they bear out the rumour that, taking both halves of the monarchy together, 'wheat and rye are barely average crops.' The small improvement in the yield of wheat over 1914 has been taken advantage of to get rid of the compulsory admixture of maize, which was very unpopular.

To return to Germany. The chief weakness of her agricultural situation lies now, as it has always lain, in the deficiency of fodder. And this year 'the expectation of an exceptionally large crop of hay has been falsified,' says a leading German paper; in fact, the supply is 'short and very dear.' As to oats, it is generally agreed that the crop has been an almost total failure'; and, in any case, most of the oats are requisitioned for the army. As to barley, reports run from 'good middling' down to a three-quarters crop'; the popular impression is of 'shortage.' The somewhat larger quantities of bran on the market, now that grain need not be milled quite so closely, bring but a slight relief. When the farmer seeks to fall back on foreign maize, he finds that, whereas he could buy it for 150 marks a ton in 1913, he is now asked from 500 to 600 marks a ton. This sufficiently explains the dead set made on the Rumanian Government recently by the newspapers. Even though Germany obligingly sent railway trucks to carry the maize home, the Rumanian Government ventured to charge a very heavy export duty (500 francs per waggon), and insisted that it should be paid in gold. Any more recent change in the policy of the Rumanian Government has apparently been in the direction of embargo.

The great decrease in the number of pigs and cattle during the spring of 1915 in consequence of the measures of the Government, coupled with the growing difficulty since in feeding those that were retained, sufficiently explains the remarkable shifting of the incidence of pressure which became visible in June and has become more marked ever since. At the very time when breadstuffs and potatoes fell considerably in price, with the approach of the new harvest and the release of accumulated stores, animal and dairy products went up in just about the same proportion. At the end of August the retail prices of meat in Berlin had risen, above those at the same date a year before, 80

and 100 per cent. in the cases respectively of pork and bacon, and 43 per cent. in the case of beef. A comparison with London is rendered difficult by the fact that the habits of the people are not the same; the German eats relatively more pork, the Englishman more beef and mutton. Paying due regard to differences of this kind, the average rise in meat in London during that period works out at almost 33 per cent., in Berlin at almost 66 per cent.; in each case in working-class households. Butter and, strangely enough, even potatoes, according to the same official German returns, were each about 50 per cent. above what they had been a year before; in London the difference in each case was 20 per cent. Cows,' we are told by a high German authority, 'give not only less but poorer milk'; and there have been 'milk wars' all over the country between local authorities fixing maximum prices and the milk dealers and producers. So far the establishment of the new Imperial Fodder Office to take control of fodder supplies has made things no better; and the prophecy of Prof. Ballod, made so long ago as last June, that if the war lasted a year longer, Germany would probably be forced to reduce by one half the consumption of meat and beer' looks like coming true.

How has the German nation borne itself during these first fourteen months of war? Have the universal patriotism, the spirit of self-sacrifice, in which their politicians proclaimed their superiority to degenerate peoples like the English and French, displayed themselves conspicuously in everyday life? And, lastly, has their Government shown any peculiar keenness of insight, swiftness of judgment and ingenuity in the choice of means? I do not see how any one who has followed the course of events, as mirrored in the leading German papers and in the German parliamentary debates, can answer any of these questions in the affirmative. As to

*The prices in the Berlin markets have been published in some of the leading German newspapers. The English figures used have been supplied by the Board of Trade; and for beef and mutton the prices have been taken of imported meat (which has risen more than the home-grown). The proportions made use of for the comparison are those given from working-class budgets in the 'Report on Cost of Living in German Towns,' 1908, pp. xliv-xlv.

the people-the operation of the ordinary motives of personal self-interest has been just as evident as it could possibly have been in any other country. The measures of the Government have been constantly met by evasion and subterfuge of every description. Against its will it has been driven, time after time, from a policy of maximum prices to a policy of state monopoly, merely because the peasants would not bring their stuff to market. The quite unnecessary scare about potatoes in the early spring, with its unfortunate consequences, was brought about simply by the cunning of the peasants in concealing their stocks. Even the regulations about bread have been far from meeting with ungrudging obedience. So numerous have been the cases of infringement of regulations by the bakers, that in a great city like Frankfort the municipal court had to give up the whole of every Wednesday to such cases, until the Government conferred summary jurisdiction on the Public Prosecutors.

Not only has there been what a Conservative paper characterises as 'unbridled economic egoism' in all sorts of petty ways; the whole country has been torn by the sharp division of interests between the agricultural and industrial halves of the nation, represented by the Agricultural Council and the Municipal Congress; and the asperity of their mutual recriminations matches anything in the way of sectional antagonism that other countries have to be ashamed of. Pervading the industrial classes and represented by all the popular newspapers, there is the bitterest feeling of animosity and suspicion towards all kinds of producers or dealers in food. To them entirely is attributed the obstinate refusal of prices to fall to a comfortable level. The fears of monopoly, of the forestalling of the market, of the tricks of middlemen, which had some justification in the Middle Ages, have revived in all their medieval vigour, with the press to fan the flame. There is, of course, plenty of selfishness at work; but, beyond all doubt, the main cause of the rise of prices is the deficiency in supply. And it is the Government itself that is to blame for the popular exasperation. Taking its cue from the Eltzbacher pamphlet and similar advisers, it has announced, in the most positive way time after time, that the country has

sufficient food for its needs. The obvious corollary for the man in the street, when prices began to be intolerable, was not that the blockade was making itself felt, but that German villains were taking a wicked advantage of the public.

And here we pass to the last question: the competency of the Government. Before the war, I confess, I was a believer in the efficiency of the German bureaucracy and the practical utility of German economic and administrative science. But there are capable German critics of the Government who declare that it has been driven along, in spite of itself, by the force of circumstances; that it has never grasped a situation firmly with a well-thought-out policy, but lagged behind with belated measures and inadequate compromises. They assert that the bureaucracy has not only shown little knowledge of human nature; it has not even been reasonably well informed. And from such criticism it is difficult for a foreign observer to dissent.

W. J. ASHLEY.

* On the handling of the food problem, see Brandt, 'Die deutsche Industrie im Kriege,' March 1915.

Art. 10.-MODERN AUSTRIA.

1. Modern Austria. Her Racial and Social Problems. By Virginio Gayda. London: Unwin, 1915.

2. The Hapsburg Monarchy. By H. Wickham Steed. Third Edition. London: Constable, 1914.

3. The Southern Slav Question. By R. W. Seton-Watson. London: Constable, 1911.

SIGNOR VIRGINIO GAYDA, whose work, entitled 'La Crisi di un Impero,' has now been most opportunely translated into English, is a writer of ability. His facts are marshalled with lucidity. His generalisations, though perhaps at times somewhat too comprehensive, are bold and striking. His proclivities are ardently nationalist and anti-Clerical, with apparently a strong tinge of Socialism. He pours forth all the vials of his wrath on the Christian Socialists of Austria who, he considers, under the auspices of the late Dr Lueger, betrayed the cause both of Nationalism and Socialism by forming an unnatural alliance with the Church. His work, which may without exaggeration be termed an account of what is possibly the last agony of the Hapsburg Dynasty, merits the attention of the politicians of all countries. It is, moreover, especially instructive for Englishmen. We are in this country so accustomed to associate Imperialism with over-seas dominion that we are perhaps somewhat inclined to forget that the essentially land Empire of Austria furnishes object-lessons of the highest import as to the manner in which Imperial problems may be solved.

If we seek to differentiate between the tasks which Austria and England have respectively set themselves to perform, we find that, in dealing with race problems, the former country has not, save to a very limited extent in the case of Bosnia, had to encounter the obstacles created by colour antipathy, which precludes intermarriage; religious practices, such as the Hindoo caste system, which discourage social intercourse; or the various incidents which crop up in countries where polygamous institutions exist, or where the legal status of slavery is recognised, or where, as is the case amongst Moslems, religion and custom have given a character of