The Ersatz (_i.e._ Supply) Reserve consists of those men who are physically fit, but have, owing to surplus numbers or other causes, escaped being sent to serve in the Regular Army. Part of this Reserve undergoes a training of ten weeks in the first, six weeks in the second, and four weeks in the third year. These are considered as belonging to the so-called “Furlough Men”[12] class, and serve when required to complete the Army in the field. On the completion of their thirty-first year, the men are sent to the Landwehr and 2nd Class Landsturm, and there they remain till the termination of their liability to service, _i.e._, their forty-fifth year. The men of the untrained portion of the Ersatz Reserve remain available for service up to their thirty-second year, and then pass over to the 1st and 2nd Classes of the Landsturm in due order. If every single able-bodied young man were to be taken for the Regular Army, two disadvantages would accrue to the State; on the one hand an immense amount of industrial labour would be lost to the country, and on the other, it would be impossible for the State to support such a huge Army. For this reason the law of the constitution has laid down that the peace Army is not to exceed one per cent. of the population. This gives the Army the respectable peace-strength of 468,409 men (not including officers and one-year volunteers). Of these numbers about 156,000 annually enter the ranks as recruits. There is a supplementary clause to the law of universal conscription, and that is the one which allows of _One-year Volunteers_. It stands to reason that with a three-years’ bout of compulsory service, a large portion of the youth of the country are interrupted in the studies which are to prepare them for their particular professions, and that at a period when they can least afford to lose the time. For the labourer, who needs but little knowledge for his daily task, and for those handicraftsmen whose work demands but little brain capacity or culture of any sort, this interruption of business is of small moment. It is far otherwise, however, with the young man who requires to spend some time in the higher schools in order to fit himself for the profession he has chosen, be it industrial or scientific. This disadvantage of the conscription law makes itself felt in proportion to the progress in education and general culture made in the country. At the same time it is obvious that a man who has the assistance of a well-educated and well-trained mind does not require so long a period to master the intricacies of soldiering as one who is less intelligent.