The Connecticut labor press., 1918-02-16

used in fact the head of the House of
 Hapsburg reigns in many of the crown
 lands of the empire by inheritance, as
 duke, count or whatnot. In 1526 the
 duke of Austria was elected king of
 Bohemia, and in the same year he w"S
 elected king of Hungary. These titles
 and the regal authority which they i gave although in each case the crown
 was by right elective, the Hapsburcs have kept as hereditary and despotic,
 quite as much as in their hereditary upper and lower Austria. Thus, in the i first place, we have as an essential i factor in the dual monarchy medieval and aristocratic monarch-and a mon archy in a German family.
 1 The second striking fact is the di
 versity of races and languages. Ger many is nearly homogeneous. It has i on its borders some nOn-Germanic sub jects, inhabiting lands which represent some of the plunder of Prussian wars Poles in Posen, Danes in Schleswig, French in Alsace-LOrraine. But the great mass of the people of the empire are German in blood and speech. Germans in Dual Monarchy.
 In AustriaHungary, however, the Germans are a minority; in a total population of about 5O,OOOOOO there are only 12,OOOOOO Germans. The oth- CT races are, in round numbers, Slavs, 24,OOO,OOO; Magyars (Hungarians), 1O,OOO.OO0, and Latins, 100000.
 In other words, the population is 24 per cent German, AS per cent Slav, 20 per cent Magyar, and per cent Latin. But note that the German Hans- l burgs, as long as they could, ruled au- | tocratically in the interest of German l izing the entire empire. German was | the official language. German were the laws, German the officers. The col lapse of the Austrian armies in 1859, in the war with France and Sardinia, | and again in 1866, in the war with Prussia, compelled the Hapsburgs to l modify their methods. A simulacrum of elective parliaments was introduced, and in 1867 the empire was divided. The Magyars were taken into partner ship and the dual monarchy was formed. In Vienna the head of the house of Hapsburg reigns as emperor of Austria; in Budapest he reigns as king of Hungary. Each monarchy has its own parliament and cabinet, and there are joint ministries of for eign affairs, war and finance, with a sort of joint parliamentary committee for common purposes.
 But while in this arrangement of 1867 the Magyars were given their freedom, pains were taken by both the Germans of Austria and the Magyars of Hungary that the Slavs should be pushed to the wall. Said the Austrian representative, Count Beust, at that time to his Magyar colleague: eve will take care of our barbarians; you must take care of yOurs."
 Whom did he mean?
 Germans Control Austria.
 Austria has a population of some 2S,OOOOO0. Of these there are 1O.- 100000 Germans, the remaining 1S,- OO0,O0O being mainly Slavs-Poles and BOhemians, Serbs, Greats, and Slo- venes, with many Italians in the prov inces bordering Italy. It is these non Germans, especially the Slavs, whom Beust called "barbarfans." The Aus trian parliament is cunningly juggled fin the membership of it's elective lower house. At the sitting last spring-the first meeting since the war broke out a rabid pan-German was elected to the presidency of the lower house by a vote of 215 to 195-215 Germans to 195 nOn- Germans in a nation in which the Ger mans are in minority with rario of 10 to IS. The electoral law puts about an average of 42,8S9 Germans in parliamentary district, while it takes about 65.479 Slavs to elect one deputy.
 Polish Galicia is a fragment of PO- land, the ancient kingdom destroyed by Prussia, Austria and Russia near the end of the eighteenth century; Galicia was Austria's share of the loot.
 The BOhemians with their neighbors, the SlOvaks of Moravia, are descended from the sturdy race of John Huss and of COmenius. Their forefathers un- wisely elected the head of the house of Hapsburg as their king in 1926, and the ancient constitution of St Vaclav soon was disregarded, and the liberty loving Czechs became little more than helOts of their Austrian overlords. The house of Hapsburg is not noted for fidelity to engagements. |
 Serbs Virtually Serfs.
 The Croats, Serbs and Slovenes are a remnant of the great Serbian mon- archy of the fourteenth century, which | was Overrun and crushed by the Turks | Austria protected them, gladly used l them in her armies, and in turn made | them virtual serfs. They are essen tially the same people and speak the l same language as the Serbs of Serbia | and Montenegro.
 The Italians in Austria are re- l minders of the time when large share of Italy was under the Austrian yoke. The wars of 1859, 1860 and 1866 drove the Hapsburgs out of the Italian penin- su1a, but it will take another war for the rest of the really Italian lands,