THE GOST OF WAR

Press, Volume LXXV, Issue 22894, 15 December 1939, Page 10

THE GOST OF WAR

[Published by arrangement with the "Christian.Science Monitor.”! The last war had still to be paid for when European countries embarked upon the present conflict; Debts are still owed the United States; the Allies still owe Britain; reparations from Germany to cover Allied war costs are still unpaid; and those countries which didn’t wipe out their domestic war debt by lepreciating their currency are still overweighted with the incubus. When the costs of war are mentioned, most people, unfortunately, think of account books. Men are 'pent, but leave no trace. Goods, on the contrary, though wasted or blown away, are “carried” somewhere, and as likely as not are left to plague future generations in the form of war debts. In the world war one economist tried to assess the money value of casualties. He is Professor E. L. Bogart. Quite rightly he said that the expenditure of lives and the deterioration of the race were among the most formidable and lasting elements in war costs.