The Elk Mountain pilot., 1920-02-05

ending darkness, q night without stars
or moon; sunless. black, hopeless days.
and these. too. young men in the very
morning of their day.
Others sentenced to silence-deaf
and dumb. Never again will she hear
their voices nor will they hear hers.
Still others insFheel chairs. dwarfed.
legless.
More hobbling on crutches. limpIng
on canes.
Some with empty sleeves.
Many with great scars. where once
was handsome face.
She sees them all. her heart bleeds;
the twisted, the mangled, the torn.
She is counting them, the 12.616,OlT.
the wounded Of the war.
Wars FrIshtfuI Cost.
Her voice il husky. her hands are
tired. but she must count on. Six and
a half million Of her sons were marked
"missing and prisoners" in the ofhcial
war score. Many Of these have come
back TO her, but she does not question
them-she dare not. Their faces tell
Of the unspeakable horrors they en-
dured. She sees in their eyes a depth
of pain that 10 unfathomable. She IL
q mother-she knows.
The war IL over, but she Is not over
the war. Must she never stop count
ipRf Is there no end to her lOssesf
The graveyards are crowded. Her
thoughts turn to the dead who, while
they did not die in the war. died be-
cause Of the war. Those who went out
in battle left life In a burst Of glorH
Others there were who fell In their
tracks-exhaustion.b broken hearts sent
them "west.", She has not forgotten
how the home flank suffered. The stay
at-homes were not all slackers. They
fought hunger and cold. bent their
backs beyond the straining point.
Worst of all. they waited. 1t IL esti-
mated that 100000 civilians died
from weakness. fatigue. strain, broken
hearts-the horror Of waiting de-
stroyed resistance. These were the
underfed older men and women. the
scared. undernourished children. ls
there any wonder that Europe has q
death look in her eyes? Death has
been her morning thought, 1t has been
her night sob. and for four years made
up Of months. weeks. days, hours.
minutes and seconds death has been
her Nemesis.
| She In now totaling. The figures are
appalling. They staEEer her imagina-
tion. 1t is easy to write them. i'm
possible to understand their full mean
ing. The mind can't grasp It; the
world is bewildered by the number. 1t
II too stupendous, too horrible for un-
derstanding. Think Of 1t, seven and
half million young men, for the most
part between the ages Of eighteen and
thirty, the youth, the strength. the
spirit. the man power Of Europe. dead
twenty million from civil life dead,
over twelve and q half million wound
ed.
Who can measure this lOss?.
War brought death. 1t did more
1t stopped birth. In the devastated re
gIons of Belgium. France. Italy, Po-
land, parts Of Russia and the Balkan
countries the birth rate fell to al
most nothing. In England and Wales
the birth rate in the last part Of 1915
| was 1875, the lowest on record. Nal
lett calculated that the birth rate had
fallen IL per cent in England and
Wales by 1915.
The Journal Of Heredity quotes Saw
orEnan as having estimated that 1t viii
take England at least ten years. Ger
many II years. Italy 50 years and
France SO years to recuperate their
populations. There calculations by
S.vorUnap were made before the fear
full losses Of the campaign Of 1918.
A village in France, Blerancourt.
tells what the war has done to the man
power OF Europe. This village. which
is In the Chateau Thierry-SOiseons dis
trict. had n population Of thousand
people before the war. Its losses have
been tabulated. Twenty-six soldiers
from this village were killed in the
war. Ninety-seven of the villagers
died from war privations. The total
Of 123 is the death toll of village
Of q thousand.
The figures have quoted from the
calculations Of SavOrxnan and Mallett
were made before the war wns finished.
Since the war, estimates have been
made, and these estimates show the
situation to be even worse. In France
1 was told that 81 per cent Of the men
between twenty and forty years were
listed as dead or incapacitated for
work. Further. that 1t would take
France over 20 years to recover her
normal population.
1t is said that 1t will take Italy 80
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