The Lakeland evening telegram. (Lakeland, Fla.) 1911-1922, 1914-09-26
SOME KILLING COMPARISONS

The Orlando Reporter-Star takes
issue with the Telegram as to the
relative length of the slaughter
rolls in the civil war and the pres
ent war in Europe, that paper say
ing: "As sickeningly terrific as the
loss in the civil war was, it cannot
be compared to the wholesale
slaughter which is now in progress
in Europe" We have repeatedly
read all the figures as to the number
of killed in utsvarious big battles
of the civil war, and we have been
almost too busy to eat and sleep
reading innumerable newspaper
columns about the present conflict,
including the guesses and estimates
of killed and wounded. The Re-
porter-Star will admit that there
has been no authentic official esti-
mate as to what that number is.
They are probably too busy kill
6 ing to stop to count the dead. But
NO matter what the reason, they
haven't told us, and such figures
bearing the official stamp as have
been let out from London and Ber-
lin make the sum total so ridicu-
lousy small that they are either un-
true or there has been a greater ex-
,penditure of powder and lead in
proportion to the casualty list than
in any other war in history.
As for those 10000 killed at
Leige, that is a Belgian story and
as the Belgians had no opportunity
to count the dead Germans we doubt
the accuracy of their guess, in which
the wish was probably father to the
figures. The Germans doubtless
did count their dead and they placed
the sum total of dead and wounded
in the struggles around Leige at
5000, and of these 1900 only were
killed. AS for that Berlin dispatch
the other day about 10000 Rus
slams killed in one battle, it was
obviously another magnificent piece
OF guesswork in which bloodthirsty
desire was father to the figures. 1t
may be safely dismissed as a pre-
posterous exaggeration.
During the long-drawn battle of
the last two weeks in France, with
millions fighting on battle front,
nearly 100 miles in length, the very
length of the line and the intermit-
tent character of the fighting ex-
cludes the probability of the tre-
mendous slaughter suggested by the
huge figures of the. numbers en-
gagged; and we have nowhere seen
any estimate assuming to be even
approximately accurate of the num-
Der OF killed and wounded, I'm
doubtedly it is an awful total, and
perhaps we shall never know the
figures, but in the absence of those
figures it cannot be claimed that
they have killed more of each other
than we did during our own un-
pleasantness of long ago.
1t Is strange that civilized men
should feel even the slightest ella
ton in making such comparisons
that indicate the killing of more
human beings by one army than the
other, and for our part we don't but
the instincts of the cave man are
still strong in the husky sons of
Adam, and to kill, kill, kill and then
brag about it around the campfire at
night is habit hard for some of
us to overcome.
We would like to add however,
that while We may be proud of our
magnificent murder roll in war, that
feeling does not extend to our ac-
tivities along the same line in peace,
There can be no doubt that we ex-
eel the Europeans there, as we are
said to kill each other at the rate
of about 10000 a year; and if we
could do SO, we would gladly ship
to the seat of war our whole army
of illegal pistol toters with the earn
est prayer that they might be put
in the very front of battle and new
er be seen or heard of again in this
country.