THE SOCIAL AND POLITICAL SIGNIFICANCE OF ARMING FOR WAR Germany has great national and historical duties of policy and culture to fulfil, and her path towards further progress is threatened by formidable enmities.

If we realize this, we shall see that it will be impossible to maintain our present position and secure our future without an appeal to arms.
Knowing this, as every man must who impartially considers the political situation, we are called upon to prepare ourselves as well as possible for this war.

The times are passed when a stamp of the foot raised an army, or when it was sufficient to levy the masses and lead them to battle.

The armaments of the present day must be prepared in peace-time down to the smallest detail, if they are to be effective in time of need.
Although this fact is known, the sacrifices which are required for warlike preparations are no longer so willingly made as the gravity of the situation demands.

Every military proposal is bitterly contested in the Reichstag, frequently in a very petty spirit, and no one seems to understand that an unsuccessful war would involve our nation in economic misery, with which the most burdensome charges for the army (and these for the most part come back again into the coffers of the country) cannot for an instant be compared.