Page:The Bohemian Review, vol2, 1918.djvu/64

 industry and has been brought to a high degre of perfection. Bohemian glass has been famous since the 17th century; this industry employs 25,000 men and three-fourths of the product is exported.

Among the natural riches of Bohemia one must mention the healing springs. Every one knows Karlsbad and Marienbad; not so well-known abroad are the radioactive springs of Joachimsthal, the wonderful springs of Pišťany in Slovakland, Luhačovice in Moravia and a host of others locally famous.

Roads are excellent everywhere in the Bohemian lands. There are fifty thousand kilometres of high roads in Bohemia, Moravia and Silesia, as against a total of 120,000 km. in all Austria; that is to say while Austria as a whole has 40 km. of good roads to 100 sq. km., Bohemia has 63.

There are in Austria 22,874 km. of railroads, one kilometre to each 13 sq. km. But the Bohemian lands have 9506 km., or one kilometre to every 8.5 sq. km. The same proportion applies to telegraphs.

There are unfortunately no official figures to show what proportion of Austrian exports was produced in the Bohemian lands. In 1911 Austria exported in round figures 500 million dollars worth of goods. An analysis of the export figures indicates that at least 60% of it was exported from the Bohemian provinces. It will be interesting to mention in this connection that of 837,000 bales of cotton imported into Austria 626,000 came from the United States, and that 75% of it went to the Bohemian textile mills.

Financially Bohemia is stronger that any other part of Austria. The capital of Bohemian banks amounted in 1910 to 180 mill. crowns, and their assets totaled 3.5 billion, that is 35% of the total for all Austria. The Landbank of the Kingdom of Bohemia had in 1911 assets of 1,099,294,088 crowns, the Hypoteční (Mortgage) Bank 344,646,691 crowns. Of 669 savings banks of Austria 356 were located in the Bohemian lands and their deposits amounted to 42% of the Austrian total. The people of Bohemia average about twice as much in savings deposits as the inhabitants of the other Austrian provinces.

At that the Bohemians pay far more than their share of Austrian taxes. In 1914 the Bohemian lands paid in direct state taxes 44 mill. crowns, while all the rest of Austria paid only 26 mill. That is to say, a Bohemian pays 4.34 per head in direct taxes, while the average for the rest of Austria is 1.75. The main bulk of the state income is derived from indirect taxes, but here the injustice of the burden laid on Bohemia is just as glaring. Take the food tax. In 1911 it amounted for all Austria with 28,560,000 people to 445 mill. The Bohemian lands have 10,146,000 inhabitants, about 35% of the Austrian total. But they paid 60% of the food tax.

In 1900 the Bohemian lands paid to the Austrian state the great sum of 518,223,973 crowns. Of that amount only 78,000,000, or 15%, was spent in Bohemia, Moravia and Silesia. All the rest was applied for the benefit of Vienna and the German Alp provinces, and of course for the support of the army, so that Austria might play the role of a Great Power. On the other hand, the autonomous administration of Bohemian local affairs, as carried on by the Diet of Bohemia and its executive committee, was constantly struggling with a deficit and when the Vienna government abolished the last remnants of Bomemian self-government in 1913, the Bohemian diet had a debt of 114 mill. crowns. It was Bohemian money that supported the fine German universities, museums, and high technical schools of Austria, while Czech cultural institutions were starving.

Dr. Kusý has figured out, shortly before the war, that an independent Bohemia fulfilling all the duties of a modern progressive state, would need an income of 484 mill. Under the present regime the cost of the autonomous institutions, municipal, county and provincial, amounts to 175 mill. The Austrian tax collectors take an annual tribute of 518 mill., a total of 693 mill. An independent Bohemia would save annually 209 mill, in taxes. In other words freedom would pay big dividends in hard cash.

In their campaign for independence the Czechs have not put as much stres on the financial exploitation of their people by their German rulers, as they were fully entitled to. They merely demanded freedom, the right to shape their own destinies, to develop their own racial individuality, But it cannot be denied that on material grounds alone, especially the unjust burden of taxation, Bohemia can make out a very strong claim for liberation from the Austrian yoke.