Preface

First, a disclaimer. This is not a mere war book. There have, if anything, been too many of these. All necessarily suffered from the deficiencies of war books. The material had been more or less hurriedly gathered; personal prejudices warped judgment; the view was restricted, and so were the sources of information on which it was based; lastly, haste was again the dominant feature in the final task of writing. The result was, perhaps, readable, but could scarcely be termed dependable.

During the four years I resided in Austria - 1912 till a few months ago - I enjoyed full opportunities of studying land and people at close range. Trips to Hungary and to the Austrian provinces enabled me to supplement or revise this knowledge on important points. The war came. Again there was a total shifting of scene, a complete alteration in modes of thought and action, in aims confessed. I lived close to these people, as one of themselves in most essentials; through trying days and weary months sharing with them the crust of bread as well as their joys and sorrows; looking into their hearts, hearing them speak and moan and weep. I saw some actual fighting. I witnessed some hunger riots. Of some of these things and others indeed, the book has a word to say.

Among the books that have appeared in the recent or more remote past dealing with the chief aspects of the Dual Monarchy, the author recalls none that set out along the same path or with the same purpose. This purpose in the main has been: To afford the reader a sufficient outline of the process of growth and accretion active in creating the Austria-Hungary of to-day, of the natural resources of the land and of the vital characteristics of the many-tongued population. Next, to point out the chief problems of the polyglot nation, inherently owing to the peculiar genesis of the monarchy as a whole, problems so knotty and deep-seated that their non-solution hitherto has gone far towards wrecking the country as an independent political entity. And third, to define the most feasible (and perhaps the only) means of allaying or entirely removing these difficulties, as these means have gradually shaped themselves in the minds of the thinking and potential elements of Austria-Hungary.

Side by side with such matter as tends to elucidate this paramount object, there also appears information in the body of this book which may interest the reader for its own sake. A good deal of it rests on the personal impressions of the writer. Some readers may like the book the better for that.

One more remark. I think I may honestly claim for myself to be actuated by no conscious bias in dealing with political, social and racial questions discussed here. Certainly none has swayed my judgment in looking towards ultimate ends. The political reforms urgently called for, both in Hungary and Austria, to bring those two countries abreast of the times, abreast of the West, are not subject to opinion; they are demanded by the facts themselves. Neither has my sincere liking for and sympathy with the people of Austria-Hungary blinded me to their serious failings; failings, however, which, nearly all of them, do more harm to themselves than to others.

The scope of this work embraces much that, heretofore, has been handled not at all or else wholly in desultory fashion. I venture to hope that the book may do something towards modifying certain erroneous conceptions held by many Americans relative to Austria-Hungary. I do not pretend, however, to have exhausted the theme as a whole. Twice the space would not suffice for that. All the same, my book may fulfil a useful mission. With that hope I rest content.

W. v. S.