Ashland tidings. [volume] (Ashland, Or.) 1876-1919, 1912-12-19
BURDEN OF MILITARISM.

rope. People In the united states
think it is the poor foreigner only
who has that problem to face. Here
are some facts these people should
realize:
Two out of every three dollars ap-
.propriated by congress is applied
either on account of wars that are
past or in preparation for wars to
come.
Since 1897 we have expended ap-
proximately $2OO,OOO,OOO for rural
free delivery and $3OO,OOO,OOO for
public buildings and grounds, while
our total expenditures during the
same period on account of the navy
and army have run above $2,300,-
100000.
If these sums had been expended
upon roads, bridges, harbors, rivers,
rural routes and postal improve
ments, they would have furnished the
United States with greatly increased
production and transportation. Ex-
pended as they have been, there is
little to show.
During the past thirty years the
navy alone has cost one billion, six
hundred million dollars. Half of
that sum applied to road contsruc-
ton would have built 100000 miles
of roads at $4,000 a mile.
A small part of these government
al expenditures would have furnished
opportunities for homemakers who
are anxious to make a living from
the land.
An expert in the agricultural de-
partment has expressed the situation
this way:
"A forty-acre farm of irrigated
land comfortably supports a family
of five persons. 1t costs $55, 1000 to
make twelve-inch gun. The money
that goes to pay for this gun would
reclaim 1,571 acres of land, provid-
ing homes for 1876 people. When all
the guns on all our battleships are
shot at one time the government
blows in noise and smoke $150,000.
This would reclaim more than 1000
acres of land, giving homes to more
than 500 farmers and their families.
The money consumed in powder is
lost to all the future. @The farmer
who buys the reclaimed land must
pay the government back in ten
years, so it does not cost the govern
ment anything to build up the coun-
try by helping the farmer We
should make more homes and not so
many fighting machines"
Another expert has made compari-
son with battleship-building and in
dustrial uses as follows:
THE cost of a battleship would
build a macadam road of approved
construction between the cities of
Chicago and New York Fifty man
ual training schools could be built
and equipped for the cost of a bat
tleship, teaching the rudiments of a
trade to $4,000 young people each
year
The Congressional library al
Washington, the finest library build
ing in the world, was built for but
about half the cost of a battleship,
and is maintained for three-fourths
the cost of keeping a battleship
afloat.
THE proposed White Mountain
forest reserve, containing 100000
acres of burned-over and unproduc-
tive lands, could be purchased and
planted for the cost of one battle
ship.
The price of two battleships is
only $1,00O,000 less than the esti-
mated cost of making the proposed
siX-foot channel in the Mississippi
river from st. Paul to the mouth of
the Missouri river.
The investment of $9,0O0,00O
(three-fourths the cost of a battle
ship used in construction of irriga-
tion works in Salt River Valley,
Arizona, will reclaim 100000 acres,
provide homes for 5000 families,
and increase the value of taxable
property not less than $24, 100000"
The late Justice Brewer once
named six reasons why congress pro-
vides grudgingly for great Industrial
improvements, while spending the
peoples money with such liberality
for military uses. These are the
reasons:
First: Seven hundred and twenty
seven retired and active navy and
army officers live in Washington
and are fast making it an army and
navy center. They are clamorous
for more armaments, Second: Ger.
tain powerful vested interests wan
contracts for armament. They main.
tain lobbyists at the capital and in
fluence a goodly portion of the press
/ Third. The taXnaVers do not know