Evening star., 1938-03-05
GOVERNMENT KEY
TO ECONOMIC ILLS,
ECONOMIST AYERS
Coyle Offers Solution for
Situation Caused by
MeChanization.
HISTORIAN URGES WAR
Be KEPT ON TEXT BOOKS
Pupils Should Learn All Aspects
of Fighting, DR.. Engelbrecht
Tells Conference.

Only by strengthening the National
Government can the maladjustment
caused by "undigested science and in.
vention" be cured, the Conference on
the Conservation and Development Of
Human Resources was told this morn.
ing by David Cushman Coyle, WASH
ington economist.
The situation brought about by the
mechanization of industry and life,
he said, compared with the national
dlslntegration which threatened at
the time Of the adoption of the Con-
stitution, and which was prevented
only by setting up a much stronger
central government than was at first
intended.
Il believe" he said, that careful
investigation will show that to use our
Government boldly as an instrument
for promoting the ideal of a strong,
well-managed country with healthy,
well-educated, normal citizens will
lead shortly to the solution of our
pressing economic problems.
Histories Of War Urged.
whenever the American people
are ready to pay taxes to support
bold program Of upbuilding, their
present paralysis will disappear and
their activities will provide income to
pay for the progress itself.
War should not be eliminated from
school history textbooks but should
be re-emphasized with the stress laid
on its medical, economic and social
aspects, its repercussions on civilians
and its physical and mental weaken
ing OF nations, the conference was told
yesterday by Dr.. H. c. Engelbrecht,
military historian.
After presenting a vast array OF
statistics on these phases of war, DR..
Engelbrecht deplored the present
tendency to devote school history al
most entirely to the economic and
cultural development of nations. This
may leave in the minds of the pupils,
he said, the idea that war is of little
consequence. 1t should not be taught
as pageant of glory and adventure,
he said, but as it actually is.
Would Stress Human Loss.
Society seems to be trying to keep
war as a sacred national memory"
he declared. On the other hand, DR..
Engelbrecht insisted. the World War
should be pictured as a struggle that
cost, as officially estimated, 8,540000
lives, to say nothing of 100000
listed as missing" the fate Of most
of whom has remained unknown.
He deplored the tendency to con-
fuse war at present with wars OF
the past, in which at the most only
few thousands were engaged on
either side, and which took on some
of the aspects of real adventure.
Thus, he said, the 100000 men
credited to Xerxes in his invasion of
Greece boils down to no more than
$4,000 when subjected to historical
analysis. The Battle OF Hastings is
described in textbooks as being be-
tween 100000 English and 100000
Normans, whereas there we're actu-
ally about 1000 and 1000 engaged
on both sides.
Some Of the horrors Of the next
war, he said, may have lost their
force because they have been so ex-
aggerated in fantastic predictions. 1t
has been stated that air raids could
wipe out a city like London 1t can
be proved that they could not. and
hence they do not seem so horrible.
A recent calculation is that in one
night they could not possibly kill
more than $4,000 civilians-about the
total of Americans killed in the
World War.
Emphasizes Epidcmics.
He stressed the great epidemics
that almost invariably accompany
war in the civilian population, like
the influenza epidemic in Europe and
America during the World War and
the great cholera epidemic in Serbia,
which forced suspension Of fight-
ing for six months.
A curious aspect of war and mill
tary life in general described by DR..
Engelbrecht is the increase Of sui
cides. Even in peacetime the suicide
rate among American soldiers runs
about threefold that of the civilian
population. Studies made during the
World War indicated that fear or
war excitement has little to do with
it. An investigation Of Italian SOL
dier suicides showed that most of
them were for very trivial reasons
while the men were in no immediate
danger.
DR.. Engelbrecht cited statistics on
the rise of insanity among American
veterans of the World War from
49, 900 in 1929 to almost double that
number. with the prospect that there
will be at least 4l,000 cases by 1850,
although the numbers Of veterans
will be greatly reduced. A great deal
of the crime wave of the 20s, he
said, could be traced back to the
World War, to veterans with whom
the crime of killing had lost its seri-
BUSINESS and to boys brought up in
the war spirit Of playing with deadly
weapons.
DAMN %NA@Eor