Germany’s Long-Nourished Powers

THAT Germany has been preparing forty years for this war is flatly contradicted by J. Ellis Barker in his article entitled "The Secret of Germany's Strength," appearing in the Nineteenth Century and After for July.

Not forty years, but for 260 years, since Frederick William, the Great Elector, came to the Prussian throne, the slow-growing plants of German efficiency and thoroughness have steadily unfolded, Mr. Barker says, in the administrative, military, financial, and economic policy that make modern Germany. It was the Great Elector who "ruthlessly and tyrannously suppressed existing self-government in his possessions, and gave to his scattered and parochially minded subjects a strong sense of unity," thus clearing the way for his successors. Frederick William I. founded in the Prussia prepared by his grandfather "a perfectly organized modern State, a model administration, and created a perfectly equipped and ever ready army." Of him Mr. Barker says:

The German people are often praised for their thoroughness, industry, frugality, and thrift. These qualities are not natural to them. They received them from their rulers, and especially from Frederick William the First. He was an example to his people, and his son carried on the paternal tradition. Both Kings acted not only with thoroughness, industry, frugality, and economy, but they enforced these qualities upon their subjects. Both punished idlers of every rank of society, even of the most exalted. The regime of Thorough prevailed under these Kings who ruled during seventy-three years. These seventy-three years of hard training gave to the Prussian people those sterling qualities which are particularly their own, and by which they can easily be distinguished from the easy-going South Germans and Austrians who have not similarly been disciplined.

While the Great Elector prepared the ground, and King Frederick William I. firmly laid the foundations, "Frederick the Great erected thereon the edifice of modern Germany." Mr. Barker adds:

Among the many pupils of Frederick the Great was Bismarck. It is no exaggeration to say that the writings which Frederick the Great addressed to posterity are the arcana imperii of modern Germany. Those who desire to learn the secret of Germany's strength, wealth, and efficiency, should therefore most carefully study the teachings of Frederick the Great.

Frederick's "Political Testament" of 1752 addressed to his successors begins with the significant words:

"The first duty of a citizen consists in serving his country. I have tried to fulfil that duty in all the different phases of my life."

Frederick William I. looked out for the education of his successors in his own militarist ideals. Instructing Major Borcke in 1751 on the tutoring of his grand-nephew, the Heir-Presumptive of Prussia, he wrote:

It is very important that he should love the Army. Therefore he must be told at all occasions and by all whom he meets that men of birth who are not soldiers are pitiful wretches. He must be taken to see the troops drilling as often as he likes. He ought to be shown the Cadets, and be given five or six of them to drill. That should be an amusement for him, not a duty. The great point is that he should become fond of military affairs, and the worst that could happen would be if he should become bored with them. He should be allowed to talk to all, to cadets, soldiers, citizens and officers, to increase his self-reliance.

A thorough monarchist, who noted that "when Sweden was turned into a republic it became weak," Frederick the Great preached a doctrine not different from that which inspires the speeches of Kaiser Wilhelm II. when he said in his "Political Testament" of 1752:

As Prussia is surrounded by powerful states my successors must be prepared for frequent wars. The soldiers must be given the highest positions in Prussia for the same reason for which they received them in ancient Rome when that State conquered the world. Honors and rewards stimulate and encourage talent and praise arouses men to a generous emulation. It encourages men to enter the army. It is paradoxical to treat officers contemptuously and call theirs an honored profession. The men who are the principal supports of the State must be encouraged and be preferred to the soft and insipid society men who can only grace an ante-chamber.

Mr. Barker comments on the fact that in 1776, thirteen years after the ruinous Seven Years' War, Frederick the Great had accumulated financial resources sufficient to pay for another war lasting four years, and that he pursued the food policy of his fathers "which is still pursued by the Prusso-German Government." Moreover, he first exalted the German professor:

A hundred and fifty years ago Prussia was a land peopled by boors. Now it is a land peopled by professors, scientists, and artists. Frederick the Great was the first Prussian monarch to realize that science and art increase the strength and prestige of nations. Hence, he began cultivating the sciences and arts, and his successors followed his example. As science and art were found to be sources of national power, they were as thoroughly promoted as was the army itself, while in this country [England] education remained amateurish. Men toyed with science and the universities rather taught manners than efficiency.

The lesson of this centuries-old efficient governmental machine is a supreme one to democratic England, Mr. Barker thinks. Not that it is hopeless for a democracy to compete with a highly organized monarchy, for has not Switzerland shown that "a democracy may be efficient, business-like, provident, and ready for war?" England, on the other hand, has been a lover of luxury and ease. She must gird up her loins and fight or die. The Anglo-Saxon race is fighting for its existence, and delay is dangerous:

War is a one-man business. Every other consideration must be subordinated to that of achieving victory. When the United States fought for their life, they made President Lincoln virtually a Dictator. The freest and most unruly democracy allowed Habeas Corpus to be suspended and conscription to be introduced, to save itself. Great emergencies call for great measures. The War demands great sacrifices in every direction. However, if it leads to England's modernization, to the elimination of the weaknesses and vices of Anglo-Saxon democracy, if it leads to the unification and organization of the Empire, the purification of its institutions, and the recreation of the race, the gain may be greater than the loss, the colossal cost of the War notwithstanding. The British Empire and the United States, the Anglo-Saxon race in both hemispheres, have arrived at the turning point in their history. The next few months will confirm their greatness or mark the beginning of their fatal decline.