Cottonwood chronicle. [volume] (Cottonwood, Idaho) 1917-current, 1918-07-26
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 $175,ooo,ooo a Day
Capital Cut Down.
BY FREDERIC J. HAsKIN.

Washington, d. C.-The figures re-
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 for
each year Of the whole number mo-
billzed.
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
STA 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-
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 5,25O,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 vastly more
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,OO0 a day. 1t was
predicted Europe could not stand 1t
for six months. Now, well along In
the fourth year, the cost Is nearly
$175,0OO,000 a day and there are no
signs of a financial breakdown.
1t has become increasingly evident
that lack of "money" will never make
any nation surrender. AS long as suf-
flcient economic resources actually ex-
lSt in Ghe 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 depreci-
ated German mark, but toward what
Germany has left in men and food and
steel.
Its Future Mortgaged.
This is because a nation can mort
gage its future like a man who enters
a 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
$90,000 100000. The total cost has ex-
ceeded this figure by at least $15,0O0,-
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 q nation is no weaker finan-
cially for having borrowed $40, 100000
600 than If it had never borrowed
cent. Such enormous loans will prob
ably effect a redistribution of wealth,
for the interest charges will be met
by taxation, and provision made for
a sinking fund in the same way. By
redistributing this taxation wisely and
eQuitably, the end of the period that
the Liberty bonds have to run may
well see a more efficient balance of
wealth than the present.
AS in reckoning war strength, the
basic realities of the problem are eco
nomlc rather than financial. Such
part of the great war loans as is In
vested in convertible factories, in
increase of food production and SINH
| ESuI dSSClSI, SuhAOl NC AC6dA NCA 10
lost. On the other hand, the dollars
that are spent for shells which ex-
plode and ships that sink are lost in
fact.
Worlds Capital Cut Down.
Moreover, the cost in dollars is no
measure of the real economic cost of
the war, because It takes no account
of the enormous destruction of prop
erty that has taken place. This rep
resents a cutting into the capital of
the world. The sinking of millions of
tons of shipping, the destruction of
cities, the ravaging of farm lands, the
deterioration of industrial equipment
in the last three years, are only few
of the items that must be charged to
this account. One huge item Is the
labor of 100000 men who have been
taken completely from productive Oc-
cupatiOns- Even reckoning their value