Evening star., 1923-12-01
Bratiano's Efforts to Aid the
Agrarian Rumanian Peasantrv

to buy. Many paid cash, either with
savings which they had boarded, or
with money borrowed from cooper
ative banks; others awaited them
selves of the provision whereby pay
mentS can be spread over a period of
forty years. appropriation was ap-
piled. not only to the large landowner
class, but also to the private property
of the king and of the members of
the royal family. to the church lands,
to the crown domains; indeed. to all
estates exceeding in extent a mini
mum which varied according to the
district and according to the extent
to which the owners were resident or
absentee. These measures of expro-
priation have been carried through
regardless of influences of a political,
social or financial character. with a
degree of impartiality and integrity
which have considerably increased
the respect abroad for the integrity
and patriotism of the Bratiano gov
ernment.
Bratiano is one of Europe's most
picturesque statesmen. Under an
appearance of extreme frivolity. love
of pleasure. Indifference to public af-
fairs and to the serious sides of life,
he conceals a degree of political
acumen and skill in waiting pa
tiently for the psychological moment
and then taking advantage thereof
which approaches genius. Possessed
of large fortune inherited from 4
line of ancestors who during the
past 500 years have played a his
toric role in the annals of what is
now Rumania, he is thoroughly inde-
pendent and somewhat cynical. With
out being a dandy, he is assuredly
superior to every other statesman in
the old or new world. in thoroughly
masculine elegance. He devotes his
leisure to lawn tennis and to bridge
He is an habitue of salons, rather
than of government offices, leaves
all the details and the drudgeries to
carefully selected subordinates and
spends as little time as possible at
chambers. One would imagine from
his lateness in rising and from his
indifference to time that he paid no
attention to politics. Yet nothing es-
capes him. He is aware of every
intrigue and conspiracy, either in
the kingdom or elsewhere in the
south of Europe, before 1t Is hatched.
He Is devoted to Queen Marie of Ru-
mania. who thoroughly understands
him and has never wavered in her
confidence in his cIeverness and 10y
atty.
His father, old Ion Bratiano. fire.
quently in prison, and even sentenced
to death prior to the reign of the late
Of that Kind have fallen to the share
of almost every statesman of any i'm
portance In the southeast of Europe
and his son, the present premier. was
imprisoned and tried for his life by
the pro-German governor of Mar
ghiloman at Bucharest during the oc-
cupation OF tthe greater part of Ru-
mania by the ex-kaiser's field mar
shal, Won Mackensen, and the latter's
armies, part Teuton, part Austrian,
part Bulgar and part Turkish, in
1915.
This agrarian reform which Jean
Bratiano Is carrying through without
, fear or favor, while it may at first re-
accomplishing more than anything
else toward reconciling all the peas
ant population of Rumania, no matter
whether native Rumanians in blood
and speech Or Hungarian, or Saxons.
or Ukrainians, to the rule of King
Ferdinand and of Queen Marie, and
makes for peace and justice. Its re-
action in the neighboring states can
not fail to be considerable, for every
where in the southeast of Europe the
peasants are the preponderant ele-
ment of the population. During the
war they did most of the fighting,
of the taxes. 1t is of the utmost i'm
portance. therefore, that they should
| feel, as land owners. that they have
| a stake in the country and in the
! agricultural development of the ma
ton. But it has needed an aristocrat
| of the type of Jean Bratiano to ap-
preciate this and to carry through the
| vital and savagely opposed measure
of agrarian reform.