Evening Star Newspaper, June 29, 1923, Page 37

- AUSTRIAN CHANGES - GIVE PEOPLE HOPE ‘Desperate Plight of Year Ago i Gives Place to New and —-- Better Conditions. BY WILLIAM E. N i UBpecial Correspondence of T ana Ohicago Daily News Foreign Service.) VIENNA, Austria, June 1.—So des- Perate was the plight of Austria one short year ago that in return for Promises of monetary ald—contained in the famous so-called Geneva pro- tocols of August, 1922—she surren- dered temporarily into the hands of the league of nations a considerable part of “her national Sovereignty. Budget control, for instance, passed from the minister of finance to a com- missioner for the league. Tt is undeniable that a great and ro- mantic change for the better has taken place within six months, illus- trated. among other ways, by the stabilization of the crown and the boom in stocks on the Vienna ex- change. Reconstruction, as worked out in Austria, may in time be ap- plied to other countries as well. Hun- &ary desires nothing better. “Reforms are being varried out] slowly but surely by Austria” said Alfred Zimmermann. financial con- troller undef the league and ex- mayor of Rotterdam, when asked for his opinfon of the situation. “Prog- ress Is slow, slower perhaps than de- sirable. but satisfactory nevertheless “Inflation has stopped entirely More than 35,000 superfiuous employes in the civil service and in business enterprises controlled by the state have been discharged. Budget calcu- Jations have been reduced from 572, 000,000.000 paper crowns per. month 10 ' 300.00,000,000. (The Austrian Paper crown is quoted at about 65,000 to the dollar.) There is every reason 1o believe that these and other re- forms will be carried through to the bitter end, the Austrian government being in a mood to live up to all its obligations.” Watch on Expenditures, The fundamental idea of the league's reconstruction plan is the balancing of the Austrian budget within two years and the flotation of international loans guaranteed by reat Britain, France, Italy, Czecho- vakia, Spain, Belgium, Switzerland, weden,” Denmark and Holland, to tide the country over the difficult in- termittent epoch of deficits. One short-term loan of $16.170,000 has been raised. A long-term loan of $130,000,000, out of which the first one 'is to be repaid, is now in pro- cess of negotiation, with prospects of success depending almost wholly on the attitude of the United States. The American part of the loan has been oversubscribed.) Not, one cent of the cash to be real- ized from the long-term loans, nor a heller ,of the proceeds from mon- opoly ¥eceipts can be spent by the Austrian _government without the | vonsent of the league controller. who is_instructed to grant such consent | only for items pertaining to recon- struction. No important nationa penditure of any sort, in fact, made without his consent | As_conditions precedent to getting ald from the league Austria promised to put through a series of radical | administrative reforms, including tax | revision, no more printing of paper | money, drastic reductions in the number of government employes and | administrative expenses, cessation of | the salt, wood. bread and fuel doles | and increased custom receipts. At | least 100,000 eclvil service function- aries are to be dismissed In batches of 25,000 each half vear, before the first of January, 1925. Some 2,900.- 000,000 paper crowns were to b lopped off the budget deficit. These stipulations, radical as they were, were tackled loyally by the bourgecis government of Mgr. Seipel. A “omplete program of reform was ‘worked out, submitted to league offi- cials -and passed by the ustrian parliament. Doles were abolished. The printing of paper money was Stopped as far back as last Novem- ber. A new bank of issue independent of the government, with a capital of 30,000,000 gold crowns ($6,000,000) subscribed at home, was set up in Vienna, to take the place of the Austro-Hungarian bank. A new tax on business turnover was instituted in April and another on agricultural produce, calculated to hit the over- prosperous peasant, will be instituted as soon as possible after the October el ons. Both tax and custom re- turns have increased greatly through the stabilization of the crown. Two Officers to One Soldier, One large item of economy has bLeen in the reduction of army costs, which formerly were disproportionate to the size of the military establish- ment. At one time last year, it is said, there were two officers to every soldier in the Tyrol. This year there are to be only about 14,000 officers and men under arms, though by the treaty of St. Germain, Austria i{s al- lowed an army of 30,000. The gov. ernment knows that even with the maximum of troops allowed it could not defend the country successfully in case of war. The greatest stumbling block of all in the future probably will be the railroads. If they could be made self-supporting or disposed of by the state the budget would balance it- self now. In other wors the rail- roads cause by far the biggest part of the deficit. Government officials throughout Austria numbered 212,838 on March 3, 1923. Of these, 90,02 or nearly one-half, were émployed on the state railways. When the dual monarchy collapsed in November, 1918, the little THE . EVENING STAR, WASHINGTON, D. C. FRIDAY, JUNE 29, 1923. rump” state of Austria hdd to re- celve and find work for thousands of German-speaking rallway officlals chased out of Bohemlia, Croatia, Ga- licia and other states. Little has been done thus far with the problem of the rallways, except to invite Sir William Acquorth, sev- enty-year-old British transportation jexpert, to visit Vienna and draw up & report on the evils in administration and ways in which to cure them. Government ministers announce in speeches that state control must be maintained at any cost, with man- agement divorced from politics and placed on a strict business basis. Forelgn observers declare that this =ounds paradoxical, but may work out satisfactorily if a strong technical ex- pert, endowed with far-reaching power, is placed at the head of the whole administration. Chancellor _Seipel, the energetic priest-premier who heads the cabinet, faces a thorny set of political com- plications when he comes to the rail- road problem. Socialist factions hate | him bitterly. Soclalists seem “peeved” principally at the way in which their feelings have been ignored by the Seipel cabinet. Thus far dismissals from the gov- ernment staff have been relatively easy, for the employes dismissed were really. superfluous. In future, how- ever, dismissals will be more difficult; in fact, they probably can be effected in proportion to the figures laid down by the league only by reorganization | of the government and the state- owned enterprises.” The fusion of gov- ernment ministers must be followed | by similar compressions elsewhere. It | will be a big task. Confidence of People Restored. | Budget, rallways, loans and civil | service reform all fall within the | sphere of financial reconstruction. | League aid applies to this sphere | |-alone, vet colncident with it and quite as important in the long run | for Austria is another field of reform —namely, economics. If the little Danube State cannot learn to produce jux much as it consumes the crown may begin to tumble again and bring down with it the fine new edifice of league reform. Austria now imports Boned Chicken Meat of chicken, tender and delicious, packed in sanitary tins—ready to be transformed into any one of a dozen tempting dishes. It saves the housewife’s time and pocket-book. A standard product for 50 years. Just the thirg for salads and sandwiches “] know Brookfield=it’s that good butter that mother buys in the clean-looking package.” more than twice as much as she ex- ports. Tariff walls and trade restric- tions in the succession states round about act as powerful deterrents to the reconstruction of this country. (To bring life back to normal, expert ob- servers say, It will be absolutely necessary to balance the trade budget. Undoubtedly the most encouraging element in the Austrian situation is the return of confldence to the people, with its psychological reaction on the will to work. The average citizen in the streets, who regarded things as =0 hopeless that he thought only of himself a few months ago, is now willing to “do his bit" in co-opera ing for the general welfare, even though his bit includes personal sacrifices and privation his means FUN FROM THE PRESS Between the thrillers at the pic- ture theater to-night you can see funniest men in the United States contributed to this movie. Itis the cream of the bright sayings, anecdotes and squibs to be found in the newspapers of the country, together with ing animated illustrations. See it at your theater or go to a theater that shows it. obeying the laws, savin, ing .taxés and so0' o ithout such co-operation little can be done for the salvation of a state. money, pay-| vilual case. Of those paroled about Leprosy Amenable to Treatment. |Jevers were paroled; 31 relapsed and From Harper's Magazine. Leprosy is in a measure amenable to treatment, says the United States| parole. public health service t ten years (1912-21) a considerabl centage of the lepers with seven of these were later paroled. Ten were completely released from The chance of arresting the disease decre that it had been allowed to go With- the Kalthi Hospital near Honolulu|out treatment unless this perfod was and on Molokal Island have been pa- | seven years or more. Apparently pa- 3¢ tne wi roled; that is, they have been re-|tients who survive without treatment |fime fshi; leased as belng “not a menace to the | for seven years possess powers of re- publimhicalth,” but have been required | sistance that slightly increase their to report for examination at certain|chances for marked improvement un- | shorely wuk jos’ lazinens. irtervals which vary with the indi-'der treatment. Those who desire it are treated with chaulmoogra ofl and 13 per cent have relapsed and have | its derivatives. retiirned to segregation, but about one-fourth of these were later pa- roled for the second time. In all, 242 —_— His-Abiding Faith. Seeing & colored man of his ac- quaintance, starting off on i fishing excursion & gentleman thought it an the length of. time|¢Xcellent time to reprove him for his ““Tom, you old loafer,’ you think it right to leave your wife htub while you pass your “Yessah colonel; it's all right. Mah wife doan' need any watchin’, sald-he, “do s hard as ef 1 was ask for Horlick's a The JORIGINA| Maité4: Mil - L Sfor Al Ages - 00" Aveid Imitations—Substitates URING a time when a small town was overrun with a big convention-and hotel rooms were at a premium, the hotel clerk knocked at a certain door at a late hour, and in response to the inquiry, “What's wanted?” said, “How many are there in this room?™ A voice replie’ through the door, “Well, there's me; and John Temple, and an Elk, and a traveling salesman, and . . ™ Whereupon the clerk interrupted with, “Well, if there are that many’of you, we will try some- where else.” After which the eole occupant of the room turned-over-and went to sleep. A reader of The Digest is a human being who has suc- ceeded in what he tried to do, and reached a rather immensely amus- high place in the business and social life of his com- munity. He has many contacts and relations, which make him (like the Elk in No. 29) at once an indi- vidual, the head of a family, the head of a business, the chairman of the house committee, a director in other corporations, and so on, and in each of these caracities he has an opportunity to buy or influence buying. - This multiple buying-power is true only of men and women who, by their positions in life, are able to act in many capacities. But these happen te be just the kind of people that The Digest attracts. For instance— Of all Digest readers engaged in manufacturing, 2. out of 3 are owners or bosses. Of all engaged in selling goods, 4 out of § own the business or help run it. Of all engaged in mining, 2 out of 3 -~ are owners, executives or officers. As a matter of 73 per.cent of the 1,300,000 circulation of The Literary Digest are so successful in their life work that they have a multiple personality. Therefore The Literary Digest can offer to the advertisers in its pages has readers. more customers than it ‘ If you:; want to:see just how many mt;lfiple buyers for your goods there are in The Digest's circulation, ask us to make a chart for you.