The citizen. [volume] (Berea, Ky.) 1899-1958, 1918-12-26
THE TRAGEDY OF THE TWEEN
TIETH CENTURY
Professor lie Want Dodge
1. The Magnitude of the Recent War

TUT llldiy buintS, butlt dIt VII
ferent standards of measurement.
For some, the criterion is height; for
others, length; for others, length
and width combined, that is, area;
for others, the solid content, deter
mined by length, breadth and thick
ness. In these days, most material
things exposed for sale are measured
| by their weight.
In like manner, immaterial things
have their different standards Of de-
termination. The importance Of a
war may be gagged by its duration,
number Of troops, nations or in
habitants concerned, the number OF
people slain. the expenditure OF
money and the destruction of proper
ty, or the gravity Of interests invlov-
ed. In point of time, the recen.
war has been comparatively short.
The entire period covered was four
years and nearly three and one-half
months. Many wars have covered a
much longer time. Students of his
tory read of the Thirty Years War
in Europe AT one time, there was
almost continual war between Eng
land and France for a full century.
Certainly no war has ever had
So many troops under arms at a
single time, as had the recent one,
and perhaps no other so many dur
ing its entire continuance. This
number is sometimes stated as be-
ing fully forty millions.
As to the number Of combatants,
counting states rather than men.
the answer is not quite so easy. In
earlier times, mankind were divided
into vast number Of tribes, osten-
sibly independent. When a great
war has occurred, doubtless a larger
number of Independent people or
! tribes has been sometimes concerned
/ i'm il than Of the larger nations OF
the present; but no doubt vastly
larger number Of human beings have
belonged to the hostile nations OF
the last four years than has been
the case in any previous conflict.
And yet this has not been, as some
times popularity styled, a world war.
Nearly all Of the fighting has been
in Europe, the smallest territory OF
the grand divisions of the world.
And six of the sovereign powers o!
Europe have remained neutral to
the end. But for the first time in
history, perhaps, an absolute ma
iority of the worlds inhabitants
have had some part in the war.
Our recent war can probably show
the greatest absolute slaughter OF
history, though not the greatest as
compared with the inhabitants OF
the world, or the size of the con-
tending armies. Some wars have
resulted in almost complete eX-
termination of a defeated nation
women and children not being
spared. Terrible as some of the
scenes of this war have been, they
are more than matched by some OF
the occurrences of ancient times, and
even during what we style the
Middle Ages.
If the expense of this war be meas
ured by money, of course 1T sur
passes all previous ones, but If TIM
expense be compared with the avail
able resources of the nations involv-
ed or with the wealth of the world
il is far behind some others. The
same may be said of the wantOn, OF
other, destruction of property. II
must be admitted that statements
relative 10 this point, as to the ones
preceding, must be largely the re-
suit of conjecture. Definite infor-
nation is so lacking, and the as
sertions of different people SO con-
flicting, that we cannot yet speak
with deflniteness. The loss of life
may never be known, and certainly
is far from being known now. Some
have placed il as high as ten mil
lions, though this is probably an
exaggeration.
Coming now to the final standard
suggested, namely: the Importance
of the interests involved, our way
is clearer. All the continents Of the
world are in some way connected
with the struggle. We speak of the
war of 1864 to 1865, in the United
States, as being perhaps the mos,
important one ever waged. Ger
tainly momentous interests were at
stake, and il is presumable that, IN
some way, the interests of all man
kind were affected by the result.
But in that case nearly all peoples
outside the United States might look
upon our struggle with comparative
indifference, having little care as
TO the outcome. But people of fair
Intelligence in all lands are able