The cost to the fiscal departments of Government is
probably only a small part of the total cost which the people will have
to bear. The killing and disabling of the men engaged will cut off the
financial support of European families to the tune of hundreds of
millions of dollars per year. The physical destruction of capital
through the devastation of crops, the burning and demolishing of
merchant ships and buildings, the crippling of industry through the
sudden withdrawal of labor and raw materials, the introduction of new
trade risks, and the cutting off of transportation, both internal and
foreign, make up a sum of items which cannot be measured, but which may
exceed those which can. Last, but not least, is the impairment of that
subtle but vital basis of business, commercial credit.
In short, the central effect is a vast impairment of Europe's current
income and of the capital from which her future income will flow. It
means a veritable impoverishment of vast populations. The great burden
will bear heaviest, of course, on the poor. It will impinge very
unequally and will cause a great redistribution of wealth.
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