Popular Science Monthly 



399 



tendant cut off the current 

 as soon as the visitors 

 turned to leave the apart- 

 ment. 



I have described these 

 two exhibitions by which 

 the Teutonic rulers chose 

 to demonstrate their wealth 

 and power by way of show- 

 ing how standards change. 

 For more than a year now 

 a method of demonstrating 

 wealth and power has been 

 exhibited in continental Eu- 

 rope which makes the old 

 seem disgustingly cheap 

 and picayune. All the jew- 

 els and gold plate in the 

 palaces of Vienna and Ber- 

 lin taken together would not foot the 

 war bill for one day. 



While exact figures showing the cost 

 of the war will not be compiled until 

 after it has come to a close, yet estimates 

 have been made which show what a great 

 destroyer of wealth it is. The best esti- 

 mate is that up to January 1, not less 

 than forty billions of 

 dollars had been expend- 

 ed in direct prosecution 

 of warfare. This 

 incomprehensible 

 • sum aver- 



ages ^77,- 

 200,772 a day 



m 



I 



0,000,0 0,000 



;\^4l^/f O^NS OF GOLD 



Three men would be required to carry the gold used to 

 run the war for one minute 



since war began and does not take into 

 consideration the billions of dollars' 

 worth of property wiped out in the coun- 

 tries invaded and through the deaths of 

 millions of workers. For each minute of 

 the day, the nations at war are obliged 

 to pay out $53,611.64. Imagining this to 

 be in gold and put into bags having a 

 capacity of fifty pounds each, it would 

 require the services of probably three 

 soldiers to carry each minute's monetary 

 needs. And according to the best ob- 

 tainable statistics, the burden would be 

 fatal to two of the number, for at the 

 rate of fifty pounds to the man, it would 

 require an army of 2,218,500 men to 

 transport the forty billions in gold. This 

 number is about two-thirds the to- 

 tal estimated number of men killed 

 within the period covered by the 

 forty billions. Using the 

 best available data at the 

 time of writing, 

 it is costing 

 $12,100.68 

 gold to kill 



It would require fifteen trains of severity cars each and one of fifty-seven cars to carry the 

 gold spent in carrying on the war up to January 1, 1916 



