Albuquerque morning journal. [volume] (Albuquerque, N.M.) 1903-1926, 1919-01-20
BUDAPEST FACES
FAMINE; TROOPS
REF USE To WORK
Soldiers Back From Front
Scorn Work While Drawing
Big Pensions From the Su-
pine, IIIiterate Government
BY Beatr &C Baskerville.
Copyright, 1919, Ey the Pre- s. Publish
ing Co

Especial Cable Dispatch TO World am
albuquerque IournaiD
Budapest, Jan. 10 tvia Nienna) y
Hrngary's condition demands promp
attention from the allies After talk
ing with prominent Hungarian states
men of all parties, with leading finan
ciers and with humber folk. [ feel i
my duty to warn Americans agains
neglect Of the Hungarian danger.
Unless Budapest may be put unde
strong and DISTINGUISHED control thi
once prosperous country will seriousl
menace the fruits of victory.
Hungary is fast deterioratinG into
second Russia Her self government
is weak morally and politically and i
is inexperienced 1t is unbalanced
and wholly incapable of coping witt
the Bolsheviki, who are rapidly gain
ing adherents
1t is no eXaEgeration to say thai
Hungaly's one feature Just now /;
chaos. Austria, despite a far severei
food situation, is political paradise
compared with the great Magyar
plain.
Commission" Spread Propaganda.
BolsheVik imperialism began to in
wade this land soon after Lenin be-
came Russia's dictator when his
agents, camouflaged as Russian
mission for the exchange of war
prisoners, entered Budapest and other
large cities, supplied with enormous
sums OF money, and started an inten-
sive campaign.
The danger did not become appar-
ent until last July. 1t has made APP
palling progress since the armistice
was signed and soldiers came troop
ing home. Brihed by Bolshevik money,
pouring in from Russia, large num-
bers of peasants have followed the
example of the Russian moujiks, and
have refused TO till or SOW the land.
Thousands of them have seized the
estates Of the mobiles which however,
they will not cultivate
Soldiers returned from defeat have
refused TO work either in town OF
country, because of promises of the
present government that all the rich
would soon he forced TO part with so
poYc of their property, so that the
poor may live in wealth and idleness
for the remainder Of their lives.
The bulk of the peasants are too
ignorant to understand the disastrous
consequences of the wholesale de-
struction of industry, commerce and
land cultivation and the mobiles are
helpless. Some Of the large land
owners have been trying to till their
soil, for il has been impossible TO OH
tain labor except at ruinous wages.
The inevitable result OF this state Of
affairs will be u famine next spring.
budapest Needs Water.
Since the signing OF the armstice,
the C2echs have annexed the northern
coal fields of Hungary, and Ruman-
inns occupy the portion where iron
rs mined. The mills cannot grind corn,
owing to the coal shortage, and rail-
way transportation has been reduced
TO a minimum. Budapest is almost
without water even now, Unless the
C2echs and the Rumanians let coal
pass, this city of 2,O00,0O0O' persons
will face a water famine within three
weeks.
The supine socialist democratic gov
eminent, with Premier karolyi as the
figurehead, has further complicated
matters by granting allowances of IS
to $40 n day to all the unemployed,
the government paying rs per cent
and forcing manufacturers to pay the
remainder. Manufacturers are thus
fast spending all their war profits for
the benefit of men who refuse to work
even in places where there is sufficient
coal supply to reopen and run the
factories.
Illitcrate Blackmailcrs Busy.
The Budapest Soldiers Council is
composed mainly of men unable to
read or write. They go the rounds
of the State Departments armed,
turning out of office cabinet mem
bers and others who have the firm
ness to stand out against them, and
matchmaking the government for
large sums of money.
A prominent financier informs me
that since Oct. l. when the revou-
tionary movement began the new
government has spent more money
than did its predecessor in four years
of war, without meeting any portion
of the public debt. Financiers say
Hungary'S only possible course, after
such mad squandering. will be to
proclaim the state bankrupt, and call
upon the entente to send in an adj
ministrative council.
The normal annual budget in years
of peace was $300,000,000, Interest
on war loans now amounts to $780,
900, 900. Salaries Of the ministers
have been quadrupled, the number of
officials has been increased tenfold,
and enormous sums have been used
in so-called temporary payments to
invalid soldiers, instead of holding
the money for permanent pension
fund
The government is paying to young
single men. only slightly incapacitat-
ed. the same allowance as to older
men, totally disabled and with de-
pendent families; the older men can
not go around the cities rioting. and
probably would not If they could.
Anarchists Rob at VIII.
Neither life nor property is safe.
Those who have anything to lose
must carry arms after dark or risk
for what their pockets con-
tain. This condition of anarchy is
causing thousands of respectable
people the gravest anxiety.
Recently there was a movement
among army officers to organize a
force to resist the progress of Boil
shevism The government accused
them of trying to hatch revolution
and throw the leaders into prison.
One serious mistake of the governt
ment was the disbanding of the en-
tire army soon after the armistice
was signed permitting the discharged
soldiers to retain their arms or to
throw them away. BY this course,
many thousand rifles, machine guns
and bombs are in the hands of ire
sponsible and INSCRIPTIONS persons
who use them to terrorize the public
and the government.
One incident will illustrate the gov