248 Force and the Social Structure 



Bismarck is still more definite in pointing out this 

 danger. In his autobiography he gives a vivid 

 account of this constant pressure of the thousands 

 of officers of the Prussian army towards war. He 

 explains the difficulty which he had in resisting 

 this powerful militaristic pressure in the crisis of 

 1867, in 1875, and how he made use of this pres- 

 sure to overcome the resistance of the King and the 

 peace forces of Germany in order to plunge the 

 country into war with Austria in 1866 and with 

 France in 1870. Nevertheless, he adds, it con- 

 stitutes a grave danger for the nation : 



It is natural that in the staff of the army not only 

 younger active officers, but likewise experienced 

 strategists, should feel the need of turning to account 

 the efficiency of the troops led by them, and their 

 own capacity to lead, and of making them prominent 

 in history. It would be a matter of regret if this 

 effect of the military spirit did not exist in the army ; 

 the task of keeping its results within such limits as 

 the nations' need of peace can justly claim is the duty 

 of the political, not the military, heads of the State. 



That at the time of the Luxemburg question, during 

 the crisis of 1875 . . . and even down to the most 

 recent times, the staff and its leaders have allowed 

 themselves to be led astray and to endanger peace, 

 lies in the very spirit of the institution. . . . ^ 



The connection between the ideas in the minds 

 of men and their social and political institutions 



I Bismarck, His Reflections and Reminiscences, vol. ii., chapter 

 xxii., p. 102. 



