Kaiser Gets Bigger Army.

New York Times 100 years ago today, July 1, 1913:
Reichstag Passes Bill — Insists the Princes Must Help Pay Cost.
    BERLIN, June 30.— The Government to-day obtained from the Imperial Parliament the entire army increase it had demanded, including the six new cavalry regiments. Three of these regiments which had been eliminated in committee and on the first and second readings of the bill, were restored on the third and final reading to-day.
    Imperial Chancellor von Bethmann-Hollweg purchased this consent from the House by his acceptance of a proposal to reform the military code of justice introduced by the Socialists last Saturday in consequence of severe sentences pronounced by a court-martial at Erfurt on Friday. A bill reducing the penalties inflicted by court-martial when mitigating circumstances exist was passed unanimously by the House, and the Chancellor promised to give his support to it when it reached the Federal Council.
    Only the Socialists, the Poles, and the Alsacians in Parliament voted against the final reading of the Armament bill, which increases the peace strength of the army by approximately 4,000 officers, 15,000 non-commissioned officers, and 117,000 privates, bringing the total of the permanent force up to nearly 870,000 men.
    The third feature of the exciting closing sitting of the Reichstag before its adjournment for the Summer vacation was the vote on a clause in one of the bills for raising the necessary money to cover the new military expenditure. This definitely extended the provisions of the bill to the Federal Princes.
    The Government, in announcing the willingness of the federated sovereigns to waive their existing exemption from taxation and to contribute to the extraordinary military expenditure, expressly declared that this was a voluntary act on their part. Later on it issued an ultimatum declaring that any legislation covering this point would be rejected as unconstitutional. The House, however, in passing the bill, made the taxation of the Princes obligatory.
    The house adjourned till Nov. 20 after adopting all the measures for financing the army increases.