The daily star-mirror. (Moscow, Idaho) 1911-1939, 1918-01-21
Figures Stupendous Beyond Pow
er of Human Mind to
Compass.
MOST OF THEM ARE KILLED
Big Price Being Paid for the Worlds
Future Security - Money Cost
Nearly $4,000. 900 a Day
Capital Cut Down.
BY FREDERIC J. HAskIN.

1at1nG to the cost OF this war are stu
pendous beyond the power Of the hui
man mind to compass.
The number Of men killed in battle
has been between 100000 and g.
100000. Offsetting the number of
deaths which would have occurred In
times Of peace, it is safe to set the
war loss at more than 100000 men.
This is about one man In twenty for
each year Of the whole number mo-
bilized.
The figures are large, but they are
based on the greatest armies the world
has ever seen. Moreover, the death
rate has been falling steadily through
out the war, as methods more econom-
ical Of human life are adopted and
hospital efficiency Increases. The
well-prepared nations lose least. Rus
sia has suffered casualties dispropor-
tionately large because In the first
year of the war her troops were sent
to the front poorly supported by artil-
iery and sometimes literally unarmed.
On the western front the French losses
were heaviest for the first two years,
but as England takes over the bulk of
the fighting her casualties increase
and those of France fall off.
Total of 5,25O00O Disabled.
In addition to the dead, the perma-
nently disabled total about 5,250,OOO
men. Thus the net loss in men
amounts to about 100000. There
have probably been about 100000
men less seriously wounded in such a
way that they have either been re-
turned to the front or able to pursue
some useful occupation in civil life.
Some realization Of the meaning Of
these totals may be cleaned from the
reflection that the dead and the total
ly disabled equal more than half the
able-bodied men in the United States.
The money cost is a vastly more
confusing problem. The total is be-
yond all comparison with any nation
al debts, loans or expenditures Of the
past. At the beginning of the war
the cost of $3O,OOO,OOO day. It was
predicted Europe could not stand it
for six months. Now, well along In
the fourth year, the cost is nearly
$175, 100000 day and there are no
signs of financial breakdown.
1t has become increasingly evident
that lack Of money" will never make
any nation surrender. AS long as suf-
6cient economic resources actually ex-
fst in the shape Of men and munitions,
food and beasts and iron and steel,
SO long can the nation in question con-
tinue to make war. In looking for
German breakdown the eye should
turn not toward the absurdly deprecf-
ated German mark, but toward what
Germany has left in men and food and
steel.
It's Future Mortgaged.
This is because a nation can mort
gage it's future like a man who enters
q shop with empty pockets and pays |
for goods with signed notes pledging |
the labor of his children. The worlds |
debt since the war has increased by
800, OO0,0O0,000. The total cost has ex-
ceeded this figure by at least $15OOO,-
100000, the difference representing the
amount levied in taxes in excess Of the
interest requirements.
1t is easy to see that if all the inter-
est is paid to people living in the
United States, and the principal at
the end of the term also paid to resi-
dents in the United States, the United
States as a nation is no weaker finan-
cially for having borrowed $2O,OOO,OOO,-
900 than if it had never borrowed a
cent. Such enormous loans will prob
ably effect redistribution Of wealth,
for the interest charges will be met
by taxation, and provision made for
a sinking fund in the same way. BY,
this taxation wisely and
aquitably, the end of the period that
the Liberty bonds have to run may
we'll see a more efficient balance of
wealth than the present.
AS in reckoning war strength, the
)asic realities of the problem are eco
ionic rather than financial. Such
part of the great war loans as is in
rested in convertible factories, in
Increase of food production and SINH
ar real assets, cannot be regarded as
osts, On the other hand, the dollars
hat are spent for shells which ex-
,lode and ships that sink are lost in
act. :
Worlds Capital Cut Down. /
Moreover, the cost in dollars is no I
MEASURE of the real economic cost of j
he war, because it takes no account
f the enormous destruction of prop /
rty that has taken place. This rep
esents cutting into the capital of j
he world. The sinking of millions of 9
ons of shipping, the destruction of j
tiles, the ravaging of farm lands, the !
deterioration of industrial equipment T
a the last three years, are only few {
f the items that must be charged to T
his account One huge item is the Z
abor of 100000 men who have been +
aken completely from productive oc- i
upations Even reckoning their value Z
} industry at the moderate sum OF 81