The watchman and southron. [volume] (Sumter, S.C.) 1881-1930, 1914-03-28
"A Costly Form of Peace Insurance

"A Costly Form of Peace Insurance.
The increased cost of living has
been discussed from top to bottom
to circumference, and it has been
ascribed to "a variety OF causes ma
tiOnal and International, social and
economic; but how far it may be due
TO what statesmen and military Deo-
ple' describe in the convenient
phrase-"insurance against war;
rarely occurs to the puzzled taxpayer
and national burden bearer. Three
items published in The Sun during
the last three or four days probably
seemed to the average man, who is
struggling to make both ends meet, to
have no connection with the increased
toll that is levied on his pocketboolk
at almost every turn. And yet a good
many people in good many coun-
tries are beginning to suspect that
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tween the two.
The items to which we refer were
% dispatch from Norfolk describ-
ing the elaborate ceremonies with
which the dreadnought Texas, 'the
largest warship in the world" was
turned over to the United States gov
ernment; CD a cablegram from Lon
don stating that the British naval es-
Inmates for 1914-15 amount to $751;
100000, an increase Of S13,70O, 900
over last year; (3) a dispatch from
Boston recording the greatest salvo
OF big guns ever discharged from a
battleship," eighteen great guns be-
ing fired at once from the Argentine
dreadnought Rivadavia. which nobly
withStood the tremendous broadside,
and was pronounced by the builders
very good" and equal to every con-
tract requirement.
The Texas cost millions of money to
build; SO did the Rivadavia, while
the British naval estimate for 1914-15
represents over a quarter of a bill
lion Of dollars; and yet these three
items are only small part Of what it.
takes every year to pay the premium
on the policy" of international in
surance against war. Every cent of
this vast expenditure comes from the
same place--the pockets of the peo-
ple-and it is not an extravagant or
fanciful proposition to say that this
drain on their resources makes the
everyday problems Of life all the
harder
The report of the Naval Committee
OF the house Of representatives, sub
mitting the estimates for our naval
service for the fiscal year ending June
80 1915, recommended an appropria-
tion of S139.964,331.61, which must
seem to the ordinary man q tidy lit
tie sum for insurance" And yet it
was less by $4.52S,119.92 than the ad-
vocates OF peace by means of battle
ships earnestly advocated. In this
same report, which touches, Of course.
only the water side of military ex-
penditure, we get glimpses Of what is
being paid by other countries for
their insurance policies" The tota!
revised estimates of Germany for
1924 amount to $112,037,576, an
increase over 1928 of $1,322,532
In France the total naval appropria-
ton in the budget as voted for 1913
amounts to $90,164,9S9, an increase
Of SS.472,157 over the appropriation
for 1912. In Japan the naval esti-
mates for 1913-14 amount 20 $48,1O5,-
1872, an increase over the preceding
year of $1,594,S11. In Russia the ma
val estimates for 1913 amounted to-
$11S.643.S20, an increase over 1912 Of
$36,624,1S7. In Italy the estimates
for 191314 were s49.550,147, an in
crease OF $7,656.727 over the previous
year. In Austria the estimates for
1913 were $2S,959,414. For 1914-15,
according to the latest reports the
naval budgets Of Great Britain, Ger
many, France, Japan, Russia, all
show increases of from two to thir-
teen millions in the cost of this form
OF insurance. The only reduction in
estimates is in the United States, and
yet our naval policy" for the year
ending 1915 comes close to $14O,-
OOO, 900.
The minority of the Committee on
Naval Affairs, Messrs. WithcrspOon
Hcnsley, Buchanan and Gray, did not