The Feilding Star. Published Daily. WEDNESDAY, APRIL 25, 1894. WHAT THE PEOPLE PAY.

Feilding Star, Volume XV, Issue 297, 25 April 1894, Page 2

The Feilding Star. Published Daily. WEDNESDAY, APRIL 25, 1894. WHAT THE PEOPLE PAY.

To show what .in enormous sum of money in the aggregate the industrial class in the nations of Europe have to pay for the maintenance of standing armies, Mr Charles Roberts, M.A., in the Economic Review published the following figures: — From 1860 to 1892 the standing armaments (peace effective) of nineteen European Stites rose from 2,195,000 to 3,340,000 men. In 1869 the total number of trained men ready at hand for the war purposes of twenty European States amounted to 6,953,000 men ; in 189*3 there were actually ready for service 12,564, 400. When the existing laws have had their full effect, there will be 22,621,800 men in Europe trained for war. Tho aggregate of the budgets for the armies and navies of Europe in 1869 amounted to £112,000,000 for nineteen States. In 1892 they amounted to a sum nearly double £198,000,000. Reckoning £40 a year earned by every man withdrawn from productive expenditure, we got another £129,600,---000. So the total yearly cost of European militarism is at least £328,500,000. In twenty months during peace there is spent as much, Mr Griffen reckons, as the ten months of the Franco - German war cost directly and indirectly. The national debts of Europe now amount to five thousand millions sterling. Accepting these calculations as correct, it is not a matter for surprise that the Governments of the several nations, whether autocratic, despotic, or representative, should be seriously con sidering the possibility of reducing this enormous expenditure by at least partial disarmament. That the "jingo" party which exists in each State should be opposed to this policy is ouly to be expected, but if numbers are to count iv the near future in deciding the question, a radical economical change may be accomplished. Following up the subject to its logical conclusion, .a few more years should see the absolute bankruptcy of every military power in Europe.