Evening star., 1919-09-21
PROPAGANDA TO UNITE
Observation-Disclosures
Mr.. Simonds Points Out Absurdity Of
Those Two Nations Welcoming Re-
lationships In View of Past.
BY FRANK H. sIMONDS.

BY FRANK H. SIMONDS.
T HE reports from Budapest and
Vienna Of a proposal to unite
Rumania and Hungary in a
single state have every evil
dence of being propaganda. The Hun
garian capital is in the hands of the
Rumanians, who have pillaged and
plundered exactly. or. at least, ap-
proximately, as the Hungarians pill
lased and plundered in Bucharest two
years ago. To assume that the Hun
Rarians would now welcome union
with a state and a race which they
have wronged has the appearance oil
believing in miracles.
Nevertheless, it must be patent
that the conditions which the war
and the approximate peace so far
achieved have created in central
Europe is one that cannot endure.
Some basis of economic order must
at no distant time emerge from the
present chaos. European statesmen
to say that If there had been no
Hapsburg monarchy it would be nee
essary to create one. What they
had in mind was precisely that chaos
now existing. which they foresaw
would follow the removal Of the sim
gle centripetal force on the south
of the Bavarian, Saxon and Prussian
frontiers.
Hapsburg Empire Failed.
Austria-Hungary was politically an
impossibility because two races. each
constituting a minority in it's own
half of the state, controlled the po-
litical power and used it brutally.
selfishly, stupidity. Twenty-Five mill
lion Slavs were made to do the will
of barely 100000 Hungarians and
Germans combined, while 100000
LAtins. Rumanians and Italians were
quite as shamefully maltreated. AS
q consequence the political structure
Of the Hapsburg empire broke down
following defeat on the battlefield.
But on the other hand. II the bonds
Of political cohesion were slight it is
plain that there were unmistakable
economic influences as we'll as geo
graphical conditions which combined
to make possible-almost to make
necessary-a great state occupying
the frontiers of the old HapsburS
monarchy. Few states in the world
possess more varied elements, more
complimentary economic parts On
the agricultural side and on the in
dustrial side Austria-Hungary was a
self-contained unit.
AS a consequence of the application
Of the doctrine of self-determination
of peoples we have created on Aus
trian territory three states entirely
destitute of access to the sea, inca
pable Of independent economic life,
separated from their food, their raw
material and their manufacturing
needs by artificial frontiers. That
treaty Of st. Germain consists of little
more than 100000 of agricultural
people surrounding Vienna, yesterday
. world capital. today city OF 1000
000 Of people without any future,
without any chance Of preserving its
ancient Importance, doomed to die.
precisely as q head severed from the
trunk of the body would cease auto
matically to exercise its functions.
Two Hostile Frontiers.
within sight almost of this doomed
city Of Vienna are two hostile from
tiers, those Of Czechoslovakia to the
north and Of Hungary to the south.
Before the war the foodstuns OF Hun
Rnry supplied the Industrial and min
eraiised districts Of Bohemia as well
rs Of Vienna Today the new IRON
tiers which we have sketched at Paris.
following the vagAries Of ethnic
boundaries, interpose barriers, which
20 far have proved insurmountable.
For nearly q year, since Austro-Hun-
Earian collapse, only those trains run
by Hoover and his associates TOT tne
purpose Of bringing food to the starv-
ing have circulated on the old railroad
systems connecting Trieste on the sea
with Vienna, with Prague. and with
Budapest. The wheat Of the Hun
garfan plains has rotted while the
people Of Vienna have starved and the
people Of Prague have depended upon
American largess. Hoover himself was
able to set In motion a rudimentary
system Of barter between the several
fractions Of the old Hapsburg mon
substitute for previous economic ex-
change.
Today nothing is more certain than
that sheer economic paralysis VIII
compel the various tribes Of Austria
Hungary to follow one of two
courses; either to lay aside age-long
rivalries and. hostilities and achieve
some form Of economic il not political
co-operatfon, or else to sacrifice their
new-found Independence. Thus the
people Of the new Austria are already
clamoring for union with the German
empire. There Is at least u QiSCuSSiOH
Of q possible federation between the
Hungarfans and the Rumanians. while
day by day the impossibility of exist
ing conditions is more plainly dis
closed.
Support National Life.
Jugoslavia and Poland possess ac-
cess to the sea and sufficient strength
and varied resources to support ma
&ional ife. Poland and Rumania. each
VI them with an area as great as
Italy, may easily become in genera
tion or two first-class powers. On the
contrary, Czechoslovakia. the new
Austria and what remains~of the old
Hungary, can never together, and
much less separately, exist under con-
ditions even remotely approaching
economic prosperity. Unless they can
be Joined in q new Danubian fedora
tion by either Rumani9 or Jugoslavia
they Will infallibly become minor
teleuropa.
: For Europe. for the United States.
the gravity of the problem now pre-
sented by central Europe should not
be overlooked. The peril Of mittel-
federation extending from the Baltic
to the Black sea, the Adriatic and the
Aegean, was cleary demonstrated by
the events of the war. Such a mittel-
europa would dominate and threaten
the peace Of the world. but it is al
most impossible to see any escape