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Show 5 A lt; T eci, hconomic Highlights , Industrial News Review i ) Happenings that Affect the Dinner he Pails, Dividend Checks and Tax s Bills of Every Individual. Nation-j0v Nation-j0v al and International Problems In-j In-j separable from Local Welfare, vej oOo oasi, Today Central Europe is the mad-t mad-t j house of the world. Great powers are e, ,j literally sitting on the powder-kegs, rst and only a spark is needed to pro-duce pro-duce the greatest explosion since 1914. The last world war started when a half-insane anarchist murder-El) murder-El) etf an obscure Grand Duke in a city few Americans had ever heard of. It le. e tajkes years to prepare the stage for niajor wars to build up hatreds, the mistrusts, the fears, that underlie them. Once the stage is set, however, only minutes are required to get the play going. Behind the assassination of Chancellor Dollfuss, Austria's five- foot-tall iron man, is an involved, crooked1, close-to-untraceable chain of events that go back to the post-war 1 peace pacts. Modern Austria is a head it without a body. In the days before 1914, the old empire embraced 250,000 :ec( square miles of territory, harboring ok a -population of 50,000,000. After the war, the map of Europe was remade to the order of the victorious countries, coun-tries, and when the operation was R E finished, Austria had been reduced to ajt 7,000 000 people, with a little over 55 30,000 square miles of territory. " Much of this land is worthless from the standpoint of production and neighboring nations erected high tar-p tar-p iff barriers to prevent the small ' amount of export Austria could have had. Only loans have kept her from bankruptcy during the past fifteen years. As a result, her people are despairing, wondering. She is thus always facing potential revolution. It jet i is that fact that Hitler is seeking to 50t take advantage of. Germany, too, was y0UI, dismembered by war and the Nazi a,.. dream is to restore the territorial empire em-pire that once made Potsdam the most important capital of Europe. Hitler believes that the way to do that is not by invasion France, Italy . and perhaps England, with great armies and navies, would crush him as soon as he started if he tried that course but by establishing Nazi governments gov-ernments in other central powers, of which Austria is one. Dollfuss was the great defender of Austrian independence inde-pendence a Christian Socialist, he, D although a supreme dictator, hated, the Nazis and his removal was essential es-sential to Nazi hopes. The Nazi attempt at-tempt to take over the Austrian government gov-ernment at once, daring as it was, failed. Italy at once moved 50,000 troops to the Italian-Austrian frontier fron-tier she, with France, is pledged to maintain Austrian independence. There is no altruism in this it simply sim-ply represents self-protection. She knows well that if the Hitler dream is achieved, Germany will once more become a great industrial and mfli-tary mfli-tary power and that it will be only a matter of time before she again - tries to conquer Europe. Most desperate desper-ate of Austrian problems now is civil gwar Nazi sentiment is strong among (Continued on last page) EcOnOmiC Highligl (Continued from page 1) 1 the Austrian people, and the gj, ment will tie ruthless in seekii subdue H . 'Hi'' new chancellor j, Kurt Schuschnigg, an ardent """" Nazi. When Doll fuss died, it ) Inp as if the lid hail been taken fro) P; Central European powder keg jj B and that the spark was. about al applied. Then the lid was clj se down again. But it sits loosely position the dynamite is still Ei and the fuse ready for the mat, ti -oOo- The only certain thing one cai j t about the business outlook at ef(l time is that it is uncertain. A j, ber Of factors have united to i the further progress of rect eat Among these are: Lethargic ( gaj due largely to uncertainty as to pr is going to happen to the dolla ie I rising level of construction cost L,, 'that the new securities act is jnc to deal another blow to inJ Fq i financing; the growing labor lem; the belief that government e c, ' further restrict and regulate jsol jness; the prospect of still 1 on1 I taxes. Surveys indicate that the jf0 ' business is finding the going hai ng the increased cost of doing bn lev is more serious to it than to as large industry with sizable ca .ov, serves, which can stand fin ,njj drain longer. f all these pro .ait that of labor is as seriou as am Ve. San Francisco general strike is .ee and there is no apparent dange Another An-other c'ties will have to unda 0ve similar experience. A numb e s striking unions have voted hea ei( jorities in favor of arbitration me government board. All that i js couraging. But tie fact remains th business leaders know it. th c labor leaders are not satisfied; ore success to them mean 100 pa le j closed shop industry. There is ms bitterness, much anger, much i s derstanding, in the rank? of pi workers and employers. Arbit it A can smooth mattprs over and e t certain adjustments but it pe, solve the problem entirely. It ms, certain that labor will continut g r a burning issue for many moi nnt come. The bel:ef is widely hel fee : the ques'ion of future political nan is also a dampening influence oi ran( ness, and that industry will be id ; until the results of the Noi ian elections are known. suit |