AUSTRIA-HUNGARY. 



51 



The increase of the Jewish race exceeds in 

 a remarkable degree that of the rest of the 

 population in the dominions of the Austrian 

 crown. The number of Jews in Cisleithan 

 Austria increased between 1869 and 1881 from 

 822,220 to 1,005,563, or 22'9 per cent, repre- 

 senting a mean annual increase of 2*1 per cent. 

 The rest of the population increased from 

 19,395,311 to 21,125,142, or 7'9 per cent, the 

 annual increment being 0'6 per cent. Between 

 the censuses of 1857 and 1869 the increase 

 of the Jews was 32'4 per cent ; of the Chris- 

 tians 10-2 ; between 1850 and 1857, among the 

 Jews 30-3 per cent, among the Christians 3'2 

 per cent. Previous to 1850 the enumerations 

 of the population were taken in connection 

 with the military conscription. As the young 

 Jews were particularly addicted to fraud and 

 bribery for the purpose of avoiding military 

 service, and in the eastern provinces were ac- 

 customed to place themselves across the bound- 

 ary when the time of enlistment approached, 

 the difference in the returns for the two classes 

 was less striking. Between 1834 and 1837 the 

 reported increase among the Jews was 5 4 2 per 

 cent, against 2-3 for the remainder of the popu- 

 lation ; in the enumeration of 1840, 5 -4 against 

 3 per cent ; in the one taken in 1843, 5*7 against 

 2-9 per cent; in that of 1846, 7'6 against 3-1 

 per cent; in that of 1850, 6 -3 against 0-6 per 

 cent. The normal rate of increase among the 

 Jewish race is notoriously greater than among 

 the other peoples of Europe. The main cause 

 of their rapid growth in Austria, however, is the 

 continued immigration from the east of Europe. 

 The increase varies greatly in different parts of 

 the empire, and depends upon the opportuni- 

 ties for their favorite occupations ; but every- 

 where except in a few rural localities there has 

 been an increase. In Lower Austria it was 

 81 - 5 per cent in the twelve years ; in Salzburg 

 146*8 per cent ; but in Bohemia only 4, and in 

 Moravia only 2 -9 per cent. They have settled 

 in districts of Tyrol where a few years ago 

 there were none. In Carniola, Carinthia, and 

 Istria there are still but few ; yet the number 

 has increased two, three, and five fold. In the 

 Bukowina, which receives a steady stream 

 from the neighboring Roumania, and where 

 they are thickest, numbering 67,418 to 502,181 

 other inhabitants, the increase has been 41 ! 

 per cent. The increase is naturally greatest in 

 the cities. Vienna counts 72,543 Jews among 

 its 705,402 inhabitants. They have increased 

 in this capital 80*2 per cent, while the Christian 

 population has grown only 11 '5 per cent. They 

 also people the suburbs of Vienna and form a 

 large proportion of its floating and day popula- 

 tion. In Prague, with 155,813 inhabitants, the 

 Jews increased 3,515, or 26'8 per cent, and the 

 rest of the population 5,415, or only 3'7 per 

 cent. In Lemberg and Cracow the Hebrews 

 constitute about 30 per cent, and in many of 

 the smaller towns of Galicia four fifths of the 

 population are Jews. In Brody, the chief of 

 these Jewish towns, the increase was only 1*1 



per cent, on account of the falling away of 

 trade since its inclusion in the customs bound- 

 ary and the consequent emigration, whereas 

 in other towns of Galicia it was from 12 to 30 

 per cent. The discovery of petroleum near 

 Boryslav had the effect of doubling the Jewish 

 population in a few years, while the non- Jew- 

 ish population showed no increase. 



MILITARY DEFENSES. The strength of the 

 common army, recruited on the principle of 

 universal liability to arms, is 296,284 men for 

 the peace establishment, including the reserves. 

 Including the Austrian Landwehr and the Hun- 

 garian Honved, the separate militia organiza- 

 tions of the two kingdoms, about 1,000,000 

 men can be called to arms in the event of a 

 war. The navy consists of fourteen ironclads, 

 ten of them first class, and armed with guns 

 ranging from six and a half tons in weight to 

 the twenty-five-ton guns of the Tegethoff. 



The territorial organization of the army was 

 instituted, in principle, when the new military 

 system was introduced in 1868. It was not 

 only an essential element of the system of uni- 

 versal service adopted from Germany, but was 

 a political prerequisite amid the diversity and 

 ethnic rivalry of the Austro-Hungarian popu- 

 lation. Yet up to the present the actual organ- 

 ization of the army during the term of active 

 service has been directly contrary to the the- 

 oretical basis. In order to preserve a national 

 feeling in the sense of the German centralists, 

 the troops of different nationalities have been 

 commingled as much as possible. German has 

 been retained as the language of command. 

 The territorial organization was nominally car- 

 ried up as far as divisions, but the only service 

 the men ever saw was in temporary bodies 

 studiously made up of battalions and troops 

 detached from their regiments and brought 

 together from distant parts of the empire. 

 There was no organization of the different 

 arms into army corps. The system of military 

 centralization is condemned by all military au- 

 thorities since the breakdown of the central- 

 ized French army and the success of the de- 

 centralized German army in 1870. Austria, 

 in adopting the territorial basis, but practical- 

 ly retaining the centralized system, would be 

 doubly unprepared in the event of a great war ; 

 aside from the practical difficulties of mobili- 

 zation and the departmental services attending 

 military centralization, the entire organization 

 of the army into the larger divisions would 

 have to be proceeded with after mobilization, 

 and the regiments would not be composed of 

 men who had served and trained together, but 

 of troops brought together for the first time. 

 As the political interests of the German cen- 

 tralistic element prevented the decentralization 

 of the army, the pressure of the Magyars and 

 the minor nationalities who have acquired po- 

 litical power has accomplished the final reform, 

 although it was hastened by a sense of the dan- 

 ger of the confused and imperfect organization 

 at a time when Austria may be called upon to 



