The Fargo forum and daily republican., 1914-08-04
TRACE WAR
TO A CLASH
OF TONGUES


mongrel cur having for the first time
in 500 years got enough spunk up to
take his tail from between his legs be-
gins to Wag it and feel growing pains.
Along comes a great big dog and
says:
Put that tail down-and gimme
We see this sort of thing nearly
every day.
Once upon a time little old Servia
was an empire and very nearly over
came the Byzantine Empire, which
probably would have changed the
whole of European history. There
might have been no Turkey in Euro
pc.
That was in the fourteenth century,
under the mighty Dushan.
Explains Austria's Action.
Servia is now a poor, wretched lit
tie peasant kingdom-not half as big
as Illinois in size, with less people
than the city Of New York.
And now the house Of Hapsburg
would wipe little Servia off the map!
Even though the process involve
more lives and money than any war
of any time!
That Is the life. You or | in the
house OIL T1dpSDuIB SnOeS "Oulu w
the same thing. 1t is the law of ex-
istence. Nature works today as in the
stone age or when saber- -toothed tiger
fought. with mastodon.
Why does Austrian Hungary, the
dual monarchy, want poor peasant
Servia? Hasn't the dual monarchy.
with its internal babel Of confusion,
enough trouble already?
Why Others are Interested.
Suppose the dual monarchy does
want Servia, what is it to Russia?
Suppose Russia does object, what is
it to Germany? Suppose Germany OBJ
jects to Russias Objecting what busi-
ness is it Of FTance-or of England?
Supremacy.
Balance Of power.
Human nature.
Life.
propose to analyze this whole sit
uation. And right here let us clearly
recognize the faCt-tWo facts:
The contest now impending is not
economic but psychologist in its funda-
mental nature; psychologist laws are
not economic laws.
To put it another way, the desires
which lead to action in eastern Europe
are not based on christian ethics or
rational procedure, but on certain
thoughts.
Things are what we think thew are;
and thinking depends on the point Of
view
Pan German vs.. Pan-SIav
Pan -Germanism versus pan -Slav-
ism. If We understand this, we have
travelled far First, let me give an IL
Illuminating illustration:
In Prague, an important city of
Austria. l was warned that l would
get along much better in shops and
otherwise If l emrloyed English first.
OF course, English is not generally un-
derstood in that city, but German is.
We naturally think Of German as the
language Of Austria, and proud as the
ancient capital of Bohemia was once,
to all intents and purposes a German
city, it now tries to forget, and won't
talk German If she can possibly help
it,
Pan means united, all; the term
pan -Germanism stands for a move
ment which seeks the common welfare
Of the Germanic peoples Of EuroI'e at
the expense of pan SlaVism or COM
mon veal of Slavs
Becomes Question of Tongues.
Before we can understand the signi-
f1Cance of these two movements, we
must consider the question Of the
Nationals, or the Races, as 1t is
sometimes called.
In fact, this Is not a question either
Of nations or of races, but of tongues.
The classification of mankind by tong
ues Is ancient and fundamental
Before flags and religious men knew
friend from foe by the language test.
More than half of all the wars of Eu-
rope have been fought by parties mu-
tually unintelligible.
Broadly speaking, all European Ian
guages belong to the Aryan group; The
t. Al
var, a dialect of the same language
spoken by Turks and Firms.
How Divided by Language.
Of the Aryan tongues there are three
great general divisions in Europe-Ro-
nance, Teutonic. Slavic. We are in
terested only in the latter two. And Of
the Teutonic German is spoken by S0,-
900, 0O0 of which 100000 are in Aus
tria and 1000, 900 in Hungary.
There are 140,000,000 SlaVs in Europe.
From this it appears that the present
political boundaries-and this Is even
more clearly brought out by reference
to the accompanying map-are not CO.
terminous with liguistic groups.
Right here in this fact we have the
seeds of present and future troubles
and a clew to the causes of most of the
wars in eastern Europe through 2,OO0
years
sIav situation in Russia.
To get before US the full significance
us consider the linguistic complexion
| of these countries.
Russia Is a veritable hodepodge Of
tongues, but of her Slav population
aolne we have at least two distinct ele-
ments today bitterly opposed to each
other, with the possibility, If not the
probability, Of third, which will seek
recognition.
AS against Russians proper there are
over 100000 Poles, and of the re-
naming SlaVs there are 100000 Ruth
enians, or Little or White Russians as
they are sometimes called. or the gem
eral Polish situation I shall speak lat
er.
2O,OOO,OOO SIavs in Austria.
In Germany there are over 100000
Slave, chiefly Polish.
OF Austria's 30,000,000 population
only about third is German, the re-
mainder being Slav, of which there
are over {, 1000. 900 Czechs or Bohemians,
and 1.250.OOO Slovenes.
Hungary is even more diversified in
| tongue. The Magyar element QO,0oO,-
O0O) 10 equaled by the non Magyar,
made up roughly of 100000 Germans,
| 2,0OO, 900 SIoVaks, SOC, 900 Ruthenes. g.
| 100000 Serbo- Croats, all of the Slavic
| tongue and about 100000 Reuman-
| ians who do not speak Slav at all but
| a Romance language.
We need not here consider the lin
guistic aff1nities of the Balkan states.
| 1t is enough to say that Servia is pure
| ly Servian and Slav, Bulgaria Is Bull
gar and Slay (though the. basis of
blood of Bulgars is like that of the
Mgpar, Asatic).
The populat ton Of Montenegro, about
| 100000, are SlaVs of the Servian branch.
Roumanians are of mixed origin, but
! the Roumanian tongue is spoken by
1000 900 people of which 5,500,000
are in Roumania 1902 per cent of its
l total population), the remaining mil