OCR Text |
Show The War's Cost THE experts give the figures for the cost of the war in Europe for the first year at $45,739,-500,000. $45,739,-500,000. Our great Civil war cost the North one-fifteenth of that amount, and though since then our population has increased 300 per cent, and though the value of the products of field and mine have averaged $1,000,000,000 annually ever Bince, one-third one-third of that war debt still remains, upon which the people are paying interest. If any judgment can be formed from that, it Is that Europe is already hopelessly bankrupt; that the respective governments cannot maintain themselves and pay the interest on their debts. There is another item that must be included the pension roll. It is said that to meet the pensions pen-sions Germany will have to raise, for that purpose pur-pose alone, as much money annually as her entire en-tire annual revenue was before the war. There is no reason to suppose that the burden is any lighter on the other powers. If the war continues another year there will Ibe nothing to do except to sponge the debts off 'Jp'the board and begin anew. Even Great Britain is trying to borrow money on the outside, something she has never done before. be-fore. Under such circumstances, the only way the war can be much longer prolonged is through an appeal to the people to fight for national life and not to expect any reward. And still soldiers cannot fight without food and clothing and the winter is only a little way off. It looks as though the war would have to soon stop from utter exhaustion. |