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PRESENT DAY SOCIAL AND

INDUSTRIAL CONDITIONS

IN AUSTRIA

Editor: CLYDE L. KING

Associate Editor: T. W. VAN METRE

Assistant Editor: JOSEPH H. WILLITS

Editorial Council: THOMAS CONWAY, Jr., C. H. CRENNAN. A. A. GIESECKE, S. S. HUEBNER,

CARL KELSEY, J. P. LICHTENBERGER, ROSWELL C. McCREA,

SCOTT NEARING, E. M. PATTERSON, L. S. ROWE,

HENRY SUZZALO, T. W. VAN METRE,

F. D. WATSON

Editor in Charge of this Supplement

DR. WENZEL GLEISPACH

Professor of Jurisprudence and Political Science, University of Vienna

The American Acvdemy ok Political and Social Science 39th Street and Woodland Avenue Philadelphia 1921

Hc

FEB 2 1 1967 J

Copyright, 1921, by

The American Academy of Political and Social Science

All rights reserved

EUROPEAN AGENTS

ENGLAND: P. S. King & Son, Ltd., 2 Great Smith St.. Westminster, London, S. W, FRANCE: L. Larose, Rue Soufflot. 22, Paris.

GERMANY: Mayer & Muller, 2 Prinz Louis Ferdinandstrasse, Beriin, N. W. ITALY: Giornale Degli Economisti, via Monte Savello, Palazzo Orsini, Rome. SPAIN: E. Dossat, 9 Plaza de Santa Ana, Madrid.

CONTENTS

PAGE

FOREWORD— VRESENT DAY SOCIAL AND INDUSTRIAL CONDITIONS IN

AUSTRIA V

Dr. Friedrich Hertz, Vienna

CHAPTER I. THE POPULATION OF THE AUSTRIAN REPUBLIC 1

Dr. Wilhelm ^Yinkler, Hofsekretar of the Central Commission for Statistics and Privatdo- cent for Statistics at the University of Vienna

CHAPTER II. THE PRESENT STATE OF AGRICLT.TURE AND FORESTRY IN

THE REPUBLIC OF AUSTRIA 6

Compiled by the Central Board for Protection of the Interests of Agricultm-e and Forestry

CHAPTER III. THE WATER POWER QUESTION IN AUSTRIA 9

Dr. Friedrich Hertz, Vienna ^

CHAPTER IV. THE COAL SUPPLY OF AUSTRIA AFTjER THE REVOLUTION OF

1918 ^ 16

Rudolph Kloss, D.L.L., Civil Engineer and President of the Coal Supply Department of the Board of Trade

CHAPTER V. THE PUBLIC FINANCES OF THE REPUBLIC OF AUSTRIA 20

Dr. Emanuel Hugo Vogel, Professor of the University of Vienna

CHAPTER VI. THE CURRENCY PROBLEM OF AUSTRIA 28

Dr. Emanuel Hugo Vogel, Professor of the University of Vienna

CHAPTER VII. AUSTRIAN BANKS 34

Dr. Max Sokal, Manager of the Wiener Giro-und Kassen-Verein, Vienna

CHAPTER VIII. TRAFFIC AND TRANSPORT IN AUSTRIA 40

Compiled by the Ministry for Transport and Traffic

CHAPTER IX. THE MANUFACTURES OF THE REPUBLIC OF AUSTRIA 45

Dr. Siegmund Schilder, Secretary of the Commercial Museum of Vienna, and Privatdocent at the University of Vienna

CHAPTER X. AUSTRIA'S TRADE 51

Hofrat Professor Anton Schmid, Director of the High School of Commerce, in Vienna

CHAPTER XI. THE CUSTOMS POLICY OF THE REPUBLIC OF AUSTRIA... 53 Dr. Siegmund Schilder, Secretary of the Commercial Museum of Vienna and Privatdocent at the University of Vienna

CHAPTER XII. SOCIAL POLICY IN THE REPUBLIC OF AUSTRIA 66

Dr. Anton Hofifmann-Ostenhof, Vienna

CHAPTER XIII. GOVERNMENT ORGANIZATION FOR SOCIAL AID IN

AUSTRIA 61

Dr. Robert Bartsch, Professor in the University of Vienna, Ministerialrat and Director of the Juvenile Aid Department of the Ministry for Social Administration in Vienna

CHAPTER XIV. THE PRESENT STATE OF THE HOUSING QUESTION IN

AUSTRIA 65

Heinrich Goldemund, Civil Engineer, Former Architect in Chief of the City of Vienna

CHAPTER XV. CRIMINALITY IN AUSTRIA 67

Dr. Wenzel Gleispach, Professor of Jurisprudence and Political Science at the University of Vienna

INDEX 7i

FOREWORD

Present Day Social and Industrial Conditions

in Austria

By Dr. Friedrich Hertz

Vienna

THE fate of Austria has aroused world-wide sympathy and the un- paralleled relief- movement organized in so many countries, is, perhaps, the most hopeful symptom of the revival of the spirit of solidarity and brother- hood in the world. America has taken the lead in this movement and her generous efforts have actually saved Austria's children and have filled the hearts of the Austrian people with gratitude and admiration. Yet even charity must at last come to an end. The question therefore arises whether the present Republic of Austria, as constituted by the Peace Treaty, is capable of existing as a separate unit at all; whether it possesses the basis for living on the products of its own labor.

Austrian public opinion at present seems to despair of this possibility. For plebiscites, organized in several Aus- trian provinces, gave an overwhelming majority for fusion with Germany. Also, immediately after the foundation of the Republic, the Austrian National Assembly pronounced itself for such a union. But all these declarations en- countered the veto of the Allies, es- pecially of France, which threatened Austria with the gravest measures if she did not check the movement, though the Peace Treaty expressly ad- mits the possibility of a fusion with tbe consent of the League of Nations. The Austrian plebiscites had no aim other than to create a basis for an ap- peal to the League of Nations by ascer-

taining that the people really desired a fusion with Germany.

The motives of this movement are to a great extent economic though, of course, the general desire for national unification also plays a certain part. A glance at the rates of exchange or prices, sufiices to prove that Germany is by far better off than Austria, in spite of all the schemes for the economic rehabilitation of Austria, drawn up by the Allies. Up till now (July, 1921) very little has come of all these schemes and Austrian public opinion has lost nearly all confidence in this respect. On the other hand the German mark, which in pre-war days was 1.18 kronen, at present is equivalent to almost 11 kronen! The main reason for this disastrous depreciation of the currency consists in the disproportion between imports and exports, which forces the government continually to increase the banknote circulation in order to pay for the necessary imports of food, coal, and raw materials. Consequently, the Austrian krone has gone down to much less than the hundredth part of its pre- war standard and the budget shows a steadily increasing deficit.

Now the question is whether this deficit in the trade balance and in the budget is temporary or permanent; in other words, whether Austria possesses enough productive powers to pay for her supplies from abroad. In Austria opinions on this point are divided but in most cases the answer is in the nega- tive. The fact is emphasized that by

The Annals of the American Academy

the Peace Treaty Austria has lost most of her natural weallli; tliai lier former coal riches, especially, and most of the fertile soil have been awarded almost totally to other countries, and that nothing has been left to Austria but the barren rocks of the Alps and a huge capital of two million inhabitants, the former administrative center of a big empire, now doomed to unproduclive- ness. It has })een maintained that the population of Vienna consists mainly of officials, commercial and financial middlemen, artists, pleasure-seekers and similar elements, while industrial production in former Austria was mostly carried on in Czecho-Slovakia. Such statements, however, are exaggerations. To a great extent their underlying mo- tive is political propaganda, and they are employed especially by certain supporters of the fusion with Germany to underrate the productive capacity of Austria in order to prove that the union is the only way left. On the other hand, these pan-German argu- ments are also used by Czech propa- gandists who represent Vienna as a parasite which has always sponged on the toil of the Slavic provinces and which therefore must be eliminated by a system of trade restrictions.

The only truth in all these statements is that the natural resources of present Austria are very restricted indeed. They consist mainly in forests, iron ore, salt and water powers. Of the total subterranean coal wealth of former Austria, only one-half of one per cent came to the present Austrian Republic, all the rest being divided between Czecho-Slovakia and Poland.^ Then, too, the agricultural soil of Austria can- not be compared with the rich plains of Jugo-Slavia, Poland or Czecho-Slova-

^ Tlie actual output is larger than the percent- age quoted but the Austrian coal mines will be exhausted in a rather short time and the coal (lignite) is of very poor quality.

kia. It is also true tliat Austria has lost a very great j)art of her industries, developed, financed and owned by Austrian manufacturers in the Ger- man parts of Czecho-Slovakia. But on the other hand, Austria even now possesses great industries, mainly con- centrated in and anMuid Vieima. Prob- ably most Austrians would be highly surprised by the statement that pres- ent Austria comprises almost the same number of factories and factory w(jrk- ers as Bohemia, though Bohemia has half a million inhabitants more. Yet it is an indisputa})le fact as can easily be gathered from pre-war statistics.

In former Austria, every industrial worker employed in a workshop with motor power had to be insured against accident. In 1913 the number of such insured industrial workers amounted to 745,289 in Bohemia and to 740,000 in the present territory of Austria. The number of factories (workshops with motor power and more than twenty workmen) amounted in 1919 to 6,283 in present Austria, while in Bo- hemia there were 6,544 factories in 1915. These are the latest figures available. Of course, Bohemia had a greater mining industry (64,568 miners against 29,308 in Austria) and her domestic industries, not included in the preceding statistics, were more exten- sive than those of Austria, Moreover, Bohemia has the great advantage of a much more fertile soil and a very high level of agricultural development as compared with Austria. But these advantages of Bohemia are more than outweighed by the enormous transit, trade and banking system of Austria, by her great capital investments in all the territories of the former empire and by the importance of Vienna as a cen- ter of science, medicine, technics, art, music and pleasure, attracting hundreds of thousands of foreigners from all parts of the world.

Present Day Austria

Vll

The greatest drawback for Austria is that her agriculture, which is mainly in the hands of small peasants, is not on the same level as her industries. Yet Austria possesses 50 per cent more productive soil per head than does Swntzerland, and it can easily be proved that Austria could produce the greatest part of her food requirements. This, however, cannot be achieved in a short time because the peasants can only be educated gradually and slowly. More- over, the development of Alpine agri- culture according to the Swiss model demands large capital and many years.

Also, the view that unproductive ele- ments form a much greater part of the population in Austria than elsewhere is quite unfounded. Before the war in the present territory of Austria 53 per cent of the total population were em- ployed in different occupations and this figure surpassed every country in Em-ope and was equalled only by France. Especially great was the per- centage of female workers. The num- ber of officials and professionals (law- yers, teachers, etc.) in 1910 amounted to 7.29 per cent of the occupied popula- tion in Austria; to 8.2 per cent, in France; 6.4 per cent, in England; 6.2 per cent, in Germany and 6.1 per cent, in Holland. This percentage of officials would certainly seem too numerous for present impoverished Austria, but it must be borne in mind that the figures usuaUy quoted comprise all the rail- waymen and workers in state mines and factories (salt and tobacco monop- ohes, etc.). The greatest part of these so-called officials are therefore manual workers. If railway employes are excluded, the number of state offi- cials (including teachers and law officials) forms about six-tenths of one per cent of the population.

It is possible, therefore, that Austria possesses enough productive forces to maintain herself, provided that she

were really in a condition to use these means to their full extent. If the plight of Vienna and the ruin of Aus- trian finances has startled the world, the reason consists in the fact that productivity was paralyzed for a very long time and even now is far from being normal.

Present Austria produces compara- tively but little coal, raw materials and food and she must buy these products from the neighboring states with in- dustrial products. Therefore, Austria more than most other states absolutely requires free trade both for imports and exports. Long before Germany was united in a customs union, old Austria had already formed an economic unit without internal barriers (since 1773) and all parts of the big empire were economically interdependent. This ec- onomic unity was broken up by the Peace Treaty in such a way that new Austria was absolutely at the mercy of her neighbors who believed that their interests would be greatly furthered by a system of economic seclusion. This belief, however, proved entirely wrong. The disruption of the monetary union by Jugo-Slavia and Czecho-Slovakia not only ruined Austrian currency, but also did great harm to the monetary value of the states themselves. While after the war the old Austrian currency was still quoted about 30 Swiss francs for 100 kronen, this figure, after the stamping of the bank notes, went do\Mi to about 4 francs for Czecho-Slovakia, and even now, after the lapse of three years, stands below 8 francs. The same happened in all other states w^hich believed that the monetary sepa- ration from Austria would greatly im- prove their own currency.

The same belief led also to a sort of mutual commercial blockade among all the Succession States of Austria-Hun- gary. Of course the underlying ideas of this new mercantilism were, more or

Vlll

The Annals of the American Academy

less, to be found everywhere in Europe; they were but the war spirit applied to economics. Everywhere, states (and even provinces or districts within each state) ciid(Nivorcd to keep tiieir food and other vital productions as much as possible for themselves, and therefore restricted exports. Everywhere, the tendency was also to restrict imports of luxuries and other "unnecessary" things in order to protect the rate of exchange; and, lastly, everywhere, traffic and travelling generally were subjected to many regulations and restrictions, either in order to secure the working of the internal distribution, the control of food, coal and raw materials introduced during the war or to con- form to the Peace Treaty.^

But in the case of the Austro-Hun- garian Succession States, the conse- quences of this system were the more disastrous as they had formed an economic unit for many centuries, and as very often the economic isolation was still aggravated by national ani- mosities.

Most critical was the situation at Vienna, because it was most helpless and most exposed not only to national jealousies directed against the former capital itself but also to economic re- actions springing from differences among neighbors. Whenever Poles and Czechs, or Poles and Germans, or Hungarians, or Czechs, or Italians and Jugo-Slavs were quarrelling about coal territories, or a province or a seaport, the reaction was felt in Vienna, because of her central position, and immediately

^ On the one hand, the economic system of the Peace Treaty forcibly increases exports for Rep- aration, etc., and at the same time keeps down wages in Germany and Austria. The natm-al consequence is that every other state tries to shut itself off against these forced exports. On the other hand Germany and Austria had to im- pose enormous new taxes and this made it neces- sary too to control exports in order to prevent V ermogensjiuchi (smuggling out of values).

coal and food supplies were stopped either through the su.spension of rail- way traffic or through other extraordi- nary measures. Moreover, every state possessing food was willing to sell it only against "sound money" or against goods, notagain.st paper money. IJut how could Viernia })ay in sound money since the disruption of the monetary union had brought about a total breakdown of the Au.strian cur- rency, and how could her industries produce, since the coal supply from Czecho-Slovakia and Silesia was strangl- ed to an entirely insufficient minimum? In 1919 the factories of Austria could work only at a rate of about 25 per cent because the coal producing states absolutely' refused to deliver more coal and the people of Vienna had to cut down trees in the surrounding woods and drag them home on their backs in order to cook their scanty meals. In the following year the coal output in Czecho-Slovakia increased to 86 per cent of the peace production, yet Aus- tria received only 40 per cent, though most of the Czecho-Slovak mines are owned by Austrians who would will- ingly have sent coal if the Czech Gov- ernment had only allowed it. At last the impoverishment of Austria led to a severe crisis in Czecho-Slovakia whose industries had always sold most of their products to Vienna. The conse- quence was a closing down of factories in Czecho-Slovakia and a setting free oi coal for Austria which, however, in the meantime had been forced to pro- cure coal from Holland!

In the same way Austria had during a long time to buy grain, flour and meat in America, Manchuria, etc., and even sugar in Java, instead of getting them from her neighbors who had an abun- dance of these foodstuffs. Generally in all states, including Austria, exports were restricted not only where there was a scarcity, but also when a great

Present Day Austria

IX

surplus was available for export, as in the case of sugar and coal in Czecho- slovakia, or in the case of wood and paper in Austria and of cattle and grain in Jugo-Slavia. Every state tried to control the export of its chief products in order to exact greater advantages from neighbors dependent on these supplies. But the result of this policy was very often the exact opposite of that expected! Indeed, Czecho-Slova- kia w^hich developed this policy to the highest pitch, through it lost the Aus- trian market for many of her products. For example, Czecho-Slovakia restrict- ed the export of textile goods and iron to Vienna with the effect that the Italians conquered the Austrian market in cotton goods and the Germans, the iron market to the detriment of Czecho- slovakia. The same policy of state interference was also applied to im- ports, and Austria suffered severely through the sudden seclusion of many of her traditional markets. Instead of protective tariffs, a general prohibition of all imports has been decreed and any imports (as well as exports) require special licenses.

Austria herself at the beginning followed a much freer trade policy than her neighbors, but gradually she, too, began to increase her trade restrictions, either because of retaliation or for pur- poses of taxation of luxury imports. Yet the whole system has already over- lived itself. Conviction has become general in all the Succession States that trade and traffic must be relieved of some of their fetters and that the system of prohibitions and special licenses must give way to the principle of comparatively free trade under a revised customs tariff.

Under this practical blockade, Vienna had to suffer appallingly but already the beginning of freer traffic has created a surprising revival in trade at the Capital. Moreover, the very difficul-

ties arising from the economic disrup- tion have, on the other band, contrib- uted to very remarkable developments in Vienna. The countless barriers, discrepancies and frictions between the new states made it more necessary than ever to have a central point for coping with these new f angled absurdities. Every traveller must now continually change his money because he has to pass a new frontier every few hours. The trader cannot send money freely to any place without the assistance of a bank, as he formerly did, and if he has to travel, passport and other difficulties cause enormous waste of time and force. Under such circum- stances, Vienna has become a gigantic clearing house, central market and meeting point for all the Succession States. An incredible number of new banks and commercial houses have sprung up and their gorgeous premises form a new feature in the streets of the •city. The Vienna banks are dealing every day with fantastic amounts of foreign exchanges and the stock ex- change is seething with wnld specula- tion for the account of all new states. The very multitude of trade and traffic difficulties which nobody can keep in mind induces foreign merchants to consign their goods to Vienna which

' serves as a sort of free port and as a distributing center for the whole of

' former Austria-IIiuigary and Eastern Europe. In consequence of so many difficulties, many morebrains and hands are necessary for handling a certain volume of trade and this is one of the main reasons for the astounding multi- plication of new firms in Vienna.

All these evolutions have created an atmosphere of bustling commercial activity, of reckless gambling and extravagant luxury. The people con- nected with it are mostly foreigners and the Viennese are very bitter against them, calling Ihem "profiteers"

Thk Annals of tiif. Amkrkan AfAOEMY

(Schieber). Yet their doings are to some extent an inevitable consequence of the great catastrojjhe of war. Good and evil are inextricably mixed up in this development, yet superficial ob- servers usually overlook its less favor- able side; they forget that this whole buoyant pros|)erity is in many respects more apparent and artificial than real, and that, in the main, a relatively small class is profiting by it. For, in the last resort, all these thousands of new traders and gamblers with their huge staff of clerks and their appendix of parasites are, to a great extent, not a symptom of increased production or trade. They owe their existence partly to the disruption of the former eco- nomic unity and the paralyzing eflfects of government restrictions, which can be overcome only by the often unscru- pulous practices of these adventurers, and partly to the impoverishment of Austria by such adventurers who with their "sound money" buy up the rem- nants of Austria's wealth. Somebody must at last pay for this multitude of new businesses, and this darker side is neglected by most of the foreign visi- tors walking through the luxurious streets near the "Ring."

Yet the fact remains that in the last year a remarkable improvement has taken place in Austria, in spite of the fact that the rate of exchange has dropped about one-fifth during this time.^ The working classes have been able to increase their wages consider- ably though they are still far below the peace parity. But the situation of the intellectual middle classes and of old people, no longer able to work, has grown still worse. A higher official or university professor, for example, now receives about 12 times his pre-war

' In July, 1920 the quotation in Vienna for l£ was 600 kronen and for 1 dollar 150 kronen, while a year later the £ was over 3,000 and the dollar over 800 kronen.

salary, and this will soon be increased to about 20 times the amount, but j)rices have gone up at least from 100 to 150 times as compared with pre-war j)rices. There are many scholars and retired high functionaries who have taken to manual professions or other very subf)rdinale])()sitions; old admirals or generals have become col)blers and their wives and daughters are toiling day and night with needlework. Many families can keep two ends together only by selling their furniture, trinkets or works of art. Of course this condi- tion must soon come to an end.

The condition of the middle classes however, will be affected for the worse by the jjrogressing abandonment of state control over food. The system of selling food rations to the people be- low the cost price paid by the state was quite unavoidable as long as the pro- ductive forces of the towns w^ere para- lyz3d by coal scarcity and other hin- drances. On the other hand, the state subsidies for this purpose have ruined the budget, and the currency and maximum prices have contributed to lame agricultural production. There- fore a radical change is about to be carried out, but it will certainly cause new sufferings to the classes which are least organized and least able to adapt their income to rising prices, viz., the intellectual workers.

It is generally recognized that any real economic rehabilitation of Austria must begin with the stabihzation of the monetary value. The rapid fluc- tuations in the exchange are seriously impeding solid trade and fostering speculation. Therefore the different schemes for restoring Austria's economic life have all taken this as a starting point. At present the League of Nations is considering such a plan and there is no doubt about its earnest de- sire to carry it through. Conferences are to be held at the same time between

Present Day Austria

XI

all the Succession States for the settle- ment of outstanding economic ques- tions and the abandonment of trade restrictions. This excellent scheme is due mainly to the endeavors of the former American Representative on the Reparation Commission, Colonel Smith. Some minor questions have already been settled in this way, but unfortunately most new states seem rather reluctant to follow a policy of economic solidarity and cooperation because they are afraid that this would infringe upon their sovereignty. Aus- trians, generally, deeply regret that America has withdrawn from the Reparation Commission and that apart from its most magnanimous relief measures the United States seems to be disinterested as regards the economic consequences of the disruption of Austria which was mainly brought about by President Wilson's policy.'*

One great asset in Austria's future development is the total absence of tendencies dangerous to external and internal peace. Most European coun- tries are at present agitated by the mad convulsions of nationalism and com- munism. In Germany, Italy, Hun- gary, etc., civil war was or is still raging, and red and white terrorists are out- doing one another in bloodshed and atrocities. In Austria the whole revo- lution from an old monarchy to a new republic has passed off quietly. Aus- tria is the only country, indeed, where communism is almost non-existent; at the general elections not even 1 per

* It is, however, unfounded to blame tlie principle of self-determination as is often done in American papers. Not the principle but the fact that it has been disregarded has caused the present economic situation and political unrest. According to this principle the thirty-nine mil- lion Germans, annexed by Czecho-Slovakia, would have remained united with Austria and since their territory comprises the greatest coal mines and industries Austria would never have been paralyzed in her productivity and would not have needed any relief whatever.

cent of the votes were cast for the communists and they have not a single member in Parliament. Even the nationalists polled only a small number of votes (13 per cent), and these of a rather mild type if compared with the Pan-Germans in Germany or the Fas- cisti in Italy. Obviously, the Austrian character is averse to all forms of vio- lence. The two great parties are: 1. The Christian Socialists, who are simi- lar to the German Centre party, and chiefly composed of small peasants and artisans. They polled 43.5 per cent of all votes. 2. The Social Demo- crats (35.5 per cent), who are moderate Socialists. At present a non-party gov- ernment is in power, formed of neutral officials and mainly supported by the Christian Socialists. In external poli- tics, Austria pursues a policy of strict- est neutrality and good relations to all states.

Vienna has always been a very inter- national city. From earliest times two of the greatest European commercial highways have crossed it. Vienna has also been the center of a great interna- tional Empire for many centuries. Nowhere else in Europe do so many cultural elements from different nations flow together, and this very confluence has formed the Viennese character with a certain instinctive tolerance and broadmindedness. There is no aggres- siveness in the Austrian mind and the people, certainly, never had the slight- est suspicion of the criminal folly of those few diplomats who kindled the War in 1914. Also, the Austrian char- acter does not lack energy to the extent that is so often supposed. But what is really wanting, just now more than ever, is self-confidence. Quite other- wise from the inhabitants of Germany, Austrians were rather used to underrate their own economic efficiency, and their local pat riot i.sm satisfied ilsclf, rather, with stressing cultural achieve-

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The Annals of the American Academy

merits. Even before the war it had been a quite general tendency in Aus- tria to compare the economic develop- ment of Germany with that of Austria in a manner very derogatory to the latter. Indeed, it was a great surprise to Austrian etronomisls when T proved, in a book pu})lished in 1918, that in the ten years before the war Austrian industries had increased in exactly the same proportion as had the industries of Germany.^ Now the whole develop- ment since the breakdown of old Aus- tria has still greatly increased the lack of confidence in the future. The abso- lute dependency of Austria on her neighbors as regards food, coal and raw materials, other restrictions in the Peace Treaty and, finally, the failure of so many well-meant schemes of the Allies for the economic restoration, have created a wide-spread feeling of despondency.

Therefore economic reconstruction requires a psychological change as well. It is necessary to diminish the abnor- mal dependency of Austria on her neighbors and to make her more self- contained by developing agriculture, opening new coal mines and harnessing water powers. A project of greatest importance for Austria has just been started in Germany, namely the con- struction of a ship canal between the Rhine and the Danube. This great work will, of course, take a long time but its accomplishment will give Vienna free access to the North Sea, and in- crease traffic on the Danube enormous-

^ Cf. Dr. Fr. Hertz, Die Produktionsgrundlagen der osterreichischen Industrie vor und nach dem Kriege, insbesonders im Vergleick mit Deutschland (Verlag ftir Fachliteratur, Wien) 6th Edition, 1918.

ly. The difficulty with the Danube always has been that while most transports went up the river, return freights were lacking. But after the completion of the ship canal it will be possible to ship all raw materials, food and coal direct from Rotterdam down the Danube to Vienna, and to the other Danube ports which in return will send their products up the river.

Many other excellent schemes, too, have been drawn uj) for increasing productivity and enabling Austria to live on her labor. But it must be realized that all tliese plans require great outlay of capital and a long period of time, and that the whole economic organism of Austria has been exhausted to the utmost during the years of the War and still further through the economic war after the War. The particular conditions of Austria render the execution of great schemes and re- forms most difficult, and the constantly progressing financial ruin of Austria has up till now justified the pessimism dominating public opinion.

Finally, it is important beyond all that the still pending questions con- nected with the Peace Treaty should be settled as soon as possible. The uncertainty as to how these outstand- ing problems will be solved is making for much distrust of the future. Also the question of reparations, though it does not seem to have much practical bearing, ought not to be left open. Only such a general settlement will restore the confidence of foreign capital- ists in Austria's future, and will give hope to the Austrians themselves that their efforts for working out their own salvation will not be in vain.

ACKNO WLEDGM ENTS

This supplement on "Present Day Social and Industrial Conditions in Aus- tria" was edited for the American Academy by Professor W. Gleispach of the University of Vienna, The Editorial Council asked Professor Gleispach to pre- pare this supplement in order that the readers of the Annals the world over may have at hand data on present conditions in Austria compiled by Austrian scholars with access to valuable and complete information. Our acknowledgments are due Professor Gleispach for careful and painstaking editorial work.

The Foreword and Chapter III were translated by Friederich Hertz, Chapter VII, was translated by Otto Rosenberg and the remaining chapters were trans- lated by Marianne Herzfeld.

Clyde L. King,

Editor. I

Xlll

CHAPTER I

The Population of the Austrian Repubhc

By Dr. Wilhelm Winkler

Hofsekretar of the Central Commission for Statistics and Privatdocent for Statistics at the University of Vienna

THE former Aii.stro-Hungarian Mon- archy has fallen a victim to the working of the principle of nationality according to which political boundaries and those of language communities should be identical. It may, therefore,

not seem unexpedient to begin a con- templation of the resident population in one of its newly formed states with a review of the distribution of the in- habitants of the old Danubian Mon- archy according to their language.^

A Cl-^ssification of the Population of the Former Danubian Monarchy by Language ■

	Austria	Hung	A^RY	Bosnia AND Herzegovina	Austro-Hungarian Monarchy
	Absolute	Per-	Absolute	Per-	Absolute	Per-	Absolute	Per-
	numbers	centage	numbers	centage	numbers	centage	numbers	centage
Germans . . .	9,950,678	34.83	2,037,435	9.75	22,968	1.21	12,011,081	23.39
Magyars . . .	10,899	0.04	10,050,575	48.12	6,443	0.34	10,067,917	19.61
Czechs	6,435,532	22.52			7,045	0.37	6,442,577	12.54
Slovakians	b	b	1,967,970	9.42	482	0.03	1,968,452	3.83
Poles	4,965,667	17.38	0	0	10,975	0.58	4,976,642	9.69
Ukrainians .	3,518,882	12 32	472,587	2.26	7,431	0.39	3,998,900	7.79
Slovenians .	1,253,148	4.39	0	0	3.108	0.16	1,256,256	2.45
Croatians '. Serbians J	783,010	2.74	1,833,162 1,106,471	8.781 5.30/	1,822,564	96.02	5,545,207	10.80
Roumanians	275,088	0.96	2,949,032	14.12	608	0.03	3,224,728	6.28
Italians and
Ladinians	768,592	2.69	0	0	2,462	0.13	771,054	1.50
Sundry
others ". . .			469,255	2.25	13,958	0.74	483,213	0.94
Foreigners'*.	609,304	2.13	d	d	d	d	609,304	1.18
	28,570,800	100	20,886,487	100	1,898,044	100	51,355,331	100

" Language of daily commerce in Austria, mother-tongue in Hungary, Bosnia and Herzegovina.

^ The Slovakians being numbered among the Czechs in Austria, the number of the latter would appear a little too high, that of the former a little too small.

" In Hungary, the Polos, Slovenians, Italians and Ladinians are included in " Sundry others."

"* In Austria the foreigners were excluded from the census relating to the question of language, not so in Hungary, Bosnia and Herzegovina.

^ See Oesterreichlsche Statistik N. F. Vol. 1, Part 2, Vienna 1914; Magyar StaiLtztikai Kdz- lemSnyek, Vol. 42, Budapest 1912; Die Ergebnisse der Volkszdhlung von Bosnian Jtnd Herzegovina, Sarajevo 1912. Foreigners may best find these figures in Annuaire Inter naiionalc dc Statistiquc, Vol. 1, Page 143 ff., Ilaag 1916.

The Annals of the American Academy

The number of the inhabitants of Austria-Hungary speaking German amounted to nearly ten millions or al- most 35 per cent, and, together with the 126,393 subjects of the German Empire and other German-speaking foreigners, to more than ten millif)ns. In Hungary, alone, their number ex- ceeded two millions, thus forming one- tenth of the entire population. This total number of over 12 million Ger- mans in the Danubian Monarcliy — ^of which over 9.4 millions inhabited an area of 119,000 square kilometers, a compact territory with a population speaking exclusively German, and bor- dering on the German Empire^ — was, during the existence of the Danubian Monarchy, a factor of some importance, but with respect to the intellectual rather than to the political life, the three parts in which the Monarchy was divided (Austria, Hungary and Bosnia- Herzegovina) being quite independent of each other as far as their politic of nationality was concerned. Great im- portance attaches to those figures, however, as illustrative of the working of the principle of nationality after the dismemberment of the old Monarchy. For while the majority of the other nations of the disintegrated Monarchy succeeded in realizing the principle of nationality,^ the German-speaking in- habitants had to face very grave opposing influences. Indeed, repre- sentatives of the compact German territories, elected by universal, equal and secret elections, met in a National Assembly in Vienna immediately after the Revolution, and solemnly and unan- mously pass ed a law which pronounced

2 See the detailed statement on the cover of my map of languages in Central Europe, Vienna, Hermann Goldschmiedt, 1921.

' The Czechs obtained an independant state of their owti, the Poles, Roumanians, Southern Slavs and Italians were united with their motherlands.

these territories to belong together and to form one single state, the National Stale of German- Austria.'' The founda- tion of this state, an example of the formation of a state by the right of national self-determination, has, how- ever, not f)ccn acknowledged by the (^'ouncil of Four in Paris.

The new Austrian state, while it was compelled to adopt the name of Repub- lic of Austria, had to give up a territory of 20,860 kilometers with 3,122,839 German-speaking inhabitants to the Czecho-Slovakian Repul)lic, a territory of 7,318 kilometers with 228,447 Ger- man-speaking inha})itants to Italy, and likewise some rather large districts with a German majority to Jugo-Slavia. This loss of territories with their popu- lation was particularly painful, as the territories yielded up to Czecho-Slova- kia were some of them remarkable for their abundance in coal and manufac- tures (German-Bohemia) and others for their agricultural producti\'ity (German-South Moravia), while with the Dolomite district Austria lost a center of attraction for tourists throughout the world.

Geographical Frontiers of the Republic of Austria

The new frontier of the Republic of Austria as fixed by the Treaty of St. Germain takes almost the same course as the old boundaries of the provinces of Lower^ and Upper Austria towards

^ See: Staatsgesetzblatt fiir den Staat Deutschos- terreich. No. 1 ex 1918 (Resolution of the Pro- visional National- Assembly of German- Austria, dated 30th of October, concerning the funda- mental institutions of the supreme power); No. 40 ex 1918 (Law dated 22nd of November, 1918, concerning area, frontiers and relations of the territory of German-Austria); No. -1 ex 1919 (Decree VoUzugsanweisung of the German- Austrian Staatsrat, State-council, dated the 3rd January, 1919, concerning the districts of juris- diction, mimicipalities and villages, which should form the territory of German- Austria.

^ Deviations are to be found in the districts of

Population of the Austrian Republic

Czecho-Slovakia on the north. Then it runs along the old boundary line towards Bavaria and Switzerland, abandoning the same, however, south- west of Nauders and, turning eastward over the ridge of the Central-Alps (the Alps of the Oetztal, the Stubai and the Zillertal, and the Brenner Pass) cuts the German territory of the Tyrol in two.^ Starting from the Dreiherren- spitze in the Hohe Tauern it first runs south and then southeast, following on the whole the southern frontier of Carinthia (Carnishian Alps, and Kara- wanks) at the same time sequestering the district of Tarvis and two smaller districts in southern and northeastern Carinthia. Farther north of the Drave, the frontier takes in the main and east- ward course as far as Radkersburg, whereby important German territories, among them Mahrenberg and Marburg have fallen to the share of the Jugo- slav Kingdom.^ The eastern frontier of the Republic of Austria follows at first a tract of the former frontier of the Empire northeast of Radkersburg, then deviates to the northeast, following in general the frontier determined by lan- guage and embracing German-West Hungary, the so-called "Burgenland."

Lundenburg, Feldsberg and Gmiind, some parts of Lower-Austria being given up to Czecho- slovakia.

^ For this and for the following see: " Flug- schriftenfiirDeutsch-Oesterreichs Recht," Vienna 1919.

^ See: Die Siidgrcnze dcr devtschen Steiermark; memoir of the Academic Senate of the Univer- sity of Graz, Graz 1919. The territory hennned in by the frontier of the German language at Marburg, by the Bacher-range and a port of the frontier of Carinthia, is inhabited by 40,080 Germans ( =52.4 per cent) and .SC,310 Slovenes ( = 47.5 per cent) . It is further remarkable, that this frontier cuts off the only direct railway com- munication (Lcibnitz-Marburg-KIagenfurt) be- tween the provinces of Styria and Carinthia which are separated by the 'Kor-Al]).' So the whole traffic between the inhabitants of these provinces must be carried through a foreign roiintry, unle.ss the people prefer to take the

The German town of St. Gotthard remains at Hungary; the frontier then takes its course to the north till it reaches the Neusiedler Sea. Excluding the German to^vTi, Giins, it turns a little eastward, north of the Einser Canal, but bends off northwards to the Dan- ube without embracing the whole of the territory where the German language is spoken excluding, especially, the Ger- man towns of Wiesselburg and Ungar- isch-Altenburg which like St. Gotthard and Giins have been only quite lately Magyarized. Finally, the frontier fol- lows the Danube and the March.

General Decrease in Population

The territory enclosed within these limits (excluding German-West Hun- gary which has not been surrendered to Austria and the plebiscite territory of Carinthia) covers an area of 83,944 kilometers. According to the census taken on January 31, 1920,* its pop- ulation has diminished from 6,294,639 in the year 1910 to 6,067,430, i.e. by 227,209 persons or 3.61 per cent. The main share of this decline falls to the city of Vienna, the population of which has been reduced from 2,031,498 in the year 1910 to 1,842,00.5 in the year 1920, the reduction reaching the number of 189,493 persons or 9.33 per cent. We may best understand the importance of

round-about way via Graz and Bruck of Mur. Yet the Council of the Four generally made allowances in the interests of traffic even if against the principle of nationality. So for instance the Magyars were given over the wholly German territory of Wieselburg and Ungarisch- Altenburg (belonging to Western Hungary) to .secure for them the railway-line from Raab to Pressburg, which is indeed of minor importance for them, than the above line (Leibnitz- Marburg- Klagenfurt) for Austria.

* See: Beitrdgc zur Statist ik dcr Republik Oestcrreick, Part 5, Vorldufigc Ergehnisse dcr ausscrordctitlichcn I'olkszahlutig voni 31. Jdnner, 1920 ncbst Gcmeindcrcrzcichuis. Published by the Central Commission for Statistics, Vienna 1920.

4

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these statistic facts if we bear in mind that a healthy population livinjc^ under normal conditions should increase. This increase amounted in the territory of the present Repul)lic of Austria duriuf^ the decade from 1900 to 1910, to 10.(51 j)er cent annually, i.e. more than one per cent a year.^ This state- ment of a decrease in the year 1920 not only implies the above-mentioned loss of a quarter of a million people, but beyond this it means at the same time an outweighing of the growth the populace must have shown in the pre- war period from 1911 to 1914. We must further consider the reduced

Mortality

The figures below may allow as to form an idea of the natural evolution of the populace (i.e., excluding those who died outside the frontiers of the Austrian Republic on the battlefields or in hospitals). '^

The number of births has diminished from 153,542 in the last year of peaee, 1913, to 87,594, or a decrease of 57.04 per cent, in the year 1918, the last in which these statistics have been pub- lished. Taking the sum of the yearly deficit in births we arrive at a total deficit of 227,514 birtlis up to 1918.

Year

Birth and Death Rate 1913-1918 Born alive

1913 153,542

1914 151,862

1915 118,942

1916 94,199

1917 87,599

1918 87,594

Deaths	Excess of births
	over deaths
118,363	35,179
119,462	32,400
140,211	21,269
136,402	42,203
147,384	59,785
166,378	78,784

birth-rate during the war and post-war time, which allows us the computing of the total war loss of this small country at nearly one million souls. The actual war losses due to military service form but a comparatively small part of this total. Including an appropriate quota of those reported "missing," they may be estimated at 160,000-170,000.1" There must be added the increased mortality in the interior of the country due to the starvation blockade and the economic catastrophe following the War; then, the falling-off in the birth- rate owing to the absence of the men from their families, to the war casual- ties and, eventually, to losses by migra- tion.

' Calculated after the Oesferreichische Statistik N. F. Vol. I, part 1, pages 29 and 36.

1" See: W. Winkler Die Totenverluste der osterreichisch-ungarischen Monarchic nach Na- tionalitdlen, Vienna 1919.

On the other hand, the number of deaths increased during the same period from 118,363 to 166,378 or up to 140.56 per cent. This makes an excess of 118,022 deaths for the entire period under con- sideration. The deaths of military per- sons although included in these figures, contribute but little to them; for of the 325,000 deaths of military per- sons, who according to the army statis- tics have died of their wounds or of dis- eases at the hospitals, at least one-half occurred mainly on foreign soil at the front or along the military roads. Supposing the remainder of the wound- ed to be evenly distributed over the whole Monarchy, about 18,000 would fall to the share of the Republic of Austria, still leaving an excess of, at least, 100,000 civilian deaths. So, for instance, in Vienna, of which town we

" See: Stalistisches Handbuch fiir die Republik Oesterreich, Vol. I, first year, Vienna 1920.

Population of the Austrian Republic

have specified figures, the number ot deatlis among civiUans increased from 32,130 in the year 1913 to 44,130 in the year 1918. Among this number the deatlis from tuberculosis amounted to 4,981 in the year 1913, to 7,381 in the year 1918 and to as many as 7,843 in the year 1919.'^ The influenza epi- demic in 1918 had easy play with the population which had been weakened through lack of proper nourishment. Half of the inhabitants of the Austrian Republic were attacked by the disease and 20,458 persons succumbed to it.^^

Structure of Population

Some of these changes in the popula- tion are made evident by a careful

At the age above fourteen there were 1,212 women to 1,000 men; in places with more than 2,000 inhabitants, we even find an average of 1,337 to 1,000. This proportion of the figures opens up bad matrimonial prospects for the young girls and a bad outlook for the future growth of the population. This structure of the population is also a disadvantage for the productivity of the Austrian Republic. WTiile accord- ing to the United States census of 1910 there were in America but 91 women to every 100 men from twenty to sixty years of age, there were 109 women to everj'' 100 men of that age in Austria. The proportion of the sexes alone, represented in an equal number of in-

IXCREASE IX TUBERCXTLOSIS 1913-1918

1913 1918

Cases of tuberculosis 5 . 97 per cent 7 . 60 per cent

Duration of illness from tuberculosis, 240 . 10 days 336 . 50 days

Deaths from tuberculosis 0 . 04 per cent 0 . 93 per cent

consideration of the structure of the population according to the age of the inhabitants, as it would appear from a study of the census of 1920. It is true this does not clearly demonstrate the aforementioned mortality among civil- ians for, as a matter of fact, it has victimized individuals of every age and sex. On the other hand, we can easily gather from this census the casualties among all men able to bear arms and the heavy falling off of births. The de- cline of the male population is in the first place of great importance to the menaced evolution of the population.

'^ See: The publications of the Public Health Department at the Ministry for Social Adminis- tration: VIII, Siegfried Rosenfeld, Die IVirk- ungen des Krieges auf die Sterblichkeit in Wien, Vienna 1920 and XI, by the same author, Die Aenderimgcn der Tuberkuloschdafigkeit Oester- reichs durch den Krieg, Vienna 1920.

^' Publications of the Public Health Depart- ment at the Ministry for Social Administration: XIII, Siegfried Rosenfeld, Die Grippeepidemie des Jahres 1918 in Oesterreich, Vienna 1921.

dividuals, ensures a greater working capacity in the United States than in Austria.

Yet we have so far considered only the number of deaths, not the disabled soldiers (about 180,000) and those whose health was impaired by the so- called starvation blockade." Indeed, it is not only the mortality but also the morbidity which became appalling in consequence of the War. We find among every 100 subscribers to the health insurance in Vienna and Lower Austria^* an increase in tuberculosis as shown above.

Similar increases took place with other kinds of diseases. The poor and helpless old men and women are special victims; the deaths caused by old age were increased, in Vienna for instance

^* In spite of all these losses of working hands 84,000 unemployed were counted included in the census of the year 1920: Beitragc zur Slatistik der Republik Oesterreich, \o\. 1 .

" Rosenfeld, Publications, etc., XI, page 2.

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The Annals of the American Academy

from \,5H in the year 1913 to 3,279 in the year 1918.'«

The Children and the Age- Pyiiamid

Not less deplorable but still much more serious if we c'oritemf)l<ite the future of the Austrian ])Oi)ulation, is the health of the children. In an examina- tion of HI, 947 school children made by Professor Pirquet at the recjuest of the American Ilelj) the Children Adminis- tration in the year 1920, only 30,594 equal to 21.1 per cent, were found to be well fed; 81,287, equal to 5G.1 per cent, were marked as "ill-fed"; 33,066 children, or 22.8 per cent, were put down as "very ill-fed." Also in other towns of Austria measurings were made with similar unfavorable results. ^^

The health of the infants is a matter for even graver consideration. Accord- ing to a report of Dr. Poerner at the Congress for Jugendfiirsorge which met in Vienna in July, 1921, 85,000 children up to six years of age were

** Publications, etc., VIII, page 35.

^'' See: Friedrich Reischl, Die amerikanische Kinderhilfsaktion in Wien, Vol. I-III, Vienna 1921.

assigned for iiiodical examination by the Mutterberatungstellen, mothers ad- vice councils, in the year 1920. Of these l>ut 10 per cent were in the condition of normal nourishment, while the nourisluncnt of 90 per cent was dis- turbed, 60 per cent being really ill. Children with infectious diseases were excluded from the examination. In 19 per cent of these cases one or both of the jjarents were ill; in 33/2 P^t cent, incurable.

Thus we may trace the terrible destitution working havoc at every stage of life and aggravating the heavy wounds inflicted by the War. The children forming the base of a once proud age-pyramid are growing up, small in numbers and shaken in health. Indeed an appalling outlook on future possibilities opens up before the obser- vant eye should the present economic distress be allowed to continue. We will however not abandon ourselves to such gloomy aspects of the future; we will rather be confident of an improve- ment in the economic situation and hope for a more favorable evolution of the population.

CHAPTER II

The Present State of Agriculture and Forestry in the Republic of Austria

Compiled by the Central Board for the Protection of the Interests of Agriculture

and Forestry

THE fundamental conditions of Austrian agriculture and the food supply closely connected with it, are in the first instance to be looked for in the orographic and climatic situation of the country. With the exception of a few small districts Austria is a moun- tainous land, with a prevailing conti- nental and Alpine climate

Of a total area of about 7,785,295 hectare^ nearly 800,000 are unproduc- tive, so that only 7,000,000 hectare of the whole area are cultivated. Of these, 2,947,000 hectare are covered with forests, 1,274,000, wdth pastures, Alpine pastures, lakes, swamps and

1 One hectare = 10,000 square meters = 2.471 acres.

Agriculture ""and Forestry in Austria

ponds, and do not count for intensive cultivation. There remains only a comparatively small area of 2,770,000 hectare for intensive cultivation. Of these, again, 1,790,000 are arable soil, and the rest meadows, gardens and vineyards.

Austrian agriculture consists chiefly in the production of grain as far as per- mitted by the orographic and climatic conditions; namely, over an area of about 780,000 hectare; the greater portion of this area serves to grow rye. It may be well to remember that Western Hungary is not included in these figures, as this territory has so far not been actually united with the Austrian Republic.

A clearer insight into the alarming falling off in agi'icultural production may be gained if we point out how completely Austrian soil has been ex- hausted by the piratical system of till- age practised, of necessity, during the War. Between the years 1913 and 1919, the crops were estimated at from 35 to 40 per cent below normal . Official investigations in 1919 have shown a yield of only one-half the yield of grain in former times.

Although the experience of pre-war time would justify the hope of consid- erable improvement in the rentability of land, the fact remains that Austria will always be dependent on foreign imports of grain. That no effort is spared in bringing about such an im- provement is demonstrated by an action inaugurated by the government and supported by a lively propaganda on the part of all agricultural bodies, especially the association of Austrian husbandmen (Landwirtestelle) , to pro- vide a cheap supply of all kinds of manure.

It goes without saying, that every importation of grain to meet the re- quirement of the Austrian populace means an enormous burden for the

public finances of Austria, in view of the present rate of the kronen ex- change. This is why the government continues to control the production and trade in grain, even though such con- trol doubtless means a serious impedi- ment to the revival of agriculture. Since it compels the farmers to deliver a great percentage of their crops- at government prices, which are far below those in the foreign markets, it is only natural that the peasants regard gov- ernment control as a grave injustice and peril.

Now that the flour ration is so small the potato crops are of increasing importance. Official statistics show that, altogether, 97,000 hectare were utilized for growing potatoes in 1919. The potato crops have suffered a yet greater reduction than those of grain; this reduction may be estimated at about 50 per cent as compared with pre- war times. Great efforts were made to raise the home production. These re- sulted in the government's importing seed potatoes from abroad, chiefly from England, at a great sacrifice. The imported potatoes were handed over to the farmers together with the requisite quantities of artificial manure.

We may make a similar observation regarding leguminous plants, the im- portance of which has been augmented in proportion to the reduced rations of bread and flour. Austria lost her chief districts for growing leguminous plants when Bohemia, Moravia and Galicia were separated from her after the break-dowai. It must further be noted that according to official statis- tics the yield of leguminous plants had diminished by one-third during the war as compared with pre-war times.

From what has been said above, we may gather that the yields of Aus- trian soil will never entirely suffice to meet the requirements at home even

8

Tiii; Annals of the American Academy

if we admit the possibility of an iin- provcineiit in the future })y proper tillage and investment of capital. The future hopes of Austria concerning ag-

; riculture are founded on the breeding of cattle, for which the conditions are

j, much more favorable. Here we may be allowed to point out the large stretches of pasture in the Alps, the favorable climate for breeding strong and hardy cattle and the training of the cattle farmers, which dates back some hundreds of years.

Unfortunately, here as elsewhere, the War with its compulsory delivery produced great damage, less affecting the quantity than the quality of the live stock. A great diminution Is to be observed in the number of horses; by the official statistics, only 230,000 horses were counted in the Republic of Austria in 1919, w^iile at that time there were 1,950,000 head of horned cattle, of which 550,000 were young cattle. A considerable increase is shown in the number of goats which reached 289,000 in 1919, that is about 50,000 more than in pre-war times; likewise in the number of sheep, with 316,000 head against 290,000 head in pre-war times. The stock of pigs is to be estimated at 1,100,000 head against 1,800,000 before the war.

As mentioned above, the qualita- tive loss was more apparent. The fact that the present live stock is not full-grown and that the number of animals used in the yoke, such as horses and oxen, has been reduced, is of the gravest import to Austrian farming. Another difficulty is the obstacle to breeding added by the in- discriminate requisitions during the long years of the War, which often deprived the farmers of their best breeding material. Moreover, the complete stoppage of transport for other than military purposes prevented the exchange of cattle, so that in-

breeding was favored to an appalling degree. Even during tlie first period of peace, the great difficulties in pro- curing food caused the provinces, the districts and the communities within them to set up barriers against the export of cattle. Only quite recently has it proved possible in many in- stances to remove some of these meas- ures of isolation. It may, however, l>e expected tluit the mutual inter- course between the various districts, so important to a cattle breeding coun- try, will revive again. But even then cattle breeding will suffer great diffi- culties from the want of concentrated forage.

In conclusion, we may say that in all branches of agriculture there is a large disparity between supply and demand, and that Austrian agriculture will never be in a position to supply sufficient food for the people although, thanks to incessant labor, improve- ment has already commenced and a further improvement may be expected.

The Forestry Situation in Austria

The prospects of forestry are a little more favorable. An area of three million hectare of Austrian soil are covered with forests, so that about 38 per cent of the total area of Austria is devoted to forestry. We should, however, be induced to form very erroneous notions of Austrian wealth in wood if we forget to add that ac- cording to official statistics about 20 per cent of these forests are either inac- cessible or declared a sort of preserves, Servituten, wherein no trees may be felled. We must therefore first elim- inate this fairly large portion of the forests before contemplating the chances of utilizing the wood. The exploitation of about 20 per cent of Austrian forests is partly conceded to the peasants on the strength of the right of Serntut and therefore the gen-

The Water Power Question in Austria

9

erally available production is limited.

If wood may rightly be called the principal article for export in Austria, one must not forget that continuation of this export has been possible only on account of the large stock which had accumulated thanks to the conserva- tive forestry system of pre-war times. Owing to this large reserve stock Aus- tria is still able to export wood de- spite its being used as fuel to a much greater extent than before. It will soon follow, as a matter of course, that highly valuable timber will have to be used as fuel and great damage will ensue to the economics of the Republic.

The efforts of the Austrian Govern- ment have been so far successful in bringing about an improvement of the coal supply of the country. There is reason to hope, therefore, that the prophesied economic harm may not result but that, on the contrary, Aus- tria's natural riches in wood may in the future suffice to meet the de- mands both foreign and domestic.

The problem of recolonization has developed as a consequence of the injurious effects of the repeated selling out of small farms, which had fallen into trouble, by the great landed proprie- tors. The dimensions to which this so-called Bauernlegung, selling out of peasant farms, has grown, may be gathered from the fact that within the last fourteen years over 12,000

smaller farms have been assimilated by the great landed estates. The col- onization law (Wiederbesiedlungsgesetz) of the year 1919 slipped a bolt, here, by decreeing that under certain conditions all such farms or cottages as could be worked individually and had been inde- pendent since 1870, should be returned to the farmers who had formerly been on them. Naturally the pre- paratory work took some time, so that the lists of the farms fit for coloniza- tion were finished only in June, 1921. An idea of the number of farms con- cerned may be gathered from the fact that in 240 communities of Lower Austria, alone, 1,100 farms have been entered in the registers. The opposi- tion of the great landed proprietors has been so far vanquished by the pressure brought to bear on it by the peasants that in many cases they were ready to enter into negotiations with the peasantry. This peaceful adjustment serves to accelerate the enforcement of the colonization law, since the long investigation of the colonization commissions and the delays caused by remonstrances, which might be raised in the course of the legal procedure, may be thus avoided.

By such measures Austrian agricul- ture may soon be intensified, a develop- ment which, in the light of the preced- ing statements, is a consummation to be sincerely unshed by every Austrian.

CHAPTER III

The Water Power Question in Austria

By Dk. Fkiedkich Hertz

Vienna

^jarate

er, ex-

iricity is

kilowatt

one-third

g to this,

AUSTRIA'S poverty in coalis partly Austria has as yet made no rca^,)^' yip^j^a

compensated by the abundance this natural resource. There {^^ariiouhirly

of her water power ; nor is the statement in existence innumerable ohht current is

correct, though so often repeated, that stations beside many modern'^ stored.

10

Thk Annals of tuk American Academy

tions. Nevertheless, Austria certainly does appear behindhand compared with the progress made in hydro-clcr- tricity by Scandinavia, Switzerland, Italy and France. The reason for this is that in the old days coal could be ol)- taincd to such advantage from Ostrau and Upper Silesia that many factory owners shied at the considerable out- lay of capital involved in the installa- tion of water power. The utilization of water power is in itself a lengthy and costly })rocess, and the lack of capital in a war-worn country is a great ob- stacle in the way of the realization of extensive schemes.

Estimates of Water Power Prospects

The various estimates of the power available differ considerably according to the extent of the power included. As a rule, the estimates include only the larger sources of water power; some are based on low water, others, on a medium water, etc. The water power prospects of the Austrian Alps have been thoroughly investigated by many experts, official and otherwise, and ex- tremely valuable and practical in- formation is at the disposal of anyone interested. The State Hydrographical Central Bureau has prepared a schedule of most of the water courses, giving statistics and diagrams of all hydrolog- ical and other data appropriate for the development of water power. The various sheets of this schedule may be bought singly. Moreover, the man- r:|Tement of the State Railways has for J rs been studying the utilization of L i^r power and the adaptation of the 1- -lys to electricity, and its investi- 1 s have likewise yielded an al-

1 • , omplete description of the chief

breedin °^ ^'^^^^ power. The prin- 1 .^sults are contained in the re-

th tl^^^^^^^^"^^®^^ iiber die Studien .1 Vniitzung der Wasserkrafte "

(Government Printing Office, 1017). The Appendix to this valuable work contains a list of 43.3 iini)ortant sources of water power in the Alps, indicating their respective IIP capacity.

The result of these investigations on the part of the State Railways Adminis- tration was the conclusion that in the Al- pine regions then belonging to Austria, about 3 million HP of water power were available which could be usefully employed under the economic conditions then prevailing; of these only 250,000 IIP (i.e. only 8 per cent) were at that time already in use. It must further be remembered that the enormous in- crease in the price of coal which exceeds the increase in the cost of building, has enlarged the possibilities of prof- itably installing hydraulic power. Under existing conditions, water power may be used with advantage which would not previously have paid, and the financial possibilities have alto- gether increased. The reason for these altered conditions is that about half the cost of installing hydraulic powder consists of wages, which have not increased to the same extent as the price of coal, which has to be paid for in foreign currency.

On the other hand, the figure of 3 million HP has been reduced, as im- portant sources of water power are situated in the territories ceded under the Peace Treaty. In particular, the German part of the Southern Tyrol, which has fallen to Italy's share, is a district very rich in water power; also, the German districts of Marburg, which fell to the share of Jugo-Slavia, and of Siidmahren, which went to the Czechs, possess valuable water power. If we reckon up the sources of Alpine water power examined by the Adminis- tration of State Railways that now remain within the restricted frontiers of Austria, the result is a mean yield of about 1.4 millions a year. How-

The Water Power Question in Austria

11

ev^er, as the estimate does not include many smaller sources of power, and as the district to the north of the Danube also contains considerable water power, the total available water power of German Austria ivorth using would give a mean annual yield of about 2.5 millions?

Water Power for Coal Replacement

If we accept the figure, customary in industry, of 3,000 hours' use, we ar- rive at the conclusion that, theoreti- cally, all the ivater -power of Aiistria, fully utilized, would provide a substi- tute for 7.5 million tons of black coal, or about 11.25 million tons of lignite, i.e., considerably the greater part of the quan- tity of coal which Austria is now obliged to import. This calculation does not regard the fact that many water powers can be used twenty-four hours a day which, of course, increases still further the quantity of coal replaceable.

According to official estimates, about 7 million tons of coal, at present used to provide power and light for rail- ways and industries, could at once be replaced by means of water power; whereas, the coal required for heat for industrial purposes (1.5 million tons) and for household use (4.2 million tons) could be replaced by electricity only if the price of coal were extremely high, and even then could be only partially replaced .- For the present, it is prob-

^ Proof that the investigations of the Adminis- tration of State Railways have not exhausted all the water power resources is provided by the example of the Danube, which appears on the list with only three stages with a total yield of 242,000 HP. Even if only a small amount of water is withdrawn from the Austrian part of the Danube the power obtainable may be estimated as at least half a million HP; optimists have given even higher estimates.

-A thorough and practical study of the Swiss electrical works (c. f. Elelctrotechnische Zcit- schrljt 1919, Vol. 40, 41) has led (o (he conclusion that 1 kilogram of good coal used in a reliable central heating installation equals 4 to 5 kilowatt

able that gas wiU be used mostly for cooking, as this is the best way of mak- ing complete use of coal, whereas gas lighting will gradually give way to electric lighting.

Unfortiuiately, however, the practi- cal realization of this object cannot be expected in the immediate future. Even before the war, when Austria was comparatively rich in capital, it seemed impossible to raise funds for carrying out an extensive program for the development of water power.

The steep descent of the Alpine streams makes high pressure installa- tions possible, and these are for the most part cheaper and quicker of in- stallation than the low pressure in- stallations on streams and rivers of the plains. However, even the best high pressure stations of our Alps produce their energy at greater cost than the large stations on the seacoast of Nor- way and Dalmatia, which must there- fore be regarded as important competi- tors on the world market in electro- chemical products which necessitate large quantities of the cheapest current.

Under existing conditions matters have taken a turn in favor of Austria. For many years now, a few large electro-chemical undertakings, alumi- num, calcium carbide, iron products, nitric acid, calcium nitrate, etc., have established themselves in the Austrian Alps and are working with good re- sults. With the help of electro-chem- istry, Austria would be able to replace

hoiu-s; used in a good separate stove, 1.8 to 2 kilowatt hours; in ordinary inferior separate sto\"es, 1 to 1.2 kilowatt hours. Further, ex- perience has shown that cooking by electricity is not more costly than gas cooking, if one kilowatt hour for cooking purposes costs half to one-third of one cubic metre of gas. According to this, the use of water power for heating might be a sound economic proposition even in Vienna under present conditions. This is piarlicularly a])plicable in cases where cheap night current is available and where the heat can be stored.

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many raw inalorials from ahroad, wliicli tlio i)rc.sc'iit rate of exchange has placed almosl l^cyoml hor reach.

The water power avaihihlc in the Alps is subject to considerable fhictua- tions according to the season, and it is difficult to ))alance these fluctuations. The construction of reservoirs for pre- serving the water against drought is for the most part impracticable in the Alps, which are limestone, because the geological formation of the substrata and of the sides of the valleys would make the construction of the walls of the reservoirs very difficult, and, further, because the large quantities of rubble carried along by the Alpine streams would fill up the tanks. In this respect, the districts to the north of the Danube, which are on primeval rock, are better, as they offer a solid foundation and smaller deposits of silt. But even in the Alps there are parts where lakes or other suitable spots can be used for storing water, and the Administration of State Railways is now studying the possibilities of utilizing several such suitable localities.

Electrification Project of the State Railways Administration

The former administration of the Austrian State Railways had already secured twenty-four water power sta- tions, with a mean annual yield of 125,- 000 HP, beside a number of options with a view to the electrification of the Alpine railway. Twenty of these power stations are within the territory of the Austrian Republic. The exist- ing Austrian State Railways require electricity to the extent of about 116,- 000 HP mean annual yield.

The lengthy investigations of the Administration of State Railways have before the War often been deprecated as being an obstacle in the way of the utilization of water power. Since the electrification of the railways of-

fered formerly no financial advantages in view of the prices then ruling for coal, and since, moreover, the Army Staff ol)jeeted to it from the military point of view, the Administration of Railways was not in a j)Osition to proceed with the work, nor could it re- lease the water power to j)rivate enter- pri.se. Now these obstacles have ceased to exist and the Administration of State Railways has worked out an extensive program for the electrifica- tion of the Alpine railways,' which is already l)cing carried out.

The Railways Administration has demonstrated by figures that the exe- cution of the scheme would introduce considerable economies in coal, engines and coal trucks, staff and time, thus making the whole traffic cheaper, more regular, quicker and capable of increased business; moreover travelling would become pleasanter. The idea is, in the first place, to electrify the Western State Railways, traffic on which is most important, and which represent 40 per cent of the mileage and 50 per cent of the coal consumption of the State Railways. It would take from twelve to thirteen years to complete the adaptation. Five of these lines would be worked upon first, representing 14.6 per cent of the State Railway system. This would mean an annual saving of 400,000 tons of coal (at 4,500 calories) i.e., about l^ per cent of the total re- quirement of the State Railways and 5 per cent of the total requirement of Austria. Given favorable conditions, the electrification of these five lines might be completed in about five or six years. The cost for these lines is calculated at 5.1 million kronen, and the annual saving of coal at 327 to 424 milion kronen. Of course all these cal-

' C. f. the very valuable statements affixed to the draft of a law concerning the introduction of electricity and motive power for railways, etc. 1920, which gives a full survey of the matter.

The Water Power Question in Austria

13

culations are very uncertain, as future price developments cannot be foreseen. The requirement of power will be cov- ered by the development of certain works in Vorarlberg, Tyrol and Salz- burg.

Water-Coal Substitution Schemes IN Vienna

The most urgent question, however, is to substitute coal in Vienna and the surrounding industrial area of Lower Austria. More than half the popula- tion is contained in Lower Austria, be- sides two-thirds of the heating surface of all the boilers of the country. Of the rest of the population and of the boilers, about half is contained in Styria. But whereas Styria is rich in coal and water power, and whereas the remain- ing provinces can easily be connected with certain power stations, Vienna presents a more difficult problem. The energy generated in the Alps can be transmitted to Vienna only at great expense and with great loss of current. The most suitable plan would l>e to use the water power of the upper Enns (about 79,000 HP mean yield); its energy could be transmitted to Vienna by means of a 170 kilometer transmis- sion line. Up to the present, however, the province of Styria, in whose terri- tory this installation would come, has opposed this course in order to reserve the power for Styrian industry. This attitude is a sign of regrettable local interests, for Styria can cover her re- quirement from plenty of other streams, whereas Vienna has no such choice. Quite recently, however, Styria seems to have modified her attitude.

The city of Vienna has in conse- quence of these difficulties decided, in the first place, to develop the water power of the upper Ybbs (13,000 IIP mean yield), and to connect with this a smaller station |Kienberg-Gaming (about 5,300 HP) . The 120 kilometer

transmission line of the Ybbs station (110,000 volt tension) is being adapted to yield 35,000 HP, and the situation of the locality makes it possible, if desired, later to connect with it part of the power of the Enns, should the present difiiculties be overcome. The time it will take to get the Ybl^s Station in working order is calculated at three to four years, and for the Enns Station, five to six years; an advantage of the combination of both works is that their respective low water periods set in at different times of year. It is fur- ther designed to bring the above men- tioned transmission in connection with the project of Persenbeug (a loop of the Danube with a mean yield of 7,200 HP) and with the Lunz coal mines at present about to be opened by the city of Vienna. The scheme, therefore, prom- ises to make use of a quite substantial amount of power within a compara- tively short time. Further it should be remembered that the power of the Ybbs can be accumulated by means of the Lunz Lake and by blocking the valley, to compensate for the variations in the flow of the water and achieve a regular supply of current. In any case, this scheme seems to hold much more promise than, for in- stance, the daring project of the Krems- Kamp Works (continuous annual yield of 27,000 HP), which would in- volve unduly great technical difiicul- ties, or the power stations of the Tliaya and the Drau, w^hich it was formerly thought might be used for supplying Vienna, but which are now in Czech or Jugo-Slav territory.

Nevertheless, there are various ob- jections to the development of the water power of the Ybbs, these objec- tions being raised by the adlioreiits of the Danube scheme, who arc afraid that the execution of the less ambitious project would indefinitely postpone installation of the much larger Danube

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works. They stale that, if the stand- ing annual requirenaent of Vienna were covered by these smaller works, there would be no prospect of developing Ihe important water power of the Danube for the remaining irregular require- ments, which vary considerably, since this would not be a financially paying proposition.

The Danube and Othefi Projects

The Danube, it is true, would be capable of supplying an enormous quantity of power, and there are in ex- istence a large number of schemes, in a state more or less developed. The Wallsee scheme, in Upper Austria, is the only one which is ripe for execution. Its mean yield would be 140,000 IIP at a rate of 1,350 cubic metres per second: the energy could be transmitted to Vienna by means of a conduction 130 kilometers in length. This scheme en- tails the building of a dam on the Danube and has given rise to many objections on account of the danger of floods and ice. The concession for the work has, however, been granted upon such conditions as would appear to avoid these dangers and the interests of shipping have also been fully protect- ed in the concession.

All the other Danube projects have been designed without the necessity of a dam, i.e., with free flow of the stream. This has the advantage of avoiding the construction of a dam, which would be a lengthy and costly process; but, on the other hand, the water works would be dependent upon the state of the stream, so that there would be greater fluctuations, and very long canals and expensive constructions for regulating the current would be necessary.

In the Lower Austrian district, be- tween Krems and March alone {i.e., a reach of 120 kilometers long from Vienna) a maximum yield of 160,000 HP, or an annual mean yield of 140,-

000 IIP, could be obtained without any prejudice to shipping; and this is calculating drawing water from the Danube only at the rate of about 400 cubic metres per second. The Com- munal liuildiiig Offifo of Vienna esti- mates the cost of construction at 211 to 270 million gold kronen.

The advantage of most of the Danube works consists in the large quantities of power they can extract, of the fact that they do not necessitate long conductions (in the case of the Lower Austrian reaches of the river) and of the fact that the necessary canals can be quickly dug by mechanical means and by unskilled labor.

The disadvantages, on the other hand, are as follows : great fluctuations in the flow of the stream; the necessity of a very long time for construction; danger to shipping by reduction of the quanity of water in the river and the accumulation of gravel in consequence of decreased carrying power. The last disadvantage can certainly be obviated by regulation of the stream and by dredging, but this would in- crease the expense. Whether power from the Danube would be cheaper or more expensive than the Alpine high pressure works mentioned above is doubtful. The Vienna Communal Building Office assumes that Danube horse power would be somewhat more expensive than high pressure power. It is generally found that low pressure power is dearer because it requires a larger quantity of water, and therefore the canals, sluices, machines, etc., have to be constructed on a larger scale. On the other hand, the high pressure works undcT consideration have the disadvantage of necessitating very costly tunnelling and boring and very long transmissions. The time needed and the expenses entailed by the Danube works depend chiefly upon whether a suflBcient number of dredg-

The Water Power Question in Austria

15

ers and enough other building appar- atus, trucks, etc., are available.

Treaty of St. Germain and Water Power Development

In this connection, we must refer to Article 298 of the Peace Treaty of St. Germain, which prescribes that the interests of water power development are actually to take precedence of the requirement of shipping, but only on condition that a full agreement has been reached by all the States through which the river runs and which are represented on the Danube Com- mission. It is now feared that there may be some among these States which have no interest in freeing Austria from its dependency upon foreign sources of coal supply. It is of the greatest importance that this ques- tion should he cleared up as soon as pos- sible. The Peace Treaty further pro- vides for a Court of Arbitration to be appointed by the League of Nations with authority to deal with questions of this kind.

Before the War, Austria had intro- duced a complete reform of water rights and of electricity laws, represent- ing the most modern point of view. The War, however, and the internal political situation put a stop to this reform. The local interest of the various states forms a barrier to uniformity of laws; besides, various states wish to use the water power available as much as possible for local purposes. But we may hope that in the end purely economic and commer- cial considerations will win the day. The individual states simply do not command the money to execute elabo- rate schemes without the help of the federal exchequer and of the financial institutions of Vienna. In Switzer- land, for instance, the rivalries between the different Cantons caused similar difficulties ; but in the end they did not

put a stop to the development of water power.

It is of primary importance that the law governing sources of electrical energy shall at last be settled, as other- wise the construction of long-distance transmissions is exposed to local ob- structions and petty hindrances. It must further be considered whether in order to save coal industrial under- takings should not be compelled by law to make use of the electric power to be generated.

The Finance Ministry is encouraging the development of water power by allowing substantial dispensation from taxation. Several bills have been passed to this effect. Foreign capital invested in such undertakings will be free of capital levy, and all capital so invested will receive great advantages as to amortization. In any case, an extensive scheme for the development of water power can rely on the Austrian Finance Ministry for full approval and support.

Water Power — A Prospect for Foreign Capital

To summarize the preceding re- marks, it may be said that all legal and technical facilities for the most exten- sive development of water power in Austria are provided, and, further, that the financial prospects for foreign capital are particidarly favorable. The immense increase in the price of coal has turned the tables in favor of water power, and even such water power stations as would hardly have been able to compete with coal before theW^arare now in a much more favor- able financial position than coal power stations. While the price of coal has increased 120 to 150 fold, the cost of construction has risen only about 100 fold. Before the War the construction of one HP cost from 600 to 1,000 kronen. Moreover the dollar rate of

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The Annals of the American Academy

exchange has risen so enormously that at the present rate of exchange American capital could develop the water power of Austria at about one-half of the expense in dollars that such an undertaking would have entailed in pre-war days.

Austrian water power, therefore, can offer much better inducements in the international market than has ever been the case before; further, it could undoubtedly be used for tiie develop-

ment of an important electro-chemical industry and other such products as would find a good market on account of the low pric;e at which they could be exj)orted, so that the foreign cap- ital invested in the development of Austrian water power would also earn interest in foreign currency. Such in- vestments would be of inestimable advantage to Austria's whole economic situation.

CHAPTER IV

The Coal Supply of Austria After the Revolution

of 1918 .

By Rudolf Kloss, D.L.L.

Civil Engineer and President of the Coal Supply Department of the Board of Trade

THE Revolution at the end of 1918 completely upset the coal supply of Austria. The most important coal districts of Austria, the brown coal dis- trict of Northwestern Bohemia, the gas, coal and coke district of Ostrau- Karwin, the district of Trifail, fell to the Succession States, which immedi- ately imposed hard conditions on the export of coal.

In Upper Silesia, which supplied most of the coal needed in Austria, the output was reduced to but a small frac- tion of its normal extent and therefore only quantities quite inadequate to the demand could be spared for Austria. The supplies from the Ruhr-Saar val- ley on which the western provinces of Austria (the Alpine Montan-Gesell- schaft in particular) depended for coke for their blast-furnaces, ceased entirely.

So Austria had to fall back on her own coal production which has at all times come short of the demand and suffered a further reduction through the Revolution. Her inland coal, being

brown coal, lignite, was of inferior quality. It was clear, then, that the coal supply of the new Republic had to undergo a process of reconstruction under greatly changed circumstances.

Disturbance of Coal Import Due to Political Conditions

The unfavorable situation of the coal problem was further aggravated by the political conditions at home and abroad. The dismemberment of the old Monarchy into the several National States dealt a heavy blow to the com- petence of the central authorities. This made itself specially felt with re- gard to the coal supply. Some of the provinces took the coal administration into their own hands. But the eco- nomic pressure of those days caused not only the provinces but also some of the town and district councils, work- men's and soldiers' councils, military bodies and subordinate railway author- ities to proceed independently in the coal question; they laid embargoes on all coal they couldget.

The Coal Supply of Austria

17

Similar conditions in the neighbor- ing countries also added to the difficul- ties of the import of coal, whether the governments of these countries closed the frontiers, or whether subordinate railway authorities arbitrarily laid em- bargoes on coal destined for export to Austria, some of them in order to secure their own demand, some only in demon- stration of their national feeling.

Especially the coal transports through Czecho-Slovakia, through which country all the coal from Upper Silesia has to pass on its way to Aus- tria, continued to suffer disturbance for a long time. Often the frontiers were even completely closed, as when the bank notes were being stamped with a view to nationalization or when the warlike conflict raged between Czecho-Slovakia and Poland over the division of the plebiscite district of Teschen. Over and over again, even up to the present day, the precarious and inadequate coal supply of Austria

has had to cope with like disturbances, forcing many industries to reduce the working hours and hampering their steady development. Just at present Austria has to do without pit coal from Upper Silesia owing to the political troubles which began on May 1 of this present year.

Requirements and Home Output

The monthly requirements of fuel in Austria are divided according to the various groups of consumers as shown below.

These fuel requirements have to be met by the home product and by im- portation.

The Austrian home output of coal amounted to 228,925 tons a month in 1913, the last year of peace; it sank to 150,000 tons, i.e. 12 per cent of the re- quirements, after the Revolution. It must also be remembered that the in- land coal is nearly all brown coal (lig- nite), pit coal being produced only in

Monthly Fuel Requirements fok Austria

Groups of consumers

Transport

Vienna metropolitan gas work

Gas, water and electrical plants in the provinces

Private consumers in Vienna

Private consumers in the provinces

Agriculture

Food industries

Iron, and steel foundries

Requirements of the coal-mines

Other mines

Salt works

Chemical industries

Glass industries and potteries

Building materials

Tobacco manufactories

Textile industries

Leather industries

Paper industries

Wood, and other industries

Total

Coal

388,800 66,000 38,350 12,250

156,300

141,700

4,500

30,100

148,730

25,800

17,400

11,600

36,500

14,900

58,100

1,450

28,200

5,100

35,000

1,500

1.222.280

Coke

2,560

15,500 14,100

1,700 83,250

1,500

4,200 100

5,380 80

1,400 300 100 300

130,470

Total

391,360 06,000 38,350 12,250

171.800

155,800

4,500

31,800

231,980

25,800

18,900

11,600

40,700

15,000

63,480

1,530

29,600

5,400

35,100

1,800

1,352,750

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The Annals of the American Academy

trifling quantities. Yet the inland coal is the only coal which Austria really has at her disposal.

Government Measures to Increase Domestic Coal Output

Therefore the Austrian government is giving its best attention to the home production. In the first instance, the government tried to stimulate the de- velopment of the existing coal mines and the establishment of new mining enterprises. Unfortunately, all invest- ments had in consequence of the pre- vailing coal shortage to encounter the greatest difficulties, as the industries which should have supplied the ma- chinery and other materials required could be worked only temporarily.

One of the chief reasons for the dimi- nution of the coal output was the de- crease of the working capacity of the miners by the bad food situation. The Coal Department of the Board of Trade, therefore, induced the govern- ment to grant the miners the privilege of considerably better food supplies on condition of more efficient work. For an intensification of their work by 10 per cent as compared to the work done in the first quarter of 1920 and for the performance of one Sunday-shift a month, the miners are granted premi- ums in the shape of foodstuffs at very low prices, the premiums being raised to conform to a further increase of the work, finally approaching the food supply of pre-war times, should the increase reach 20 per cent. For ad- ditional Sunday-shifts the miners receive premiums in the shape of clothing.

By all these measures gradual in- crease of the home production of coal was made possible. The coal output amounted to not over 156,000 tons a month in the year 1919. These meas- ures raised it to 197,000 tons in Jan- uary, 1920, and it had already reached

the peace output with 229,000 tons in January, 1921. These figures have since been even a little surpassed.

Diminution in Principal Sources of Supply

But the first place in the coal supply of Austria must be left to the im- port of coal from abroad, especially from Czecho-Slovakia and Germany. Czecho-Slovakia, which had supplied Austria with S5 ])er cent of her coal re- ((uirements in 191.'}, placed exportation under very hard conditions immedi- ately after the Revolution. Therefore negotiations on behalf of the continuity of the coal supply were begun immedi- ately. For political reasons these nego- tiations turned out to be extremely difficult. It must be continually borne in mind that the regulation of the Aus- trian coal supply has always been ham- pered by political problems. At pres- ent, Austria gets 140,000 tons of coal a month, i.e. about 40 per cent of the quantities received in peace time, from Czecho-Slovakia, conforming to a con- tract of compensation.

Another country of importance for the coal supply of Austria is Germany, the territories that form the new Aus- tria having obtained from Germany, especially from Upper Silesia and to a smaller extent also from the Ruhr and Saar districts, 360,000 tons of pit coal a month. After the Revolution the supplies from the last mentioned dis- tricts were stopped absolutely. In Up- per Silesia the output was reduced to one-sixth of the pre-war output, partly by labor troubles, and partly by the lack of means of transport, as Germany was compelled by the terms of the Armistice to give a large part of her engines and other transport facilities to the Allied Powers. For some time therefore, the export to Austria had to be nearly suspended. Only gradually after the hauling conditions had im-

The Coal Supply of Austrla.

19

proved could deliveries to Austria be increased.

On the occupation of Upper Silesia by the Interallied Plebiscite Commis- sion in 1920, the quantities of coal to be delivered from Upper Silesia to Aus- tria were fixed by the Reparation Commission in Paris at 200,000 tons a month. This quantity was always fully delivered up to May 1 of the present year when the supplies were stopped, owing to the political troubles in Upper Silesia.

Finally, Austria gets the compara- tively trifling quantity of 13,500 tons a month, in accordance with a compen- sation treaty, from Poland.

In addition, some smaller quantities are being brought in to Austria beyond the contingents fixed by treaties, es- pecially from Czecho-Slovakia. The output of brown coal of inferior quality in Czecho-Slovakia has constantly sur- passed the demand, leaving a surplus for export, on all of which an export duty was imposed.

The provision of American or English pit coal, offered for sale in any quan- tity, has so far proved impossible, its price being prohibitive in consequence of the depreciation of the Austrian ex- change. In Vienna, the price of Czecho- Slovakian brown coal amounts to about 3,000 kronen, the price of pit coal from Upper Silesia, to 4,500 kronen per ton, while the price of the American pit coal is nearly 10,000 kronen, a price the Austrian industry cannot pay, threatened as it is by foreign compe- tition.

Altogether, Austria had a quantity of 6,490,789 tons of coal at her disposal in the year 1920, i.e., 540,000 tons a

month, just 41 per cent of her total requirements. The coal situation was, therefore, extremely hard, especially during last winter.

Consequences of DianNuxioN in Supply

The inevitable consequence of this insufficient supply and of the frequent stoppages of importation were repeated restrictions of the tram service and a very scanty supply for the most urgent public needs such as food industries, gas and power works, hospitals and household fuel, even kitchen fires. The population was often exposed to the direst distress, and the laboring classes to the greatest unrest owing to unem- ployment.

Most hopeless was the plight of the metropolis, Vienna. Here the gas and power works as well as the tram service had to undergo decisive restrictions, and private households were limited to the consumption of one cubic meter of gas and one hectowatt of electricity a day only. In Vienna, the allowance for kitchen fires per week and household is only seven kilos (about 15 lbs.), A more liberal supply to the 540,000 households in Vienna could be granted only if there were much larger quanti- ties of coal on hand.

Though the coal situation of Austria has gradually improved as compared with the awful plight immediately after the Revolution, the quantities of coal at her disposal are not nearly sufficient to allow a return to normal economic life. Only by considerably raising the import from abroad and by securing its regular delivery can anything like a lasting improvement be produced.

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CHAPTER V

The Public Finances of the Republic of Austria

By Dr. Emanuel Hugo Vogel

Professor of the University of Vienna

I FIE i)ubli(; fiiiaiK-es of Austria re- flect the sit ua I ion to wliich that country lias Ikhmi reduced hy the Treaty of Si. (Jermain. After the dissolution of the former economic unit of the Austro-Hungarian Mon- archy, the Alj)ine provinces, kicking coal, mineral oils, etc., and chiefly dependent on importations from abroad for agricultural jjroducts and the most necessary commodities, remained with the newh' founded Austrian Repu])lic; while the larger ])art of the territories boasting of great riches in raw ma- terials and manufactures fell to Czecho- slovakia. Austrian manufactures are taking great pains to resume their former economic relations with the other Succession States, but indastry and commerce continue to be much hampered in their development by reciprocal customs boundaries and restrictions on both import and export trade. And these difficulties, bad as they are, are outweighed by the ter- rible depreciation of the currency, which, on the one hand, causes the import trade to become one of the heaviest burdens on the public finances and national economy, and, on the other, compels the other countries to erect a customs frontier against the natural export tendency of Austria. As long as the Austrian currency is not raised to a standard averaging from 7 to 8 kronen relatively to one Swiss franc, by the help of credits granted by the League of Nations, Austria will not be in a position to exchange goods with the surrounding National Succession States on the same terms as Czecho-Slovakia and Germany.

So long as these conditions contiinie, a revival of Austrian cconojnic cijci- gies is quite out of the question. All measures concerning credits which do not tend to raise the kronen exchange, previous to the introduction of a new currency, to the above-named stand- ard, or at least to a standard consid- erably facilitating trade and com- merce (from about four to five kronen to one Swiss franc), must in the end become a vain sacrifice and could have but a transient effect. The awful consequences of the deep currency depreciation are demonstrated by the Austrian budget.

The Budget

The currency depreciation is one of the principal causes of the appalling height of the deficit and the expendi- ture figures. According to the latest budget for the second half of 1921, the balance between the relation of revenue and expenditure appears in Table I.

The figures of the table alone serve to show the cause to which the half-yearly deficit of 25.4 billions kronen (yearly deficit over 50 billions) is to be as- cribed. It is the consequence of the currency depreciation and of the dearth of imports occasioned by it. The loss comes in consequence of the deterioration of the rate of exchange which has been calculated at the rate of 100 Austrian kronen equal to one Swiss franc, though the rate of ex- change has since become still more unfavorable in spite of the action planned by the League of Nations. The result has been a loss of 10,380 millions kronen on the government

Public Finances of the Austrian Republic

21

TABLE I

Relation Between Revenue and Expenditure, January 7-December 31, 1921

Million Kronen Percentage

I. Expenditure

Loss in consequence of the deteri- oration of the rate of exchange :

1 State-monopoHes

2 Railways

3 Public debts

4 Government contribu- tion to the private pre- war debts according to the Treaty of St. Ger- main

5 Government contribu- tion towards the pay- ment of foodstuff prices.

6 Other government con- tributions in adminis- tration and enterprises.

2J84.16 1,755.69 2,337.70

1,900.00

10,286.00

395 . 45

16.2

Total 18,913.00

National debt services (interest and redemption) 2,282.30

Civil service and pensions fund 14,117. 10

Total 35,312.40

Other sundry expenditure 14,184 . 10

Total of expenditure 49,496.50

21.0

0.8

38.0

4.0 29.0

71.0 29.0

100.0

n.

Gross-revenue

Capital levy

"Income tax" (assessed according to the income of the tax

payer)

Other direct taxes

Customs

Excise

Stamps and other similar duties

Total

Monopolies

Government enterprises

Export licenses

Realization of government property and loans . Other revenues

Million Kronen Percentage

500.00

2.0

868.60]	5.0
409.30 J
2,895.30	12.0
790 . 10	3.0
1,962.00	8.0
7,425.30	30.0
5,194.00	22.0
6,530.50	27.0
900.00 ]
2.033.00 \	21.0
1,992.30]

Total of revenue 24,075 . 10

100.0

Deficit 25,421 .40

22

The Annals of the American Academy

imports of foodstuffs; i.e., tlie govern- ment paid per liead of the population in one year, 3,200 kronen, in order to reduce the price of foodstuffs (flour, meat, fat, milk). The low exchange rate is also to be held responsible for losses on other imports, especially on coal for the railways and material for the tobacco monopoly, losses amoiuit- ing to 8,63.'} millions kronen in half a year. Altogether, 18,913 millions kronen in half a year and 37.8 billions in a year, that is 38 per cent of the total expenditure or 74 per cent of the deficit, is accounted for by these losses. Could the Austrian krone be raised to two Swiss centimes the above named sum of 18.9 billions would be reduced to about 9.456; with a rise to four or five Swiss centimes, the loss in conse- quence of the deterioration of the ex- change would play no part at all in the budget. This shows quite clearlj^ the importance of a serious and efficient foreign credit action.

Civil Service Expenditure

But the most distressing effects of the currency depreciation have fallen on the civil service and pensions expen- diture which has reached a pitch quite disproportionate to a small country. This division of the expenditure, includ- ing the salaries of employes and work- men in public enterprises, amounts to more than 14 billions kronen for half a year or to 28 billions kronen for the whole year. As it has since been found necessary to raise salaries, this sum added to the government contribu- tions towards the civil service expendi- ture of the provinces and their capi- tals, will actually come to 37 billions kronen a year. However, one must not forget that a large part of the civil service expenditure falls not to the share of the government administra- tion but to national enterprises, as the whole_ railway system has been

nationalized. Of the above mentioned 14 billions for the six months esti- mated, 4,467 millions fall to the share of the railways, 1,146 to that of the post, telegraph and telephone, 1,050 to the subsidies for the provinces and municipalities. Even the army esti- mate (30,000 men and officers) which amounts to 914 millions half-yearly is included in this figure. All these expenditure figures can be rightly understood only when compared with the dearth provoked by the currency depreciation.

On the average, the civil servants' pay still falls short of the often centu- pled advance in price for all commodi- ties as compared with that ruling be- fore the War, particularly for clothing, shoes and also most foodstuffs. Ac- cordingly, the standard of life of those classes engaged in civil work has fallen, while at the same time other classes more favored by the ruling circumstances, farmers especially and capitalists making money transactions or trading in wares, were able to realize great profits. The brain work- ers have to bear the brunt of this hard struggle and with them suffer the prin- cipal supporters of the intellectual and social reconstruction of Austria. The following data may serve to illustrate this injustice. The Revolution has encouraged certain despotic tendencies in the social policy which have caused a hardly justifiable re-grouping of the economic conditions. The salary of a second waiter has been multiplied by 62; that of a government official of the lowest rank by 37; that of a de- partmental head with university train- ing in one of the ministries, or of a professor in the university only by 16, and that of an official of the fourth rank, chief of a department in a min- istry, by 11. These figures show dis- tinctly enough the economic disad- vantage under which the brain work-

Public Finances of the Austrian Republic

23

ers, the persons most indispensable to the organization of the task of recon- struction of the country, labor.

No doubt, the number of civil serv- ants is far too large for so small a country, i.e., 264,467, of which the railways supply 72,951; the post, tele- graph and telephone, 32,201; the army, 30,000. The families included in this figure amount to 751,564 persons out of a total population of 65,000,000. A considerable part of them is engaged in the nationaltransport system, which, it is true, works with a great deficit, or the monopoly plants for tobacco and salt and in the "national industry works," an enterprise in the form of nationalized economies. It will, however, prove impossible to reduce the staff of civil servants before a general reconstruction that will afford opportunities for these employes to exchange their present government employments for private positions. Likewise, a cutting down of salaries and wages can follow only upon the effect of an adequate improvement in the rate of exchange, making itself felt in a fall of prices for all commodi- ties. Compared to the civil service expenditure the other real expendi- ture on administration is of no great importance (14 billions kronen in the half-year), especially as 1,829 mil- lions are included for grants to the finances of the provinces and munici- pal districts. The estimate for edu- cation names a sum of only 403 millions kronen, that is eight-tenths of one per cent of the total expenditure for the six months' l)udget.

Monopolies and National Enter- prises

Although all articles produced under government monopolies have gone up so high, and the railway tariffs and postal rates have been raised so far as to make them a heavy burd(Mi for

economic life, it is only the so-called "fiscal monopolies," tobacco, salt and saccharine, which yield positive and not inconsiderable returns; other na- tional enterprises, as railways and post, are worked at a loss. This loss is to be attributed chiefly to the enormous sums spent on wages and raw materials, owing to the depreciated cur- rency, quite aside from undeniable mis- takes in the management of the works, defective or unbusinesslike organiza- tion and the often irrational employ- ment in which the staff are engaged. Table II gives the prevailing net profits and losses for figuring in the six months estimates (that is, after deduct- ing the costs for the staff from the ex- penditure figures) in millions of kronen. The net revenue of the monopolies is therefore counterbalanced by the government enterprises, so that the total deficit amounts to 4.6 billions in half a year. The most serious item on the side of liabilities is furnished by the state railways, the deficit of which amounts to 9 billions a year, less the offset formed by the railway traffic taxes, which though not yet booked among the receipts are expected to run up to roughly speaking 2 billions kronen. The huge deficit is princi- pally due to the large expenses for coal and other materials, which are computed at not less than 1,756 mil- lions kronen half-yearly. The low rate of exchange must also be made responsible for 2,184 millions kronen lost half-yearly on the gross proceeds of the monopolies (for tobacco alone, 2,1(54 million) over the purchase of raw materials from abroad. This to- gether with the high expenditure for salaries and wages accounts for the bad returns on the national enterprises.

Taxes

According to the huge increase of the expen<liture, the pressure of taxa-

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The Annals of the American Academy

TABLE II

Net Profit and Loss in Government Monopoues .\nd Nation.\l Enterprises

Stand of

I. Monopolies

Tol)afCo

Salt

Sacfluirino .... Mineral Waler.s. Lotteries

Total.

II. Enterprises

Forests, estates

Mines belonging to the state

Railways

Post . .\

Telegrai)li and Teleplione

Mines

Indnstrial plants

Sundry smaller enterprises (printing offices, theatres run to the state, etc.)

Total 1,354.3

Net loss

		capital on
Profit	Loss	December SI, 1021
723.1		8,564 . 1
228.6		376 . 4
100.0		3.0
1.2
38.7
1,081 (i	8,943.5
217.7		2,810.0
6.0		119.3
	4,599.0	78,665.6
	353.7	39.9
	144.3	2,491.1
14.8		576.0
	743.9	3,573.4
33.3	146.5	897.0
1,354.3	5,978.4 4,624 . 1	98,115.8

tion had to be applied to the utmost extent. Among the provisions to meet the extraordinary demand, the "single great capital levy," decreed on July 21, 1920, ranks first. This tax is levied on all unencumbered chattel, real and personal, according to a progressive scale, and has to be paid by individuals as well as by corporate bodies. The scale for indi- viduals slides from 3 per cent on a capital of 30,000 kronen to 65 per cent on 10 millions kronen and over. The tax on the greater part of the capital property will average from 30 to 45 per cent, while the joint stock companies have to pay a uniform tax of 15 per cent, beside the high taxa- tion for earned income. The shares in the shareholders' hands are exempt from the tax. The levy on capital is designed partly for the payment of war debts, partly for the purchase of

foreign values and the diminution of the circulation of bank notes. The capital levy is expected to yield a return of about 12 billions kronen, about 8 billions having already been received as a privileged advance pay- ment in the first half of 1921. This sum was used for the payment of debts as advance payments were permitted partly in war loans and treasury bills. The further returns of the capital levy will come due during the coming years and are preliminated at 500 millions kronen for the first half of 1921.

Beside the capital levy, destined to meet the extraordinary exj^enditures, the direct profit tax and especially the "income tax," assessed according to the income of the tax payer, have been raised as far as possible to in- crease the ordinary revenue. The burden of this rise in taxes is felt all

Public Finances of the Austrian Republic

25

the more as it coincides with a hea\'y struggle for existence; the manu- factures have to fight in order to be able to keep pace with upward move- ment of wages and prices for raw ma- terials. The greatest part of the direct taxation involves the inhabitants of towns and, in the first degree, the crafts and manufactures and the profits of commercial and banking concerns with a fixed abode. It is much to be re- gretted that for technical reasons in- numerable intermediary profits could not be taxed. The classes mentioned have to bear the whole burden of the government taxes.

So far, the farmers have had to contribute a small share consisting of a perfectly inadecjuate ground and house tax (62 millions kronen yield 3 millions of taxes a year) added to an income tax, the collection of which in the country side is not carried out energetically enough. Out of a half yearly total of 1,778 millions kronen at which the direct taxes are pre- liminated, one-half (868.6) is furnished by the considerably raised income tax. According to the scale for 1921, the tax rises progressively from about 1.5 per cent on an income of 30,000 kronen to 60 per cent on all incomes exceeding 1.2 millions kronen. As all incomes accruing from either house or landed property, chattels, personal or business, are further encumbered with profit duties on which an extra govern- ment tax of 100 per cent is charged, it may easily be gathered that Austria has reached the extreme limit of the tax payers' capacity, A remedy can be found only in a proper taxation of the farmers' income and an energetic, though technically difficult effort to make all those dealers and speculators contribute to the national finances who, in drawing huge profits out of their undeclared transactions in money or wares, give an ever renewed impetus

to quite unjustifiable rises without doing any useful economic work.

The excises have also been very much raised, e.g., the wine tax by 400 kronen a hectoliter; the beer tax by 20 kronen on each degree of beer wort per hectoliter; the spirits tax by 100 kronen per liter of alcohol; the sugar tax by 160 kronen per 100 kilogram; but the total excise revenue (amount- ing to about 790 millions kronen half- yearly) lags far behind that of the direct taxation, seeing how little the population can spare for these articles. The stamp duties are also very high and mean a heavy charge on the whole commercial life which is further aug- mented by a duty on the transfer of foreign exchanges and values and by the railway transport duties. The latter (averaging 30 per cent on the passenger and freight rates and con- sequently going up simidtaneously with these rates which are many times what they were before the war) are preliminated at 1,015 millions kronen per half year; the stamp taxes, at 947 millions.

A very consideral^le portion of Austria's revenue is contributed by the customs, to the disadvantage, it is true, of the consumers and of the pro- ducers, as the prices of nearly all necessities of life have been very much raised by the customs duties. As these have to be paid in gold or in an equivalent for gold, the government levies additional duties when the cus- toms are paid in paper money; since JNIay 1, 1921, these have been raised a hundred-fold on some articles, and to one hundred and Ihirty-fold on the nominal gold customs duties for articles having to pay excise fiscal custom, such as coffee, tea, rice. Therefore, the total revenue of the customs is preliminated at not less than 2,895 millions kronen for six months or 5,790 millions per annum. These

26

The Annals of the American Academy

costs on being addccl lo I lie prices of connnodities, occasion an increase of wages. In spite of the greatest exer- tion, the total of the taxes collected amonnts to not over 30 per cent of the total gross revenue and 14.8 per cent of the total cxi)endiluro, while monof)- olies and national enterprises play hy far a greater part on the assets as well as on the liabilities side of the budget.

While since December, 1020, the increase of the railway tariffs, postal rates, stamp duties and additional customs duties ])r()ught a surplus rev- emic of 0.() billions kronen, and while about 8 billions could be saved by the gradual reduction of the government contributions towards the cost of food- si uffs, a new railway tariflf for passen- gers and freights introduced on July 1, 19'21 will yield a surplus revenue of 6 billions per annum and an automati- cal surplus revenue of the traffic duties of 1.4 billions as preliminated in the budget. This was necessitated in order to allow a raise in the salaries of the government officials. Meanwhile, the expenditure has been augmented quite disproportionately by permitting higher wages. The deficit of the com- ing budgetary period will consequently be greater if the currency depreciation should continue. In order to pro- vide for this expenditure a new increase of the fiscal customs tariff, stamp duties, the duty on the transfer of stocks and shares, and on tobacco prices, and further a radical reduction of the government contributions towards the flour and bread prices is planned. The latter measure will be felt very severely by the consumers.

The National Debt

No less a burden than that of the expenditure is the capital debt of a country with a population of six mil- lions whereof nearly one-third live in

Vienna and the provincial capitals. This is composed of the public debts of former Austria carried over to the account of the Republic of Austria as dictated by the Treaty of St. Ger- main and of the new national debt of the Repul)Hc of Austria. By the terms of the Peace Treaty the Aastrian Re[)ublic, as the lawful successor to the old Monarchy and su7)posed "accom- I)lice" in the Great War, has to bear the full burden of her predecessor's debts. They form a list of figures which must act as a drag on the work of reconstruction from the very outset and tend only to demand greater sacrifices for this purpose on the part of the foreign powers. On June 30, 1921, the public debt of former Aastria (pre-war and war debts of the Mon- archy) amounted to 28,340 millions kronen, nominal value, to which must be added nearly as high a sum for the augmentation of the debt caused by the currency depreciation, i.e., 24,859 millions. Consequently, that part of the debt of former Austria taken over by the Austrian Republic burdens that country with no less than 53.2 billions kronen. Nevertheless, the nominal national debt of former Austria has been reduced, thanks to redemptions made by the new Austrian Republic, by as much as 9,694.5 millions (from a total of 82,196 millions on June 20, 1920, to 72,501 millions nominal value on June 30, 1921). This reduction was managed by the war loans, paid into the treasury by way of a levy on capital, and by the redemption of the war profits tax (about 9 billions) and the "N.U.M. credit" granted by the Netherlands. In the meantime, the currency depreciation of the krone to one-third below last year's level has alone sufficed to increase the burden of the debt despite all redemptions. A reduction or redemption of the na- tional debt would seem impossible

Public Finances of the Austrian Republic

27

without a thorough reform of the cur- rency. Again we may see that the sole means of reconstruction is a raise of the rate of exchange, whereby the debt would at least be reduced again to its nominal level.

The total of Austria's iieio public debt already amounted to 59,259 mil- lions kronen on June 30, 1921, to which sum nuist be added the foreign credits for foodstuffs and raw materials, as far as the accounts for them have al- ready been settled and met by bonds. Computed at their nominal value, i.e., at par before the War, they come to 464 millions kronen in gold, but to 57,434 millions kronen if computed at the present value of the kronen and considering the difference in the rate of exchange. Those foreign credits of at least 27 billions for which so far no bonds have been issued on the part of Austria are not taken into account any more than the further currency depreciation which occurred after June 30, 1921. So the debts run up by Austria herself amount to 117 billions kronen during the first two and one- half years of this Republic's existence; adding to this sum, the share of the old Austrian debts allotted to her by the Peace Treaty, we arrive at a total charge of 170 billions kronen (28,333 kronen per head of the population). The interest and redemption service for this debt requires, altogether, 4,620 million kronen half-yearly (that is, 9.2 billions per year). On the other side of the scales, we find the national property of the Austrian Republic,

although it is not available, and, fur- ther, the various assets of the state itself. The latter are composed of the capital invested in the monopolies and national enterprises (estimated at about 96 billions kronen) and of all the other movable and immovable property under government adminis- tration (public office, buildings, inven- tories, etc.) for which no reliable basis for valuation is available.

Other Obligations Under the Terms of the Peace Treaty of St. Germain

But to fill the cup to the brim, Austria "has been placed under the following additional obligations, re- sulting from the Peace Treaty, for one-half of the year 1921: balance of costs for the Vienna Section of the Reparations Commission, nominal value kronen, 250,000, i.e., 32.8 mil- lion kronen under prevailing condi- tions (3.75 millions nominal value or 303.8 million kronen for the corres- ponding half of 1920); further, a gov- ernment indemnification of two bil- lion kronen granted to Austrian debt- ors for losses incurred through their being bound over to redeem their foreign private pre-war debts up to former nominal value, and for the liquidation of Austrian property abroad; 200 million kronen for de- livering up materials of warfare; fi- nally, 1.4 million kronen to tlefray the costs of the International Daiuibe Commission: altogether, a total sur- plus charge of 2,238 million kronen.

28

The Annals of the American Academy

CHAPTER VI

The Currency Problem of Austria

\W J)jt. Emanuel H. Vooel ProlVssor in I he University of Vieiiiui

TIIIO fate of Aiislriaii cinrciicy l)cst shows the serious conse- quences of the Peace Treaty and the dismemberment of the old Monarchy which formed a homogeneous sinii)lc territory as far as customs and cur- rency were concerned. At the begin- ning of the War, the currency of the old state was on the whole consolidated. By an a])])ro])riate exchange policy, the Austro-llungarian Bank succeeded in maintaining the gold parity of its notes.i On July 23, 1914, the bank boasted a metal reserve of 1,589 mil- lion kronen and a bank note circulation of 2,130 millions; i.e., 15 per cent was covered in gold. During the War this relation sank as inflation increased. At the time of the break-down of Austria-Hungary, November, 1918, the circulation of bank notes amounted to 35.6 billion kronen, the outstanding debts, Girogidhahen, to 7.1 billion; that is, the current liabilities amounted, altogether, to 42.7 billion kronen, cov- ered by the metal reserve only to the extent of eight-tenths of one per cent. Simultaneously, the value of the Aus- trian krone in the foreign markets rapidly depreciated. New York bills in Vienna which, at the end of August, 1914, noted 5.12 kronen, rose at the end of 1915 to 7.85 kronen, the price of the dollar in Vienna; at the end of 1916, to 9.56; after the break-down at the end of November, 1918, to 15.82; at the end of June, 1919, to 30.25; in October, 1919, to 103; in December, 1919, to 155; in February, 1920, to 250; in June, 1920, to 148; in October,

1 Irving Fisher, " The Purchasing Power of Money," New York, 1911.

1920, to 405; in December, 1920, to 659; in April, 1921, to 666 and, on July 23, 1921, to 846 kronen.

The dreadful dej^reciation of the cur- rency illustrated by these figures, set in with the break-down of the mone- tary unity and with the process of a total separation of the single Succes- sion States from the formerly uniform currency system of the Monarchy. This process of separation was also ac- companied by sad consequences for the bank notes of the other Succession States, though these were distinguished from the Austrian notes by being im- pressed with a stamp to show the coun- try to which they belonged. The rate of exchange of these notes sank like- wise below the level of that of the uni- form notes of former Austria in the foreign markets. The depreciation within the five small new currency units differed only in extent from that of Austria, and was, of course, modified according to the degree of the eco- nomic consolidation and equipment oc- casioned by the terms of the Peace Treaty. The first to begin with the currency separation was Jugo-Slavia, which on January 8, 1919, ordered the Austro-Hungarian notes on Jugo-Slav territory to be stamped with a national mark; Czecho-Slovakia followed suit by the law^ of February 25, 1919; then came Poland and, at last, Hungary in 1920.

All the Succession States carried out these measures without first trying to arrive at an agreement either with the Austro-Hungarian Bank or w'itli the banks of neighboring countries, though an understanding with regard to an

The Currency Problem of Austria

29

organized separation of the currencies would have been best for all concerned. With the creation of independent na- tional currencies, their independent quotations were started in the foreign markets first on an approximately even basis and later, in 1919 and 1920, with an always greater differentiation to the detriment of the remaining and also nationally stamped Austrian currency. The figures in Table 1 show the enor- mous change in the value of the Aus- trian krone; here the rate of exchange

lowed; the export, still prohibited. Up till now, the xA.uslandskronen have been quoted higher than the Inlands- kronen, since the former could be used for payment not only in Austria but also abroad, and as their available number is limited, while the latter may as a rule be used for payment or in- vestments in Austria only. Table 2 shows the movement of the rate of exchange of the cheques on Vienna in Zurich (Auszahlung Wien, Geld- kurs), i.e., the rate of exchange of

Table 1 Rate of Exchange on Cheques on Zurich in Vienna

	1918	1919	1920	1921
January February	(31.) 230.50 (30.) 273.25 (30.) 323.25	324 . 64 410.53 469.16 618.69 1,022.00 2,127.86	3,928.00 3,865.38 3,492 . 00 2,735.18 4,119.00 7,521.69 10,175.00	(14.) 11,000
March April May June July August September October	(30.) 11,050 (5.) 12,590 (22.) 13,925
November
December

of the cheques on Zurich in Vienna shows the movement in Austrian kro- nen. (Where no specific date is stated, monthly average quotations are given.) A still more distinct language is spoken by the rates of exchange in the chief money markets of Europe: Zu- rich, Amsterdam and London. As Austria had prohibited the export of kronen bank notes with the puri)o.se of sto])ping the overstocking of foreign markets (without, however, being al)le to prevent smuggling), a difference was produced between the rate of exchange of "inland kronen" Inlandskronen and "foreign kronen," Aitdamhkroncn. At present, the import of kronen is al-

the Auslandskrone, while the rate of exchange of the o.'i-lerreichisclt gesicm- pelte Kronennnten (bank notes stamped by the Republic of Austria) has al- ways been some points lower than that of the Auslandskronen. Not until some time after the prohibition of im- port embargo for kronen had been re- moved did the rate of exchange of the cheques on Vienna drop to the level of the kronen bank notes.

This survey shows well enough lli:it the real catastrophe of the rate of ex- change only took ])lace after the War in the years 191!) and 1920. Before the se])aratiou of the curreiu-ics. the Aus- trian krone noted 42.50 centimes and

30

The Annals of the American Academy

Table 2 Cheques " Zurich-Vienna " at Zurich (100 kronen and centimes)

Moiilh m. =medio, u.=iillimo

Jiirui:iry . . February . March . . . April ....

May

June

July

August . . . September October . . November December

1918

u. 42.50

m. 37.75

u. 32.75

m. 30.25

u. 30.50

1919

m. 30.15

m. u.

24.50 23 . 40 24.00

18.00

18.75

21.00

18.75

17.00

18.50

16.50

11.50

12.50

11.75

8.50

9.00

5.00

5.25

4.65

4.00

3.00

3.25

1920

m. u. m.

2.30

2.05

2.05

2.35

2.40

2.70

2.75

2.70

2.70

4.25

3.70

3.85

3.70

3.42^

3.00

2.80

2.771

2.80

2.25

2.02^

1.75

1.95

1.65

1 .55

1921

/u.

m. 21.

1.22^

1.77^

1.50

1.30

1.37^

1.55

1.70

1.50

1.30

1.35

1.25

0.97

0.82

0.77

even some time after the Revolution in the middle of the year 1919 (June 28, 1919) it maintained a rate of 18.5 cen- times, a level which not even the bold- est financial plan on the part of Aus- tria or of the League of Nations would dream of reaching again. This proves that by a timely interference the de- route of the Austrian exchange might have been inhibited or avoided en- tirely at much smaller sacrifices than are now demanded. It proves further, that this depreciation was brought about by the one-sided measures of the Succession States, which were carried through without the slightest regard for the Austro-Hungarian Bank or for the exchange of the notes left to Austria. Another reason was the enormous infla- tion of bank notes in Austria, herself, which became inevitable because of the

financial wants of Austria, the terrible shortage of commodities, the rise of all prices, chiefly of those for imports, naturally caused by the depreciation itself, and so on in endless succession. Still the Austrian krone retains a higher purchasing power at home than abroad.

But this one isolated fact which is favorable for the consumer, now be- gins to vanish, as the rise due to wild speculation with wares and foreign values has brought the prices of com- modities and wages almost on a par with those in foreign countries. In some cases they have even surpassed them. What this means while the Austrian krone is almost completely depreciated (on July 21, 1921: 0.77 centimes at Zurich) can well be im- agined. So it came to pass that of late

The Currency Problem of Austria

31

even the Hungarian krone, which had always been valued lower, gained con- siderably over the Austrian krone on July 21, 1921 : 1.85 centimes) so that the exchange of goods with this neigh- boring country was rendered much more expensive for Austria.

The financial scheme of the League of Nations which was abandoned al- most as soon as it had been started could effect only a quite transient im- provement of the rate of exchange on the cheques on Vienna at Zurich to 1.70 centimes (April 16, 1921). Beside the continuous delay of the promised international credits, the Austrian rate of exchange was preju- diced by the news that the program of the delegates of the League of Na- tions provides for a stabilization of the rate of exchange only on the bases of one to two, that is, hardly above the present level. (But not even for this plan could the most necessary condi- tion, the suppression of the general mortgage laid on all the revenues of Austria by the peace terms, be ob- tained.) The presumable failure of such a scheme, even if it could be car- ried out with fewer sacrifices, was val- ued accordingly in the money market. Beside the repeal of the kronen import embargo and its consequence, the equalizing of the Auslands- and Inlands- krone depreciated the rate of exchange of the Auslandskrone, as the reason for its being valued higher was partly re- moved. Soon after, the rate of ex- change of kronen bank notes and cheques dropped rapidly to reach its lowest level on July 21, 1921. The sole consolation for this financial ruin of a country may perhaps be found in the fact that, on the same day the Polish mark, though from other causes, was rated at Zurich at only 0.32 cen- times and was somewhat nearer the low water mark.

The situation of the Austro-llun-

garian Bank, as far as it has the func- tion of issuing notes for the Republic of Austria, has naturally become worse. The circulation of stamped Austrian bank notes already amounted to 50.14; billion kronen on July 7, 1921, the other liabilities due immediately, to 9.1 billions; these were covered by a mental reserve including gold bonds only up to 5,220,132 kronen. The principal assets are the treasury bonds issued by the government and pre- sented at the Austro-Hungarian Bank to the amount of 47.8 bilhon kronen. "\Mien in January, 1920 the Austrian bank notes inflation was disclosed for the first time apart from that of Hun- gary and that of the non-stamped and nationalized notes of the former Monarchy, the Austrian circulation amounted to only 13.2 billion kronen, whereas the gold reserve amounted to 222.6 million (beside 11.4 millions gold bills and 57 million silver currency). The total bank notes circulation of the former Monarchy amounted to 35.6 millions kronen at the end of 1918, i.e., previous to the real financial explana- tion.

Table 3 shows the development of the bank note circulation in millions kronen.

On top of all this, there came the liquidation which is forced upon the bank by article 206 of the Treaty of St. Germain. This w^as only actually be- gun in the year 1920. According to the wording of the Treaty the former managers of the bank, as the legitimate representatives of the shareholders and the Austrian and Hungarian govern- ment, are totally excluded from the liquidation, and only the liquidators nominated by the Reparations Com- mission are charged with the liquida- tion. The first difficult problem of liquidation concerned the remaining gold reserve of the bank (still 222.7 millions kronen in gold on November

32

The Annals of the American Academy

Table 3 Infl.\tion in Hank Notes in Austria

Situation on	Metal reserve (ind. of clicques)	Total circulation	Circulation of Austrian notes	Circulation of Ilunfjarian notes
December 31, 1918 December 31, 1919 January 31, 1920 March 15, 1920 November 15, 1920	342.05 297 . 30 291.08 280 . 70 325.73"	35.588.0 53.109.4 50 . 772 . 8 00.197.3 74.124.4	13 200 8 1 4 793 0 25 . 977 . 9	12.000.0

" The fluctuations in the metal reserve are produced by the changinj^ state of the gold cheques included (November 15, 1920: 40.0 billion) in the figures for the year 1921 most of the metal reserve is excluded or belongs to the liquidation stock.

Inflation in Bank Notes in Austria and Hungary

	Austria	Hungary
Situation on	Metal reserve	Circulation of banknotes	Metal reserve	Circulation of banknotes
May 23, 1921	5.00 7.09 0.03 5.22	44.244.3 45.583.1 49 . 085 . 1 50.142.0	0.18 0.18 0.18 0.18	12.725.1
May 31, 1921	13.085.0
June 30, 1921	18.095.9
July 1. 1921	17.923.8

15, 1920; 46.6 millions gold bills on for- eign countries and 56.4 millions in sil- ver currency).

Although only Austria and Hungaria and not the Succession States are liable for the foreign circulation of the old Austrian bank notes according to the Peace Treaty, all the Succession States try to make their claims on the gold reserve. By order of the Reparations Commission the bank handed over, to begin with, an amount of Q5 million gold kronen to the liquidators out of which advances were given to the Suc- cession States. Austria received, after a credit already paid back to Holland had been deducted, about 8 million gold kronen.

Concerning other problems, too, the enforcement of article 206 of the

Treaty of St. Germain caused the greatest difficulties. It is now gener- ally acknowledged that the strict ap- plication of these decisions of the Peace Treaty cannot be carried through ; the liquidators are now bring- ing about an agreement between the Succession States concerned, regarding the problem of recovery of the bank notes, the liabilities to the creditors of the notes, etc. But this attempt at some agreement encounters great diffi- culties in the Succession States, so that all these complicated legal and jBnancial questions are waiting for settlement — much to the damage of the Austrian currency whose rate of exchange has to suffer by the uncertainty concerning finances and currency. A settlement will go far toward stabilization.

The Currency Problem of x'Vustria

33

Summary

The whole situation of Austrian finance is not promising for, as we have seen, it is an immediate consequence of an unequal distribution of burdens at the creation of the new National States out of the ruins of the old Monarchy. Under these circumstances the bank note inflation appears as a necessary consequence of the general financial situation; as a matter of course, it con- tinues to depress the value of the cur- rency and forces up the price of all commodities. It is characteristic enough that neither the announce- ment of an "action of the League of Nations" and the financial program elaborated for this purpose, nor the promised credit of foreign values could bring about the expected im- provement on the kronen exchange in the foreign markets. On the contrary, shortly after, the Austrian krone suf- fered a slump down to 0.87 centimes (on cheques, Zurich- Vienna), and closed with 0.90 centimes for cheques and 0.79 centimes for stamped Aus- trian bank notes on July 3, 1921.

We may infer from all these facts that preliminary to the introduction of a new currency, a rise of the Austrian kronen value must be the aim. By the accumulation of ample gold funds and suitalile measures based on extensive instalments of credits from the League of Nations in all the ])rincipal money markets, the krone might be raised to e([ual 8 Swiss francs on the average, tlms enal)ling Austria to trade freely with the surroiuuling National States. At the very lowest a rate of exchange of about Jf. to 5 ought to be attained if a move toward reconstruction is to be made with any ])ros])ect of success. Subsequent only to having reached such a desirable basis by easy stages and within a suitable period of time so as to avoid any abrupt changes (endan-

gering the export manufactures with the effects of a presumable slump) , the introduction of a new currency and the stabilization of the new rate of ex- change might be attempted. This will necessitate a continuation of foreign support in future. The proposed res- pite of only twenty years before the enforcement of the right of a general mortgage on the Austrian revenue, will prove too short under these circum- stances as there must be a possibility of prolonging open foreign credits be- yond this period.

An attempt at stabilization on the existing basis of 1 or 2 would allow only a hand to mouth existence in the pres- ent fashion, but not a definite reform. In the long run the majority of the peo- ple will be unable to bear all the re- strictions of a mental, intellectual and physical nature. In this respect it may be important to point out particularly that the outward show of luxuries in Vienna by its numerous foreign visitors, does not allow any inference to be drawn as to the real standard of life of the laboring classes. If today love of pleasure and luxury are to be seen, if the restaurants, cafes, and pleasure re- sorts are crowded, it must be regarded as one of the sad sym])toms attendant on any great crisis in any country. The lack of confidence in the constancy of the value of the currency leads to reckless spending as nobody likes to risk a lasting investment of cai)ital or to save up money for the future. But it would be a great mistake to believe the true born Viennese rolls in luxury. In reality it is only the ])eo])le who have enriched themselves during and after the War and who are now filling the ranks of the war-])rofiteers and speculators by making extraordinary gains in an unscrupulous manner, run- ning up the prices of all necessities of life, dealing in foreign values and con- tributing to the depreciation of the

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The Annals of the American Academy

Austrian krone. To a great extent this set of peo])le is intermingled with for- eigners, ehiefly former "war-refugees" from Eastern Gahcia and Bucovina, who, after having settled down in Vienna ])ermanently, make the best of the ])revailing conditions by accumu- lating riches.

In this respect the low rate of ex- change has liad the most serious con- sequences for Austria. It first led to selling off Austrian necessities, which wandered abroad frequently only to be re-imj)orted after a time and sold at a high price when the shortage of com- modities became intolerable. This fav- orable 0])portunity over, an unre- strained speculation in foreign values and exchanges set in to the detriment of the rate of exchange and purchasing capacity of the krone at home and abroad. In Austria many of the para- sites described contribute vastly to- ward the rise in prices and there is no legal means to stop them or even to subject them to an effective taxation. Apart from this motley crowd of spec- ulators from home and abroad, the set securing the doubtful fame of Vienna as a center of "luxuries and pleasures,"

is formed of foreigners. They flock to- gether from the National States and the abnormally high purchasing power of their money makes Vienna the "cheapest city in all the world" for them. PJxactly like the above-men- tioned set of Austrian and foreign speculators they are in a y)osition to satisfy a taste for the luxuries of life which is denied to the rest of the ])oi)u- lation. The restaurants, places of en- tertainment, big emporiums, theatres and even the places where serious art is cultivated reckon with the "new rich" as their chief customers, whereas the enjoyment of all the refinements of art and civilization is denied to the intel- lectual middle classes of the native population.

The antagonism of the classes and masses has thus been intensified in an alarming degree. A new exceedingly low-bred social layer has come to the surface, the "new rich." It wnll be a long and arduous task to heal the seri- ous economic, social and, last but not least, the injuries to ideals in the new Republic of Austria and this task wall require the steady, organized assistance of the civilized countries of the West.

CHAPTER VII

Austrian Banks

By Dr. Max Sokal Manager of the Wiener Giro-und Kassen-Verein, Vienna

IT was prophesied of Austrian Banks, that after the collapse of the Austro- Hungarian Monarchy they would have greatly to reduce their establishments on account of the diminution of their sphere of action, the vastness of their organizations being wholly out of pro- portion to the requirements of crippled Austria.

So far this hypothesis has been dis-

proved by facts. The banks very soon had to extend their business, to in- crease their staff, to enlarge their prem- ises; and the turnover of the last financial year, where balance sheets are already available, shows a considerable surplus over that of preceding periods, a surplus, which is, of course, partly accounted for by the steady deprecia- tion of Austrian currency.

Austrian Banks

35

In the period immediately follow ing the cessation of hostilities, the Austrian banks were chiefly busy carrying out measures of an economic nature (whether emanating from the state or from organizations and individuals) which were a consequence of arrange- ments made between Austria and the new states, such as the liability for state bonds, etc. But very shortly afterwards, proper banking set in in Vienna which, beginning with the business in stocks and foreign ex- changes, grew in intensity, and with the reconstruction of industry and trade soon embraced all departments of normal banks.

Branch Reorganization in New States

A transformation and reorganization had to be worked out in the case of branches of Austrian banks situated in some of the new states where the poli- tical situation made it necessary to give to the branch of the Austrian bank the status of an independent institu- tion. The Czecho-Slovakian govern- ment, for instance, enacted restrictive regulations concerning the admission of branch establishments of foreign banks. Those which exist already must not carry on their business any longer than j5ve years, and even this short lease is made subject to conditions.

Under these circumstances, some Vienna banks preferred to reorganize their branches situated on Czecho- Slovakian territory and others are about to do the same. A similar policy is being adopted in the case of branches in what is now Poland and Jugo- slavia. These new banks are, of course, to a certain extent controlled by their mother-institutions which hold a considerable portion of their shares and have come to special arrangements with them. On the other hand, Vienna banks have lately begun to add

to the number of their branches in provincial towns of Austria. This policy is a consequence of the fact that the peasantry, comparatively speaking, is much better off now-a-days than the town folk and that, in this sense, country places have gained in economic importance at the expense of the capital.

Side by side with the branches of Vienna banks, however, new banks have arisen in the Succession States which were intended partly to cater to the special wants of the agrarian popu- lation and partly, also, to apply them- selves to the trade in foreign exchanges.

The chief interest of Austrian banks centers in the financing of industry but of late, especially in the last year, the strongly increasing transit trade of Vienna has afforded opportunity for all sorts of banking transactions. "^Tiat the industrial clients demanded of the banks was that they should be provided with capital for obtaining raw material and labor, the nominal cost of both hav- ing risen to exorbitant figures, and thus enabled gradually to resume their work in the home market and export trade. The close connection which ha.s always existed in Austria between banks and industrial establishments greatly facili- tated that task and the latter could generally rely upon being backed up in case of need by their banks. On the other hand, many industrial under- takings have increased their capital generally with the assistance of banks which assisted willingly with a view to relieving the pressure on their own means which would otherwise have been taxed too highly.

Stock Exchange Dealings

Complicated problems of a technical and economic nature had to be solved by the banks through the constantly growing interest of the public in stock exchange dealings, a tendency which

36

The Annals of the American Academy

has become peculiarly marked since the autumn of 1920, the banks makirif^ a point as far as lay in I heir j)o\ver of keeping away mere fi,aml)lers from transactions in stocks and foreign exchanges. A comparison of figures j)ublished in the yearly reports of the Wiener Giro-itnd-Ka.sseti-Verein for

1918, 1919 and 1920 throws light on the increasing importance for banks and bankers of the exchange business. The Wiener Giro-und Kassen-Verein, it may be stated here, is entrusted Avith the technical liquidation of all dealings in stocks done at the Exchange and in addition to that, although there is also a Clearing Association of the Austro- Hungarian Bank, with the clearing between the various banks and bankers.

The total turnover of the Wiener Giro-nnd Kassen-Verein amounted as follows :

1. In kronen: 1918, 99,904,291;

1919, 115,354,377; and 1920, 593,- 214,985.

2. In the number of checks drawn on the institution: 1918, 95,092; 1919, 79,686; and 1920, 255,736.

I may mention in this connection that the system of stock clearing which is employed at the Vienna Exchange, and which is carried out by the Wiener Giro-und-Kassen-Verein, is rather vmique in its way. It is now being imitated in Prague and Budapest, and by far surpasses that customary in Paris and Berlin. This system makes it possible to clear gigantic turnovers in a very short time with a staff rela- tively small. Leaving other causes out of the ciuestion, it would appear that this high efficiency is one of the reasons why stock exchanges in the new states did not develop intensively. It is a fact that organization and technical superiority play a far bigger part than is commonly thought. The security warranted by a thoroughly efficient clearing is of decisive influence for the

development and the importance of the Exchange.

Ill other res[)ccts, also, for instance in their safes and treasurer vaults which are constructed according to the newest and most ajoproved systems, Vienna banks stand on a remarkably high level. Vienna boasts of the most modern bank palaces. I need mention only the Wiener Bank-Verein, the Niederosterreichisch e Escompte-Gesell- schaft and the stately pile of the Credit Anstalt, which is not yet finished. On a great number of other l)ank premises, reconstructions and improvements have been effected. This modern con- struction in addition to their splendid organization and their highly trained staff makes Vienna banks extremely capable economic instruments.

Foreign Exchanges

The disruption of the currency which set in shortly after the collapse of the Monarchy and in consequence of which the new states evolved separate money standards has greatly stimulated deal- ings in foreign exchanges in Austria. Such dealings, contrary to what was the case up to the autumn of 1920, are now free of government restrictions. There is a clearing in foreign exchanges under the supervision and guidance of the Devisenzentrale, State Office for Regulating the Trade in Foreign Ex- changes, which since its coming into existence has been able, with very few exceptions, to procure to industry and commerce those foreign exchanges which they required. Restrictive reg- ulations, however, are still in force with regard to the Austrian krone which is transferable from one "inland" ac- count to another only. Its transfer to a "foreign" account is subject to the granting of a special permit by the Devisenzentrale.

The fact that since this time last year so many new banks and banking

Austrian Banks

37

houses have been established, all de- pendent upon making a profit out of the trade in foreign exchanges, will alone serve to show that Vienna has become an important center for the trade in this commodity.

Balance sheets of the larger banks, for 1920, as far as they were available up to time of writing, are shown in Table 1.

An examination of these figures will give a clear insight into the economic situation of the moment which is charac- terized by a large gross revenue, high working expenses, enormous taxation and large pecuniary requirements of customers. A brisk demand for stocks has been alluded to above as being typi- cal of the last few years . This tendency has created interest abroad in Austrian stocks and as a natural consequence, a still stronger demand at home.

Influx of Foreign Capital

Austrian economists have been watching this phenomenon with some- what mixed feelings. A general clear- ance sale was ironically spoken of in connection therewith, and fear was entertained in some quarters lest Austria's industry and banks pass completely under foreign control. As far as can be judged now, however, the influx of foreign capital has proved beneficial to Austrian concerns; for it must not be overlooked that the Peace Treaty had brought Austria into a position which made her completely incapable of surmounting by her own strength the inimcrous restrictions and impediments to trade with other coun- tries, and a resumption of relations was made possible only l)y the inter- ested assistance of foreign capital.

On the other hand, from the point of view of foreign capitalists it may be said that investments in culturally and industrially developed Austria stand an excellent chance of proving advan-

tageous. Many industrial undertak- ings and banks involve shares of foreign capital, a Belgian and an American group being at present interested in the Wiener Bank Verein and in the Credit Anstalt fur Handel mid Gewerbe, respectively; French capital, in the Boden-Credit Anstalt and in the Wiener Kommerzialhank, and Italian financial circles, in the Niederdsterreichische Escompte-Gesellschaft. Two banks, viz., the Ldnderhanh and the Anglo- oesterreichische Bank, are the object of special state legislation. It is in- tended to convert the Ldnderhank into a French and the Anglo-oester- reichische Bank into a British banking institution, and to transfer their head- quarters to Paris and London respec- tively; but this change of nationality has to be authorized by the Austrian legislature. Bills to that effect are at present under parliamentary discussion. Foreign interest in Austrian banks generally took shape when, and where a bank was about to raise its capital. Raising of the capital had continually to be resorted to, in intervals of various duration, these last two years, in order to balance the depreciation of money which had its counterpart in the enormously increased figures of all bank transactions. It is only fair to say, however, that such measures were decided upon and finally taken very cautiously and did not by a long way keep pace with the depreciation of the currency. Table 2 shows the increase of capital of the various banks.

Rate of Exchange

The favorable opinion of the Ex- change in regard to these transactions is proved by the fact that the new shares were invariably taken over smoothly and that the syndicates for their issue were very short-lived. Another pn)t)f is furnished ])y the exchange value of shares.

38

The Annals of the American Academy

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Austrian Banks

39

Table 2 Increase in the Nominal Capital of Important Banks

Inst it id

1911t

1917

1918

1920

1921 p3. 15. 3.

Anglobank

Bankverein

Boden-Credit-Anstalt

Centralbank d. deutsch

Spark

Credit Anstalt

Depositenbank

Escomptegesellsch

Landerbank

"Mercur"

Unionbank

Verkehrsbank

Kommerzialbank

Wr. Lombard-u Escompte-

bank

100,000,000

150,000,000

54,000,000

30,000,000

150,000,000

33,000,000

110,000,000

130,000,000

50,000,000

70,000,000

50,400,000

10,000,000

130,000,000

150,000,000

63,000,000

30,000,000 170,000,000

60,000,000 100,000,000 130,000,000

66,000,000 100,000,000

65,000,040

30,000,000

15,000,000

150,000,000

180,000,000

75,000,000

50,000,000 200,000,000

80,000,000 100,000,000 160,000,000

80,000,000 100,000,000

75,040,000

45,000,000

20,000,000

200,000,000 300,000,000 105,000,000

80,000,000 320,000,000 300,000,000 150,000,000 160,000,000 180,000,000 150,000,000 175,000,000 150,000,000

100,000,000

300,000,000 300,000,000 150,000,000

120,000,000 400,000,000 300,000,000 150,000,000 160,000,000 200,000,000 200,000,000 175,000,000 150,000,000

100,000,000

The favorable opinion of bank shares entertained in competent quarters is, of course, largely due to their lucra- tiveness. Table 3 shows the percent- age of dividend paid by banks.

Immediate Problems

The preceding sketch will not leave on the mind of the reader an adequate

impression of the task set before Austrian banks unless he remembers constantly how their will to work and their efforts to revert to normal busi- ness have to struggle against the obstacles erected by the Treaty of St. Germain. The budgetary position of the state, and in connection therewith the currency question, the economic

Table 3 Amount of the Dividends, in Per cent, Paid by Important Banks

Institut

Anglo-osterr. Bank

Wiener I?ank-Verein

Boden-Credit-Anstalt

Credit Anstalt

Esconij)te-Gesellschaft . . . .

Landerbank

Unionbank

Centralbank d. deutsch.

Spark

Depositenbank

"Mereur"

Alig. Verkehrsbank

Wr. Lonibard-u. Eseoiiiple-

bank

Wr. Kommerzialbank gegr.

1916

1913

8 1/3

8 20

10 5/8 10 1/2

7 1/2

8 1/2

8 1/2 7 , 85 0 1/2

1915

8 3/4

7 20 10 11

6

7 1/2

4 1/2

8 1/2 7

6 3/7

1917

10 5/6

8 1/2 22

123/16 12

8 9

5 1/2

9 3/4 9 1/2

8 4/7

5 6

1919

10

8 1/2 20

117/8 12

()

9

0 1/2 10 10 10

1920

12 20 15 14

11

12 1/2 12 1/2 12.85

10

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The Annals of the American Academy

policy of llie new states, the financial arrangements to be made with them, the payment of pre-war debts (espe- cially kronen del)ts) constitute so many problems which the managers of Aus- trian banks have always to keep before I hem and wliich continually remind them that the greatest efforts are needed to surmount these difficulties.

Austria is a small country, ])ut it is to be doubted whether even among the larger countries of the world there can

be found one upon wliicli is iufuuilx'ut the solution of so many coinj)lifat('(l problems as confront this advaiifcd post of western c\dture in Central Europe. It is therefore only natural that an appreciation of the Austrian, or more especially the Vienna, question should take this fact into account. Conditions in Austria have become sufficiently consolidated to make clear- ly discernible the economic bearing of the problem as shown in the balance sheet of the banks.

CHAPTER VIII

Traffic and Transport in Austria

Compiled by tlie Ministry for Transport and TraflSc

THE transport system of Austria is not the necessary effect of an economic evolution; it is indeed, like the state itself, nothing but the torso, the western fragment of a once united system. Vienna, the former center of traffic, is now situated, with all its central apparatus, on the periphery of a small country. This fact should not be overlooked in considering the trans- port system and the separate means of transportation.

Austrian Railways

The total railway net of the Austrian state railways has, including the small railways, a length of 6,940.05 kilome- ters; of these 3,415.79 kilometers called Bundesbohnen fall to the share of rail- ways in the possession of the govern- ment; 302.45 kilometers, to railways belonging to private societies but operated for the government, and 836.76 kilometers, to state railways operated by private individuals; so that 4,555 kilometers are at present operated by the state.

The length of the private railways

amounts now to 9'21.81 kilometers. The share of the Siidbahn Gesellschaft, whose total line was formerly in Austria and extended over 2,334 kilometers from Vienna to Triest, amounts now in Austria only to 703 kilometers, but the company has the administration of 195 kilometers of local railways in Lower Austria and Styria. The Aspang rail- way, 87 kilometers, Vienna-Aspang, is administrated by a shareholders' com- pany. Independent local railways ex- tend to a total amount of 1,072 kilo- meters.

In old Austria there were over 25 kilometers of small railways moved by steam, 362 kilometers, by electricity, and 1.24 kilometers of cable roads.

Only the following railways of the Austrian Republic have not been di- minished: the western lines (Vienna- Bregenz, Vienna-Passau) and the line to the south (Vienna- Villach-Tarvis) at the Italian frontier. The Siidbahn- Gesellschaft carries traffic only to the Jugo-Slavian frontier at Spielfeld, though its lines go further on over Jugo-Slavian and Italian territories,

Traffic and Transport in Austria

41

until they reach Triest, part of the former Austrian Monarchy. Two of the principal junctions have fallen to the lot of the Succession States, i.e., Marburg to Jugo-Slavia and Franzens- feste to Italy.

New Frontier Lines and the Railways

To remove the disadvantages of the present frontier lines, the countries now having parts of the Siidbahn, Austria, Italy, Jugo-Slavia, have concluded an agreement, the so-called Regime Provi- soire, which has to remain in force until a final solution of the Siidbahn problem. This agreement secures the Siidbahn an independent continuation and uni- formity. For the administration of the Siidbahn the same regulations are in force as for the state railways. The question of the employers, also, is managed in the same manner.

Of the northern and eastern lines, the Nordbahn ( Vienna-Krakau) , Nord- westbahn (Vienna-Prag-Tetschen-Bod- enbach) and Franz-Josefsbahn (Vienna- Prague and Vienna-Eger), but frag- ments of 41 to 1G4 kilometers belong to Austria. By the fixation of the fron- tiers by the Peace Treaty, the transit stations, Gmiind, Znaim, Grussbach and Lundenburg, which are provided with the accommodations necessary to centers of traffic, were given over to the Czecho-Slovakian Repul)lic. In conse- quence, those parts of the railway lines which remain in Austria lack stations al)le to collect and to dispose of the flood of goods coming into that country. The technical ])lants of the Gmiind and Lundenburg stations were es])ecially accommodatcid to the traffic in the direction of Vienna, in which direction went heavily loaded freight trains; over these lines, the large coal trans- ports were brought from the Czechian and Silesian coal districts having a large export industry.

It was a natural consequence of the formation of new states that customs frontiers should be erected, which render passenger and freight traflSc from Vienna to Hungary and Roumania, and vice versa, by the means of pass- port and ciLstoms duties, much more difficult, and indeed, condemn the double-railed mainline, Vienna-March- egg, formerly very much used, to total lack of traffic, the traffic from Hungary passing Bruck on the Leitha though that line is of smaller capacity. Some im- provements in the traffic of the Succes- sion States have been made by different conferences; the final removal of the many remaining traffic difficulties be- tween these states will be the task of the International Conference in Porto- rose, planned for September.^

The unfavorable development of railway traffic caused by the War, and its consequences from which not even the victorious countries have been spared, naturally was felt very liea\nly by the Austrian railways. The Aus- trian railways were reduced by the Treaty of St. Germain to the .Vlpine lines, which labor under difficult grade- building and traffic conditions, and are not much frequented. The Austrian railways were furtlier weakeneil by the tendencies of the Succession States to withdraw from traffic relations dating back for centuries, while, on the other hand, the Peace Treaty imposed heavy burdens on all Austrian roads for the benefit of the Succession States. Fur- thermore, the continued depreciation of the currency in Austria and the continual dro]) in the ])urchasing ])ower of the Austrian krone abroad, inunense- ly increased the expenditure for salaries and, still further, the expeniliture for materials, while the liniil for raising the tariff was soon reached, due to the

' Editor's note. Tliis clinptor was fonii)ilod in July.

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pauperization of the masses. But the greatest increase in exjKMiditiire was caused l)y tlie loss of tlie coal su[)ply districts brought about by the Peace Treaty. This loss resulted not only in the dependency of the Austrian coal supply on the good-will of the neighbor- ing states, which compel Austria to take coal of low grade, but also, because of the extraordinary low rate of the Austrian exchange abroad, in the rais- ing of the price of coal to 180 times the pre-war price.

The bad business results to which this condition must lead are indicated by the following figures concerning the state railways which form the greatest part of the Austrian railway net and therefore determine the general pros- pect for the entire system. According to the preliminary budget for the pres- ent year — definite balances have not yet been published — an expenditure of 16.6 billions kronen stands against an annual revenue of 7.8 billions kronen (chiefly transport returns) so that, including the .4 billions kronen for inter- est and redemption of railway debt, we find a deficit of 9.2 billions. Of the total expenditure about 8 billions kronen fall to the share of salaries, etc., the rest, to the share of materials. Half of this expenditure for materials is de- signed for the coal for trains, and of this, in consequence of the bad rate of exchange, more than three billions kronen are accounted for in losses caused by the currency depreciation, which would be spared if the peace parity were reached.

A lasting improvement in this situa- tion can be produced only by the recon- struction of economic life and the abolition of the impediments to traSic. The Austrian railways are endeavoring, either by the utmost reduction in ex- penditure or by far-reaching raise of revenue to oppose a further diminution of working capacity and revenues.

Salauiios and Employment

The Austrian state railways employ about 90,000 jxtsoiis. Of these alwut 75,000 are definitely em])loycd with annual salaries, and 15,000 are assist- ants, whose employment is revocable and who have only day wages.

The payment of definite employes consists of a regular salary, plus extra salary graduated according to locality; that is, these employes may be divided into five groups whose i)ay varies accord- ing to the price level of the dift'erent places of employment. For instance, this extra salary amounts to 100 per cent of the regular salary in Vienna, and in the locality of the lowest paid group, to only 40 per cent. The wages of the as- sistants, too, differ according to group- ing. In addition, all railway employes now receive "extra dearth remunera- tions" by fixed rates, i.e., extra dearth remunerations and extra remunerations for the members of the family, which are reduced with the diminution of price level.

The payment of definite railroad employes in the tenth year of employ- ment in Vienna, the family consisting •of a wife and one child, amounts yearly (regular salary, extra pay according to locality of employment, extra dearth remunerations and "family-members remunerations" included) to:

Kronen For employes witli academic training

(engineers, etc.) 86.160

For employes with intermediate-school learning (employes in the railway stations or in the administrative

offices) 80.568

For engine-drivers 77.404

For conductors 73.252

For railway guards 71.888

The employes used in the traffic service, itself, are given shares of the working result, according to their different work, in the form of set prices (piece-work) . Piece-work is introduced.

Traffic and Transport in Austria

43

particularly in manual and technical work, as premiums, especially in the actual traffic and train service.

All questions concerning the employes as a whole or in their separate cate- gories, or affecting the character of fundamental regulations; further, all measures concerning social or economic institutions for the employed, and, finally and all matters concerning the pensions of employes, are regulated by mutual consent of the authority passing the regulation and the elected repre- sentative of the employed.

As far as the up-keep is concerned, long neglected during the War, the railways could make up for the loss of time, but insurmountable difficulties still prevent extensive building activity. Only the principal problems, such as the establishment of institutions neces- sitated by the fixation of new frontiers and new traffic directions and the erection of buildings for the employes, can be considered. Then, too, lines must be provided to meet an increased pressure of 16 tons on the axle (Achs- druck) and on main lines, 20 tons.

The traffic policy of the state rail- ways has to some extent a fiscal char- acter, in that it varies according to the financial situation of the state. The passenger and the freight tariffs have been raised at several times and reach a considerable height. The freight tariff has already surpassed the world parity (currency depreciation). In general, on the state railways and the more important private lines, the freight rates have increased 150 times, the passenger tariff, 100 times the pre- war rate. Direct tariffs for the traffic with foreign countries could not be fixed on account of the fluctuating situation.

Further, on account of the extraordi- nary conditions it was impossible to put into force, unreduced, the norms of the International Convention, these

being in pre-war time the general legis- lative basis of the international railway freight traffic. The difficulties men- tioned have brought about the conclu- sion of special agreements between Austria and the Succession States, providing for the application measures adopted by the Convention of Berne with some exceptions and restrictions. Only concerning the traffic between the Austrian and the Czecho-Slovakian Republic was it possible to put the agreement in force without restrictions.

Electrification Projects and the Railways

As Austria is almost entirely depend- ent for her coal supply upon foreign sources, after the dissolution of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy it was the first care of the railway administra- tion to make use of the inland water powers for the railways. At once necessary technical and legal measures were taken concerning the Salzburg- Innsbruck-Bregenz line to the fron- tier, the Tauernrailway (Schwarzbach- St. Veit-Attnang-Puchheim) and the Salzkammergutrailway . The execution of these measures began immediately.

In the foreground stands the Inns- bruck-Bludenz line (Arlberg railway) which is es])ecially ada])ted for electri- fication because of the intensity of its traffic, its steepness, the large water powers near to it, and its long distance from the coal districts. The water power works of the Rutz near Inns- bruck and of the Spullersea in \'or- arlberg are also destined for railway use and the work of electrification has already begun. The railway line Salzbm-g-Schwarzbach-St. Veit and Schwarzbach-St. Veit-Spittal at the Millstiittersea, too, is to be supplied with electric power from the ])ower stations of Stubach and ^lallnitz and the construction of both stations has already been started.

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TIio building' of electric eiif^ines has Ik'^uii, ])U.sseM<i,cr train eiij^ines, engines for lighter ex])ress trains and freight trains (two put together can draw even the heavy trains) and freight train engines for heavy freight trains on the steep line of the Arlberg.

The financial issue is a very difficult part of the electrification ])rol)lem. A law provides for long term investment loans, especially with the help of foreign capital. But, up until now, these could not be realized and, therefore, the expenses had to be met by govern- ment means. However, the State Railways Administration hopes that the credit action of the League of Nations may change the present situation and provide Austria with the means neces- sary for electrification.

Inland Navigation

Of the Austrian waterways, the Danube and some of its tributaries and the lakes of the Alps are used for navi- gation. But only the navigation on the Danube is of real importance. The first Austrian navigation project was the Erste Donau-Dampf schiff ahrts- Gesellschaft. It possessed at the end of 1920, 146 steamships with 69,690 H.P. and 887 trackers, and, later on. floating docks, hoists, etc. In these figures are comprised the ships on which embargoes were laid or which were sunk, during the War, so that it will only be possible to state the real number of ships after the execution of the Peace Treaty. In the year 1920 the steamships could registrate 77,965 hours of passage and 772,877 kilometers, the trackers, 1,033 kilometers. In 1913, the last year before the War, these posts amounted to 272,556 hours and 2,709,310 kilometers and 4,679,444 kilometers of trackers. The passenger movement amounted in the year 1913 to 741,594 persons. The Erste Donau- Dampf schiffahrt-Gesellschaft possesses

shipyards in Korticuburg and Obuda (Hungary), coal mines in IV-cs (Hun- gary), a railway line from Mohacs to Pecs, and further ship])ing places along the Danube; the modern shipping j)lace of Vienna is particularly remarkable.

Sea Navigation

According to Article 225 of the Treaty of St. Germain, Austria, having no seacoast at all, yet has the right to hold a merchant fleet at sea. A law dated March 17, 1921 makes the necessary legal })rovisions for its flag- ging right.

Post

All legislation concerning the post and its administration falls within the sphere of the government. The ad- ministration is led by state officials and the highest post board is a department of the ministry for traffic and transport, whose chief is general manager of the post.

To the post administrations of Vien- na, Graz, Klagenfurt, Linz and Inns- bruck, belong 2,100 post offices and 2,120 branch post offices. Eleven hundred post offices send rural post- men out to carry letters, parcels, etc. into the country. There are further travelling posts and numerous post- men.

All post offices are central receiving offices for the post office savings bank. Of these, 1,725 post offices attend also to the telegraph and 1,350 to the tele- phone. The number of the officials amounted on December 31, 1920 to 9,691, of whom 219 were versed in jurisprudence and 22,876 subaltern officials, workmen, etc.

Telegraph and Telephone

The Austrian telegraph and tele- ])hone is administrated by the govern- ment, i.e., one department of the ministry of traflSc and transport.

INLVNUFACTURES OF THE REPUBLIC OF AuSTRlA

45

Directly under its administration are the chief telegraph offices in Vienna, Graz, Innsbruck, Linz and Klagenfurt. After the union of the Burgenland (Western Hungary) with the Republic of Austria according to the Peace Treaty of St. Germain, a further chief telegi'aph office in Odenburg will be added.

Next follow the independent tele- graph and telephone offices. In Vienna there exists a central telegraph station with 36 simple Hughes apparatus, 40 Hughes duplex aparatus, 4 double- fold Baudot apparatus, 3 twofold Bau- dot apparatus, 7 Siemens telegraph ap- paratus (Duplex), etc.

Besides, there are in Vienna and the provinces seventy-six independent tele- graph offices. The whole net of wire includes cables of the length of 48,000 kilometers, covering distances of 18,000 kilometers. The telephone communi- cation is administrated by thirty-three independent telephone offices includ- ing 79,467 main partners and 40,054 secondary partners.

Altogether, 11,500 persons belong to

the telegraph and telephone adminis- tration, of whom 500 are in the ad- ministrating and in the building service.

Aerial Navigation

The state of aerial navigation in Austria has been determined by the Treaty of St. Germain. According to the terms of this treaty, all army aero- nautic material, airships, motors, han- gars, balloons and so on, had to be de- livered to the Allied and Associated Powers and those not ordered for for- eign transport, destroyed.

Since Austria had no private air- ships, her aeronautic activity is at present at a standstill. Its renewal will be possible only after the removal of the prohibition to build, to import or to export airships and their parts. The Paris Conference of the Allied Powers is willing to give to the Aus- trian government hangars and other aeronautic equipment for the supply of four aviation fields, Aspern, near Vienna, Thalerhof, near Graz, Klagen- furt and Innsbruck.

CHAPTER IX

The Manufactures of the Republic of Austria

By Dr. Siegmuxd Sciiilder

Secretary of the Commercial Museum of Vienna and Privatdocent at the University of Vienna

IN those provinces which in Novem- ber, 1918, united to form the state of German Austria, the later Re])ublic of Austria, there existed all sorts of manu- factures in ])rc-war times, which con- tinued even through the war. Simple handicrafts and repairing work were to be found in both towti and country, beside gigantic industrial concerns, such as the Osterreichische Alpine Montangesellschaft with its mines,

iron forges and iron industries in Northern Styria and Carinthia; the Aktiengesellschaft Kru])p at Borndorf for the manufacture of manifold ob- jects of base metals; tlie Steyrer Waf- fen und Kraftwagenfabrik, arms ami motor-car industry; the Puchschen Fahrradwerke, motorcycle works in Graz; the Lokomotivfabrik in Wiener Neustadt; the two railway carriage factories in Vienna and (iraz; the

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Voslauer Kammgarnspinnerei, lonfj wool .spiiininf:; mills, and the large breweries at Schwechat, near Vienna, and at Puntigam, near Graz.

During war-time some of these indus- tries sueli as the metal and ehemical factories, leather and shoe industries, were particularly flourishing inas- much as they had to supply military requirements and were not totally cut off from the sup])ly of raw materials. Diu-ing the War, also, several state enterprises were added to private manufactures. These state enter- prises were partly new ])rojects and partly enlargements, like the Arsenal in Vienna, the ammimition works in Wollersdorf and Blumau, etc.

Between the two extremes, i.e., be- tween handicrafts and the great manu- factures, were large numbers of various factories of medium size. The War put an end to many of these smaller concerns either through their man- agers' being called to arms, or through want of raw materials; on the other hand, if their directors happened to be exempt from military service, or if the concern itself could be managed by women and did not lack raw materials, many of these medium sized manu- facturers flourished as never before.

Effects of the Treaty of St. Germain

During the War established condi- tions underwent a great change which manifested itself in the adaptation of factories to the production of war re- quirements, in the lack of raw ma- terials, in government prohibition on the manufacture of luxuries, etc. Then, after the War, the distribution of old Austria among the Succession States by the terms of the Treaty of St. Germain, in many cases had a detri- mental effect on the industries remain- ing in the Republic of Austria. For example, sufficient spinning mills and

finishing works but })y far too few looms are at dis})osal of the textile manufactures. The tanneries lack the supply of skins and tanning materials from the agricultural and forest dis- tricts of former Austria-Hungary. The important iron mines and smelt- ing works in the Austrian Alpine prov- inces miss the necessary coal supply from the mining districts, which now belong to Czecho-Slovakia.

Still another effect of the treaty made itself disagreeably felt: namely, the fact that many of the great manu- factures had always had their seats in Vienna but their factories, mines, etc., in those parts of former Austria-Hungary at present belonging to Czecho-Slo- vakia, Poland, Rumania, Jugo- Slavia or Italy. In these outlying districts, as it happened, circumstances in pre-war times afforded better prospects for industrial work: an abundance of raw materials, semi-manufactured goods and fuel; favorable lines of communi- cation for export trade; moderate wages; low^ land prices and rents; occasionally, also, a lower taxation. Very often, indeed, only the commercial managements had their seat in Vienna.

Manufacture of Luxuries in Vienna

The disadvantages of the breaking- up of the former great Austro-Hunga- rian economic and customs unit were less felt by the manufactures of luxuries and objects of art in Vienna. Here at the Capital, such manufactures derived certain advantages from the general conditions in the great metropolis which were to be found scarcely else- where within Austria-Hungary; i.e., an innate and refined taste, a special skill in arts and crafts, surroundings en- couraging such faculties and talents and comparatively wealthy and pleas- ure-seeking customers. Vienna, in consequence, has been able to develop

IVIanufactures of the Republic of Austria

47

art objects to compare with the well known articles of Paris. In Vienna such products go by the name of fancy goods (Galanterieivarcn) and comprise a great number of objects for daily use and ornaments made of the most varied materials.

Beside fancy goods made of leather, trunk articles, and saddler's wares, these are knick-knacks, smoker's req- uisites, stationery, articles for office use, cutlery, decorative buttons, lamps and candlesticks, high class toys, turned and carved objects made of ivory, mother of pearl, tortoise shell, horn, gabalith celluloid, soap-stone, marble, fine wood and base metals (especially bronze and other alloys of tin, zinc, nickle and copper) including wrought iron. The objects of art made of silver, gold and platinum rank with the jewelry and church vessels for the fabrication of which Vienna has long been renowned. Another group of art objects is formed by art fabrics and clothes, elegant gowns and underwear for ladies and children, carpets, fancy shoes, furs, feathers for trimming and artificial flowers, felt hats and art needle-work on cambric.

We must further enumerate among the manufacture of luxuries at Vienna, musical instruments (especially pianos), billiard tables, fancy stationery, more particularly notepaper, envelopes, albums, visiting cards, view-cards, pictures and engravings, maps, wicker articles, high class furniture, and the products of the film manufactures, which have gained much importance because of the possibilities for exporta- tion after the War. For the rest, manufactures of luxuries are also to be found outside of Vienna in other cities of the Re])ublic of Austria, as for in- stance, stained glas^i at Iuns])ruck, potteries in Upper- Austria (Salzkam- mcrgut), wood carvings in a number of the Alpine districts, etc.

Another consequence of the new demarcation of Austria was frequently observed in certain branches of in- dustrial life which in the times of the old dual monarchy worked chiefly for home markets in a rather lax manner encouraged by protectionism. These manufactures were suddenly turned into export industries, within the narrowed customs and economic boundaries of the Austrian Republic. It is true that for some of these in- dustries adaptation to new conditions was facilitated by the fact that the rate of exchange of the Austrian krone in foreign countries dropped faster than the wages and other working costs of the industries went up in Austria.

Foreign Aid to IVLvnufactures

In many instances not a few foreign firms were induced to avail themselves of the Austrian industries for the fin- ishing up of various raw materials and semi-manufactured goods. For in- stance, German publishers made use of Austrian printing offices; Swiss packers, of the slaughter houses in the Austrian province of Vorarlberg. In the chap- ter on "Customs Policy," is given a more detailed description of this finish- ing up trade and of the means employed by the government to encourage it with the help of the customs and credit policy.

Besides, Austrian manufactures were allowed to profit by the short re- construction boom, which set in im- mediately after the Armistice and ended in the spring of lO'^O to make room for an inlernalioual economic crisis.

Austrian industry was the more in need of such aid as it had to labor under a number of verj" unfavorable conditions. In the first instance, we nuist menlion the lack of raw material, semi-manufactured goods and fuel. This, again, would seem a consequence of other grievances, especially the

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limiting of the Republic of Austria to ca territory hut iiuxlcr.itely ricli in natural resources and the political isolation of Austria, caused by the policy of the other Succession States, particularly of Czecho-Slovakia. It should not be overlooked, either, tliat the rapid (lci)re- ciation of the currency increased the purchasing power of foreign countries in Austrian markets and the conse- quent possibilities of selling Austrian I)roducts, while the purchasing power of Austrian manufacturers for foreign raw materials and semi-manufactured goods was sensibly diminished.

The Coal Shortage

The shortage of coal was particularly felt by those manufactures that use coal as an integral part of their prod- ucts, i.e., productions of calcium car- bide, or employ it in comparatively large quantities as in iron mills, in brick and cement yards (where coal shortage meant stoppage in the build- ing trade) , in other branches of metal- lurgy, in the calcination of magnesite, etc. For almost a year past, mutual compensation treaties with foreign countries have brought some relief, for example, the exchange of Austrian cement in Jugo-Slavia for the require- ments of iron works ever since the penetration of the German Stinnes concern into the Alpine Montangesell- schaft. For business reasons the haul- ing of iron ore in the Austrian Alpine provinces was limited to the two most easily excavated Erzberge (one between Eisenerz and Vordernberg in North- ern Styria, the other at Hiittenberg in Carinthia) by the Alpine Montange- sellschaft, the most prominent of the Austrian iron foundries, although in other parts of the Austrian Republic important beds of coal are to be found. Beside the Alpine Montangesell- schaft, must be mentioned the smaller iron foundries that have gained renown

throughout I lie world for their first (piality steel.

The output c)f injii ore amounted to two million tons in the last years be- fore the War but iuis since declined because of the generally unfavoral)le conditions of the Austrian Republic. The same is true in a comparatively smaller degree of the production of pig iron, which sank from 007,000 tons in 1913 to 110,000 tons in 1920, and, in 1919, even to 55,000 tons. In this ex- tremity, numerous hardware factories were forced to import semi-manufac- tured goods from Czecho-Slovakia and especiaUy from Germany, This was t he case with the very capable machine works making industrial and agricul- tural machines, the works engaged in the production of rolling stock, rail- way and building materials, the motor- car and bicycle factories, the ship- building yards on the Danube, the manufactures of cutlery, scythes, sick- les, etc.

The Austrian industries were forced to adapt themselves to all these unfa- vorable conditions. Apart from the fancy goods industries, the scarcity and high price of raw materials, semi- manufactured goods and fuel limited the manufactures to the production of articles in which the value of raw ma- terial and semi-manufactured goods falls short of the value of the labor involved. So instead of leather, leather shoes were exported; instead of any fabrics, clothing and underwear; instead of semi-manufactured paper, paper itself or rather paper-goods, stationery, prints, etc.

Domestic Encouragement

But Austria found a way out of those difficulties not only by making use of capital and labor in production of high class workmanship, but by giving preference to those branches of industries for which the raw materials

IVIanufactures of the Republic of Austria

4d

were, for the greater part, to be procured at home and to which the problem of fuel presented no great difficulties. Here it is w^ell to mention the greatest natural resource (some deposits of useful minerals excepted) of which the Austrian Republic can boast — namely, her forests. These cover 2.95 million hectare (about 7 million acres) and yield about 4.6 million cubic metres of wood, over 95 per cent soft wood. The manufacture of wooden articles in Austria comprises all sorts of wares from the simplest sawed and rough hewed goods to the finest wooden fancy articles and carv- ings. There are, in addition, planed woods, veneer and timber, common and select furniture, kitchen furniture, wooden parts of tools and machinery, toys made of wood, etc. Wood is further of great importance to the Austrian Republic as the raw material for the production of paper and paper goods. All this forms an integral part of the industrial activity within the narrowed boundaries of the Re- public of Austria.

Minerals of Austria

Ranging far behind wood with its manifold uses and the iron industries must be named the three principal mineral raw materials of the Republic of Austria, magnesite, graphite and talcum. Magnesite is principally used as a raw material in iron foundries. In consequence of various difficulties, the almost inexhaustible deposits in the Austrian Alpine provinces ((\s- pecially in Veitsch and further at Kraubath, both de{)Osits in Northern Styria) yielded an output of only -9,971 tons raw magnesite and 5'-2,5(!() tons calcinated magnesite for ex})()rt in 10'-20. At ])resent (Jermany is the ])rincipal buyer of magnesite, a capac- ity in which the United States had appeared before the war.

Graphite is found in Styria (particu- larly near Mautern-St. Michael) of a hard non-sulphurous kind which is principally used to make crucibles for casting steel. Besides, there are smaller deposits of graphite in the North West of Lower Austria (up to Spitz on the Danube) as continuations of the South Bohemian graphite de- posits. The production of the last year of peace, 1913, within the territory of the present Republic of Austria amounted to 17,282 tons and far ex- ceeded the home reciuirements, which, it is true, are dependent on foreign countries for some special grades. In 1920, the production of the Austrian Republic amounted to only 11,500 tons.

Talcum is to be found in several places in the x\lpine provinces but in especially large cpiantities and very good quality at Mautern (Northern Styria). Immediately before the War its output amounted to not quite 15,000 tons yearly. It is not only used for home demand in Austrian industries, but is also to a great extent refined for export according to the various manners of its employment in powders, paints, tooth-paste, as filling material in the paper industry, finish- ing material in the textile industry, as non-lubricating and polishing ma- terial free from fat in numerous indus- tries such as potteries and the glass industry, etc.

Not only arc the sources of old, well- known raw material energetically ex- ploited in Austria but attem})ts are made to discover new ones or to utilize others, neglected or less known up to the present. Apart from endeavors, dating back to war-time, thoroughly to investigate the nature and usefulness of the abundant and manifold i)lants of economic value found in the Aus- trian Alpine districts, interest lias chiefly centered in tlu^ mineral re- sources. It has for instance been

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possible since the autumn of 1920 to become indejjendent of tlu; sui)i)ly of North Bohemian caohne by tlie dis- covery of quite a good quahty of this ma- terial in Upper Austria and so to lay a foundation for china manufacture in the Austrian Repul)lic.

The fabrication of aluminum con- ducted with the help of the Alpine Avater powers has suffered very severely from the lack of the raw material, bauxit, ever since the collapse of the Monarchy in the autumn of 1918. Diligent mineralogical and geological research succeeded in discovering this mineral in Upper Austria and Salz- burg and in stimulating a new develop- ment of the aluminum industry.

The gold mining which was carried on in the Alpine provinces, especially in Salzburg, to a comparatively large extent in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries fell into disuse later on, ow- ing partly to the unfavorable natural causes, descent of glaciers, and partly to the expulsion of the Protestant miners. But in the course of the last year gold mining has again been taken up with greater zeal as a good capital investment and met with some suc- cess, especially in the territories of Gastein and Rauris.

The coal output which still remains short of the demand has been raised on the one hand by the exploitation of coal mines neglected till now, and on the other hand by more intense ex- ploitation of the deposits already worked which already show an in- crease of from not quite two million tons in 1919 to about two and one- half million tons in 1920. It is true

that for the greatest part brown coal is hauled. The oil slate (Olschiefer) deposits in Northern-Tirol which had already been exploited on a moderate scale for some time have been worked more intensively ever since the summer of 1920. They are to furnish the raw material for some chemical works.

Nationalization

During the first two years of the Re{)ublic of Austria while the Social Democratic party played an important, and sometimes even a leading part in the government, eager attempts were made to create industries on the basis of nationalization (Gemeimvirtschaft) or as half private enterprises. Some municipalities of larger towns that are in the hands of the Social Demo- cratic party, Vienna, Wiener Neustadt, Graz, etc., have pursued this line of action since the autumn of 1920 and the same may be said of the organiza- tions of consumers in town and coun- tryside, cooperative societies and agri- cultural purchasing societies. They are tackling the problems of the ex- ploitation of the water powers, electric plants, coal mines, mills, bakeries, the production of medicines, the procuring of agricultural implements and ma- chinery, seeds and sundry other agri- cultural requirements, the shoe indus- tries, the manufacture of saddles, leather goods and the weaving and making up of textiles, etc.

But none of these attempts have so far been so greatly successful as materially to discredit the old estab- lished system of free capitalistic initia- tive.

Austria's Trade

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CHAPTER X

Austria's Trade

By HoFRAT Professor Anton Schmid

Director of the High School of Commerce in Vienna

TRADE is of decisive importance for Austria and especially for Vienna. Agriculture and mining are unable to meet the demand made upon them by the population. The manu- factures lack raw materials and other means of fabrication. Despite the greatest exertions made by the govern- ment and all classes of the population, only a comparatively small part of the demand for raw materials and manu- factured goods could be furnished by home production. Through trade alone would it seem possible, therefore, to obtain the necessary raw materials. If amply provided with raw materials Austria could also manufacture high class specialties in fancy goods on a large scale. In order to dispose of this surplus of production highly developed trade would again be needed.

To a certain degree the very exist- ence of Austria and Vienna can be as- sured only by an enormous development of trade and commerce. The founda- tions for such a development are already laid, since Austria by geographical posi- tion appears eminently suited to form a connecting link for the trade between the North and the South, the West and the East of Europe. Then, too, Vienna, beside all kinds of institutions needed for carrying on trade and traf- fic boasts, in the first instance, banks and other similar organizations, insur- ance companies, communications, for- warding agents, storehouses, etc. Just after the break-down of the Auslro- Hungarian Monarchy the natural and historical importance of Vienna as an international, financial and commercial

center in Central Europe re-asserted itself and has grown ever since.

When the unhappy War was over, the home trade found itself chiefly occupied with foodstuffs and the ne- cessities of life. Very often specula- tors caught hold of these valuable articles and raised their price inordi- nately, despite the most severe pre- ventive measures. This questionable trade, carried on as it is chiefl\' by foreigners, injures the reliable, old- established indigenous merchants jis well as the population, the economic life and the currency; but it will doubtless cease immediately when necessities of life can be thrown into the markets in sufficient quantities.

The weekly markets in the larger towns, the cattle markets and the trade carried on by hucksters are important for home trade. Owing to the difficul- ties of communication, markets and fairs have gained in importance. In Vienna regular public sales by auction of objects of art, articles manufactured by the arts and crafts, and antiques are held. At the public pawn broker's office and repository (^ ersatz untl \ er- wahramt Dorotheum) new and sec- ond-hand goods are sold by auction almost daily.

Most of the commerce between the Succession States and Austria-Hungary is actually or financially carrictl on through the intermediary of \ ionna. If the Allied Powers really mean to keep up the independence of Austria and \ ionna, Ihoy can achieve this only by granting correspondingly lii(jh crediia, in order to pay up Austrian

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currency, and by promoting Austria's manufactures and trade to tlie ut- most. Unfortunately, Austrian trade is much hampered by various measures adopted by neighboring countries, whereas, perhaps, if tliese countries were to study their own interests, they would guard the independence of Austria,

Three great valleys following the main direction of the mountain range and four side valleys in the Alps, all of which are traversed by railway lines, form the natural network of traffic for the trade of Austria. From west to east the Danube forms the important line of commercial communication, but it is far from having been properly utilized because Austria could not command the necessary funds for en- larging the ports of Vienna, Korneu- burg and Linz on the Danube and stimulating the traffic.

Next to Vienna the most important commercial centers are Graz, Inns- bruck, Linz, Salzburg, Klagenfurt, Bregenz, Villach, Wiener-Neustadt, St. Polten, Baden, Steyr, Wels, Krems.

The most important articles of Austrian trade are at present as follows : wood and wooden articles, iron, and iron mongery, paper and paper goods, (stationery), machinery, apparatus, textile fabrics, clothes, grain, legumi- nous plants, flour, vegetables, fats, fuel, chemical products, mechanical instruments, watches, leather and fancy goods and the so-called "Vien- nese articles" — ready-made clothes, furniture, cars and carriages, leather goods, articles for smokers, works of art, articles produced by the arts and crafts and cigarette paper.

The imports arranged according to quantity comprise: coal, coke, grain, vegetables and vegetable products, sugar, all kinds of foodstuffs, iron and iron mongery, stone-, china- and glassware, pottery, minerals, mineral oils, raw materials for textiles, chemi-

cals, machinery and apparatus, salt, raw materials and other materials used in manufacture.

The princlj)al articles for export ar- ranged according to quantity are : wood and wooden articles, minerals, espe- cially magnesite, grai)hite, lime, stones, ores, talcum, iron, and iron mongery, offal, paper and stationery, vegetal)les and fruit, machinery, apparatus, wear- ing apparel, cars, chemicals, books, works of art, glass- and chinaware.

Three-quarters of the total imports consist of coal and coke, grain, legumi- nous plants, rice and flour. Sugar and other foodstuffs rank next. It is most satisfactory to state the in- creased import of industrial raw mate- rials particularly cotton, wool, hemp, jute, hides, skins, tanning materials, India rubber, leather, iron, raw metal, together with a decrease in the importa- tion of their manufactured articles. The rising importation of manure salts and other manure is also a matter of satisfaction. The increased export is in the first place to be attributed to the greater exportation of wood, metal, ores, magnesite, and further to that of cotton fabrics, woolen materials, hats and umbrellas, ready-made clothes, stationery, India rubber goods, shoes, furniture and other wooden articles, cement, hardware, colors, soaps, and chemicals (especially vitriol of copper) .

More than half of the imports come from Germany, one-fourth from Czecho-Slovakia, whereas one-fourth of the exported goods go to Italy, one- fourth to Czecho-Slovakia, and smaller fractions to Germany, Hungary, Switzerland, Jugo-Slavia and Poland. Unfortunately, the large Viennese trade with the western countries, with NJy Russia and countries overseas, which "~~ had been flourishing before the War, could not be resumed to such an ex- tent as to ensure even the most preca- rious existence for Austria and Vienna.

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The transit trade is very considerable in all sorts of fuel, cotton yarn and cot- ton fabrics, apparatus, salt, foodstuffs, sugar, minerals, iron and hardwares, chemicals, beverages, wool and woolen goods, ready-made clothing, stationery, glass-, china- and earthenware, cars, mechanical instruments, watches, mat- ches, candles, soaps and offal.

Whereas in 1919 the import came up to scarcely 40 millions kronen and the export scarcely to 10 millions kronen, the import rose to 14.5 millions kronen during the first quarter of 1921 against 11.4 millions during the corresponding period of 1920. The export rose from 1.9 millions kronen in the first quarter of 1920 to 3.8 millions in the first quarter of 1921. The import showed an increase of 28, the export, of 100 per cent. But unfortunately the ex- port continues to form only one-fourth of the import, whereas for the sake of her mere existence Austria ought to export much more than she imports.

Only the exceedingly large finishing up trade, for which America, England, France, Italy, Belgium and the Suc- cession States of Austria-Hungary should aUow her credits and raw materials to facilitate the selling of the finished articles in their own commercial centers, may help to save Austria from utter ruin in which Europe and the

overseas countries would be involved to a much higher degree then it can be imagined at present.

Vienna's innate vitality has so far stood the severest tests very well in- deed, despite all pessimistic prophecies, and the Capital has developed into a center of trade and commerce for Central and Eastern Europe. The most strenuous efforts are being made at present in this heavily afflicted city to arrange a fair on the largest scale.

But a lasting guarantee for the ex- istence of Vienna can be found only in its development into a center of transit,, with a transit port on the Danube, as many transit storehouses as possible and other institutions for transit trade. During the Great War, Vienna received the fugitives of foreign nation- ality from the North, the East and the South with great hospitality. It has preserved peace and order in spite of the severest sufferings and the greatest shortage of food. These facts, alone, would make it particularly adapted as a centre for international trade and commerce and as the meeting place for international commissions. For- eign capitalists wishing to invest their money would find in Vienna many op- portunities, that bid fair to pay rich interests and gradually develop into an excellent and lasting business.

CHAPTER XI

The Customs Policy of the Republic of Austria

By Dr. Siegmund Sciiilder Secretary of the Commercial Museum, Vienna, and Privatdocent of the University of Vienna

THE trade and customs policy of 1906. This tariff has undergone nu-

the Republic of Austria is founded merous modifications, i.e., reductions

mainly on the following principles: or partial alterations through the com-

1. The customs tariff of former merce treaties of Austria-Hungary

Austria-Hungary, dated February 13, concluded in the meantime. The

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customs duties fixed l)y those treaties are still in force, though quite a number of the countries concerned have them- selves put an end to the treaties either by considering them a consequence of the war or by revoking them. These tariffs have been maintained by de- crees of the former government, dated October 6, 1914, and February 14, 1918, in the interests of the consumers. In respect to those foodstuffs that are of particular importance as exports from Italy, such as dried fruits, olive-oil, etc., article 223 of the Treaty of St. Germain provides for the maintenance of the tariff until December 1(5, 1922.

2. Numerous reductions of and ex- emptions from duties dating from the time of the great war. These were intended to facilitate the supply of certain commodities which had become scarce by reason of the war, i.e., food- stuffs, raw materials, semi-manufac- tured foods, cattle for farming and slaughtering, fish, meat, cereals, rice, legumes, flour, malt, fruit, vegetables, Italian pastes, food yeast, sugar, mo- lasses, butter, artificial butter and margarine, cheese, various animal fats, condensed milk, raps, lead, alloys of lead and starch.

3. Maintenance by the Republic of Austria not only of these duty exemp- tions and reductions of war time, but, the economic situation getting worse, further exemptions and reductions of import duties. The exemptions in force in the summer of 1921 included the duties on the following: chicory (for making coffee-surrogates), certain coal tar oils, art prints and chromo- pasteboard, paper for art prints and chromo paper, raw-tanned goat and sheep skins, cement, sheet iron, iron plates and hammered iron, certain kinds of iron rolled into wire, rails and materials for fixing rails, certain goods of not malleable iron and certain goods of malleable iron. The sole export-

duty i.e., that on raps, was considerably reduced.

4. The depreciation of Austrian cur- rency which caused the payment in gold of the customs duties as fixed l)y a de- cree of February 13, 1900, to become, even during the war, a problem ratiier difficult to .solve. (In October, 1918 the quotation of the Austrian krone was 40 Swiss centimes, against 10.5 in June, 1914.) Already during the last l)eriod of the monarchical system, the government had tried to make up for the currency depreciation in de- creeing on September 18, 1918, an augmentation of the customs rates by 150 per cent in case the latter were paid in paper kronen. As the Austrian exchange was continually declining till it had reached the level of not more than one centime, and the distress of the state finances was going from bad to worse, the Republic of Austria was forced considerably to raise these additional duties from time to time. According to the last decree, dated April 24, 1921, the customs rates have to be multiplied by 100 when paid in paper money. For some groceries, as dried fruit, alcoholic drinks, dainties, textiles, millinery, clothing, precious metals and jewelry, gold watches, perfumery, cosmetics, the coefficient of augmentation is 130. The government terms these goods "luxuries" the im- port of which by the impoverished Austrian Republic should be prohibited or should at least support high duties.

5. The fact that in the former Austro-Hungarian Monarchy the tem- porary duty-free import for reexporta- tion after refining the raw materials was subject to the proof of export of manu- factured goods and much limited. It was further bound to the proof of iden- tity. But few exemptions based on the privilege of the "equivalent principle" were granted. This reexportation was treated with much more liberality by

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55

the Republican government of Austria.

A similar spirit of liberality is dis- played in the new customs administra- tion law of June 6, 1920. This law con- tains the most extensive concessions to meet the requirements of the ex- port manufactures regarding the reg- ulation of the refining trade. Among other things, it subjects the decisions of the customs authorities, to a con- siderable extent, to the administra- tive jurisdiction, similar to an old established practice in Anglo-Saxon countries. Reexportation of late has also helped the export industries to overcome the difficulties caused by the import and export prohibitions of post-war time. The facilities of- fered to exportation by the finishing up trade mentioned, serve also the purposes of a new kind of reexporta- tion trade, which plays a prominent role in Austria as well as in other countries, which have enjoyed but small credit abroad since the year 1919. This re- export trade concerns the duty-free raw materials and semi-manufactured goods, and is understood to procure credits to the export industries for the purchase of raw materials in foreign countries with an appreciated currency. In return, the creditors have a specially guaranteed hold on the raw materials during the process of manufacture, on the goods made out of them and on the foreign values that are received for them.

6. A preference of the Republic of Austria from its very beginning to pursue a policy of free trade. Its capital, Vienna, being far too large for so small a country, it was quite natural that the Republic should in the first place try to meet the needs of the transit and finishing up trade. But in view of the not over-friendly at- titude of some of her neighbors and the Succession States, especially tlie Czecho-Slovakian Republic and to some extent also Jugo-Slavia, the

Austrian Government had to content itself with issuing provisional com- pensations or, at most, "contingent" treaties during the first year or two after the Armistice. Moreover when these treaties, as far as they were favor- able for Austria, were not observed by her neighbors (especially Czecho- slovakia), impoverished Aastria lack- ing the most important foodstuffs and raw materials and totally disarmed was economically and politically too weak to oppose herself to their breach. This situation became still more aggra- vated when on June 16, 1920, the Treaty of St. Germain came into force. This treaty obliged the RepubHc of Austria to accord the clause of the most favored nation to all Allied Powers (including the Succession States, Czecho-Slovakia. Jugo-Slavia, Poland, Hungary and Roumania) in respect to commerce, customs policy and personal rights. No reciprocity being stipulated, Austria has no means to fight a tariff war, even if ever so much wronged by any one of the Allied Powers.

The situation of the Austrian Re])ub- lic was to some extent improved when the growing international commercial crisis in the world's market, which began in the second half of the year 1920, strengthened the position of the buyer in respect to the seller. The commerce treaties which she concluded with her principal neighbors and with the Succession States are again more like the pre-war treaties. The trade with remote countries, especially the oversea trade which had been inter- rupted by the War, has gradually revived.

Plans for Enlarging Customs Boundaries

Ever since the proclamation of the Republic, plans have boon under con- sideration tending to amalgamate the

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territories now forming the Republic of Austria with some larger economic unit, with one custom boundary in common. One of these plans, which has, however, found but few adherents, their number constantly decreasing, aims at the re-union into one homo- geneous economic whole of those parts that formerly constituted the Austria- Hungarian Monarchy or, failing this, of at least its central provinces, com- prising the republics of Austria, Czecho- slovakia and Hungary.

Aside from some smaller ol)stacles, this plan failed for the following rea- sons: the desire of Czecho-Slovakia to make Prague the political and eco- nomic capital of Central Europe; the deterioration which the Treaty of St. Germain has produced in the commer- cial and financial position of Austria, which would involve Czecho-Slovakia, also, in case of a tariff union ; the diver- gence of the rates of exchange of the three countries, which would be a heavy burden to Czecho-Slovakia and a benefit to Austria and Hungary; the differences between Austria and Hun- gary on the question of the "Burgen- land" (Western Hungary) and the contrast of the royalist-aristocratic trend of Hungary and the re-

publican-democratic trend of Austria.

Therefore, from the very beginning, the vast majority of the population has most energetically embraced the other plan. After this plan, Austria being in its present shape almost entirely in- habited by a population speaking and feeling German, would be united, at least economically, with Germany. Beside the argument of nationality there is an economic consideration, too, which speaks in favor of the union with Germany. Heavy as may be the burden imposed upon Germany by the Treaty of Versailles, the situa- tion of this country maybe termed bril- liant when compared with that of the Austrian Republic. Further, Germany has always shown a very friendly atti- tude in respect to all questions of com- merce and tariff policy ever since the autumn of 1918, and German capital- ists have invested large sums in Aus- trian enterprises, especially in the iron industry in the North of Styria.

It is highly desirable that a feasible plan shall soon be adopted, for the economic situation of the country, lacking the most necessary natural resources and burdened with too large a capital city, still continues very unsettled.

CHAPTER XII

Social Policy in the Republic of Austria

By Dr. Anton Hoffmann-Ostenhof Vienna

IN the following pages we propose to try to give a clear picture of the present state of social legislation in Austria as it has developed from the very beginning of the new Republic. Immediately after the War, in Novem- ber, 1918, Austria was threatened by grave dangers. A multitude of sol-

diers returning from the front and unaccustomed to regular work flooded the country, while the war manufac- tures had to shut down. Thus there collected a whole army of unemployed, and serious outrages were to be dreaded in view of the excited state of mind of the population. It was therefore one

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57

of the first duties of the newly founded Republic to find a remedy and to en- able the unemployed to earn their living. Indeed, a few days later an unemployed payment was created with great financial sacrifices on the part of the government, by which the more serious economic and social disturbances could be avoided. The unemployed payment was at first nothing but a provisional measure to meet emergency; to carry it out, it was necessary to create a complicated new machinery and to institute special agencies for the unemployed. It devolved upon these agencies, in the first place, to procure suitable work for the unemployed who applied to them; if this proved impos- sible, the unemployed payment was granted out of the public fund, if the applicant had previously been in a situation which made health insurance compulsory. The sum of the unem- ployed payment was proportional to the daily insurance money, with extra pay for the members of the family.

As the economic situation continued to remain unfavorable, the unemployed payment had to be maintained; but, profiting by experience, it was reduced to a legal basis and transformed from a provisional emergency measure into a lasting institution organized in the form of an insurance against unemploy- ment. Since the new law of 1920, the costs of the unemployed payment are no longer borne exclusively by the gov- ernment but, according to the princi- ples of insurance, the employers and employes are also compelled to contrib- ute to the payment. While at first allowance was made for a critical situation and an indulgent treatment of the applicants for assistance proved necessary, at present the conditions of unemployed payment are based by law on severer rules and its duration is limited to a certain date within a year. The unemployed payment has also

been extended to all industrial laborers and employes. The amount of the grant is at present fixed in accordance with the daily money paid by the health insurance in case of sickness; the extra pay for the family has been abolished. Decision as to claims to the grant is regulated by law, and abuse of the unemployed payment is provided against by extensive measures of control. The overstraining of the human working power as practised during the War necessitated a series of legislative measures all of which tend to spare and preserve the physical strength of the population and to protect certain class- es of persons particularly in need of protection, against over-exertion.

The Eight Hour Day

The most important measure to this end is the fixing of the eight hour day. Like the unemployed payment, this measure, long demanded by the labor- ers, was introduced in the wanter of 1918-19 only by way of trial, and limited to the workmen in factories, where it encountered comparatively small difficulties. There, although it was impossible to form any definite opinion owing to the prostration of industrial life, a year after the law had been enacted it was observed that the factories had so far adapted themselves to the eight hour day that its definite institution could be contemplated, the more so as Austria's neighbors had followed the same course. The eight hour day was, accordingly, extended to all enterprises, not only concerning laborers but employes as well, by a law that came into force in the middle of 1920. Under this measure, the working of overtime may be allowed by the authorities to satisfy an increased demand for production. By mutual agreement {Kollektivverfrag) the eight hour day may be supplanted by the forty-eight hour week in order to pro-

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cure the workers the advantage of a free Saturday afternoon. Exceptions of a general character for certain groups of enterprises may he i\s.v(\ hy the Ministry for Social Administration after having heard a council wherein em- ployers and employed are represented in equal numbers. Such exceptions have been repeatedly granted, espe- cially to meet the requirements of the small industries in the countryside.

The eight hour day was also intro- duced in the bakeries. The unsanitary conditions in this industry called for a special provision for the workmen. Already during the war when the bak- ing of white rolls and bread w(*re stopped, the customary but much opposed nightwork had been abolished to a certain extent. The bakery law of 1919 gave the prohibition of night- work a legal form. With regard to the particular danger to health accompany- ing this work, the employment of baker's apprentices was made subject to medical certificate, establishing the physical qualification of the apprentice. The same precaution is taken in English legislation.

Industrial Protection

Among the persons most in need of protection we must count the women, juveniles and children. According to the laws now in force, women are not allowed to do regular industrial work during the first six weeks after their confinement. It is forbidden in all industries to employ female workers of any age, or male juveniles of between fourteen and eighteen years of age, in nightwork, between 8 p.m. and five a.m. The night's repose of these per- sons must amount to at least eleven successive hours. Exceptions beside those necessary to remedy a disturb- ance in the works or to avoid the loss of material, can be fixed by the Minis- try for Social Administration, after

having heard the trade imions of the workers concerned and the associations of the employers, if important economi- cal considerations or the interests of the workers should rc(|uir(' them.

Detailed regulations for the protec- tion of children are made by the Chil- dren's Employment Law of 1918. This refers to the eini)loyment of children, l)oys and girls below fourteen years of age, in regular remunerative work, even when not separately paid. The em]>loyment of children before their twelfth year of age is prohibited altogether except for light work in agriculture or in the household, and even here permitted only after the tenth completed year of age. In cer- tain precarious enterprises and in dangerous lines of work, every kind of child employment is forbidden. As far as it is possible under the law, children must not be impaired in health, bodily or mental development, must not be morally endangered, or pre- vented from attending school. Also the night's rest of children, their em- ployment on school days and school holidays and their Sunday rest are regulated by this law.

In the mining industry, the employ- ment of children and the nightwork of women and male juveniles are pro- hibited just the same as in all other industrial undertakings. Juveniles of both sexes under eighteen years may be employed in mines only in such manner as not to injure their bodily development. Women of any age may be employed in mines only during the daytime; women before their con- finement only for light work, and not sooner than six weeks after their con- finement. Sunday rest is kept in the mining industry in the same manner as in other industrial undertakings.

Already in peace-time the legislative protection of persons employed in home- w^ork in Austria had long been contem-

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plated. This problem gained in impor- tance during the war when numerous women were employed as homeworkers in the manufacture of underwear and uniforms for the army. The actual law on working and wages conditions for homework presents itself as a continua- tion of these endeavors. This regula- tion is confided to special commissions that, on the whole, have the same task as a board of wages. They fix mini- mum wages and may issue compulsory decrees regarding labor and delivery conditions. In addition, the law pro- vides measures to prevent economically weak employes from being over-reached by their employers.

During the rush work of war-time it was not always possible to pay the necessary attention to protection of labor with regard to avoidance of accidents in factories. This could be secured only when quieter conditions returned. Connected with it is the reform of the meritorious institution of factory inspection which has existed in Austria since 1883. By a lately pro- mulged law its domain was much en- larged, so that it now controls not only the industrial undertakings but also the majority of other enterprises, such as banks, theatres, newspapers, home- work, children's work, etc. That the inspectors of factories may fulfill their diSicult duty, a higher official authority was bestowed on them, giving them the right to make a recommendation in criminal cases concerning the viola- tion of the protection of labor, and the right to dispose independently in order to avoid threatening dangers when measures are necessary for the protec- tion of the life, health and morality of the workers.

The Arbeiterkammern and Betriebsrate

Of the whole social legislature of the democratic Republic of Austria the

democratic principle of the worker's right of determination is most charac- teristic. This principle is especially realized in two modern institutions: the Arbeiterkammern (workmen's cham- bers), and the Betriebsrate (workmen's councils) . In the Arbeiterkammern the workers and employes secure a repre- sentation of their economic interests organized by legislature. Heretofore, only employers had possessed such representation in the Chambers of Industry and Commerce. The Arbei- terkammern are organized in analogy to the Chambers of Commerce and Industry. Their members are elected by the workers and employes. Their task is, particularly, to give reports, memoranda, and proposals concerning the regulation and protection of labor, workers' insurance and aid for workers, to the authorities and legislative cor- porations for use in the making of labor statistics, welfare work, etc.

The institution of the Betriebsrate, or workmen's councils, is regulated by a law in force since the middle of 1919. With the experience acquired since that time it may be said that the fears of this new institution expressed by some quarters were unfounded. The Bet rieb- srate, which it is well to discriminate from the so-called Arbeiterrlite, promise to become a useful intermediary be- tween the employer and the employed. Fulfilment of this ])romise has been facilitated by the fact that their domain has been strictly circumscribed by law, and that in the event of the springing up of controversies, their decision has been referred to special boards, Eini- gungsdmter, which are com{)osed of equal parts of employers and employed, and are presided over by an impar- tial jurisdictional official. Betriebsrate nuisl beoloclodinall factories and other enterprises with at least twenty work- men or employes. The number of the members of the Betriebsrate varies

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according to tlie number of the persons belonging to the enterprise; the elec- tions arc to be made according to the principle of j)roporfioiial elections. The Betricbsriite have to further the economic and social welfare of the employed. It is their task to execute the collective agreements, to control their execution, to introduce new ones after an vmderstanding with the trade unions, to control the execution and observation of legislative prescriptions on workmen insurance, factory health, prevention of accidents, to inform the controlling authorities if necessary, to see that discipline is kept in the factory, etc. The Betriebsrate can be dis- missed only if a legal reason exists, for such dismissal, and then, only with the consent of the Einigungsamt,

These Einigungsamter, beside attend- ing to the tasks above mentioned, practise as Friedensrichter, (justices of peace), in the settlement of controver- sies springing out of conditions of labor, and can, if a friendly settlement is not established, pronounce an award which is legally executable, if the parties submit to it. Furthermore, they are registrating boards for collective agree- ments. The system of collective agree- ments which is in use in nearly all branches of industry is registrated at the Einigungsamt and published by it. The Einigungsamt can also extend the prescriptions of a collective agreement having gained preponderate importance to other labor contracts which are similar to those regulated by the col- lective agreement.

General Social Measures

Beside the workers and their em- ployes the clerks have also succeeded in securing social improvements. In the period at the end of the war, they were protected against the loss of their positions by the prohibition of dismis- sal through employers. Later on, this

prohibition was limited and dismissal allowed under certain conditions, espe- cially against the grant of a compensa- tion. Finally, the whole legislation concerning clerical employes was regu- lated by a new law. This law perpetu- ates the prescription that the employe, who leaves his place through no fault of his own, after having held his posi- tion for some time, has the right to a compensation. Also the regulations concerning the consequences of un- founded dismissal, the terms of said dismissal, the receipt of salaries during sickness, confinement and leave of absence, give many advantages to the employes. A special law regulates paid leave for industrial workers who have a claim to from one to two weeks leave every year.

To the classes which get a modern social protection belong also the house- servants, including governesses, pri- vate tutors, etc. To these persons a limit of the daily working hours, pauses for rest, free going out, yearly leave, assistance in the case of illness have been secured by law. Also the sickness and accident insurance has been ex- tended to the house-servants.

On the whole, it is planned to extend the sickness and accident insurance to persons who earn their living independ- ently, i.e., especially to the workers in agriculture and forestry who have been excluded until now. Of partic- ular importance is the creation of an old age and invalidity insurance, very much in demand for some time by the working classes, which, too, it is planned shall presently be extended to all de- pendently working persons.

For the state oflacials who are particularly involved by the present situation and whose salaries cannot in consequence of the sad state of public finances keep pace wnth the huge increase of prices, a new kind of assist-

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ance has been instituted by a special sickness insurance.

Nationalization Laws

The much discussed problem of nationalization has also occupied the Austrian legislation. The laws relat- ing to public welfare provide appropria- tion of economic enterprises for the benefit of public corporations (state, province, municipality) , which shall be executed with full compensation of the proprietor according to a well regulated procedure. Provision is made, further- more, for the creation of Gemeinwirt- schaftliche institutions, a kind of syn- dicalism, founded by the state, province or municipality and intended either for transferring private or public enter- prises to the property or administration of such gemeinwirtschaftliche institu- tions or for creating new enterprises in this form. The net return of these in- stitutions is divided between the found- ing corporation and its workers and em-

ployes, the share of the employes being allowed t o reach one-f ourt h of t he ret urn .

With the exception of some few and very moderate attempts to transfer public or state enterprises to gemein- wirtschaftliche institutions, a realiza- tion of these legislative regulations has not yet taken place. It is quite certain that it is impossible to realize this plan to a greater extent under the prevailing diflBculties.

This short enumeration of the most important measures, may prove how active the Austrian legislature has been in the last years with regard to social policy, and may serve to show what social progress has been made. That all these manifold innovations, decisive in the development of the economic life could, on the whole, be introduced without any greater trou- bles, gives evidence of the sound judgment of all classes and persons concerned, and permits a hope of the best for the future.

CHAPTER XIII

Government Organization for Social Aid in Austria

By Dr. Robert Bartsch

Professor in the University of Vienna, Ministerialrat and Director of the Juvenile Aid Department of the Ministry for Social Administration in Vienna

IN the following article, we propose to speak entirely of juvenile aid, aid for disabled soldiers, their widows and orphans, and poor relief, since the other provisions of government organi- zation for social help are to be dealt with in special chapters.

Juvenile Aid

For many centuries past it has de- volved upon the Austrian courts of justice to appoint and control guardi- ans for children who are deprived of

the legitimate guardianship of a father. The courts of justice also exercise a far-reaching right of control over the father's. They limit his power and proiTcr assistance even against the will of father or guardian. This jurisdic- tional care for juveniles has quite re- cently been given a wider comjiass by the law of 1919. This new law concerning juvenile courts decrees their jurisdiction exercised over persons under eighteen years of age to be joint with the jurisdiction of the

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courts of wards, exercised over all juveniles in need of help, particularly over all waifs and strays or ill-treated ejiildren and those in moral danger from their surroundings; it gives them, also, the right to settle the abode of children sprung from various unions on the i)art of their parents.

The most serious defect of the old system was the ineffieieney of guardi- ans. These were chosen individually, and the acceptance of the appoint- ment formed part of their duties as citizens. Women were excluded from this office up to 1914. The founda- tion of orphans' councils {Waisenrais- vereine) intended to assist the courts of justice in the control of guardians, did not effect a change for the better. A new and promising departure has lately been made in an official guar- dianship (Berufsvormundschaft) which was recognized by the civil code in 1914.

Official Guardianship

This official guardianship, is exer- cised by the headmasters of boarding schools over the children under their charge, and, further, by societies and public juvenile boards {J ugenddmter) . The societies and juvenile boards are either appointed as guardians by the courts of justice in individual cases, or by virtue of a special jurisdictional authorization, become guardians of all illegitimate children within their domain from the moment of the birth of the child. What makes the official guardianship so valuable is the sub- stitution of a specially trained and officially appointed body of guardians for the frequently incompetent, inex- perienced and disloyal individual guardian. Endeavors are being made gradually to extend the official guar- dianship over all illegitimate children, during the first years of their lives, at least; and, in time, to institute it for

legitimate children where no sufficient guardianship on the part of relatives or friends has been |)rovided for.

The official guardianship is the basis of the juvenile boards which have been introduced into Austria during the last ten years. At first such boards were established by the larger municipali- ties. Now, beside Vienna, all pro- vincial capitals and some other larg- er municipalities boa.st them. The provinces have also set about estab- lishing official guardianships in the countryside which form the basis of the entire organization for public juvenile aid in such districts. Some years ago the juvenile Ijoard of Lower Austria had attached official guardian- ships to all the eighty courts of justice in this province.

The official guardians not only exer- cise their special guardianship but they render every assistance to the parents and guardians in their districts. One of their principal duties is to see that relatives fulfill their duty in keeping the children, and that illegitimate fathers pay their alimonies regularly.

Infants' aid is closely connected with the official guardianship. It pro- vides advice for mothers and issues propaganda urging mothers to nurse their own babies. This propaganda is effectively supported by the general health insurance and the nursing premiums granted by the sick funds. Thus it became passible in Lower Austria which boasts of nearly two hundred mother's advice councils {Mutterheratungsiellen), to reduce the infant mortality from 27.81 per cent in 1915, to 13.2 per cent in 1920. The American Red Cross has recently started an efficient movement to ex- tend the mother's advice councils and the medical control, to cover all infants.

In obedience to a law of 1919 all illegitimate, and all legitimate children not living with their parents, are placed

Social Aid in Austria

63

under public control from their birth to their fourteenth year. This control, which provides at the same time for the physical and moral welfare of the chil- dren, further makes it compulsory for all persons, other than parents and grandparents, who wish to take chil- dren under their charge to obtain a public license. For the education of neglected children and their detention in reformatories, an antiquated law of the year 1885 is still in force. A pro- jected bill for a modern law of educa- tion through social aid was recently published by the government.

Added to the official aid of the juve- nile boards, which are not spread over the entire country, is the voluntary relief work of societies and institu- tions. Some of these institutions, particularly foundling hospitals and orphanages, date back to very old times and were founded as charitable organizations. Nearly all the more ancient institutions bear a religious character.

Modern juvenile aid began about 1900, when there was observed the dangerous depravity of the youth of the larger towns. Such relief work received an extraordinary impetus during the War. Numerous societies and institutions, day nurseries, creche, asylums for children, etc., were newly founded. Side by side with the nuns who were the only workers engaged in juvenile aid in former times, numerous secular helpers are now being trained in various private institutions.

The voluntary relief work suffered particularly from the effects of the War, manifested in the depreciation of the capital of charitable institutions and the terrifying decline in the revenue from voluntary contributions. This falling off in contributions is to be ex- plained by the im])overishment of the former benefactors and the undevel- oped sense of social duties among the

newly rich. Consequently, voluntary relief work is to a large extent carried on wnth aid from abroad. Prominent in such aid is the American Children's Relief Work, procuring a meal a day for several hundred thousand children, while the American Red Cross pro- vides clothes, underwear and other materials from its large supply depots.

One branch of relief work, chiefly car- ried on with aid from abroad, began with a movement to afford children sev- eral weeks' stay in a foreign country for the sake of recreation. Its chief object now is to promote the foundation of health resorts in Austria in order to make good, with all possible speed, the harm done by the blockade, such as bad nourishment, tuberculosis and rickets.

The relief work for juveniles after they have finished their schooling is in the hands of voluntary helpers even at the present day. Some of its branches, however, are directed by public boards. We must mention here the organization for advising the young people in choosing a profession (Benifsberahmg) which has branches in a great number of public boards.

The cooperation of official and pri- vate relief work with the courts of justice in the so-called Juvenile Courts' Aid is of great moment. The juvenile courts' law^ of 1919 authorizes the courts to avail themselves of the assist- ance of individuals and societies, par- ticularly in investigating the private affairs of minors, in superintending and helping them and rendering them any assistance they may require in court proceedings. A probation con- trol exercised by special probation offi- cers was instil ulod logothorwith the law referring to conditional seuteucing and conditional pardon. The Juvenile Courts' Aid is administered partly by the juvenile courts and partly by benev- olent societies. In Vienna it is prac-

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tised by a committee representing forty societies witli an office of their own at the juvenile court.

Aid for Disabled Soldiers, Their Widows and Orphans

Aid for disabled soldiers, their wid- ows and orphans, has been regulated by a law dated April 25, 1919. As far as its structure and technique are con- cerned, the law is similar to that of insurance against accidents. Who- ever has suffered an injury to his health, either through active war serv- ice or military action of any kind, has a claim to an indemnity to be paid him out of the public funds. Should his death result from one of the above causes, the claim may be raised by his widow and orphans. In cases of such impaired health, a claim may be brought in for medical treatment to restore the victim to health as far as possible, and to enable him to earn his living; or for obtaining artificial limbs and orthopedic apphances; or for training in some new profession in order to replace the old, or to increase the reduced capacity for making a living.

The claimant is further entitled to receive a monetary support during the term of his medical treatment or pro- fessional training and to an invalid's rent as long as his working powers continue to be considerably reduced. The invalid's rent is computed with due regard to the claimant's previous training and the place of his abode. Allowance is made for the prevailing dearth of houses. Besides, the claim- ant's regular income made during his civilian occupation up to the time of his accident is also taken into account. The rent calculated in this manner is paid entire in the case of the claim- ant's complete incapacity to earn his living. If his capacity to earn his bread, only, is reduced, a larger or smaller fraction of the full rent is al-

lowed in proportion to tliis reduction.

A claim to the widows' and orphans' rent may l)c raised by the widow — in some cases, even a woman with whom the deceased has set up house-keeping without being joined to her in a lawful wedlock — by legitimate and illegiti- mate children, by parents, grand- parents, and brothers and sisters if the latter are orphans. The rent allowed them forms a fraction of the full rent granted to the directly injured claim- ant. The relations also receive "burial money."

For the calculation of the rents and the enforcement of the law, disabled soldiers' indemnity commissions have been instituted in those provinces in which the organizations of aid for dis- abled soldiers, their widows and or- phans, and juvenile aid societies are represented. Their principal duty is to decide about the existence and extent of the claim according to the law. The proceedings are now dragging in the courts owing to the different interests involved.

Poor Relief

Poor relief in Austria is based on the home law (Heimatsgesetz) of 1863. By this law poor relief devolves on the native community. Only in Lower Austria are the communities of one jurisdictional district joined together in so-called "poor districts." Poor relief consists of the grant of the neces- sities of life, including the costs for sickness, nursing and burial, and of education for the poor under age. Claims on the part of the poor to any special kind of provision are not ac- knowledged. The poor relief comes into force only where no other kind of help is administered. In the relief of the poor, numerous persons are en- gaged as volunteers without receiving any pay. In conformity with the poor law, pecuniary aid is the last to be

The Housing Question in Austria

65

rendered; nevertheless, it has in the course of time become one of the prin- cipal forms of help in the so-called out- door relief (offene Armenpflege). The existing institutions for indoor relief (geschlossene Armenpflege), which pro- vides homes for the poor and aged, are not numerous enough to receive all those needing them.

Poor relief varies very much accord- ing to the wealth of the supporting community; it is better in the larger towns and bad in the poorer districts of the country side. One particular

drawback is the fact that a person may be received in a community other than that to which his parents be- longed only after a ten years' residence. A great number of people, therefore, belong to a different commmiity from the one in which they live.

The public poor relief finds its com- plement in institutions and societies of voluntary poor relief. At present all these institutions are laboring under a severe serious lack of means as far as they are dependent on voluntary contributions or on a capital income.

CHAPTER XIV

The Present State of the Housing Question in Austria

By Heinrich Goldemund Civil Engineer, Former Architect in Chief of the City of Vienna

STRANGELY enough, though the population of Austria has dimin- ished from 6,279,936 in the year 1910, to 6,057,612 in the year 1920, in all the seven greater towTis of the Austrian Re- public, but especially in Vienna, there has resulted a severe shortage of vacant apartments.

In the country since the year 1910, the number of inhabitants has shrunk from 3,877,787 to 3,810,667, a com- paratively small decrease, whereas in the same length of time the number of the inhabitants of the towns has been reduced from 2,402,176 to 2,246,- 950. This Joss almost exclusively con- cerns Vienna, its population having been reduced from 2,031,421 in the year 1910 to 1,841,326 in the year 1920, while the other German Austrian towns, such as Graz, Linz, Innsbruck, and Wiener-Neustadt, with the excep- tion of Klagenfurt, show a growth of population. Yet the housing calam- ity is greatest in Vienna. The diminu- tion of the population in all German

Austria, but especially in Vienna, is compensated by an increase in the number of householders within the territories now comprised in German Austria. ^Miereas 1,391,230 house- holders were recorded in 1910, there were 1,444,226 listed in 1920.

The increase of householders is limited to the towns, while a small diminution is noticeable in the country districts. In Vienna alone, the in- crease of householders amounts to 38,678 while it averages only 14,919 in the other large towns. This increased number of householders which is to be accounted for by the immigration of whole families and the setting-up of house-keeping by numerous young married couples (who were prevented from doing so as long as the War was on), does not meet with an equal increase in the number of flats. As a matter of fact there has been hardly any private mansion building since 1914. If any- thing, the number of apartments for private families has decreased. Some

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have been restored to their I'onner uses, and are now occupied by offices of the government economic control dej)art- ments, or of newly-founded business and banking concerns.

In Vienna about 52,000 applicants for vacant apartments, among them 18,000 whose claims deserve most urgcMit attention, have booked their names in the registers of the municij)al hcHising board. In the other greater towns of the Republic we may reckon with an urgent need for from 9,000 to 10,000 dwellings.

In this connection it may l)e observed that among the working classes the former custom of sub-letting rooms is much less practiced now, whereas the middle classes have taken it up to a wide extent.

Rent and Housing Laws

The great demand for apartments on the one hand, and the total lack of any offer of the same, on the other, entailed the danger of a wild rent speculation, and measures had to be devised to protect the less solvent part of the population against undue raises in the rents and against evictions. It was therefore made compulsory that on evacuation all fiats were to be exclu- sively allotted to the would-be tenants through the intermediary of the mu- nicipal housing boards. Moreover, a law for the protection of tenants great- ly restricted the right of landlords to give notice at their own free will or to raise the rents, and subjected this right to the control of the newly instituted housing boards. Owing to these meas- ures the rents, contrary to the exor- bitant demand of all other commodities and necessaries of life, show but a moderate increase, that is, about 50 per cent. At present a raising of the rents corresponding to the diminished purchasing value of the currency is being discussed; nobody, however.

would diirc carry it into effect, even by degrees, for fear of arousing great l>ublic sentiment.

"^I'lie fight against the hoasing calam- ity throughout all Austrian towns is opposed by the greatest difficulties. The building cost of residential man- sions has augmented a hundred-fold over 1914 so that only a similar raising of rents could ensure the sums required to pay for interest and amortization. At such enormous rents, however, flats could find no tenants, great as is the demand.

State Encouragement of Building Enterprises

The government and the town coun- cils are endeavoring to encourage private enterprises in house building by granting subsidies, and monetary credits, and by charging themselves with the payment of interest and regu- lar quotas towards redemption. On the building of all houses the revenues of which are too small to allow of the regular payment of interest and re- demption quotas, costs called "the lost building expenditure" are al- lowed.

By a law dated April 15, 1921, a dwelling and colonization fund has been founded, which, through shares taken by the state, by employers and by all work- men who belong to the obligatory sick- ness, old age insurance and other funds, will provide larger means for social help. The revenue of the fund will amount to about 160 million kronen yearly, which, including the contributions of the municipality and the employers, will suffice for the payment of interest and redemption quotas corresponding to a building capital of about 3 billion kronen. With this sum, which will first have to be raised in cash by the banks and savings banks, could be built from 5,000 to 6,000 small dwellings, consist- ing of one room and kitchen each, a

CRrWINALITY IN AuSTRIA

67

number which, compared with the de- mands for dwelhngs, described above, would bring but httle rehef.

Another suggestion to further the building of dwellings by capitalists aims at increasing the building of dwellings

with renting capacities by exemption of such from all taxes. But the hesita- tion caased by the present condition of the public finances which seems to oppose this particular solution, has not yet been overcome.

CHAPTER XV

Criminality in Austria

By Dr. Wenzel Gleispach Professor of Jurisprudence and Political Science at the University of Vienna

CRIMINALITY and similar aspects of social life are the reverse of the social and economic conditions and the moral character of a nation. When a heavy economic crisis, the dissolution of a great empire and a vast social subversion coincide, crim- inality must increase and morality decline. So far as the social condition of Austria is concerned, the unfavor- able effects of war-time and the issues of both the War and the Revolution are also to be included. Still further ominous to social life were the misuse of army supplies; the enrichment of many persons at the expense of the nation, the numbers of men who had managed to escape the army service and the excess of governmental pre- scriptions, which often could not be kept and so weakened the fear of infringing governmental authority. Disastrous, too, was the great disil- lusionment of all who had sacrificed themselves during the War, expecting some reward, and who, when it was over, had only to endure increased di.stress and heavier burdens.

The collapse of traditional powers and the creation of a young democracy were additional sources of difficulty for the government since tiie substitu- tion of a democratic republic for a monarchy must inevitablv have ill

effects. The case of the Revolution does not afford a special study of criminal law. We can simply state that the abolition of the monarchy and the institution of the republic took place almost without resistance and bloodshed, an adjustment such as has seldom occurred in history. The Revolution, therefore, did not become in Austria, as so often happens, the starting point and the contagious example for blood-shed and violent deeds. But, on the other hand, the Revolution has been hailed, in par- donable error, as liberation from every authority, as the beginning of a time when only rights exist, and not duties or regard for others. This error is pardonable since democracy requires the highest social and national senti- ment, while the Austrian has scarcely been educated far enough to become a good citizen. He has received no training from history, for at the col- lapse of the old Austria its constitu- tional life was not older than half a century and the particij)ation of the masses much younger still; or from his schooling, for social education is almost totally neglected in the schools. The error has been further fed and propagated by the Bolshevist agita- tion and the papers it controls. The seeds of Bolshevism find most fertile

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soil in the general economic distress, in which now this group, now that, sees itself threatened by ruin if it does not try to watch its own interest re- lentlessly.

Increase in Criminality

An effort to describe the present criminality in Austria must renounce, to a great degree, any attempt to give statistical figures as fundamental. Some few official figures suffice to show the increase of criminality. The criminal courts of first instance, now be- longing to the Austrian Republic, had in 1916 to deal with 16,000 crimes and offenses; in 1918, with 34,000; in 1919, with 44,000 and in 1920, with 64,000. Figures for the lighter offenses or minor criminality, with which the dis- trict courts of law have to deal, that is to say, minor robberies, slight bodily injuries, insults, etc. are neglected, but their increase is at least as great as that of the graver criminal cases.

Attacks upon life and body have not generally increased, and personal security is not threatened to any in- creased degree; a deplorable increase in brutality is to be seen in the lack of consideration, but it does not end in crimes of brutality. A very large in- crease is to be stated only in the case of abortion. This had already begun during the War and has to be ascribed, in the first instance, to the economic distress and to the impossibility of bringing up healthy children. At pres- ent, also, an increase in immorality and thirst for pleasure play a distinct role in Austria's social condition.

Property Offenses

The increase of criminality in gen- eral has to be ascribed to the increase in offenses against property. Now, as before, armed attacks are seldom, but the primitive forms of attack on other peoples' property, such as theft.

burglary, pocket-picking, theft in the house community and the rolibery of transport goods, are particularly fre- quent. Here, too, the pressure of economic distress is the dominant factor. The freedom from the custom of regular work during the long cam- paign is another cause; likewise, a wrong concej)tion of the social and economic revolutions and reform proj- ects. As often as a thief attacks other peoples' property to enrich him- self he admits the doctrine of private property. But if a revolution pro- ceeds to expel whole classes of the population from their economic ob- ligation, if the common features of "Nationalization" are distorted and used as a means of agitation, and if legislature and administration — justly or not — interfere regardless of existing rights, then, in immature and un- trained brains, may easily arise the idea that robbery is an almost author- ized way to produce a juster distribu- tion of goods. In such a case there may arise, also, similar confused no- tions which remove or weaken the restraint against robbery.

This very large increase in property outrages endangers the whole economic life. But already the beginning of an improvement may be acknowledged. The element of distress has been some- what alleviated by the better state of employment in industry and the smaller number of unemployed, while a wholesome social reaction against robbery has not been wanting. These efforts prove that the majority of the population has remained sound or that many, having become wiser on seeing the damage done, have begun to clear their confused ideas. For the future, all depends upon the ques- tion whether the injurious conse- quences of depreciated currency will not lead to increase of the impulse toward robbery.

Criminality in Austria

69

Profiteering

Reaction against robbery is the more necessary, as embezzlement and fraud, both offenses of economic Hfe, tend, even under sound conditions, to in- crease with a more lively intercourse, and therefore must increase in Austria. A still greater danger are the profiteers. The very beginning of the War created an economic situation in the scarcity of and craving for goods, in which simply the lack of a strong social feeling was sufficient to sanction Preis- ireiberei, usurious raise of prices. The post-war situation accentuated this tendency to permit unjust profits. Austria's inability to supply her re- quirements within her own boundaries, the disturbance of all connections, the isolation of Succession States, the con- tinued depreciation of the currency (interrupted only by a short rise in the rate of exchange) produced a quite aleatoric effect in economic life and rendered it in many businesses, al- most, if not quite, impossible to dis- cern the limit of just and unjust prices, of allowed and unallowed profit. The legislation has struggled desperately since 1914 against the nuisance of Preistreiberei. Beside Preistreiberei, other dealings have been threatened with punishment: Aufkavfen, the buy- ing of goods to hold until their prices are raised; Kettenhandel the passing of goods through more hands than necessary in order that every vendor of them may make a profit in raising the price; Schleichhandel, forbidden trade with goods controlled by the state. These penalties include the heaviest imprisonment and fines up to 10,000 kronen.

This war of legislation, however, cannot be won, since symptoms of economic illness, much as they are to be condemned, cannot be removed by penal laws. Beside the fact that the

social reaction is weak at best, it has against it the difficulties of an organi- zation of consumers, the fear of losing the indispensable purveyors and, finally, a large number of those, who have, themselves, become rich by Preistreiberei and similar means and are, in consequence, always ready to pay even extremely high prices. Preistreiberei, Kettenhandel and spec- ulation with foreign values are tj^pical diseases of such times of decay. Quite as much by taking illicit advantage, they do wrong by undermining business morality, by diverting others from their honorable but less profitable work and tempting them to imitation by bring- ing forth provoking luxury and de- bauchery.

Political Menaces

Beside the exploitation of economic freedom in an increase of offenses against property, direct attacks upon social freedom are characteristic of the criminality of Austria at the pres- ent time. In the struggle of political factions to carry out economic claims or attempts at organization, menaces, on refusal of fuffilment of duty, are used with the utmost lack of con- sideration and, also, as if they were incontestable, even lawful means. In contrast to the perpetrators of eco- nomic offenses an organized multi- tude is generally the subject here, or a single person only as representative of a group. Open violence occurs but relatively seldom. It is generally not necessary, as the supreme power does not meet opposition by the means of its strength and as the persons menaced lack organization or power to make re- sistance. If this were not so, many crimes against the government and its agencies would presently ensue. But as the supreme power intercedes only for mediation and when it is itself threatened tries to find a compromise.

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very often no hold at all is laid on these attacks ii])oii freedom hy erim- inal jurisdiction and they a])j)ear only to a slight extent in the statistics of criminality. But criminal phenom- ena they are nevertheless. Yet some peoi)le do not see them as at- tacks on freedom, but even consider that freedom itself is protected by them; i.e., the freedom of the group or organization is protected against the menace, which lies in the conduct of the outsiders or the government opposed to their interest. Such at- tacks have been called manifestations of the birth of a new conscience con- cerning the law and of a new state of law. We should call this one of the false doctrines appearing in the gar- ment of sophistry, which are also to be encountered in other domains as mo- rality, art, and are typical of our time. Does the law not disown its purpose if it stands always on the side of the stronger ?

The condition described is a transi- tion. It leads either to dissolution or to an attempt to equalize without beforehand making use of the means of menace. In this case organiza- tions are formed to bring about com- promises. In spite of some threaten- ing and vexing details our w'ay leads in the second direction. Some tend- encies toward it are to be observed in legislation and social institutions. Favorable evolution, however, must not be too much tried by the continuance of the crisis or must not be made impos- sible by an accentuation of the crisis.

Is this huge increase of criminality chronic or sudden criminality .f* And is it to be ascribed to habitual criminals or to occasional criminals.'* To be sure the activity of habitual criminality has increased in the Austrian towns, es- pecially in Vienna, at present attract- ing many international criminals. It must be remembered, too, that a large

part of the fugitives from East Galicia and IJucovina who came during the War to Vienna and other Austrian towns continued to remain there after the War and that many of these stran- gers live by Kettenhandel, Scfiiebiingen, speculations and other dishonest gain. Also even if these ])crsons were con- demned by the courts to l)anishment, the Austrian state would be too weak to actually expell them, especially since the neighboring countries and the native countries of the criminals are opposed. But all this does not suflBce to explain the increase of crim- inality. It must be admitted that an increasing number of hitherto honest persons have fallen into crime. This fact and the heavy criminal taint on the youth of Austria are the most menacing phenomena. Next to them stands the heavy increase of prostitu- tion among the female youth which, characteristically, is generally prac- tised only as extra gain. Here is the danger of an ever spreading immo- rality, a diminution of the fear of crime, and a criminal infection of the popu- lation.

Criminal Legislation

Criminal legislation and jurisdic- tion conduct a difficult struggle against the increase of crime. If the security of the person is protected as usual and the security of the property not much more endangered, this safety is to be ascribed in the first instance, particu- larly in the worst cases, to the suc- cessful activity of the criminal police. The criminal courts are not less over- burdened as means to handle the ar- rests are insufficient and the prisons overcrowded. The legislation tried to help as much as possible. It intro- duced Schoffengerichie, juries with two elected professional judges and two laymen judges, for all crimes and offenses w^hich do not come before the

Criminality ix Austria

71

courts in consequence of their particu- lar gravity or political character. In this manner the social reaction has with great success been brought to help the criminal jurisdiction. All smaller crimes and offenses can be judged summarily by a single judge (up to one year of imprisonment). Attempts are made to spare the crim- inal who errs for the first time and the criminal whom it seems possible to improve and to set him up by the pro- bation system, conditional discharge or rehabilitation; and to send him who repeatedly relapses, when the penalty has been payed off, for at most five years, to a workhouse — an approach to indeterminate sentences. All this, however, cannot supply the much needed reform of criminal law and of the prisons, which cannot be put through in consequence of the crisis in public finances.

But even model institutions through- out the whole criminal jurisdiction cannot reduce criminality to a normal degree as long as the pressure of the

economic crisis gives continued im- pulse to crime, and as long as the steadily depreciated currency allows the unscrupulous to triumph and the honest to perish. Still the majority of the population is sound. \Miat treasure of good qualities it bears, is shown by the resistance which it has opposed till now to the combination of impulses to immorality and crim- inality described. These qualities are shown, also, in the beginnings of im- provement in the criminality, which can be definitely stated, and which, according to observations for the first quarter of 19'21, allow the hope that the height of criminality has already been passed. The moral soundness of Austria is further proved by the fact that active Bolshevism, the dec- laration of violence and crime as forms of government, has (in spite of many attempts by foreign agencies) been unable to take even a provisionary hold in the Republic. If Austria is saved financially, the high tide of criminality will at once go down.

Index

Agriculture: area of tillage, 6; cattle breeding, 8; disparity between supply and demand, 7, 8; grain, 7; potato crop, 7. See Resources.

Agkicdlture and Forestry in the Republic OF Austria, The Present State of. Com- piled by the Central Board for Protection of the Interests of Agriculture and Forestry, G-9.

Austrian Hanks. Max Sokal, 34-40.

Austria's Trade. Anton Schmid, 51-53.

Austro-Hungarian Bank: 28, 30, 31. See Banks.

Banks: balance sheets of the larger, 38; branch reorganization in new states, 35; dividends, 39; foreign capital and the, 37; foreign exchanges and the, ix, 36-37; increase in nominal capital, 39; inflation in bank notes, v, 32; liquidation forced by Peace Treaty, 31, 32; modern con- struction and organization of, 30; stock ex- change dealings, ix, 35-36.

Banks, Austrian. Max Sokal, 34-40.

Bartsch, Robert. Government Organization for Social Aid in Austria, 61-65.

Boimdaries of Austrian Republic: 2.

Capital: prospects for foreign, in Austria, 15, 37, 47.

Central Board for Protection of the In- terests OF Agriculture and Forestry. The Present State of Agriculture and Forestry in the Republic of Austria, 6-9.

Coal: conditions in Vienna, viii, 19; dependence on foreign sources of, vii, 15, 18, 42; diminua- tion in foreign sources of supply, viii, 18-19, 46; effect of, shortage in industries, 48; home out- put, 17; measures to increase, output, 9, 18; monthly fuel requirements, 17; reduction in output, vi, viii, 16, 17, 18; replacement of, by water power, 11, 13, 15.

Coal Supply op Austria After the Revolu- tion of 1918, The. Rudolph Kloss, 16-20.

Colonization : 9.

Commerce: commercial centers and lines of com- munication, 52. See Trade.

Credit action, necessity for foreign: 20, 22, 51, 53.

Criminality: criminal legislation, 70; increase in, 67; political menaces, 69; property offenses, 68.

Criminality in Austria. Wenzel Gleispach, 67-71.

Currency: causes of depreciation, v, vii, 28; con- sequences of depreciation of, 20, 22, 34, 71; customs duties and, 54; depreciation, 28, 54; depreciation, in Succession States, vii, 28; im- portance of foreign credit action, to, 20, 22, 51, 53; importance of stabilization, x, 32; necessity for raise in Kronen exchange, 20, 33.

Currency Problem of Austria, The. Eman- uel H. Vogel, 28-34.

Customs: aid of, to finishing-up trade, 47; dif- ficulties due to Treaty of St. Germain, 55; increa.se in rates, 54; new customs frontiers, ix, 20, 41; plans for enlarging, boundaries, 55; principles of Austria's, policy, 5.3-55.

Customs Policy of the Republic of Aubtrla, The. Siegmund Schilder, 53-56.

Czecho-Slovakia: vi, vii, 1, 13, 17, 18, 19, 20, 28, 35, 41, 46, 48, 52, 55, 56. See Succession States.

Employment: civil service, 22; disparity of wage improvement, x; increase in wages, x; per cent of population employed, vii. See Social legis- lation.

Export: articles of, 52; ratio to import, 53; re- exportation, 54; restriction of, viii.

Finances, public: budget, 20-21; deficit, 20, 21, 24; expenditures, 21, 22-23; government mo- nopolies and enterprises, 23, 24; national debt, 26; revenue, 21, 24-26.

Finances of the Republic of Austria, The Public. Emanuel Hugo Vogel, 20-28.

Forestry: forest area, 8, 49; riches in, 9, 49; wood export and, 9.

Fuel: monthly fuel requirements, 17. See CoaL

Germany: v, xii, 2, 18, 20, 48, 56.

Gleispach, Wenzel. Criminality in Austria,

67-71. Goldemund, Heinrich. The Present State of

the Housing Question in Austria, 65-67. Government Organization for Social Aid

in Austria. Robert Bartsch, 61-65.

Hertz, Friedrich. Present Day Social and Industrial Conditions in Austria, v-xii; The Water Power Question in Austria, 9-16.

Hoffmann-Ostenhof, Anton. Social Policy^in the Republic of Austria, 56-61.

Housing question: decrease in number of apart- ments, 66; increase in house-holders, 65; rent and housing laws, 66; state encouragement of building enterprises, 66.

Housing Question in Austria, The Present State of the. Heinrich Goldemund, 65-67.

Import: articles of, 52; burden of, trade on public finances, 20; exemption and reductions in^ duty, 54; ratio to export, 53.

Industrial Conditions in Austria, Present Day Social and. Friedrich Herz, v-xii.

72

Index

73

Industries: coal shortage and, 48; industrial pro- tection, 58; nationalization of, 50; pre-war sta- tistics, vi, xii. See Manufactures.

Jugo-Slavia: vi, vii, viii, ix, 1, 13, 28. 35, 40, 46, 48, 52, 55. See Succession States.

Kix>ss, Rudolph. The Coal Supply of Austria after the Revolution of 1918, 16-20.

League of Nations, v, x. 20, 31, 30, 33, 51.

Losses: in agriculture, vi; in general resources, vi; in industries, vi, 46; in population, 2; in rail- ways, 40; in territory, vi, 2. See Treaty of St. Germain.

Manufactures: coal shortage and, viii, 48; domestic encouragement of, 48; effects of Treaty of St. Germain upon, 46; foreign aid to, 47; kinds and location, 45; lack of raw materi- als for, v, 23, 46, 48, 51, 55; of luxuries in Vien- na, 46-47. See Industries.

Mantjfactures of the Republic of Austria, The. Siegmund Schilder, 45-51.

Ministry for Transport and Traffic. Traffic and Transport in Austria, 40-45.

Poland: 17, 28, 35, 46, 55. iSee Succession States.

Population: classification by language, 1; de- crease in, 3, 65; German-speaking, 2; mortality, 4-6; structure of, with respect to age and sex, 5.

Population of the Austrian Republic, The. Wilhelm Winkler, 1-6.

Post, telegraph and telephone: 44.

Present Dat Social and Industrial Condi- tions in Austria. Friedrich Hertz, v-xii.

Present State of the Housing Question in Austria, The. Heinrich Goldemund, 65-67.

Public Finances of the Republic of Austria, The. Emanuel Hugo Vogel, 20-28.

Railways: budget figures for state, 42; electrifica- tion projects and, 12, 43; new frontier lines and the, 41 ; reduction in traffic, 40, 41 ; salaries and employment, 42; total railway net, 40.

Rate of exchange: vii, 20, 22, 28, 29, 30, 31, 33, 36, 37.

Resources: dependence on neighboring, viii, xii, 20; lack of raw materials, v, 23, 46, 48, 51, 55; mineral, 49; possibility of maintenance by, vii, xii; restriction of, vi; wood, 49. See Forestry.

Revolution: xi, 2, 16, 17, 18, 19, 45, 67.

Schilder, Siegmund. The Customs Policy of the Republic of Austria, 53-56; The Manu- factures of the Republic of Austria, 45-51.

Schmid, Anton. Austria's Trade, 51-53.

Social aid: juvenile aid, 61-61; poor relief, 64; for soldiers, their widows and orphans, 64.

Social Aid in Austria, Government Organiza- tion FOR. Robert Bartsch, 61-65.

Social legislation : eight hour day, 57 ; general em- ployment measures, 60; industrial protection, 58-60; unemployed pajTuent, 57. See Social aid.

Social Policy in the Repubuc of Austria. Anton Hoffmann-Ostenhoff, 56-61.

SoKAL, Max. Austrian Banks, 34-40.

State: debt, 26; encouragement of building enter- prises, 66 ; measures for social and industrial re- lief, 57-60; monopolies and enterprises, 23, 24; nationalization policies, 50, 61. See Finances, Social aid.

Railways : deficit in budget of, 42; electrifica- tion project, 12, 43; extent of, 40; water power survey of, 10. See Railways.

Succession States : economic seclusion and effects, vii, viii, ix, 16, 20, 32, 35, 41, 46, 48, 52, 53, 55, 56; monetary separation and currency depre- ciation, vii, 28.

Tariff: maintenance of Treaty of St. Germain, 54; reductions and alterations, 53. See Customs.

Taxes: 24-26, 21.

Trade: commercial centers, 52; disproportion be- tween imports and exports, v, 53; finishing-up, 47, 53, 55; importance of, to existence of the Republic, 51; necessity for free, vii, ix, 55; policy of exclusion in Succession States, vii, ix, 52; profiteering, ix, x, 33, 69, 70; revival over- seas, 55; transit trade, 53. See Commerce, Customs.

Trade, Austria's. Anton Schmid, 51-53.

Traffic and Transport in Austria. Compiled . by the Ministry for Transport and Traffic, 40-45.

Transport: aerial navigation, 45; railways, 40-43; waterways, 44.

Treaty of St. Germain: Austrian losses due to, vi, 2, 7, 10, 20, 40, 46; effect on industries, 46; effect on railway traffic, 41; effect on trade and commerce, 54; liquidation forced by, 31, 32; monetary obligations laid upon Austria by, 27; provisions of, for water power development, 15,

United States: political disinterestedness, xi; relief measures, v, 6, 63.

Vienna: banking and exchange in, 36; coal con- ditions in, viii, 19; housing question in, 65; manufacture of luxuries in, 46; profiteering and new financial schemes in, ix, x, 'S'i, 69, 70; pub- lic sales in, 51; reduction of population in, 3, 65; as trade center and clearing house, ix, xi, 51, 53; water-coal substitution schemes in, 13.

Vogel, Emanuel Hugo. The Currency Prob- lem of Austria, 28-34; The Public Finances of the Republic of Austria, 20-28.

74

The Annals of the American Academy

Water power: coal replacement by, 11, 13, 15; electro-chemical prospects, 11, 10; prog- ress in liydro-eleclricity, 9, 11; prospects for foreign ciipilal, 15; sources and yields, 10.

projects: Danube and otlier, 14-15; electri-

fication project of State Railways Administra- tion, 12, 43; YV>bs station, 13.

Wateh Vowjcu Question in Austria. Fried- rich Hertz, !}-lG.

WixKLER, WiLHELM. The Pofjulation of tlic Austrian Republic, 1-6.

HC Gleispach,

265 Wenzeslaus Kerl

044 Maximilian Maria, graf,

1876-1944, ed.

Present day social and industrial conditions in Austria.

American Academy of Political 2nd Social Science (1921)

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