"All that must be rebuilt, and to carry out that kind of reconstruction only, there will be a need of over 2,000,000 tons of pig iron, nearly 4,000,000 tons of steel—not to mention the replenishing of stocks and of raw materials which must of necessity be supplied to the plants during the first year of resumed activity. If we take into account these different items we reach as regards industrial needs a total of 25,000,000,000 francs.
"To resurrect these regions, to reconstruct these factories, raw materials are not now sufficient; we need means of transportation. Now the enemy has destroyed our railroad tracks, our railroad equipment, and our rolling stock, which in the first month of the war, in 1914, was reduced by 50,000 cars, has undergone the wear and tear of fifty months of war.
"Our merchant fleet, on the other hand, has lost more than a million tons through submarine warfare. Our shipyards during the last four years have not built any ships. For they have produced for us and for our allies cannon, ammunition, and tanks. Here, again, for this item alone of means of transportation we must figure on an expense of 2,500,000,000 francs.
"This makes, if I sum up these different items, a need of raw material which represents in cost, at the present rate of prices in France, not less than 50,000,000,000 francs.
"And this formidable figure, gentlemen, does not cover everything. I have not taken into account the loss represented for the future production of France by the transformation of so many factories which for four years were exclusively devoted to war munitions. I have not taken into account foreign markets lost to us as a result of the destruction of one-fourth of our productive capital and the almost total collapse of our trade. I have not taken into account the economic weakening that we will suffer tomorrow owing to that loss, to which I referred a while ago, of 2,500,000 young an vigorous men."
This was one of the great by-products of the war. Thousands of young Americans, vigorous evangels of democratic thought, remained in Europe to bring American ideals and American force into the affairs of the old world.
Those who returned were formidable factors in re-shaping the affairs of the nation. Grave injustices were done in some instances to young men who had volunteered in the early days of the war through patriotic motives and who returned to find their places in industry taken by others. In the main, however, the process of absorption went forward steadily and without serious incident.
One factor making for satisfactory adjustment was the insurance system put into effect by the United States Government, affecting its war forces. Immediately following the armistice, the following announcement was made:
Preparations by the government for re-insuring the lives of soldiers and sailors on their return have been hastened by the signing of the armistice. Although regulations have not yet been fully drafted, it is certain that each of the 4,250,000 men in the military or naval service now holding voluntary government insurance will be permitted within five years after peace is declared to convert it without further medical examination into ordinary life, twenty-pay life, endowment maturing at the age of sixty-two, or other prescribed forms of insurance.
This insurance will be arranged by the government, not by private companies, and the cost is expected to be at least one-fourth less than similar forms offered by private agencies. The low cost will result from the fact that the government will pay all overhead administration expenses, which, for private companies, amount to about seventeen per cent of premium receipts; will save the usual solicitation fees and, in addition, bear the risk resulting from the wounding or weakening of men while in the service. Private companies would not write insurance on many wounded men, or their rates would be unusually high.