Page:The Bohemian Review, vol2, 1918.djvu/115

 It follows that the new Czechoslovak state already exists, and that the Czechoslovaks are not merely revolutionists, but that they are waging war against Austria-Hungary under their own standards and as the allies of America and the Entente.

It remained for the Allies to give out ward recognition to this fact. Not only by recognizing the Czechoslovak National Council as a representative body of revolutionaries, but as the provisional government which it de facto is. The Czechoslovaks should be declared officially by the Allies to be co-belligerents and their armies given a status entitling the soldiers to the treatment of prisoners of war. The Council should be recognized as the actual government of an allied nation, for such a step would be the best possible guarantee that the Allies will not accept a compromise at the peace conference on the question of Bohemian independence.

France has taken this step. Let America follow.

As the papers bring day by day sensational reports of dissatisfaction and internal trouble in Austria-Hungary, the question is asked by every one: Will Austria go the way of Russia? Can we look for an uprising that will overthrow the Hapsburgs, as the Romanoffs were overthrown a year ago? Will Austria be lost to Germany, as Russia was lost to the Allies?

There are startling resemblances between the events in Russia leading to the revolution of March 1917 and the present situation on the Danube. Like Russia, Austria has been defeated over and over again, in fact far more disgracefully than Russia. Twice little Serbia inflicted a disaster on the Hapsburg armies, while the Russians and the Italians proved times without number that they were far superior to Austrians unsupported by the Germans. The morale of the Austrian army is poor, because the soldiers realize that they belong to a beaten army.

Then there is the hopeless financial situation of Austria-Hungary. The state is far more deeply involved than Russia was before the revolution. The state debt has grown from 12.5 billion to 72 billion crowns—and paper money, the issue of which amounted to 2.5 billion, is now outstanding to the amount of 23 billion. No hard money circulates any longer in Vienna, with the exception of the smallest coins; there is only paper, Geldersatz (money substitute), as the people have christened, it. When the finance minister is called upon by the army to produce more money, he goes to the Austro-Hungarian Bank, and orders another issue of a few billion paper crowns. The state is bankrupt, and the citizens know it. Bank-notes may buy you luxuries, but the necessities of life can be had only by barter.

Austria resembles Russia also in the inefficiency and incompetence of its officials. This inefficiency produces its worst results in the vital matter of provisioning the population. The analogy between Austria and Russia is particularly striking at this point. The immediate cause of the Czar’s overthrow was hunger in Petrograd. Russia, could not fill the hungry bellies of the workingmen in Petrograd and Moscow, and so finally hell broke loose. Austria-Hungary too, if not in quite the same degree, has been an agricultural country. The dual empire has a density of population far below that of Germany, while a much larger percentage of its people were engaged in agriculture. Yet while Germany has enough to hold out till the next harvest, Austria is compelled to reduce the rations to the point where actual starvation sets in. While it is well to accept with caution sensational reports about Austria, this much is established beyond all doubt: the people of Vienna, Prague and the smaller cities of Austria are so desperately hungry that they are ready for anything.

In all these respects Austria of July 1918 resembles Russia of March 1917. But the empire of the Hapsburgs is threatened by a danger which was absent in the Petrograd revolution, namely the hostility of the majority of the people to the state itself. The revolution of Petrograd was not caused or even contributed to, by the hate of the Poles, Finns, Ukrainians, Caucasians to the Russian rule. But the German-Magyar rule on the Danube is hated by 60% of the subjects. The Dual Monarchy is a state which the majority of its subjects desire to see smashed, broken up, divided. Czechoslo-