The Washington times., 1915-05-28
WILL AUSTRIA-HUN0ARY FALL

burgs over the many peoples and
lands that constitute the present
dual monarchy. In round numbers,
there are twelve million Germans,
ten million Magyars, one million
Italians, and twenty-five million
Slavs under the sway of the i'm
perial house. There is union, but
no racial unity, among them. The
union itself is unnatural, having
been effected by the sword and in
termarriage among the royal fami-
lies, the latter a policy adopted by
the first Hapsburg Emperor in the
thirteenth century.
Had wisdom ruled the Slavs, they,
and not the Germans, nor even the
Magyars, would have controlled the
destinies of the countries now COM
posing Austria Hungary. From the
valleys of the Dnieper and the Wis.,
tula, the birthplace of the Slavic
race, there was great migration in
the fifth century, the Czechs being
the vanguard. They entered Bo-
hemia, which had been deserted by
the Germans, and devoted them
selves to peaceful pursuits. "They
are not governed by single man."
said Procopius, "but live as a de-
mocracy." Other Slavs also came
from the farther side of the Car
pathians, taking possession of un-
occupied regions, and by the middle
of the seventh century they had
spread over practically all of what
is now Austria Hungary, the Elbe
valley, the central Danube, and the
shores of the Adriatic.
The Slavs possessed the territor-
les from the North Sea to the bor-
ders of Greece and Italy when the
kinsmen of Attila, the Magyars, ap-
peared in the ninth century, to end
their migration from the Altaic
mountains. This was fatal to any
prospect of great Slav empire. In
the seventh century Samo, whose
nationality is in doubt, did estab-
lish a Slav empire, composed of
Bohemia, Moravia, together with
Carinthia, Carniola, the northern
part of Styria, part of lower Aus
tria and the lands of the middle
Danube. But upon his death it fell
to pieces.
The Magyars by amalgamating
with Romance peoples lost their
high cheekbones and oblique eyes,
and today are considered among the
most beautiful people of Europe.
They, too, loved liberty, and in 1922
the Golden Bull-their Magma
Charta-was wrung from the King.
Hungary in the twelfth and thir-
teenth centuries was one of the
most powerful kingdoms of Europe.
It's ruler was also hereditary mon
arch of Dalmatia, Croatia, Serbia,
Galicia, and Lodomeria.
Bohemia's fame, too, in the thir-
teenth century spread throughout
Europe. The Czechs, by invitation
of the Pope, conducted a crusade
against the Prussians, and founded
the city of Koenigsberg, which was
to become the city where the Prus-
sian kings would be crowned. Bo.
hemia, by grant of the title from
the German Emperor, had become
kingdom in 1886. The crown had
been bestowed to the first Hungar.
ian, or Magyar, king, in the year
1000 by the Pope. The derivation OF
the royal title of the two Kingdoms
has played part in modern politics
The greatest mistake ever com.
mitted by a Slav was made twice
by King Premysl Otokar of Bo,
hemia, when in 1856 and again ir
1871 he was offered and refused the
imperial German crown. He was
one of the first princes of Europe
and was content with what he pos
essed. His kingdom reached from the
Riesenbirge to the Adriatic. Upor
his second declination, Rudolf O,
Hapsburg, with the backing of thu
Hohenzollerns in Germany, accept
ed the German crown, and his ini
tial policy was to rid himself of 81
formidable a rival as the Bohemian
monarch, so he set about to humbl,
him.
Rudolf in the war which followed
was successful, and took from Bo
hernia what was to become a larg
part of the Austrian empire, includ
ing Carniola, Austria, and Styria
Rudolf was assisted in the war b,
Hungary, whose mistake reall,
founded the power of the Hapsburg
and of Austria. Within twelve year
Rudolf, as German Emperor, elaine,
| the right to dispose of the Hun