In the face of these higher demands, the amount of work done in the army has been enormously increased.  The State, however, has done little to prepare our young men better for military service, while tendencies are making themselves felt in the life of the people which exercise a very detrimental influence on their education.  I specially refer to the ever-growing encroachments of a social-democratic, anti-patriotic feeling, and, hand-in-hand with this, the flocking of the population into the large towns, which is unfavourable to physical development.  This result is clearly shown by the enlistment statistics.  At the present day, out of all the German-born military units, over 6.14 per cent. come from the large towns, 7.37 per cent, from the medium-sized towns, 22.34 per cent. from the small or country towns, and 64.15 per cent. from the rural districts; while the distribution of the population between town and country is quite different.  According to the census of 1905, the rural population amounted to 42.5 per cent., the small or country towns to 25.5 per cent., the medium-sized towns to 12.9 per cent., and the large towns to 19.1 per cent. of the entire number of inhabitants.  The proportion has probably changed since that year still more unfavourably for the rural population, while the large towns have increased in population.  These figures clearly show the physical deterioration of the town population, and signify a danger to our national life, not merely in respect of physique, but in the intellect and compact unity of the nation.  The rural population forms part and parcel of the army.  A thousand bonds unite the troops and the families of their members, so far as they come from the country; everyone who studies the inner life of our army is aware of this.  The interest felt in the soldier’s life is intense.  It is the same spirit, transmitted from one to another.  The relation of the army to the population of the great cities which send a small and ever-diminishing fraction of their sons into the army is quite different.  A certain opposition exists between the population of the great cities and the country-folk, who, from a military point of view, form the backbone of the nation.  Similarly, the links between the army and the large towns have loosened, and large sections of the population in the great cities are absolutely hostile to the service.

It is in the direct interests of the State to raise the physical health of the town population by all imaginable means, not only in order to enable more soldiers to be enlisted, but to bring the beneficial effect of military training more extensively to bear on the town population, and so to help to make our social conditions more healthy.  Nothing promotes unity of spirit and sentiment like the comradeship of military service.