The Mena weekly star., 1920-08-19
In Sad Plight, Viennese Smile
Capital of Austria, too Big for Coun- try to Nourish, Doomed,
 Prediction.

Special Correspondent International
 News Service.
 Vienna, Aug. 15-The sad plight of Vienna has often been referred to by newspaper correspondents or ex- plained in appeals for starving chil- dren or other sufferers. [ There is little outward evidence of the tragedy. The stranger visiting the erstwhile gay and light-hearted cap- ital on the Danube may even be lured into the belief that the facts have been grossly exaggerated. But the strang- CTS Vienna is not the Vienna of the Viennese.
 For the bulk of the population, and more particularly for the middle class es, the conditions of life have become impossible. There is no room for them between the millstones of profiteering and labor
 When they have eaten up their cap- ital and sold their household goods they have to choose between slow star vation and voluntary death. There are scores of suicides every week.
 The depreciation of Austrian cur rency value and the resulting rise in
  about anything like a corresponding increase in earning. A brilliant scientist, professor of astronomy, has to give lessons in lan- guages and mathematics at private schools at the rate of five knonen an hour-a little over three cents in English money.
 A small government official would have to spend far more than a years income to buy ready-made lounge suit and about a months income for pair of cotton pajamas.
 To keep the wolf from the door those who have the necessary busi- ness ability are forced to resort to it. licit trading.
 Not a single cigarette or cigar, not an ounce of tobacco is to be had at the numerous licensed tobacconists' shops. But there is not a cafe or restaurant where you cannot buy all the smokes you require-by paying far more than the legally fixed prices.
 MIX is absolutely unobtainable, ex- cept in very small quantities, for the use of children, And sugar is almost as scarce, altho Austria is sugar. producing country.
 Her money having become worthless she has to pay in kind for her pur- chases, and thus all her sugar goes abroad
 For the unfortunate Viennese there IS no help and no escape. They can not emigrate; they cannot even 20 to their own country districts, as the local authorities of the Alpine prov inces have set up barriers against them to save their own scant food sup plies.
 The Austria that has emerged from the disastrous war has neither coal. nor cereals, nor sufficient food of any kind to nourish her own population. Her credit stands so low that she can not buy from abroad.
 She is surrounded on three sides by hostile races. All attempts to relieve her distress can only be temporary measures A country of 5000 000 in- habitants cannot nourish capital of 100000 inhabitants. And that is why Vienna is doomed.
 The misery is indescribable even now. What will it be in the winter when the terror of frost and snow and ice is added to the constant threat of starvation?
 The marvel is that the Viennese, proverbially easy-going and light hearted, vii rarely be found to grun- ble or whine. They carry on as best they can.
 They laugh and joke about their troubles. And they face the end with smile.