New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1891-08-23


duty Speaking of the war with France, the
antbor remarks: BESIDES perfect organization. 1t
was the lofty spirit--the stern sense of duty
which alone. under leaders Of consummate genius
made those victories possible! And these leaders,
in their turn. were nothing else but the outcome
opd result OF that supreme sense of conscientious
moss and duty which is the one keynote OF the
whole organization of Prussia, civil and military
The trait is striking from highest TO humblest-
from the King, who reported himself ready for
dutv. down to the humblest Pomeranian peasant
who at the trumpetcall of war, quietly reported
himself at the nearest place Of enrolment and eX-
changed the hoe for the musket. This trait Is
visible everywhere in those iron hoops of the Ger
man Army. the sergeants and non-commissloned
officers 1t reaches perhaps its most pregnant
significance In the full captain; the company
leader"
But the incentives TO performance Of duty are
not particularly alluring. No dependence can be
placed upon anything but efficiency. No herolsm
compensates for lack of military capacity. as the
case of General Steinmetz, cited by the author,
clearly demonstrates "a rigid system of con-
tinuay testing the capacity of officers is at work.
No length Of service will entitle q man 10 pro-
motion unless his superiors in command are thor
oughly convinced be is in every way fitted 1or
il. After ten or twelve years service as leu
tenant, {. man may be judged fitted to lead com
pany, and thus gels the rank of captain. lie may
be the best company leader in the Prusslal
service, and yet not have the material for heid
officer. If such be the opinion OF his snfrlorS'
good-by TO his hopes of ever becoming n major
When his turn for promotion comes round ne
receives quiet hint to retire, and, as a SOP, nc
carries the tituar distinction of major into private
life, and silently vanishes from the scene. Service
in the Prussian army is q national duty, ana hot
necessarily career for the individual Shattered
hopes lost career it may be, but down you go,
as mercessy as the grass before the scythe In inc
interest of the community, in the interest OF the
huge thanksgiving machine, in which you were,
until lately the tnest little rivet and nothing
more" Clearly this is not q service to satisfy
that deep craving after personal distinction when
Is one of the most conspicuous forms OF modern
vanity and vulgarity of mind. But the Germans
evidently possess peculiar constitution, Tor as
in the army they can do their duty without
stimulus or reward, so in their educational estah-
lishments they labor without the hope or eNpecta-
ton Of prizes or scholarships, and make their
mark, too, under these conditions.
Mr. Whitman manages in the course OF his
study of the German army, TO put in some rasping
criticism of English military methods. Among
other observations very much 10 the point, he
has this: Others may try to copy the sys-
TEN that has shown such excellent results. but
they cannot suddenly appropriate the qualities
that have made the German army what 1t Is
The one and the other are too much bound up
in the qualities of the people, and are the result
of the lab0rious work of generations. Parliamen
tary legislation born of an excited expression OF
public opinion cannot supply such to order
This is true of political as Of military systems
and because it is true every attempt to graft en-
otto constitutions upon stocks unaccustomed TO
them, has failed and must ever fail. Mir. Whitmans
chapter on the German nobility is mainly depreca-
tory. They have, he declares, lost all influence
with their cOuntrymcn. and are little better than
titled puppets. In the army they have done good
work, but wholly apart from their nobility, ard
simply by virtue Of capacity. Outside Of the army
they possess no national status. BY practising an
innane exclusiveness and especially by continuous
intermarriage they have entirely alienated them
selves from the body of the people. who both hate
and despise them. They have no influence in
politics. and none in society. Their position
seems to resemble that of the aristocratS of the
Faubourg St. Gernan after the Revolution and
during the Empire. The German aristocrats
are commonly impoverished. and having through
their class pride, cut themselves off from all hope
Of enrichment by intermarriage with the bOur-
geoise," they must remain poor. They have but
ore career-the army-and hundreds of them are
absolutely dependent upon their pay.
Mr. Wlitman's pictures of German society do
not strike us as very attractive, and perhaps the
position of women in Germany is largely re-
sponsible for this Bismarck once said that Ger
many was being ruined by the plague OF beer !;
and this plague also has something to do with
the low position accorded German women. The
wide prevalence IF the custom Of spending daily
hours and hours in beerhOuses says the author,
is not without it's consequences in roughening
the manners particularly towards ladies, and
encouraging the love Of small-talk and gossip. y
And again lie says: average Germans have a
tendency TO give way to their temper in dealing
with the ladies of their family which can only
surprise those to whom it is novelty. The
countrymen of Schopenhauer do not often err
on the side of too much consideration for tho
fair sex per Sc If person is unpopular it
seems only 10 add bitterness to that hatred if the
person be woman. Some journalistic attacks
on the Empress Frederick bear testimony to this. +"
OF course the author has something TO say on the
custom of duellingand especially upon the sanction
OF Tile pIUCtdCt III lilt lHc luCb ludb
other nations, whose virility is beyond question,
requires such stimulus, is u complete answer
to the staple justification Of army duels. In
truth the practice is relic of barbarism, and
nothing else, nor can any sophistry give it the
color of FEASIBILITY.
Nowhere does Mr. Whitman carry his criticism
farther than in discussing Commerce and Manu-
facture" and here he makes serious charges Of
fraud against the German manufacturers, who are
accused not only of initiating English and other
foreign manufactures, but of copying the forms
of foreign packages and forging foreign trade
marks. OF course, he does not make such grave
accusations without Offering some evideuce of
their truth, and from the examples cited, it would
appear that while it is doubtful whether a court
of law would hold the trademark imitation To
be close enough TO warrant a conviction or an
adverse verdict in civil suit, the moral "lache "
is less dubitable. Mr.. Whitman processes not
to be uneasy at the recent expansion of German
cnnn1narca nd pfurpS for no doee ,hi