To the vast sum already recorded must be added the loss registered by
the destruction of cities, towns and villages, the sinking of ships, the
wiping out of factories, warehouses, bridges, roads and railways.
Then, too, you must allow for the almost incalculable productive loss
due to the killing and maiming of millions of men: the shrinkage of
agricultural yields and the more or less general dislocation of the
machinery of output. All these factors pile up a total, the calculation
of which would almost cause a compound fracture of the brain. Sufficient
to say it puts a terrific human and financial tax on coming generations
and we in America will feel its effects when the world begins to
readjust itself to the altered social and economic conditions which will
come with peace.
Of course the inevitable question arises: Who is paying the Scarlet
Piper? In seeking the answer you encounter for the first time America's
intimate and all-important part in the costly drama now being unfolded
to the tune of billions. She sits in the armoured box-office with the
Treasurers of the embattled nations.
At the outset of the war all the belligerent countries believed that
they could finance their needs without seeking neutral aid. Less than a
year was enough to dispel this delusion. Although England and France
immediately voted immense credits they were not long in finding out that
they must back up their unprecedented mobilisation of resources with
outside help.
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