Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1917-08-21
More Sinister Propaganda.

With America on the eve of sending the pick
of her young manhood to the European battle
line 1t is regrettably evident that certain SIMS
ter influences are at work throughout the country
spreading a subtle but sure propaganda on the
horrors of war" The result is that uncon-
sciously the ignorant mind absorbs the idea that
a ticket to the trenches is ticket to the other
world.
Nothing could be more untrue, and at this
time when mothers and fathers of the nation are
giving up their dearest for the sake of the land
and the flag they love and serve nothing could
be more dastardly wicked, cruel and traitorous.
War is a horrible thing, but sometimes-and this
is of the times-war is not only a necessary
thing, but a noble thing And while there is no
gainsaying the horrors of war" America owes
it to herself to inform her people on the facts of
this war which in respects has the lowest
comparative mortality rate of any great war IT.
history.
Figures show this, and figures do not lie.
Daily corrections come from the belligerent ma
lions reducing the rate Of losses. Four times as
many physicians have been reported killed
have been sent to the front, yet the work of saw
ing the wounded goes as before. similar
correction proves that more French soldiers
have died of tuberculosis since the began than
were victim to the disease in civil life before the
Now comes the semi-oncial report of Mr..
Tardieu the French High Commissioner to this
country, to add another chain to the link of un-
questionable facts. The actual losses of France,
according to Mr. Tardeu, in killed and missing
and prisoners for the six months ending December
81, 1916, were scarcely more than 1.25 per cent
of her enlisted This period covers some of
the greatest and bloodiest battles of the war,
for instance, the terrific attack the Somme.
Such facts as these, facts which cannot be mis-
taken, prove undeniaby that this has brought
a death rate not equal to, but lower than, the
greatest conflicts in history. Americas Civil war
becomes a shambles beside it, for while the num-
bers engaged in the European war are by many
times larger than the numbers fighting for the
north and the south, the fatalities much less
in proportion.
Again, the position of the life insurance COM
panies in regard to this war is further proof Of
the comparatively simmer chances of death it
brings. According to recent article by Mrs. Mary
Roberts Rinehart, one large company after pains
taking study of the figures, agreed to insure the
entire national army at an increase of five per
cent which means that this concern figured
only one death out of every twenty-five men en-
gagged. Life insurance companies not in the
business for their health They must live and
prosper as any other money-making institution
And when a life insurance company is willing to
back bet that only man out of twenty-five
will die, a soldier of America may we'll figure him
self as one of the twenty-four who survive.
Mrs Rinehart quotes other figures. AS this:
Canada, one of the greatest losers in man-poWer
has in three years given only seven out of every
hundred of her And further, that England
is sending back to the trenches ninety per cent OF
the wounded, while the percentage of deaths from
disease at the front is LESS THAN NORMAL.
This surprising fact is attributed by the experts
to the healthy open-air life which the men lead.
In the face of such fear-routing figures, can we
not afford to view war as it is-not minimizing its
horrors nor indulging in false hopes and dreams
but certainly not exaggerating its fatalities to the
point where we go, give own, with the dread
certainty of no return?