The Elbert County tribune., 1918-01-18
Figures Stupendous Beyond Pow
er of Human Mind to
Compass.
MOST OF THEM ARE KILLED
Big Price Being Paid for the Worlds
Future 3ecurity Money Cost
Nearly $175,ooo,ooo Day
Capital Cut Down.
BY FREDERIC J. HAsklN.

Correspondent of the Chicago News)
Washington, d. C.-The figures te-
lating 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 s.
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 tor
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
sin has suffered casualties dispropor-
tionately large because in the first
year of the war her troops were sent
to the front poorly supported by rrIil-
lery 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 5,25o,ooo Disabled.
In addition to the dead, the perma-
nently disabled total about 5,250,000
men. Thus the net loss in men
amounts to about 13,0O0,OOO. 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 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 $50 100000 day. 1t was
predicted Europe could not stand 1t
for six months. Now, well along in
the fourth year, the cost is nearly
SITS 100000 a 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-
ficient economic resources actually ex-
ist IL the shape of men and munitions,
food and beasts and iron and steel,
SO long can the nation in question con-
:inue to make war. In looking for a
Ge-cman breakdown the eye should
turn not toward the absurdly deprec-
atad German mark, but toward what
Germany has left In men and food and
steel.
Its Future Mortgaged.
tfhis is because a nation can mort
gage its future like man who enters
4 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
SOC. 1000, 100000. The total cost has ex-
ceeded this figure by at least S15.000.-
100000. the difference representing the
interest requirements.
1t is easy to see that IL 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 q nation is no weaker finan-
cially for having borrowed $20.0OO.OO0.-
900 than II 1t had never borrowed
cent Such enormous loans will prob
ably effect q redistribution of wealth
for the interest charges will be met
by taxation, and provision made for
D sinking fund in the same way. By