Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1893-07-12
ARMY BILL INTRODUCED.
The New Measure Laid Before the German
ReiChStag Today.

nt1CuSUdg met tO-udy 1Of ln6 uFSU JlLne
for the consideration of regular parlia-
mentary business, nearly all the 397
members were in their places, for it was
known that the government would al
once introduce the army bill, and gen
raj Interest was felt as to the conces'
ions, if any, that the government had
made on the original bill. Immediately
after the formal opening of the house was
concluded Chancellor Won Caprivi as
cended the tribune and in a longspeech
introduced the amended measure. He
stated that the present form of the bill
represented the minimum that the gov
eminent would accept in men or money.
The governments demands were the
lowest possible consistent with the safety
of the empire. The previous bill had
been before Parliament and the country
for nine months and everybody under
stood what the government wanted. 1t
was, therefore, needless to repeat the
arguments that had heretofore been adj
vanced in favor of the measure.
The galleries of the Reichstag were
crowded with people, among them many
prominent in the political and social
worlds of the capital. During the de-
livery of his speech, the Chancellor
plause and shouts of "Quite right!
Quite true ~ The keynote of the
speech was that foreign countries
not knowing intimately the German
character, had been led to believe that
Germany had lost confidence in herself
and that the countries composing the
German Empire were no longer united.
This, the Chancellor declared, was an
erroneous impression which ought to be
quickly dispelled by the speedy adop-
ton of the new bill.
In the course of his speech the Chan
cellor referred to the action of Russia
increasing the peace footing of her
army by $4,000 men since 1889,
and said she had not yet ex-
hausted her resources. Germany,
lie declared, must increase her peace
footing if her voice was to continue to
lave weight in the European areopa-
gus. The assertion made by the OppO-
sition that Germany did not have sutfi-
Cient men to answer the call for troops
was disproved by the fact that 10000
serviceable men had not been re-
crllited.
Referring to the expense that would
be entailed by the granting Of the gov
ernment's demands, Chancellor Won
Caprivi said that the new taxes that
must necessarily be levied would
be borne on strong shoulders. These
taxes would not touch the middle
classes or the agricultural population.
He could not now, he added,
definitely state the tax plan, but it was
the governments intention to again in
troduce the financial proposals, espec-
tally the one providing for tax on
bOurse transactions.
The Chancellor briefly recapitulated
the leading features of the old measure.
According to this bill the peace effect
i've, excluding commissioned officers
and on-commissioned officers above
the rank of corporal, was to have
consisted of 492, 06S men between Octo-
Der l, 1892, and March 81, 1893. The
strength Of the various branches of the
service during the period mentioned
was to have been III battalions of infan-
try, All squadrons Of cavalry, 494 bat
Z les of field artillery, 81 bat
ia ions of foot artillery, "a battal-
ions of pioneers, seven batallions of
railway troops and twenty-one batalions
of transport. The average strength Of
the standing army was calculated in
accordance with the. principle of
colors of the infadtry. The in
crease involved the expenditure of
66,S00,000 marks in a lump sum. Of
this ampunt, 81 ,000,0 was to have APP
peared in the budget for the financial
wear 1S93-94. The annually recurring
expenditure was fixed at 64,000,000
marks. When the new system should
have been fully developed, Germany
would have, in times Of war, trained
army of 4 100000 men.
These proposals of the government,
the Chancellor added, did not meet
with the approval Of the house, and in
attempting to SO fix the measure that it
would be acceptable to the Reichstag,
the government had accepted the sug-
gestion of Freiherr Won Huene and in
corporated it in the bill, Withdrawing
it's own demands on the points on which
the compromise was effected. The sug-
gestion of Freiherr Won Huene was, as
the house was aware, that the peace
effective should be increased by $4,000
men at once and in the course Of the
next three years should be raised grad
ually until 10000 men, practically
the full number demanded, should
be added to the standing army
1t was also suggested that the sixty bat
teries of field artillery should have four
instead OF SIX guns each. The bill as
thus amended, had been rejected, the
Reichstag dissolved new elections
called, and now the government sub
mitted to the new house measure that
in it's details was practically the old
Huene compromise bill.
Herr Payer, member of the Vols
partei, followed the Chancellor. Herr
Payer declared it was not that the
country had pronounced for nor
did a majority of the house
support the ARMY bill Such
small majority as the government
might obtain would only be secured
through diplomacy.
Freiherr Won Manteuffle, a Conserva-
tive and an active supporter of the
government, said he regretted that
the government had abandoned
its own bill for the Huene
compromise. 1t was impossible for
Germany to be too strong. The riots in
Paris, he added, furnished striking
proof Of this assertion. The mob now
shook and might possibly overthrow
the French government and establish a
regime that might seek strength
foreign diversion.