Clinch Valley news. [volume] (Jeffersonville, Va.) 18??-2019, 1914-08-28
Unbelievable War Figures.

News Leader:
Our dismal struggle of fifty year
ago taught us Americans to reckon
the cost of war in billions, to com
pure armies in terms Of hea1reds q
thousands and to state losses in iv,
digits.But even the survivors of thos.
four years of blood cannot appre
ciate the scale on which the des
perate nations of Europe have rush
ed to arms. To the rest of us, the
figures ARE positively unimaginable
Some comparisons may interest
The revolutionary ond Napoleoni,
wars lasted from 1893 to 1915 and in
volved every country of Europe cx-
cept Turkey. Yet only a.5G0,O00 men
were engaged-about us many as
".,,c &C. alone can now pnt in the
field by such CONSUMPTION as that
enforced hy Napoleon.
The Crimean war involved England,
France, Austria, Savoy, r. rl:cy and
Russia, and was marked by a long,
desolating siege. Nevertheless, the
total enlistments, 1,46O,O00, were less
by half million than the army Aus
tria will put in the field during this
war.
In the war between the states, the
federals enlisted 2,041, 900 and the
South sent every man it had, 100000
to the front. But all the armies of
the blue and all the armies of the
gray did not aggregate more than
half the war strength of the German
empire.
The Mexican war saw less than 40
per cent. as many men engaged as
little Servia has assembled in her
game fight against the Austrian ca
giles.
The Six Weeks war between Aus
tria and Prussia laid the foundation
of the modern Germany state and
was decisive in its results. But Ger
many today has more men on and
near the western line than the two
kingdoms called to the colors in 1866.
The total forces engaged in the
Franco-Prussian war, 1,713,000, were
less than the armies now confronting
one another in Belgium and France.
The belligerents in the bloody Rus
so-Japanese war were approximately
100000, but this number is less
than the war struggle of England
and Austria.
To sum up, the most accurate fig
ures available show that grand to-
tai of 1s,552,200 saw service of one
sort or another from the plains of
South America to the mountains of
Manchuria-in the wars of the world
since the French revolution. This
number exceeds by less than one
million-932,000 to be exact, the
war strength of the nations now
under arws. And if Italy fights the
camps of Europe will contain more
men than have fought for liberty,
for conquest, for life or for profit
since the Marseilles was first sung
and the first tricolor was displayed in
the low countries.
Viewed in another light, the esti-
mated present cost of the war is
$57 100000 the day. 1t it continues
for six months, this will aggregate
n greater total than the cost of all
the wars from 1893 to 1860. If the
war continues year the cost will
be almost $21, 200, 100000, or within
six billion of the total cost of war
since 1893.
One last comparison. The Mukden
campaign, which at the time it was
fought had been the most gigantic
of history in the numbers engaged
and in the length of the fighting
front, extended over line that STREET
ched for fifty miles. If we were APP
palled at that report, what shall we
say of German line which runs for
approximately 226 miles? And if we
doubt the possibility of such a thing
let us remember this fact: If the
Germans have, as they claim, 1,200,-
600 men from Brussels to Belfort,
it is possible for them to draw two
solid ad unbroken lines of men,
shoulder to shoulder, in the closest
formation over every inch of the 226
miles!