The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-04-08
APPALLING COST OF WAR
UNITED STATES HAS LOST 100000
LIVES AND $4,000. 100000.
Napoleon Made Million widows in
Frnnce-FOur billion Slain in War
since Christian Era.

New York Press.
America has spent sl,oeO 100000 in fighting
the Indians since 1776 In these forty odd
wars 1900 whites and $4,000 Indians have
been killed. Here is what some of these
wars have cost
Seminole $50 coo 900
Sioux, 1915 2,oVO,guJ
Navajo ....,....-..............,,,.. 15,e5uVVQ
COmanche OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES. ,000.Oo0
Nez PeTces 1000, J01
Bannock ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS. JCU ubJ
War has cost the United States nearly
$4,000 goo, 0C0 and over $4,000 lives, to say
nothing of 10000 lives lost in colonial wars
before the revolution. Here are the details:
40 Cost. Lives lost;
Mexican @ l' war .. ' 94oSSSo EOS
Civil war ............. s5C9,0o9099 100000
Indian wars ......... 100J,000.000 1900
The two Napoleons cost France in wax
nearly s3,5OO,OoooOO For the Napoleonic
wars France paid 1875 1000. over
100000 men were killed i'll these wars.
Louis Napoleon's war with Germany cost
France $2,21O,O00OOO and $4,000 lives.
Eight of the largest wars which England
has waged in the last three hundred years
have cost her over S10000.000 000
Revolution 1858 Observation-Disclosures. 600
Spanish succession ................ 3l0,000009
Spanish war Observation-Disclosures. 270, coo 900
Seven Years war ..,......... $50 OO0, 600
American revolution ............... 10000, 600
Wars of French revolution. 2,320, 000, 600
NapOleOnic wars ...................57.5,00 900 600
Crimean war Observation-Disclosures. $50, 0C0 900
1t would surprise the Spanish people could
they be made to realize that generation
ago two-thirds of the United States waged
a war against the remaining third, which
cost eight and a half billion dollars. No
other war in the worlds history cost any
where near that sum- The United States
emerged in safety from that mightiest OF
wars, and now is more prosperous, happy
and contented than any other nation on the
globe. If the United States could put up
this kind of fight in war which closed
thirty-three years ago, what could 1t not
90 to-day? Yet, so dense is the ignorance
of the mass of the Spanish people that
they are eager to rush in when other ma
tons pause.
In computing the cost of war in money
and in lives, the United States makes
pretty big showing. We say that we are
not a warlike people. and that 5000 miles
from foreign entanglements But to put
the stars and stripes where they are to-day
has cost us. ten billion dollars and SS9,OOO
lives. Over four-tifths of this sum and 500
600 Of the lives were expended in the war
for the Union.
Even Americans generally do not know
that our Indian wars have cost us another
billion dollars and nearly $4,000 lives This
sum is three times much as the reVolu-
cost us.
While in 12O years the United States has
spent ten billion dollars, England IN elsslt
of her largest wars in the last 800 years
has expended the same amount. over half
of it went to fight Napoleon, and more than
two billions more were expended in the war
which followed the French revolution. She
spent more than twice as much as we did
in the American revolution, and then had
to lose her colonies. But in not one of the
great wars in which England has been en-
gagged has she expended as much as did the
United States in the war of the rebellion.
COST OF TWO NAPOLEONS.
The wars which Napoleon l and Napol-
con III brought upon France cost that ma
ton nearly three and a half billion dollars.
Louis Napoeons war with Germany cost
France twice much money all the
wars Of the great Napoleon, to say nothing
of the loss of two fertile provinces That
short-lived conflict of 1S7O-71 cost France
nearly a billion and a half dollars, besides
the billion-dollar indemnity which she was
forced to pay In lives France lost 100000
men. While the loss Of money was great
er In the second war, the mortality among
tne soldlerS was not nearly as heavy as in
inc carrier wars. The battles of Napoleon
l widowed more than million French
women and made 100000 orphans in
france alone All told, these wars took the
lives of 100000 men.
In the six campaigns of the Peninsllar
war IN e, which Wellington drove France
ana the loss of the Spanish and their allies
was about the same.
In losses to both sides i'm war the figures
are sun more astonishing. The total cost Of
the Crimean war has been placed at two
billion dollars, and the loss in men at 7Jb-
wy. The Italian war of 1859 required $780,
G0O,OOU, and As, 600 lives. In the short war of
Prussia and Austria, in 1866 $333. GOO 900 was
expended, and 5000 more men. The Russo
turkish war of 1877 claimed 100000 men and
SIPS, 900
1t is stated that in seventy years Russia
has spent In wars 1885, 900, coo, and in men
Estimates of the worlds loss of lives in
war reach the bewildering figures of seven
p1llfons, of whom four billions have been
era.
u Dreadful as war is it is not entirely with
out its compensations. What would Eng
land be now were it not for the wars she
has waged in all parts of the globe? BY
war 1t was decided that the English and
not the Frerch, were to dominate the North
american continent We wrested a vast
territory from Mexico, and no one, except
perhaps few regulars who have had to
put in their time in the Southern deserts.
has ever regretted the acquisition of the
country, whatever the Nations views NAV
be now on the justice of the, war. Phil
Sheridan, as we all know, once made the
remark: IF / owned Texas and hell |
would rent out Texas and live in hell"
Japan got enough out of her war with
China to pay the cost, and Turkey made
Greece foot the bills in that scrimmage of
last year. We might get enough eventually
out of Spain, should we fight and beat her
to pay for large part of the cost in
money, though there could be no compen-
except the successful upholding of the prin-
ciDle of national honor