GERMANY AT WAR

What does Germany look like in this time of war?—This is the question I should like to answer in this article. For a country which is deprived of a large part of its inhabitants, especially of those occupying the foremost places in its different institutions and organizations, must necessarily more or less change its aspect. How many Germans there are in the army now, is difficult to state exactly; five millions may be very near the true number. Not all of these, of course, are on the battle-field; a considerable part, notably the members of the "Landsturm", remain in the country protecting railroad stations and tracks, bridges, etc., or are guarding the prisoner camps. Then there is a slight difference between the single provinces and states of the empire. In some districts, nearly all the men that hive undergone military training, have been called to the arms, and even the classes of the untrained bodies are at present in training. This is the case in most of the border districts. In others not all the classes of the trained "Landsturm" have been mobilized, and the untrained members of the "Landsturm" are still continuing their civil occupations. This is the case especially in the Seventh Army District, the Rheinish-Westfalian industrial region, the most thickly populated spot in Germany, where most of her factories are to be found. Here is also the site of the famous Krupp factories (at Essen).

Many of the factories, mines, and other works are now at a standstill, as a considerable portion of the trained men employed there have gone. In others, there is more work done now than in time of peace, as the army needs many things which are being produced day and night: automobiles, guns, rifles, wearing apparel, etc. As only little exportation is going on, many hitherto well-to-do proprietors and merchants are in a bad position, and many a simple workman, too, who has lost his job, is in a precarious situation. But, erally speaking, there is no misery resulting from lack of work: there are so many vacancies to be filled, and he who wants to work has ample facility to do so. It is true, however, that the American custom of shifting from one occupation to another-hitherto unknown in Germany—is now becoming more and more familiar. At first it was feared that the prisoners of war might take the work from the professional workmen, but the Government has interfered, and our prisoners generally live an idle life, and when I last went to see a camp, I saw them occupied with conversation, smoking, and reading—even of papers edited especially for them in their own tongue.

There is then at.present no economical crisis in Germany. The success of the War Loan has proved that the financial side of the war is all right; no moratorium was necessary. Some people were afraid that lack of food might result from Germany's isolated position, but the Government has already taken measures in this respect. Meat is even cheaper than in former times, and there are ample provisions of grain in the country, sufficient till the next harvest. It is true that you get only a certain amount of benzine or petroleum every time you ask for it at the grocer's and that, as a means of precaution, a certain percentage of potato flour has to be added to the bread since the first of November, and that it is forbidden to feed animals with such kinds of grain as are used for bread.

I do not think that a foreigner visiting Germany would notice that the most terrible war the country has ever experienced is raging at her borders,— but for the extra editions of the newspapers and the smaller number .of trains running (though a peace-time-table has already been reintroduced). I live in a big city on the Rhine—near the Dutch border—but the only thing I see of the war is the regular transport of the wounded soldiers and prisoners passing by in the evening; and for that, too, I must take the trouble to go to the station. Then there is, perhaos, the relatively laree number of soldiers in field grey uniforms which one sees in the streets, admired and envied by the civilian, especially if they wear the Iron Cross.—the sign of bravery on the battlefield. No, the time of the mobilization is gone,—gone the excitement, when everybody looked for spies and traitors ; now the people are calm as before, confident of the bravery of the army and the skill of its leaders, confident, last not least, of the justness of its cause.

Greater has been the change in the intellectual life of the nation. "Ich kenne sine Parteien mehr, ich kenne nur noch Deutsche". This word of the Kaiser characterizes the situation excellently. The old quarrels of Social Democrats and National Liberals, of the Centre Party and the Progressives are forgotten. Pranck, after Bebel's death the intellectual leader of the Social Democracy, fell on the battlefield as one of the first volunteers. As the leaders, so the masses. In their desire to be German, nothing else, they go as far as to banish every foreign word from their language, and rigidly. You do not hear any more "Adieu!", you hear only "guten Tag!"; there exists no more "Adresse", but only an "Anschrift", etc. Most classes in the public schools have their special box into which a penny is put each time a French word is used by pupil or teacher. Everybody wears a badge with the national colors, and' many articles in the household are adorned with a national emblem. Personal quarrels are forgotten, and in the law-courts many cases are suppressed because plaintiff and defendant both prefer giving the sum in question to the Red Cross. You understand the interpretation of the Kaiser's word, cited above, from the lawyer's viewpoint: "Ich kenne keine Parteien mehr!"

It is certainly true that much egotism has disappeared and has given place to a spirit of altruism and idealism. Those who cannot do their duty in the army, offer their services for any public offices or at least contribute their share to the Red Cross and other charitable organizations. A special service has been established for the purpose of conveying every week huge piles of "Liebesgaben" to the troops who are fighting in the front. And is it not a good sign for the nation's spirit that churches and cathedrals are overcrowded?

Let us finally cast a glance at the educational institutions. At first it was feared lest they should have to be closed as many of the teaching staff went to war. But a ministerial decree said that it would not be according to the old tradition that the youth should be idle while the older generation was fighting and suffering for the country's sake. Indeed it proved to be an easier task than was thought to keep schools and universities open. There had been for years such an over-production of students of arts and sciences, and consequently of candidates for the different teaching positions that it was only in very few cases necessary to employ persons without a diploma in the grammar schools, and practically nowhere in the Gymnasien and Realschulen. Another reason for this was that the upper classes,—Oberprima and Unterprima— enlisted in the army and so set several teaching forces free for employment in the other classes. Sometimes two classes were combined and so the situation saved. In university cities, university professors put themselves at the disposal of the Boards of Education. What alumnus would not have gladly returned to his old secondary school where Wilamowitz-Moellendorff now teaches Latin or Harnack religion! If the school building was used for hospital purposes,—this was rare, however, —private rooms were secured. The instruction itself is, of course, inspired with the patriotic wave that goes through everybody's soul; a ministerial decree—everything goes by ministerial decree in Germany—expressly stated the desire that everything might be brought into relation with the great struggle and the tendencies of the time, even at the risk that gaps in the curriculum might result. The themes of the school compositions are, of course, mostly about the war, e.g., "The effect of the declaration of war on our nation", "What does 'civilized' mean?" etc. Patriotic songs are practiced a good deal, the boy scout and war play movement is spreading immensely, and even the boys from 16 to 20 are prepared and trained for their later service by tramps and open air exercises. For those boys who enter the army as volunteers the examination entitling to serve only one year instead of two (Einjaehrig—Freiwillige Examen) as well as that entitling to enter the university (Abiturium) are simplified and the admission conditions made easier. In the girls' schools there is much knitting done for practical purposes; what a number of stockings alone are sent out each week to our soldiers!

In one of our drill-grounds we could see, some time ago, a simple soldier cleaning boots and windows and doing all the common work of a soldier. If you asked one of his comrades what Musketier Philipps—this was his name —was in private life, you would have got the answer: he is professor at the University of Greifswald. For many professors of universities, too, have enlisted, not only those who, the majority, serve as officers of the reserve, but also many volunteers who enter as simple soldiers. Let me tell you here an amusing incident that just happened in our neighborhood. A sergeant was escorting somewhere near the border several French prisoners. Suddenly he is seen wildly gesticulating; it seems as though a fight is going on between him and one of his company. The officer who them asks what the matter is. Then he learns that his sergeant is professor of Romance Philology, that the French soldier is a colleague of his at the Sorbonne, and that the quarrel was about the relative frequency of the subjunctive mood in the old provencal troubadour songs, —his favorite subject.

A great many students, too left their universities. This is best seen by the fraternities; Of course those who even in time of peace like to fight, if only for sport—I refer to the well-known Mensuren, —are the first to enlist as volunteers. Of my fraternity ninety per cent are away. The fine fraternity houses are given to the Red Cross and transformed into hospitals; in the room where the beer banquets were once held, there you find now the beds of the wounded and sick.

The number of students is still further diminished by the official exclusion from schools and universities of those belonging to a nation at war with Germany; but this number has never been very large anywhere. So the universities, notwithstanding the small number of students, have not closed. On the contrary, a new one has been founded, the first municipal university of Germany, that of Frankfort-on-the-Main, so that Germany has now twenty-two instead of twenty-one universities.

All in all, there is then not so much change in the fatherland itself as Americans might think from what I see in the American papers. Still, happy, free America, that may turn her energies to works and occupations of peace, while Europe is aflame! Happy Dartmouth College that helps to construct while others must destroy! Firmly and safely she goes her way; she does not know the thoughts of war that are in the background of everybody's mind this side of the Atlantic. From visions of battles and bloodshed, my thoughts often wander to the tranquil New Hampshire hills, to Dartmouth College that will never feel what her sister institutions in old Europe all, though feebly, feel, the truth of Cicero's word, slightly altered:

Inter arma silent artes.

[Dr. Müller was Prussian Exchange Teacher at Dartmouth for the year 1913-1914, and was appointed instructor in German for the current year. He had gone to Germany for the summer expecting to return to Hanover in September, but on the outbreak of the war he was assigned to educational work at Duisburg, near the Dutch frontier where he still was at last accounts. —EDITOR'S NOTE.]