Imperial Valley press., 1915-06-01

being over, the professional moralists
now try to bring the nation back tC
accustomed moorings by denying the
story and vindicating the character Of
the volunteers. The accounts printed
they say, about the prospective I'M
married mothers have been enormous
~ exaggerated. One report said that
in one street Of a garrison city there
were 400 such cases. investigation
showed that there We're not 400.
think there were only 800. Conse-
quently the whole agitation is "a wash
of extravaganza"
Yet | am privately assured by al
eminent publicist, who has been look
ing into this matter, that real con
ditions have been understated not eX-
aggefated will not repeat here the
total of his estimates, because it would
seem sheer fantasy, but if he is right
enough illegltimate children will be
.
months to offset all the lives the
country has lost so far at least on the
battlefield.
If you will allow me a little frank
speaking on this susbiect, know a
certain element of men not unconnect-
ed with public affairs that, in spite
of the moralists and the iron-bound
code, view this fact with boundless
content; and good and respectable men
at that. What they had hoped for
from the hasty marriage the hedge
priests and the official playing of Sir
Pandarus, has come about in another
way. 1t is not conventional, it Is
shocking to the national ideal, which
is Mrs. Grundy; but the children will
be born, nevertheless, and that is the
great thing in the minds of these men
For, however revolving all these
things may be, and however sordid
and shameful, there is not a thinking
statesman of Europe but Is weighed
down by the appalling prospect of
depopulated and ruined countries that
plainly opens before us.
The question thrust with primitive
bluntness upon these statesmen is
whether, when this war madness shall
subside, there may be left enough able
bodied men to carry on the business
of the nations.
What are the losses so far?
In the opinion of the best judges,
the total losses in killed. wounded and
missing, on all sides up to May l.
including all the fighting areas from
South Africa to the Hebrides, wa
more than 100000 men.
OF these, more than 100000 had
been killed. France alone mourns
100000 of her sons slain on the bat
tie line.
More than 100000! This is at the
rate of about 1900 a month in
killed.
If the war shall continue until the
end of the year, as the cooler proph-
.ets generally agree it will, and the
present rate of slaughter shall con-
tinue, the death lists by that time will
amount to about 100000.
Probably 100000 others will have
been so crippled or disabled they will
henceforth have little or no part in
productive industry.
1t is not only amputated limbs.
Thousands will have been blinded and
tens of thousands rendered insane.
We may believe then that in round
numbers by January /, 1916, 2,2O0,00O
viii have been blotted by death or
disabling from the productive forces
of Europe.
And | take here no account Of those
that will escape with unnamed bod
les, but with wrecked and ruined
nerves. This IS another terrible toll
that no one speak. of now, but scarce
ly a man comes back from the night
mare of these hellish trenches with.
out the mark of them The deafen-
ing din of thunders incessant, the hor-
ror, the shock of conflict, the hard
ships and the drag upon the nerves