Page:The Bohemian Review, vol1, 1917.djvu/197

 league of nations or a world state the second step in American policy so far as Europe is concerned. The remaining questions and unrighted wrongs, as President Wilson has so rightly pointed out can only be solved after these two items in the programme of American and Allied policy are attained. It is clear, therefore, that America is at one on the essentials of the big task before the democratic world. And that is sufficient so far as Bohemia is concerned.

But how may Pan-Germanism be destroyed? Evidently its accomplishment has already been outlined by the powers. It presupposes the defeat of Germany and her allies on the battlefield and the dismemberment of Austria-Hungary. By the former, the belief in the invincibility of German arms and the leadership of the caste of war lords will be destroyed, by the latter, the most docile vassal of Germany will be taken away from her.

Why cannot a chastened and democratized Austria-Hungary answer the purpose? Why must she be dismembered? The simple answer is that in her present make-up, she can only be a tool of Germany; an independent policy is out of the question. The constitutions which govern the Dual Kingdom of Austria-Hungary give the real power to three elements, the German dynasty of the Hapsburgs, and the German minority in Austria and the Magyar minority in Hungary. This arrangement is as much a farce as is the German constitution which places the power in the hands of the Hohenzollerns, the junkers of Prussia and the captains of industry under the leadership of the princes of the Bundesrat. The German Reichstag, the Austrian Reichsrat, and the Hungarian Lower House are debating societies, where things are sometimes said, but where anything is rarely done.

Many plans have been drawn up and attempts have been made to remedy this intolerable condition which is a standing menace to peace as long as it lasts, because it is founded on injustice. The dynasty, German by nationality, tenaciously holds to the property conception of the state—the state belongs to it. And the state is a medley of nations and races of which at least six are of vital importance in any attempted solution of the problem: the Czechs and the Slovaks, the Germans, the Poles, the Magyars, the Serbo-Croats, and the Roumanians—neither of which has a numerical majority in the whole state or in either of the two component parts, but whose total population is preponderantly Slavic. In the past, only militarism has held this mosaic realm together under the domination of the Germans. On the whole, four solutions have been tried or advanced thus far. They are, Centralism (or a united consolidated state), Dualism (the present form), Trialism or Quadrupleism (by the inclusion of a new state like Bohemia or a reconstructed Poland or a new South Slavic state), and Federalism.

Centralism under absolutism has been tried and failed. It was carried out to its logical completeness by Joseph II (1780-1790). In its absolutist form, it must now be considered obsolete. But there are hopes among some Germans that centralism may be combined with federalism in which the essentials of unity and federalism may be maintained. For this another Bismarck is necessary, for it cannot be accomplished except by blood and iron. Above all, the Magyars will oppose this solution unless the dominant share, which the Austrian Germans wish, be handed to them. Not only would it mean the subjection of the other nations of the empire, but internationally the empire would be the tool of Germany as it is now.

Dualism has been tried and found wanting. It is founded on the injustice of the rule of the minority. The domination of the minority of Germans in Austria over the majority of Slavs and of the minority of Magyars in Hungary over a majority of Slavs, Roumanians, and Germans is not a foundation on which a durable peace may be built. How can the present Dual Kingdom be democratized, as some of her publicists now proclaim is becoming the state, and the domination of majorities still be retained? No careful student of Austro-Hungarian politics can believe that the present dominant minorities will commit suicide. It is easier to give them independence than to ask them to accept an equal place among six or seven where formerly two held sway.

Before the war, Trialism is said to have been the dream of the murdered Archduke. At times, it was rumored that Bohemia would be the new state added to give counterpoise to the arrogant Magyar state. Later, a new South Slavic state, which meant the incorporation of Serbia, was mentioned as the third state in this trialism. Naturally enough any attempts to trialize Austria-Hungary will meet with the stern opposition of Hungary. It would