Republican news item. [volume] (Laport, Pa.) 1896-19??, 1898-07-21
WHAT A WAR MEANS.
Loss to the Wealth of the World In
the Blood and Ashes of Battle.

Loss to the wealth of the World In
the Blood and Ashes of Battle.
What has actually been lost to the
wealth of the world in the blood and
ashes of the war since authentic his
tory began is beyond all estimate. IT.
has been computed that the loss of hu-
man life alone in that time from war,
amounts to fourteen thousand million.
souls-a number equivalent to the en-
tire population of the globe for the last
$50 years, says a writer in Leslie's
Weekly. 1t should be noted here that
the class of men who are drafted or ac-
cepted for military service are invar-
tably the very class who, by reason of
age. health and strength, are the most
valuable to the world from the purely
economic and material standpoint
They are the stalwart, intelligent, ca
pable men. In this country economists
have set the definite value Of $4,000 up
on the average man, considered as a
wealth producer. Taking this figure
as the general standard of the value of
man, 1t can be seen what an. inconcefv-
able amount of wealth in the shape OF
men has been destroyed on the battle
fields of the world since time began.
The war losses Of the United States
have not been as great, comparatively,
as those of other civilized nations in
recent times, but even the totals here
are sufficient to show the absurdity OF
the supposition that either now or at
any other time we may reap financial
gain by the sickles of battle. The an
nual expenditure Of the United States
during the war of the revolution was
$2O,OOO,O00 In specie. Most OF the
money was raised by public loans in,
the form OF paper currency. The dimin-
lshing value Of this slender security in
evitably brought about the boarding of
gold. The consequent scarcity OF real
money, as a matter of course, was fol-
lowed by suffering widespread and in,
tense. /;
Our second war with England lasted
only two years, but 1t cost us $72 ,000,0
ovindicateou cause, just and righteous
rs 1t was. And this did not include the
losses to our merchant marine from
English prlvateering. loss beyond
computation, even in those times of
our comparative commercial poverty. /
For the folly of the Mexican war we
had to pay dearly in men and treasure,
loss for which our acquisition of ter
ritory did not compensate. The lives
of more than 5000 American citizens
were part of the price we paid for
that display of power, and something
more than s25,OOO,00O for military dis
bursements was another part
For the civil war the figures of loss
all around mount up to stupendous
totals. The immediate financial losses
were 4,500 ,000, 900 to the north and ST.
800 ,000, 900 to the south, with such after
results as a national debt of $4,000, ,000,-
900, crippled merchant marine,
ruined agricultural community, besides
the losses occasioned in other parts ofthe
world, including those consequent up
on the cotton famine of Lancashire,
and the loss OF employment to more
than 100,00 European laborers. Such,
at least, are the losses computed by
Leroy Beaulieu in his LES Queries
Contemporaries" causing him thus to
close his chapter on our civil war:
"Such is war. Its nature Is so homi-
cidal that it slays thousands of victims
even at distance of thousands OF
miles from the battlefield"