The age-herald., 1900-06-03
understand the argument on which the cur ait,ia ic hnc


 rent opinion is based
 At the present time it would be some
 what difficult for the United States au
 thorities to tell just how this nation stands in relation to it's war with Spain. If the fighting had ended with the signing of the peace treaty the United States would have had a large sum of money on the right side of the books, but the long-drawn-out cam paign in the Philippines, which can only be regarded as part and parcel with our Spanish war, has drawn heavily against our favorable balance.
 In all the conflicts that England has
 waged, however, the profit has been quite a considerable item. In her war with Chi
 ma, more than half a century ago, there was profit of more than $10,000, 900 to show for the three years fighting, and this was a particularly excellent percentage when one considers that the original expenditure of Great Britain only came to little over s11, ,000000. It at about this time that England learned how to wage war success fully, and since that day there have been few battles fought by the soldiers of the queen that have not been made to pay the nation well.
 In the recent war between Turkey and Greece the result was most satisfactory to the former from financial point of view, and Japan made an exceedingly fine thing
 out of her last misunderstanding with China. In that war, which was managed extremely well, Japan had only S0,0O0 men engaged so that the cost to her altogether did not exceed the comparative trife of $30, 00O China, on the other hand, was compelled to pay her the neat little sum of $1S5, ,OOO leaving a clear profit of $1550 000, which, reckoning the time the war lasted worked out profit of $50 week per sol der.
 Remarkable as this achievement was, however, other nations have done fully as we'll. Germany, for instance, is the admir- atiOn of fiDancierS. owing to the manner in | which she has run her wars and the com- fortabe little balance that she has man. aged to make out of them. Her famous war with France in 1870 is one that ministers of finance dream about, as it is regarded as one of the most wonderfully successful con- ficts of modern times. Speaking roughly this war cost Germany about $575, ,0O0 GOO. The government voted $300, 900 of this for expenses, and the pensions that she was compelled to pay afterwards to her disabled soldiers amounted to about $25, ,000. l To these items has to be added one of s250, 100000 as the loss sustained by her owing to the fact that million soldiers were taken away from their occupations, but on the other side of the book there are items enough to more than balance these immense sums of money. For instance, France was compelled to pay an indem- nifty at the finish to the tune of more than $500, COG, ,000 but even this huge amount by no means represents the total of the profits derived by Germany. Alsace and Lorraine, which she captured from the French, are conservatively valued at s325, ,OO0, ,OOO and, in addition to this territory, she took general goods home with her to the value of $50,- 900 900, and another s5,00O,0OO in railway carriages and engines, while in French territory the German army seized food and clothing for the soldiers to the value of $150, ,0O0, ,O00 In payment for this property the German officers gave acquisitions or re- ceipts, and at the close of the war these were turned over to the French govern ment. by whom they were paid in accord ance with the peace agreement. When to these items is added the $60, 100000 which Germany received as interest on the in- demnity before it was cancelled, 1t is quit evident that the war receipts of the vic torious nation were not less than q, ,5S5, 000,000, and when from this is subtracted