The times., 1899-07-17
THE POPE AND DEMOCRACY.
Catholic Socialists in Austria En-
courngcd From the Vatican.


Catholic Socialists in Austria En-
cournGcd From the Vatican.
Rome, June 3O.-Socialist and democrat
ic ideas are Gspreading Cardinal Won
Schonborn, who has just died. asked the
Holy See in 1895, in the name of Emperor
Francis Joseph and of the Austrian Bish
ops. to condemn the Vienna Christian
| Democrats the ''Christlich Socialen." AL
| the reactonary elements in Europe gath
cred around the Archbishop of Prague
| during his operations at Rome; the King
of the Belgians, the woeste- Hel!eputte
party. the German Kaiser, the French Roy
alsts the Italian Ghibellines; it was a
supreme effort to check the rising tide of
| democracy.
Now Cardinal Won Schonborn is dead.
That aristocrat whose family almost with
out break held the sees of Prague, Mainz,
and Olmutz, that former cuirassier ofii-
Ger who in 1866 at Koniggratz, rode over
Prussian regiment and who. after having
entered the Church, studying at Rome and
at Innspruck became Bishop of Budweis
in 1888, Archbishop in 1887, and Cardinal
in 1889 that Father Joseph of the Kaiser
and confidant of the Hofburg and the Ball
platz, that representative of all traditions
! had become toward the close of his life the
friend and protector of DR.. Lueger, the
( illustrious and popular burgomaster of the
! jovial Kaiserstadt, Vienna. Only rev
| days ago when the reactonary party by
! flank movement was fighting against
Americanism, the head of the Cathonc
Socialists in Austria received from the
al In hp-
! tering encouragement ''Avanti CO. rag
! gio''-'Forward, courage
few months after Leo XIII repudiated
reaction and took the Democrats under his
wing Count Badeni introduced into the
| Fifth Council the horse of universal suf-
| frage. and, thanks to this forward move
ment. the Christian Democrats routed the
Liberal party at the legislative elections.
The natural phenomenon resulted that uni
versal suffrage became the crucible uf uni
tartan national life. On the morrow of
1870 Herr Won Bismarck, with his piercing
glance, had seen that to cast all the old
parties into the vast cauldron of Democ-
racy meant the killing of every kind of
separation and founding unity on the pop
ular rock. He succeeded. 1t has become
the fashion since the last elections to
prophesy the fall of Austria. l DO not
believe in it.
In the seventeenth century Cardinal
Mazarin said: Every time that Austria
finds herself on the edge of the prectpice,
she finds a miracle that saves her In her
! pocket" A house, an institution built up
of Heterogeneous pieces, is hard TO destroy
/ The higher living synthesis Is made up OF
opposing elements. Mazarin's miracle
at the present day would be in my opinion
universal suffrage. Social struggles. eco
nonic questions would take the place of
quarrels between races and classes. 1t is
| the directing circles, the cliques, the castles,
all those bazaars of nationalism and ma
, nipulators of provincialism, that are de-
vastating the country. Pass over them the
leveling gauge of direct Democracy and
the homcidal passions would be drowned
in the great social stream Austria mas
this last resource at her command, to
drown race hatreds and lusts in the ocean
of universal suffrage. From Prague to
Trieste from Innspruck to Presburg, we
should see great universal parties and new
issues formed, in which the provincial
question would gradually disappear. Par
ties have been successfully religious, 20 III
cal, military: tomorrow they Will all be
social, economic, or else they Will not be
at all What Is the Fourth Esta.e? Little
What will it bs2 Nearly everything. The
natural and logical evolution of Cardinal
Won Schonborn is the symbol OF the new
| politics.
From the point Of view of Roman af-
| fairs, the Cardinals death marks the final
collapse OF the Italo-Austrian-G German fac
| tion around the Vatican and the coming
! conclave. When Leo XIII in 1892 laid the
foundation of his republiean-democratic
! policy in France, the Quirinal was fright
ened out of its wits by it. 1t sent pol-
I tical parsonage to Paris to study the situa-
! ton his mission being to find out what
new forces the 'ralliement' brought to
! the country and what dangers it implied
for Italy and the Triple Alliance. Tne
strange thing about the Pope's policy IS
! that the enemies of France have under
stood better than the French its meaning
and general effect, just as Protestants
and free thinkers in general have higher
| admiration for the genius OF Leo XIII
than the Papal party or Catholics have.
! 1t was then that Signor Crispi gave out
the watchword 10 get ready for the con-
clave, so as to create a Pope who should
undo what Leo XIII had done. King Hum
| bert sent to the Emperor Francis Joseph
| in care of Count di Revertera. a sealed let
ter in which the Pope's jailer proposed as
Leo XIII's successor Cardinal Monaco la
| Valletta The Emperor held a family
! council in the Hofburg, at which Cardinal
Won Schonborn was present. 1t was de-
| cided that the Catholic Hapsburg family
could not accept the Cardinal Of the Free
mason King. and that Cardinal Seratino
| Vauutelli former Nuncio at Vienna,
pious and learned man. should be chosen
rather Cardinal Schonborn was, there
| fore. the soul of that faction which, in tine
last consistory on June 10. received NOR
tai wound The disappearance of the Arch
| bishop of Prague is another fatal blow TO
it. ''Misfortunes march together says
the Russian proverb. THE dead ride fast,
says the German poet. Leave every hope
behind" Dante might have added. They
are done for. lNNOMlNATo-