Germany and the Next War | Page 3

CHAPTER XIV
FINANCIAL AND POLITICAL PREPARATION FOR WAR
Duties of the State in regard to war preparations--The State and
national credit--The financial capacity of Germany--Necessity of new
sources of revenue--The imperial right of inheritance--Policy of
interests and alliances--Moulding and exploitation of the political
situation--The laws of political conduct--Interaction of military and
political war preparations--Political preparations for our next
war--Governing factors in the conduct of German policy
EPILOGUE
The latest political events--Conduct of the German Imperial

Government --The arrangement with France--Anglo-French relations
and the attitude of England--The requirements of the situation

GERMANY AND THE NEXT WAR

INTRODUCTION
The value of war for the political and moral development of mankind
has been criticized by large sections of the modern civilized world in a
way which threatens to weaken the defensive powers of States by
undermining the warlike spirit of the people. Such ideas are widely
disseminated in Germany, and whole strata of our nation seem to have
lost that ideal enthusiasm which constituted the greatness of its history.
With the increase of wealth they live for the moment, they are
incapable of sacrificing the enjoyment of the hour to the service of
great conceptions, and close their eyes complacently to the duties of
our future and to the pressing problems of international life which
await a solution at the present time.
We have been capable of soaring upwards. Mighty deeds raised
Germany from political disruption and feebleness to the forefront of
European nations. But we do not seem willing to take up this
inheritance, and to advance along the path of development in politics
and culture. We tremble at our own greatness, and shirk the sacrifices it
demands from us. Yet we do not wish to renounce the claim which we
derive from our glorious past. How rightly Fichte once judged his
countrymen when he said the German can never wish for a thing by
itself; he must always wish for its contrary also.
The Germans were formerly the best fighting men and the most warlike
nation of Europe. For a long time they have proved themselves to be
the ruling people of the Continent by the power of their arms and the
loftiness of their ideas. Germans have bled and conquered on countless
battlefields in every part of the world, and in late years have shown that
the heroism of their ancestors still lives in the descendants. In striking
contrast to this military aptitude they have to-day become a
peace-loving--an almost "too" peace-loving--nation. A rude shock is
needed to awaken their warlike instincts, and compel them to show
their military strength.
This strongly-marked love of peace is due to various causes.

It springs first from the good-natured character of the German people,
which finds intense satisfaction in doctrinaire disputations and
partisanship, but dislikes pushing things to an extreme. It is connected
with another characteristic of the German nature. Our aim is to be just,
and we strangely imagine that all other nations with whom we
exchange relations share this aim. We are always ready to consider the
peaceful assurances of foreign diplomacy and of the foreign Press to be
no less genuine and true than our own ideas of peace, and we
obstinately resist the view that the political world is only ruled by
interests and never from ideal aims of philanthropy. "Justice," Goethe
says aptly, "is a quality and a phantom of the Germans." We are always
inclined to assume that disputes between States can find a peaceful
solution on the basis of justice without clearly realizing what
international justice is.
An additional cause of the love of peace, besides those which are
rooted in the very soul of the German people, is the wish not to be
disturbed in commercial life.
The Germans are born business men, more than any others in the world.
Even before the beginning of the Thirty Years' War, Germany was
perhaps the greatest trading Power in the world, and in the last forty
years Germany's trade has made marvellous progress under the
renewed expansion of her political power. Notwithstanding our small
stretch of coast-line, we have created in a few years the second largest
merchant fleet in the world, and our young industries challenge
competition with all the great industrial States of the earth. German
trading-houses are established all over the world; German merchants
traverse every quarter of the globe; a part, indeed, of English wholesale
trade is in the hands of Germans, who are, of course, mostly lost to
their own country. Under these conditions our national wealth has
increased with rapid strides.
Our trade and our industries--owners no less than employés--do not
want this development to be interrupted. They believe that peace is the
essential condition of commerce. They assume that free competition
will be conceded to us, and do not reflect