The War’s Greater Loss
By William Nelson Glenn
Which Suffered the Greater Loss?—A gentleman writing from Florida to The Vineyard, North Deer-ing, Me., makes this pertinent reference to the situation in that remote Southern region:— “There has been a great deal of sickness in and around Jacksonville for the past few months. Some attribute the cause to the soldiers who are encamped here, but whether that has anything to do with the sickness in the city I am not able to say. It is sad, to say the least, to visit the hospitals here and see the hundreds of soldier boys lying on their cots with pale faces, and to hear their groans. It is heart-sickening to see from one to eight each day taken either to the depot or graveyard, dead. Surely the United States has got the worst of the war, in that she has lost more of her men than did Spain.” Whether the United States got “the worst of it” or the best of it, is an open question. Spain lost more territory, more ships, and perhaps more pride; but the United States lost more men—not in battle, but in the war; for all the Spanish prisoners were returned. Now for the measure of loss. Throw in all the territory supposed to be gained, how will it compare with the loss of souls? God’s estimate of one soul is that it is worth more than “the whole world.” He asks the pertinent question, “What shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?” Mark 8:36, 37. Then if the United States lost one man more than Spain did, and should gain all of Spain’s wealth, the United States would still be loser. There is still another view: As far as Spain is concerned, the war is over—if she so elect. Her war expense stops, and much other expense connected with holding the lost territory—not the least of which is the expense of her vast church establishment. Not so with the United States. Peace with Spain does not insure peace in Cuba, or in the Philippines. And even if there be no more actual war, there is the continued great military establishments, and the continuous increase of great war vessels and armaments, in order to protect these newly-acquired “regions beyond” from the intrigues of the newly-made enemies in Europe, jealous of the imperial pretensions of the American republic. To this is to be added the largely-increased pension roll, and expenses of which the most prolific imagination has not yet dreamed. Of immense magnitude is the continued process, in camp if not in battle, by disease if not by combat, of stringing out the list of dead or indigent with an interminable line of dependents to be sustained at government expense. Weighed in the balances of the Word of God, the imaginary glory of the nation is but dust when placed over against the sacrifice of souls on the altar of strife between man and man for whom Christ died upon the cross. The question as to whether Spain or the United States has suffered the greater loss has not yet been answered.
W. N. G.