HELP THE POOR ARISTOCRAT!

Wanganui Herald, Volume XXXXV, Issue 13055, 25 April 1910, Page 4

HELP THE POOR ARISTOCRAT!

Austria has just supplied us with an example of what an exhibition a country can make of itself if only its rulers bo sufficiently Tory in spirit, and its people sufficiently mild and tame to be walked upon. Austria’s aristocracy is the proudest and most law-defying in the civilised world, and claims to .bo the oldest. Also the Austrian people, because their reverence for a baron or a count is even more awful than an Englishman’s for a lord, are horribly aristocrat-ridden, and submit to indignities which in America would earn- the perpetrators a rope, and in Australasia a tarring and feathering. Austria has established a fund of two millions sterling to enable her army officers (all aristocrats; no others, need apply for miiltary commissions) to pay off their debts, .the privilege of piling up debts being, of course,' a purely aristocratic one. There would seem to be some sense in such a scheme were it designed to help Austria’s small farmers and working population to live a little more human lives, and a little less like dogs than they do. Also, there would be considerable sense in the scheme were it designed "to help unfortunate tradespeople to get on their feet again, for such people work and help in production, which army officers of the Austrian and other types never dq. But anything so eminently desirable as helping the common people will find scant consideration in Austria. Also, it may be remarked, there are other countries where a certain brand of people is averse to helping the masses.