The Washington herald. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1906-1939, 1915-02-28

bedfellowing Is politics could produce.
The alliance between Germany and Aus
tria is the yoking OF Hohenzollern i'm
aginatior ard emOtionallsn with Haps-
burg pIlcgn. northern energy with
southern Incidence. modern swiftness
with ancient sl"wness. Prussan cfti-
cienc~ with Austrian ineffiCiency. The
AusJrU-Germau border cannot be crossed
without the difference being seen from
the car window. For the Austrian leu
ton is of another time and Cline from
the North German.
The transition IL not wholly unagree-
able to tine traveller Tho German IN
Austria still Is much That l imagine
Germans were in those good old. tran
quill days for which England and other
competing nations SO pathetically sigh.
when there We're few German mills in
tn" land. few German ships on the sea.
and only song and legend were made
in Germany" The Austrian Teuton has
so much more leisure. ease and courtesy
than the hustlinT. bustlins Prussian.
Plainly of an older civilization, with the
accumulated grace OF the centuries
cIinCing to him, he-and she. too-are
better tailored
Berlin, with it's suburbs has rushed
past Vienna and even Paris and IS really
the biggest city In Continental Europe.
But it still is somewhat provincial. no,
yet quite of the great world. Vienna, on
the other hand. is blend OF Paris and
Rome. of the occident and the Orient
Mett=rHich used TO say that Asia be-
gins on the Landstrasse." Its note is as
unlike Rerlins as a Wagner opera Is I'M
like 4 Strauss waltz.
Yet Vienna Is more splendid than bril-
liant and impatient visitors have been so
unkird TO call tho charming Wien
nese stupid. Perhaps It is not their fault.
The Iapsburgs never have wanted men
around them who thought too much.
4 Doubtful Ally.
Whether Germany will find her Aus
trian ally an asset or liability the de-
velopmcnt of the war will disclose. One
certainty Is that Austria IS very poor.
not given her that feeling OF security on
which a great trade builds its plans.
When I was there. the business Of the
country was PROSTATE. The Balkan wars
had hit y hard and the government was
draining half a million dollars day into
the army, which WAS modifying for
war. with Russia that already was re-
garded as inevitable. For two or three
years there had been n panic. Credit
was gone and bankruptcy was epidemic.
The army is well equipped. thanks to
military restlcssness. 1t filled the air.
and indeed the army aviators were for
ever flying over the Napoleonic battle
field at Aspcrn,. where a huge hangar
The several races Of the Austrian en-
pire have shown on many a field that
they were willing enough TO die together
however unwilling they ever have been
not had a great hero in 80 years nor a
victorious leader since Prince Eugene
must 20 10 war under a grave moral
handicap.
The Campground of the Races.
In a long and uncertain struggle II is a
still greater weakness of the Austrian
army to be without the stimulus of
patriotism. without the importation OF a
national sentiment. For the empire is
not a nation. 1t is simply the camping
ground on that great highway between
East and West. the Danube, by whose
banks the migratory nations have met
without mingling. They have failed to
mingle and merge because no one Of
them has been big enough TO swallow
and assimilate the others.
For Instance. the Germans insist on
having the political and social leader
ship of Austria, the Magyar aristocracy
of Hungary and the Poles OF Austrian
Poland or Galacia. But each OF those
elements is minority in the country