The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1919-01-24
(FNrom World Outlook ]

iFTOm World OutlOOk.l
 The world now faces the most stu penduous task of reconstruction that history has ever known.
 The deluge is over. The floods re- cede toward the German frontiers In the clearing sky there is promise that never again shall such a tempest of destruction visit the earth.
 What has the storm left behind? The following outline, statistical esti- mates for which were obtained from Bertrand M. Tipple of Rome, Andre Tardieu, General Commissioner for F'ranco-American War Affairs, and others, will help in making inventory of the damage done and appraistng the task of rebuilding.
 More than 25,0OO,O0O are dead or maimed The dead, and ma1med of Russia number 5,50O,0O Germany, 5,0OO.O00; Austria-Hungary 3,O0o,0COs France, 2,5OO, 900; England, 2,000, ,OO0; Serbia, 2,0OO,00 Italy, 100000 Ar menia, 1000, 900: Turkey, 1000, 900; Bel gium, S50,000; Rumania, 750,0O0; Bull garia, 300,O0O Unlisted countries bring the total well above 25, GOO. 600.
 It is as if one-quarter of the popu- lation of the United States had been wiped out. Twenty-Five mi1lionL Equal to the combined populations of New York, Boston, Chicago, Philadel- phia, St Louis, with twenty cities the size of Cleveland thrown in. Think of these cities with every citizen dead or incapacitated, every shop closed, every enterprise unnamed, every task left to be shouIdered by others. l Forgetting the human side of 1t. which is too terrible to think of, and 1 taking only the utilitarian point of view, Europe has lost @ twenty-five million n-man-power machine. Part of | it Is destroyed beyond help---that part represented by the dead. The part of the machine constituted of the ten million and more of crippled will re- sume work, but will never again come up to it's former speed and efficiency. 1 The strength of 2OO.O GOO arms and legs l is gone. That is in France alone. i But breaking the body does not break the spirit. Secretary Baker bound on q hospital bed a poor dad who had lost both arms and both legs. MT. Baker said in sympathy:
 'FlIv boy, you've had hard time at the --ont, haven't you?"
 'Oh. we'll" replied the lad, 'I can be thankful I've got my health and strength left, anyhow"
 'sYou can't beat that kind of a spirit.
 Seven thousand French soldiers have been permanently blinded by shrap- mel. The sight of 5000 British sol diers is gone. More than 5000 Italian soldiers will have to be led to their homes.
 The total Army of the Blind for all Europe certainly numbers 5000 and probably far exceeds that.
 | Theb urden of debt is enormous The per capita debt October, 191S) of the United States, s127: Italy. S555; England, sS47: Austria-Hunga1y s. 121; Germany. s1.23S; France, $1,512. Two hundred and forty thousand square miles of territory have been 1 badly ravished-equal to the area o1 four Englands, In addition, 326, ,O0O square miles have suffered lesser de- vastad don.
 f Les than one per cent. Of Germany has been devastated, ten per cent. ot Turkey proper, ten per cent. of Rus sia- nine to twelve per cent. of Italy twelve per cent. Of Austria-Hungary twenty per cent. of France, twenty five per cent. of Rumania, ffty-eight 1 per cent of Serbia and ninety-six pei cent. of Belgium.
 | In vast areas of France the soil has
 been torn up by shells to depth O IS feet and Is utterly useless. The
 French engineer. Louis Cheviflion, re ports that throughout great tracts l nothing can be done but to plant pint trees and wait a hundred years.
 Three hundred and fifty thousand French homes have been demolished 1 To build them again, not including the furnisl g, will require a force O
 100000 working for 20 years.