In the Prussian military-service law of 1814, and again in the constitution of the North German Confederation of 1867, the principle was laid down that the army should consist of one per cent. of the population. This had long been disregarded as the population increased, and the proportion had sunk as low as eight-tenths of one per cent. It has now been raised to a little over the original figure. The population as given officially in 1913 was 64,925,993, while the number of common soldiers (I quote the figures given by Stavenhagen in the _Handbuch der Politik_) was 647,811.[A] [Footnote A: It may be worth giving the exact strength of the German army on October 1, 1913: Total 790,788 and 157,816 horses. Of these: officers, 30,253; sanitary officers, 2,483; veterinaries, 865; non-commissioned officers, 104,377; common soldiers, 647,811. (Infantry, 515,216; cavalry, 85,593; field artillery, 126,042; sappers and miners, 24,010; communication troops, 18,949; army service, 11,592.)] The cost of the German army has been enormous—more than twenty-five billion marks between 1872 and 1910, and in 1913 alone, 1,608,653,300 marks. The extraordinary defense contribution for 1913, 1914 and 1915, a tax, not on income but on capital direct, is estimated to bring nearly 1,300,000,000 marks. Strange to say, the tax was very popular—every party in the Reichstag voted for it, even the social democrats, whose delight in a measure that fell most heavily on the rich (small properties were exempted) made them swallow the fact that the money was for national and military purposes. The yearly sums that the sudden increase in the army entails are to be paid by a curious tax on the increase of property value to be estimated every three years. The estimates as to how much the army numbers when on a war footing varies between two and three-fourths millions and four millions. Austria’s army, on paper at least, numbers 380,000 men in time of peace, which number gradually was to have risen to 410,000 in the next few years. In war-time it is estimated at 1,300,000 men. Curiously enough Italy, with a peace army of only 300,000, estimates her war army officially at 3,400,000, or about as much as either Germany or France. [Illustration: Telegraph Battalion] [Illustration: Military Telephone Station] [Illustration: Putting up Campaign Tents] [Illustration: Death’s-head Hussars] [Illustration: The Crown Prince] [Illustration: The Crown Prince at Mess] For the armies of the Triple Entente we have an estimate published by the _Deutsche Tageszeitung_ in January, 1914, which is worth quoting at some length, as it is from a well-known military writer, Lieutenant Colonel von Bremen: