The Wrangell sentinel., 1920-02-26

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 burst of glory. Others there were who fell In their tracks-exhaustion. 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. It is esti- mated that 20,00O.0OO 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. Is there any wonder that Europe has 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 is now totaling. The figures are appalling. They stagger her imagina- tion. It Is easy to write them, im- possible to understand their full mean ing. The mind can't grasp 1t; the world Is bewildered by the number. It is too stupendous, too horrible for un- derstanding. Think of 1t, seven and a 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 a,half million wound ed.
 Who can measure this loss?
 War brought death. It 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 19.5, the lowest on record. Mall lett calculated that the birth rate had fallen 12 per cent in England and Wales by 1916.
 The Journal of Heredity quotes Say. orgnan as having estimated that 1t will take England at least ten years, Ger many 12 years. Italy 3S years and France 36 years to recuperate their populations. These calculations by Savorgnan 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-Soissons dis trict, had population of thousand people before the war. Its losses have been tabulated. Twenty-slx 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 a thousand.
 The figures I have quoted from the calculations of Savorgnan and Mallett were made before the war was finished. Since the war, estimates have been made, and these estimates show the situation to be even worse. In France I was told that 57 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 70 years to recover her normal population.
 It is said that 1t will take Italy 50 years and England 25 years to regain normality of population.
 The human waste of the war Is more than sad memories. The loss of man power makes a grave problem. It has thrown out of balance the domestic scheme of the world. It will be felt for years. There are great many more young women than men. Home life is bound to suffer. There will be fewer marriages, fewer children. Sta tistics only tell part of the story.
 Copyright. 1920. Western Newspaper Union)