The New York herald., 1921-01-30
By FRANK H. sIMoNDs.

N ECENT dispatches from various Eu-
ropean capitals have served to dem
onstrate that the Austrian mess"
has once more become a dangerous factor
in the European situation Thus we have
the spectacle of a whole State plunged into
misery beyond description, bankrupt with
out hope of future sovency, calmly inform
ing the world of it's purpose TO go upon
strike, to turn itself over to it's recent con-
lquerors a bankrupt railway might be de-
livered by its officials into the hands of
receiver
This Austrian mess remains. therefore one
of the permanent problems of European
craftsmanship. What is Europe going to
do about it? To answer the question it is
necessary TO review briefly the facts in
this most amazing and distressing situation
To begin at the beginning: What was the
problem as it was presented to the Paris
conference exactly two years ago? We shall
need to answer this question frankly and
fully, because one of the gravest indictments
brought against the peacemakers is that
they "balkanized" Middle Europe. To put
the thing comparatively the Congress of
Vienna, in 1915. failing to make a durable
settlement after the Napoleonic upheaval
because it neglected the element of nation
ality, the Conference of Paris, in the opin-
ion of many of its critics. failed equally
disastrously because it neglected the eco
nomic element, and nowhere more COM
pletely than in the case of the old Austrian
Empire.
But in point of fact is this criticism valid?
AT the moment when the Paris conference
assembled there was, in reality no Austrian
Empire left The "balkanization" so BIT
terly criticised had actually taken place.
Tha nhn-
form, geographically well as politically
The Southern Slavs and the Poles had
broken away, the Rumanians were looking
across non-existent frontiers which had
once separated the Hapsburg Latins from
their brethren of free Rumania with unmis-
taxable longing to achieve race unfication.
And such unification had been promised by
the Allies when Rumania entered the war
as far back as 1916.
Establishment of Frontiers Task
OF the Peace Makers at Paris
In point of fact all that was left for the
Paris conference-and it was in itself no
minor task-was to establish frontiers be-
tween the various races which had con-
stituted the Hapsburg Empire but had long
struggled for independence for union with
the major fraction of their brethren in other
countries. To determine what lands should
fall to Poland to Rumania, to Jugo-Slavia
TO Italy and to Czecho- Sovakia this was
the extent of the duty and of the opportunity
of the makers of the Paris agreements
Such allocations having been made there
remained two fragments. inhabited by the
Austrian German and the Magyar races,
which had been the dominant minorities in
the two halves of the old empire. But there
was no possibility of preserving union be-
tween these two fragments, because they
were already quarrelling over territories on
their own marches and were destined to fol-
low quite different political directions
shortly, Austria tending toward a Socialist
regime Hungary, after a brief Bolshevist ex-
pertinent, destined to fall completely under
reactionary control
1t is plain that could the Paris conference
have preserved the structure of the Austro-
Hungarian Empire II would have much SIM
plifed the entire economic problem, for,
despite the fact that the old Dual Empire
a crazy patchwork of races and tribes, 1t
was pretty harmonious economic whole in
which there were all the elements necessary
to make prosperous State More than this.
centuries of association, the industrial de-
velopment OF the nineteenth century the
construction Of railways had tended to make
the whole interdepedent to an extent which
insured grave dangers for the future If the
several portions were not only separated
from the whole but also walled In by tariff
barriers.
But it was totally beyond the power Of the
Paris conference to preserve this unity be-
cause of the agelong hostility between the
tribes. and because also the preservation Of
the unity carried with IL a continuing menace
TO Italy at least in the minds of italian
statesmen. This latter circumstance Is not
important because even If Italian hostility
had not existed the conditions within the old
empire would have prevented the saving of
old integrity. Austria-Hungary was doomed
the moment German defeat was assured 1t
was, in reality, to escape this doom that
Austria. with German approval. had risked
the world war.
Racial Rather Than Economic Lines
Ruled in Breaking UP of Empire
The liquidation. however, was bound to fol-
low racial rather than economic lines, be-
cansn the races wore broken I'D into political