Cost Accounting for War

Secretary of War Weeks issued a formal statement contradicting figures and charts on war expense to this country which have been published by the National Council for the Prevention of War. The figures of the Council indicate that 85.8% of the Federal budget for 1924 will go for past and future wars. The Secretary declares that the correct figure for military expenditure is 13.5%. He went further, charging the Council with apparent " intent to deceive the public" and advising Americans to "examine into the character and patriotism of those who are promoting the pacifist campaign."

The disparity between the two sets of figures arises, of course, because the Council for the Prevention of War adds to its computations expenditures for the Veterans' Bureau and pensions and payments on the national debt, while Secretary Weeks will allow only actual military expenditures.

The Secretary, however, takes cognizance of this difference. Said he: " Including public debt payments in the classification of military expenditures . . . is in the same dishonest category as charging up to the army the civilian work which it is obliged to perform by acts of Congress. One may even question the propriety of including the cost of operations of the Pension Bureau and the Veterans' Bureau in the list of military expenditures. These prodigious costs are to a large extent the direct result of our unpreparedness.

"It is an important fact that the pacifists erect the figure of 85.8 as a means of propaganda only. When they come to urging their views on Congress they concentrate their entire effort on the purposes represented ) by the figure 13.5 for national defense."

Mr. Weeks appended to his statement statistics on the active armies of the world.

Active Soldiers:

Russia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 928,000

France . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 750,000

Japan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 275,000

Great Britain . . . . . . . . . . . 270,000

Italy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 250,000

United States . . . . . . . . . . .136,619

Germany . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .100,000

National wealth per active soldier:

United States . . . . . . . .$2,560,000

Great Britain . . . . . . . . . . . 245,000

France . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .133,000

Italy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120,000

Japan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90,000