Amador ledger., 1900-01-26
THEY ARE AFRAID OF WAR
When Francis Joseph of
Austria Dies,
AND He IS GETTING 70 Be PRETTY Old
Matrimonial Alliances Make Him
the Factor in European
Politics.
AND He IS GETTING 10 BE PRETTY OLD

1t Is not grateful task to speculate
upon the death of a living man. But
when that man has all but reached the
age of threescore and ten and is be-
sides burdened with the weight of the
most grievous sorrows that can come
to man, when he is sovereign who
has occupied the throne for more than
half century, and when his personal
influence has long been the one con-
serving and preserving factor in his
realm, without which the realm would
be in imminent peril of dissolution-in
such circumstances it may be deemed
pardonable, and at any rate it seems
inevitable, that men should begin to
reckon upon the length of his remain
ing reign and upon what will happen
when for him the end shall come. To
such considerations NJ. Benoist gives
himself in a recent article in the
'Revue des Deux Mondes," asking
plumply, and striving to answer, the
question, "What would Europe be
without Austrian" For it is TO that
venerable Kaiser of the Dual Realm
that reference is made. There has for
a generation been no more familiar and
accepted truism in Continental politics
than that he is a personal bond that
holds together the heterogeneous and
commonly discordant members of that
Eastern empire which is the western
portion of his realm, and that no other
bond can be substituted therefor, but
that when that ''Silver cord is loosenedn -
the empire will be dissolved. What
would become Of the various states?
The German provinces would go to
Germany; the Slav to Russia; 'Italia
Irredenta" would be redeemed at last
and united with Italy; Romania would
take Pennsylvania and Bukovina; and
what was left of Hungary would re-
main an independent Magyar state.
So much for Austria and for Hun
gary. But what of Europe? 1t, too,
would cease to exist, save as a geo
graphical expression" In its place
there would be two colossal empires,
and few minor states existing on their
sufferance. Such is M. Benoist's un-
hesitating conclusion. The "balance
of power" would be irremedlably de-
stroyed, or, rather, it would be trans
formed into balance of two powers
ua doac not vap+upo IN boDa tbot Prc
sia would then deem it worth while to
maintain. the French alliance, or that
Germany would longer fear menace
from beyond the Vosges. The Slav
and Teuton colossi would be so stupen-
dous that they could afford to ignore
all other countries, whether as friends
or foes. In that we are scarcely pre-
pared to agree with M. Benoist. 1t
seems to us that even with Russia and
Germany thus increased in size and
power France would still be very con-
siderable factor in the situation, Italy
would be no cipher, but a more i'm
portant figure than today, and Scan
dinavia would remain something better
than a nonentity. Against the two
colossi united all the rest might be
powerless, though even that is not
foregone conclusion. But certainly
league of two or three of these lesser
powers, or even one of them alone,
would be a sufficient makeweight to
turn the scale in favor of one or the
other of the two in case of conflict
between them. So, instead of one of
the colossi falling upon the remaining
states and crushing them to powder, as
M. Benoist anticipates, it seems prob
able that both of them would pay
court to those states, curry favor with
them and seek to strengthen them and
to maintain them.
NJ Benoist is, however, indubitably
right in reckoning that such parti-
tioning of Austria would be grave if
not an irremediable calamity, and that,
therefore, the maintenance of the Dual
Realm is most earnestly to be desired.
That realm was once the buffer state
between Europe and Asia, protecting
the civilization and Christianity of the
West from successive onslaughts of
Mongols and Ottomans. Today it is
the buffer state of Europe itself, among
the European powers themselves, keep
ing some of them apart for their own
good. So, while Europe might con-
tinue to exist without Austria, the ex-
pertinent is one which it is conspicu-
ously desirable not to make. And we
can cordially agree with NJ Benoist in
believing that it may not, at least in
our time, be made, and that the fa-
miliar truism to which we have re-
ferred may prove, at least in its latter
part, to be not true, after all. What
the next reign in Austria will bring
forth it would be rash to undertake to
say. Dualism may be maintained, or
it may give place to '' trialism, 3" or
there may be a still wider federal
scheme. But, in some way or another,
we may hope, with no little confidence,
the external integrity of the great en-
pire will be preserved. The genius of
Francis Joseph II has been so marked
and so successful that it will surely
project its saving power far forward
into the reign which will come next,
but which, let us trust. is still far off in