Germany in 1899 held the world's medal [Germany's Splendid Army.] for the finest and best equipped army, a magnificent engine of war, ready to move within an hour's notice, and woe to the enemy that obstructs its path. Without any doubt in the closing period of the nineteenth century the General staff of the German army was justly regarded as the highest authority in military science. Such a vast and smooth working engine for the destruction of human beings was never before known. If the sun had been good enough to stop twelve hours in its course to accommodate Joshua's beggarly army, that luminary would no doubt gladly stand still a whole week on request of the chief of staff of the German hosts. In 1899, with a population of barely 50,000,000, Germany possessed an army of 2,500,000. France with much less population had fully as many men under arms. Russia with a population of over 90,000,000 had an army on a peace footing of 3,000,000 men. The burden upon Europe was a most crushing one. In 1899 this drain was fast sapping the life of those nations, robbing their industries and peaceful avocations of the flower of their youth. This armed state in the time of peace was fully as ruinous as war itself. No wonder that the Czar of Russia urged a congress of the nations to convene and, if possible, devise some system to reduce these huge armaments. For this well-meaning attempt to relieve the military burdens of Europe the Russian Czar deserves much credit but, unfortunately, the proposition proved to be impracticable. The international conference at the Hague in the summer of 1899 secured no definite results. In 1999 America did not propose to fall [No Standing Army in 1999.] into the European snare of maintaining a huge standing army. When America in 1899 was merely a small Republic, consisting of only forty-five states and a few odd territories, the idea of maintaining a large standing army, on the European plan, was scouted with derision. In 1899 Americans scoffed at Europe's military establishments as a symbol of Barbarism. In 1999 when the great American Republic included the entire Western Hemisphere, military rule became more unpopular than ever. In the twentieth, as in the nineteenth century, America remained firm in her adherence to the Monroe Doctrine. This wise policy will always prove one of the best safeguards of our American Republic. Europe must be kept out of the Western Hemisphere. America will always belong to Americans only. In the twentieth century the Monroe Doctrine lost none of its force, and for many centuries its principles will still remain a living issue. With a Monroe Doctrine to maintain and defend, it is not surprising to learn that in 1999 the United States of the Americas, with a population of 531,000,000, maintained a small army of 150,000 men. The absolute freedom of America from military burdens in 1899 and 1999 was the glory of the Republic and the envy of a whole world.