526 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



established, the walls were demolished. In our own time the needs 

 of hygiene and luxury have urged the opening of broad ways in 

 the ancient European cities. It has been necessary to buy houses 

 and demolish them in order to create the grand modern avenues. 

 There would have been no walls in the middle ages except for the 

 spirit of conquest, and the broad streets would have been established 

 then, as has been done in the new cities of Russia and America. To 

 pierce these new avenues, Paris, for example, has had to contract 

 debts, the annual interest on which amounts to at least 50,000,000 or 

 60,000,000 francs ($10,000,000 to $12,000,000). This expense 

 should be charged to the account of the spirit of conquest. But nobody 

 has ever thought of attributing these 50,000,000 or 60,000,000 of the 

 city budget to military waste. And how many other cities are in 

 the same situation? Another example: during six centuries France 

 and England were trying to take provinces from one another. Hence 

 a permanent hostility existed between the two nations. Later on 

 the circumstances changed, but by virtue of the routine inherent in 

 the human mind the old resentments remained, though the motive 

 for them had gone. To thwart the progress of France was con- 

 sidered a patriotic duty by such English ministers as Lord Palmerston. 

 In 1855 M. de Lesseps formed a company to construct the Suez 

 Canal. As M. de Lesseps was a Frenchman, Lord Palmerston and 

 the British Cabinet thought themselves obligated to oppose his pro- 

 ject, and their opposition cost about 200,000,000 francs ($40,000,- 

 000). The canal might have been constructed then for that sum, 

 but in consequence of the machinations of the English it cost 

 400,000,000 francs ($80,000,000). Who has ever thought of charg- 

 ing that loss to the account of the spirit of conquest ? Nevertheless, 

 that is where it belongs.* 



The indirect losses of war defy valuation. But the matter may 

 be looked at from another point of view: that of the profits which 

 they prevent being made. The American war against secession cost 

 the treasury of both combatants $7,000,000,000. Now, if, with- 

 out speaking of the destruction of property, f we only consider 

 the benefits nonrealized, the most moderate estimates make them 



* We may refer here to another loss which has never been thought of till now. It was 

 long fancied that wealth could be acquired more rapidly by war than by work ; conse- 

 quently, conquest seeming to be the most rapid and therefore most efficacious way, was 

 honored, and labor, appearing to be a slower process, was despised. In our days a large 

 number of descendants of the knights of the middle ages retain the ideas of their ances- 

 tors and look upon labor as degrading. Hence thousands of aristocrats do nothing, but 

 remain social good-for-nothings, retarding the increase of wealth by their inactivity. 



f Sherman, in his march from Atlanta to Savannah alone, destroyed more than $400,- 

 000,000. The cotton famine occasioned by this war cost Great Britain a loss of $480,- 

 000,000. Who has ever thought of charging this against militarism ? 



