Evening star., 1934-02-14
austrian Socialists Fight
To Keep Democracy Aliue
Foreign Po,Uers Accused of FOmenting g
Strife-NarrOw National Policies
FOLLOWED Since Var Blamed.

independence Is. in my estimation, the
Social Democrats. They want an In
dependent Austria inside a united
Europe, In which national differences
are subjected to q common end-the
welfare of the masses of the Euro
pean peoples But no outside power
at the most zechoslovakia-is sup
porting them.
And now, at last, these three parties
with three private armies are in bat
tie. Chancellor DollfusS tried to avoid
1t, but he Is q perfect illustration of
the historic fact that those who rest
their power on violence are delivered
over to violence. Chancellor DollfuSs
is no longer making policy in Austria.
His private army. under Prince Star
hemberg, Is making policy. And
Prince Starhemberg wants the over
throw Of the constitution, q Fascist
state, strong alliance with Italy
which will simply mean that in the
long run, Austria will be Italy's tool
The threat of the Nazis only furnished
this policy with o national motive,
Stand ON Rights.
Prince Starhemberg thought, per-
hapS, that with the help Of Chan
cellor DollfuSs he could overthrow
the Austrian Socialists, who are the
last stronghold of democratic govern
ment, as easily as Franz Won Papen
and Hitler overthrew their colleagues
in Germany. But he was mistaken
For the Socialist party of Vienna has
more brains and more CUTS in it than
the whole German Socialist party
ever had. The German Socialists
capitulated. The Austrian Socialists
refused. And in refusing they are
standing on their constitutional
rights; they are supporting the Aus
trian democracy. And not they, but
their opponents, are the revolution
lists.
Just as in Germany the ReichStag
fire was the signal for a coup d'etat
against the Socialists, so in Austria
the claim that bombs and firearms
had been found in Austrian Socialist
headquarters was to be q signal for
the dissolution Of the Social Demo-
cratic party. Undoubtedly there were
firearms, undoubtedly there were
bombs. but it is we'll to remember
that the Social Democrats have Just
as much legal right to these weapons
as the Heimwehr have to theirs. The
only legal armed force in Austria Is
the army.
The fight was not picked by the
Social Democrats, who have been very
much on the defensive ever since
Hitler came to power. 1t was picked
by the Heimwehr and by the DollfusS
government, which used the existence
of arms as an excuse to dismiss from
office mayor elected by Sc per cent
Of the electorate.
Depression Stabilized.
And in that moment the Austrian
Social Democrats resisted, and their
resistance was civil war.
The heroism OF the Vienna prole-
tariat must move the heart of any one
who knows what conditions in Vienna
have been during the past IS years.
The depression which for US. and for
the rest of Europe, began in 1929.
has been q stabilized condition in
Austria for more than q decade. at
tended by unemployment, decreasing
doles, q hopeless prospect, and miti-
gated only by the benefits which the
Social Democratic administration of
the city has assured to the working
class. It is for these benfitS that the
Austrian workers are spilling their
blood today.
The Social Democratic administra-
| ton has, in the past Is years, wiped
out the horrible slumS which even
the great empire left in Vienna, and
built from the workers the cheapest
and finest apartments which any
European working class enjoys. All
around the city of Vienna they stand,
these magnificent municipal houses,
! where workers live for two or three
dollars per room, while their children
study in model schools and kinder
gartens and play in lovely gardens.
They are fighting for free educa-
ton In on-militarized schools, while
they look across the border and see
Germans and Italians stuffed into
free press. They are fighting for ex-
actly the things for which the N. r,
A. stand in this country. They are
fighting with bombs and hand gren-
ades and pistols and old rifles against
cannons and field artillery, against
Italy and Germany, against Prince
Starhemberg's army and the regular
army.
Leaders Have Not Run.
They are poor, and ill-fed, and
badly armed. They have hardly q
chance Of winning. But they know
that they have nothing to lose, for
whether Starhemberg conquers or the
Nazis, their day Is done. Their trade
unions will be dissolvd; Nazis or Fas-
ciSts will be housed In their homes;
their papers will be suspended; their
leaders will be put into concentra-
ton camp.
And their leaders-unlike the Ger
mans-have not run away. Leaders
and people alike are prepared to die
standing, with weapons in their hands.
II they should win, democracy in
Central Europe has q bare chance. If
they lose-as they probably will--they
will find no comfort in the fact that
the men whom they are now fighting
will probably also lose. Starhemberg
is hardly the stuff of which dictators
are made-a young aristocrat, once
rich who has gone through much Of
his mothers money. II Austria must
eventually choose between Italian Fas-
cism and German, between Italian
protection and German, there is hard
ly much debate as to which will win.
Austria Is o German-speaking coun-
try, after all.
They are not revolutionists. They
are the defenders of legitimate par
liamentary government against 0 coup