AUSTRIA-HUNGARY. 



49 



length of 4,700 miles; lines belonging to companies 

 and operated by the Government, 1,260 miles; lines 

 owned and operated by companies, 4,862 miles; 

 total length, 10,822 miles. The total capital ex- 

 penditure was 231,522,000 sterling. The number 

 of passengers carried in 1897 was 118,638,000; tons 

 of freight, 103,271,000; receipts, 278,053,000 flor- 

 ins; expenses, 172,434,000 florins. 



The state railroad lines in Hungary had on Jan. 



1, 1899, a length of 4,876 miles; companies' lines 

 operated by the Government, 3,439 miles; lines 

 owned and worked by companies, 1,822 miles; 

 total length, 10,137 miles. The total capital ex- 

 penditure was 107,306,000 sterling; number of 

 passengers carried in 1898, 60,312.000; tons of 

 freight, 38,624,000; receipts, 10,576,000 sterling; 

 expenses, 5,730,000 sterling. 



The Austrian post oflice in 1898 carried 876,- 

 556,080 letters and postal cards, 122,886,840 sam- 

 ples and books, and 97,400,800 newspapers. 



The Hungarian postal traffic in 1898 was 250,- 

 802,000 letters and postal cards, 41,096,000 sam- 

 ples and book packets, 18,964,000 money and postal 

 orders of the aggregate amount of 43,382,000 

 sterling, 18,155,000 parcels and money letters, and 

 108,752,000 newspapers. 



The telegraph lines of the Austrian Government 

 had in 1898 a total length of 32,363 miles, with 

 96,580 miles of wire. The number of messages sent 

 during 1S98 was 14,158,226. The length of tele- 

 phone wires was 64,380 miles. The postal and 

 telegraph receipts amounted to 44,650,851 ster- 

 ling; expenses, 40,705,717 florins. 



The Hungarian Government lines had a total 

 length of 13,675 miles, with 66,689 miles of wire; 

 number of messages, 13,583,618. The length of 

 telephone wires was 20,361 miles. The postal and 

 telegraph receipts in 1898 were 1,706,300 ster- 

 ling; expenses, 1,274,700. 



Austria. The legislative authority for the em- 

 pire is vested in the Reichsrath, but each province 

 possesses a large measure of autonomy and has a 

 Landtag, or Diet, to legislate on all matters not 

 reserved by the Constitution for the Reichsrath. 

 The upper house of the Reichsrath is the Herren- 

 haus, composed of 19 archdukes, 67 hereditary 

 territorial nobles, 10 archbishops, 8 prince bishops, 

 and 136 life members nominated by the Emperor 

 for distinguished services or eminence in the arts 

 or sciences. The lower house is the Abgeordneten- 

 haus, containing 85 representatives of the landed 

 proprietors, 118 representatives of boroughs and 

 cities, 21 representatives of chambers of commerce 

 and industry, 129 representatives of rural dis- 

 tricts elected indirectly by the peasants and small 

 proprietors, and 72 members elected directly by 

 the people; total, 425 members. All males over 

 twenty-four years of age who pay 4 florins in 

 direct taxes or possess educational or other quali- 

 fications are entitled to vote directly for Deputies 

 in the towns and in the rural constituencies for 

 electors who choose the Deputies, each elector rep- 

 resenting 500 individual voters. The Austrian 

 Ministry in the beginning of 1900, constituted Oct. 



2, 1899, consisted of the following members: Presi- 

 dent of the Council and Minister of Agriculture, 

 Graf Clary und Aldnngen; Minister of National 

 Defense, Graf Zeno Welser von Welsersheimb ; 

 Minister of Railroads, Ritter von Wittek ; Min- 

 ister of the Interior, Dr. E. von Korber; Minister 

 of Justice, Eduard Ritter von Kindinger; Minister 

 of Worship and Education, Dr. W. Ritter von 

 Haiiel; Minister of Finance, Dr. S. Kniazolucki ; 

 Minister of Commerce, Dr. Friedrich Stibral ; with- 

 out portfolio, Dr. C. Ritter von Chiedowski. 



Area and Population. The area of Austria is 

 115,903 square miles. The population at the cen- 

 VOL. XL. 4 A 



sus of Dec. 31, 1890, was 23,895,413. The number 

 of marriages in 1898 was 199,723; of births, 

 949,398; of deaths, 635,341. The number of emi- 

 grants from both Austria and Hungary in 1897 

 was 37,224, of whom 32,033 were destined for 

 North America, 3,166 for Brazil, and 1,485 for the 

 Argentine Republic. In 1898 the Austrian immi- 

 gration into the United States was 23,138; in 1899 

 it was 41,571. Vienna, the capital, contained 

 1,364,548 inhabitants at the last census. 



Finances. The revenue of the Austrian Gov- 

 ernment in 1897 was 908,397,000 florins and the 

 expenditure 868,214,000 florins. For 1899 the rev- 

 enue was estimated at 1,521,509,668 crowns, or 

 half florins, and the expenditure at 1,520,573,586 

 crowns. For 1900 the estimate of revenue was 

 1,585,811,822 crowns, credited to the following 

 sources: Reichsrath and Council of Ministers, 

 1,523,200 crowns; Ministry of the Interior, 2,866,- 

 042 crowns; Ministry of Defense, 852,812 crowns; 

 Ministry of Worship and Education, 13,964,068 

 crowns; Ministry of Finance, 1,140,780,938 crowns; 

 Ministry of Commerce, 111,489,840 crowns; Minis- 

 try of Railroads, 272,528,500 crowns; Ministry of 

 Agriculture, 31,708,654 crowns; Ministry of Jus- 

 tice, 2,211,538 crowns; pensions, 2,824,880 crowns; 

 subventions and dotations, 667,600 crowns; im- 

 perial debt, 2,417,180 crowns; debt administration, 

 19,600 crowns; sales of state property, 311,000 

 crowns; payment by Lombard railroads, 1,646,000 

 crowns. The estimated expenditures for 1900 were 

 "1,586,403,933 crowns in the aggregate, distributed 

 under various heads as follows: Imperial house- 

 hold, 9,300,000 crowns; imperial chancery, 160,183 

 crowns; Reichsrath, 2,601,602 crowns; Supreme 

 Court, 48,884 crowns; Council of Ministers, 2,748,- 

 222 crowns; Austria's contribution to common ex- 

 penditure, 260,831,992 crowns; Ministry of the In- 

 terior, '60,618,070 crowns; Ministry of 'Defense, 

 54,174,542 crowns; Ministry of Worship and Edu- 

 cation, 75,275,182 crowns; Ministry of Finance, 

 258,705,876 crowns; Ministry of Commerce, 111,- 

 617,470 crowns; Ministry of Railroads, 228,399,460 

 crowns; Ministry of Agriculture, 40,167,435 

 crowns; Board of Control, 416,000 crowns; pen- 

 sions, 53,243,556 crowns; subventions and dota- 

 tions, 15,484,250 crowns; imperial debt, 344,- 

 030,004 crowns; debt administration, 1,557,040 

 crowns. 



The extraordinary expenditure for permanent 

 purposes in 1900 was estimated at 67,829,400 

 crowns, of which only 1,149,100 crowns were on 

 hand, leaving 66,680,300 crowns to be raised by a 

 loan at 3J or 4 per cent. The Austrian imperial 

 debt on June 30, 1899, amounted to 1,612,637,421 

 florins, not including a floating debt of 15,164,567 

 florins. The annual charge for interest and amor- 

 tization was 74,796,806 florins. 



Political Affairs. The disturbances incident 

 to the conflict between the Germans and the Czechs 

 in the autumn of 1899 led to the retirement of the 

 Thun ministry and the formation of a Ministry of 

 Affairs under Graf Clary, who in turn resigned in 

 order to let Dr. Wittek form a Cabinet with the 

 special mission of carrying out by imperial decrees 

 in virtue of the fourteenth article in the Constitu- 

 tion thos,e measures of urgent state necessity that 

 could not be got through the Reichsrath. The Em- 

 peror warned Dr. Stransky and other Czech leaders 

 that popular agitation must cease and threatened 

 to proclaim a state of siege. The Czechs demanded 

 that their language be used in commanding Bo- 

 hemian regiments, but the Emperor made it clear 

 to them that the language of the army must re- 

 main German. Bohemian soldiers who answered 

 the roll call in their native tongue were severely 

 punished. On Jan. 19 a new ministry was formed 



