How Is a War Loan Spent?

The article discusses military expenditure. The enormous cost of modern military operations is only imperfectly realized by the great body of Americans, despite the huge figures to which they have become accustomed during the past four years. In the period before the war, the U.S. maintained an army, nominally of about 80,000 effectives, actually of considerably smaller numbers, owing to the difficulty of getting recruits; on this establishment, Americans were spending seventy-five millions a year, at the rate of U.S. $935 per man annually. By contrast, Soviet Union, with an annual expenditure of U.S. $250,000,000, succeeded in maintaining a standing army of 1,200,000 men; Germany, with 560,000 men, spent U.S. $150,000,000, and France, with 420,000 men, U.S. $140,000,000.