Kaiser Fears New Slav Nation.

New York Times 100 years ago today, March 8, 1913:
Germany's Costly Military Preparations Due to Balkan Allies' Victory.
NATION BETWEEN TWO PERILS
France on One Side, Slavs on the Other, She Asks One-Fourth People's Savings for Army.
BURDEN HEAVIEST ON RICH
France Meets the Challenge with Universal Conscription for Three Years — German Peace Footing Will Be 800,000 Men.Special Cable to The New York Times.
    BERLIN. March 7.— It is not so many years since the Kaiser drew with his own hand a caricature showing United Japan and China, represented as a huge dragon, reaching westward to devour Europe, and wrote underneath: "Europeans, protect your most sacred possessions!"
    To-day the Yellow Peril is forgotten in the presence of the new giant that has arisen in the East. The peril is no longer yellow. It is the peril of the eventual Slav domination of Europe.
    Since the days of Bismarck, Germany has realized dimly the potentialities of the vast districts eastward, but it took the lessons of the Balkan war to awaken the Germans thoroughly to the possibilities of the rise of this great power in Asia and the Near East.
    And so, in days of great financial stringency, when the markets are already depressed and Germany and Prussia are floating loans of 550,000,000 marks, comes the startling announcement that 1,000,000,000 marks, or $250,000,000, will be asked for immediate armament purposes, and a permanent addition of 200,000,000 marks to the yearly military budget.
    The immensity of the contribution asked can be understood when it is considered that the annual savings of the entire German people amount only to about 4,000,000,000 marks. The amount asked for military purposes, therefore, will absorb a quarter of this, to say nothing of the regular annual expenditure added to the permanent budget.
    It is not alone the immensity of the sum demanded that has staggered Germans and the whole of Europe as well, but also the recollection that when the addition of some 30,000 men annually to the standing army was asked last year the military authorities assured the nation that the increase asked would suffice to make Germany strong enough to resist all aggression that could be expected and to protect all her interests. Yet now they come with an unprecedented demand for 1,000,000,000 marks and an increase in the number of the army which it was at first understood would be 50,000 yearly, but now, it is understood, will amount to 84,000, raising the standing army to a peace footing of more than 800,000.
    As an explanation of this the semiofficial Cologne Gazette conies out with the statement:
    "For the present our armament is sufficient. What is asked is provision for the future. In the bloody hours before Kirk-Kilisseh the face of affairs began to change, and an alteration in conditions began which will become history with the signing of the peace treaty.
    "This drives Germany to strengthen her military forces. It is not the sudden threatening turn in the aspect of affairs that demands a stronger military force than would have been necessary had things remained as they were before the war, but it is the fact that with the national and military rise of the Balkan States and the temporary elimination of Turkey as an armed power, a shifting in relative strength has taken place to benefit the entire Slav Nation."

Kaiser's View Altered.
    It is an open secret that the Kaiser has been averse to any increase in the army which might appear unwarranted. In fact, many army officers have been known, when conversing with friends on whose discretion they depended, to say more or less bitter things about the Emperor's love for peace and to make dire predictions as to whither his very real aversion for war was likely to lead the country."
    It is now reported, however, that the Kaiser has become convinced that the time to act has arrived and that the new proposal was inspired by him. It is fairly certain, in any event, that he is the author of the proposal that a billion marks be raised by taxation on the country's great fortunes, and that the Princes surrender for this purpose their ordinary exemption from taxation.
    The Emperor has pointed out that the year 1813 was a year of unexampled sacrifices by the people, and that no better way could be found to celebrate the anniversary of the freeing of Prussia from the foreign yoke than by this sacrifice.
    The extent of the sacrifice proposed can be judged from the fact that the entire taxable valuation of the German empire probably does not exceed 200,000,000,000 marks, or $50,000,000,000. It is proposed, however, to exempt small fortunes up to, perhaps, 50,000 marks from the tax. This would eliminate a considerable part of the whole and impose a really tremendous burden on the richest.
    The German nation has a right to be proud of the fact that thus far no serious objection has been urged against the scheme, although it must be admitted that the Prussian "Junker" organs appear rather lukewarm regarding the matter. In general, however, the response has been gratifying. But the effect on the financial situation of the empire, and, as a consequence, on the financial world generally is bound to be to a considerable extent disastrous.
    The money market is already very tight. Peace in the Near East will give rise to new demands for money. Half the new Prussian and Imperial loan subscriptions, amounting to 275,000,000 marks, must be paid on March 27. A great many cities have been awaiting a favorable time for floating loans, which will now probably have to wait still longer. In the face of all these facts Germans are asking whether the new armament measure is justified, and the general impression appears to be that it is. They have just realized that Austria, which Bismarck said would have to be invented if it did not exist, cannot be depended on for active help in the case of Slav aggression. For this new giant of the Balkans appears thoroughly capable of keeping the Dual Monarchy extremely busy. No great dependence has ever been laid on Italy, and Germany sees herself facing the possibility of war on her two flanks, against which she has been arming for years. France and other nations may see in the new move warlike intentions, but there is no doubt that Germany has not been actuated by anything except a deep conviction that she must make herself so strong that the Slav on the one side and the Gaul on the other cannot crush her.
    The 1,000,000,000 marks asked for are to be spent mainly on fortifications along the eastern frontier.