Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1915-03-10
ON ACCOUNT OF WAR

TNHERE are so many debts to wars ac-
i count, not only the obvious items of homes
destroyed and cities burned and women raw
ished and men killed, but so many more subtle
consequences which appear for reckoning
only gradually that it is never possible to
balance the account books with any accuracy.
The scare headline stage of this war is
temporarily over, and our incredulous sur
prise has given way to sad and disillusioned
acceptance. Having satisfied our curiosity
with copious descriptions, the minds and
imaginatons of writers and editors have now
turned to the more analytical phases of war
fare, such as the actual and ultimate cost
of war. There is an effective and striking
contrast of antipodal points of view on this
question in two of the March magazines. Is
an irreparable loss to civilization, or does
it provide its own compensations which suf-
flee to balance the debit account?
The optimistic position that war has its
grim advantages is cleverly presented in an
article by T. H. Price in Worlds Work a.:
Aside from the loss of human life, the real
economic waste of war is represented by the
powder and projectiles used, the buildings
wrecked, the crops ruined and the horses
killed or rendered useless. Most of the money
that is spent in war Is for what may be called
overhead expenses-the wages of men unpro-
ductively employed, the movement and feed
ing OF troops, uniforms, artillery, guns, aero
planes and warships. The cost of all these
things. being disbursed through one agency,
the Government, bulks large in the public
eye; but is 1t, in the aggregate much greater
than the total expenditure made through
myriad agencies in time of peace for mper-
manent and unproductive things? In
economic sense, is the purchase and main
tenance of an expensive automobile any less
wasteful than the purchase and maintenance
of artillery gun carriage, provided the
cannon is not used to destroy life or prop
erty? Is a military uniform less productive
investment than a dress suit? Is the move
ment of troops en- masse more wasteful OF
wealth than the annual hegira of the work.
ing millions of this country for their summer
holiday?
The chief difference is that in wartime
the people pay the expenses through taxa
tion and deny themselves many pleasurable
luXuries for which they would pay directly
out of their own purses If there were no war.
There are statistics on the subject avail
able, but the reports that come from Europe
indicate that economy is now universal,
The estimated cost of the war for six
months is six billion dollars. The population
OF Europe is 450,OO0,O00. If the average ex-
pendture for unnecessary and unproductive
things has been reduced SIS per capita, the
costs of the war have been paid by saving.
On the Debit Side
Mr. Price seems bit arbitrary i'm his valu-
alton of human life, generally admitted to be
a considerable factor in the cost of war, when
he dismsses it with the phrase, aside from
the cost OF human me- Herbert ItOrWilli an
English journalist takes il more seriously in
his article in the Atlantic Monthly (2), which
is really based on an acceptatIon of the
spiritual values of mems lives and potentlali-
ties as being on par with more material
items, such as horsepower and explosives
consumed in battle.
Even when satisticans have completed
their estimates of wars products and by-
products, their figures win come far short
OF an adequate account OF the toll levied by
the war upon the civilization OF our own and
following generations.
A single instance will suggest considera-
tions that can find no place in any statistical
table. Prof Paul lEhrlieh-international IA
nous as the discoverer OF salyarsan-gives
much Of the credit for that discovery 10 a
colleague, Doctor Bertheim, the greatest re-
cent authority on organic arsenic compounds
Doctor Bertheim VI one of the first German
soldiers slain in the1resent war. 1t is not ex-
travagant 70 say that the bullet, or shrapneI
or bayonet that killed Bertheim killed also
an unknown number OF future sufferers OF
all nattonalities whose lives might have been
saved by the discoveries he would have made
An infantry ofacer at the front has de-
seribed In a letter home the effect Of the
shells from the big German guns, which more
than once buried whole sections OF men in
the earth of the parapets. Some Of themp
ha writes, took no harm, ana ne dug them
oat and used them again. Others died. being
torn 10 frasmertsH We dug them out ana