Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1920-06-26
Counting the Cost Of the
Greatest of Wars.

"A NUMBERING the sands of the seashore
N or-sounting the stars of the sky
could be little more difficult one
would think, than reckoning the cost OF the
World War, with its tremendous tolls upon
every province of economic and human con-
Germs. At last, however, are coming est1-
mates comprehensive and authentic, notably
those in Professor Bogart's mastery work on
the subject, recently published by the Car
negie Endowment for International Peace
The total cost of the conflict, according to
this authority, is three hundredl and thirty
seven billion nine hundred and eighty mil
lion five hundred and seventy-nine thousand
dollars sum gigantic is beyond
imagination's grasp. Only by taking an item
of it here and there for comparison with
lesser and familiar peaks can we conceive in
any wise what this stupendous mountain of
war costs means.
Consider, then, that its American quota
alone-twenty-two billion six hundred and
twenty-five million two hundred and fifty
two thousand dollars-is' nearly twenty times
our pre-war debt and almost enough to
have paid the entire expenses of the United
States Government from 1871 to the outbreak
of the World struggle From the moment
our nation entered down to April, 1919, its
expenditure averaged a million dollars an
hour, land was sufficient to have carried on
the Revolutionary War for thousand years
at the rate of disbursements during that con-
flict.' To this, add upwards of forty-four
billion for Great Britain, approximately
thirty-six and half billion for France TWEEN
>ty-two and half billion for Russia, more
than forty billion for Germany and so on
through the belligerent list. The aggregate
grows beyond conception.
These expenditures, however, represent
only the direct costs of the war; costs, that
is to say, chargeable to the prosecution Of
hostilities. Almost equally as great is the
indirect cost, in which Professor Bogart as
TOD Sv CIR nludn
nomic losses resulting from deaths attribute
BILE directly or indirectly to the war, the
value Of property damaged or destroyed, the
loss in production growing out of the trans
fer Of men from civil to military pursuits,
expenditures for war relief work, the toll up
ON neutral nations, and the like" Most dis
tressful and tragic among these indirect costs
is that of human life. Such losses, Of course,
are not assessable in monetary terms; but
taking from four Thousand to two thousand
dollars as the social value Of each of the,
war victims, which aSsuredly is moderate
basis, the total estimate exceeds sixty-seven
billion dollars, divided about evenly between
soldiers and civilians. Touching this poign-
ant item, Current History says
"Official and semi-offcial reports of
both main and minor beligerents prove
that 9,998,771 men of all nations made
the supreme sacrifice. The death toll of
all the wars fought during the preced-
ing one hundred and twenty-five years,
UcSluuluS WITH CHGA NdpOleOnlC war OF
1880 and ending with the Balkan war of
1912-13, was only about ene-half as
great. The percentage of dead estimated
by various statistfcians from the prison
Or missing list of the World War
would bring the tragic figure up\ to 49,
990,570. Before one can recover from
the shock occasioned by so many deaths
among the very Nflower of the worlds
manhood, one learns that to the deaths
of soldiers must be added ten million
more Cat the lowest) to cover fatalities
among civilians, directly or Indirectly at
tributable to the war. Famine and cold
took hundreds of thousands of civilian
lives; Spanish influenza, attributed d.
rectly to the war, caused six million
deaths. More than four million Arme-
mans, Syrians, Jews and Greeks were
msssacred while the war ragged One
third of the civilian population of Poland
was wiped OUT two million Russian non
:combatants persisted; Rumanian deaths
numbered eight hundred thousand; Ger
many lost eight hundred thousand
civilians; Austria and Serbia nearly one
million"
AS for property losses, conservative esti-
mates give seven billion dollars to Belgium
ten billion to France, about three billion to
Italy, two billion to Serbia Albania and
Montenegro, and from one to two million
dollars to eight other countries. Ocean ship
ping losses amounted to little less than
seven billion dollars. Losses in production
caused by the diversion of some twenty mil
lion men from basic industries, appropriated
forty-f1ve billion dollars.
To what end were. these countless treas
ures and this priceless blood poured out? For
what good will nations be paying interest on
war debts for half century? Wherein will
come compensation for the sacrifice of
wealth and power which, had it been
mustered ! to kindly tasks, would have
made the world apother Eden? An
swer is not yet to be given. AS
suredly it were worth all the sacrifice if
the freedom and right which miltaristic Ger
many threatened are indeed vindi-
Gated, and, the peace which she trampled
down is made secure. But what if the good
Hest fruits of victory are lost for want OF
wise and friendly co-working in the seasons
ahead? What if those four years of terrible
combat, which we trusted were war against
war, prove to have been but seed-times for
bloodier harvests? By some plan or other
the liberty-loving, righteous-minded nations
of the earth must act together for the pres
ervation of peace and justice, or those bill
lions of wealth and millions of lives will
have been spent in vain. -.,.z....l a..