Direct and Indirect Costs of the Great World War

ISBN: 9781330691007 出版年：2016 页码：347 Ernest Ludlow Bogart Forgotten Books

A few years ago pamphleteers and men in public life were declaring that there could not be another great war because of the tremendous costs that would be involved. Saner students of history pointed out that cost was relative and that no nation had ever been prevented from going into war from fear of the expense. The judgment of the latter has been vindicated by recent history. The war that has just come to an end shows that anticipated costs, however great, are not a preventive. A recital of the tremendous costs of the great war can not therefore be regarded as worth while if the purpose of the recital is to warn against further wars. Nevertheless, it is well that the world should know as fully as possible the monetary and other costs of its bloody debauch. The recital will serve as a cautionary signal, if not as a preventive, for the future. For this reason it seemed well to the officers of the Endowment that an attempt should be made to gather together in one volume at least the more obvious costs of the great war. Professor E. L. Bogart was entrusted with the task. His first study, in accordance with the wishes of the Endowment was a short presentation. The demand for his work was so great that a new edition was called for and Professor Bogart took the opportunity to go into the matter more exhaustively. The present presentation is therefore virtually a new work much enlarged and improved not only in a physical but in a scholarly sense. Professor Bogart's book shows the handiwork of a scholar and yet presents the subject in a way that will interest the general reader.It would be platitudinous for the editor to comment upon the facts presented or to summarize the gruesome story. The figures of direct expenditures have no significance to the human mind. They are too great to grasp. Still more is this true when we consider the total costs, direct and indirect, even when we attempt to reduce them to an estimate of dollars.