THE United States is not a warlike nation. It is not a nation in which militarism rules, at least not to the extent that it dominates other countries. Americans may be, therefore, not a little surprised to know that the greater portion of the money raised by taxation is expended to pay for war preparations or for the results of previous wars. The accompanying diagram will help us to understand more clearly the relation which our military expenditures bear to the other national disbursements.
63 CENTS FOR WAR
3 CENTS FOR PANAMA
CANAL
5 CENTS FOR RIVERS
AND HARBORS
1½ CENTS FOR
INDIANS
4 CENTS FOR
AGRICULTURE
1 CENT FOR
CONGRESS
When, therefore, we pay a tax of one hundred dollars, sixty-three dollars of that money is eaten up by war, war preparations, and the results of war. Only one dollar of that one hundred is used for the support of the national Congress. Four dollars goes for agriculture, forestry, and fisheries; three dollars for the building of the Panama Canal; five dollars for the improvement of rivers and harbors; and one dollar and a half for the Indians. Is it not an anomaly that that thing which links us closest to barbarism absorbs much more than half of all we pay for taxes? And how must the proportion stand for such nations as Germany, France, England, and Russia. The most hopeless feature of the situation is that the ratio of military expenditure is increasing instead of decreasing; and yet education, enlightenment, science, international communication, and missionary operations have increased in this generation as in no other. We see in these facts a sure indication that the forces of evil and of good are preparing for the culmination of the age-long struggle. C. M. S.
