Albuquerque morning journal. [volume] (Albuquerque, N.M.) 1903-1926, 1921-03-14
THING
IN AUST RIA IS
MONEY, ASSERTS
The Grown No Longer Has
Any Value Outside the
Country and Soon Will
Have None Within, Claim.
By The Associated Press)

Vienna, March z13.-The imam
cial plight of Austria is indicated
in the supplementary budget
brought in by the minister Of
finance, estimating the deficit for
the current fiscal year at $1,000
100000 crowns. ~
This is nearly double the figure
given by his predecessor in the
autumn. and even now does not
take into consideration certain
factors such as new demands on
the part Of the federal civil serv-
ants and, that just made by the
provinces. that the federal govern
ment shall increase their appropri-
alton threefold and bear one-half
of the salaries of provincial civil
servants, including school teach
ers. Wv.
Money Presses Are Busy,
II is reported that the money
presses are now turning out paper
crowns at the rate of 3,O00,000,000
a month for Austria alone, the
government apparently having
adopted this as the eXpedient way
of meeting the never-endinE de-
mands Of its own servants, the
workmen, and Of all classes of
people for increased pay to enable
them to meet the equally never
ending increase in cost of living.
"The Austrian crown no longer
has any value outside of the coun-
try" said member of the gov
eminent to the correspondent to-
dav and soon will have none
within" As matter of fact,
money is the cheapest thing in
the country. No one attaches any
value to it and the result is a
general effort to convert the cur
rency into foreign values or some
thing Of intrinsic value.
This has created a mad market
for dollars, pounds sterling and
other stable money, causing tiuc-
tuatious of as much as 200 crowns
to ~the dollar within a period of
one week. The same condition Is
reflected in the stock market
while precious stones, jewelry,
q works of art, fine rugs and similar
articles find ready sale at falr
values 1t is said tho banks are
financing art dealers who are
securing the country for pictures
and selling them outside for Tor
eign values, the money either be-
ing left there in the shape OF
( credits against collapse here, or
brought in for further speculation
on the money exchange 's'''
Made Profits, Is Charge.
The division centrale, that de-
partment of the government Of
ficially in control of foreign ex-
change, is openly charged by one
OF the Vienna papers with having
made enormous profits by manip-
ulating the exchange rate.
A committee of Is representa-
tive men has been appointed to
effect economics in government
but public opinion as expressed in
the newspapers has little faith
in it's accomplishing anything OF
real effect, inasmuch as the chief
item of expense, the civil list OF
about IA, 000,000,000 crowns, SEEM
ingly cannot be reduced. a't.
(This item has since been in
creased as the Austrian govern
ment on February 10 granted bo-
muses. of 4,400 a month to its
civil employees in response to their
demands). f"l-F'
'.-All parties admit the size of the
government machine is absurd
for so small a country, 3ut no one
knows how to reduce it. Thou
sands of civil servants, many aged
and all unframed in productive
work, cannot be thrown on the
country. 1t is stated that the
civil servants and their dependents
represent one-hfth of the popu-
lation. =.