German Army Total Will Be $321,000,000.

New York Times 100 years ago today, March 31, 1913:
Gold for the War Chest Is Not Included in $261,250,000 Estimate.
"THE EMPIRE IS IN PERIL"
Kaiser Ready to Go to the Country on That Issue if Socialists Defeat the Bills.
By Marconi Transatlantic Wireless Telegraph to The New York Times.
    BERLIN, March 30.— The German people are dazed by the magnitude of the sacrifices they are asked to make for the purpose of strengthening the army and navy, not only by land and sea, but also by air.
    Following the revelation of the increase of the military establishment at a cost of $261,250,000 and the heaping up of the contents of the Spandau war chest to $90,000,000, comes the announcement that $19,750,000 of the army increase will be spent in extending the aerial branch of the military establishment alone. In addition the Admiralty intends to spend $12,500,000 on airships and aeroplanes for the navy.
    Including the separate supplementary aerial estimates for the Admiralty of $750,000, the $1,750,000 subscribed for the national flying fund, the aerial programme, which is now engaging the attention of the Kaiser's Government, is based upon the enormous total of $34,750,000, which will cover the period of five years between now and 1918. With maintenance and other costs, it is estimated that the annual expenditures for the combined army and navy air fleet under the new scheme will amount to $7,500,000, or a total of $37,500,000, during the next five years.
    The Tagliche Rundschau, the Pan-German military naval organ, which first announced the coming of the aerial navy law, says to-day that the huge estimates are due to the direct intervention of the Kaiser, after urgent repeated representations by the Chief of the General Staff.
    No details are as yet supplied regarding the manner in which the army's $19,750,000 is to be spent, but The Times correspondent understands, from a well-informed quarter, that the General Staff's programme contemplates the creation of a fleet of twenty Zeppelin airships, with ten revolving sheds, each to accommodate two vessels, and a complementary fleet of at least 200 aeroplanes. The army air fleet will be distributed along the French and Russian frontiers, with reserve stations at strategic inland points.
    Although public opinion had to a degree discounted the immensity of the army increase, nevertheless it is staggered by the sight of the actual numerical details. By 1914 a total of 176,000 men will have been added to the army. In four years the sum of $60,000,000 in gold will have been added to the war chest. This will not, of course, be taken from the $261 ,250,000 to be spent on the army, but will be provided for by a special new issue of silver and paper currency of small denominations.
    Commercial quarters are filled with fresh anxiety over this additional unexpected drain on the none-too-adequate supply of gold in the empire. The German people now have to pay a tax of $5 in $1,000 on fortunes, a premium of from 25 cents to $5 in $1,000 on all life insurance over $500, and an additional $40 in $1,000 on incomes over $12,500; a new stamp tax on the transfer of property, and a property increment tax of 30 cents per capita in the Federal States.
    Herr von Gwinner of the Deutsche Bank estimates the aggregate German national fortune at $75,000,000,000, which at $5 in the $1,000 will produce $375,000,000. He calculates the total income at $10,000,000,000. He does not think there will be any serious attempt on the part of the propertied classes to evade the new taxation. "Germans," he says, "are not only rich, but also honest." He says there is hardly any doubt that the Kaiser's Government is prepared to dissolve Parliament and appeal to the country on the issue that "the empire is in peril."
    If the Socialists, with their 110 votes, can find 89 supporters in the House to provide the necessary majority to defeat the Government's bill, the Liberal and Radical Parties, which are hotly opposing the various features of the taxation scheme, may welcome the opportunity to join hands with the Socialists.