Polk County observer. (Monmouth, Polk County, Or.) 1888-1927, 1914-07-17
'@TEE BURDEN OF THE NATIONS''

count, there were in England 1885,
| 701 paupers. That is something you
don't know anything about in this
country. Outside of the eelemosy-
nary institutions where we put those
by some limitation are unable to take
care of themselves, we don't have
that type of population in America.
Go on Monday to your public
schools, and stand before class in the
eighth grade, and begin to talk to
them about paupers. They would
open their eyes wide in ignorance,
and wonder as to what you meant.
A pauper is a man or woman who
has nothing, who can get nothing,
who depends for everything, every
mouthful of food and strip of cloth
ing, upon public or private charity.
In England there are 1,068,707 alb
solute, registered paupers. Mr.. Lloyd
George has stated that under the old
age pension bill it has been discov-
cred that there are in Great Britain
100000 people actually entitled,
under the terms of the act, to public
I charity, to enable them to end their
lives decently, to die comfortably, and
be buried respectfully. Twelve mil
lion people so poor that they need
public aid to get out of the world in
respectable fashion. And yet, with
her army of $4,000 men, with her
navy of 633 war vessels of all sorts
and kinds, Great Britain is spending
this year thirty-fve per cent of her
entire income, above the interest on
her stupendous debt, in creating and
maintaining her naval and military
armament.
Take Germany: There are 65,000,-
600 people in Germany, so congested
that they average three hundred and
ten (31D) to the square mile the En-
pire over. You can scarcely conceive
of such congestion; and that, too, has
created strange and unnatural eco
nomic problems.
Germany has debt of three and q
half billion dollars, gold, every cent
of it war debt. Upon the backs Of
her people rests an enormous rate OF
taxation, taxation that restricts her
progress, for she spends over fortx-
five per cent Of her entire income in
order that she may maintain her eno--
nous army Of 1,763,00O soldiers ana
build and keep in working order -
navy commensurate with that Of has
great arch enemy across the channal.
The most absurd madness, the moa+
pitiable thing in our modern world.
is this weird, insane delusion-thi-
hysterical madness-that exists h>.
tween England and Germany. Har~
are two great nations-blood rele-
tions-ethnic cousins, absolutely cA--
tain that one day they are going ts
go to war and fight each other-pro-
vided always that they can find som>-
thing to fight about. AS it is, there
is absolutely nothing that by any rs-
tional logic could possibly be masni-
fed into a cause of combat. There
isn't spot on earth where their i--
terests clash; there isn't a point in
the universe where their lines of in
.fuence even cross. There is absolute
ly nothing between England and Ger
many but the English channel, and yet
so lurid, so fiendish, has become this
madness that, regardless of their
crowded millions of tax-laden people,
it is going to take all the tact and di-
plomacy of craftsmanship on both
sides to prevent "the inevitable con-
fict." And woe betide the world if
that conflict comes.
France, ever mindful of her pet
provinces lost to Bismark, still dec
Grating with pathetic mourning the lit
tie kiosk in the Place de la Concorde
that bears the name of Starsburg;
France impoverished still by the mil
lions of her men, strong in their MAN.
hood, who went to death following
the Corsican-France carries war
debt of six billion dollars, and spends
thirty-seven per cent Of her entire in
come in preparation for war.
Merely to pay the interest on her
debt costs every man, wo-
man, and child in France $500 per
annum. A war budget of nearly
So, O0,000,000 per year for her army
and navy adds 1920 to the per capita
burden. Aside from all the expense
of government and administration, To-
cal and general, these two single items
demand a yearly individual toll of
$1220l
Concluded next Tuesday,
MINNESOTA TRAVELLING MAN