Chapter VI: Preface: To the Sixth Volume (5)

A letter from Sydney, November 29, 1900, announced: "The
question of the establishment of an old age pension system,
similar to that now in successful operation in New Zealand
[see (in this volume) NEW ZEALAND: A. D. 1899], has been
agitating New South Wales for several months, and to-day the
bill for that purpose became a law. There has been a desire on
the part of some members of the Legislature to hold over the
bill until the convening of the Federal Parliament, in the
hope that the measure would become universal throughout the
continent, but the majority, including the Premier, wished the
bill to be pushed through without loss of time. There is no
opposition worth mentioning. … At a mass meeting in favor of
the bill representatives of every political party, of every
Church and of every profession and trade in the community were
present.
{33}
The sentiment of the colony has never been more unanimous. …
The estimated cost of the scheme is something like £250,000 or
£300,000 a year, but this does not take into consideration the
amount which will be saved by doing away with the charitable
institutions now draining the pockets alike of the state and
of the individual. Private contributions alone amount to
£600,000 a year; all this will be saved, together with a part
of the Government's annual expenditure—about £400,000—for
public institutions. Not all pauper institutions can be
abolished, for many of the aged and friendless poor are ailing
or slightly feeble minded, and will continue to need medical
attention."

AUSTRALIA: A. D. 1900 (March).
New Zealand looking toward federation with the Australian
Commonwealth.

See (in this volume)
NEW ZEALAND: A. D. 1900 (MARCH).

AUSTRALIA: West Australia: A. D. 1900 (August).
Vote to join the Commonwealth.

The question of union with the other colonies in the
Commonwealth, from which the West Australians had previously
held aloof, was submitted to them in August (women voting for
the first time), and decided affirmatively by 44,704 against
19,691. Adding the West Australian totals to the aggregate
vote at the decisive referendum in each of the other
federating colonies, the following is the reported result:

For federation. 422,647
Against federation. 161,024

Majority. 261,623

AUSTRALIA: A. D. 1900 (September-December).
The Queen's Proclamation of the Australian Commonwealth.
Contemplated visit of the Duke and Duchess of York
to open the first session of the Federal Parliament.
Appointment of Lord Hopetoun to be Governor-General.
The first Federal Cabinet.

On the 17th of September the following proclamation of the
Australian Commonwealth was issued by the Queen:

"Whereas by an Act of Parliament passed in the sixty-third and
sixty-fourth years of Our reign, intituled 'An Act to
constitute the Commonwealth of Australia,' it is enacted that
it shall be lawful for the Queen, with the advice of the Privy
Council, to declare by Proclamation that, on and after a day
therein appointed, not being later than one year after the
passing of this Act, the people of New South Wales, Victoria,
South Australia, Queensland, and Tasmania, and also, if Her
Majesty is satisfied that the people of Western Australia have
agreed thereto, of Western Australia, shall be united in a
Federal Commonwealth, under the name of the Commonwealth of
Australia. And whereas We are satisfied that the people of
Western Australia have agreed thereto accordingly. We
therefore, by and with the advice of Our Privy Council, have
thought fit to issue this Our Royal Proclamation, and We do
hereby declare that on and after the first day of January, one
thousand nine hundred and one, the people of New South Wales,
Victoria, South Australia, Queensland, Tasmania, and Western
Australia shall be united in a Federal Commonwealth under the
name of the Commonwealth of Australia. Given at Our Court at
Balmoral, this seventeenth day of September, in the year of
our Lord one thousand nine hundred, and in the sixty-fourth
year of Our reign. God save the Queen."

At the same time, the following announcement, which caused
extreme delight in Australia, was published officially from
the Colonial Office:

"Her Majesty the Queen has been graciously pleased to assent,
on the recommendation of the Marquis of Salisbury, to the
visit of their Royal Highnesses the Duke and Duchess of York
to the colonies of Australasia in the spring of next year. His
Royal Highness the Duke of York will be commissioned by her
Majesty to open the first Session of the Parliament of the
Australian Commonwealth in her name. Although the Queen
naturally shrinks from parting with her grandson for so long a
period, her Majesty fully recognizes the greatness of the
occasion which will bring her colonies of Australia into
federal union, and desires to give this special proof of her
interest in all that concerns the welfare of her Australian
subjects. Her Majesty at the same time wishes to signify her
sense of the loyalty and devotion which have prompted the
spontaneous aid so liberally offered by all the colonies in
the South African war, and of the splendid gallantry of her
colonial troops. Her Majesty's assent to this visit is, of
course, given on the assumption that at the time fixed for the
Duke of York's departure the circumstances are as generally
favourable as at present and that no national interests call
for his Royal Highness's presence in this country."

To manifest still further the interest taken by the British
government in the event, it was made known in October that
"when the Duke of York opens the new Commonwealth Parliament,
the guard of honour, it is directed, shall be so made up as to
be representative of every arm of the British Army, including
the Volunteers. To the Victoria and St. George's Rifles has
fallen the honour of being selected to represent the entire
Volunteer force of the country. A detachment of the regiment,
between 50 and 60 strong, will accordingly leave for Australia
in about a month and will be absent three or four months."

The honor of the appointment to be the first Governor-General
of the new Commonwealth fell to a Scottish nobleman, John
Adrian Louis Hope, seventh Earl of Hopetoun, who had been
Governor of Victoria from 1889 to 1895, and had held high
offices at home, including that of Lord Chamberlain in the
household of the Queen. Lord Hopetoun landed at Sydney on the
15th of December and received a great welcome. On the 30th,
his Cabinet was formed, and announced, as follows:

Mr. Barton, Prime Minister and Minister for External Affairs;
Mr. Deakin, Attorney-General;
Sir William Lyne, Minister for Home Affairs;
Sir George Turner, Treasurer;
Mr. Kingston, Minister of Trade and Commerce;
Mr. Dickson, Minister of Defence;
Sir John Forrest, Postmaster-General.

AUSTRALIA: A. D. 1901 (January).
Inauguration of the Federal Government.

The government of the Commonwealth was inaugurated with
splendid ceremonies on the first day of the New Year and the
New Century, when the Governor-General and the members of the
Federal Cabinet were sworn and assumed office. Two messages
from the British Secretary of State for the Colonies were
read, as follows:

{34}

"The Queen commands me to express through you to the people of
Australia her Majesty's heartfelt interest in the inauguration
of the Commonwealth, and her earnest wish that, under divine
Providence, it may ensure the increased prosperity and
well-being of her loyal and beloved subjects in Australia."

"Her Majesty's Government send cordial greetings to the
Commonwealth of Australia. They welcome her to her place among
the nations united under her Majesty's sovereignty, and
confidently anticipate for the new Federation a future of
ever-increasing prosperity and influence. They recognize in
the long-desired consummation of the hopes of patriotic
Australians a further step in the direction of the permanent
unity of the British Empire, and they are satisfied that the
wider powers and responsibilities henceforth secured to
Australia will give fresh opportunity for the display of that
generous loyalty and devotion to the Throne and Empire which
has always characterized the action in the past of its several
States."

AUSTRALIA: A. D. 1901 (May).
Opening of the first Parliament of the Commonwealth
by the heir to the British crown.
The programme of the Federal Government.

The Duke of Cornwall and York, heir to the British crown (but
not yet created Prince of Wales), sailed, with his wife, from
England in March, to be present at the opening of the first
Parliament of the federated Commonwealth of Australia, which
is arranged to take place early in May. He makes the voyage in
royal state, on a steamer specially fitted and converted for
the occasion into a royal yacht, with an escort of two
cruisers.

Preliminary to the election and meeting of Parliament, the new
federal government has much organizing work to do, and much
preparation of measures for Parliament to discuss. The
Premier, Mr. Barton, in a speech made on the 17th of January,
announced that the Customs were taken over from the several
States on January 1, and the defences and post-offices would
be transferred as soon as possible. " Probably the railways
would be acquired by the Commonwealth at an early date.
Whether the debts of the several States would be taken over
before the railways was a matter which had to be decided, and
was now engaging the attention of the Treasurer. The Ministry
would not consider the appointment of a Chief Justice of the
High Court until Parliament had established that tribunal." In
the same speech, the main features of the programme and policy
of the federal government were indicated. "The Commonwealth,"
said the Premier, "would have the exclusive power of imposing
Customs and excise duties, and it would, therefore, be
necessary to preserve the States' power of direct taxation.
There must be no direct taxation by the Commonwealth except
under very great pressure. Free trade under the Constitution
was practically impossible; there must be a very large Customs
revenue. … The policy of the Government would be protective, not
prohibitive, because it must be revenue-producing. No one
colony could lay claim to the adoption of its tariff, whether
high or low. The first tariff of Australia ought to be
considerate of existing industries. The policy of the
Government could be summed up in a dozen words. It would give
Australia a tariff that would be Australian. Regarding a
preferential duty on British goods, he would be glad to
reciprocate where possible, but the question would have to
receive very serious consideration before final action could
be taken. Among the legislation to be introduced at an early
date, Mr. Barton continued, were a Conciliation and
Arbitration Bill in labour disputes, and a Bill for a
transcontinental railway, which would be of great value from
the defence point of view. He was in favour of womanhood
suffrage. Legislation to exclude Asiatics would be taken in
hand as a matter of course."

----------AUSTRALIA: End--------

----------AUSTRIA-HUNGARY: Start--------

AUSTRIA-HUNGARY:
Financial relations of the two countries
forming the dual Empire.

"The financial relations of Austria and Hungary fall under
three main heads. Firstly, the Quota, or proportionate
contribution to joint expenditure. The Quota is an integral
portion of the compact of 1867 [see—in volume 1—AUSTRIA: A. D.
1866-1867], but is revised every ten years. Failing an
agreement on the proportion to be paid by each half of the
monarchy, the Quota is fixed from year to year by the Emperor
till an agreement is arrived at. Secondly, the so-called
commercial 'Ausgleich' treaty, which provides for a customs
union, postal and telegraphic union, commercial equality of
citizens of one state in the other, identical excise duties,
&c. Thirdly, the Bank Union, by which Austria and Hungary have
a common Austro-Hungarian bank, and common paper money. The
Ausgleich and Bank Union are not essential parts of the 1867
compact; they are really only treaties renewable every ten
years, and if no agreement is come to, they simply lapse, and
each state makes its own arrangements, which seems very likely
to be the fate of the Ausgleich unless the present crisis can
be got over. The proceeds of the joint customs are applied
directly to common expenses, and only the difference is made
up by Quota. But if the Ausgleich falls through, the whole of
the joint expenditure will have to be settled by quota
payments. The joint expenditure goes almost wholly to the
up-keep of the army, navy, and consular and diplomatic
services. It amounts on an average to about 150 million
florins or 12½ million £, falling as low as 124½ million
florins in 1885 and rising to nearly 167 million in 1888. Of
this total the customs revenues have, in the last few years,
accounted for nearly a third, usually about 31 per cent. The
Quota was fixed in 1867 at 70 per cent. for Austria and 30 per
cent. for Hungary, based on a very rough calculation from the
yield of common taxation in the years 1860-1865, the last few
years preceding the restoration of Hungarian independence. On
the incorporation of the so-called Military Frontier in
Hungary, the Hungarian proportion was increased to 31.4.
Hitherto the Hungarians have resisted any attempt to increase
their quota. This 'non possumus' attitude has provoked great
resentment in Austria, especially when it is compared with the
self-complacent tone with which the Magyars dwell on the enormous
progress made by Hungary since 1867. That progress is
indubitable. Hungary has not only developed as an agricultural
state, but is in a very fair way of becoming an industrial and
manufacturing state as well. …

{35}

"On all these grounds the Austrians declare that they can no
longer go on paying the old Quota of 68.6 per cent. The
Hungarians admit the great progress made by Hungary, but with
some qualifications. In spite of the growth of Budapest,
Fiume, and a few other towns, Hungary is still, on the whole,
very backward when compared with Austria. The total volume of
her manufactures is very small, in spite of the rapid increase
of recent years. Hungary is still, to all intents and
purposes, an agricultural country, and as such, has suffered
largely from the fall in prices."

_L. S. Amery,
Austro-Hungarian Financial Relations
(Economic Journal, September, 1898)._

AUSTRIA-HUNGARY: A. D. 1894-1895.
The Hungarian Ecclesiastical Laws.
Conflict with the Church.
Resignation of Count Kalnoky.

In the last month of 1894 royal assent was given to three
bills, known as the Ecclesiastical Laws, which marked an
extraordinary departure from the old subserviency of the State
to the Church. The first was a civil marriage law, which made
civil marriage compulsory, leaving religious ceremonies
optional with the parties, and which modified the law of
divorce; the second annulled a former law by which the sons of
mixed marriages were required to follow the father's religion,
and the daughters to follow that of the mother; the third
established an uniform State registration of births, deaths
and marriages, in place of a former registration of different
creeds, and legalized marriages between Christians and Jews
without change of faith. These very radical measures, after
passing the lower house of the Hungarian legislature, were
carried with great difficulty through the aristocratic and
clerical upper house, and only by a strong pressure of
influence from the emperor-king himself. They were exceedingly
obnoxious to the Church, and the Papal Nuncio became active in
a hostility which the Hungarian premier, Baron Banffy, deemed
offensive to the State. He called upon the Imperial Minister
of Foreign Affairs, Count Kalnoky, to address a complaint on
the subject to the Vatican. This led to disagreements between
the two ministers which the Emperor strove without success to
reconcile, and Count Kalnoky, in the end, was forced to retire
from office. The Pope was requested to recall the offending
Nuncio, and declined to do so.

AUSTRIA-HUNGARY: A. D. 1895-1896.
Race-jealousies and conflicts.
The position of Bohemia in the part of the dual Empire
called Austria.
Anti-Semitic agitation in Vienna.
Austrian Ministry of Count Badeni.
Enlarged parliamentary franchise.

In the constitutional reconstruction of the Empire after the
war of 1866, almost everything was conceded to the Magyars of
Hungary, who acquired independence in matters of internal
administration, and ascendancy over the other races subject to
the Hungarian crown. "On the other hand, absolute equality was
established between the different countries that are not
connected with Hungary. No greater privileges were granted to
an ancient historical kingdom such as Bohemia than were given,
for instance, to the small Alpine district situated between
the Tyrol and the Boden See (Lake of Constance) known as
Vorarlberg. … The representatives of these countries were to
meet at Vienna, and a ministry for 'Cisleithania' was
appointed. That these measures were injudicious is now the
opinion of almost all Austrians. Beust [the Saxon statesman
who was called in to conduct the political reconstruction of
1867—see, in volume 1, AUSTRIA: A. D. 1866-1867; and
1866-1887], created a new agglomeration of smaller and larger
countries, entirely different as regards race, history, and
culture. It is characteristic of the artificiality of Count
Beust's new creation that up to the present day no real and
generally accepted name for it has been found. The usual
designation of Cisleithania is an obvious absurdity. A glance
at the map will suffice to show how senseless such a name is
when applied, for instance, to Dalmatia, one of the countries
ruled from Vienna. The word 'Austria' also can correctly be
applied only either to all the countries ruled by the house of
Habsburg-Lorraine or to the archduchies of Upper and Lower
Austria, which are the cradle of the dynasty. The official
designation of the non-Hungarian parts of the empire is 'the
kingdoms and lands represented in the parliament' (of
Vienna)—'Die im Reichsrathe vertretenen Königreiche und
Länder.'

"Though the Germans willingly took part in the deliberations
of the Parliament of 'Cisleithania,' the Slavs of Bohemia and
Poland were at first violently opposed to the new institution.
They might perhaps have willingly consented to take part in a
Vienna parliament that would have consisted of representatives
of the whole empire. But when the ancient historical rights of
Hungary were fully recognized, countries such as Bohemia and
Poland … naturally felt offended. Count Beust dealt
differently with these two divisions of the empire. The partly
true, partly imaginary, grievances of the Poles were more
recent and better known thirty years ago than they are now.
Beust was impressed by them and considered it advisable to
make large concessions to the Poles of Galicia with regard to
autonomy, local government, and the use of the national
language. The Poles, who did not fail to contrast their fate
with that of their countrymen who were under Russian or
Prussian rule, gratefully accepted these concessions, and
attended the meetings of the representative assembly at
Vienna. Other motives also contributed to this decision of the
Galician Poles. Galicia is a very poor country, and the Germans
who then ruled at Vienna, naturally welcoming the
representatives of a large Slav country in their Parliament,
proved most generous in their votes in favour of the Galician
railways. Matters stood differently in Bohemia, and the
attitude of Count Beust and the new 'Cisleithanian' ministers
was also here quite different. They seem to have thought that
they could break the resistance of the Bohemians by military
force, and with the aid of the German minority of the
population. A long struggle ensued. … Bohemia is … the
'cockpit' of Austrian political warfare, and almost every
political crisis has been closely connected with events that
occurred in Bohemia. The Bohemian representatives in 1867
refused to take part in the deliberations of the Vienna
Parliament, the existence of which they considered contrary to
the ancient constitution of their country.
{36}
In 1879 they finally decided to take part in the deliberations
of the Vienna assembly. … The Bohemians, indeed, entered the
Vienna Parliament under protest, and declared that their
appearance there was by no means to be considered as a
resignation of the special rights that Bohemia had formerly
possessed. The Bohemian deputies, however, continued
henceforth to take part in the deliberations of the
Cisleithanian Parliament and loyally supported those of the
many Austrian ministers who were not entirely deaf to their
demands. Some of these demands, such as that of the foundation
of a national university at Prague, were indeed granted by the
Vienna ministers. Though a German university continued to exist
at Prague, this concession was vehemently opposed by the
Germans, as indeed every concession to appease the Bohemian
people was."

_Francis Count Lutzow,
Austria at the End of the Century
(Nineteenth Century Review, December, 1899)._

During recent years, government in the dual empire has been
made increasingly difficult, especially on the Austrian side,
by the jealousy, which grows constantly more bitter, between
the German and Slavic elements of the mixed population, and by
the rising heat of the Anti-Semitic agitation. The latter was
brought to a serious crisis in Vienna during 1895 by the
election of Dr. Lueger, a violent leader of Anti-Semitism, to
the office of First Vice-Burgomaster, which caused the
resignation of the Burgomaster, and led to such disorders in
the municipal council that the government was forced to
intervene. The council was dissolved and an imperial
commissioner appointed to conduct the city administration
provisionally; but similar disorders, still more serious,
recurred in October, when elections were held and the
Anti-Semites won a majority in the council. Dr. Lueger was
then elected Burgomaster. The government, supported by a
majority in the Austrian Reichsrath, refused to confirm the
election. A second time Dr. Lueger was elected; whereupon the
municipal council was again dissolved and the municipal
administration transferred to an imperial commissioner. This
measure was followed by scenes of scandalous turbulence in the
Reichsrath and riotous demonstrations in the streets, which
latter were vigorously suppressed by the police. Some
considerable part of the temper in these demonstrations was
directed against the Austrian premier, Count Badeni, and still
more against the Polish race, to which he belonged. Count
Badeni, who had been Governor of Galicia, had just been called
to the head of affairs, and gave promise of an administration
that would be strong; but several other members of his cabinet
were Poles, and that fact was a cause of offense. He gave an
early assurance that the demand for an enlargement of the
parliamentary franchise should be satisfactorily met, and that
other liberal measures should be promptly taken in hand. These
promises, with the show of firmness in the conduct of the
government, produced a wide feeling in its favor. The promise
of an enlargement of the parliamentary franchise in Austria
was redeemed the following February (1896), by the
introduction and speedy passage of a parliamentary reform
bill, which embodied an important revision of the Austrian
constitution. Seventy-two new members were added to the 353
which formerly constituted the lower or Abgeordneten House of
the Austrian Reichsrath. The original body of 353 remained as
it had been, made up in four sections, elected by four classes
in the community, namely: owners of large estates, electing 85
members; doctors of the universities and town taxpayers who
pay five florins of direct taxation yearly, these together
electing 115; chambers of commerce and industry, electing 22;
country taxpayers who pay five florins of direct taxation
yearly, electing 131. The number of voters in these four
privileged classes were said to number 1,732,000 when the
Reform Bill passed. The new voters added by the bill were
estimated to number about 3,600,000. But the latter would
elect only the 72 new members added to the House, while the
former continued to be exclusively represented by the 353
members of its former constitution. In other words, though the
suffrage was now extended to all male adults, it was not with
equality of value to all. For about one-third of the political
community, the franchise was given five times the weight and
force that it possessed for the remaining two-thirds.
Nevertheless, the bill seems to have been accepted and passed
with no great opposition. In Vienna, the Anti-Semitic
agitation was kept up with violence, Dr. Lueger being elected
four times to the chief-burgomastership of the city, in
defiance of the imperial refusal to sanction his election.
Finally the conflict was ended by a compromise. Lueger
resigned and was permitted to take the office of Vice
Burgomaster, while one of his followers was chosen to the
Chief Burgomaster's seat.

AUSTRIA-HUNGARY: A. D. 1896.
Celebration of the Millennium of the Kingdom of Hungary.

The millennial anniversary of the Kingdom of Hungary was
celebrated by the holding of a great national exposition and
festival at Buda-Pesth, from the 2d of May until the end of
October, 1896. Preparations were begun as early as 1893, and
were carried forward with great national enthusiasm and
liberality, the government contributing nearly two millions of
dollars to the expense of the undertaking. The spirit of the
movement was expressed at the beginning by the Minister of
Commerce, Bela Lukács, by whose department it was specially
promoted. "The government," he said, "will take care that the
national work be exhibited in a worthy frame, so as to further
the interests of the exhibitors. May everyone of you, its
subjects, therefore show what he is able to attain by his
diligence, his taste, and his inventive faculty. Let us all,
in fact, compete—we who are working, some with our brains,
others with our hands, and others with our machines—like one
man for the father-land. Thus the living generation will be
able to see what its fore-fathers have made in the midst of
hard circumstances, and to realize what tasks are awaiting us
and the new generations in the path which has been smoothed by
the sweat, labor, and pain of our ancestors. This will be a
rare family festival, the equal of which has not been granted
to many nations. Let the people gather, then, round our august
ruler, who has guided our country with fatherly care and
wisdom in the benevolent ways of peace to the heights which
mark the progress of to-day, and who—a faithful keeper of the
glorious past of a thousand years—has led the Hungarian people
to the threshold of a still more splendid thousand years to
come!"

{37}

Writing shortly before the opening, the United States Consul
at Buda-Pesth, Mr. Hammond, gave the following description of
the plans and preparations then nearly complete: "The series
of official festivities will be diversified by those of a
social and popular character. These will be the
interparliamentary conference for international courts of
arbitration; the congress of journalists, with the view to
constitute an international journalistic union; international
congresses of art and history, of actors, tourists, athletes,
etc.; numerous national congresses embracing every
intellectual and material interest of the country, in which
the leading personages of all groups and branches of national
production, the highest authorities in the field of commerce,
industry, communication, etc., as well as those who are in the
forefront of the literary, spiritual, and philanthropic
movements of the country will take part.

"There is activity in all classes of Hungarian society, with a
view to carrying out the ingenious project of the artist Paul
Vágó—the great historical pageant. Several municipal bodies
have already promised their cooperation, while scores of men
and women, bearers of historic names, have declared their
readiness to take part at their own expense. All the costumes
of all the races and social classes who have inhabited this
country during ten centuries will pass before our eyes in this
beautiful cortege. The genius of the artist will call into life
in their descendants the warriors who conquered Pannonia under
Arpad, and, during the reign of Louis the Great, annexed to
this realm all the neighboring countries; all the dignitaries,
both civil and ecclesiastical, who, under Stephen the Saint, King
Kálman, and Mathias Corvinus, spread Christianity,
enlightenment, liberty, and wealth to the extreme confines of
this part of Europe; all the crusaders of Joannes Hunyady, who
drove back the Crescent for a century and thus defended
western civilization against eastern fanaticism; all the
kings, princes, noblemen, and poets of modern times who have
led the nation in her struggle for modern ideas. These
historical figures will be followed by their retainers or
surrounded by the popular types of the respective epochs. To
judge by the sketches of the artist, this pageant promises to
surpass anything that has hitherto been offered on similar
occasions.

"All these festivals will move, as it were, within the fixed
frame of the Millennial National Exhibition, which will cover
an area of 500,000 square meters (5,382,100 square feet) and
consist of 169 buildings and pavilions, erected at a total
cost (including private expenses) of 10,000,000 florins
($4,020,000). This exhibition is divided into two sections,
viz:

(1) The historical section, containing art treasures, relics,
and antiquities of the past, which will illustrate the
political, religious, military, and private life of each
principal period in the history of the nation. …
(2) The section of modern times will embrace everything offered
by similar exhibitions.

Nevertheless, the visitor's mind will here, too, be impressed
with the solemnity of the millennium and the enthusiasm
inspiring the nation at this momentous period of its history.
The programme embraces the national life in all its
manifestations. Not only will the present condition of Hungary
be laid open to general view, but the world will also be
impressed with the great progress Hungary has made since the
reestablishment of her constitution in 1867."

_United States Consular Reports,
April, 1896._

By every possible arrangement of facilitation and cheapening,
a visit to the Exposition was placed within the means of all
the inhabitants of the kingdom; and especial provision was
made for bringing schools and teachers to receive the
object-lessons which it taught.

Among the ceremonies which attended the ending of the great
national festival, was the formal opening, at Orsova, of a
ship channel through the rocky obstructions that have been
known since the days when they troubled the Romans as the
"Iron Gates of the Danube."

AUSTRIA-HUNGARY: A. D. 1897.
Industrial combinations.

See (in this volume)
TRUSTS: IN EUROPEAN COUNTRIES.

AUSTRIA-HUNGARY: A. D. 1897.
The forces of feudalism and clericalism in Austria.
Austrian parties in the Reichsrath.
Their aims, character and relative strength.
Count Badeni's language decrees for Bohemia.

"In no European country have the forces of feudalism and
clericalism such an enormous influence as they have in
Austria. The Austrian nobility is supreme at Court and in the
upper branches of the Administration. In Hungary the small
nobility and landed gentry exercise a preponderating
influence, but they are a wide class and filled with the
national spirit. The Austrian nobility forms a narrow,
intensely exclusive and bigoted caste, whose only political
interest is the maintenance of its own class supremacy. The
large Protestant element in Hungary has in no small degree
contributed to the success of the Magyars, both in its effect
on the national character and by the secondary position to
which the mixture of creeds has relegated the Church. In
Austria the Church of Rome is all-powerful. The House of
Habsburg has always been bigotedly Catholic: Francis Joseph
himself was a pupil of the Jesuits. The triumph of the
reaction after 1848 was the establishment in 1855 of that
'written Canossa' the Concordat, which made the Church
absolute in all matters relating to education and marriage.
And even though the Concordat was got rid of in 1870, the
energies of the clerical party have been but little weakened.
The real explanation of the whole course of Austrian politics
lies in the interaction of the two conflicts—of reaction,
clerical or aristocratic, against liberalism, and of Slav
against German. …

"In March 1897 came the general elections, to which a special
interest was lent by the first appearance of the fifth class
of voters. The most striking feature of the elections was the
complete and final break up of the German Liberal party. … The
history of the German Liberal party has been one of a
continuous decline both in numbers and importance. It counted
200 members in 1873, 170 in 1879, 114 in 1885-1891, and only
77 out of a total of 425 in 1897. … Their political theories
are those of moderate constitutional liberalism as understood
on the Continent in the middle of the century—i. e. belief in
the efficacy of parliamentary government, in commercial and
industrial freedom, hostility to military bureaucracy and
clericalism. … The most radical group among them, the
Progressists, an offshoot of the last election, is about as
radical as the ordinary English Conservative of to-day. The
views of the Verfassungstreue Grossgrundbesitz are those of
the English Tory of fifty years ago.

{38}

"Of the fractions into which the Liberal party is now divided
the most important is the Deutsch Fortschrittliche, or
Progressive, which split off from the main body in November
1896. Its chief object was to direct a stronger opposition on
national and liberal lines to Count Badeni. Its 35 members are
almost exclusively recruited from Bohemia and Moravia. They
differ from the German 'Volkspartei' mainly in their refusal
to accept anti-Semitism, which would be both against their
liberal professions and their economic convictions as
representatives of the commercial and manufacturing classes.
The constitutional landowners (Verfassungstreue
Grossgrundbesitz, 30 seats) represent the most conservative
element of the old Liberal party. … The 12 members of the Free
German Union (Freie Deutsche Vereinigung) may perhaps consider
themselves the most authentic remnant of the great Liberal
party—it is their chief claim to distinction. The German
National or People's party (Deutsche Volkspartei, 43 seats)
first made its appearance at the elections of 1885. It
rejected the old idea of the Liberals that the Germans were
meant, as defenders of the State, to look to State interests
alone without regard to the fate of their own nationality, and
took up a more strictly national as well as a more democratic
attitude. It has also of late years included anti-Semitism in
its programme. Its main strength lies in the Alpine provinces,
where it heads the German national and Liberal opposition to
the Slovenes on the one side, and the German clericals on the
other. It is at present the largest of the German parties. …

"Least but not last of the German parties comes the little
group of five led by Schönerer and Wolf. Noisy, turbulent, and
reckless, this little body of extremists headed the
obstruction in the Reichsrath, the disorganised larger German
parties simply following in its wake. The object these men aim
at is the incorporation of German Austria in the German
Empire, the non-German parts being left to take care of
themselves. Both the German National party and Schönerer's
followers are anti-Semitic, but anti-Semitism only plays a
secondary part in their programme. The party that more
specially claims the title of anti-Semite is the Christian
Social (Christlich-Soziale, 27 seats). The growth of this
party in the last few years has been extraordinarily rapid. In
Dr. Lueger and Prince Alois Liechtenstein it has found leaders
who thoroughly understand the arts of exciting or humouring
the Viennese populace. … The characteristic feature of
Austrian anti-Semitism, besides the reaction against the
predominance of the ubiquitous Jew in commerce, journalism,
and the liberal professions, is that it represents the
opposition of the small tradesman or handicraftsman to the
increasing pressure of competition from the large Jewish shops
and the sweating system so frequently connected with them. The
economic theories of the party are of the crudest and most
mediæval kind; compulsory apprenticeship, restricted trade
guilds, penalties on stock exchange speculation, &c., form the
chief items of its programme. …

"The German Clericals and the Clerical Conservatives
(Katholische Volkspartei and Centrum) number some 37 votes
together; but their importance has always been increased by
the skilful and unscrupulous parliamentary tactics of the
party. The strength of the Clerical party lies in the ignorant
and devotedly pious peasantry of Upper Austria and the Alpine
provinces. The defence of agrarian interests is included in
its programme; but its only real object is the maintenance of
the moral and material power of the Church. Its policy looks
solely to the interests of the Vatican. …

"The best organised of the national parties is the Polish Club
(59 seats). It represents the national and social interests of
the Polish nobility and landed gentry. … Standing outside of
Austrian interests, they exercise a controlling voice in
Austrian affairs. The three-score well-drilled Polish votes
have helped the Government again and again to ride roughshod
over constitutional opposition. The partition of Poland has
thus avenged itself on one at least of its spoilers. The
Germans have long resented this outside interference which
permanently keeps them in a minority. … The Czechs are a party
of 60, and together with the 19 representatives of the Czech
landed aristocracy, form the largest group in the Reichsrath.
The Young Czech party began in the seventies as a reaction
against the Old Czech policy of passive resistance. In
contra-distinction to the Old Czechs, they also professed
radical and anti-clerical views in politics generally. … In
1897 the Old Czechs finally withdrew from the contest or were
merged in the victorious party. … Of the other nationalist
parties the most important is the Slav National Christian
Union (35 seats), comprising the Slovenes, Croatians, and some
of the more moderate Ruthenians from Galicia. Their programme
is mainly national, though tinged with clericalism; equality
of the Slav languages with German and Italian in mixed
districts; and ultimately a union of the southern Slavs in an
autonomous national province. The Italians are divided into 5
Clerical Italians from the Tirol and 14 Liberals from Trieste,
Istria, &c. The Tirolese Italians desire a division of the
Tirol into a German and an Italian part. …

"The most interesting, and in some ways the most respectable,
of all Austrian parties is the Socialist or Social Democratic
party (15 seats). It is the only one that fights for a living
political theory—German liberalism being to all intents and
purposes defunct—and not for mere national aggression. The
Social Democrats hold the whole national agitation to be an
hysterical dispute got up by professors, advocates, and other
ne'er-do-weels of the unemployed upper classes. … Their
support is derived from the working classes in the industrial
districts, and not least from the poorer Jews, who supply
socialism with many of its keenest apostles. …

"Altogether a most hopeless jumble of incoherent atoms is this
Austrian Reichsrath. The chariots driving four-ways on the
roof of the Houses of Parliament are a true symbol of the
nature of Austrian politics. To add to the confusion, all the
parties are headless. Able men and men of culture, there are a
good many in the House; but political leaders there are none.
The general tone of the House is undignified, and has been so
for some time. …

{39}

"On April 5, 1897, Count Badeni published the notorious
language decrees for Bohemia. This ordinance placed the Czech
language on an absolute equality with the German in all
governmental departments and in the law courts all over
Bohemia. … After 1901 all officials in every part of Bohemia
were to be obliged to know both languages. The refusal of the
Germans to admit the language spoken by 62 per cent. of the
population of Bohemia to an equality with their own is not
quite so preposterous as would at first sight appear. Without
subscribing to Professor Mommsen's somewhat insolent dicta
about 'inferior races,' one must admit that the Czech and
German languages do not stand on altogether the same footing.
German is a language spoken by some 60,000,000 of people, the
language of a great literature and a great commerce. Czech is
difficult, unpronounceable, and spoken by some 5,000,000 in
all. It must be remembered, too, that the two nations do not
really live together in Bohemia, but that the Germans live in
a broad belt all round the country, while the Czechs inhabit
the central plain. There is no more reason for a German
Bohemian to acquire Czech than there is for a citizen of
Edinburgh to make himself master of Gaelic. On the other hand,
every educated Czech naturally learns German, even in a purely
Czech-speaking district. … It must also be remembered that the
decrees, as such, were of doubtful constitutionality; the
language question was really a matter for the Legislature to
settle. The decrees at once produced a violent agitation among
the Germans, which rapidly spread from Bohemia over the whole
Empire."

_The Internal Crisis in Austria-Hungary
(Edinburgh Review, July, 1898)._

AUSTRIA-HUNGARY: A. D. 1897 (October-December).
Scenes in the Austrian Reichsrath described by Mark Twain.

"Here in Vienna in these closing days of 1897 one's blood gets
no chance to stagnate. The atmosphere is brimful of political
electricity. All conversation is political; every man is a
battery, with brushes overworn, and gives out blue sparks when
you set him going on the common topic. … Things have happened
here recently which would set any country but Austria on fire
from end to end, and upset the government to a certainty; but
no one feels confident that such results will follow here.
Here, apparently, one must wait and see what will happen, then
he will know, and not before; guessing is idle; guessing
cannot help the matter. This is what the wise tell you; they
all say it; they say it every day, and it is the sole detail
upon which they all agree. There is some approach to agreement
upon another point: that there will be no revolution. … Nearly
every day some one explains to me that a revolution would not
succeed here. 'It couldn't, you know. Broadly speaking, all
the nations in the empire hate the government—but they all
hate each other too, and with devoted and enthusiastic
bitterness; no two of them can combine; the nation that rises
must rise alone; then the others would joyfully join the
government against her, and she would have just a fly's chance
against a combination of spiders. This government is entirely
independent. It can go its own road, and do as it pleases; it
has nothing to fear. In countries like England and America,
where there is one tongue and the public interests are common,
the government must take account of public opinion; but in
Austria-Hungary there are nineteen public opinions—one for
each state. No—two or three for each state, since there are
two or three nationalities in each. A government cannot
satisfy all these public opinions; it can only go through the
motions of trying. This government does that. It goes through
the motions, and they do not succeed; but that does not worry
the government much.' …

"The recent troubles have grown out of Count Badeni's
necessities. He could not carry on his government without a
majority vote in the House at his back, and in order to secure
it he had to make a trade of some sort. He made it with the
Czechs—the Bohemians. The terms were not easy for him: he must
pass a bill making the Czech tongue the official language in
Bohemia in place of the German. This created a storm. All the
Germans in Austria' were incensed. In numbers they form but a
fourth part of the empire's population, but they urge that the
country's public business should be conducted in one common
tongue, and that tongue a world language—which German is.
However, Badeni secured his majority. The German element was
apparently become helpless. The Czech deputies were exultant.
Then the music began. Badeni's voyage, instead of being
smooth, was disappointingly rough from the start. The
government must get the 'Ausgleich' through. It must not fail.
Badeni's majority was ready to carry it through; but the
minority was determined to obstruct it and delay it until the
obnoxious Czech-language measure should be shelved.

"The 'Ausgleich' is an Adjustment, Arrangement, Settlement,
which holds Austria and Hungary together [see above; also, in
volume 1, AUSTRIA: A. D. 1866-1867]. It dates from 1867, and
has to be renewed every ten years. It establishes the share
which Hungary must pay toward the expenses of the imperial
government. Hungary is a kingdom (the Emperor of Austria is
its King), and has its own parliament and governmental
machinery. But it has no foreign office, and it has no army—at
least its army is a part of the imperial army, is paid out of
the imperial treasury, and is under the control of the
imperial war office. The ten-year rearrangement was due a year
ago, but failed to connect. At least completely. A year's
compromise was arranged. A new arrangement must be effected
before the last day of this year. Otherwise the two countries
become separate entities. The Emperor would still be King of
Hungary—that is, King of an independent foreign country. There
would be Hungarian custom-houses on the Austrian frontier, and
there would be a Hungarian army and a Hungarian foreign
office. Both countries would be weakened by this, both would
suffer damage. The Opposition in the House, although in the
minority, had a good weapon to fight with in the pending
'Ausgleich.' If it could delay the 'Ausgleich' a few weeks,
the government would doubtless have to withdraw the hated
language bill or lose Hungary.

"The Opposition began its fight. Its arms were the Rules of
the House. It was soon manifest that by applying these Rules
ingeniously, it could make the majority helpless, and keep it
so as long as it pleased. It could shut off business every now
and then with a motion to adjourn. It could require the ayes
and noes on the motion, and use up thirty minutes on that
detail. It could call for the reading and verification of the
minutes of the preceding meeting, and use up half a day in
that way.
{40}
It could require that several of its members be entered upon
the list of permitted speakers previously to the opening of a
sitting; and as there is no time limit, further delays could
thus be accomplished. These were all lawful weapons, and the
men of the Opposition (technically called the Left) were
within their rights in using them. They used them to such dire
purpose that all parliamentary business was paralyzed. The
Right (the government side) could accomplish nothing. Then it
had a saving idea. This idea was a curious one. It was to have
the President and the Vice-Presidents of the parliament
trample the Rules under foot upon occasion! …

"And now took place that memorable sitting of the House which
broke two records. It lasted the best part of two days and a
night, surpassing by half an hour the longest sitting known to
the world's previous parliamentary history, and breaking the
long-speech record with Dr. Lecher's twelve-hour effort, the
longest flow of unbroken talk that ever came out of one mouth
since the world began. At 8.45, on the evening of the 28th of
October, when the House had been sitting a few minutes short
of ten hours, Dr. Lecher was granted the floor. … Then burst
out such another wild and frantic and deafening clamor as has
not been heard on this planet since the last time the
Comanches surprised a white settlement at midnight. Yells from
the Left, counter-yells from the Right, explosions of yells
from all sides at once, and all the air sawed and pawed and
clawed and cloven by a writhing confusion of gesturing arms
and hands. Out of the midst of this thunder and turmoil and
tempest rose Dr. Lecher, serene and collected, and the
providential length of him enabled his head to show out above
it. He began his twelve-hour speech. At any rate, his lips
could be seen to move, and that was evidence. On high sat the
President imploring order, with his long hands put together as
in prayer, and his lips visibly but not hearably speaking. At
intervals he grasped his bell and swung it up and down with
vigor, adding its keen clamor to the storm weltering there
below. Dr. Lecher went on with his pantomime speech,
contented, untroubled. … One of the interrupters who made
himself heard was a young fellow of slight build and neat
dress, who stood a little apart from the solid crowd and
leaned negligently, with folded arms and feet crossed, against
a desk. Trim and handsome; strong face and thin features;
black hair roughed up; parsimonious mustache; resonant great
voice, of good tone and pitch. It is Wolf, capable and
hospitable with sword and pistol. … Out of him came early this
thundering peal, audible above the storm:

"'I demand the floor. I wish to offer a motion.'

"In the sudden lull which followed, the President answered,
'Dr. Lecher has the floor.'

"_Wolf._ 'I move the close of the sitting!'

"_President._ 'Representative Lecher has the floor.'
[Stormy outburst from the Left—that is, the Opposition.]

"_Wolf._ 'I demand the floor for the introduction of a
formal motion. [Pause.] Mr. President, are you going to grant
it, or not? [Crash of approval from the Left.] I will keep on
demanding the floor till I get it.'

"_President._ 'I call Representative Wolf to order. Dr.
Lecher has the floor.' …

"'Which was true; and he was speaking, too, calmly, earnestly,
and argumentatively; and the official stenographers had left
their places and were at his elbows taking down his words, he
leaning and orating into their ears—a most curious and
interesting scene. … At this point a new and most effective
noisemaker was pressed into service. Each desk has an
extension, consisting of a removable board eighteen inches
long, six wide, and a half-inch thick. A member pulled one of
these out and began to belabor the top of his desk with it.
Instantly other members followed suit, and perhaps you can
imagine the result. Of all conceivable rackets it is the most
ear-splitting, intolerable, and altogether fiendish. … Wolf
went on with his noise and with his demands that he be granted
the floor, resting his board at intervals to discharge
criticisms and epithets at the Chair. … By-and-by he struck
the idea of beating out a tune with his board. Later he
decided to stop asking for the floor, and to confer it upon
himself. And so he and Dr. Lecher now spoke at the same time,
and mingled their speeches with the other noises, and nobody
heard either of them. Wolf rested himself now and then from
speech-making by reading, in his clarion voice, from a
pamphlet.

"I will explain that Dr. Lecher was not making a twelve-hour
speech for pastime, but for an important purpose. It was the
government's intention to push the 'Ausgleich' through its
preliminary stages in this one sitting (for which it was the
Order of the Day), and then by vote refer it to a select
committee. It was the Majority's scheme—as charged by the
Opposition—to drown debate upon the bill by pure noise—drown
it out and stop it. The debate being thus ended, the vote upon
the reference would follow—with victory for the government.
But into the government's calculations had not entered the
possibility of a single-barrelled speech which should occupy
the entire time-limit of the sitting, and also get itself
delivered in spite of all the noise. … In the English House an
obstructionist has held the floor with Bible-readings and
other outside matters; but Dr. Lecher could not have that
restful and recuperative privilege—he must confine himself
strictly to the subject before the House. More than once, when
the President could not hear him because of the general
tumult, he sent persons to listen and report as to whether the
orator was speaking to the subject or not.

"The subject was a peculiarly difficult one, and it would have
troubled any other deputy to stick to it three hours without
exhausting his ammunition, because it required a vast and
intimate knowledge—detailed and particularized knowledge—of
the commercial, railroading, financial, and international
banking relations existing between two great sovereignties,
Hungary and the Empire. But Dr. Lecher is President of the
Board of Trade of his city of Brünn, and was master of the
situation. … He went steadily on with his speech; and always
it was strong, virile, felicitous, and to the point. He was
earning applause, and this enabled his party to turn that fact
to account. Now and then they applauded him a couple of
minutes on a stretch, and during that time he could stop
speaking and rest his voice without having the floor taken
from him. …

{41}

"The Minority staid loyally by their champion. Some
distinguished deputies of the Majority staid by him too,
compelled thereto by admiration of his great performance. When
a man has been speaking eight hours, is it conceivable that he
can still be interesting, still fascinating? When Dr. Lecher had
been speaking eight hours he was still compactly surrounded by
friends who would not leave him and by foes (of all parties)
who could not; and all hung enchanted and wondering upon his
words, and all testified their admiration with constant and
cordial outbursts of applause. Surely this was a triumph
without precedent in history. …

"In consequence of Dr. Lecher's twelve-hour speech and the
other obstructions furnished by the Minority, the famous
thirty-three-hour sitting of the House accomplished nothing. …
Parliament was adjourned for a week—to let the members cool
off, perhaps—a sacrifice of precious time, for but two months
remained in which to carry the all-important 'Ausgleich' to a
consummation. …