Arizona republican., 1905-03-12
Another Crisis In Austria-tiungary

 gary is one of the countries where there is a chronic state of dissension and unrest. For many years past 1t has been the general opinion that only the personal influence of the aged em- peror, whom everyone respects, pre- vented the outbreak of serious conflicts and a strong probability of civil war. And through this period of repressed ebullition the Hungarian element seems to have been steadily gaining in strength, and the Hungarian leaders have had constantly in mind the neces- sity of preparation for the struggle that is recognized as inevitable for the fu- ture. On the other hand the Austrian authorities have been unable to act with as much energy for the mainte- nance of imperial union as they might have done had the monarch been younger and more energetic man.
 Nevertheless the situation has been a difficult one and frequent crises have arisen that have required the best eff forts of the statesmen devoted to the emperor to preserve the peace. The
 
 most recent session of the Hungarian cession of riots. and at the present time the lines of dissension are most sharply drawn. The particular point at issue is whether the commands to the Hungarian regiments of the impe- rial army shall be given in the Aus @,-s., l-v, -afaN i'm Q language of Hungary (A1aygar). The proportions of this apple of discord are easily discernible. The imperial au- thorities evidently have good reason for preferring one army to two. and to permit the Hungarian regiments to race in their own language is too evil dently a step towards separation to be approved by those desirous of union-
 And on the other hand, the Hunga- rians with their dreams of independ- ence or equality naturally regard the German military commands not only as a badge of inferiority but as a very practical obstacle in the way of their plans for the future.
 Whether the present crisis will pass as others have done. or whether it marks the beginning of the struggle that will result in the reorganization of the nations of southeastern Europe. remains to be seen, but there would appear to be little hope for permanent peace so long as two such widely diff ferent peoples are bound together in an artificial political union that is ex- tremely distasteful to one of them. Austria's normal place would seem to be in the German confederacy that is being rapidly welded to complete union in the German empire, while Hungary has natural aspirations to leadership Of the non-German Christian peoples of southeastern Europe. Yet here again the problem is complicated by the end less mixture of races, tongues and na- tionalities, many of whom would be not less restive under Hungarian con troI than they now are under that of the Austrian monarchy. The emperor of Austria is also king of Bohemia, king of Gallicia, king of Dalmatia, duke of Styria, duke of Carniola, duke of Lower Austria, duke of Upper Aus tria and prince of some seven princi- palities, all of which kingdoms, duchies and principalities are now represented in the Austrian parliament. And in addition he is king of Hungary. which has a parliament of its own. The Ger mans constitute only 25 per cent of the country ruled by the Austrian parlia- l rians proper, are less than 43 per cent of the population ruled by the Hun garian parliament. The race of Slavs claim 46 per cent of the population of Austria Hungary, but this race is split up into various nationalities. differing greatly in language, religion, culture and manners. so that their numerical superiority is nullified by the more | compact races like the Germans and
 Magyars. A fourth race is the Wal
 lachs or Humans, which makes up one-
 seventh the population of Hungary ing Italians, Latins, Jews, Gypsies and l Armenians.
 To fuse these various clements oi population into a coherent nationa
 mass would seem to be an impossibil- ity, even though the German provinces 1 were withdrawn ard united with theil
 l1insmen to the north. But the Mag vars are certainly displaying a true
 national spirit, and in them may b.
 found the nucleus of one of the futur, great nations of the world