The Greenville journal. [volume] (Greenville, Ohio) 1850-1918, 1918-02-14

used In TACT 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 1926 the
duke Of Austria was elected king Of
Bohemia. and in the same year he was
elected king Of Hungary. These titles
and the regal authority which they
gave, although in each case the crown
was by right elective, the Hapsburgs
have kept as hereditary and despotlc,
quite as much as In their hereditary
upper and lower Austria. Thus, In the
first place, we have as an essential
factor in the dual monarchy medieval
and arlstocratic monarch-and q mon
archy in a German family.
The second striking fact is the d.
verslty of races and languages. Ger
. many is nearly homogeneous. 1t has
on its borders some non-Gcrmanic sub
jects, inhabiting lands which represent
some of the plunder Of Prussian wars
Poles in POsen, Danes in Schlcswig,
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 Austria-Hungary, however, the
Germans are q minority; in a total
population of about 100000 there
are only 100000 Germans. The 9TH
er races are, in round numbers, Slavs,
24,00OO00; Magyars (Hungarians),
100000, and Latins, 100000.
In other words, the population is "a
per cent German, 48 per cent Slav, 20
per cent Magyar and per cent Latin.
But note that the German Haps-
burgs, rs long as they could, ruled au-
tocratically in the interest of German
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
modify their methods. A simulacrum
of elective parliaments was introduced,
and in 1867 the empire was divided.
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 Bpust, at that
time to his Magyar colleague: "We
will take care of our barbarianS; you
must take care Of yours"
Whom did he mean?
Germans Control Austria.
Austria has population of some
2S000,000. OF these there are TO-
100000 Germans, the remaining 49,
100000 being mainly Slavs-POles and
BOhemians, Serbs CrOnts, and Slo-
venes, with many Italians in the prov
inCes bordering Italy. It is these nom
Germans, especially the SlavS, whom
! Bcust called "barbarians." The Aus
trian parliament is cunningly juggled
in the membership of its elective lower
| hn CT 10 CT
first meeting since the war broke out
q rabid pan-German was elected to the
| presidency of the lower house by vote
Of 215 to 195-215 Germans to 1876 nom
| Germans in a nation in which the Ger
mans are in a minority with q ratio of
! 10 to IS. The electoral law puts about
an average of 1850 Germans in a
parliamentary district, while it takes
about 65479 Slavs to elect one deputy.
Polish Galicia is 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 Bohcmians, 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
q remnant of the great Serbian mon
archy of the fourteenth century, which
was overrun and crushed by the Turks.
Austria protected them, gladly used
them in her armies, and in turn made
them virtual serfs. They are essen
TALLY the same people and speak the
same language as the Serbs of Serbia
and Montenegro.
The Italians in Austria are re-
mindCrs Of the time when large share
of Italy was under the Austrian yoke.
The wars of 1862 1860 and 1866 drove
the Hapsburgs out of the italian PENN
sula, but it will take another war for
the rest of the really italian lands,
Italia Irredenta, to be secured from
the ancient tyrant.
Hungary, too, has by no means a
homogeneous Magyar population.
There are some 100000 Magyars,
tuft, in which was interviewer a Quan,