Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1918-08-03
People, S re ly Pressed,
Trust to Wilson's Prin-
ciples for Salvation
TOO WEAK TO REBEL
Thousands Starved to Death,
Leaving Living Passive
About the War
By JULIAN CRANDE
Special Correspondence Of the Epening
Public Ledger

CopV'i0ht. I9tS, bU Nc,c York Times CO.
Berne. July Il.
The average man in country such
as Switzerland, bordering on Austria.
often asks: What is happening in Aus
tria? OF late rumors of all kinds have
been in circulation about riots and rev.
olutions in Austria. All these rumors
seem to have been repeated with sensa-
tional headlines. in some British and
French newspapers. and possibly in some
American papers also.
The defeat Of the Auktrians on the
PiaNe at the end of June. when the
hungarian Prime Minister Wekerle ut
tered his famous lament about Austria
Hungary having lost 100000 men, made
many people. at any rate in Switzer-
land, think that Austria was going to
collapse. and the Austrophile Swiss
papers shed so many crocodile tears
about the Piave disaster that the inno-
cent and uninitiated really began to be-
lieve that Austria Hungary was in a
, truly critical condition.
1t is only dOuble-faccd Power such
ms Austria Hungary which could thus
deceive tho world. Wckerles lament
was uttered in order to do a good stroke
OF business for the Hungarian junker
hungary does not want any other ag-
ri'ultural State. Rumania or the
kraino, for instance. to be admitted to
the membership of Mitteleuropa. be-
| cause she is also an agricultural State
! and does not desire competitors. BY
| confessing her heavy sacrifices. she is
! virtually telling Germany Now. we are
quits and letting her know that she
cannot force upon Hungary unwelcome
new members of the Central European
Alliance.
Franz Joseph Knew Him
Wekerle's slyness is proverbial, and is
well illustrated by story Of the old
Austrian Emperor, Franz Joseph, who
once said:
IF ] ask wekere what sort of
weather it is. and he answers. Your
Majesty, 1t is a fine day. then take
! an umbrella"
lt is time the world realized that
! whenever not only Wekerle. but the Aus
| trian state or the whole gang of Austro-
! hungarian statesmen. either do or say
anything, it ought to ask itself the
question which was asked when Talley-
rand died. What was his object in
dying?" What 90 they want? What
are they about?
| Austria at present has a Ministry
majority in it. She can make neither
| war nor peace, she can neither dismiss
| her Government nor keep It, neither be
governed by legal means nor by chance
means, neither break off nor conclude
her negotiations with Germany. She
is. in short, like a crossroads. every
outlet OF which is blocked.
To crown all, the Emperor. for some
reason or other-the Austrians say be-
] 20, N,tA III
! tremely unpopular and the Empress still
more so. They were, in fact, "booed"
the other day when driving from their
| palace to Vienna.
A distinguished writer and politician
from Vienna, whom / met the other day
! in Switzerland, confined to me the really
! terrible state of his country. / asked
| him
/ Why do YOU not conclude separate
peace"
We cannot" he answered. We are
! ia the grip of Germany's mailed fist
, German troops are mixed with ours
! our finances are in the hands of the
! Germans, and we are altogether at their
mercy"
Tight in German Grip
1t is useless therefore to talk of Aus
tria as separate country independent
I L
| She. is almost daily more hopelessly in
volved in the clutches of Germany.
The burgomaster of Vienna, Doctor
| Weiskirchner. openly confessed at a
recent meeting of the Vienna City Coun-
Gil that he had to telegraph to Luden-
| dorff, Hertlng and the Bavaran Prime
| Minister imploring them to do something
TO procure food for the city of Vienna
ana saying that if he did not rVeve
| help, and at once, he could no longer
| be responsible for the maintenance of
| public order. Ludendorff graciously re-
piled in telegram. which was read at
the meeting, assuring Doctor Weiskirch-
! ner that he would be delighted to help
him. but Germany was already doing all
she could. All the imports of corn from
! Rumania, Bessarabia and the Ukraine
We're already being reserved for Aus
| tria, said Ludendorff, and although he
ver9 badly needed it himself, he had
| even allowed Austria to have wheat in
| tended for the western front during
April, May and June.
| Here, therefore, is an example of the
pitch to which Austria is reduced. 1t
| is not the Austrian Emperor to whom
an appeal is made but the German COM
mander-in- chief, the German Chancellor
and the Bavaran Prime Minister.
In the absence of a properly consti-
! tuted government, backed by a majority
| of the House, Austria is in worse case
politically than she has ever been before
worse even than in '1S4s, owing to insur-
rections, and 1866 (Sadowa).
On those occasions the people were at
any rate held together by loyalty to the
dynasty. but now there is not even that
| bond uniting them.
The young Emperor Charles no longer
| has the sympathies OF his people, and
! consequently does not represent them
| He has many enemies and apparently
\ no friends. The Slavs suspect him be-
! cause they consider him a German pup
pet The Germans suspect him because
/ he is married to an ITALIAN woman
| while the Socialists look on both EN-
| peror and Empress as agents of the
| Vatican.
/ Some persons think that the Austrians
| are making too much fuss about their
food shortage In order to excite the pity
| of Germany and Hungary. Although
there may have been some truth in this
/ there is not the slightest doubt that
1 Austria is and long has been in very
woeful state as to food. Trustworthy
men who arrive from Austria assure
me that the cemeteries are being filled
with the graves of people who have died
OF hunger. An official inquiry elected
/ the fact that during March last about
1000 persons died from underfeeding in
| Vienna Even hospital patients are in
sufficiently nourished.
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