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What Soldiers Say

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Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California · Sep 1, 1914

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 41, No. 34.

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What Soldiers Say

Count von Moltke: “Beer is a far more dangerous enemy to Germany than all the armies of France.”
Emperor William of Germany, to naval cadets, 1911: “I can assure you that in my twenty-two years of government it has been my experience that a great number of the crimes which were laid before me for decision were to be nine tenths ascribed to the consequences of alcohol. In former days it was reckoned among young men particularly smart to be able to drink and carry a large quantity.”
“Those were obsolete views, which were all very well for the Thirty Years’ War, but don’t do to-day. As you will notice yourselves, in the course of your term on board, service in my fleet has attained a degree of intensity which can hardly be exceeded. It is your task to go through these prodigious efforts in time of peace without being used up, in order that you may be fresh in case of serious events. The next war and the next battle will demand strong nerves on your part. They will be decided by nerves. But these are undermined and endangered from youth upward, by indulgence in alcohol.”
“It is one of the questions of the future for our navy and for our nation. If you educate the people to do without alcohol I shall have sensible subjects. . . .”
“The nation which takes the smallest quantity of alcohol will win the battles of the future.”