Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1921-04-07
The Crush of the War Cost

ceased, economists are stall calculating
the cost of the World War. That they
will ever reach a complete accounting is
not to be expected; even the material, much
more the human, losses from that vast con-
flict, the destruction Of creative power as
we'll as Of created wealth, are truly beyond
reckoning. Such figures and estimates as there
are, however, all go to reinforce the conten-
ton that war must be abolished, or clvll1-
cation will be bankrupt and swept away.
In Current History for April it Is comput-
ed on a conservative basis that the net
losses incurred by the United States, Great
Britain France, Italy, Belgium, China and
Japan, allowance being made fer credits, TO-
tai one hundred and thirty-nfne billion seven
hundred and two million two hundred and
sixty-nine thousand dollars The purely mill
itary cost to the United States, according to
the Secretary of the Treasury, amounted to
twenty-four billion ten million dollars, TO
which must be added two billion three hun
dred million for civilian damages, shipping
losses and pensions, four and half billion
as extraordinary expense In Government
functions, and several billion in credits to
the Shipping Board the Grain Corporation
and other depa tments. Account must be
taken also of nearly two billions OF credits py
American nationals to European nationals,
and Of approximately one and half billion
in contributions for relief work. The latter
be it readily granted, was one Of the glorles
rather than mere expenses Of the war; but
consider what SO great a sum could accom-
plish if used in advancing and upbulld1ng
mems welfare instead Of being consumed In
repairing their wreckage. All told, the cost
to the United States was forty-four billion
one hundred and seventy-three million nine
hundred and forty-eight thousand dollars.
The deductions from this aggregate include
nine billion seven hundred and SIX
ty million of Government loans to European
nations, and the value of the German ship
ping acquired by the United States-perhaps
some two and quarter billion.
The fact that the Allies have secured GER
tain territorial al1otments and expect certain
financial indemnities does not make up Tor
their own losses, much less for that sus-
tanned by civilization. The strain upon their
resources, the destruction Of their property,
the backset to their industrial and CONNER
cial life was far heavier and costlier than
in the case of America, bountifully produc-
tive as she was and untouched by war s
grimmer realities. We Of this exceedingly Tor
tunate land feel the burden of taxation
which need never have been, II organized
international means Of restraining and PEN
alizing lawlessness had existed in the fateful
summer of 1914 A burden it is that we shall
feel for years to come despite the country s
great natural vigor and prosperity, drain
upon wealth which might have gone to the
establishment of schools, the building OF
highways the reclamation Of swamps and
ment of humankind. We could not keep out
of that conflict; we can never keep out OF
a conflict there the basic principles of right
and freedom are challenged We must help
to prevent wars, we certainly shall help
to wage them, and continue paying the cost.
Only -ean fraction of that cost shows In
the figures cited One hundred and forty
s billion dollars, the approximate reckoning,
is so vast as utterly to BATTLE and benumb
the imagination; yet it leaves out OF &C
count such vital elements as the suffering,
the heart-break. the decentralization which
war ever spreads in it's blackened path. No
one of this generation will see the end or
the sorrow and the evil which fell like a
deluge from the little cloud that gathered at
Sarajevo to envelop Europe and the world.
The comfort, the light less Of heart, the re-
serve of strength which prevailed before are
gone. not to be recovered for decades, II at
ALL Can civilization Withstand another such
war. or a series of them? Can the producing
power of man sustain and repair such raw
ages if they are continued? It is extremely
doubtful. Reason, justice, good will and
progress, or brute force with an increasing
~ british. life-one or the other mankind
must choose.