German Monarchs Coerce The Kaiser.

New York Times 100 years ago today, April 20, 1913:
Project to Increase the Army Is Fathered by Jealousy of the Navy.
DEMAND OF INLAND STATES
South and Centre of Empire Insist on Protection — Point to Possibilities Due to Balkan War.
By Marconi Transatlantic Wireless Telegraph to The New York Times.
    BERLIN, April 19.— Germany's great project to increase the strength of her army this year by an expenditure of an additional $25,000,000 or $26,000,000, thus bringing up the total cost of the military establishment for 1913 to a round half billion dollars, was practically forced upon the Kaiser by his brother sovereigns in the empire. Information to this effect reaches The New York Times's correspondent from an undisputably well-informed quarter.
    The scheme, which was hatched last Autumn by the military expansionists, aided and abetted by the rulers of the smaller German States, did not receive the approval of the Emperor until the middle of January. He retaliated on the various Kings, Grand Dukes, and Princes, who are his federal partners, by accepting their proposals on the condition that they forego the constitutional exemption from taxation and contribute the same percentage of their fortunes and incomes as is to be collected from the humblest citizen in the realm.
    The arguments of the rulers of Bavaria, Saxony, Würtemberg, Hesse, and Baden, and fifteen or sixteen other allies in the empire were, in a nutshell, that the German Army in recent years had been neglected to the advantage of the navy. They said that while the Kaiser had been increasing the expenditure on the fleet by leaps and bounds, the appropriations having risen from $30,000,000 in 1898 to over $117,000,000 in 1913, the expenditures for the army had not begun to go up to that pace. It was declared that in case of an unsuccessful naval war the territories of three German States which fronted the sea would not be seriously endangered, but if Germany were defeated on land the weaker States in the south and centre of the empire would be the first prey of the Fatherland's conquerors. It was necessary, therefore, said the Kaiser's fellow-monarchs, that something should be done forthwith to strengthen the defensive establishment of the empire for the contingency of a land war.
    The preamble to the Army bill points out that the "Change of balance of power in Southeastern Europe, in consequence of the Balkan war," is the direct cause of the necessity for strengthening the German military establishment. That is a fact, but the pressure applied to bring home the urgency of the situation was as above described.
    The German Government could not have wished for a more propitious series of events than those which have been happening in Russia and France for campaign thunder for the Army bill.
    Dr. von Bethmann-Hollweg had hardly uttered his stirring declarations in the Reichstag about the perilous character of the Pan-Slav movement in Russia and the Jingo agitation in France when fervid demonstrations in St. Petersburg broke out and mobs at Nancy, Grenoble, and Paris began to vent their anti-German spleen in a spectacular fashion. Both the St. Petersburg and the Nancy demonstrations made a deep impression in Germany. The public press dignified the assault on half a dozen of the Kaiser's subjects by a crowd of Nancy rowdies at the beginning of this week as an "incident of grave magnitude," and Germany lost no time in making vigorous diplomatic representations at Paris.
    The incident has given rise to violent language in the German press. The organs of the War Party shrieked about the "affront to German honor," called on Germans to avoid France as they would avoid a filthy gutter in crossing the street, and classed Frenchmen with "Hottentots and Mexicans." Even sober papers published lurid editorials warning the French that their bad manners were displayed at the risk of compelling Germany to take prompt and far-reaching measures to "insure to the Teuton name adequate respect on the other side of the Rhine."
    There is no doubt that the Franco-German atmosphere is, at this moment, more highly charged than at any other time since the Morocco episode of 1911. One or two more incidents like the Nancy mobbing could easily inflame public opinion to a perilous point.
    And so the Army bill is entirely safe. It will be passed practically without a change as far as its military arrangements are concerned. The only serious amendments will be the means of finding the revenue. This will provoke a long drawn out debate in the Budget Committee before the bill is finally adopted.