on
production in 1911 was eight times as much as in 1871. In wealth,
commerce, coal production, and textile industries, among European
countries, Germany was second only to Great Britain; while in the
production of iron and steel Germany had passed Great Britain and was
second only to the United States.

But this great industrial and commercial advance was not accompanied
with a corresponding liberality in government. The constitution of the
German Empire gave very large powers to the emperor, and very little
power to the representatives of the people. Prussia, the dominant state
in the empire, had an antiquated system of voting which rated men's
votes according to the taxes they paid, and placed political power in
the hands of a small number of capitalists and wealthy landowners,
especially the Junkers (yoong'kerz), or Prussian nobles. The educational
system, while giving a rudimentary education to all, was really designed
to keep large masses of the people subject to the military group, the
government officials, and the capitalists. Blind devotion to the emperor
and belief in the necessity of future war in order to increase German
prosperity, were widely taught. The "mailed fist" was clenched, and "the
shining sword" rattled in the scabbard whenever Germany thought the
other nations of Europe showed her a lack of respect. Enormous
preparations for war were made in order that Germany might gain from her
neighbors the "place in the sun" which she was determined upon. Other
nations were to be pushed aside or be broken to pieces in order that the
German "super-men" might enjoy all that they wished of this world's
goods and possessions.

AUSTRIA-HUNGARY.--The Austro-Hungarian Monarchy in 1910 had a
population of 49,000,000, made up of peoples and races who spoke
different languages and had different customs, habits, and ideals. These
races, instead of being brought under unifying influences as foreigners
are in the United States, had for centuries retained their
peculiarities. Germans comprised 24 per cent of the total population;
Hungarians, 20 per cent; Slavic races (including Bohemians, Poles, South
Slavs, and others), 45 per cent; Roumanians, over 6 per cent; and
Italians less than 2 per cent. The Germans and Hungarians, although only
a minority of the total population, had long exercised political control
over the others and by repressive measures had tried to stamp out their
schools, newspapers, and languages. Unre