New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1902-09-13
A PHRASE AND THE FACTS.
WHAT THE BoER WAR ACTUALLY COST
NOT THE MOST EXPENSIVE CON
FLICT IN HISTORY-A REPL1 ID
c0NSIT1 GENERAL PIERCE.
CONSUL GENERAL PENCE.

FLICT IN HISTORIC REPLY BY
CONSUL. GENERAL PIERCE.
BY A Maur,o. washington correspondent OF ne
The phrase maker rules the world Let
man coin m epigrann, or originate sentence
that is alliterative enough 10 hold itself IN lie
popular mind or commonplace enough TO appear
IN the Imagination of commonplace people. and
81 is accepted as a fundamental truth or the
rarest philosophy. When President kruger an
nounced to the world that If Great Britain oe-
sfroyed the power Of the South African repuo
lies II would be at price that would ''Iagser
humanity" there was enough in the l'nrase'
Joined to prejudice, to appeal to the inasl 'iOn
and to fasten itself upon the memory Every
penny-e-liner and every popular orator mas
echoed snd re-echoed the words. until no" -
has come to be believed by many thinking men
that the cost Of the Boer war to Great BRITAIN
IS to use an oft repeated newspaper sentence
Of the last wear the costliest and bloodiest
war" the world has known. But the facts 90
not Justify the assertion.
During the last forty years the world mas
been witness to four great wars. -FOUR Walls
epochal in their results. The world has seen q
war waged in behalf of human liberty, war
inspired by ambition a war Of the cross agalhs'
the Crescent. and lastly, war TO extend equai
rights. Chronologicaily and geographlcalS
those wars were the American Civil War OF
1S61-'65. the Franco-Prussian War OF lo'o- l.
the Russo-Turkish War of 1SIl-'4S, and the
British-Boer War of 1S99-19G2. Let us see the
price that humanity paid for these wars hu'
mainly in all cases being the victor
The American Civil War lasted four years
The total deaths in the armies Of the North
from all causes were 35952S lOficial state
rnent OF the Record and Pension Office OF the
War Department. The number OF wounded
according to the same authority, has never
been definitely determined. but in The Surgical
History of the War of the Rebellion" it is stat
ed that the wounded the Union side num-
bered 2Soo4o The accuracy Of these figures
is open TO considerable doubt The actual num-
Der is believed to have been considerably larger
The financial cost of the war 10 the United
States that is the direct increase of the public
debt during the war, was So 70S $50 These
figures are obtained from the latest annual re-
port Of the Secretary Of the Treasury 1hey
are the difference between the debt Of the
United States on July, 1850. and the debt on
July 1856 The increase between those periods
due 10 the
Germany declared war against France on July
10 1870. and signed the treaty Of peace Janu-
ary Is 1871, the lasting six months lack
ing four days. The German losses We're: Dead
ing total of 10. S97. These are the official
figures Of DR.. Engel, director of the royal P-us-
sian Statistical Bureau, in his elaborate work
die verluste der Deutschen Armeen an Off
zieren und Mannschaften in kriege geger
Fraakreich 1870 und 1871" 1t is not possible
TO ascertain the financial cost for the reason
that it shared between Prussia and the
States OF the confederation. 1t is. however. in
teresting to note. and bearing on the subject
that the conqueror wrung from the conquered
Indemnity of five milliards Of francs, ap
proximately 81, 600 0O0, 600 and the provinces o.
Alsace and Lorraine.
On April q, 1877 Russia declared war agains
Turkey. and the same day Russian troops
crossed the Pruth. On March 2 1875 the treaty
OF peace was signed at San Stefano the wal
lasting ten months and six days. The losses
of the fRussian) army during the war" the
authority Of The American Annual Cyclopadia
for 1SfS," amounted, according TO official re-
turns. to S9.304 officers and men killed and
wounded 1t is obvious that these figures are
too low. In the weeks fighting for the posses
sion OF the Shipka Pass the Russians officially
declared their loss to be, up TO September IA
lo.ooo officers and men. The fighting around
Plevna in August officially admitted by the
Russians 10 have caused loss to both sides OF
12,000. "two-thrds of whom were said TO be
Turks The capture Of Kars involved a Rus
sian loss Of -, 100 men. Nor can the financial
cost be stated with absolute accuracy because
OF the mysteries of Russian bookkeeping OFF,
cially it is admitted that the war cost Russia
910,000,000 rubles. say S455 600 600 securities
to that amount having been emitted by the gov
eminent to provide means for carrying on the
operations Of the War, and in addition a large
quantity OF paper money was forced into circu-
lation. This currency has been variously esti-
mated by different writers at from 300 600 coo 10
SOC 100000 rules.
The Transvaal Republic and the Orange Free
State declared war against Great Britain on
October III, 1899 the first hostile act being the
communicating of a train at Harrismith on that
day by the Beers. Peace was signed on Nav 40
1902, the duration of the war being two wears
seven months and nineteen days The total
British losses. according TO an official british
statement issued by the War Office on lime :
were 99.47T, made up a follows: Killed in ac-
ton or died of wounds received in action. 4 792
died from disease, u $50: total deaths. 81 041.
permanently incapacitated by wounds, 1892.
wounded, but not permanently disabled 60 os3
The total cost OF the has not VET been
made UP, but the amount borrowed which IS
the basis of calculation assumed in this article
was stated by Lord Goschen. a former Chan
cellor of the Exchequer a Liberal, on June :
in the House Of Lords to have been fl5a0oO :
600. or say, approximate ly. S1950O0 600
The following summary puts the foregoing
figures in more concise form:
killed. wounded the Victor Of N
american Civil - sssses 1sG sss sss IN months :.
Eranco-Prassian ---- .Sg7 Unknown e
Fritsh-BOer e7iT 7s50to0S ~ ~