"'Destruction of buildings and industrial machinery in Belgium, $1,000,000,000, and in France $700,000,000. The destruction of agricultural buildings and implements, of raw materials, of crops and live stock, has been estimated at a sum of $780,000,000 in Belgium and $680,000,000 in France. Roads were destroyed frequently by the retreating troops and have been seriously damaged by heavy gun fire and excessive use. The losses from destruction of railway bridges, etc., have been estimated in Belgium at $275,000,000 and in France at $300,000,000.
"'In the Eastern theater of the War Germany has been invaded only in eastern Prussia, where the agricultural population has been seriously impaired. Heavy damage was inflicted upon bridges, roads, and governmental property, including railroads. The direct cost to Germany through the loss of agricultural products, of manufacturing products, as well as in interest on investments abroad, of earnings from shipping and banking houses, and profits of insurance and mercantile houses engaged in business abroad has been enormous'."
ECONOMIC LOSS OF MAN-POWER
The same expert goes on to figure out the economic value of the loss of human life:
"Mr. M. Barriol, the celebrated actuary, gives the following figures as the capital value of man: in the United States, $4,100; in Great Britain, $4,140; in Germany, $3,380; in France, $2,900; in Russia, $2,020; in Austria-Hungary, $2,020 or an average capital value for the five foreign nations of $2,892.
"The number of men already lost is 8,509,000 killed and 7,175,000 permanently wounded, or a total of 15,684,000. Thus society has been impoverished through the death and permanent disability of a part of its productive man-power to the extent of $45,000,000,000.
"The loss of men, measured in terms of the capital value of the workers withdrawn from industry, is offset in some degree by the enhancement of the capital value of the remaining producers.... This loss of man-power is also partly offset by the large contingents of women drawn into industries. In England, out of a female population of 23,000,000, about 6,000,000 were engaged before the outbreak of the war in gainful occupations. Since the war broke out no less than 1,500,000 women have been added to the ranks of wage-earners, an increase of fully 25 per cent. Moreover, about 400,000 women have shifted from non-essential occupations to men's work. In the United States, approximately 1,266,000 women are now engaged in industrial work, either directly or indirectly necessary to carry on the war.
EFFECTS ON POPULATION
"The physical and moral effects of the war, the moral strain to which the nations have been subjected, the 'shell-shock' which has reacted upon the population at home as well as upon the soliders soldiers on the battlefield, the undernourishment and starvation of children as well as adults, all have resulted in a lowered vitality, the ill effects of which, especially in the countries of the Central Powers, are already seen in an increase of the death rate, in a spread of epidemics and diseases that have taxed the medical resources of all countries.
The lowered vitality of the race, which is still further aggravated by the millions of incapacitated soldiers and the premature and excessive employment of children and women in the industries, will eventually make for a lower standard of efficiency in all human activities, or a retardation of human progress. Authoritative statements are to the effect that in Belgium in the earlier period of the war, the deaths of women and children far outnumbered those of men. Annual deaths among the German civilian population have increased by a million above the normal.