the fact that the individual is only a cog in the wheel of the big machinery. The few illiterate recruits from the most easterly parts of the country receive instruction in reading and writing; those recruits who have neglected to develop their bodies owing to lack of exercise improve in physique during their time of service, and in this respect the time spent in the army is of as much benefit as membership in an athletic club. The lessons learned are not forgotten by the soldier after his return to civil life, and order, discipline and the necessity of physical exercise become indelibly impressed on his mind.
It thus follows that the workingman who has had the advantage of a training in the standing army must be of especial value in the industries. An artisan who is cleanly, orderly, punctual, exact and disciplined, cannot fail to be an invaluable acquisition to a factory of any kind, and undoubtedly the success of the German industries in every branch of human endeavor is due to this class of well-trained laborers. This is a well-recognized fact in Germany, and similar views were expressed as early as 1893 by Dr. Caro, one of the greatest technical chemists of all times, who, in his classical description of the development of the German coaltar industry, published in the Berichte der Berliner Chemischen Gesellschaft, ascribed German superiority to the character of the workingmen who had served in the army.
German militarism early recognized the fact that the life and health of the laboring class are an important factor in the resources of the country, and consequently legislation for the protection of industrial workers has been evolved, which has become the pattern for all nations of the world. Even our own country which we think so free from militarism, has benefited by this German legislation, and when Governor Glynn of the state of New York, in becoming a candidate for reelection, reviewed what he had accomplished for the people during his term of office, he considered the Workingmen's Compensation Law as the most important of the measures passed during his incumbency. These compensation laws, together with the old age, accident, sick and death insurance laws, safeguarding and improving the economic conditions of the workers, are directly due to German militarism in its endeavor to husband the strength and earning power of the individual members of the industrial army. Even Lloyd-George, the arch enemy of Germany, copied these legislative measures of German militarism for the benefit of the laborers of England. To this constant care for the individual health and betterment of the working class are also due the establishment all over the Empire of government and provincial homes for convalescents, of homes in which persons suffering from incipient tuberculosis are treated, and of many other institutions with the object in view of promoting the recovery of those stricken with sickness.
These in a general way are the benefits which the industries of the
