Disquisition by Scripps, E.W., The cost of the war (real and relative), October 30, 1914

              -THE COST OF THE fAR
and ...... - ... --0-----
maxiBmm figores present European war f indioate an : expenditure mora $55,000.000.00 a day. -rhesl eost w~es f~hting m.n, and guns,
oamps The statistioian, Beaulieu, figures" more of the war last seven anO. aggregate namely, huee, Belgi., and Japan- will $10,000,000,000.00.
no-C-ount aetual oities
~ount are lost by
oIIo..r
ratner an~ount . ,r...
oldemoralization organizations;organismsJof trade h VI at menoall, war, oe
the largest oost-,ist",oredi t; .. destruotion so on upordoWD. list .. 37 t) l
,- WAR
(Real Relative)
~ .... --O-----
The maxilmm. figares that I have seen, relative to the cost
of the war. an:of not more than
55,000,000.00 day_ '.t'hese figures represent, however, only the actual
cost of wages paid to fighting men, food and clothing supplied the sol­diers,
transportation, such materials of war as ammunition, and the uaial equipment of camps and battle-fields.
famous statistician, Leroy Beaulieu., gives figures, not
than one-half aboTe. Beaulieu estimates that the will
lasts.ven months,anA that its ~.gat. cost to all the nations invol­ved-
nantely, Germany, ballot, Russia, England, Austria, Servia, Monte­negro,
Balgi_, "ill amount to In the above figures, no~ount is taken of the actual des­truction
of such property as houses, and other buildings of the cities
and country, the farm..s and farm improvements, and merchant and war
vessels. Neither is taken of those vast sums that aralost o!\",reason of the many millions of men being employed in ,destructive warfare,
ratber than in productive industry. Nor is taken of the cost
'. If..
ofd.moralization of the organizations)or organismsJoftrad. and mannfao-
. C ~ ture. Of course not the least consideration is given here ." wLlat com-mercial
men oall, credit.
It would seem to me that, in reckoning the cost of war , one
should invert the above column of items. Perhaps thelarglst single item
of cost-·is.c:.>the destruction of credit; next, perhaps, would follow ~ the
destruction of trade and manufacture; and soon up or down the list.-
376
Ohio University Libraries, E.W. Scripps Papers, MSS 117, Series 4, http://bit.ly/scripps_mss117