To Help German Army.

New York Times 100 years ago today, February 9, 1913:
Inspired Criticisms Likely to Enforce New Measures.
    BERLIN, Jan, 28.— There is a growing belief here that the criticisms of Germany's alleged retrograding army which have been appearing in English and French reviews and newspapers have had more or less indirect official sanction, and that this sanction has been given on the part of the Government with the idea of arousing the German people to a sense of their needs, so that the supplementary army bill shall not meet the opposition that the last naval bill did. If this hypothesis be true, the manoeuvre has succeeded beyond the fondest hopes of those who devised this seeming paradoxical scheme.
    In a leading article on the. subject the Radical Vossische Zeitung remarks that it is not the business of military circles to interfere in politics and to make suggestions which have the appearance of putting pressure on the Government, much less to formulate demands. It is perfectly obvious, the Zeitung adds, that new and considerable demands will shortly be made by the Government for the army and navy, and it considers that the present policy of silence concerning their nature and extent is calculated to awaken mistrust and that uncertainty has a disadvantageous influence on internal as well as foreign policy.
    The Rheinisch-Westfälische Zeitung, which has a somewhat Chauvinist reputation, publishes an article on the subject, in which the fallowing statement appears: "We know that there are in the empire men in leading positions, men occupying high official posts, who absolutely disagree with the hesitating procedure of our army administration, men who by virtue of their extensive connections clearly recognize the great danger in which the German Empire stands, and are combating with all their energy the forces which obstruct the way of the elaborate development of the army."
    The Rheinisch-Westfälische Zeitung declares that one public department in particular, presumably that of finance, exerts a deterrent influence on the efforts to develop the military forces, and it blames the Government for allowing shortsightedness to stand in the way of the fulfillment of a very urgent national duty.
    The Post, the organ of the Free Conservative Party, which, though small, is comparatively influential, fully indorses those remarks, and declares that German blood is too costly to be sacrificed in hopeless battles on the altar of bureaucratic narrow-mindedness and mistaken economy. The Free Conservative organ adds that the fact that the pessimism prevailing in authoritative military circles has found a hearing in the highest quarter win probably be manifest within the next few days.