The Oregon daily journal., March 15, 1908, Page 25, Image 25

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TJT TITH tKe advent, of the practica
wy ble flying machine, for which
' governmental departments of
war are letting contracts, the worlds most
expert advocates of war's cruel arbitrament
as well as the most ardent partisans of peace
find themselves confronting, in a new and
most impressive guise, the. momentous ques
tion which sprang into existence with the in
vention of the repeating rifle, and was be
lieved to be on the verge of final answer
with the introduction of melinite:
Is war at last on-the eve of ending
war? '..
' Over the face of the earth, upon the ,
bosom of the waters, amid the clouds and
beneath the seas throughout the whole,
wide domain of his world's elements man
has at length extended the "range of his
powers for destruction.
Does the prospect of a universal anni
hilation come so nearly home that nations
will realize the- futility of the sacrifices
which buy the huge and useless armaments
they maintain? Will the dream of the last
Peace Congress be the reality of the nextf, -
1N OTHEB words", must the very .terrors .of
modern warfare end all war!
Innumerable during the last few years
, have been the inventions of deadly devices
intended to Mil by wholesale., Every year, every
4 f.
if.
month, it seems, adds something startling to. the
list of terrifying explosives, submarine devices
and other methods of legalized murder.'
And as fast 'as. a new gun. of, hitherto un
known power, or an explosive more deadly than
has been dreamed of, is invented, along comes
a genius with a method of guaranteeing steel
plate still nearer the impenetrable mark, or some
other means of defense equally xsostly.
Startling, indeed, are recent inventions for
wholesale destruction in war. Were these alone
considered, one could readily fancy a speedy ar
rangement for universal peace. But nations are
etill preparing feverishly for . war that may
come, and it may be that the question of -cost
alone will soon become so important as to cause
general disarmament.
Observe the peoples of the populous earth
8enying themselves clothing ana food, the to
b&ooo of -men and the little luxuries of women,
in order that they may load the land with the '
heavy tread of their soldiery and theeas with
the burdens of their-battleships. :
Germany's 613,000 ' men tinder ' arms take .
more than '1,000,000-producers from the factory :,
and .'the -eld4t, the meawho follow." the .'-
PORTLAND,,: OREGON, SUNDAY HORNING, MARCH 15, 1908
aviiy:iiiodern x r -
DESTRUCTIVENESSW -v !
M; -VL,V -,-.-,,437
guidon; and next, the labor of the men who
must furnish the standing army's unproductive
idleness with food, drink, clothing and lethal
weapons the labor . of 400,000 ' men, at $500
per year, to pay the German army bill of $206,
000,000. Every battleship worth" $10,000,000 that
Great Britain launches to nullify Germany's in
vincible legions costs 2000 workmen's labor to
support a crew of fewer than 1000, with many
thousands of dollars more for maintenance, be
sides the value, $10,000,000, of the year's labor
of 20,000 ordinary men that constituted the
first investment.
Then try to realize the war burden -of all
the peoples of the earth. Consider thev4,622,510
soldiers now armed and ready for instant serv-'
ice, with Switzerland's 143,000 fighting force
omitted because, while they class among the best
and most . ready .fighting material in the world,
they are organized on a militia system and make
no drahrupon' their government in comparison
with the' useless standing armies yes, and with
300,000 men omitted who are to ' supplement the
.60,000, modern Chinese soldiers '.already, in the ',
ranks ,of. her reorganized standing army;
i
It costs, for one .year, $533,800,000
to maintain under arms the 1,405,000
fighting men of three leading nations
Ger ma ny, France and Great Britain.
The individual average is $380 a man
annually.
At the same individual cost and
it is not a high one the annual defi
nite expense of maintaining the
world's 4,622,510- fighting men in its
armies of destruction amounts to
$1,756,453,800.
To that sum must be added the
burden of the .United States, $138,
030,894.22, for pensions well deserved,
but needless if war had not existed.
But, more than everything else, it
costs the world of industry, by reason
of those four million and nlore pro
ducers withdrawn from usefulness, at
the rate of $500 a year for every sol
dier a conservative estimate the an
nual sum of $2,311,255,000.
And so the grand total of the
yearly expense of maintaining the
world's armies, calculated for the latest single
year, amounts to $4,205,839,694.22.
Consider the navies of the fighting nations,
with their lislts of war vessels: 170 first class
battleships, 109 second ' class battleships and
coast defense vessels, 127 first class cruisers, 83
second class cruisers, 164 third "class cruisers,
10 scout 6hips, 180 torpedo gunboats, 465 tor
pedo boat destroyers, 785 torpedo boats and 150
submarines.
That means a total present tonnage, of
4,311,345 tons, with 470,109 fighting men to
wield it. And it is far; from enough. When
the warships now building shall be ready to hurl
their fearful missiles across the waters, the
world's oceans will carry5,286,110 tons of fight
ing craft.
The four nations which now lead, in their
willingness to give up. the riches which their
energies wring from their resources in exchange
for ships they expect to throw-on their scrap '
heaps, are . Great Britain, the United States,
France and Germany.
With a total tonnage of 1,633,116, it costs
Great Britain $160,000,000 to maintain her enor
mous navy, It costs, the .United States, with its
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tonnage of 611,616, $104,000,000, if its main
tenance is to be in accord with the expert views
of the navy's secretary, however parsimonious
Congress may, feel about it.
France, her tonnage 609,079, spends $65,
000,000 a year; and Germany, with a tonnage
of 529,032, spends $68,000,000.
In all, thce four .nations, to carry a total
of 3,382,843 ship, tons,, expend $397,000,000 a
year, an averageof more .'than $117 a ton of
fighting craft. For thei total naval tonnage of
the world, if the average be assumed to prevail
generally, the direct' cost todayvis$504,427,365S'
and when the ships, are , afloat that are now on
the stocks when, the 411,345 .tons' of the pres
ent shall have risen to. the 5,286,110 tons of the
immediate future--the direct1 cost, at; the rata
of $117 a ton, will be $618,474,870.. -
But the men behind the. guns and the fire
men and the admirals ' ahct the pleasant little'
midshipmites all do nothing but make ready to
kill and destroy. :
Ittakes one of them, by computation, to
handle 9.171 tons of their floating arsenals; so,
where there are 470,109 of them now,' there will
be 576,394 in the very near future., v
At the labor value appraisement allotted the
soldiery, $500 . a year, the naval forces of tha
world are, by theirj inactivity, in. productive
forms of labor, causing the nations to lose $235,
054,500 a year; in the; future the loss upon tha
576,394 men required 'for " the navies roust
amount to $288,197,000.;: '
The total expenses of the world's .navies are.,
now $739,481,871, but they must soon amount to
$906,671,870, the -fall charges of the direct Jn-'
vestment in ships and l inen. plus, the immense'
indirect, yet no less certain, waste of human
productive values.; : .
The world's total war budget at present is
$4,945,321,565.22. I; The cost of preparation for
war planned 'for "the immediate future "is $5,-,
112.511,56452.:. " . ' '
Five billion" dollars," in. round numbers. Tha, .
workmgrproduive reapaci:oftl000,000 hale,
Btrong.'skilled men.' The supporting power of;
10,000,000 families; r.The energies of a nation of ;
50,000,000 people A, portion amounting to 31-3
per cenW of .the entire .human racet which U I
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