German Air Fleets To Cost $37,500,000.

New York Times 100 years ago today, March 30, 1913:
Proposed Expenditures for Airships for the Army and Navy Astonish the Fatherland.
ARMY BILL CERTAIN TO PASS
But the Tax Bills, Designed to Pay the Expense, Will Be Attacked on All Sides.
    BERLIN, March 29.— Plans of the Admiralty for the establishment of a big aerial navy were published officially this afternoon. The fleet of airships and aeroplanes is to cost $12,500,000, which is to be spread over five years. The fleet is to be entirely apart from that connected with the army, on which nearly $25,000,000 is to be spent.
    A bill providing for the appropriation of $750,000 as the first outlay on the Admiralty's aerial fleet was introduced into the Imperial Parliament to-day. It calls for ten naval dirigible balloons of the largest size, of which eight are to compose the active fleet and two to be held in reserve. Fifty-four double revolving balloon halls into which the dirigibles will be able to enter, regardless of the weather, are to be erected, and another two to be kept as a reserve. A total of fifty aeroplanes, of which thirty-six are to form the active fleet and fourteen the reserve, are also to be built, and these are to be manned by a special corps of 1,452 officers and men.
    The appropriations for this fleet to be spread over the years 1914 to 1918, comprise $8,750,000 for dirigibles and $2,250,000 for aeroplanes, while $1,500,000 is asked for the pay and maintenance of the crews.
    The life of the new airships is estimated at only four years each.
    The proposed increase of the army will evidently be voted by the Reichstag practically without opposition except from the Socialists, who will resist as a matter of form. But the Government's financial proposals to cover the necessary expenditure, on which the Federal Council agreed only with difficulty, will be subjected to the most severe criticism.
    The imperial Parliament, it is argued by the newspapers, will demand radical modifications of the new tax proposals, rejecting some and demanding the substitution of others, which will weigh more heavily on the well-to-do classes.
    After the passage of the Army bill the land forces of Germany on a peace footing will comprise 33,800 officers, 119,000 non-commissioned officers, 661,176 privates, and 15,000 one-year volunteers. The rest of the 870,000 will include medical, veterinary and pay officers, artificers, the Hospital Corps, and other non-combatants.
    A total of $52,500,000 is assigned for the construction of new fortresses. Foreigners, domiciled in Germany, are to be subjected to the war contribution, on the same basis as German subjects.
    Dr. Otto Wiemer, leader of the Progressives in the Reichstag, expresses the opinion that the debate on the military measures will not be finished before the Summer recess.