ong guarantee of peace."

Wermuth, said by impartial judges to be the ablest secretary of the
treasury the German Empire has had in a quarter of a century, resigned
in 1912, on the general ground that he would not be responsible for
the finances of the empire, if it was proposed to continue the
constant increase of national expenditure, by a constant increase of
borrowing, and an ever-increasing amount of interest-bearing
liabilities. He must have smiled to himself when an Imperial issue at
four per cent. put out in February, 1913, was not only not over-subscribed
but not even all taken.

Unlike the French, who invest their
savings small and large in national loans, the Germans neglect even
their own national loans, preferring the higher returns for their
investments from the innumerable industries launched in modern
Germany; so pronounced is this form of investment, that a director of
the Deutsche Bank has warned his countrymen, that every month's
profits are no sooner gained than they are put out again in new
enterprises, either by the individuals themselves, or by the banks in
which they are deposited. As a result, the liquid capital at the
disposal of Germany is dangerously out of proportion to her borrowings
and her working capital. It shows a fine confidence in the future, and
it proves what needs no proof: the immense industrial and commercial
progress, and the immense sea-carrying trade of Germany. Germany is
like a man with $1,000 in the bank to check upon, but doing business
with $100,000 of borrowed capital, upon which he must pay interest,
and out of which he must take his running expenses. Such a one has no
provision for a bad year, and must depend upon more credit in case of
trouble; and in the case of Germany, it may be added, his personal and
family expenses have largely increased. The German imperial debt had
increased during the first twenty-two years of the present Emperor's
reign, or from 1888 to 1910, by $1,040,000,000, and of that sum some
$650,000,000 were added in the ten years from 1900 to 1910, when
Germany was building her fleet.

Between the years 1905 and 1910 the total export trade of Germany
increased by $408,225,000, but the whole of the increase was due to
the heavier forms of manufactures: machinery, iron ware, coal-tar
dyes, iron wire, steel rails, and raw iron. The increasing competition
is shown by the fact that during those same years her exports of the
finer manufactures, such