(4) The vast and increasing expense of war is a very serious matter for the moralist, because it means a drain of the resources that might otherwise be utilized for the advance of civilization.  The cost of a modern war goes at least into the hundreds of millions of dollars, and any great war would cost billions.  Every shot from a modern sixteen inch gun costs approximately a thousand dollars!  Add to this direct cost the indirect costs of war, not reckoned in the usual figures-the loss of the time and work of the hundreds of thousands of able-bodied men, the economic loss of their illness and death, the destruction of buildings, bridges, railways, etc, the obstruction of commerce, the paralysis of industry and agriculture, the ravages and looting of armies, the maintenance of hospitals and nurses, and then, finally, the money given in pensions.[Footnote:  The recent Balkan war is reckoned to have cost nearly half a million men killed or permanently disabled, a billion and a half dollars of direct] Add further the cost of the expenditure, besides many billions of indirect expense.  The colossal European war just beginning as these pages go to press bids fair to cost immeasurably more aintenance of armies upon a peace-footing-the feeding and clothing of the men, the building and maintenance of barracks and forts, of battleships and torpedo boats, of guns and ammunition, automobiles, aeroplanes, and the increasing list of expensive modern military appurtenances.  Europe spends nearly two billion dollars a year in times of peace on its armies and navies-money enough to build four or five Panama canals annually.  The entire merchant marine of the world is worth but three billion dollars.  More than this, over four million strong young men are kept under arms in Europe, a million more workers are engaged in making ships, weapons, gunpowder, military stores.  Over a million horses are kept for army use.  This money and these men, if used in the true interests of humanity, could quickly provide adequate and comfortable housing for every European, adequate schooling, clothing, and food for every one.  Here is the great criminal waste of our times.  In America our waste is less flagrant, but it is steadily increasing.  We throw away money enough in these fratricidal preparations to cover the country with excellent roads in short order, or give every child a high school education.

In a way, however, the rapidly growing cost of war and preparation for war is to be welcomed.  For it is this that is creating, more than all our moral propaganda, a rising sentiment against war, and will presently make it impossible.  When the German militarists became excited over the Morocco incident in 1911, a financial panic ensued, credit was withdrawn, pockets were touched, and a great protest arose which did much to quench the jingo spirit.  Japan was induced to sign her treaty of peace with Russia because her money was giving out.  Turkey was unable, in the winter of 1913-14, to renew war with Greece for the Aegean Islands, because she could not raise a loan till she promised peace.  The growing international financial network, and the revolt of the taxpayers against the incessant draining of their pocketbooks, promise a change for the better in European militarism before very long.