
out its actual happening may be dis
astrous thing. Take our little squabble
over Venezuela which reached a rather
acute stage and oeeasioned war scare
| on our stock exchanges the effect being