Shoshone journal. [volume] (Shoshone, Idaho) 1884-1931, 1917-04-06

little above $500, 0OO, 100000. A care
full estimate of the cost of the wa
down to the beginning of the sprlnI
campaign is $4,000, 100000.
In other words, almost exactly one
third of the total wealth of the United
States. by far the richest country II
the world, has been swallowed in thu
voracious nav of the. war monster. =
AS a matter of fact, this does no
nearly represent the total cost OF the
war to the world Aside from the ex
penditures of Great Britain the de
Tendencies representing the outlying
empire have all incurred tremendous
costs by their part In the war. The
United States added more than one
half to its annual expenditures for the
fiscal year 1867, chiefly by reason
of the war. All over The world coun
tries have been increasing their ex-
penditures in order to carry their part
of the burden which the war has laid
upon the world, while the greater part
Of them have been suffering and are
more or less impoverished because OF
the dislocation of economic processes.
And there is yet, by common con-
sent in all probability at least another
year of war ahead If the struggle
| continues to the spring of 1913 its
cost to belligerents and neutrals Will
| by that time probably be estimated as
high as s1O0,OOO,OOO,OOO
Appalling Human Losses.
Along with this loss of substance
goes a frightful loss of human re-
sources; millions of the best man
hood of the most highly developed and
| productive countries.
1t is impossible to realize the mean
ing of the. figures which attempt to
suggest what the war is costing.
Statesmen of Great Britain, France
and Germany have recently been warn
ing their peoples that after peace Is
declared the war basis of expenditures
will have to go on for yet long
time.
It will be impossible Immediately to
demobilize the armies and return them
TO the business of production. The res
toration of something like normal con-
ditions will probably require, in the
view Of those authorities, as long
time as the length of the war itself.
Of course as the process of demobiliza-
ton goes on and conditions are re-
stored more and more toward the nor
NAL the extraordinary expenses will
be In progressively diminishing vol
ume.
The wisest men, the ones in posses
sion of the fullest information on
which to base judgment, shy at every
attempt to lead them into discussion of
the situation which the European
world will have to cope with after the
war.
Bonar Laws Reinsurance.
Bonar Law, chancellor of the Brit
ish exchequer and a cool-headed man
of affairs, who has no disposition what
ever to fall into panic, has repeatedly
admitted that England's rate of ex-
penditure could by no means be car
ried on indefinitely, though he has al
ways coupled this with the reassur-
ing insistence that Britain and her al
lies could stand the strain longer than
their enemies, and that therefore they
were bound to win.
At no former time In the worlds
history was war so much a question
of economic power as now. The one
Unsuitable and really worth while par
allel which history presents TO the
present struggle is of course found in
the wars of the French revolutionary
and Napoleonic periods.
Bonar Law has assured the British
nation that In the opinion of himself
and his colleagues in the government
the empire will as easily bear the bur
dens of the war as it did those i'm I
posed by the Napoleonic struggles. In |
deed, the example which was fur
nished by the Napoleonic struggles, of 4
how great nations absorbed over pc ]
Rod of years the tremendous losses /
caused in such struggle, is the one /
thing which furnishes reinsurance (
and encouragement TO European 1
statesmen as they contemplate the bur
den which they are piling up for the
future to bear.
England as Debt Reducer.
After the Napoleonic wars England
pretty steadily reduced from year to
year the principal Of its debt, and by
successive reorganizations was able
also greatly to reduce the rate of in
.erest. The marvellous increase of
wealth. the expansion Of commerce,
he great development of the mercan-
lie marine, the profitable opportuni
les for foreign investment that were
lfforded by the development all over
he world not only Of British colonies
,ut Of Independent countries provided
Britain with the opportunity to re-
labilitate itself.
But the experience Of France follow
ng the Napoleonic era was different
rance did not possess a great over
cas- empire whose development gave +
opportunities for great profit. Mel
her did France become great
Industrial country during the err