“Kultur” in Brief Statistical Form.—A brief statistical abstract of comparative data which vitally illustrates German “kultur” before the war, has been compiled by D. Trietsch and published by Lehmann of Munich under the title of “Germany: A Statistical Stimulant.”
| Basis of Comparison | Germany | England | France | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Standard of civilization: | ||||
| Illiterates among every 10,000 recruits | 2 | 100 | 320 | |
| Expenditure for education in million dollars | 219 | 96 | 65.25 | |
| Books published (1912) | 34,800 | 12,100 | 9,600 | |
| Nobel prizes for scientific achievements | 14 | 3 | 3 | |
| Economy and public intercourse: | ||||
| Grain harvest in million tons | 25.8 | 6.10 | 16.6 | |
| Production of wheat in hectares | 23.6 | 21.0 | 13.3 | |
| Potato harvest in million tons | 54.0 | 6.8 | 16.7 | |
| Foreign trade (not including colonies), in million dollars | 2.51 | 1.71 | 1.18 | |
| Post offices, in thousands, 1912 | 51.2 | 24.5 | 14.6 | |
| Telephones, in thousands, 1912 | 1310 | 733 | 304 | |
| State of prosperity, etc.: | ||||
| Public wealth, in billion dollars, 1914 | 53.75 | 86.25 | 61.25 | |
| Annual income in billion dollars | 10.75 | 8.75 | 6.25 | |
| Saving bank deposits, in billion dollars, 1911 | 4,475 | 1,175 | 1,125 | |
| Aver. savings bank deposits, in dollars | 200 | 82.25 | 78 | |
| Taxes, dollars, per capita | 10 | 18.25 | 20 | |
| State of peace and amount of armament: | ||||
| Number of years of war between 1800 and 1896 | 12 | 21 | 27 | |
| Expenditure for armament in 1913, in dollars, per capita | 5.46 | 8.26 | 7.46 | |
Knobel, Caspar.
Knobel, Caspar.—It was Caspar Knobel, a German-American, eighteen years of age, who, in command of a detachment of fourteen men of the Fourth Michigan Cavalry, arrested President Jefferson Davis of the Southern Confederacy, near Abbeville, Ga., and it was a German-American, Maj. August Thieman, who was in command of Fortress Monroe while Mr. Davis was confined there. Knobel, after two days’ march without food, discovered the camp of the Confederate leader, and, throwing back the flap of his tent, placed him under arrest. He received a part of the reward offered by the Union for President Davis’ capture, and was given a gold medal. (Washington “Herald,” May 10, 1908.) Maj. August Thieman died at Valentine, Nebr., in utter destitution. He had served as an enlisted man and officer continuously for over forty-two years. His record, on file in the War Department, shows that he took active part in 242 battles, and was wounded seven times. He served in the United States, Mexico, Egypt, and other places, and held autograph letters from, and was well acquainted with Lincoln, Davis and Stonewall Jackson. It was Gov. Thieman who was in charge of Fortress Monroe while Mr. Davis and his family were prisoners there.
Know Nothing or American Party.
Know Nothing or American Party.—A political party which came into prominence in 1853. Its fundamental principle was that the government of the country should be in the hands of native citizens. At first it was organized as a secret oath bound fraternity; and from their professions of ignorance in regard to it, its members received the name of Know Nothings. In 1856 it nominated a presidential ticket, but disappeared about 1859, its Northern adherents becoming Republicans, while most of its Southern members joined the short-lived Constitutional Union party. It was preceded by the Native American party, formed about 1842, an organization based on hostility to the participation of foreign immigrants in American politics, and to the Roman Catholic Church. In 1844 it carried the city elections in New York and Philadelphia, and elected a number of Congressmen. It disappeared within a few years, after occasioning destructive riots against Catholics in Philadelphia and other places. In St. Louis a Know Nothing mob, led by E. C. Z. Judson (“Ned Buntline”), attempted to destroy Turner Hall, the German Athletic Club, but was easily repelled by a group of resolute Germans, who guarded the approaches by stationing guns at the four street corners and riflemenon top of the adjacent houses. T. W. Barnes, in his life of Thurlow Weed, writes: “If a member of the order was asked about its practices, he answered that he knew nothing about them, and ‘Americans’ for that reason soon came to be called Know Nothings!”
Koerner, Gustav.
Koerner, Gustav.—One of the most conspicuous fighters in the Civil War period, “whose important life is well documented,” Prof. A. B. Faust, of Cornell University, says, “in his two-volume memoirs. They furnish abundant evidence of the fact, well established by recent historical monographs, that the balance of power securing the election of Lincoln, with all its far-reaching consequences, lay with the German vote of the Middle West. Koerner’s modesty and unselfishness were extraordinary. He repeatedly sacrificed his chance for political preferment in deference to others less capable, and he surprised his political friends at the opening of the war by refusing high military rank, because, he said, he had not had the training needed for an officer. Koerner was elected lieutenant-governor of the State of Illinois, 1853-56, and in 1861 was appointed by Lincoln to succeed Schurz as minister to Spain. Koerner had the honor of being one of Lincoln’s pall-bearers, for few men had been closer to the martyr President before the election. Schurz, Koerner and Lieber,” declares Prof. Faust, “represent at their best, the idealism and independence, the honest, unselfish patriotism, and the intelligent action of the Germans in American politics. Their existence in American politics had not been marked by the holding of many offices, but on great national issues their presence has always been strongly felt. In the fact that they were not seeking anything for themselves lay their strength, their independence and their power for good. The independent voter is the despair of the politician and the salvation of the country.”
Kudlich, Dr. Hans, the Peasant Emancipator.
Kudlich, Dr. Hans, the Peasant Emancipator.—The name of Dr. Hans Kudlich has been coupled with that of Abraham Lincoln as “the great emancipator.” Through measures carried by him through the Austrian Parliament, attended with revolutionary outbreaks, violence and bloodshed—he himself being wounded in the struggle—14,000,000 Austrian peasants were finally relieved from serfdom.Dr. Kudlich fled to the United States in 1854 and died at Hoboken, N. J., November 11, 1917, aged 94.