The Pensacola journal. (Pensacola, Fla.) 1898-1985, 1915-07-03
The Toll That
War Demands.


There is nothing In the world so
costly as war. It's debt must be paid
in many ways, in the honor Of women
and the lives Of men, in the hunger
of little children and the tears OF
mothers, in the heart-break Of brides
and the anguish Of widows. But these
are not all the toll that war exacts.
It must be paid for by the taxation of
those who go out to battle, offering
their all on the altar Of their coun-
try and having given all either leave
behind them their loved ones to
struggle on under burdens Of debt,
or returning, find these burdens rest
ing heavily or the shoulders that
have already borne more than human
life should bear.
War is not all trumpeting and
charging, facing the enemies guns
under country's flag, It is not epito-
nized in brave silent watches in the
trenches, by long marches, worn and
weary, by battles on the high seas or
sentry duty under the lights Of war.
These are a part Of war, terrible
part but only small part.
The other side Of the shield has
no picture Of glory, no pageantry, no
pomp. It is picture Of weary women
and Of children hanpered from their
birth for lack of sustenance; it is a
picture of motherhood crushed and
broken with the cares of womanhoodr
cold and menacing, a womanhood
burdened and unlovely, thrusting
suddenly aside the pleasuance of girl
hood. 1t is a picture of broken homes
of fathers mourning their sons, of
mothers uncontrolled, of wives bereft
But is is more than this.
It is a nation in travail.
War does not only leave behind il
trail of desolation. It leaves be.
hind it also a trail of restitution.
The Journal of Commerce says:
If German paper money is ever
now looked at askance in neutra
countries, it may, before the war il
over, be discredited altogether. Hence
it is difficult to resist the conclusion
that nothing short of sweeping ant
heavy taxation can insure Germany
solvency. The world has aleady for
gotten, but the German taxpayer ha
not, that before the war a special lev,
was imposed for the purpose of ia
cilitating the execution of the nev
army law. This was graduate,
tax, both on property and income, an,
it fell heavily on the owners of BIZ
fortunes and on the richer incorporat
ed companies.
The necessity for heavier taxation
is the more to be dreaded in German
because of the collapse of her for
eign trade. For while the manufac
turer is earning very much less,
is being called upon to pay yer
much more. All OF which tends t
support the conclusion that howeve
little the experience of the war ma
predispose the German people to ecor
omize on ornaments, the economi
exhaustion which Will attend the clos
of the war viii render such polio
inevitable. There is every evidenc
that Great Britain and France wi
find it equally necessary to retrenc
on their naval and military expend
lures. The former country is alread
compelled TO pay an income tax ecu,
to II IL per cent, and estimates al
being INDUCED in of what would |
the yield Of tax Of 21-2 per cent Z
the entire capital Of the nation. TT
tax on raw spirits of 81 per gallo
would be regarded here as extrav
gantly high and likely to be large
uncollectible. A beer duty of Sc D,
barrel and tea duty of 16c per pour
bring home to the hunblest of Bri
ish taxpayers the cost of war, an
together with a mass of other bu
dens, must, presumably, inspire the
not only with the desire for peac
but with a determination to nal
war impossible in future. The q
perience of this, and probably of a
other similar, war budget in t
United Kingdom, viii have a chaste
ing effect on the people who have
accept its imposts, besides conil
perilously near reaching the limit b
yond which taxation may not 90.
is probably in this limit that the a
vocates of reduced ornaments nj
find encouragement. That is to 50
for all the combatants, the war W
leave so burdensome legacy of de
and taxation as to exhaust the ]
sources of their respective countri
Ia meeting annual charges other tn