ors--the wealth gained from sacked cities, the territorial
acquisitions and the increased prestige and prosperity of the winners.
There is also an indirect compensation which can hardly be measured, but
which is known to exist, in the increased courage inculcated, the
banishment of fear, the strengthened sense of devotion, heroism and
self-sacrifice, and all those principles of manliness and unselfishness
which are inspired through war and react so beneficially on the morals
of a race. There are some, however, who contend that these compensations
do not overbalance the pain, the heart-rending, the horrors, brutalities
and debasements which come from war. Viewed in the most favorable light,
with all its glories, benefits and compensations, war is still far
removed from an agreeable enterprise.

Like so many of the other material compensations of life, its benefits
accrue to the strong while its burdens fall upon the weak. A
contemplation of the maimed, the crippled and those stricken with
disease, fails to engender anything but somber reflections.

Owing to the advancement of science, the triumph of knowledge over
darkness, the late war through the unusual attention given to the
physical fitness of the soldiers, probably conferred a boon in sending
back a greater percentage of men physically improved than the toll of
destroyed or deteriorated would show. Yet with all the improvement in
medical and sanitary science, the fact remains that disease claimed more
lives than bullets, bayonets, shrapnel or gas.

Negro soldiers in the war were singularly free from disease. Deaths from
this cause were surprisingly few, the mortality being much lower than it
would have been among the same men had there been no war. This was due
to the general good behavior of the troops as testified to by so many
commanding officers and others. The men observed discipline, kept within
bounds and listened to the advice of those competent to give it.

Out of a total of between 40,000 and 45,000 Negro soldiers who went into
battle or were exposed to the enemy's attack at some time, about 500
were killed in action. Between 150 and 200 died of wounds. Deaths from
disease did not exceed 200 and from accident not over fifty. Those who
were wounded and gassed amounted to about 4,000.

It speaks very highly for the medical and sanitary science of the army
as well as for the physical stamina of a race, when less than 200 died
out of a total of 4,000 woun