On the day the German mobilization was ordered we traveled with some
Americans from the western border to Berlin. These Americans said: "We
do not know much about your army, but judging by what we have seen in
these days there prevails in it and all its arrangements such system
that it must win. System must win every time." In this saying there is,
indeed, much of truth--order and system are the basis upon which the
mighty organization of our army is built.
Now a word concerning the German officer. He, too, has been much
maligned, he is often misunderstood by foreigners, and yet we believe
that the people of the United States in particular must be able to
understand the German officer. One of the greatest sons of free America,
George Washington, gave his countrymen the advice to select only
gentlemen as officers, and it is according to this principle that the
officers of the German Army and Navy are chosen. Their selection is
made, moreover, upon a democratic basis, in that the officers' corps of
the various regiments decide for themselves whether they will or will
not accept as a comrade the person whose name is proposed to them.
One sees that the German Army is not, as many say, a tremendous machine,
but rather a great, living organism, which draws its strength and
lifeblood from all classes of the whole German folk.
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