The Washington herald., 1918-08-08
A Picture of Austria.

"If the lasts another year, the allies must
win" declared prominent Viennese recently de-
spairingly contemplating the future of his nation
under German tutelage.
He declared that the recent Austrian onslaught
the Piave, which ended so disastrously, was the
last great military effort of which his nation was
capable.
And it is this nation to which Germany, in the
hour of her desperation is turning for help Lloyd
George stated in the house of commons yester-
day. What humiliation in truth it must be. The
various German regiments which have been polio
ing Belgium, maintaining order in Northern France,
Poland and other subject provinces, have been
called to the Western front; their places have been
taken by Austrians, who contemptuously held
BY Prussians as yellow" and not to be trusted
with the work of repelling the enemy on the firing
line
Austria having proved her impotency, having
shown her willingness to accept vassalage at the
hands Of the Prussian olgarchy, has reached the
point where her logical evolution is to follow the
example of Russia The Slavic world is afame
II has never been before in human history. 1t feels
the throb of destiny in its blood The Poles, per-
haps the most highly civilized of all the Slavic
branches but the least powerful in of popula
ton know that salvation lies before them in the
event of allied victory, do the Bohemians-for
President Wilson and the responsible statesmen of
the entente record to that effect
Conditions in Austria-Hungary today are as bad,
if not worse, than they were in Russia when the
Romanoff dynasty stamped out; hunger, stagna-
ton and tyranny sowing the wind there, and the
harvest of the whirlwnd must soon be reaped- 1t
may take year more. But all reports indicate
that revolution is inevitable part of the evolu-
ton OF Austria -Hungary-if, indeed, there be
than the hulk and the wreck of Austria-Hungary
year from the present time.
The only route by which revolution in the Haps-
burg empire must be averted is by the allied con-
quest of Germany before the fated day arrives But
it is probable that the red torch will have lighted
the conflagration in this Oldest and most medieval
of empires before allied troops in POtsdam or
Berlin = =
Sooner or later the crash must come, and the
Hapsburg empire will dissolve in revolution, civil
wars and general anarchy" says B. G. F. Kospoth,
in the Philadelphia Evening Ledger "Only great
victory on the italian plains could have warded off
this catastrophe for time at least. But instead Of
the triumphant entry into Venice which the Aus
trian staff had anticipated, came the rout on the
banks of the Piave, definitely extnguishing the
.flickering military prestige of the doomed
pire."
But this correspondent emphasizes, as have
many others, that "the impulse to revolt come
from without" This, he says, is particularly true
of the German proetariat but of the Austrian it is
abundantly clear that the impulse to break away
from the destested Austrian rule already is there
among the Hungarians we'll the Slavs. To
organized thing at the earliest possible moment is
the task before allied diplomacy and the allied gen
make this impulse to revolution concrete, tangible
eral staffs. Beyond question it and will be
done sooner than the American people expect