then her men must be cut down.

Germany has raised by war-loan $1,100,000,000. She has spent this and
$500,000,000 more besides. The financial strain is shown in her paper
and exchanges at discounts outside her own border. Within her own
realm she is piling up a gold reserve in her great bank, to sustain her
expanded paper issues and her strained credit; but how is she securing
the gold?

Calling a mark a shilling, or 25 cents, let us speak for a moment of
Germany's finances in marks. After the war of 1870 she planted
125,000,000 marks in gold from the French indemnity in her war-tower at
Spandau. In June, 1913, the Reichstag voted to double this to
250,000,000 marks in gold, the addition to be known also as the Spandau
tower reserve, but to be placed in the Reichsbank and not counted in
the bank reserves. There was also to be coined 125,000,000 marks in
silver.

The whole was simply a stirrup-cup to enable Germany quickly to bound
into the war-saddle with purchase of horses, food, and the light or
perishable munitions of war which must be had at the outset and at a
time when war panic first seizes the currency and supplies of a
community.

The basis of German finance was 1,200,000,000 marks in specie, mostly
gold, in the vaults of the Reichsbank at Berlin--the central bank of
issue and bankers' deposits--with its 485 branches.

Before the war this metal reserve had been brought up to 1,400,000,000
marks. At the outbreak of the war, of course, the Spandau tower