000, an increase of 500 per cent.; the
cases of heart disease and rheumatism increased by 600 per cent.;
while the total population had increased 33 per cent. There are
125,000 patients admitted to the public and private lunatic asylums of
Germany, and there are accommodations in public and private hospitals
for 1,300,000 in-patients passing through them in the year; in 1909,
544,183 persons were tried before the courts of first instance and
convicted, of whom 49,697 were between twelve and eighteen years of
age; and in the same year there were 183,700 illegitimate births and
14,225 suicides, or 22.3 per 100,000 of the population. The poor law
authorities state that the cost to the empire of alcoholism in all its
forms of poverty, crime, and disease amounts to some $13,000,000 a
year. In 1910 Germany consumed 1,704 million gallons of malt liquors,
the United States, 1,851 million gallons; of beer we consumed 20.09
gallons and Germany 26.47 gallons per capita. Germany's drink bill
even ten years ago was $560,000,000 for beer, $140,000,000 for
spirits, and $125,000,000 for wine. There is a wine, beer, or spirit
dealer in Berlin for every 157 of the inhabitants, men, women, and
children. It has always been the avowed policy of autocracies to atone
for the lack of political freedom by lax regulations in regard to
moral matters. The citizen is imprisoned for insulting the state, but
he may insult his own person by dissipation up to any limit, this side
of disorderliness in public. Drinking, gambling, and other forms of
vice are provided for the citizens of Berlin comfortably and,
comparatively speaking, cheaply. Lotteries are sanctioned by all the
states, and they use this incentive to the worst form of gambling for
all sorts of purposes, from repairing churches to building patriotic
monuments, and replenishing the treasury.

This is by no means an attack upon Germany or upon German methods in
these matters; probably both in America and in England we are worse
off in these respects than are they, but unprejudiced people will
agree that it is high time to learn that not even German methods have
solved these complicated and heatedly argued questions of social
reform. Germany, due to its compactness and well-drilled and
subservient population, should succeed if any nation can, for social
legislation has never been in stronger or wiser hands or more
admirably and honestly administered. In America such opportunities
offered to t