| Show I SHALL VIENNA DIE J By fly JOHN JOliN COUK os I I LONDON Nov 6 The G.-The The death of great 1 I I cities is no new thing in history Nineveh Nineveh Nineveh Ni Ni- and Babylon and Carthage and anda I a legion of other famous cities have 1 gone down leaving no trace or become become become be be- come relegated to second or third third- rate importance Having Slaving visited ViEnna Vienna Vinna Vi Vi- enna nna and studied the political and economic economic economic eco eco- conditions which are Vienna Vienna's s heritage from the great war one cannot cannot cannot can can- not help feeling that the processes of ot disintegration have begun and that the only question is Where There and when I will they stop atop Fascinating n nc such processes may be to the processes in are not at all ill pleasant for the millions of beings who I are a part of them A great city can candie candie candie i die only through the death or scatterIng scattering scattering scatter scatter- ing of its inhabitants Inhabitant And Anda a great city dies slowly as r 1 Otto OUo Fauer former Austrian minister of ot foreign affairs put It in a conversation I heidIth held heid with nith him in the beautiful parliament building now half haIr In disuse owing to the abolition of the upper houseA houseA houseA house A great city dies slowly War Var Ismore is ismore ismore more humane than peace for the the- I doomed die quickly As it is Vienna the magnificent has become a pauper dependent on the charity charly of foreign missions Were ere it not tor ton the work of ot English American Swedish Norwegian gian Swiss Dutch and even Egyptian relief societies Vienna might have been now row without exaggeration one van vart graveyard g and a shame to civilization Nevertheless in spite of this assistance Vienna is slowly dying ying The mortality statistics arc are ominous the discrepancy between deaths and births start The rhe census of ot 1910 gave Vienna 2 inhabitants a normal increase should have given it in 1920 Instead Vienna now counts inhabitants This rate of decrease if persisted in would depopulate Vienna to a man in the course of fifteen years Obviously this dire fatality Is not to occur for the simple reason that as the decreases the chances of the surviving population become Increasingly propitious NO ISO Nevertheless even allowing for a graduated decrease the situation Is la sufficiently grave to make us paUSE In view of ot th the territorial reduction of Austria which including its capital city contains over inhabitants it may be highly desirable that Vienna hali be reduced to a city commensurate commensurate rate late with the country s population prominent Viennese themselves urge depopulation as a partial solution but unless the means for tor effecting this are famine and starvation starvation means means which I hardly think the most unmitigated unmitigated unmitigated gated barbarian of our age will urge urge urge- the problem considering Vienna's fundamental fundamental fun fun- difficulties itH h helplessness which gl no e temporary is beset rei measures mea mea- with sUr s or palliatives can solve It must be remembered that the one possible i outlet emigration a is uc closed et to the Austrians not lot only b because a other e coun countries countries o tries having room loom for these unfortunate unfortunate nate people have haie passed laws against admitting f alien enemies but also because even een if the world were open to them the depreciation of ot Austrian AuStrian Austrian Aus AuS- trian money would wc not permit them to toil il Jako k of nf the thA The The time will come when wien the allied governments must face t the problem le squarely I leading relief I C workers t. t to whom horn I have talked agree that the sources of their funds are drying up and ani that in consequence they will not be In a position to carry carryon on their work worl of mercy indefinitely It is no less demoralizing to the population to subsist subsist sub sub- slat eternally on foreign charity The Tile Viennese ire tre moreover eager to wok wf U and show every to help themselves they do help themselves 1 so 0 far as conditions allow But nut th there ro roIs Is the trouble look 1001 at it how you will Vienna is bound hand and foot toot A HOME PARALLEL Let us for a moment drop Vienna and speak of ot London Imagine the dissolution dissolution dissolution dis dis- dis- dis solution of the United Kingdom the defection of ot Wales and Scotland and other provinces the reduction of England England Eng Ens- land to London and several neighboring neighbor neighbor- ing trig counties and the setting up of ot Innumerable in innumerable innumerable In- In numerable frontiers each a barrier Lothe to Lo the proper exchange of commo commodities Imagine the whole economic network built up in the course of generations broken each severed part looking as askance as- as kance at the other London wants coal to keep her industries going h I I will give you enough coal replies Wales Vales to to mal make e iron for me This In fact accurately describes CzechoSlovakia's Czechoslovakia's Czecho Czecho- slovakia's attitude to Austria London Lendon London Lon Len don wants meat and butter and bread We Ve can let you have some reply Devonshire Do- Do and Cornwall in exchange for railway engines and manufactured goods And so so in order to produce these engines and manufactured goods London the capital of little England applies to Scotland for on raw law materials Nay nay replies Scotland you haven't the money to pay mo me for them My shilling is 15 a shilling Yours id i. worth only three farthings But It will be worth more if I can only get the tho raw materials Implores London all very vely well says Scotland but my neighbor Yorkshire Is willin willing to pay my price now now and Yorkshires Yorkshire's arc good qUEUE qUIm OF l' l I And so the vicious circle goes boes on tightening round London more and more hemming Jondon London in in shutting London out from normal legitimate life liCe But what whatever ver may have be boon n the sins of London of ot London's ts parents civilized people Cannot le to the thousands thousands thou sands of innocent children starve an anti and so the more humanitarian elements o 0 former enemies Austria Germany and Bulgaria victors of the war as well wall wellan wallas an as the neutral countries organize rt- rt ll Ii- f r missions whose work workers erR swarm through the great rea cit city Uti All r schools all f former palaces have De- De I gf de A come feeding g and distributing 18 te the most common sight lIght In th in- populous I districts at certain hours houra Is that of countless countess children with pots and S nd epo spoons ns in their hands going to or ibm Hum their meals no longer to be had at home I and of ot long queues of women some with children in their arm arnio waiting for the parceling out of for infants Only children under lo Ic al medically examined get this Mua food food food- on n a certificate Medical figures figurea show that only S per cent of ot the whole child population is will nourished so practically all children get the of this charity But all the young people between n the ages of ot 5 and the 25 the t age ge when life has most to give give get g t nothing noth ing fr from m the foreign and from this class counts nearly twice the number of oC if tims t t I counted before the war wai You see re- re Bi ei table looking pale art students re-j re trafficking their wares in ii the cafes Inthe in inthe the tilt hope o of getting a few dollars that the may continue their miserable ex existence ox- ox lE and their art studios studio UNDERGROUND D It is hard to imagine all this as the position of ot London Nevertheless that thatIs Is ie the actual condition of Vienna and lAnd th picture is 18 not In the least overdrawn over over- I drawn It is true that with h I I money in your pocket you can un 11 n get as asgood asgood good a meal in Vienna as anywhere else els for else for for a a. price you can sit comfortably comfortably comfort comfort- Rbi ably before a dining table on the terrace terrace ter ter- ter- ter race raco of the Kurs- Kurs Kurs Kurs-balon alon tn in Stadt paik k kand and enjoy your dinner and amI listen to YI music when suddenly yuu you lore re ro pulled up by the appearance of ot a t newsboy newsboy news news- boy who points to a bone or a piece of ot fat you have left on your plate and asks whether he may have It IL mind this happens not once but often If things aro arc bad enough in the summer slimmer when you can cnn get et vegetables few vegetables few Viennese families get got meat more than once a d- week week week-it It appals one to think of or conditions conditions con n in winter The coming coining win winter tel telIS is to be bc even en harder than the ast last The Americans for example are preparing to feed children as u r against last I t winter r. r I The clothes problem Is not hot less les sc- sc ri HIS IUS than that of tood and fur foi d 1 u K of coal tho Viennese may once mom mou I have ave to resort to their alreadY partly partly- I V d WI Wiener ner Wl wald the Viennese Richmond park It is a long walk w from rom Vienna proper and so there Is the tho consoling thought that some of the I wood woo l gatherers will doubtless gl git gU t some me t and a bit of warmth o oat t of the walking In this connection it i i I should be mentioned that the j ground railway has ceased running i nci Ind in the th open places you can cn in see e egrass grass sprouting among the thc rails rails' Su Suh Is the Vienna of today today today-a a. a city fo for to tl like of ot which Prophet Jeremiah doubtless doubtless doubt doubt- less toss sang his lamentations lamentation EDER What is the remedy then if Vienna Vienna's II s 's s i met ct to be te allowed to die altogether All are agreed that It is too Sate to revise the treaty treat without hurting the feelings of Austria's Austria s neighbors But there can be no doubt that the action must be political The formation of or a Danube has been suggested wh r by free trade between the time disrupted disrupted disrupted dis dis- dis- dis parts of the former Hun Austro-Hun- garian arlan empire may mav be facilitated nevertheless nevertheless nevertheless nev nev- I 1 I have heard a n. prominent politician of the Left say that tin thi was as not desir desirable able because all those who II favor r a a. restoration of ot the former monarchy moo mon 1 archy would be the first to it as the thin edge edg i of the wedge Apart from Crom this Its Us ce central position Its magnificent mag I railway termini its situation mag-I mag en tIme the Danube with endless possibilities I ties of or water po ver vel development v would I I make Vienna a natural capital for the I economic unit which had been En once the tho Austro ll rr Che empiric e j Judging d I I I however from the temper of ot Austria Austria's s si I II i not one cf ct them would Mould con conSEnt consent I sent to Joining its forces with the I others Even now the tho HUn Hungarians I II I justly or unjustly t are spoiling r for a i y h fight with tIme the Czechs ze and amid are arc e only l r prevented by fear of being stabbed In Inthe Inthe inthe the bad back by some same other neighbor The nall of Europe Is a fact and not a mere macro phrase CR cn LD iTS The h giving of credits lre I to enable A Austria Austria Aus Aus- sA tr tria to resume her hen 8 ics Is s an another another an- an other SU suggestion which l a has had nad its need meed of discussion Many leading Austrians Aus are ale sanguine that given coal and andraw andraw raw material Vienna would be bu able to reestablish her economic Integrity l Even ven If It this grant of credits were cie possible pos pos- sible Ible it is quite candidly admitted that the would not be an unmixed un- un mixed blessing Since It would surely make a field for exploitation t ly y allied a alibis tl In the time sense that ti tIey ry would take tale advantage of the plOp peo plO p pies ps s 's Impoverished condition to make wage wage slaves The Austrians then thep selves belvea possibly owing to their undernourishment under under- nourishment are apathetic and anti resigned re- re signed to this Possibility Their one cry is SJ Give us only coal and raw ray mil materials materials' UNiON WITH G. G GERM M. N ANY There Is a II final union with WhiCh which of course course can call be bl ac- ac by the revision of the treaty trea- trea ty As with the other proposals I I questioned regarding this during b by stay in Vienna men of ot all classes from frOl the politician holding a h gh ace acc 11 la inthe lathE the government to the man n in n th tho street treet and discovered that vas vax the only proposal which found unanimous meus favor faor as a solution o of the Austrian Aus Aur- trian and more in particular o ho Viennese Vien nese problem There are vast differences differences differ differ- nees of character r En he the r- r mans and anil the theu u t aa the Germans arc of ot a coarser fibre the Austrians are perhaps the last good Europeans ii 11 lit the best most cultured sense of the word The Austrians themselves arc are cot liot unaware of this nevertheless they leI feel that their economic salvation lies th this Is wa way Until this fundamental problem is s s solved Vienna ienna must go hungry md foreign relief missions Clam fion all cor- cor ers xera of the globe must go on with their humanitarian task of th the hungry hun hun- gry sty children this means neither we weeks ks nor months hut but vears years They possibly feed all an and Vienna will gO o on n dying It Is mora more tha than a question of whether Vienna ft shall die cUe I For or It would be the most strange of ironies if te th thc tho one oe spot of old Europe worth aMii- aMii the one spot which 77 the last remnant the of what hat we most cherished o or prewar civilization the he one spot which judging from the tempEr tern tem pEr of the People genuinely desired df no should war be time the one spot chosen osen r for r who From The Worldwide Newa Service Inc Mass Boston |
