Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 19.djvu/784

764 possible expense, and Low to extract from their laborers the greatest amount of work with the smallest quantity of food."

An example under our immediate observation may next be taken—that of the German Empire. Such traits of the militant type in Germany as were before manifest have, since the late war, become still more manifest. The army, active and passive, including officers and attached functionaries, has been increased by about one hundred thousand men; and changes in 1875 and 1880, making certain reserves more available, have practically caused a further increase of like amount. Moreover, the smaller German states, having in great part surrendered the administration of their several contingents, the German army has become more consolidated; and even the armies of Saxony, Würtemberg, and Bavaria, being subject to imperial supervision, have in so far ceased to be independent. Instead of each year granting military supplies, as had been the practice in Prussia before the formation of the North-German Confederation, the Parliament of the empire was, in 1871, induced to vote the required annual sum for three years thereafter; in 1874 it did the like for the succeeding seven years; and again in 1880 the greatly increased amount for the augmented army was authorized for the seven years following—steps obviously surrendering popular checks on imperial power. Simultaneously, military officialism has been in two ways replacing civil officialism. Subaltern officers are rewarded for long services by appointments to civil posts—local communes being forced to give them the preference to civilians; and not a few members of the higher civil service, and of the universities, as well as teachers in the public schools, having served as "volunteers of one year," become commissioned officers of the Landwehr. During the stugglesstruggles [sic] of the so-called Kulturkampf, the ecclesiastical organization became more subordinated by the political. Priests suspended by bishops were maintained in their offices; it was made penal for a clergyman publicly to take part against the government; a recalcitrant bishop had his salary stopped; the curriculum for ecclesiastics was prescribed by the state, and examination by state officials required; church discipline was subjected to state approval; and a power of expelling rebellious clergy from the country was established. Passing to the industrial activities we may note—first, that through sundry steps, from 1873 onward, there has been a progressive transfer of railways into the hands of the state; so that, partly by original construction (mainly of lines for military purposes), and partly by purchase, three fourths of all Prussian railways—have been made government property; and the same percentage holds in the other German states: the aim being eventually to make them all imperial. Trade interferences have been extended in various ways by protectionist tariffs, by revival of the usury laws, by restrictions on Sunday labor. Through its postal service the state has assumed industrial functions—presents acceptances, receives money on