Germany and the Germans from an American Point of ViewCollier, Price
History
Germany and the Germans from an American Point of View
Collier, Price
Germany; National characteristics, German
From what we have seen of the proportion of expenditure that goes to
military purposes, it cannot be denied that Germany is increasing her
liabilities at an extraordinary rate, and largely for purposes of
protection. In the last two years the interest on her increased debt
alone, at four per cent., amounts to $5,000,000; while the interest at
four per cent. upon military expenditures of all kinds amounts to the
tidy sum of $20,000,000 per annum. The German, however, faces these
facts and figures, not as a matter of choice, not as a matter of
insurance wholly, but as a hard necessity. It is what the delayed
conversion of the world is costing him, not to speak of what it costs
the rest of us. He is surrounded by enemies; he is not by nature a
fighting man; his whole industrial and commercial progress and his
amassed wealth have come from training, training, training; and he
sees no alternative, and I am bound to say that I see none either, but
a nation trained also to defence, cost what it may.
The last German estimates (1912) balance with a revenue and
expenditure of $671,222,605. The naval expenditure is put at
$114,306,575; the army expenditure is put at $192,627,080. Both the
army and navy are being largely increased. In the year 1916 the
strength of the navy is expected to be about 79,000 men, and of the
army and navy combined 767,000. In the last ten years two nations have
almost doubled their naval personnel: Germany has increased hers from
31,157 to 60,805, and Austria-Hungary from 9,069 to 17,277. In Great
Britain the increase has been about one seventh, and this one seventh
is about equal to the present strength of Austria.
The gross naval expenditure, estimated, of the United States for 1912
amounts to $132,848,030, and the number of men 63,468. The gross naval
expenditure of Great Britain, estimated, for the same year is put at
$224,410,235, and the number of men 134,000. The gross naval
expenditure of Germany is put at $114,306,575, which includes $489,235
for air-ships and experiments therewith, the number of men 66,783.
France proposes to spend, plus an addition due to operations in
Morocco, $90,000,000, number of men 58,404; and Japan $44,309,145,
number of men 49,389. Two new corps have been voted for the German
army, to be numbered 24 and 25; one is for the Russian frontier, with
head-quarters at Allenstein, and the other for the French frontier,
with head-quarters at Sarrebourg or Mulhouse. A German army corps on a
war footing comprises about 52,000 men, with 150 guns and 16,000
horses. The reader should notice, as a reminder of the still latent
jealousies of the different states of the German Empire, that the
three army corps raised in Bavaria are not numbered consecutively,
twenty-one, twenty-two, and twenty-three, but one, two, and three!
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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