and thirty-four members." 1 Since 1882 the number of these associations has greatly increased, and the Nassauischer Bauern-Vereine carry on a most active propaganda on their behalf.2

Baron Von Schorlemer-Alst began his propaganda in the face of the greatest obstacles, with the Government for adversary, and opposed by Prince Bismarck. Things even got to such a point that he was threatened with being placed under the supervision of the police, as the head of dangerous associations. However, all these hostilities have calmed down, and a few years ago the eminent Catholic deputy of the German centre was offered the post of Governor of Westphalia.3

What is so wonderful among the German Catholics is, that the initiative came from the higher classes; the men who, V among the Catholics, have written the bitterest invectives against the capitalistic system, who have been most vehement in blaming the abuses of large properties, and the longstanding economic bondage of the labouring class, who have most strongly deplored the evils of our present bourgeois system, are not workmen, nor even poor priests, but bishops, canons of the Church, wealthy noblemen, and rich industrialists; in short, all of them are persons whose elevated position ought to be a guarantee of their moderation, and who, by their very nature, would be expected to be most attached to the Conservative programme in economic, as in political matters.

The clergy took the field as soon as they became persuaded that infidel Liberalism was equally dangerous for the prosperity of the labouring classes and the prospects of the Church. The movement began among the upper classes, and the associations of Catholic workmen and Catholic peasants only began to develop after the great Archbishop of Mayence had, with perhaps more efficacy, if with less competency, than

1 Bongartz, Dus Katholisch-Sociale Vereinswesen in Deutschland, p. 130 and following. Würzburg, 1882.

* See Martin Fassbender, Die Bauern-Vereine, p. 164 and following I read this in the Catholic paper, Le Courrier de Bruxelles, 19th February, 1890.

Ferdinand Lassalle, stigmatised from the pulpit of his cathedral the evils of our present social organisation.

The path followed by the Catholics in their social studies, and that chosen by the associations representing their political and economic programme, are parallel; every year the delegates of the various associations meet to form, by common accord, their political and economic claims, and the entire Catholic Socialist movement, in spite of the long persecution endured at the hands of the Government, and the derision of the Liberals, goes on its way, ever more active, more prosperous. and more daring.

199

CHAPTER VIII.

ANTISEMITISM AND CATHOLIC SOCIALISM IN AUSTRIA.

Rapid Diffusion of Austrian Socialism-Causes of this Diffusion---Antisemitism and Socialism-Maxen-First Austrian Katholikentag-Rudolph Meyer and his Economic and Social Theories—Meyer's Programme and Tendencies-Meyer and the Liberal School-Contemporary Economic Morality, according to Meyer-Meyer and the Corporations-The Evils of Roman Law and the Conservative School-The Vaterland Group-Prince Von Lichtenstein-Criticism of the Liberal School-Labour as a Function Delegated by Society-Baron Von Vogelsang-The Revolution of 1848 and its Evil Effects-The Triumph of Capitalist Bourgeoisie-Capital and Industry-Urgent Reforms-Success of Vogelsang-Restoration of the Corporations-Austrian Social Legislation-The Social Duties of Catholics according to Weiss-Blöme-Kuefstein-Costa Rossetti-The Catholics and the State-Catholic Congresses-Catholic Socialists and State Socialists German Socialism and Austrian Socialism-Causes of the Rapid Diffusion of Catholic Socialism.

A

LITTLE more than twenty years ago Austrian Socialism, which is now so active, so powerful, and so much respected, was but a very limited and insignificant affair. No one would then have believed that Socialistic doctrines could have so rapidly over-run exclusively agricultural districts, in which industry had acquired but slight development, whose main resources were derived from the land, and where even agriculture was in rather a backward condition. But the extreme misery of the peasantry, the difference of race existing between the various classes (a fact which always lends a greater degree of violence to economic struggles), the want of a Christian industrial middle-class, the abuse of capital exercised by the Jews, the extensive speculations which have characterised the last twenty years, the numerous monopolies and the economic constitution of the country, are all causes which have aided in

spreading Socialism throughout even the most remote parts of the empire.1

In Austria, as in Germany, Antisemitism is neither more nor less than a form of Socialism. We must not lose sight of the fact that, especially in Austria and Hungary, the Jews enjoy an almost exclusive monopoly of industrial revenue, nor should we forget that the press, the banks, and the stock-exchange are all in the hands of the Jews; and that the latter, far from seeking to amalgamate with the rest of the population— as in England, for instance, where but recently it was possible to see a Jew elected even to the post of Lord Mayor of London-hold themselves apart and do all they can to preserve their own traditions and nationality.

The numerical increase of the Jews in Austria and Hungary has always kept pace with their invasion of the economic territory. While, in 1869, to a population of 35,904,000 inhabitants there were 1,154,000 Jews, in 1880 there were, instead, 1,640,708 Jews to a population of 37,741,000. Thus, while the increase of the Christian population has been in the ratio of 0'77 per cent., that of the Jews has been in that of 27 per cent.3

The Austrian Jews are not only the supreme arbiters of trade and of the banks, but they are working actively to become the masters of the soil as well. It was not till 1848 in Hungary, and 1862 in the other provinces of the empire, that they acquired the faculty of possessing land; yet in this short lapse of time they have succeeded in becoming masters of 8 per cent. of the entire territory of Galicia; the Rothschild family alone possesses the fourth part of the Bohemian terri

1 See J. Rae, Contemporary Socialism.

2 "We think we may affirm, without fear of surpassing the truth, that the Antisemitic deputies are, perhaps without knowing it, simply masked Socialists." See the correspondence of Ernest Nogy de Felso, professor of the Hungarian University of Gross-Wardein, published in the Réforme Sociale, 1st September, 1884.

* See Brunialti, "La race juive dans le monde," in the Journal de la société statistique de Paris, p. 111, 1882; M. O'Neill, "Not at Home," in the Nineteenth Century, October, 1886. See also article in the Association Catholique, vol. xxvi., p. 216 and following, "Les Juifs en Autriche".

tory, that is to say, seven times more land than the imperial family. In Hungary the Jews, who, in 1869, were barely as one to twenty-two of the whole population, are now proprietors of almost a third part of the territory of the old kingdom of Saint Stephen. They have been assisted in this rapid conquest of the land, not only by the banks, but also by the tax-collectors, who every year put up for sale a number of small properties.

In this manner, so long as the actual wage system lasts, half the industrial operatives of the country, and more than a fourth of the peasants, will labour for the profit of a foreign race, whose difference of religion renders them still more unpopular and odious.1

On the other hand the Jews, who carry on large industries, or are proprietors of vast estates, have never sought to do anything to improve the condition of the labouring class, which would contribute to dissipating the tide of hatred and unpopularity that surges around them. A recent inquiry has shown that everywhere throughout the empire the workmen are treated with more severity and exploited with greater avidity by the Jewish industrialists and proprietors.2

And thus it is that the poor peasants who have taken up Antisemitism so eagerly, and the operatives who, both in town and country, listen with religious attention to the Antisemitic doctrines of Herr Von Schönerer, are driven to oppose the Jews more from economic than from religious causes.3

The priests who, in the churches of the kingdom of Saint Stephen, or in those of Bohemia and Austria, raise their voices against the Jewish usurpers who exploit labour and monopolise public wealth, the priests who preach the doctrine of Anti

1 See the Christlich-Sociale Blätter of 1886, p. 520 and following, and Jannet, Le Socialisme d'État, etc., pp. 44, 64 and 66. See also Walter Kaempfe, "Courrier d'Autriche," in the Réforme Sociale, pp. 293 and 302; 1st March, 1887.

2 See René Lavollée, Une enquête autrichienne sur la situation de la classe ouvrière dans la Cisleithanie. Paris, 1888.

3 See Paul Vasili, La Société de Vienne, 10th edition, Paris; Nouvelle Revue, 1865; douzième lettre: "L'antisémitisme".