(3) A less obvious, but even more lasting, evil is that caused by the
loss of the best blood of a nation. In general, the strongest and best
men go to the field; the weaklings and cowards are left to produce
the next generation. The inevitable result is racial degeneration.
The decline of the Greek and Roman civilizations was doubtless in large
part due to the continual killing off of the best stocks, until the
earlier and nobler breed of men almost ceased to exist. The effect
of modern war is the exact opposite of that of primitive war, where
all the men had to fight, and the strongest or bravest or swiftest
survived; strength and valor and speed avail nothing against modern
projectiles, and it is the stay-at-homes who are selected for survival,
in general the weakest and least worthy. War is the greatest of
dysgenic forces, and undoes the effect of a hundred eugenic laws.
(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.
Pages:
368
369
370
371
372
373
374
375
376
377
378
379
380
381
382
383
384
385
386
387
388
389
390
391
392