inch gun costs approximately a thousand dollars! Add to this direct
cost the indirect costs of war, not reckoned in the usual figures-the
loss of the time and work of the hundreds of thousands of able-bodied
men, the economic loss of their illness and death, the destruction
of buildings, bridges, railways, etc, the obstruction of commerce,
the paralysis of industry and agriculture, the ravages and looting
of armies, the maintenance of hospitals and nurses, and then, finally,
the money given in pensions.[Footnote: The recent Balkan war is reckoned
to have cost nearly half a million men killed or permanently disabled,
a billion and a half dollars of direct] Add further the cost of the
expenditure, besides many billions of indirect expense. The colossal
European war just beginning as these pages go to press bids fair to
cost immeasurably more aintenance of armies upon a peace-footing-the
feeding and clothing of the men, the building and maintenance of barracks
and forts, of battleships and torpedo boats, of guns and ammunition,
automobiles, aeroplanes, and the increasing list of expensive modern
military appurtenances. Europe spends nearly two billion dollars a year
in times of peace on its armies and navies-money enough to build four
or five Panama canals annually. The entire merchant marine of the world
is worth but three billion dollars. More than this, over four million
strong young men are kept under arms in Europe, a million more workers
are engaged in making ships, weapons, gunpowder, military stores. Over
a million horses are kept for army use. This money and these men, if
used in the true interests of humanity, could quickly provide adequate
and comfortable housing for every European, adequate schooling,
clothing, and food for every one. Here is the great criminal waste
of our times. In America our waste is less flagrant, but it is steadily
increasing. We throw away money enough in these fratricidal
preparations to cover the country with excellent roads in short order,
or give every child a high school education.