AUSTRIA-HUNGARY. 



73 



It adds greatly to the financial burdens of the 

 country; and the Germans fear that it will 

 feed the national aspirations of the Czechs, 

 giving them a localized army, which they will 

 endeavor to make national, like the Hungarian 

 Honved, in which the words of command will 

 be given in their own language. The only 

 amendment that was carried provides that, 

 immediately upon the conclusion of a peace, 

 the Landsturm shall be demobilized. 



The War of Races. In Bohemia the Germans 

 strive for a division of the province into two 

 administrative districts. A Central Union of 

 German Agriculturists was formed for this ob- 

 ject at Prague, on July 15. An industrial ex- 

 hibition was also organized in Prague to show 

 the importance of German handicraft in the 

 Czech capital. The transmutation of parties 

 has led Count Taafe lately to draw nearer to 

 the Liberals and conciliate the German nation- 

 ality. The calling of Dr. von Gautsch and Mar- 

 quis Becquehem into the Cabinet indicated a 

 new combination less favorable to the Czechs. 

 The refusal to establish a theological faculty in 

 the new University of Prague, the suppression 

 of some schools in mixed districts, the order 

 that officers on admission to the army must 

 pass a strict examination in the German lan- 

 guage, and similar measures, showed that the 

 concessions to the Czechs were no longer the 

 order of the day, yet to appease them the Min- 

 ister of Justice issued on Sept. 23 a decree 

 that gave great offense to the Germans. He 

 ordered that after Jan. 1, 1887, in the superior 

 courts of Bohemia the language in which by a 

 former regulation the final decree is to be ren- 

 dered must be used by the judges on the bench 

 in their motions and opinions. 



Early in March the Austrian Government 

 interdicted the union of Old Catholics in Bo- 

 hemia, as being a political association. This 

 was the first result of tha plan of action adopted 

 by the conference of bishops held in Vienna to 

 deliberate as to how the Old Catholic move- 

 ment in Bohemia should be coped with. The 

 spread of the Old Catholic doctrines, though 

 springing partly from a spiritual and intellect- 

 ti.-il impulse, have, however, a strong political 

 motive among the German Catholics that gives 

 the Government a ground for interference. 



The Diet of Prague, on a motion of the 

 archbishop of that city, passed a resolution in 

 favor of making religious instruction compul- 

 sory in the higher as well as in the lower classes 

 of all state-supported schools. 



The Labor Question. The Austrian Govern- 

 ment, in its efforts to combat socialistic ideas 

 by police measures and criminal prosecutions, 

 has achieved as little success as the German 

 authorities with their anti-socialist laws. The 

 clericals in Austria took the first step in legis- 

 lation for the satisfaction and benefit of the 

 laboring class by introducing and carrying 

 through a law establishing a normal work-day. 

 The Government has procured the enactment 

 of laws establishing accident and invalid insur- 



ance, which are a reproduction of the German 

 measures on the subject. On Oct. 5 a bill was 

 introduced in the House of Deputies that ema- 

 nated from the German fraction, proposing to 

 give the working class a share in the national 

 representation ; and an organization through 

 which their separate interests will find expres- 

 sion and self-government in their proper affairs 

 will be introduced Class representation exists 

 for the mercantile and manufacturing classes 

 through the boards of trade. The land-owners 

 are also represented as a class. The German 

 Liberals propose to establish a chamber of labor 

 in each district where a chamber of commerce 

 exists, twenty- six in all, and to allow these 

 chambers, whose members are chosen by all 

 who belong to the sick-fund associations, to 

 send nine deputies to the lower house of Par- 

 liament. The Reichsrath enacted a socialist 

 bill, arming the Government with enormous 

 repressive power over suspected revolutionists. 

 Such persons may be placed under police sur- 

 veillance without judicial sentence, and may be 

 ordered from one town to another, and com- 

 pelled to report themselves periodically to the 

 police in the places where they are ordered tu 

 reside. The new socialist laws passed in 1886 

 draw a distinction between socialists and anar- 

 chists. The latter are subjected to the severest 

 penalties for revolutionary acts, and may be 

 tried without a jury. 



In October the Vienna police discovered an 

 anarchist plot to set fire to the lumber-yards 

 by the river and various parts of the city. 

 Seventeen suspected conspirators were arrested 

 in Vienna. A dynamite cartridge was found 

 placed in a position to destroy one of the 

 bridges across the Danube. Stores of explo- 

 sives and weapons were discovered secreted in 

 houses. There were others arrested as con- 

 federates in other towns. The plot was traced 

 to anarchists in London and the United States, 

 and was to have been carried out by persons 

 recently returned from America. 



The Burning of Stry. The town of Stry, in 

 Galicia, forty miles from Leraberg, was entire- 

 ly destroyed by fire during a gale on April 17. 

 The loss exceeded $3,000,000. The number 

 of persons left homeless was 15.000. All the 

 public archives and registers and the private 

 deeds were lost. Over 100 persons were 

 burned to death ; others lost their lives in 

 sanguinary fights with robbers. The people 

 camped out on the neighboring plain, where 

 many old persons died from exposure, and 

 were soon reduced to a famishing condition. 

 Car-loads of provisions sent from Lemberg 

 were plundered by the disorderly. This class 

 was augmented by some of the neighboring 

 peasantry, who had also taken part in the 

 plundering of houses during the conflagration. 

 The starving citizens invaded farm-houses in 

 search of food, and many acts of brigandage 

 and bloodshed took place. There were other 

 destructive fires in Galicia, due to the impru- 

 dent use of petroleum. Besides several small- 



