THE KING’S BUSINESS
1107
hope to the Allies. For those that know anything about the Slav reasoning, it is inconceivable to suppose that Russia will not come back. The appearances even point that way. As far as we are able to find out, those that want peace in Russia at any price have no leaders of known abil ity to lead them, and in fact no respon sible man will accept leadership of a mob that won’t look upon the future, which is the thing for a real leader and statesman tojook at. The United States entrance has if any thing assured the final success of the allied aims, which are, practically, in accord with our ideas of democracy and freedom to all nations, be they large or small. At the time of Mr. Wilson’s peace note, the “freedom to all” had. not been a crys tal!_d aim of the allied' powers as it is today. Those statesmen who held the erroneous idea of insisting that they grab- what-they-can, find themselves way behind the times. The hope of conquest they have entertained must be relegated to his tory, as the moral and other forces our country can bring to bear on the allied powers are such that they must renounce any claims not based on right,'justice and equity to all nations. This, the crystalized aim of the allied powers of today, right, justice and equity to all nations, and the one taken from our declaration of independence, “rule with the consent of the governed,” brings us directly to Pope Benedicts peace proposals. If our slogan is to be carried out at all, it must bring about the dissolution of Austria-Hungary, which is not a nation but a conglomeration of several different nationalities that have nothing in common, and most cordially hate each other. This, (the dissolution of Austria-Hungary, which must come about if there is to be peace, and is bound to come by the prolongation of the war,) is just what the pope does not want. Austria-Hungary is the largest Roman Catholic power that, as a state, is politically interwoven with the Roman Catholic Church. Besides, the Catholic
Church owns immense holdings there, and her Cardinals are considered officially as Princes, and come ahead of other digni» taries of the same rank in all state cere monies. In Austria-Hungary the Roman Catholic Church owned in 1900 about twt> billion 300 million crowns worth of property, with an estimated yearly income of 130,000,000 Crowns. The above figures are official, as far as the Austrian half of the monarchy is concerned and estimated as far as the Hungarian half of the monarchy is con cerned, based on known Church owner ship of 1,132,825 hectars (2,799,210 acres) of land. For one unfamiliar with Austria-Hun gary, it is impossible to grasp what a hold the Church has on the people’s mind, drain ing them economically at every turn. This kingdom in the empire owns the richest land in the monarchy. For example, they own, comparatively speaking, little where the land is poor and much where the land is rich. In Bohemia the Church owns 150,395 hectars (371,626 acres) or 3% of the landed area. In Styria 127,690 hectars (315,522 acres) or 5.8% of the landed area, in Moravia 81.857 hectars (202.268 acres) or 3.8% of the landed area. The bishop of Grosswerdain controls 106.814 hectars (263.937 acres) of land; the archbishop of Prague 23.850 hectars (58.933 acres), and the one of Olmutz enjoys the yearly income of 4,000,000’ crowns, and even keeps armed forces on his vast domain of 50,000 hectars (123,550 acres) of land. To doubt that the church holdings have increased mate rially in the last seventeen years, would be accusing them of gross incompetency, and no man can do t h a t mo r e so when con sidering the “moral obligation” of mankind throughout the world to do things for the Church more cheaply than they would gen erally do them for an individual. But this is not all by large measure, and it must not be considered as the only income of the Roman Catholic Church. There is no record, however, of the fees collected for the baptisms, marriages, bur-
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