23. COSTS OF THE WORLD WAR.— War costs are of two lcinds— direct and in direct Direct costs embrace all expenditures made by belligerents in carrying. on hostilities; indirect costs mclude the economic losses result ing from deaths attributable directly or in directly to the war, the value of property dam aged or destroyed, the loss in production .grow ing out of the transfer of men from civil to military pursuits, expenditures for war relief worlthethe costs of the war to neutral nations and t like. The direct costs of the European War, based on the most reliable statistics, were $186,333,637,097; the indirect costs have been estimated at $151,646,942,560, making the total war bin $337,980,579,657.* It has been possible to appraise the direct costs fairly accurately. Of necessity the indirect costs can only be estimated for there is no unit of measurement by which they may be definitely fixed; no method where by they may be reduced to a dollar rind cents basis. Even in trying to determine the direct costs of the conflict one encounters many ob stacles. Some of the countries whidt declared war participated therein so slightly. that they have not seen fit to segregate their war ex penditures from their general expenditures, Again, the figures given mit by certain of the principal belligerents lack definitenesf, and a tendency to exaggerate has been mani fested in some of the statements. Furthermore, some of the big powers made expenditures which, for military reasons, have not been dis closed or with reference to which misleading information was given out Nevertheless, the total of $186,333,637,097, mentioned above, is believed to be very nearly correct The esti mates of some statisticians, however, are high.er. One authority has estimated that the seven major belligerents alone spent $.194,000,000,000. An other, Edirar Crammond, in an address before the Institute of Bankers in London on 26 March 1919 asserted that the total direct costs of the war amounted to $210,175,00g000. Secretary of War, Newton D. Baker, has placed them at $197,000,000,000.
But notwithstanding all of these figures pur porting to show how much money was spent to carry on the ANar, the fact is that it Wa, fought mainly on credit, for the gold coin avail able at the outbreak of hostilities was not suffici ent to have kept it going for more than 40 or 50 days. During the first three years of the
war the average daily cost was $123,000,000. In 1918 it rose to $224,000,000. As will be shown by. the following table, the amount of gold com available in July 1914 was but slightly in excess of four and three-quarter billion dollars, or only a little over one-fiftieth of the sum that WaS spent for war purposes during the slightly more than four years of fighting.
These are but approximate figures. It is probable that the gold supply was considerably in excess of the total as shown above. In Great Britain, for example, there is supposed to have been about $615,000,000 in gold coin in excess of the reserve in the issue department of the Bank of England. France's supply, like wise, appears to have been much greater than the table indicates. It is probable also that Ger many had more gold at the outbreak of the war than she is credited la ith. Still, the war bill is so great as to malce the fact apparent that had the naticrns been required to conduct the fighting on a cash basis it would have lasted but a very short time. In order, therefore, to tarty on the conflict for the more than four years it lasted, all of the belligerents had to resort to the issuance of notes, paper money and promises to pay. Considerable sums were raised for war purposes in some of the coun tries by taxation, but it has been estimated that almost nine-tenths of the money expended was raised by loans, that is, by the sale of goy, ernment notes, bonds and other evidences of debt upon which, in certain cases, interest will have to be paid for more than 50 years.
Taking into consideration•only net expendi tures (determined by deducting from gross ex penditures all advances to Allies) Germany's war bill, exclusive of any indetnnities she may be required to Pay, exceeded that of any other belligerent. England's bill was the next largest France's was tlurd; that of the United Staten, fourth; Russia's, fifth; Austria-Hungary'a, sixth; and Italy's, seventh. These countries spent a combined total of $172,000,000,000, which when deducted from $186,000,000,000, the net costs qf the war to all countries, leaves $14,000, 000,000 to represent the combined expenditures of the minor belligerents. Below will be shown the war expenditures of each of the countriea taking part therein.