Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 11.djvu/734

 PERIODICAL

670

PERIODICAL

follows: Lower Austria, 4, of which 2 appear twice daily. Of these the "Reichspost" (Dr. Funder, editor-in-chief) is issued twice daily, and prints 16,000 copies to each edition; "Vaterland" (P. Siebert, editor-in-chief), two editions daily of 'i.'jOO copies each; "Neuigkoits-Weltblatt", August" Kirscli, owner, 5000 copies to each edition; "Xeue Zeitunp;", 50,000 copies to each edit ion. .\11 these papers are published at Vienna. Upper Austria has the "Linzer Volksblatt", 4,500 copies to each edition; in Salzburg, the ".Salzburger Chronik", 3500 copies; in Styria, the "Grazer Volk.s- blatt", 8500 copies; the "Kleino Zcitung", 26,000 copies to an edition, the last two i>ublished at Graz. In the Tyrol 3 daily papers are jjublislied: at Inns- bruck the "Allgemeiner Tiroler Anzeiger", with an edition of 3000 copies, and the "Neue Tiroler Stim- men", with an edition of 1500 copies; at Trent, the ItaUan "Trentino", with an edition of 5000 copies. At Bregenz in \'orarlberg is published the "Vorarl- berger \'olksblatt", with an edition of 3500 copies. Bohemia has only one daily in the Czech language, the "Cech" of Prague, with an edition of 3800 copies; in Mora\'ia, the Czech "Hlas" is published at Brtinn, 2000 copies to an edition. Polish papers are the "Czas", pubUshed at Lemberg, ,5000 copies twice daily; the "Gazeta Lwowska", 2000 copies to an edition; the "Gazeta Narodoya", published at Lem- berg, 4500 copies; the "Glos narodu", published at Cracow, 8800 copies twice daily; two other papers at Lemberg are the "Ruslau" and the "Przeglad", each 5000 copies to an edition. At Klagenfurt in Carinthia is published the "Karntner Tagblatt", edition of 2000 copies; at Laibach in Carniola, the Slovenian "Slovenec", edition of 3700 copies; at Triest, the Italian "Giornale". In Dalmatia the "Hryatska kruna" is pubUshed in Croatian, with an edition of 9000 copies.

The local Press, weekly and monthly, is very large; this is especially the case in the Alpine provinces and northern Bohemia. The learned periodicals show work of high quality. Among them should be men- tioned: the "Kultur", pubhshed at Vienna by the Leo-Gesellschaft, and the " Allgemeines Literatur- blatt", also the "Correspondenzblatt fiir den Clerus", edition of 7000 copies, the "Theologischpraktische Quartalschrift", published at Linz, edition of 12,000 copies; ".-^nthropos" at Salzburg, "Christliche Kunstblattcr" at Linz, " Kunstfreund " at Innsbruck, "Immcrgrun" at Warnsdorf, "Vla.st" at Prague. As regards illustrated family periodicals the non-Catholic Press is decidedly in the lead.

The actual condition of the Catholic Press in Aus- tria is far from satisfactory, though by no means hope- less. Its defects are fully recognized by those who are best able to remedy them. The daily papers, in particular, suffer from the lack of funds. There is no wealthy Catholic middle class, the prosperous city population being to a great extent (politically at least) anti-Catholic, while most of the zealous Catholics are found among the rural population, who, in Austria, care little for newspapers. This state of things renders Catholic journalism an uninviting field for business investment, and the dearth of capital employed in Catholic journalism as business enterprise is only in- adequately supplied by donations from the nobility and clergj', who have neither the inclination nor the experience to secure an advantageous employment of the funds subscribed by them. Subsisting on the.se slender contributions by supporters of the party, the Catholic papers are unable to make any efforts for their own improvement or for the increase of their circulation by advertising; they are party institu- tions, not business enterprises, and have to be satisfied with keeping their expenditures down to the limits of the party contributions. .At the same time, the con- duct of the papers is in the hands of persons who, be- sides having no pecuniary interest in pushing them as

enterprises, generally lack journalistic training. This technical inferiority, indeed, affects the whole working value of the Austrian Critholic Press; the remunera- tion of contributors, as well as (if editors, being consider- ably below the standard of the Liberal Press, the best talent of the country avoids Catholic journalism and enlists itself in the service of the opposition. Lastly, its financial weakness places the Catholic Press at a serious disadvantage in n'ganl to the supply of scien- tific matter and foreign news, both of which are abun- dantly commanded by the aHluent Libera! Press.

These enormous difficulties are to some extent coun- teracted, it is true, by Catholic zeal and self-sacrifice, but the strain of ceaseless effort necessarily results in a lack of effective force. External difficulties aggra- vate the disheartening conditions. The control of public affairs by a Liberal Press lasted so long that the whole reading jniblic, good Catholics included, became habituated to it, and this acquiescence in a wrong state of things resulted in intellectual inertia. Only in the first decade of the present century did the more practically Catholic elements begin to realize that those aristocratic-conservative influences which are po])ularly regarded as reactionary are not necessarily the most favourable to Catholic interests. The Chris- tian-Socialist popular party has taken up the Catholic programme and thus opened a way for it among the masses; a spirited agitation resulted in diminishing the political power of the Liberal Press; but, in spite of all this, the public, long accustomed to the style of Liberal journalism, find CathoUc periodicals lacking in piquancy.

One more external difficulty with which Catholic periodical literature in Austria — in contrast to the conditions of LTnited Germany — has to contend, is the multiplicity of races and languages among the popula- tions of the empire. The national rivalries are not always held in check by the profession of a common faith. The Catholics of each race insist upon main- taining distinct Catholic periodicals in their respective languages; hence a large number of periodicals each with a circulation far too small to ensure success. This difficulty has recently increased rather than di- minished. The "Vaterland", e. g., a Vienna period- ical, formerly read by Catholics throughout the Aus- trian crown lands, irrespective of their own national languages, has now had its circulation curtailed through this cause. And in general it may be said that no Catholic paper in Austria can count upon a circulation among all Catholics under the Austrian Crown; a separate Press has to be organized for the Catholics of each language.

The result of all these internal and external difficulties is the present embarrassed position of the Catholic Press of Austria. Attempts have been made, with the best intentions, at various times, by individuals, corporate bodies, and congresses; all, however, have failed of lasting success, because they lacked system and or- ganization. It is greatly to the credit of some that this defect was finally recognized, and an effort made to correct it, by the Pius-Verein. As attempts to obtain money for the Press from the few rich have failed, a constant appeal is made to the great mass of people of small means, and large sums are thus col- lected. In this way the question of means is to be settled. By constant agitation, or by frequent meet- ings, local groups, and confidential agents, the apathy of the people is to be ended.

Although the condition, taken as a whole, of the Catholic Press in Austria is not prosperous, still the great efforts that have been made of late years and are still making with ever-increasing zeal, at the present time, justify the hope that the apathy of large sections of the reading public may be overcome, an apprecia^ tion arouseil of the importance of a Press that is honourable and steadfast in the Faith. Only when this is attained will the sacrifices in money and labour