In the way of the payment of the national debts of Europe her standing armies and navies rear themselves like an impassable wall. Against any general educational system they have hitherto constituted an insurmountable barrier; and in the future, as in the past, their maintenance dooms the masses to illiteracy. They stand in the way especially of the incorporation, in the curriculum of the public schools, of the manual element in education, because it is the most expensive, as it is the most important part of instruction.
Germany affords an admirable example of the power of education, even though defective in character, and of the disgust with which standing armies inspire an intelligent people. The Germans are the best-educated people in Europe. The educational system of Germany was established by Prussia as a politico-economic measure after the humiliation of the German States by Bonaparte. Said Frederick William, “Though territory, power, and prestige be lost, they can be regained by acquiring intellectual and moral power.” The outcome of the Franco-Prussian war of 1870 verified the truth of this prediction. Her freedom from debt enabled Prussia to inaugurate and carry forward a comprehensive educational system, which in turn enabled her not only to vanquish her ancient enemy, but to make France pay the cost of her own humiliation. Thus at a single stroke Prussia avenged the defeats suffered at the hands of the first Napoleon, and permanently weakened France by compelling her vastly to increase her national debt.
The alacrity with which the French people subscribed for the new bonds was much remarked upon, at the time, as evincing both financial soundness and patriotism. But the really grave feature of the situation—the vast augmentation of the public burdens of France—was scarcely mentioned, and was, perhaps, philosophically considered only by that astute statesman, Prince Bismarck. The war with Germany cost France $2,000,000,000, and compelled an enormous increase of taxation. The debt statement for 1877 was $4,635,000,000—the expenditures $533,000,000; and of this latter sum $373,000,000 were absorbed by the army, the navy, and the national debt!
The significant feature of the European situation is the freedom from debt of Germany. It is by virtue of this fact that she holds the first place in Europe. Her rate of taxation is as low as that of little Switzerland. All the other Great Powers are hampered by great debts. Spain is bankrupt; she does not pay the interest on her debt. Austria increases her debt every year; she is practically bankrupt. It is only a question of time, if standing armies and navies continue to be maintained and wars to occur, when all the debtor nations will be reduced to bankruptcy.[87] The nation sinks as the column of debt rises. France cannot double her debt again and make her people pay interest on it. England draws from her citizens a larger per capita revenue than any other nation of Europe, except France, and she has nearly touched the limit of their capacity to pay taxes. A sudden and considerable increase of her debt would strain the Government, and might shatter it.
[87] “The progress of the enormous debts which at present oppress, and will in the long run probably ruin, all the great Nations of Europe, has been pretty uniform.”—“Wealth of Nations,” Vol. III., p. 392. By Adam Smith, LL.D., F.R.S. Edinburgh, 1819.
Thus, the more searching the analysis of the European situation, the more clear does the exceptional strength of Germany appear. But out of her abundant strength a weakness has been evolved. The system of education that rendered the Germans so powerful against France as soldiers, has made them thoughtful citizens. It has revolutionized the public sentiment of Germany on the subject of government. In the place of passion it has substituted reason. The Prussian “subject” for whom the king thought, has become a German citizen who thinks for himself, and one of his earliest reflections is that, in modern civilization, a standing army is a solecism. The ignorant Prussian hated the French because hatred of them was enjoined upon him as the correlative of the duty of blind devotion to his king. But the educated German knows that the sole motive of the continuance of the standing army is the maintenance of the balance of power, which is merely a tacit agreement between the European rulers, by divine right, to perpetuate their own lease of power. Hence the “intellectual and moral power” conferred upon the German people, by education, reacts upon Germany in the form of a drain of the flower of her population by emigration.
The citizenship of Germany is more valuable, in an economic sense, than that of any other country of Europe—more valuable because Germany is the most powerful nation of the European family of States; more valuable because of them all she alone is free from debt; more valuable by reason of her more moderate scale of taxation. But she still furnishes the heaviest contingent to the column of emigration steadily moving towards the United States. In a word, the most valuable citizenship in Europe—that of Germany—is least regarded and most freely surrendered. Why? Because the Germans are the best-educated people in Europe. Poor as the German primary school system is, it is universal, and it has destroyed what it was founded chiefly to promote and perpetuate, namely, reverence for, and loyalty to, government by Divine right. German intelligence revolts from taxation for the support of a standing army. It revolts from the theory and policy of hate upon which standing armies are based. It comprehends perfectly that the standing army is a menace to the freedom of the citizen, at home, rather than a defence against pretended danger from abroad. It scorns, as absurd, the threadbare assumption that Englishmen, Frenchmen, Italians, Russians, and Germans desire to fly at one another’s throats, and that they can be restrained only by a cordon of bayonets.[E28] It realizes that the perpetuation of the era of hate, through the standing army, retards the mental and physical progress of the human race, which would be greatly promoted by the free intermingling of the various nationalities of Europe.[88] That it is from the standing army that the emigrant flees is shown by the records of the military department of the German government.
[88] The multiplicity of languages is due to the policy of international hate, inaugurated by the nations of Europe to promote the selfish purposes of rulers. Barbarism is diversity; civilization is unity. The human race is one, provided it is civilized, and it should have but one language. Language is a tool, and time consumed in acquiring skill in the use of more than one tool designed for the same end, is wasted. The standing armies of Europe obstruct the way to unity of language. The time will come when all civilized peoples will speak one tongue, probably the English. Then language will cease to be a mere vain accomplishment, and become what it ought always to have been, the simple means of familiarizing the mind with things, and of the communication of knowledge.
In the year 1883 twenty-nine thousand men were arrested for attempting to emigrate from Germany to avoid the required military service, and more than a hundred thousand others, from whom service was due, refused, both to report for duty, and to furnish the required excuses for the failure to enroll themselves.
The law of Germany requires every male citizen, capable of bearing arms, to serve three years in the standing army—to devote three of the best years of his life to the preservation of the balance of power in Europe! In addition, he must serve four years in the reserve, and five years in the landwehr. And this service is regarded as a debt due the government. Every male child born in Germany contracts this debt, in contemplation of law, in the act of drawing his first breath, and nothing but death releases him from the obligation. Having been taught in the emperor’s schools to love the emperor, when he reaches the military age, a musket is placed in his hands, and he is taught to shoot the emperor’s enemies. If he refuses to enter the army he is fined; if he refuses to pay the fine he is imprisoned.