they are used, of course they are actively destroying wealth.
The war came; and it was possible under the urge of national necessity to increase taxation. All did, some more, some less. England crowded on the taxes until the man of an average middle-class income was paying before the end some forty per cent of his income. Germany and France paid less heavily at the time. Each was calculating on victory, and on making the loser pay. France won; and already she realizes that she cannot begin to reimburse herself, even though she milks from Germany her last mark. And Germany the loser—expression fails in the face of her predicament.
But tax as they might, the nations had at once to begin drawing on their future, asking for unprecedented loans both from their own people and from foreigners. Debts piled up beyond imagination.
Let me set down a few figures. They will not mean much to the reader, I suppose, any more than they mean much to the writer; they are too overwhelmingly big. In actual money, paid out over the counter, virtually all taken from the world’s accumulated wealth, the war cost one hundred and eighty-six billion dollars. If you add the indirect cost such as destruction of property, loss of production and the capitalized value of the human lives, the sum reaches three hundred and thirty-seven billion dollars. The national debts of Great Britain
