The Breckenridge news. (Cloverport, Ky.) 1876-1955, 1918-01-23
Figures Stupendous Beyond Pow"
er Of Human Mind to
Compass.
Big Price Being Paid for the Worlds
Future Security - Money Cost
Nearly $17s,ooo,ooo a Day
CAPITAL Cut Down.
BY FREDERIC J. HAsKIN.

washington, ID. 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, 1t 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-
hilized.
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-
tlonately 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 5,25OO00 Disabled.
In addition to the dead, the perma-
nently disabled total about 5,25000O
men. Thus the net loss in men
amounts to about 100000. There
have probably been about 100000
men less seriously wounded in such
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 $30,O0O,OO0 day. 1t was
predicted Europe could not stand 1t
for six months. Now, well along in
the fourth year, the cost is nearly
$1750C0,000 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-
lst in ehe 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 a
German breakdown the eye should
turn not toward the absurdly depreci-
lted German mark, but toward what
Germany has left in men and food and
steel.
Its Future Mortgaged.
This is because nation can mort
gage its future like man who enters
a shop with empty pockets and pays
for goods with signed notes pledging
the labor of his children. The worlds !
1ebt since the war has increased by |
500 900, 100000. The total cost has ex-
,ccded this figure by at least $15,O0O,-
100000, the difference representing the
AMOUNT levied in taxes In excess of 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 !
he end of the term also paid to resi-
Tents in the United States, the United
States as nation Is no weaker finan-
tally for having borrowed $4,000, OOO,-
700 than IL II had never borrowed
,ent. Such enormous loans will prob
IDLY effect a redistribution Of wealth,
or the interest charges will be met
" taxation, and provision made for
sinking fund In the same way. BY
this taxation wisely and
quitably, the end of the period that
he Liberty bonds have to run may
veil see more efficient balance of
wealth than the present.
AS in reckoning war strength, the
asic realities of the problem are eco
omic rather than financial. Such
art of the great war loans as is in
ested In convertible factories, In
lcrease Of food production and SINH
lr real assets, cannot be regarded as
)st. 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.
Moseover, the cost In dollars Is no
leasure of the real economic cost of
he war, because 1t takes no account
the enormous destruction Of prop
rty that has taken place. This rep
esents a cutting into the capital of :
he world. The sinking of millions of
ons of shipping, the destruction of
tiles, the ravaging of farm lands, the
eterioration of industrial equipment
4 HE last three years. are only few
: he items that must be charged to
his account. One huge item Is the ,
abor of 55.000,000 men who have been '
aken completely from productive &C. I