T

HE trend of events in German Austria during the month under review showed a visible development of socialistic tendencies. These tendencies were seen in various directions; in the success of the Social Democrats at the polls; in the steps taken by the new Government in the direction of socialization of industry; in the principles laid down to govern both exterior and internal policy, including a scheme for co-operation between the productive workers of town and country, and in the German-Austrian subscription to the League of Nations theory of free determination of peoples, particularly as applied to the States previously a part of the old imperial fabric; they were seen notably in the resolute turning away from the Hapsburg tradition, developing an atmosphere which led to an official request that the ex-Emperor renounce forever his aspirations to the throne and take his departure from Austria.

The departure of ex-Emperor Charles from Austria and his taking up residence in Switzerland represent one of the far-reaching events of modern history. This exile of the Hapsburg-Lothringens, one of the oldest imperial houses in Europe, which had ruled for over a thousand years, was an occurrence pregnant with significance, brought out into sharp relief by the abolishment of all the rights and privileges of the royal family in perpetuity, allied to a decree of eternal banishment.

The trend of the new German-Austrian Republic was toward Socialism, but not toward Bolshevism. Even the Bolshevist envoys of the new Soviet Republic in Hungary-despite the desperate food conditions prevailing in German Austria-did not succeed in Bolshevizing the Austrian Government, and the national democratic, socializing tendency

was seen again in the action of the Soldiers' and Workmen's Councils in Vienna, which decided against the establishment of a Soviet Government, and in favor of a Socialist Republic chronicled herewith.

RESULTS OF ELECTIONS

Definite figures from Vienna showed the results of the elections held on Feb. 16 to be as follows:

Of the total vote of about 3,000,000 cast on Feb. 16 for the delegates to the Austrian Constituent Assembly, 1,210,000 went to the Socialist Party, 1,039,300 to the Christian Socialist Party, 593,000 to the various groups of German Nationalists, while the balance was divided among the proBavarian, Czechoslovak and Jewish National groups, according to data printed in the Vienna Arbeiter-Zeitung of Feb. 23. In the Reichsrat elections of 1911 the Socialists received 307,156, the Christian Socialists (Clericals and anti-Semites) 538,635, and the other parties about 165,000 votes.

The National Defense, or Volkswehr, which represents a portion of the old army, organized great demonstrations on Feb. 18 in Vienna in celebration of the Social Democratic success at the polls. The demonstrators, both military and civil, numbered 12,000 to 15,000 persons, and marched under the red flag to the House of Parliament to the sound of the "Marseillaise." At the Parliament speeches were made by a number of prominent Social Democrats, including President Seitz. The result of the elections, declared Herr Seitz, showed that the mass of the people desired union with Germany and was in favor of Socialism. Dr. Deutsch, the Under-Secretary of State for War, declared that Emperor Charles must be compelled formally and finally to abdicate. The immediate aim of the people at the beginning of their work for a Socialist Republic was the socialization of industry and rural economy.

The new German-Austrian Govern

ment, as reported from Vienna on March 16, included Dr. Renner as Chancellor, Herr Jodofink as Vice Chancellor, Herr Schumpeter as Minister of Finance, Dr. Julius as Minister of War, and Otto Bauer as Minister of Socialization; the latter also continued his functions as Minister of Foreign Affairs.

On March 18 the Chancellor made an official statement, which may be summarized as follows:

Concerning foreign relations, the Austrian policy would be based on the spirit of conciliation underlying President Wilson's projected League of Nations. The rights of Austrian subjects in occupied territory would be maintained. No hostility against the States that previously formed a part of the old monarchy would be shown, and no hostile act committed; free communication with all would be established. Reunion with Germany would be energetically pursued. Referring to matters of internal policy, the Chancellor declared for a free constitution and co-operation between the productive workers of town and country.

Among the early measures approved by the new Government were State socialization, the abolition of capital punishment, except under martial law, and the liberation of all Russian and Finnish prisoners of war, including interned aliens.

A symposium of the views of Austrian statesmen published in the Petit Parisien on March 28 showed that union with Germany was believed to be indispensable. Dr. Renner, the new Chancellor, considered this union to be practically completed. Count Czernin, former Austro-Hungarian Foreign Minister, however, thought the Austrian situation must remain undetermined until the peace negotiations were completed; he then favored a referendum on the fate of Austria.

FORMER EMPEROR'S DEPARTURE

Dispatches of March 22 reported that the Vienna Government had again notified ex-Emperor Charles to leave the country. His intention to maintain a court at Eckartsau was declared to be contrary to the new Constitution adopted by the National Assembly. On March

23 Charles of Hapsburg left Austria with his family to take up his residence in Switzerland, in the Château of Wartegg, at Staad, (near Rohrschach, on Lake Constance.) This old château is the property of the Duke of Parma. The exiled Hapsburgs arrived here on March 24, and a correspondent wrote on the 26th:

The ex-Emperor Karl apparently passed the first day of his exile in Switzerland in the bosom of his family. At nine yesterday morning the ex-Emperor, availing himself of the beautiful weather, with the Empress Zita and their children, took a walk in the park of the ancient Castle Wartegg, afterwards receiving several visitors, among whom was Count Berchtold, who came to Wartegg with the Hereditary Archduke after a few weeks' sojourn at Lucerne. Yesterday, during conversation at Buchs Station with the Swiss officials, the ex-Emperor instructed them to present his homage to the President of the Confederation and express his thanks to him.

At the frontier the ex-Emperor and his suite received the ordinary food, the extras allowed for the use of invalids being only accorded to the aged Archduchess Maria Josephine, mother of the Empress Zita. A certain sensation was caused owing to the Emperor wearing General's uniform with decorations. The Empress appeared to be greatly fatigued by the effects of the journey and her emotion. Among those who formed the suite was Count Czernin.

A Zurich journal comments: "Charles was received as a private gentleman." The paper adds that Switzerland concedes the right of exile to whosoever adheres to her laws, and reminds Charles that the Confederation's sole desire is to live in peace and accord with her neighboring States. Furthermore, it adds, on traversing the frontier the Imperial Court vanishes, and Charles should entomb in the archives of the ancient Castle of Wartegg his uniforms and sparkling decorations.

LEFT VIENNA SECRETLY

Vienna newspapers declared that the former Emperor had left Austria without making the renunciation of the throne for himself and his family, which had been demanded, and to which he had implicitly agreed on Nov. 11. According to the Reichspost, four Archdukes of German Austria had made such a renunciation, asking the rights only of ordinary citizens. The former Emperor had left Vienna secretly under

British protection; the city heard of his departure only on the following day. A long communiqué was issued by the Government, which declared that it had been misled by Colonel Strutt, under whose escort, with British soldiers, the exEmperor journeyed to Switzerland. Colonel Strutt had asked for a State train for the conveyance of himself and several members of the Interallied Mission, including ladies, proceeding to Switzerland on duty. Consequently the Government thought that the train was for representatives of the Entente until it heard at 6 o'clock in the evening that the ex-Emperor and his family would leave one hour later. The communiqué concluded that the responsibility of the ex-Emperor's departure must, therefore, be attributed wholly to the British Government.

DECREE OF BANISHMENT

A bill introduced in Parliament on March 27 dealt with the former reigning house. This bill abolished all the rights and privileges of the House of Hapsburg-Lothringen perpetuity,

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banished all members of this house, as well as the House of Bourbon-Parma, the family of former Empress Zita, and seized, in the name of the German-Austrian Republic, all the real and personal estate of the former imperial house; it decreed, however, that the private fortune and property of ex-Emperor Charles should remain untouched. On April 5 it was announced from Paris that protests against the law providing for the confiscation of the property of the Hapsburg family had been made by former States of the empire, which demanded an equitable distribution.

It was reported from Vienna on March 28 that the news of the latest Hungarian revolution had encouraged the propaganda work of the Extremist parties, the International Social Revolutionaries, and the International Communist Party, representing the Bolshevist program. Previously this agitation had been counteracted by the efforts of the Social Democratic Party, as a whole, and by the Coalition Government, supported by most of the papers, Liberal, Clerical, and Socialist; by the middle classes and most

of the laboring people, who realized that the stock of food in the country was practically exhausted, and that Entente and American help was the only resource against impending famine.

The news of the Hungarian revolution, however, brought a sudden change in this situation. Extremist meetings were attended by great multitudes, whose attude to Bolshevism had been visibly affected.

Food conditions contributed to the discontent; official rations, it was said, were insufficient to support bare existence; there was no meat, eggs, or fat, and restaurants in Vienna would soon be compelled to close their doors. The claims of neighboring nations to districts inhabitated by Germans aggravated the general feeling of unrest; the question of German Bohemia and Tyrol particularly was agitated in meetings and in the press; it was urged that the Austrians should not be subjected to the imperialist ambitions of other nations, and that Wilson's principles should be applied to Austrian, Slav, and Italian alike.

An official warning was issued in Vienna against the circulation of false rumors and the departure of wealthy persons. The feeling of unrest in Vienna, it was stated, had increased. On April 4 the American mission in Vienna stated that the Entente was ready to grant the Austrian business world long credits to enable the importation of raw material for the resumption of economic work, the loans to be effected partly by American banks to Vienna banks under the supervision of the American Government; this was held to be the best means of stemming the Bolshevist tide by lessening the excessive number of unemployed, who at tremendous expense were supported by the State.

DECISION AGAINST BOLSHEVISM

The Entente Mission on April 5 demanded that the German-Austrian Government expel the agitators sent by the new Hungarian Republic to Vienna. The Government thereupon requested Hungary to recall these men. The Hungarian representative, Alexis Bolgar, ad

mitted to The Associated Press that Hungary had agitators in the legation who were attempting to communize Vienna. Advices reaching Washington on April 7 said that a Communist revolution in Austria seemed imminent. But on April 10 came the announcement that the Conference of Soldiers' Councils of German Austria, which met in Vienna, had decided against the establishment of a

Soviet Government in Austria, and in favor of a Socialist Government. On the same date it was reported that announcement of an increased food supply by the Entente was causing material improvement of feeling.

The proclamation of a Soviet republic in Salzburg, German Austria, near the Bavarian frontier, was announced on the same day via London:

W

HILE the world is in the process of reorganizing itself Rumania has silently accomplished a reform practically equivalent to a social revolution; during all her history the stronghold of the large landholding class, she will soon be a country of small land proprietors. Few precedents can be found in history of a transformation effected so completely, so pacifically, and so rapidly.

Travelers who before the war passed through the Rumanian plains, whose great stretches recall those of Central Russia or Argentina, know that they constituted at once the strength and the weakness of this nation, consisting of a rural population. Eighty-three per cent. of the Rumanians live in the country; thence comes the sturdiness of the people, their attachment for the deep-rooted national traditions which their small houses with whitewashed walls, their dress, their customs, such as the old and sad Hora dance, make so easily perceptible. The beauty of the race also comes from that source, a beauty so singular that when descending the Danube it is enough to see the silhouettes of the women drawing water at the banks in order to conIclude as to whether one is in Rumanian territory or not.

This race of country people, however, has lived in a state of semi-economic sub

jection. The reason for this is to be found in the history of the principalities, which, under the voyevodas, formed the cradle of the small Rumania of yesterday and the large one of tomorrow. Contrary to the condition in Serbia, where the division of land was effected early, Rumania had always been a country of extensive landed possessions. Some years ago it was estimated that 1,563 proprietors possessed alone more than six million acres of land, one-half of the country. According to estimates submitted to the Rumanian Parliament in 1917 the peasants possessed only 33 per cent. of the arable land.

SAW PERIL IN TIME

The system of renting the farm land prevailed throughout the country. In the cultivation of tracts of land of more than 200 acres the proportion of rentals attained an average of about 61 per cent. of the land. The consequences are easily discernible. The large landholders formed a sort of feudal class too rich to preserve intimate connections with the soil. The Rumanian peasant, under whose sluggish exterior is often concealed a very keen spirit, maintained the distrustful attitude of the oppressed. A chasm intervened between the cosmopolitan ruling classes and the mass of sturdy, though uneducated, people under their rule.

Without doubt the Russian revolution contributed toward opening the eyes of many regarding the perils of such a con

dition. It was in June, 1917, that the Rumanian Parliament, at the same time that it enacted universal suffrage, voted for the partition of land. However, the defeat of Rumania and the advent of the Marghiloman Cabinet, which was in favor of Germany, delayed the realization of the reform. The return of M. Bratiano to power was necessary that the promises which had been made might be kept. With the promulgation of the law of January, 1919, this was effected.

The first point worthy of attention is the radical nature of the reform. Large landholding is, without doubt, not entirely suppressed by a stroke of the pen; probably something like a little more than two million acres were excepted. The measure, however, affects a formidable proportion of the land which lends itself to cultivation. In the first place all land is appropriated which is comprised in the property of the crown, of the State treasury, and of large proprietors, public or private; under this provision, at least 600,000 acres are transferred to the peasants. Moreover, the law further appropriates arable land amounting to four million acres composed of plots taken from all private properties containing more than 200 acres of land suitable for cultivation. Not only does the total of peasant property find itself almost doubled in this manner, but the former proportion between large and small landholdings is completely reversed. The large proprietors, who but lately possessed about 70 per cent. of the fertile land, will retain scarcely 15 per cent. of it.

METHOD OF LAND TRANSFER The appropriation and transfer of the land to the peasants, however, raised many difficult questions. The division of the land into lots and the apportionment of these lots to the peasants would necessarily have called for time. The delays incident thereto might have provoked dissatisfaction and perhaps the usual agrarian troubles. It is in making provision for this that the ingenuity of the reform stands out.

In order to give the peasants the enjoyment of their new land from the

Spring of 1919, it was decided to turn over the land without any delay to the central treasury of the association of popular banks named the Central Treasury for the operation and distribution of peasants' lands. This bank is charged with the establishment of peasant associations wherever they do not as yet exist-and it is well known that agricultural co-operation has been strongly developed in Rumania-which are to take immediate possession of the appropriated lands and place them under cultivation themselves.

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This is a purely temporary measure, and one which presents no attributes of communistic character whatsoever. District commissions, consisting of two representatives of the landholders, two representatives of the peasants, a representative of the Central Treasury, and a Justice of the Peace or a Judge, will take the necessary measures to prepare for the individual sale of the lots to the peasants. Without being compelled to await the termination of these transactions, necessarily occupying some length of time, the mechanism of the agricultural association allows the small farmers to profit by the appropriation of the land immediately upon the promulgation of the decree.

The importance of this method can readily be perceived, above all, from an economic standpoint. At present Rumania cannot afford to neglect the intensive and immediate cultivation of all her soil. But the rapidity of execution has also a moral and political importance. Peasants, whether they be Rumanian or French, recognize only tangible results. That they may believe in the sincerity of the promises made them by the legislator, they must be enabled without delay to plow those fields which yesterday belonged to the large proprietor. To have left them in doubt would have been to aid the conspiracies of the agents of Hungary and of the Ukraine, who, for various reasons, are striving to incite the Rumanian masses to that form of social chaos called Bolshevism. Not a moment was to be lost, and the Rumanians realized that in time.

The financial measures provided by the