52 PERILS. — IMMIGRATION. 



Of course readiness for war is something relative. 

 Whatever its army may be, a nation becomes ill-pre- 

 pared as soon as its enemy is better prepared. Hence 

 the ever-increasing equipment and the growth of mili- 

 tarism, which, as Mr. Gladstone says, ' ' lies like a vam- 

 pire over Europe. " 



In Continental Europe generally the best years of all 

 able-bodied men are demanded for military duty. Ger- 

 mans must be seven years in the army, and give three of 

 them to active service ; the French, nine years in the 

 army and five years in active service; Austrians, ten 

 years in the army and three in active service ; Russians, 

 fifteen years in the army and six in active service. 

 When not in active service they are under certain re- 

 strictions. In addition to all this, when no longer mem- 

 bers of the army, they are liable to be called on to do 

 military duty for a period varying from two to five 

 years. This robbery of a man's life, together with the 

 common expectation that war must come sooner or 

 later, will continue to be a powerful stimulus to emigra- 

 tion^; and the "blood tax " which is required to support 

 these millions of men during unproductive years is 

 steadily increasing. While aggregate taxation de- 

 creased in the United States, from 1870 to 1880, 9.15 per 

 cent., it increased in Europe 28.01 per cent. The in- 

 crease in Great Britain was 20.17 per cent. ; in France, 

 36.13 per cent. ; in Russia, 37.83 per cent. ; in Sweden and 

 Norway, 50.10 percent.; in Germany, 57.81 per cent. 

 And while the burden of taxation is so heavy and so 

 rapidly increasing, the public debts of Continental 

 Europe are making frightful growth. They increased 

 71.75 per cent, from 1870 to 1880, since which time they 

 have been enlarged by nearly three thousand million 

 dollars and now reach a total of $20,580,000,000, entailing 

 an annual burden of $1,000,000,000 for interest. The cost 



1 " During 1872 and 1873, which were good years for the working classes of 

 Germany, there were not less than 10,000 processes annually for evasion of 

 military duty by emigi-ation." Professor Smith's Emigration and Immigra- 

 tion, p. 27. 



