The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1905-01-07
Peril for Amstrla-Hungary.

Peril for Austrla-Hungary.
The dissolution of the Parliament at
Budapest, owing to the impossibility OF
bringing order out OF the chaos into
which Hungarian politics has fallen
during the past three years, throws
everything into tho melting pot, but
without any likelihood that the body Of
Deputies that will emerge from it will
be more amenable to reason or less
fractions than their predecessors.
The Hungarian political system Is
inherently vicious. conglomeTate OF
national.ties is dominated by one of the
races, and that one in the minority as
compared with the rest. Accordingly,
the Parliament at Budapest cannot be
accurately described as the Hungarian
Legislature, but rather as the Magyar
Legislature of Hungary. The true Mag
vars BY race are only a little more than
one-third of the population, yet they
monopolize, with the Magyars by adop-
ton, nearly all the seats In the Parlia-
ment. the other two-thirds OF the people
Of Hungary being represented by
mere handful of Deputies,
Under such circumstances It is not TO
be expected that true expression of
popular sentiment will be obtained
through the pending election, any more
than was obtained from any of those
held since Hungary secured its consu-
tutional autonomy after the Austrian
disaster al Sadowa in 1866
An indiscretion committed by NJ.
PAUL MUsKo, an official Of the Central
Bureau OF Statistics in publishing in a
Budapest paper a correct statement of
the electoral lists by nationalities, re-
yeals the inequalities Of the suffrage
and explains how 1t is that there cannot
be political peace or order in Hungary
until the wrongs of the nom Magyar
races have been redressed NJ. MUsKo's
statistics show that there are 4 1872 $50
persons in Hungary over twenty years
of age who would be entitled to vote II
there was a just distribution OF the
franchise As it is, only some go 500
persons will be entitled to take part in
the coming election, and Of these SAP 900,
Ol illOl Allsiil NAM oAt iliHNi 'bNN pE'
vars. So unjust and arbitrary are the
electoral laws that in only one-four-
teenth Of the voting districts are the
majorites non-Magyar, and few of those
dare elect any but Magyar Deputy.
For his indiscreton in making public
the true statistics Of the population OF
voting age, VI. Music and the news
paper in which he published them are
to be prosecuted VI, TIszA, the Premier,
having prepared an official statement on
the subject, with view 10 certain pre-
tended reforms, entirely at variance with
facts. now finds himself and his plan
discredited, it having been intended,
while making apparent concessions to
the majority. to preserve the ascendency
of the Magyar minority.
The root of the trouble in Hungary is
that the country is stu in a condition
little removed from the feudalism Of the
middle ages The majority Of the great
magnates and land owners are in the
grip Of the money lender, owing to their
own or their forefathers' eXtfayaganoes.
and it is only by preserving political
power in The hands OF their class and its
retainers, through a restricted suffrage,
that they manage to survive. The coming
into existence of large professional
and commercial middle class is changing
the social and political equilibrium to
their disadvantage, though it is not yet
strong enough to deprive them of the
power which their ownership of the land
and control Of the peasantry confer. But
the march of events is against them, and,
unless they consent to the equality Of the
other races in the politics Of the country.
an anti Magyar revolution in some form
is within the range of possibility, with
important results on the destiny of
Austria.
The coming elections in Hungary are
therefore of more than local interest, as it
may depend on them whether the present
Empire Kingdom OF Hungary
shall be transformed into a federation
of free nationalitics under one crown, or
through the perpetuation of discord and
racial hatreds shall become the prey Of
ambitious and more powerful neighBors
and disappear as a great independent
European Power