The age-herald., 1898-01-12
CURRENT TOPICS

I'he upheaval in Austria Hungary that
 hreatens tho existence of the dual empire
 Is good deal of a mystery to Americans, chiefly from the fact that the censorship
 of the press of the monarchy is so strict
 that the local newspapers cannot enter into
 such a discussion of the trouble as would
 make it plain to those who do not under
 stand a good deal about the parties and
 politics of the country. Recently there
 have appeared in several American period icals articles written by Austrians in this country. from which it is possible to get something like a fair understanding of the
 situation.
 The Austro-Hungarian monarchy was formed in 1867 and comprises the several
 provinces which composed the empire of Austria and the kingdom of Hungary. These provinces, sixteen in number, have
 each a diet, or landtag, that legislates in
 relation to home affairs and fixes the local taxation but cannot alter or amend state law. The national legislature is centered
 in a parliament or reichsrath, in Vienna, for Austria and another in Budapest for Hungary, and such consists of house of lords or herrenhaus, and a house of com
 mons, abgeordnetenhaus This is the parliament of the monarchy and holds it's | sessions alternately at Vienna and Buda- pest and votes annually on the national budget and the common affairs To the
 maintenance of the monarchy, which costs about $65. 100000 annually Austria contrib
 utes 6S.6 per cent. and Hungary 91.4 per cent.
 The compact under which the dual mon- archy exists is known as the ausgleich, and this expired, by its terms, on the 1st of January of the present year. The first of the troubles that produced the present discomfort is the dissatisfaction in Aus tria with the large quota 1t is compelled to pay for the support of the government by the ausgleich. The government has had | little trouble in getting the appropriations asked for, from the fact that there are so many parties and so many interests in the empire that, by promises and pledges, com- binations be made usually strong enough to carry any appropriation demand ed. But, at the last meeting of the parlia- ment, the minority opposing the requests was so strong in the lower house that 1t did not permit the bill making the appro- priation to be. read or voted upon. This resulted in deadlock upon all parliament | tary work.
 Another, and perhaps the chief, cause of | the present trouble is the bitter quarrel be- l tween the CZechs and the Germans. | recent writer puts it in this form: ''Bo- l hemia, Morava and Slesia have a popu1a- | tion mixed of Czechs and Germans, the percentage in Bohemia being about to 3.
 
 | the province, the Germans occupying the | districts of the northwestern and north l eastern frontier. The Czechs wish to bring about the re-establishment of the former Bohemian kingdom and thus secure posi- ton in the empire similar to that of Hun gary. The Germans in Bohemia desire a | detachment of their district and separate administration of this territory, because | they claim to be oppressed by the Czech l majority of the Bohemian diet in matters | of administration and public education. | Until lately all officials in Bohemia were | obliged to know German and only those in the Czech districts had to prove a | knowledge of Czech.''
 l Last spring the prime minister, Badeni, l in order to win over the support of the l crown measures the Czechs, issued a de- cree that lawsuits should be entered in l the Czech language in any court in Bo- l hemia, even in such districts as did not l contain 1 per cent. of Czech population. ! The decree also compelled German officers | to learn the Czech language The Ger | mans were angered by the new requirement. and claimed it to be in violation of their constitutional rights and privileges and a restriction of their liberties. They claim l that if such a measure was necessary it | should be made applicable to the whole of | Austria proper and not to Bohemia alone. The whole empire Is filled with parties. but there is not one that is national in its character. They are all based upon local | matters, or religious questions entirely, and each of the whole number of provinces has little more than one idea, which is how | it can get the most from the monarchy. | There is no language that the entire people understand and few officers of the army | can understand the language spoken in | many of the divisions. At the late review | of the army it was difficult to get the | ders carried from one detachment to an- | other because the aids sent with them could not speak the language of the off, cer to whom it was sent, nor could that officer understand the aid who brought | the commands. The Magyar Polish Czech, | German, Routhenian, Roumanian Slavonic, | Croat, Slovak, Servian, Bosnian and Ital- | ian tongues are spoken and while some | of the military and civil officers speak | two or three of them there is none who | can speak them all. It is not possible that | there should be much harmony or unity | of interest or sentiment in a nation com posed of such a heterogeneous people, The | truth is that such thing as national 1oy- | alty or patriotism does not exist in the Austro-Hungarian monarchy.
 | The Hungarians have an ambition to se- cure independence, and by 8 union with l that country of Bosnia Montenegro, Ser | via, Roumania and Bulgaria, to form a l new and strong empire under king of | Hungary. Tho Germans in Bohemia, Sie- | sia MoraVia, Austria and some other ad- | joining provinces would like to unite with 1 the German empire. The Italians in the l Tyrol and Carflola prefer union with Italy l to a continuance of the Austro- Hungarian | empire. There is no homogeneous element | in the empire, and it's army could not be \ 1 depended upon by reason Of the utter ina l bility of it's officers to make themselves understood by the men and company com | manders.
 1 But the strongest menace to the perpetu- | ity of the monarchy lies in the fact that l there is successor to the present em- | peror who is capable of managing so dis 1 cordant combination as that which com fh1 III1,,o Ina