Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1889-11-09
A NEW ARGUMENT.

The very latest defense OF the large
army systems of Europe advanced, appears
over the signature Of correspondent in
the New York Times. 1t is, that statisti-
cal investigation proves that the men who
come out of these armies are vastly supe-
rior to the men who do not serve, in phys
ical power, amenability to discipline'
in health aud capacity to labor and to en-
dure. The writer says:
It pays Germany in dollars and cents to sup
port her army; as mere money-making in
Vestment it is a good one, and the side effects,
in increasing the national health and general
well-being, IN educating classes which, but for
the army, would scarcely otherwise be reached,
and in raising the whole moral tone OF the ma
ton are inconceyably or, at least, immeasuF-
ably great.
A short time ago in making an estimate of
the money value to the nation Of this great
nation | was myself surprised at the result.
Estimating the number of men now living in
Germany under fifty-tiVe years of age who had
passed through the army: granting that these
men are improved physically and mentally to
the degree that their productive capacity as
labOrers in general is increased as much as .
per cent, and taking as a basis OF individual
production $500 a year, this per cent. upon
this 500 more than pays for the German army
by about SIS o 0009.
,
estimate viii state that in answer to inquiries
sent ont one employer, an English contractor
in Berlin, who had in hand large drainase
works at Potsdam, and employed several thou
sand men, said he paid those who had been
through the army an average of 80 per cent.
more than those who had not served.
The conclusion is reached that the real
and sublimest effort of nation is to pro-
duce ideal men, and that if this is best ac
complished through army training, then
it is justi6able and commendable. That,
after all, it Is not the supreme end to raise
SO many bushels Of wheat, so many pounds
of vegetables and to build so many miles
of railroad, but to produce the highest
intellectual and physical results among
men, and that the eighty years of army
training in Germany proves that the
Empire has made wonderful advancement
in that respect, and that it is manifest in
every art, business and industry. She has
not only produced high type of the
physical man, but she has raised herself to
the highest pitch Of power and import
ance, not merely as a dynamic factor, but
as scientific, philosophic and scholarly
one. 1t must be confessed that this is
very ingenious argument. But the answer
to it is obvious. The philosophic force
that Germany has developed, and which is
attributed by the writer quoted to the
army system, is, and has been for half
century, at war with the army scheme and
some of its best efforts have been put forth
to break it down. That same force has
sent some of the brightest minds of Ger
many into the socialistic ranks, and has
compelled others to seek refuge in foreign
lands. If the army training has improved
the physical and intellectual man, what
would not the same amount of energy and
the same expenditure Of money have pro-
duced in the manhood OF Germany if ex-
erted outside of the army? The abstrac-
ton from industrial walks of these picked
factors in the manliness of the Empire,
while it has grouped fine body of men,
and has developed their physical capacity,
has made harder the lot of the unpicked,
and therefore the distinction between the
laborers and the non-laborers has been
more sharply defined, and the loss has
been that of the latter Since chief aim
of the nation should be to strive for the
production of the ideal man, is it not ac-
cepted by economists that the true path to
that end lies through the elevation of the
Iaboring classes morally and Intellectually,
and that physical excellence is better pro-
NOTED through the conservation of labor,
than by its degradation and over-burden-
ing? Ii is impossible to withdraw from
the best productive forces of a country half
of the workers, and cast the burden Of the
support of all upon the remainder, and
not do injury to the latter, and for that
matter to the whole body. The argu-
ment of the writer from whom we quote,
If good for anything at all, and if proving
that the army trained workman COM
mands the higher wage because of his ca
pacity, proves also that it would be the
part of wisdom to put the whole body of
males into the army whether up to the
severe standing of physical excellence
now required or not. We cannot at this
time take the space necessary to further
noint out the fallacious character of the
argument of the New York writer, but the
REPLIES that can be made to him are OBJ
v;ous to all thoughtful persons. Indeed,
nothing else is needed than to point to
the example of the advance of men in the