The Ocala evening star. [volume] (Ocala, Fla.) 1895-1943, 1913-12-31

sIruct a single vessel of this type,
and the largest dreadnought design
ed will cost fifteen million dollars.
This covers merely the hull and
does not include the cost OF arma-
ment and guns, which runs into add
ed millions.
The appropriations for the army,
like those for the navy, nave in
creased in remarkable progression
In 1872 President Garfield. then a
member Of the House of Representa-
tives, said: I'VE may reasonably ex-
pect that the expenditures for pen
sions will hereafter steadily decrease,
unless our legislation should be un-
accountably extravagant." The pen
sion list for 1872 amounted to 800
703,999. In 1913, just forty years
later, We are devoting 1S0,300,00O
TO penslons-six times the amount
Garfield predicted as the crest of that
type of expenditure. At no time
since 1890 has our pension appro-
priation fallen below hundred mill
ion dollars annually, and since 1908
it has each year been in excess of
one hundred and fifty million dol
lars.
And, while civilized nations are
thus spending hundreds of millions
of dollars in the mania for arms, in
all the metropolitan cities of the
world people are starving in the
slums, children are dying for lack of
pure milk and illiteracy is rampant
The debt of, practically every ma
ton has either originated or been
built up by the processes of war. One
of the greatest problems of the pres
ent day, not only in the United States
but in Europe as we'll, is that of the
increasing cost of living. Let me
quote an extract from the comAhis-
sion on the cost of living, made in
1910. 1t said:
This diversion of labor and cap
| ital from productive industry to
waste and destruction, with the &C
companying diminution of the neces-
saries of life and an inability to sup
ply the worlds demands, inevitably
resulted in an advance of the prices
of the commodities of common con-
sumption. In weighing the causes
which have contributed to the in
creased cost Of living, this commits
sion is convinced that a most far
reaching influence in creating, fos-
tering and perpetuating high prices
, is militarism with its incidents of
war and its consequences in taxation.
The debt piled up for war and waste
remains a burden on the life of the
for huge interest payment OF more
than a billion dollars taken from the
earnings of the nations. This is sup
plemented annually by many other
navies of men taken from industry,
who are organized, trained and main
tanned for the day when they will
again be hurled at each other, to du-
plicate the destruction of the past
and pile up new and heavier burdens
upon the thrift and industry of the
world
There is little chance, however, of
as England continues to insist on
what she calls the ''two-power naval
standards navy the equal of the
bined navies of the two most for
midable antagonists. England bids
fair to impoverish herself to main
tain this standard. Germany watches
ther traditional foe across the chan
mel and lays the keels for yet more
hattleships; and France, unhappily
remembering always Alsace and
Loyiane, is guided in her expendi-
lures by what her neighbor does.
Even during the past winter the
Balkan war was seized on as an ex-
cuse for still greater follies. An in
credse in the peace strength OF the
German army was demanded and an
added burden of taxation of two hun
dred and fifty million dollars was
placed on the people. Across the
border the militarists of France
viewed the situation in dismay, and
then increased the service Of con-
scripts from two to three years-fo1
France is short of men-and this in
creased the strength Of her army by
fifty ner cent. And thus the mad
race goes on, Seemingly no nation
idares TO stop. They seem all i'm
bued with the mad delusion that ev-
Fery nation is waiting to pounce upon
!. any country that is not armed to the
teeth. Suppose this armament strug-
: gle continues for another decade
: what will be the result? All viii
= continue TO increase the size and
: mower OF ships and guns and tC