The Evening Missourian. [volume] (Columbia, Mo.) 1917-1920, 1917-12-30
THE COST OF THE WAR

The greatest war in human history
has entered well upon its fourth year
Its cost has grown to such gigantic
amounts that the average imagination
cannot grasp the significance OF the
figures. Already more than a hun
dred thousand million dollars have
been spent and five thousand million
dollars are spent each month that 1t
continues. Taken as whole, the war
is costing four times as much now
as when it started. Early in 1914,
it would have been said that the
cost of such a war would drain the
worlds financial resources before six
months had passed. and compel a
stop. Even after the war started,
the idea was held that nations could
not continue to pile up the appalling
mountain of debt or stand the
enormous burden Of expenses that
war entailed. 1t was thought that
the waste of s25, 100000 to s5O,OO0,O0O
a day in addition to thousand Of lives,
meant chaos If continued for long.
And now that the war is in its
fourth year, chaos seems less immi-
nent than at the outset of the war;
the credit of all the belligerents is
stable enough to permit them to go
on borrowing freely. Nations before
have fought ON even after their credit
ostensibly was exhausted, when they
were bankrupt. This was true of the
German States in the Thirty Years
War, of our own South in the Civil
War and of the Thirteen Colonies in
the Revolution. But the scale of the
present war would seem to preclude a
possible extension beyond the line of
real financial exhaustion. The cost is
too great, the consequences would be
too severe.
The monetary costs in the present
war are not the only ones. There Is
the check to the forward progress of
civilization. War batters down what
centuries of peace have built and de-
veloped. Industry has been crippled
through the withdrawal of millions
of men. Thus the ordinary progress
of civilization has been brought to
standstill and new wealth does not
exist that would have been created
if the millions engaged directly or in
directly in warfare had continued in
their peace pursuits.
Greatest of all we reckon the
human cost. 1t is impossible to
compute accurately the human lives
that have been sacrificed since the
beginning of the war. The Teutonic
Allies and the Entente Allies have
had approximately 53,OO0,00 men en-
gagged in the war, of whom possibly
a fourth can be said to have been
killed or injured since the outbreak
of the war. The actual death rate
indicated by the mortality records of
the war is not more than As per 1000
per annum. Thus the loss in life
has been about one in twenty-five
each year. Estimated figures for the
losses are neither accurate nor satis-
factory but they at least give some
annnonffnv nf destruction nf
life. For the first three years Of the
war England is estimated to have lost
307.500 men; France, 1,2S2,50O; Rus
sia, 2,25O.000; Italy, $4,000; Belgium,
$4,000; Serbia, 165,O0O; Rumania,
100000; making total for the Allies
of 1887 900. Germany is estimated to
have lost 1872, 500 men; Austria-H Hun
gary. 1,077.000; Turkey, 225,00O; Bull
garia, 37,500, making a total of g.
$4,000. The totals of permanently
wounded men for the first three years
of the war are estimated to be for
the Entente Allies, 3,1S3,000, and for
the Teutonic Allies, 5,119,OO0.
The monetary cost of the war is
now more than s140,000,00O a day.
For the first three years Of the war,
the total cost was s97,450, ,000, 900.
There is no present sign of an ending
Of the war such as would permit a
definite and satisfactory calculation
of the military cost. Only the imag-
ination can conceive what further
heights the figures will reach. The
war resolves itself more and more
into an economic struggle Costs
continue to grow. embattled nations
go on borrowing to pay these costs,
and the figures Of debt rise steadily
beyond those which formerly were
familiar. Should the war progress
to August /, 1918. its direct military
cost will have been as follows, basing
estimates on the present rate Of ex-
penditure, wnjch is augmented over
the past by the active entrance OF the