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The Commoner
12
TOE. 15, NO. 9
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ONE YEAK OF WAR HAS COST THE BELLIGERENTS AN INCRED
IBLE SUM
From the Philadelphia Public Ledger
, Ono year, of war has cost the leading belligerents in direct mon
etary outlay more than all the great wars of the period since Napoleon.
Counting all elements of loss, the year's struggle, it is estimated, has
cost the nations at war, exclusive of Belgium, Turkey, Japan and the
Balkan countries involved, the following sums:
FRANCE
Direct cost , $2,767,000,000
Loss of national income 3,125,000,000
Destruction of property 800,000,000
Capitalized value of loss of human life 1,740,000,000
Total $8,432,000,000.
RUSSIA
Direct cost $3,000,000,000
Indiroct cost, loss of trade, destruction in Poland 2,500,000,000
Capitalized value of human life lost 1,500,000,000
Total $7,000,000,000
BRITISH EMPIRE
Direct cost . ......; '. $3,540,000,000
Separation allowances ....".... 1,500,000,000
Loss of production , 1,000,000,000
Loss of income as the. world's bankers . ....'.' 250,000,000
T.tal , $6,290,000,000
GERMANY
Direct cost $4,690,000,000
Loss on agricultural production .' 1,090,000,000
Loss of interests on investments abroad . . 125,000,000
Loss of earnings on shipping power, etc. . . . 150,000,000
Lobs of earnings German banking and business abroad 50,000,000
CapitalLed loss of human life . 4,395,000,000
Total " '.$13,875,000,000
AUSTRIA-HUNGARY
Direct cost $2,810,000,000
Capitalized value of loss of human life 1,200,000,000
Loss of production 3,000,000,000
Destruction of property 500,000,000
Total $7,510,000,000
Staggering Increase in Army and
Navy Appropriations
(Extract from remarks of Hon.
Clydo H. Tavenner, of Illinois, in the
House of Representatives, February
15, 1915.)
The increase in the cost of our
army and navy in the last 20 years
is enough to stagger the imagina
tion and bewilder the senses. The
cost of our army i 1 navy is greater
in proportion to its size than that of
any other nation on earth. The in
crease in cost iii absolutely abnormal
when considered in proportion to the
Increase in our population, or the in
crease in wealth, or when considered
with the increased cost of prepara
tion for war in other countries in
time of peace. In this connection it
is legitimate to ask to what extent
the awful increase in cost is due to
the systematic agitating of the pos
sibility of war by those who profit
financially from the ever-increasing
expenditures of the military branches
of our government.
In the last 30 years our popula
tion has increased 85 per cent, our
weaUh 185 per cent, and our ex
penditures 400 per cent.
During the 15 years prior to the
Spanish-American war our annual
appropriations for the navy ranged
from $14,000,00 to $30,000,0.00,
and for the army less than $25,000,
00Q, averaging for both less than
$50,000,000.
In 1883 our appropriation for the
navy was $i4,yu3,5by; in lauu, ap
proximately $20,000,000'; in 1914,
$14 ),00Q,000! Our appropriations
for the army and navy combined for
; the ensuing year will be in the neigh
borhood of $240,000,000.
During the year 1912 our entire
revenue, not including postal re
ceipts, amounted to $702,000,000. Of
this we expended $645,000,000 to de-
count of wars is more than three and
one-half times that of hers.
How the Cost of Our Navy is Soaring
1883 $14,903,659
1893 23,543,267
1894 22,104,061
1898 . 33,003,234
1899 56,098,783
1900 48,099,969
1903 78,856,363
1908 98,958,507
1909 122,66,485
1910 136,935,199
1911 ;..131,410,568
1912 126,405,509
1913 123,151,538
1914 140,718,434
fray the entire expense of the gov
ernment; $444,000,000, or 67.88 per
cent, was paid out for war and on
account of war. Just before the out
break of the present European war
Germany was spending 55 per cent
of her revenues for war and on ac
count of war; Japan, 45 per cent;
Great Britain, 37 per cent; and
i -ranee, 3D per cent.
Our army contained 91,416 men;
navy, 62,757 men. German army,
during the year indicated, contained
870,000 men; navy, 66,783 men.
Japan: Army, 250,000 men; navy,
51,054 men, with a reserve -naval
force of 114,000 men. Great Britain: hnany exists, and its sympathizers
Army, 254,500 men; navy, 137,500
meu; ivrance: Army, 720,000 men:
navy, 60,621 men.
Great Britain's revenue was great
er than our by nearly $300,000,000,
but our expenses for war and on ac
count of war was more than $100,
000,000 greater than hers. Yet the
aggregate of her army and navy was
nearly four times .as great as ours.
Germany's revenue exceeded ours
by $60,000,000, but our expendi
tures for war and on account of wars
exceecieu ners by more than $50,000,
000, yet her army is more than eight
times as large as ours.
The revenue of Franco is more
than $233,000,000 greater than ours
but our expenses for war and on ac
count or wars is nearly $150,000,000
more than hers, notwithstanding her
army is eight times as large as ours
and her navy excels ours by 10,000
men.
Although our revenue is nearly
two and one-half times that of Japan
yet her army is nearly three times
as large as ours with a naval force
NO ULTIMATUM IN DIPLOMACY
When Mr. Bryan became secretary
of state he said a very wise thing in
answer to a question from Japan:
"There is no final word among
friends." This sentence holds the
substance of American diplomacy.
We issue no ultimatum. An ultimat
um is a confession of lack of re
sources. It denies all choice save to
yield or to resist. It is addressed to
enemies, not friends. This nation
has no enemy-nations. It wishes to
create none. It is "the land where
hatred dies."
The ultimatum is a dangerous in
strument because it can never rep
resent the nation from which it
comes. It may be written by a single
person, approved or mutilated by a
few others; and there is no limit to
its degree of possible insolence. It
is, in fact, the weapon of the con
spirator, not of the nation. The pres
ident, in his two notes on the Lusi
tania affair, has clearly expressed the
thought of most of the American
people. What will be Germany's re
sponse? Is there any way in which
Germany can, respond? It matters
little to us what the military,, group
who wrote the first answer may say.
They may be defiant, scornful, eva
sive, playing for time all this of
secondary importance. What will be
Germany's answer? She has em
powered no one to speak.
There are two Germanys: the
military Germany with which our re
public can have nothing in common;
and law-abiding Germany, temporar
ily submerged, with which we shall
bind ourselves in close sympathy
whenever the time shall come for us
to meet. The facts that have shocked
the law-abiding world have brought
distress to civil Germany as well
the fear that the nation has com
mitted the unpardonable sin. For
the .present, the military group is in
the lead, and in war time the masses
follow like sheep; but the other Ger-
are
high in the councils of the emneror.
The answer t j the president's first
note is the work of the military
group. With it we can reach no un
derstanding, for we meet on no com
mon ground.
It is toward the co-operation and
sympathy of civil Germany that our
diplomacy should reach.. The hope of
Europe is that civil authority, which
means law, should triumph over the
anarchy of force. To this end it is
viuuiy necessary that t.hn cira-n
people should take charge of their
own nation. The Tirpitz-Falkenhayn-Reventlow
type of anti-statesmen
must at last be sent to the rear, even
5 he S in EnSlanfl were sent
after the Boer war. War will not
dispose of themlaw must be the
function of democratic control
Men of like purpose can meet on
equal terms. Mutual, respect, mu
tual aid and mutual understanding
yield terms of lasting peace. g
ofTE 'fc?? Ionse
-.,, uui ih me same
5 teJir'
w0 u,o witu u, imvai xorce of friondahln wiri T "wwbbhj
nearly four times the sizo nt mi x. rinasn.1.? with the German tin.
yet our expenses for war and on ac- ctf-onerataT , f ther ?ationB; to
co operate as far as may bo with the
law-abiding elements in all, We mnv
disregard the P.hJnnnn... ttU' w may
macy. War at the worst is a 1
porary spasm friendship shouTd
Vt A?d We sllould wmemb r
friends "eTn S? flnal Wrd aaS
mends. In the present juncturo
these is nothin-r an imnm.fo.,7 7. "re
world as this: The republic of aVm!
. muot iciuum iaw-aDidlng.- David
Starr Jordan, Richmond Va.
BRYAN'S COMMONER
For a man who travoin an .
and talks so much Mr. Bryan does a
vusl amount or work with his pen or
typewriter, and it would seem that
his productive capacity is inexhaust
ible. He is constantly making speech
es and giving out interviews, but his
paper is always filled with hc u.
ings, and It must be said that it con
tains a vast amount of valuable in
formation good, not only for present-day
enlightenment, but for fu
ture reference. Since niiaiuHnir md
publication from a weekly to a month
ly ne nas increased its size, and the
last number contains thirty-two well
filled pages, covering almost every
question of public interest, and es
pecially with reference to our nation
al government. Whether we agree
with Mr. Bryan or not, his indefatig
able labor presents the country with
facts and figures that it nnnwi nnf
otherwise obtain without infinite trou
ble. Mr. Bryan is strenuously op
posed to the jingo policy that would
have us plunge into war with Mexico
and Germany without more ado. He
wants his country to keep out of the
war, and to figure on the conse
quences before drawing the sword.
The advocates of peace may not he
as spectacular and attractive as the
swaggering and swashbuckling advo
cates of war, but they are better
friends to their country and to hu
manity, and they are giving President
Wilson greater and more serviceable
assistance. Memphis (Tenn.) News
Scimitar, August 26.
THE TARIFF BOGY
In this last fiscal year our pur
chases of foreign goods were smaller
by $200,000,000 than in the year be
fore, and at the end of the period
commodity prices in the United
States, as reflected by Bradstreet's
index number, were the highest ever
known. But in spite of that the
country, .our protectionist friends
tell us, is being mysteriously ruined
by the pauper labor of Europe.
The aforesaid labor is getting
killed and maimed to an extent that
appalls the world. The factories in
which it was employed are increas
ingly disorganized by war. The cap
ital behind it is being shot away at
the rate of tens of millions of dollars
a day. But those things were mere
broken reeds to lean upon, unless we
are further fortified against Eu
ropean competition by a very high
tariff.
You might sink Europe in the sea
tomorrow, and your true high Pr0"
tectionist would still go about pale
and trembling unless he had in his
pocket the rabbit's foot of high du
ties to fend off the specter of pauper
labor. A Europe with both arms in
a sling and not a leg to stand on
would still frighten him into goose
flesh unless he had the tariff horse
shoe over his door. Saturday Even
ing Post.
THE DIFFERENCE
- A whole' lot of men roast Bryan
because he delivers lectures at ?"
each, but it's a safe bet that not one
of his critics would decline to taw
the job at that price. Birmingham
Age-Herald.
One of the hardest things In tlij
world for a failure to understand w
the success of others Philaaeipm
Record. .."'..
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