Evening star., 1928-10-28
BY FRANK H. SIMONDS.
THE announcement from Prague
that the Czechoslovak govern
ment Is planning a great cele-
i bration of its tenth anniversary

serves to recall vividly the mem
orable days decade ago when all Gen.
trail Europe suddenly seemed to be dis
solving into a chaos of rival and quar-
reling races. Moreover, it calls atten-
ton anew to what was, after all, the
greatest political experiment of the
Paris peace conference. Nor can one
say today, even after the passing of
ten years, what is to be the ultimate
result of the experiment.
The dissolution of the Austrian En-
pire was the most considerable con-
sequence of the World War, and it was
one which, although it had long been
forecast found the craftsmanship of
Europe without any program. Pal
acky had said that if the Austrian En-
pire had not existed it would be neces-
sary to invent it, and this judgment of
another century still weighs heavily in
the minds of all who consider the
problem of Central Europe.
For despite the fact that Czecho-
slovakia, itself, has given impressive
evidences of the capacity and the de-
termination of the two small Slav races,
which contribute the controlling ele-
mentS in the new state, to construct
an enduring nation, the question as
to whether the great experiment can
succeed remains open. Indeed, Moth
ing is more evident in the general
situation of Europe today than that
the political edifice of postwar Europe
erected upon the ruins of the old Aus
trian Empire is at best shaky, and still
threatened by almost incalculable dam
gers.
TwOfOld Dangers Seen.
These dangers are, moreover, twcfold,
not merely political, but economic. The
old Austrian Empire, while it. was a
mosaic of many and totally irreconcil-
able races, was perhaps the most COM
plete economic unit in Europe. The
wheat fields Of the Hungarian plain, the
mines Of Bohemia and Silesia, the
forests of the Carpathian, the mines
and factories alike of Austria and of
Bohemia, all were essential details in a
perfectly congruouS whole. And Vienna
was the magnificent capital of an en-
pire of 50,000,000 people, containing a
population of 100000, who owed their
very existence to the fact that their
city was the financial, economic, ad-
ministrative and social center Of a
great state.
Once the allies had accepted the
principle of the Ia points, once the
rights of races to dispose Of themselves
had been established as the basic princi-
pie of the new settlement In Europe, the
dissolution of this vast economic and
political association of races was in
exorably decreed. The right of races
to self determination, even If 1t con-
fiicted with their necessities for self
support, became the controlling princi-
pie. And as a consequence there re-
suited not merely political but an eco
nomic chaos which has survived to the
present hour.
It is. in fact, impossible yet to meas
ure the extent of the confusion pro-
duced in the whole Danubian area by
the collapse of the Hapsburg monarchy.
1t resulted in multiplication of from
tiers which to all induStrially minded
must still seem the ultimate expression
of folly.
How It Would Work Here.
It was as if, following some great
convulSion on our side of the Atlantic,
all of the States in the American Union
had suddenly and violently flung them
selves apart, some to undertake inde-
pendent national existence, others TO
unite with Canada and Mexico and all
to raise customs barriers not only i'm
peding intercourse with. each other but
also making the transport of freight
and passenger between the Atlantic and
Pacific Coasts an interminable success
sion of delays at innumerable customs
frontiers.
Naturally the extent of the disaster
varied in the separate parts OF the
old empire. For Vienna it was the sem
tence of death, lingering, tragic. but III
the end inevitable. For the fragment
today constituting the Austrian Repub-
lie, 1t represented a transformation from
the ruling center of great empire into
the condition of small mountain state,
like Switzerland, but less richly endowed
than the Helvetian Republic. Industrial
Bohemia was separated from its i'm
perial markets. Agricultural Hungary
was cut off from its natural customers.
areas were condemned
to buy their foodStuffs dearly and agra
rian regions to embark upon expensive
and uneconomic construction of indus
trial plants.
Nor was the political confusion less
complete. The Austrian Republic was
formally forbidden to unite with the
German and thus find new economic
association. Czechoslovakia was estab-
liShed as a state, which, although it
contained 100000 of peoples, lacked
a majority. Czechs, Germans, Slovaks.
RuthenianS, MagyarS and Poles were
thrust under single central govern
ment and actual national existence was
made possible only by the somewhat
tenuous combination of the Slav races,
the Czechs and the Slovaks.
Also Faced Foreign Peril.
But this new state from its very
situation was condemned
to face foreign peril not less con-
siderable than that arising from its
domestic incoherence.
If one ikens the CZechoslovak state
to the human body, while the head is
thrust into the German world, the
trunk extends through what the Hun
garianS still regard as their own lands.
Six millions of CzechS In the old Aus
TRAN territory constitute the single
physical obstacle to the union of u.s.
100000 Germans, while hardly more
than 1000, 900 Slovaks bar the way
to the reconstruction of the old crown
Of st. Stephen.
Moreover the 100000 Of Czechs,
while they constitute majority in the
provinces of Bohemia, Moravia and
S1lesia, are actually no more than
Slav enclave almost totally surrounded
by the German populations of the two
Teutonic republics. And in addition
alongside the Czechs. within the from
tiers of the new Slav state. lives
German minority of not less than g.
500,000 Germans. always responsive to
the attraction of the surrounding Ger
man populations.
Inevitably, to insure the survival of
their own precarious independence. the
CzechS have been driven to make an
alliance with the rivals and opponents
Of the Germans. But such an alliance
with France actually menaces the Sc
curity of Germany. For Bohemia Is
after all the actual citadel of the Teu-
tonic world. And this citadel Is gar
risoned by a considerable Slav stand
ing army, whose air fleets are within
striking distance of Berlin and Munich.
The great German cities of Dresden
and Leipzig are hardly two steps from