German Empire

a union of twenty-six north German states and cities, dating from April 16, 1871. According to the constitution, it was the intention of these states to "form an eternal union for the protection of the realm and the care of the welfare of the German people." The empire consists of the kingdoms of Prussia, Bavaria, Saxony, and Wurtemberg, six grand duchies, five duchies, seven principalities, three free towns, and the province of Alsace-Lorraine. The supreme direction of the military and political affairs of the empire is vested in the king of Prussia and his successors under the title of the German emperor. William I, king of Prussia, became the first emperor. The emperor has power to declare war and to conclude peace. GOVERNMENT. There are two legislative bodies. The Bundesrath, or Federal Council is composed of 58 members, appointed by the governments of the several states. Each state has at least one member. Prussia has seventeen. The second legislative body is the Reichstag, composed of 397 members, one for each 131,000 inhabitants. The members of the Reichstag are elected by universal suffrage for a term of five years. The empire has about 12,000,000 voters. Somewhat less than 8,000,000 votes are actually cast. Of the 397 districts, 252 are under ordinary circumstances Protestant. The remainder are Roman Catholic. The emperor is assisted by over fourteen secretaries. They do not, however, form a ministry or cabinet, but act independently under the general supervision of the chancellor. The first chancellor of the empire was Bismarck.

AREA AND POPULATION. The total area of the empire, including Alsace-Lorraine, is given by the Statesman's Year Book at 208,830 square miles. It is nearly as large as Texas. The total population in 1900 was returned at 56,367,178, an average of nearly 270 per square mile. Of the total population about 5,000,000 do not speak German. They are Poles, Wends, French, Czechs, Danes, Dutch, Italian, English, and Walloons. Of 2,000,000 births a year, there are 60,000 more boys than girls. The annual emigration to other countries, taken for a considerable period of time, ranges from 20,000 to 35,000 a year. Eighty percent of these emigrants go to the United States. Hamburg, Antwerp, and Rotterdam are the principal ports of departure. Berlin, the capital, is the largest city in the empire. Humburg, Munich, Leipsic, Breslau, Dresden, Cologne, Frankfurt, and Nuremberg follow in the order named. There are 33 cities having a population in excess of 100,000. There are 12,703 newspapers and periodicals. A fourth of them are published in languages other than German.

EDUCATION. Education is compulsory in all the states of the empire. As a rule, the school age is from six to fourteen. The schools differ greatly in character. The rural population lives almost entirely in villages. The village schools and the schools provided for the poorer people in the cities charge a very slight tuition. Each teacher is assigned a large number of pupils. The instruction is meager. The children have little reading in school and no juvenile papers or library facilities. The schools drill them in the duties of obedience, industry, and piety, but little attempt is made to make the children intelligent. Schools of a more efficient character are provided for those who are able and willing to pay a slightly higher tuition, and above these are the gymnasia, and the other high schools for boys for which Germany is famous. Some are classical schools; others are scientific. The high school course consists of nine years. It extends to what we would call our junior year in college. There are twenty-one universities in the German Empire. Over 50,000 students are in attendance; 300 from America. Upon the completion of a preparatory course the student may enter any one of these universities and choose his own line of study. In the university instruction is given almost entirely by means of lectures. A professor holds his position for life. He is not expected to cover much ground, or to lecture too freely. In this way he becomes a thorough student in his own chosen field. This feature has given Germany the reputation for the highest scholarship in the world. The student is free, in return for a small fee, to attend any course of lectures he may choose, or to neglect his work, as he may see fit. In order to attain admission to any of the learned professions, however, he must pass a final examination. This day of reckoning is quite sufficient to keep the great body of students steadily at work. There are also normal schools. No one can begin teaching until he has graduated from one of these or from a university. Teachers are appointed by the government as postmasters are appointed in this country. They hold their positions for life, or until they are promoted.

PUBLIC UTILITIES. The general government and the various states own nearly all the railroads. The government manages the postal, the telegraph, the telephone, and the express business. Telegrams and expressage are very much cheaper than in this country. One can send a heavy valise half way across the empire for a few cents. The government derives a part of its income from these sources. It also levies duties on foreign goods brought into the empire.

MILITARY. The total frontier length of the empire is 4,570 miles. Large sums have been expended in the construction of defensive fortifications, both around the coast and inland. There are seventeen forts of the first class and nineteen minor fortresses. All ablebodied men between the ages of seventeen and forty-five are liable to military service in case of invasion. Beginning with the completion of his seventeenth year, every German man capable of bearing arms is required to serve in the army for six years. Two of these must be spent in active service, and the remaining four in the army of the reserve. A very large number of wage earners are thus withdrawn from industrial life. A third of a million young men reach the age of military service each year. As a matter of fact, the government is unable to feed and drill all of them, so that some are allowed to remain at home and work. Many young men, especially those living near the border, emigrate secretly to other countries in order to escape military service. In time of peace the empire keeps half a million men under arms; two and one-half million more may be called upon at any moment.

AGRICULTURE. To an American Germany seems a sad, cloudy country. The sunniest district, that about Jena, has an average of 4.8 hours of sunshine daily. The cloudiest districts are said to be at Aix-la-Chapelle and Hamburg. Germany is essentially an agricultural country. Over one-third of the people are engaged in agricultural pursuits; ninety-two per cent of the entire country is classed as productive. This, however, includes not only arable land, vineyards, pastures, and meadows, but groves and forests as well. The principal crops named in order of area are rye, hay, oats, potatoes, wheat, barley, grapes, hops, and tobacco. In many parts of the country the roads are shaded by fruit trees. Whether the people are afraid to take fruit, or are trained to leave it alone, as a matter of fact tempting fruit trees stand unmolested even in the vicinity of village schoolhouses.

Owing to a system of dividing land equally among all the children of the family, the fields of Germany seem very small. The roads follow usually the valleys. The meadows rise from the stream to the road. The fields lie on the opposite side of the road. They stretch like ribbons up the hillside to the forest land, or to the boundary line which separates them from fields coming up the opposite slope. As subdivision goes on from generation to generation, the fields become narrower and narrower. It has been found necessary in some provinces to enact a law that they shall not be subdivided after they become too narrow for an animal to turn around on them.

When young people marry and begin farming it may be that their joint inheritance comprises fifteen or twenty strips no wider than a wagon track, inherited from as many great grandparents, and scattered over a district two or three parishes in extent. By a system of exchanges it is possible, of course, to bring the holdings of a family more nearly together. When, however, the holdings in a country side become too confusing it is customary for the government to step in. Each owner is given a receipt for as many acres of meadow, field, and forest as his entire holdings amount to. All boundary lines are then obliterated, and the entire section of country surveyed and reallotted to the different owners in proportion to their various claims.

The fields are well tilled, and are highly productive. Methods of work, however, seem exceedingly crude. More women than men are seen in the fields. Plowing is done not infrequently with the family cows, or if there be but one cow to a family, neighboring women unite their forces and exchange work. The grain is cut, usually, with rude cradles and tied into bundles. It is carried home frequently on the backs of its owners to be threshed and winnowed there. When a couple start homeward at noon it is not unusual to see the wife toiling beneath the huge heap of bundles, while her husband shuffles along in wooden shoes at her side, steadying the pile with his wooden pitchfork. Not infrequently, however, the grain is taken home in a rude cart drawn by the cow.

Notwithstanding an uneventful life of toil and small means, the people appear on the whole contented. The government has, of late, been at great pains to provide a system of pensions for all wage earners. Anyone who is industrious and behaves himself is certain of being taken care of in reasonable comfort in his old age.

The empire is rich in coal and useful ores. Of late manufacturing has grown very rapidly. Steel, woolen, linen, cotton and silk goods, beet root sugar, glass, porcelain, earthenware, woodenware, and beer are the chief articles produced.

The German Empire is a federation with a written constitution, as is the case of the United States, but the federating states are nearly all monarchies, and the presidency--the emperorship--is hereditary. The assent of the Bundesrath is necessary to the enactment of a law, but the real legislative body is the single chamber of the Reichstag. The composition of the empire is:

Kingdoms-- Area. Population (1905) Members in Bundesrath. Members in Reichstag.

Total, 26. . . . . . . 208,780 60,641,278 58 397

STATISTICS. The following statistics are the latest to be had from trustworthy sources:

See Prussia; Saxony; Baden; Hanover; Bavaria; Berlin; Leipsic; Hamburg; Cologne; Frankfurt; Bremen; Nuremberg; Dresden; Strasburg; Rhine; Black Forest; Forestry; University; Franco-Prussian War; Bismarck; Humboldt; Toys