The Cost of War by F. M. W.

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Washington, D. C. · Apr 13, 1911

The Cost of War

By F. M. W.

The many improvements which have been made in naval armament during the last few years have served to make of little value many war-ships which, in their time, were considered first-class fighting-machines. Twenty years ago the cruiser “Detroit” cost the United States government $1,233,039 to construct. It was sold recently for twenty thousand dollars. The experience of this government has been duplicated many times in the history of European powers, and every year has seen a number of war-ships sold, at a ridiculously low price, which a few years previously were considered a part of their best naval equipment.

According to the New York Times there are in the United States navy at the present time vessels costing in the aggregate between one hundred forty and one hundred fifty million dollars, which are either “in reserve,” dismantled in navy yards, or admittedly of no fighting value. Of the vessels that took part in the battle of Santiago in the recent Spanish-American war, not a single one is now in the Atlantic fleet. The “Texas” is a receiving-ship in Charleston, S. C., and has just lost her name, which will be given to a new dreadnaught recently contracted for. Other vessels making up the squadron at that time are doing similar service; while the “Iowa,” Captain Evans’s ship, is “in reserve.” Says the Times:—

Of all the armored vessels that took part in that battle, only the “New York” is in commission, after being rebuilt at a cost of over $500,000. Like the “Texas,” the “New York” of that day has lost her name, so that the name of the Empire State can grace one of the new dreadnaughts. She is now in the Philippines, and is to be renamed the “Manhattan.” Even the battle-ships of the Atlantic fleet, which sailed out of Hampton Roads in December, 1907, on the famous around-the-world cruise,—the “Alabama,” “Illinois,” “Maine,” “Missouri,” “Ohio,” “Kearsarge,” “Kentucky,” “Wisconsin,” and “New Jersey,”—have passed from the first fighting line. To-day all of them are listed “in reserve,” and their places in the fleet have been taken by newer and more powerful ships. Of all these vessels the “New Jersey” is probably the only one that will ever again figure as a part of the Atlantic fleet.

This but faintly illustrates the terrible cost of war, not alone in times of active engagement on the field, but in times of peace as well. The cost of keeping the world’s pace in the matter of war preparation is ruinously expensive. As human ingenuity invents more destructive means, and more effective models of fighting-machines, the feverish competition between the nations will continue. The end of it all will be the Armageddon of the last day. There will come a time when human nature will no longer stand the strain, when burdensome taxation will reach the limit, and when it will seem that active warfare is the only hope of escape from the intolerable burden of taxation and military service. Then will every peace truce be broken, and the nations will engage in the final deadly conflict which will mark the close of earth’s history. F. M. W.