The Sauk Centre herald., 1930-11-27
AMERICANSSTILL
PAYING WAR COST
18th Anniversary Of Peace
Found $4,000 Veterans in
Hospitals
MANY CASES TREATED
Conflict Cost American Gov
ernment $37,573,96O,OOO
400 Ships in Rivers

private car on railroad siding and
signed peace terms which brought
the World war to an end and re-
LEASED nearly 100000 Americans
from muddy trenches.
When Marshal Ferdinand Foch
and Herr Erzberger agreed on ar
mistice terms in the early morning
of November II, 1918, they stopped
the wars actual slaughter, but to-
day, II years later, the monetary,
physical and spiritual tolls of the
conflict still were being exacted.
The twelfth anniversary of the
armistice finds Americans still pay
ing war costs which to now have
totalled nearly $4,000, 100000. More
than $4,000 former soldiers still
are in government hospitals. Hun
dreds Of ships built to carry war;
time commerce float idly in rivers
and bays.
On the credit side of the ledger
the United States has the nucleus
of an army which can be filed in
without much delay to afford q
fighting force of 100000 men in a
national emergency. And unliqui-
dated assets resulting from the war
are valued at $23, 400, 600.
Meanwhile, our outstanding war
heroes khose names were emblaz-
oned have taken up the pursuits of
civil life and are doing their bit,
to revert to wartime expression,
in which diverse occupations as
commercial aviation and superin-
tending hospitals. Some Of them,
however, are still in the army.
When the allies heard that a
German commission, headed by
Herr ErZberger, was enroute to
seek a stay in hostiIities, recep-
ton was arranged for it. Marshal
Foch with Admiral Sir Rosslyn
Wemves as his naval associate, set
out for Compiege.
Their private train was set on a
siding in the gloomy forest of
Laigue near the village of Reth-
ondes. There, on the morning of
November 9, the delegates were re-
ceived.
Foch and Erzberger fenced ver-
bally for some time, until finally
the French commander-in-chief de-
manded:
DO you ask for an armistice."
Eyes, said the German.
Foch then read the conditions
on which an armistice would be
granted. When he had concluded,
the German pondered, apparently
stunned by the magnitude of the
decision before him.
A courier was dispatched to Spa
to present the armistice terms to
high German officials. Meanwhile,
the German delegates pleaded with
Foch to modify the demands he
had presented. These negotiations
were cut short when at 9 p. m. on
the night of November 10, a radio
gram arrived from the German
chancellor. He accepted the allied
terms.
Thus a war which had virtually
wrecked Europe, had taken millions
of lives and had cost the world
hundreds of billions of dollars was
brought to an end. Official peace
terms were not concluded between
the United States and Germany,
however, until July 1921. We did
not sign the Treaty of Versailles
which brought peace to the rest OF
Europe.
Effects of the war were measur-
ed here today by prosaic govern
ment records, which reveal little of
the intense drama behind them. Up
to June 80, 1880 the war and its
effects had cost the American peo-
pie $37, 1873, 100000. This includes
actual war costs, interest on the
public debt, veterans hospitaliza-
ton and compensation, and scores
Of smaller items which result, dir
ectly or indirectly, from the con-
fiict
At the end of the last fiscal year,
June 80, some $4,000 cases had
received treatment in veterans hos
pitals. This represented only 4S2-
600 individuals, however, as many
of them were admitted several
times. Even today there are $4,000
veterans in the so institutions
maintained for them.
When the United States faced
the necessity of moving an unpre-
cedented wartime commerce with
an insignificant merchant marine,
the Emergency Fleet corporation
summoned the nations shipbuild-
ing resources and got together
$500 vessels. Some of these were
requisitioned, some confiscated
from the enemy, but more than
1000 were built.
During postwar years a constant
effort has been made to liquidate
this wartime asset. For some years
thousands of these ships lay idle
having no buyer. Then the United
States Shipping board began for
nation of lines and sought, by low
prices and long-term offers, to sti-
mulate buying.
Today 400 ships remain Of the
$500 assembled in war days. OF
these, something less than 200 are
in operation by the shipping board.
The others lie at rest in the Mis-
sissippi, the James and other riv-
ers.