As regards transport, Germany's new motor roads are doubtless an asset which she did not possess in 19M. On the other hand, at that time ber railways were in excellent condition. For some time their condition now has been very bad. The rolling-stock is outworn and was insufficient even for the peace-time requirements, and it was announced only a short time ago that during the: next few years a sum equivalent to about £300,000,000 would have to be' found to restore the railways to a proper degree of efficiency, "There are certain intangible economic factors now existing in Germany which were absent in 1914. We al. reddy hear of sabotage. Such thing was unheard of at the beginning of the war of 1914. Germany today has lost by persecution so many great men that she may find it difficult to replace men like Ballin, or Haber who found for her the means of extracting - nitrogen from the air during tne war of 1914.
Her people are already suffering in health and spirit from the excessive working hours to which they have been' subjected for some time, and from the financial aspect the German people are haunted today by the spectre of inflation and repudiation, a fore-knowledge of which could have Only been in 1914 by a few financial experts.
It. is perhaps desirable to repeat once more that the intention of this article is to deal with conditions as they existed at the outbreak of the two wars. The speedy over-running of Belgium in 1914 and the early entry of Turkey into the war had their economic effects, just as today the position of Russia, and the overrunning of Poland on the one hand, and the progress of the French in the Saar on the other, must affect the economic position, as will many other factors as the war progresses.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.