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When Germany declared war in 1914, she proceeded to do on acolossal scale what she had been doing on a smaller scale for fiftyyears. She borrowed to pay the war bills. In 1900 she had financedthe "East Asiatic Expedition"—her share of the Chinese Boxer invasion—amountingto 276,000,000 marks, wholly with borrowedfunds, which obligation along with all her other debts was still dueas she prepared to invade France in 1914. Her "World War I expenditureswere as follows. The 1913 budget, for purposes of comparison,was 3,848,000,000 marks: 61914 6,936,000,000 Marks1915 23,909,000,000 "19 16 24,739,000,0001917 42,188,000,000 "1918 33,928,000,000 "Carried forward from 1918 32,599,000,000 "Total164,299,000,000 Markscannot be said that Germany went to war to escape her fiscal difficulties. It is never sosimple as that. But governments have a way of getting themselves into financial jams fromwhich they see no escape, while those very financial troubles are in turn generating otherpressures. Statesmen find themselves utterly bewildered in the center of these clamoringproblems. The door of war is ajar and beckons as an escape. With the aid of a convenientconscience, they may find some good reason for sinking through its inviting opening. In thelight of these observations it is interesting to find M. Jules Cambon, French Ambassador atBerlin, writing to his government in 1913 and offering the following dark prophecy, at atime when the government, pressed for funds, proposed heavy death duties:"The country squires represented in the Reichstag by the Conservative party want at allcosts to escape the death duties which are bound to come if peace continues. [A last resortof the government to meet its fiscal needs. Author's note.] In the last sitting of the sessionwhich has just closed, the Reichstag agreed to these duties in principle. It is a serious attackon the interests and the privileges of the landed gentry. On the other hand, this aristocracyis military in character, and it is instructive to compare the army list with the Yearbook ofthe Nobility. War alone can prolong its prestige and support its family interest. Duringthe discussion on the Army Bill a Conservative speaker put forward the need for promotionamong officers as an argument in its favor. Finally, this social class, which forms a hierarchywith the King of Prussia as its supreme head, realizes with dread the democratization ofGermany and the increasing power of the Socialist party, and considers its own daysnumbered. Not only does a formidable movement hostile to agrarian protection threatenits material interests, but in addition the number of its political representatives decreaseswith each legislative period. In the Reichstag for 1878, out of 397 members, 162 belongedto the aristocracy; in 1898, 83; in 1912, 57. Out of this number 27 alone belong to theRight, 14 to the Center, 7 to the Left, and one sits with the Socialists." Quoted inDemocracy after the War, by J. A. Hobson, London, 1918.*German Economy, by Gustav Stolper, Reynal & Hitchcock, New York, 1940.90