from the towns 63.88; in 1910 these
figures had fallen to 67.24 and 53.66. In the Second Army Corps the
recruits passed as fit, from the towns, had fallen from 60.74 in 1902
to 50.42 in 1910. In the Fifth Army Corps, of recruits from the towns
the percentage of those passed fell from 60.07 to 46.13. In the Sixth
Army Corps the percentage fell from 50.14 to 43.83. In the Sixteenth
Army Corps from 67.50 to 58.80. In the Eighteenth Army Corps the
recruits from the towns passed as fit had fallen from 60.46 in 1902 to
46.58 in 1910. The average for the whole empire, of those from the
towns passed as fit, had fallen from 53.52 in 1902 to 47.87 in 1910.
The First Army Corps has its head-quarters at Koenigsberg, and recruits
from that neighborhood; the Second Army Corps has its head-quarters at
Stettin, and recruits from Pomerania; the Fifth Army Corps has its
headquarters at Posen, and recruits from Posen and Lower Silesia; the
Sixth Army Corps has its head-quarters at Breslau, and recruits from
Silesia; the Sixteenth Army Corps has its headquarters at Metz, and
recruits from Lorraine; the Eighteenth Army Corps has its head-quarters
at Frankfurt-am-Main, and recruits from that neighborhood.
These figures are enough to make my point, without giving the
statistics for all the twenty-three corps, which is, that in spite of
the precautions taken, the German recruit, especially from the towns,
in whatever part of the country, is losing vigor and stamina.

Even this hard-and-fast arrangement of a bureaucratic government with
a military backbone does not solve all the problems. When one sees,
however, the German school-boy, and the German recruit during the
first weeks of his training, in the barracks and out, and I have
watched thousands of them, and then looks over this same material
after two or three years of training, it is hard to believe that they
are the same, and that even these hard-working officers have been able
to bring about such a change.

Of the charges of brutality and severity I only know what the
statistics tell me, that in an army of over 600,000 men there were
some 500 cases brought to the notice of the superior officers last
year. In 1911 there were 12,919 convictions for crimes and
misdemeanors and 578 desertions. Of the 32,711 common soldiers in the
Saxon army in 1911, 30 committed suicide; in 1909, 29; in 1905, 24; in
1901, 36; that is to say, roughly, one man per thousand. Of the why
and wherefore I canno