Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1919-04-21
THE VICTORY LOAN MEANS
A VICTORY FOR PEACE
Or Else the Great Price the World Has
Paid viii Have Been Spent
in Vain

| MUS appropriately, thc dTlNe LOT the
A'A Victory Loan beginning today is
taking on festal character.
Flags are flying, bands are playing,
men and women are marching and the
air is filled with shouting This is the
wind-up of the war financing and there
| is general disposition to be cheerful
about it, just as when the news of the
signing of the armistice reached Paris
the people marched the streets singing
that inspiring line from the "Marseil-
laise":
"The day of glory has con,e.'
But all the pageantry hides a great
horror which we must not allow our
selves to forget. What war is and what
war means was never before fully under
stood by civilized man. Nineteen ma
tions with more than twenty million men
in arms were arrayed against four nations
with approximately the same number of
fighting men. The whole commercial and
industrial strength of the nations in
Europe was used for maintaining the
armies in the field and for the produc-
tion of i'm plements of destruction. This
work was done so effectively that nearly
seven million men were killed during the
progress of the war and more than six
teen million were wounded and con-
siderable portion of the wounded were
permanently disabled And these killed
and injured were the young men, the
promise of the future, the potential hus-
bands of the daughters Of the race. Their
death dooms hundreds f thousands of
young women to a life of perpetual un-
married widowhood. 1t seriously affects
the ability of the race to make good the
losses from war and its effect upon social
and industrial conditions no man can es-
| innate.
This slaughter of the flower of the race
involves loss which it is impossible to
estimate in dollars and cents.
Yet the loss in money has been so
great as to astound those statisticians
who thought they knew the financial re-
sources of the world. 1t amounts to not
less than two hundred billion dollars,
sum so stupendous that the imagination
staggers before it. When the four and a
half billions of the Victory Loan have
been raised the United States will have
contributed about thirty billions of this
enormous total. 1t has come from the
rich and the poor and from all the groups
| between these extremes. One person in
every five of the total population has
contributed of his savings to the war
funds. And these people will have to
contribute for years to come in order to
provide the money for the payment of
the interest and the principal of war
debt which will amount to twenty bill
lions.
Great Britain has raised nearly forty
billions, France nearly thirty billions,
Russia nearly twenty billions, Italy ten
billions and little Serbia eight billions.
And Germany and Austria Hungary
have been compelled to raise at least
fifty billions between them, the burden of
which they must bear in their bitter
humiliation and defeat.
Let no man be so rash as to say on
this Monday after the anniversary of
the demonstration that the vital principle
of equity and justice, shot through with
the spirit of sacrifice, cannot be de-
stroyed, that what the civilized world has
won is not worth what it cost. No price
is too high to pay for liberty. No price
! is too great Tor tne destruction or the
theory that greed can triumph over the
rights of man or that selfishness can be
the inspiring motive of any great people.
We have paid the price and now it be-
hooves us to see to it that we get what
we have paid for.
A handful of finicky, quibbling men is
attacking the league -of-nations plan for
preventing war and guaranteeing peace
on the ground that it is not perfect.
"Now, if l were going to draft g
league of nations covenant" they say, 81
would do it thus and So"
And they forget that the men in Paris
who have been charged with the respon,
sibility of acting are just as able as they
and Just as anxious as they to prevent
future wars And they forget, too, thai
the men in Paris are forced to adjust q
score of conflicting interests and conflict
ing theories of the right way to apply
the principles of justice.
Compromise and concession is the rul,
of nature and the law of progress. Tn,
, Russian car who built railroad in al
air line from Moscow to st. Petersbur,
, disregarded all principles save the on,
} that straight line is the shortest dis
tance between two points, and as resul
/ A.