The Cost Of Fear.

New York Times 100 years ago today, May 5, 1913:
    M. Yves Guyot, in The Sunday Times yesterday, gave the details of military expenditures for the six great Powers of Europe which compose the Triple Alliance and the Triple Entente. The total runs up to the amazing figure of two billion dollars a year. To this must be added the loss of production by the 2,500,000 young men in the prime of life and vigor withdrawn from industry for service in the armies and navies. Estimating the average value of the productive power of these young men at the moderate rate of $400 annually, we have the total cost of the fighting forces of Europe three billions of dollars.
    All the expenditure is practically not for actual war, but for preparation for war. The rise of the Balkan Allies, a powerful military combination on the flank of Austria-Hungary, has deeply moved Germany, so that still larger sums are being devoted to arming, and France has felt it needful to follow her example. Probably the total cost for Europe for the next five years will reach a much greater height. As M. Guyot says, even the special student can hardly grasp the full significance of these figures any more than one can really grasp the distance between the sun and the earth; but the toiling masses feel, if they do not comprehend, the burden.