Show COST OF ARMIES AND NAVIES An eastern paper calls attention to the fact that the appropriations for the army this y year ar are arc for the nn navy a total of which is within 1 a fe few millions of the thc militar military mili mili- tar tary and naval expenditures of the German empire for the year ear ending March 21 1908 We Ve have a total enlisted strength in the army of staff and line The peace strength of the German arm army includes about abon combatants of all ranks s. This paper says sas ours is a peaceable republic while Germany is a great military empire and concludes that a mark goes farther in German Germany than titan a dollar i in the United States I We Ye think the matter can be explained easily i enough As we understand it all Germans of good physical condition are subject to serve in the army a given length of time They are not paid any sal sal- ary They lher have rations and uniforms but no salary and when they g go about the country the people keep them It is consi considered ered a great honor to receive that military training and one who goes through with it we we believe for three years years and and gets out with an all honorable discharge has hns a better chan chance e for employment employment employment em em- than the ordinary civilian If 11 our soldiers were ivere serving without pa pay and if jf they were living in great part on the country the arm army expenses certainly would be greatly reduced Then during the last few years Jears man many regiments each year have to be transported to Manila and other regiments brought back The same has been true of of Cuba for the last two years rears and it is a thirty day voyage oage as a n rule between Manila and San Francisco Fran Fran- cisco and the cost of running ships is very er great greot We Ye presume that Germany is building her ships at about half what ours cost but hut that is simply a question in the cost of labor and we suspect the coal miner the iron miner the men who work before the furnaces and in the ship yards of Germany as a arule arule arule rule receive only about one half of what Americans engaged in iii the same business receive If the cost is isY Y very rr great grent it will be Ie a sad day liar for this country when the thc cost is reduced to what it is in iii Germany German for it requires not only the the most scientific management ement but the most absolute 1 thrift for the Germans to get alon along T True Trite they have been heen making a u great deal of money this last few years through their merchant marine and 1111 their magnificent inn manufactures They put up goods in ill the best form of any my country in the world their ships carry them where they can be sold In foreign ports the they have Q trained merchants who know the language and the customs of or the people and the whole matter is reduced to straight business I while our country looks on remembering that the only visible reason wh why the nations in many parts of this world know lalow that ours is a country and ural has liliS a atla flair flag is because the they thea saw a ath th the fla flair on tile battleships that recently rounded the earth |