The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1903-06-27
GERMANY BOARDING
$3O,OOO,QO0 GOLD
i, TO USE IN WAR FUND
Portion of Indemnity Received
From France Lies Idle Await
ing Time When kaiser'sArmy
VIII Need 1t.

BERLIN, June 25-While other up
|, to-date nations rely upon prosaic things
like congressional appropriations and
treasury SURPRISES, Germany has had
$30,000.000 in idle, glittering gold
boarded for thirty years in great iron
boxes for the sole purpose of launch
ing her mighty army and navy against
the first enemy that dares to chal-
lenge the kaiser's legions to battle.
The cash is in German eoin-ten and
ttwenty- pieces--but it is French
money, being part of the colossal in
demnity of $1e0os0o0,0Oe which Bis.
marck and Moltke wrung from the
humbled Frenchmen at the end of the
war of 1870-71. Having won that cam
paign because of the merciless, dazing
rapidity with which they bounced upon
the French at the beginning of hostil-
tiles, the Germans thought it grimly
appropriate that the fruits of their
victory should supply the means with
which similarly to crush their next
great antagonist
| This bagatelle of 10000, 600 amarks,
does not, of course, represent the funds
upon which Germany would solely rely
| in war time. 1t is, in fact, only her
mobilization money. She expects 1T to
| last but six days-just long enough to
equip the whole nation for actual
fighting At a. cost of $5,000,600t a
day for that length of time the Ger
man war managers figure that they
could arm to the teeth every mile of
Germanys frontier and coast with
men, guns and ships enough to offer
| Irresistible defense and crushing at
tack.
The war chest Is contained. in the
historic julius tower at Spandau, a
fortified town, fifteen miles out of Ber-
! lin, which constitutes the capitals
strategic point of defense on the west.
| Spandau has a stirring military his
tory. It was saxagely attacked by the
Russians and Alstrians in the Seven
Years War, but gallantly and sue
cessfulIy defended by the grenadiers of
Frederick the Great. In 1906, however,
coward Prussian commander sur
| rendered it without a defense to the
| troops of Napoleon, who held it for
nearly year. Again, in 1912, French
soldiers held the town during 'Napo-
| Icons retreat from Moscow over Ber-
| lin. Prussian troops under Maj. Gen.
Thueme subjected Spandau to a ter
rife ten days bombardment in 1913.
at the end of which most of the town
was destroyed and the French driven
| out.
| The Julius tower and the fortress in
which it stands are five or six hundred
| years old, having been erected in the
| days of the mark of Brandenburg by
Albrecht the Bear. The tower was
| formerly known as the "Judenturm,"
| because it was first in charge of
Jewish custodian. Although the earth
| Notifications of Spandau are now in
! process of gradual demolition, being
| too vulnerable for modern artillery, the
town is heavily garrisoned and alive
with the troops of two infantry regi-
ments and one regiment of field artil-
! lery. 1t is also the seat of several
great arsenals and ammunition works.
The war chest was Bismarck's idea.
In 1874, after the cost of the French
campaign had been provided for, the
Iron Chancellor determined to devote
the surplus of the Indemnity to an IN
violable mobilization fund for the Ger
Emany army, ana the citadel of Span
| dau fortress was schosen as a fitting
receptacle. The fortress stands upon
La picturesque wooded island at the
| junction of the rivers Havel and Spree,
and is approached by old-fashioned
drawbridges. Atone end of the fortress
rises the unpretentious red brick julius
tower, circular pile some twenty-five
feet in diameterand sixty feet high, in
which the great boarding of cash is
kept.
The money is packed in 1900 wood
en-, iron-bound boxes, each containing
| 100, 900 marks and weighing 1N 107
pounds. The tower includes two stories,
Enclosed within thick stone walls,
! Three immense iron doors lead to the
rooms in which the gold is stored. Each
door has two different keys, which are
in the keeping of different men, so that
the money can only be viewed in the
presence of six persons with the keys
to the various locks.
The precious keys are In the custody
Ofsthe imperial chancellor, the secre-
ltary Of the treasury. the commanding