Omaha daily bee., 1907-12-29
REAL COST OF ARMAMENTS
Contrasts which Silhouette the
ImpOsing Size of War
Making Billa.

The increased cost of living that Is dTiv-
ing housekeepers to distraction is nowhere
more obtrusive than in the price of imple-
ments of warfare. Battleships used TO cost
$5,OOO0OO or 100000 each. In the new
Dreadnaught era they are expected to
average about $1OOOO,OOO. What does that
represent in terms of the peaceful possi-
bilities of NATIONAL welfare?
Yale university has just published for the
first time a complete report of its produc-
tive resources. On June 30 of this year its
total funds amounted TO $S.74s.6sO. Every
100000 battleship. therefore represents
more than the entire endowment of a uni
versity like Yale. According to the statis-
tics of the bureau Of education, the total
income of all the universities and colleges
in the United tSates in the fiscal year 1906
was $780, ,52S or about the cost OF three
new battleships. OF this amount the ma
tional, state and local governments con-
tributed s. 522, Goa little less than we are
TO pay for one battleship.
The Rhodes bequest for scholarships at
oxford, by which man of imperial imag-
ination expected to bind together the scat
tered members of the English speaking
race throughout the world, amounted to
$40 1000, ,OOO-the price of one battleship. The
Nobel fund, for the encouragement of work
for the good of humanity in science, lit
erature and the promotion of international
good WILL is 100000. The cost of one
Dreadnaught equals the endowment of the
Carnegie institute at Washington. Half that
sum provided for the construction of the
sixty-five Carnegie libraries in Greater New
York. The fund by which George Peabody
helped to set the educational systems of
the southern states on their feet after the
90 E1n nNO
to build a fairly respectable second-class
cruiser. The John F. Slater fund for the
education of the negroes, for which the
donor received the thanks of congress and
a medal, was $1,OOOOO little more than
the cost of one of the two new torpedo
boat destroyers authorized last winter. The
cost of one battleship would pay for all
the newspapers and periodicals issued in
the eight states of Delaware, Maryland,
Virginia, West Virginia, North Carolina,
South Carolina, Georgia and Florida in a
year.
Congress was asked last winter to ap-
propriate $S,OOO,OOO for the establishment of
the Appalachian and White Mountain for
est reserve, which would save thousands of
square miles of land throughout the eastern
states from desolation. 1t refused because
Speaker Cannon thought the object was
not worth the money. The amount asked
for was about the cost of a second class
cruiser and less than one-third the cost OF
one of the new Dreadnaughts The total
expense of the army and navy in 1906
amounted to nearly 100000. That was
more than the entire assessed value of the
real estate in any one of fifteen states
and nearly four times the value of the ma
tionaI fisheries. Three battleships and an
armored cruiser would provide the proposed
Atlantic deep waterway, from Boston to
Key West
For saving life and property on all our
coasts, the government spent. in 1906,
81, 1892, 4659S or less than / per cent Of the
amount it spent in the same year In pre-
pairing to destroy them.
The Knickerbocker Trust company OF
New York closed its dors, precipitating a
panic which threatened the whole financial
structure of the United States, and shook
the exchanges of the entire world, because
it's available resources were exhausted
when It had paid out to depositors about
three-fourths the cost Of one battleship.
The Department OF Agriculture has
charge of the work Of the forest service.
which administers a region as large as the
German empire and protects the future
habitability of a third Of our nationa,
IL
supplies fights insect pests more destruc-
tive than invading armies, develops i'm
proved methods of farming that add hun
dreds of millions to our annual income,
checks diseases OF plans and animals,
studies soils and climates, searches the
world for profitable varieties OF plant and
animal life, takes the lead in highway i'm
provements, and furnishes the weather
predictions upon which farmers and navi-
gators base their plans. For all this there
was appropriated last year a trihe less
than the cost OF one battleship. The De-
partment OF Commerce and Labor charts
the coasts, maintains the lighthouses pub
fishes statistics OF commerce, inspects
steamers. develops our fisheries, regulates
immigration, supervises the interests Of
labor promotes manufacturing industry,
and investigates the management Of cor
porations. All these services cost us about
the price of armored cruiser.
With the liberal appropriation of 1900,
O00-a little more than the cost of
keeping one OF the new battleships in COM
mission for single year-the health au-
thorities of Pennsylvania have undertaken
vigorous campaign against tuberculosis
In ali the sixty-seven counties Of that
state. The state OF Missouri has built a
tuberculosis sanatarium at cost OF $685.
noa aIx fura - fkaI