New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1921-01-16
cticken Nations Must
Be Helped to Get
Under Way
Bv Otis Peabody Swift

The Tfsonnes european o*Teor
LONDON.
nNE, if not the greatest, prob
lem of the Allied powers to-
day is how best to befriend
I'D preserve their former enemies
i Middle Europe.
The old balance of power has
-, broken; the old channels of
.-,dp finance and transportation
.,,s been disrupted. New nations
Lara arisen, some strong, others
,e,k but all are children, depend
1t upon the older nations for moral
ssd financial support.
The partition and regrouping of
~ Austro Hungarian Empire
lived many, although not all, of
10 racial differences that distracted
a. old regime. But it has not re-
.ulted in distribution of manu-
,.xures and natural resources that
urovide fer rapid and healthy ma
Aonal development.
Not One SeIf-Sufficient
The result is that Middle Europe,
,ormerly vast, integral, self-suffi-
dent body, is now in the position of
inst body with its members sew
sred. There is no longer the old
,uterplay of economic relations, the
iuterdependency of raw materials
and manufactures. Poor and unor-
ysnized, there is not one Of the new
s.ates that is at present economi-
caIly self-sufficient.
Some have Jared better thu
others, however. Czecho-Slovakia
nch both in natural resources anG
manufacturers such as the Skoda
Steel Works, is in q good inancial
position. Serbia, which has added
new and productive territory to
previously stabilized organization, is
in sound position, while Bulgaria
Is doing fairly we'll. Poland, how
ever, is an agrarian rather than in
dustrial country, and the political
and economic disorganization has
cot down production until she is IN
able to feed her own people and is
hno position to use exports for es-
ssbIshing credits abroad. This is
tue also Of the Baltic states of
Esthonia, Latvia and Lithuania, of
Armenia, Georgia and Azerbaijan,
aud to lesser extent of Hungary
md the Kingdom Of the Serbs,
csoats and Slovenes.
Austria's Grave Situation
Gravest Of all is the situation in
Austria. Before the war Austria
vas the brain of South Middle Eu-
rope. Here were the financiers, the
snsrepreneurs, the middle men. The
central position of Vienna on the
danube, her centering railway sys-
ssns and international banking or
Gsnizations made the capital city the
Gearing house Of the empire and the
ssghboring states. The new Aus
TIA is still brain-without a body.
The old organization still exists,
but it has little on which to function.
Austria at present produces only 6
per cent of the production of Middle
Europe. She is g pauper nation,
With her currency at SO 1-3 below
par. She has pawned every avail
sae security, her factories, indus
ines and concessions. She now is
lying to raise money by pawning
Der Gobeiin tapestries, the only re-
naming assets beyond the tobacco
monopoly, which is one of the few
sources Of revenue to which the
Wernment has chung. Food sup
Pies on hand will last till Febru-
"; she has nothing with which to
w more. Thus Austria is plung-
y hopelessly, despairingly into
aaos and ruin.
q allied statesmen believe that If
austria falls she will carry down
.lh her many of the new nations
aalddle Europe. Austria is looked
i sp0a as the keystone of South Mid
y Europe. She is in the worst
asa OF all, but her plight Is only
:" " Which the other nations may
.'ue II normal trade and develop
ssns are not established. In Poland,
s ssaf'a and Hungary alike the
s0'ems of deprecated money, dis
!, .saa'zed production and transpor-
;, ss0n are joined in the vicious circle
unger' unemployment and un-
And on the Eastern border