THE LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LOS ANGELES GIFT OF Malbone W, Graham CORRUPTION AND REFORM IN HUNGARY THE RIGHTS OF TRANSLATION ARE RESERVED BY THE AUTHOR CORRUPTION AND REFORM IN HUNGARY A Study of Electoral Practice By R. W. SETON-WATSON D.Litt. (Oxon.) Author of "Racial Problems in Hungary" WITH NUMEROUS DOCUMENTS LONDON CONSTABLE & CO. LTD 1911 Magyar vagyok. S arczom sz6gyenben 6g, Sz6gyenlenem kell, hogy magyar vagyok. Itt mi nalunk nem is hajnallik meg, Holott mashol mar a nap ugy ragyog. (I am a Magyar. Shame bedecks my face, That I must call myself of Magyar race. We cannot see the dawn : 'tis gloomy night. While all around the sun is burning bright.) J . , Petofi, 18471 Mit torodom a hazaval ? A hazanak szaz bajaval ? Majd elmulnak a bajok. £n magyar nemes vagyok ! (What care I for my country's state ? What care I for its parlous fate ? Let it find helpers where it can — L am a Magyar nobleman.) PetSfi, 1 8461 M.P. (addressing Cabinet Minister) : — " Do you know how Katanghy got into Parliament ? " His Excellency shrugged his shoulders. " I presume, because he had a majority of votes," he said ; and added humorously, " After all, people do sometimes get into Parlia- ment that way ! " CoLOMAN MikszAth, Afi Election in Hungary, p. 154. Bulla- & Tanner, The Selwood Printing Works, Fromc, and Loodoo. , Preface THE Hungarian problem, with its acute racial complica- tions, lies at the root of the whole question of the Middle East, and supplies the key to Habsburg policy and so to more than one vital issue in the international situation. In Hungary itself the question of Electoral Reform overshadows all others : and all parties are agreed that on the manner of its solution depends the future of the country, and perhaps of the Austro- Hungarian monarchy as a whole. Hence no apology would seem to be needed for the present study of the Hungarian electoral system. An exposure of the almost unparalleled corruption and violence which characterized the general elec- tions of June 1910, will enable the reader to judge of the demorahzation of public life in Hungary and the glaring in- efficiency — to use no severer term — of the administrative machine. In emphasizing the widespread nature of the evil, my chief objects have been to show the absurdity of the claim that the present majority in any way represents the true will of the Hungarian people, and the urgent need of electoral reform of the most thorough kind, as the only means by which Hungary can be saved from irreparable disaster. I have one further object. Electoral corruption is always loathsome, wherever practised. But in a polyglot state like Hungary, where it is employed by a single dominant race to rob aU the other races of their political birthright, it is doubly oppressive ; and its victims cannot be blamed for their opinion that open absolutism would be preferable to a system which rides roughshod over the existing laws. The treatment meted out to the Non-Magyar races of Hungary, under cover of the V ^ c-:o>s t-CM: PREFACE most ancient constitution on the Continent, forms to-day one of the worst blots upon the scutcheon of European culture. I am no advocate of interference in the internal affairs of other countries ; je n' accuse pas, je constate — and this, be it noted, in answer to repeated appeals to British foreign opinion on the part of official circles in Hungary. But I am at a loss to understand why the various well-meaning societies which exist in this country to defend the interests of oppressed nation- alities throughout Europe and Asia, should so persistently ignore the cause of the Slovaks, Roumanians and other races sub- jected to Magyar rule. In any case, my aim will have been accomplished, if this volume should call renewed attention to the importance of the racial question in Hungary, alike in its bearing on the future of the Habsburg Monarchy and on Southern Slav and Balkan problems. My chief difficulty — a difficulty which was continually present with me in writing Racial Problems in Hungary — is to create in the reader such a state of mind as will render credible even one-tenth part of the truth about Hungary. The bare facts may well seem to the average West European a mere fairy tale. Indeed, I have sometimes found myself refusing to credit the evidence of my own eyes, and often hesitate to publish certain facts, lest I should be accused of romancing. Bearing this difficulty in mind, I have been very cautious in my use of material for the present volume. My authorities may be classed under five different heads : — (i) A large number of original documents (33 in all, of which II are actually in my own possession and the remainder have been specially copied for me from the originals) containing most startling proof of official intimidation and of illegalities during election time in Hungary. (2) Special reports from certain constituencies, drawn up and signed by eye-witnesses, and supplied to me by persons for whose honesty and reliabihty I can vouch. vi PREFACE (3) Reports of the Magyar, German-Hungarian and Austrian Press. * (4) The debates in the Hungarian Parliament during the month of July. The mutual recrimination^ contained in these debates are quite unusually instructive, and are sometimes almost Gilbertian in their humour. (5) My own experiences in Szakolcza on June i, 1910, at one of the most corrupt elections of modern times (see pp. 80-89). The extreme violence, sometimes bordering upon scurrility, with which I have been attacked in Budapest for daring to pubhsh these experiences in the Viennese Press, might seem to call for some rejoinder on my part ; but certain kindly critics of my last book, Racial Problems in Hungary, took me to task for indulging in a personal defence against my Magyar slanderers and made it clear that I must not do so again. I therefore defer to their opinion and refrain from any personal defence. I must content myself with a general acknowledgment to all those who have helped me in the collection of material for this book ; it would obviously not be doing them a service if I were to pubUsh their names. Even as it is, a Socialist journaHst was sentenced to a term of imprisonment for quoting from my book Racial Problems in Hungary ; an old lady of seventy was fined £4 last June, because I spent 20 minutes in her house without her reporting the fact to the poHce (see p. 85) ; and correspondence with my friends in Hungary is not rendered easier by the fact that even the registered letters I receive from that country are in the habit of arriving with the inscrip- tion, " Found open and officially sealed." Let me conclude this preface with an electioneering story which I myself heard on a Hungarian election platform last May. " Not many years ago a noble Count stood as candidate for a West Hungarian constituency, and was in due course elected. Soon afterwards a deputation of the electors visited him in Budapest, reminded him of his promises at the time of vii PREFACE ; the election, and asked him to use his influence in a certain direction. ' Why do you come to me ? ' asked the'^ Count. * Why, because you are our representative,' the astonished peasants rephed. ' Nothing of the kind,' said the Count, * I bought the constituency for £2,000. You all had your price — free lunches and free drinks into the bargain. I'm damned if I do anything for you. We are quits ! ' And in another minute the deputation found itself in the street." Let those who expect genuine reforms from a Parliament which owes its existence to wholesale corruption of the kind described in this book, remember the answer of the witty Count ! R. W. SETON-WATSON. Ayton House, Abernethy, December i, 1910. viu LANDMARKS IN HUNGARIAN PARLIAMENTARY HISTORY 896-906. Conquest of Hungary by the Magyars under Arpdd. 1000. Coronation of St. Stephen as first King of Hungary. 1 102. Union of the Crowns of Hungary and Croatia. 1222. The Golden Bull— the Magna Charta of Hungarian liberties. 1 30 1. Extinction of the Native Magyar dynasty. 1437. Union of " the three Nations " in Transylvania (Magyars, Saxons, Szekels). 1526. Battle of Mohacs. Conquest of Central Hungary by the Turks. 1540-1690. Transylvania under native Magyar^Princes. 1686. Recovery of Buda from the Turks. 1687. Parliament aboHshes Elective Kingship, recognizes hereditary succession of the House of Habsburg, and revokes § 31 of Golden Bull (which legalized rebellion against a King who infringed the Charter). 1718. Final Expulsion of the Turks. 1723. Pragmatic Sanction. 1 74 1. Parliament proclaims exemption of nobles from taxation. 1767. Urbarium, or Land Charter, of Maria Theresa. 1 78 1. Edict of Tolerance. 1785-1790. Joseph II suspends Hungarian Constitution and modern- izes the administration. 1 790- 1. Restoration of Constitution by Leopold II (esp. Law X). 1830. Magyar language made obligatory for all holders of public ofl&ce. 1835-6. Magyar language introduced into Hungarian Courts. 1840. Magyar language becomes the official language of the Govern- ment. 1844. Magyar language becomes the exclusive language of Parlia- ment. 1847 (November 10). (December). Emancipation of Serfs passed by Hungarian Parliament. 1848. (March 3). Kossuth's Great Speech on the Address. (March 23). First responsible Hungarian Ministry, under Count Louis Batthyany (Szechenyi, Kossuth, Deak, Eotvos also members) . The March Laws (Annual Parliaments, Union of Transylvania with Hungary, Abolition of feudal dues. Press Law, Taxa- tion of all citizens, Electoral Reform, National Guard, Religious Toleration). ix LANDMARKS IN PARLIAMENTARY HISTORY 1848 (July)-i849 (August). The Hungarian Revolution. Racial War of Serbs, Croats, Slovaks, Saxons and Roumanians against Magyars. (December 2). Accession of Francis Joseph. 1849 (April 14). Kossuth declares Independence of Hungary, at Diet of Debreczen. (August 13). Capitulation of Hungarian revolutionary army rmder Gorgei at Vilagos. Suppression of Hungarian Liberties. 1849-1859. Absolutism. The Bach Regime. 1860-1866. Era of Constitutional Experiments. 1861. Hungarian Parliament again allowed to meet, but dissolved owing to its constitutional claims. 1861-1866. Magyar Abstention from the central Parliament in Vienna. Francis Deak, the true champion of Hungarian liberties. 1866. Austro-Prussian War. (July 19). Conference of Deak with Francis Joseph. (November 19). Opening of Hungarian Parliament. 1867. The Ausgleich (or Compromise) between Austria and Hungary (Law Xn of Hungarian Parliament ; Law No. 146, Decem- ber 21, 1867, of Austrian Reichsrath). Transylvania fin- ally reunited to Hungary. (February 11). Count Julius Andrassy appointed as first Pre- mier of the new parliamentary regime. (June 8). Coronation of Francis Joseph as King of Hungary. 1868. Ausgleich between Hungary and Croatia. (Law XXX of Hungarian Parliament : Law I of Croatian Diet). Law guaranteeing the Equal Rights of the Nationalities (Law XLIV). 1869. Elections result in gain of 40 seats by the Opposition. 1871. Andrassy becomes Austro-Hungarian Foreign Minister. Count Lonyay, Premier. 1 871. Reform of Judicial system. 1872. New elections (December). Szlavy, Premier. 1874 (March). Bitto, Premier. New Electoral Law (Law XXXHI). 1875. Formation of the Liberal Party, by fusion of the Deak Party and the Left Centre (210 and 70 members out of 413). 1 875-1 890. Koloman Tisza in Power. 1876 (January 28). Death of Francis Deak. 1878. Elections. Liberals retain majority of 77 over an Opposition of 151. 1879. Magyarization of Primary Education (Law XVHI). 1883. Magyarization of State secondary schools (Law XXX). 1883. Temporary Suspension of Croatian Constitution. 1883-1903. Count Khuen-Hedervary, Ban of Croatia. 1885. Reform of House of Magnates. 1886. Mandates made quinquennial. Partial revision of County Government. 1889. Deficit at last disappears from Hungarian Finance. New Law of National Defence. 1890. Resignation of Tisza. Count Szapary, Premier, with same Cabinet. LANDMARKS IN PARLIAMENTARY HISTORY 1892. Elections. (November) Dr. Alex. Wekerle, Premier. 1894 (March 20). Death of Louis Kossuth at Turin. 1894-5. The "Church Laws" (Civil Marriage, State Registration, etc.). 1894. Dissolution of Roumanian National Party, by Ministerial Order. 1895 (January). Baron Desiderius Binffy, Premier. 1896. Millenary. The notorious Banffy elections. 1898. Law for Magyarization of place names. Agrarian unrest ; Repressive legislation. 1899 (February). Koloman Szell, Premier. Watchword of "Law, Right and Justice." Corrupt Electoral Practices Act (Law XV). 1901. Elections (Liberals hold 277 seats). 1903 (June). Count Khuen-Hedervary, Premier. Driven from office by obstruction and the Szapary-Lengyel bribery scandals. 1903 (November). Count Stephen Tisza, Premier. 1904. Obstruction in Hungarian Parliament. (November 18, December 13). Tisza's attempt to introduce the Closure leads to scandalous scenes, in which the Oppo- sition wrecks the House. Formation of the Coalition (Party of Independence under Francis Kossuth and Count Albert Apponyi ; Constitutional Party under Count An- drassy ; People's Party under Count Zichy). 1905 (J3.nuary). Defeat of Count Tisza at elections, and resignation. (June 18). Baron Geza Fejervary, Premier. (July 27). Mr. Joseph Kristoffy, Minister of the Interior, launches the idea of Universal Suffrage. (October 16). The Fejervary Cabinet reappointed, with Uni- versal Suffrage as foremost point in its programme. 1905 (December)-i9o6 (April). The so-called "National Resist- ance " ; most counties withhold taxes and recruits. 1906. (April 9). Formation of the Coalition Cabinet, under Dr. Wekerle, on the basis of a secret "pact" with the Crown. 1907. The Coalition ratifies the new Commercial Ausgleich with Austria. 1908 (November 11). Count Andrassy lays his Electoral Reform Bill before Parliament. Dissensions in the Coalition re- garding the Bank question. 1909 (May). First and (Nov.) final resignation of the Wekerle Cabinet. Break-up of the Coalition. Party of Independence splits up into rival Kossuth and Justh groups. (December). Dr. Ladislas Lukacs fails to form a Cabinet. 1910 (January). Count Charles Khuen-Hedervary, Premier, with- out a pai-ty in the House. Revival of the old Liberal Party, under the name of " Party of National Work." (March) Premier assaulted on the floor of the House. (June i). General elections. XI List of Contents PAGE Preface . . v Landmarks in Hungarian Parliamentary History . . ix CHAPTER I JElectoral Corruption and Electoral Reform . . . i CHAPTER II Hungarian Election Practice (by an old Parliamentarian) . 34 CHAPTER III The Parliamentary Debates upon Corruption ... 42 Appendix I, Election News (Extracts from the Hungarian Press) .......... 70 CHAPTER IV The Election in Privigye — A Magyar Electoral Petition . 77 CHAPTER V The Election in Szakolcza ...... 80 (a) My Own Experiences ...... 80 (b) Further Notes on the Election, by Eyewitnesses . 89 (c) Illegalities committed against the Electors of Verbovce (communicated) ...... 94 Appendices II and III. Prohibition of Meetings (Original Docu- ments) . . . . . . . . . .97 xiii CONTENTS CHAPTER VI The Election in Szenicz PAGE 99 CHAPTER VH The Election in R6zsahegy ...... io6> Appendix IV. Prohibition of Meetings, owing to distance . 107 „ V. Prohibition of Meetings, owing to an Incident in 1906 ....... 108 „ VI. The Candidate ordered to be Punctual, and made responsible for Public Order . . 109 „ VII. Prohibition of Meetings, owing to Religious Pro- cessions ....... 109 „ VIII. Prohibition of Meetings, because fixed for other than official hours, and because the Candidate failed to appear on a previous occasion . no „ IX. Indictment against Father Bajor, for his Election Address . . . . . . .110 CHAPTER VIII The Election in Kisjeno ...... 1. Isolation of the Electors from their Leaders. Arrest and Expulsion of Roumanian Canvassers 2. Intimidation and Blows 3. Behaviour of the Officials. " Orders from Head quarters." " Not at Home." . Appendix X. The Kisjeno " Cattle-Pass " . ,, XI. Telegram to Imperial Kabinetskanzlei in Vienna „ XII. Telegram to Hungarian Premier „ XIII. Telegram to Minister of Interior . 113 114 117 121 124 125 125 126 CHAPTER IX The Election in Dicsoszentmarton . Appendix XIV. Prohibition of Meetings ..XV. .... 127 127 12a XIV CONTENTS CHAPTER X The Election in Alvincz Appendix XVI. PAGE 131 135 CHAPTER XI The Election in Magyar Igen . 136- CHAPTER XII The Election in SzaszvAros Appendix XVII. Behind the Scenes . 138 . 141 CHAPTER XIII The Election in Karansebes ...... 144 Appendix XVIII. Prohibition of Meetings, because the Rival Candidate is speaking in the Neighbour- hood ....... 144 XIX. Prohibition of the Use of Motor-Cars by the Roumanian Candidate . . . .145 XX and XXI. Prohibition of ReHgious Examina- tions during Election time . . .146 XXII. Prohibition of Meetings, owing to Epidemic of Sore Throat ...... 147 XXIII. Refusal to allow Roumanian Canvassers to 147 enter the Villages ..... XXIV. Prohibition of Carriages driven by men who are not Natives of the particular Village . 148 XXV. Prohibition of Strangers acting as Canvassers 149 CHAPTER XIV The German Constituencies of Hungary {A) The Election in Lovrin {B) The Election in Kis Becskerek (C) The Election in Lippa XV 150 150 153 155 CONTENTS CHAPTER XV Summary — The^.Problem of Reform . Appendix XXVI. XXVII. XXVIII. XXIX. XXX. XXXI. XXXII. XXXIII. XXXIV. XXXV. XXXVI. XXXVII. Speech of Mr. Joseph Kristofify, on Univer sal Suffrage .... Electoral Statistics .... The Szenicz Election of May 2, 1906 An Official's Oath .... The Notary's Advice — Official Intimidation " The Flag of Tunis and Morocco " The May Tree .... Why Inn Licences are withdrawn in Hun gary Summary of Non-Magyar Political Trials Bloodshed at Elections . Parliamentary Tolerance and the Non Magyars ..... " Hyaenism in Hungary " . Index PAGE 156 165 168 169 172 177 178 181 181 182 191 193 XVI L CHAPTER I Electoral Corruption and Electoral Reform* EVER since universal suffrage became an accomplished fact in Austria, the real centre of interest in the Dual Monarchy has been transferred to Hungary, where the ques- tion was originally raised in the autumn of 1905. The political situation of Hungary under the Coalition Government (April, 1906 — December, 1909) was without any parallel in Europe. The Liberal Party, which had governed Hungary since the Compromise of 1867, had restored constitutional government — and indeed for twenty years of that period, without any serious opposition — disappeared suddenly from the scene as the result of a single election (January, 1905), its leader, Count Stephen Tisza, and all his ablest lieutenants withdrawing into private life and leaving their opponents in undisputed posses- sion of the political arena. The Party of Independence, after upholding during forty years' wanderings in the wilderness the extreme Radical principles of Louis Kossuth, at length attained to power, only to be captured in its turn by reactionary influences. As a result, Hungary was governed for over three years by an Extreme Left which was at once ultra-Conservative, ultra-Protectionist, and ultra-Chauvinist — an overwhelming majority which would tolerate no conflicting opinions, and which was not ashamed to thin the scanty ranks of its oppo- nents by suspension of immunity and even by more violent methods. Meanwhile its ranks were swelled by a long array of time-servers and renegades from the defunct Liberal Party ; and the once Radical party of Kossuth suffered a seachange such as would have rendered it scarcely recognizable by its founder. At their accession to power the Coalition leaders 1 The greater part of this chapter appeared as Chapter XI H of my book Racial Problems in Hungary ; but extensive additions and altera- tions have been made for the present volume. C.R.H. I B ELECTORAL CORRUPTION AND ELECTORAL REFORM laid repeated stress upon the transitional nature of their Government, 2 and announced as their main task the passage of a thorough measure of electoral reform. Despite their pro- fessed zeal for the cause of reform, the Government made no attempt to lay a Franchise Bill before Parliament, on the ground that it must be preceded by prolonged study in the Ministry of the Interior ; and meanwhile law after law of the most reactionary kind was passed by an approving House.' The reception accorded to Mr. Mezofi, the only Socialist deputy in the House, when in October, 1907, he interpellated on the subject of electoral reform, showed the trend of feeling in the House. Amid loud and hostile cries on all sides, only a single member of the entire Coalition voted for the urgency of Mr. Mezofi's motion. The Coalition Cabinet remained in office for two and a half years, without even giving any indication as to the lines on which this reform, admittedly the chief item in their programme, was to proceed. When at last Count Andrass}^ in November, 1908, laid before Parliament a reac- tionary project of plural and public voting, and when even this was treated as too radical by a considerable section of the House, it became apparent to every one that the Coali- tion was not seriously disposed to fulfil its solemnly pledged word.* No attempt was made to secure the passage of the Bill through Parliament ; and the international crisis evoked by the annexation of Bosnia supplied the Hungarian Govern- ment with an opportunity for shelving the question of reform. By the spring of 1909 the Coalition Cabinet had sunk into the last stages of paralysis, and only survived into the summer and autumn owing to the monarch's difficulty in finding states- men to replace it. The new Premier, Count Khuen-H^dervary, on his appoint- * e.g. Count Albert Apponyi on September 8, 1906, at Jaszbereny. ' The most notorious of these were the Agricultural Labourers Act (xlv., 1907) of Mr. Daranyi, the Education Acts of Count Apponyi (xxvi and xxvii, 1907), and the Railway Act of Mr. Kossuth (Law xlix, 1907), whose clear violation of the Hungaro-Croatian Ausgleich drove the Croats to parliamentary obstruction, and thus led to the suspension of the Croatian constitution by the Hungarian Cabinet and its "exponent" Baron Paul Rauch. * Owing to the indiscretions of Mr. Geza Polonyi, the enfant ter- rible of the Coalition Cabinet (whom gross scandals drove from ofifice in February, 1907), the famous " Pact " concluded between Crown and Coalition on the latter's acceptance of office, became public pro- perty, and no one who has read it will deny the assertion of the text. ELECTORAL CORRUPTION AND ELECTORAL REFORM ment, enjoyed the reputation of sharing on the matter of the franchise the hberal views of the Sovereign and the Heir Apparent ; and at least two members of his Cabinet are genuine supporters of Universal Suffrage, even though two others are as openly opposed to its introduction. But the appointment of Mr. Jeszenszky to the post of under- secretary in the Ministry of the Interior, and his long and elaborate preparations for influencing the result of the elec- tions, were a sinister omen for the new era of enlightenment and purity. As election day drew near, the Premier became more and more guarded in his utterances on electoral reform, and on May 14, while definitely expressing the conviction that plural voting was " a falsification of the franchise," he deprecated the secret ballot, and discussed in vague but emphatic phrases the necessity for limiting the franchise in such a manner as would secure the Magyar character of the country. The result of the elections was an overwhelming victory for the Party of National Work, as Count Khuen-Hedervary had christened the resuscitated Liberal Party. It is with the inner causes of this victory that I propose to deal in the present volume. For the moment I would merely point out that the new Government is as irrevocably pledged to the introduction of Universal Suffrage as its predecessor in office, and that it is likely to show very much the same haste to solve the problem as did the Coalition ! Count Andrassy was not guilty of exaggeration, when, in introducing his Bill, he declared that the whole future of Hungary depends upon the manner in which the problem is solved ; and this will be even more apparent to the reader when he realizes the untenable situation which has arisen in consequence of the decay of the electoral and parliamentary system in Hungary. The present electoral law of Hungary, when it was passed in 1874, compared not unfavourably with that of many other countries, especially Austria, where the complicated curial system prevailed. But since that date it has been out-dis- tanced by all 4ts neighbours, and is to-day probably the most illiberal franchise in Europe. The qualifications for the vote are so elaborate and so in- volved that the official organ of the Government once described the Hungarian franchise as " the confusion of Babel." They are based upon property, taxation, profession or official position, ELECTORAL CORRUPTION AND ELECTORAL REFORM and ancestral privileges ; ^ and care has been taken to exclude not merely servants in the widest sense of that word, but also all apprenticed workmen and agricultural labourers (§ lo). Hence the proletariat is entirely unrepresented in the Hun- garian Parliament, and even the skilled artisan is a negligible quantity in pohtics ; less than 6 per cent, of the working classes, and only 13 per cent, of the small trading class, possess the franchise. No fewer than 59 per cent, of the electors are owners of over 8 acres of land. Indeed only 6 per cent, of the entire population enjoys the franchise, and as a result, a number of constituencies have become little better than rotten boroughs. At present there are 2 constituencies with less than 200 voters, 9 with less than 500, 49 (or 11 per cent.) with less than 1,000 : while 280 more contain less than * See Law xxxiii (1874). Property qualification : (a) In free towns, owners of houses which contain three dweUings paying house tax, and owners of land paying taxes on a direct income of 32 crowns (§ 3 ^. ^)- (^) I"^ country districts, owners of " a quarter urbarial session " or its equivalent. This nominally corresponds to about 14 acres, but as a result of the elaborate provisions of § 4, it varies greatly in the different counties, (c) Owners of houses wliose house tax was imposed on a basis of 210 crowns of clear income (§ 6a). (d) In Transylvania, house owners who pay ground tax on a direct income of 168 crowns, 159 crowns 60 heller and 145 crowns 60 h. respect- ively, according to the class under which they are scheduled for pur- poses of taxation (§ 5a). Taxation qualification — (a) Merchants, manufacturers or town arti- sans, paying taxes on income of at least 210 crowns (§ 6 c, d). {b) In boroughs, those who pay taxes for at least one apprentice (§ 6e). (c) Those paying State taxes on a direct income of at least 210 crowns (§§ 5&, tb). {d) Those paying income tax on 210 crowns' income in Class I, on 1,400 crowns in Class II, or in the case of officials on 1,000 crowns in Class II (§ 7). Professional and official qualification : All members of the Hungarian Academy, academy artists, professors, doctors, veterinary surgeons, engineers, chemists, foresters ; public and communal notaries, advo- cates, clergy, schoolmasters (§ 9). Ancestral qualification : All those possessing the franchise previous to 1848 (§ 2). In 1905 32,712 persons still voted by right of ancient privileges [Ung. Stat. Jahrb. xii, p. 431). In 1872 Transylvania had 73 deputies and 121,415 electors, of whom 80,896 (or 666 per cent.) were noble. If the ancestral qualification had been abolished, the number of electors at that date would have sunk in the county of Csik from 15,000 to 1,729, in Haromszek from 11,418 to 4,950, in the towns of Olahfalu and Elizabethstadt from 623 and 275 to 17 and 130. Among these " noble " voters the percentage of illiterates was very high. _^ ELECTORAL CORRUPTION AND ELECTORAL REFORM 3,000 voters.* As the proportion of voters who actually come to the polls is not high in Hungary,' the elections of 1901 presented the following startling result. Almost one-third of the deputies (125) were elected by less than 100 votes ; close upon two-thirds (254) received less than 1,000 votes ; 377, or over 91 per cent., received less than 1,500 votes, ^ and only 11 candidates received more than 2,000 votes.^ At the general elections of 1905 — despite the gravity of the issue upon which Count Tisza appealed to the country and the prospect of a dangerous constitutional crisis in the event of his defeat — there was no contest in 108 seats, or in 26 percent, of all the seats,i° while in twenty-two others the rival candidate either withdrew in the middle of the poll or received less than ten votes. At the election of 1906, when the Liberal Party with- drew from the political arena, no fewer than 189 (or 45 7 per cent.) seats were left uncontested, the party of Independence reaping 136 of these spoils of war. In other words, the government of the day virtually holds in its gift 80 to 100 seats, which may be bestowed on needy or ambitious carpetbaggers, and which form the nucleus of a Mameluke party. The great bulk of these "pocket boroughs" — for mutatis mutandis they fully deserve the name — lay in the periphery of Hungary ; and therefore, as will be shown later, their safety depended upon " voting" the Non-Magyar races, a practice which had been rendered feasible by local administrative corruption and by the mistaken policy of abstention adopted by the Rou- manian and Slovak leaders of those days. The abandonment of this passivity in 1905 and 1906 threatened the Government with the eventual loss of what it had so long regarded as its own preserve, and thus was the prime cause of the repressive • Grof Kreith Bela, Terkep az 1906 orszaggyulesi kepviselova- lasztasok eredmenyerol, 1906 ; Ung. Stat. Jahrb. xiv. The nine " rot- tenest " are as follows : — Bereczk, 142 voters ; Szek, 182 ; Erzseb- etvaros, 258 ; Abrudbanya, 254 ; Olahfalu, 262 ; Vizakna, 330 ; Szamosujvar, 366 ; Ujegyhaz, 437 ; Toroczko, 500. These are all either Magyar or Saxon. Seven constituencies (Karansebes, GodoUo, Homonna and four districts of Budapest) have over 7,000 voters. ' In 1896, 73'5per cent. of the voters came to the polls; in igoi,67'3 per cent. ; in 1905, 678 per cent. ; in 1906, only 6i"9 per cent. ■ Bunzel, Studien zur Sozial und Wirtschaftspolitik Ungarns, p. 109 note. » See Appendix XXVI. '•* Even at the exciting Banffy elections in 1896, 132 seats (or 318 per cent.) were uncontested : at those of 1901, 116 (28 per cent.). 5 ELECTORAL CORRUPTION AND ELECTORAL REFORM measures employed by the Coalition against the nationahties. The Khuen-Hcdervary Government preferred more Machia- vellian tactics ; after quashing the worst of the political trials instituted by its predecessor against Non-Magyars* for press offences, and so lulling the nationalities in a false security., it suddenly resorted to wholesale violence and corruption at the elections of 1910, and virtually disenfranchised its Non- Magyar opponents at the point of the bayonet. Though the Magyars are never tired of emphasizing the need for uniformity in the lands of St. Stephen, they did not scruple to introduce a special franchise for Transylvania, which is skilfully devised in such a way as to secure the Magyar " hegemony." While in Hungary, as a whole, the franchise is possessed by 6-i per cent, of the population, in the central districts b\' from 6-5 to 7-5 per cent., in Transylvania, on the other hand, only 3*2 per cent, are enfranchised. Indeed the more Roumanian a county is, the fewer voters does it possess. ^^ Thus out of the 74 deputies whom Transylvania sends to Budapest, 35 represent the 4 Magyar counties and the 15 chief towns, ^^ which together form only 28 per cent, of the population ; while only 30 represent the remaining 72 per cent, of the population, which is of course overwhelmingly Roumanian. In other words, among the Roumanians there is an average of i deputy to every 50-60,000 inhabitants, among the Szekels of East Transylvania, i to every 4-5,000 ! Moreover, in Transylvania the qualification is from three to '1 In Kolozsvar 8 per cent, are voters ; in Debreczen, 7-1 ; in Szeged 6*9 ; in Nagyvarad, 6-5 ; in Hodmezo, 7-9; in Marosvasarhely 6-9'; in the counties of Somogy, 7-3 ; Hajdu, 6'8 ; Bereg, 7"i. But in the Roumanian counties of Kolozs, 1-7 ; Kiskukullo, 2 ; Alsofeher and Torda-Aranyos, 2-2 ; B. Naszod, 2-3 ; Fogaras, 28 ; Hunyad, 3*2. See Ung. Stat. Jahrh. xiv, p. 424. The anomalies of distri- bution may be seen from the following instances. Among the towns, Marosvasarhely with 1,607 voters sends two members ; Versecz with 2,486 only one ; Kolozsvar with 4,658 voters sends two;Temesvar with 4,354 only one. Hodmezo with 5,153 voters sends one member, while Debreczen with 6,485 sends three. Selmeczbanya with 956 voters has the same representation as two divisions of Budapest with over 7,000 voters each. Among the Magyar counties Heves with 15,303 voters elects as many members (7) as Jasz-N.S. with 24,079. Among the Slovak counties, Arva with 11,114 voters elects two mem- bers, while Trencsen with 10,642 elects eight. Among the Roumanian counties, Als6-Feh6r with 5,159 voters elects as many members (7) as Krasso-Szoreny with 27,342 and Szolnok-Doboka with 11,767. '* These are, of course, either Magyar or Saxon. G \ \ ELECTORAL CORRUPTION AND ELECTORAL REFORM six times lower in the towns than in the rural districts, for the excellent reason that the Roumanians are in a hopeless minority in most of the urban communes. Nor is this all. In the rural districts of Transylvania the qualification is in- finitely higher than in other parts of Hungary. In the latter the vote falls to all owners of a " quarter urbarial session" (roughly 14 acres), in the former it is limited to taxpayers who can show a net income of 159 crowns. Owing to the greater poverty of the soil and the primitive conditions which still prevail in Transylvania, the practical result of this is that a Roumanian peasant must own at least six times as much land as his Magyar equal, before he can obtain a vote. This helps to explain why in the 25 more or less Magyar counties of Hungary the proportion of voters to the entire population is nearly twice as large as in the Roumanian counties. Owing to the scandalous inequality in taxable values, which vary from parish to parish, it is possible for a single commune of 6,000 inhabitants to possess more electors than a whole constituency of 100,000. These inequalities weigh with peculiar heaviness upon the Roumanians in Transylvania ; but speaking generally, they must be described as a social rather than a racial injustice, which favours the great land- owner at the expense of the peasant, for incredible as it may seem, the larger the holding of land, the lower the rating tends to be. The statistics which I have inflicted upon the reader tell an eloquent tale, and he will no longer be surprised or incredu- lous when he reads that the Hungarian franchise is not exactly monopolized, but effectually controlled by two classes — the Gentry and the Jews. No one who has any knowledge of Hungary can venture to deny this assertion, for the Magyar " intelligents " and the enfranchised portion of the -petite bourgeoisie are mainly recruited from these two classes.^' The proletariat has no share in political life, and if it has not been found possible to exclude the Non-Magyar races entirely from the franchise, numerous devices, of which we shall have to speak shortly, have been successfully employed for the past " So far from blaming the Jews for the dominant position which they have secured in Hungary, I can only admire the enterprise and industry to which they owe their success. I merely wish to draw attention to the very large grain of truth which underlies the odious nicknames, " Ju(;^eo-Magyar," and " Judapest," invented by Dr. Lueger, the late INIayor of Vienna. ELECTORAL CORRUPTION AND ELECTORAL REFORM forty years to keep them from the polls or to prevent them from electing men of their own nationality. In short, under the present franchise the Non-Magyars and the working classes are little better than political helots. There is no pretence of democratic representation ; or rather there is a great deal of pretence, but absolutely no reality. If the distribution of seats is unequal, gerrymandering, or electoral geometry as the Germans aptly call it, has reached its acme of perfection in Hungary. The constituencies have been cut up in the most arbitrary fashion, in defiance of geography, population and nationality, but with the one great object of favouring the Magyar element. There is only one polling booth in each constituency, and as the Non-Magyar constituencies are apt to be larger than the Magyar, it will not surprise the reader to learn that the larger the constituency, the farther from its centre is placed the polling booth. It is only necessary to glance at an electoral map of Hungary to see the truth of this assertion ; indeed a score of instances could be cited where the polling place is in the extreme corner, i* Strangely enough, this is most noticeable in the mountain districts, where difficulties of communication would seem to call for some other arrangement, and the fact that the Magyar strength lies in the towns serves to emphasize the handicap thus laid upon those coming from a distance, who are in the main Non-Magyars. Indeed, in polyglot districts, it will be found that the polling station has so far as possible been fixed in a Magyar town, where the Non-Magyar electors are exposed to various influences to be described later on. The consti- tuencies on the frontier are often carved into long and narrow strips, which seem to mock at the convenience of the inhabi- tants, ^^ in many others the boundary follows so tortuous and serpentine a route that the general effect reminds us of the most difficult Chinese puzzles of our childhood. ^^ One con- stituency 1' is divided into two portions, the larger of which is separated by another large constituency from the smaller portion which contains the polhng booth ; in another ^^ a ** E.g., Karansebes, Weisskirchen, Miihlbach (Szaszsebes), Fogaras, Maramaros-Sziget, Tecso, Belenyes, Tape, Kaszony, Toke-Terebes, Vag-IUava, etc. 1* E.g., Tecso, Huszt, Bethlen, Szasz Regen, Okland, Illyefalva, Szdszvdros, Szaszsebes, Karansebes, Duna Vecse, Duna Keczel, Gyalu. *• E.g., Fiilop Szdllas, Oroshaza, Szolnok, Also Dubas, Beregszasz, Arany-Mar6th, etc. " Toroczko. i» Kardnsebes. ELECTORAL CORRUPTION AND ELECTORAL REFORM distance of sixty miles separates the polling place from the southern boundaries of the constituency. Under such cir- cumstances it is often necessary for voters to leave home on the morning before the election, and occasionally even earlier, in order to arrive in time to record their votes. How insuper- able the difficulties must have been twenty or thirty years ago when the railway system was less developed, can easily be imagined. Even to-day there are many constituencies where the railway is of little or no assistance to the voters. For instance, a straight line drawn from the polling station of Hatszeg to the southern extremity of the constituency, repre- sents 65 kilometers of mountainous country without railway. From Szaszsebes the distance is only about 10 kilometers less. The polling station of Naszod, itself 20 kilometers from the nearest railway, is 80 kilometers from the extreme eastern point of the constituency. Electors from many villages near Baja have to go 40 kilometers north to Dunakeczel to vote, instead of voting in the neighbouring town ; while others lying to the east of Dunakeczel have to pass it on their left and go many miles on to Dunapataj, where there is no railway at all. These are merely a few isolated examples to show that despite the steady spread of railways in the thirty-seven years since the last electoral distribution in Hungary, the climate and the weather continue even to-day to play a very important part in elections, owingto the great distances which many voters have to cover. ^^ On the other hand, every obstacle is thrown in the way of the Opposition voters, especially in the case of a Non-Magyar candidate. Bridges have sometimes been broken down or declared unsafe for vehicles on the day of the election, in order to force Opposition voters to walk impossible distances or lose their votes. With the same object, all the horses in the out- lying villages of a constituency have been placed under veterin- ary supervision, which is of course withdrawn on the day following the election. The direct routes are often reserved for the supporters of the official candidate, the Opposition voters being obliged to make long detours on bad sideroads. And even when the outlying voters have reached their des- tination, their troubles are not ended. It is quite a common trick to keep a body of peasant voters waiting all day outside i» An electoral map which also marked the geographical features and the railway system of the country, would form a most valuable commentary on these difficulties of communication. ELECTORAL CORRUPTION AND ELECTORAL REFORM the village in rainy or frosty weather, in the hope that this treatment may thin their ranks or induce them to transfer their allegiance. At Pancsova, in 1875, the Non-Magyar voters were made to wait two days in the open in ice and snow, before they were admitted to the poll.^" At Korosbinya, in 1905, the Roumanian electors had to wait outside the town for two days before they were allowed to vote. Meanwhile, in full view, the rival voters are probably being ostentatiously feasted or plied with drink and money. If the Opposition voters remain firm, they may perhaps at length be admitted to the poll, only to be subjected to still greater indignities. But sometimes a cordon of troops or gendarmes blocks all entrance to the town, until the recording officer has closed the poll. Then, if the frantic peasants, who have come miles to vote, are rash enough to resist, ball cartridge is freely used, and dreadful scenes of bloodshed ensue. At the elections of 1896, thirty-two persons were killed and over seventy wounded ; and though the death roll on this occasion was unusually high, military intervention always claims its victims. ^^ (See Appen- dix XXXIII.) The elections of 1910 claimed a dozen victims, including five Roumanian peasants killed by gendarmes at the village of Marginen, on the frontier of Transylvania (see p. 75). At every general election the troops of the Joint Army are requisitioned by the Magyar authorities to " preserve order" at the polls ; the regiments quartered in Hungary itself are regarded as insufficient, and fresh battalions are poured into *" In case the reader should be tempted to reject this as incredible, it should be mentioned that in Hungary there is no fixed hour by which the poll must be closed. This is left to the discretion of the returning officer, and if his friends are delayed, the election may be prolonged into the night or the following day, or when once his friends have voted, the poll may be prematurely brought to an end. At Szilagy Cseh in 1884, over 600 Roumanian voters were prevented by the troops from entering the town, and the returning officer meanwhile declared the election at an end ; 140 Magyar electors thus secured the return of their candidates in the teeth of a large Roumanian majority. *i Even the scanty records of Hungarian elections which appear in the Viennese press are highly suggestive. For instance, in 1896, ac- cording to the Neue Freie Presse, troops had to intervene actively at Vagujhely, Tyrnau, lUava, Iglo, Locse, Lubl6, Kis-Thalia, Szabad- barand. At Tyrnau the hussars were stoned by the mob and attacked them with drawn swords. At three villages near Lublo there was bloodshed between Liberals and Clericals. At Dunapataj blood was shed " owing to a trifling incident, after which the hussars rode into the Opposition voters." At Diosad the gendarmes gave a salvo and 10 ELECTORAL CORRUPTION AND ELECTORAL REFORM the country from Galicia and Styria.^^ At an election in a Slovak or Roumanian district, it is by no means unusual for the authorities to send 1,500 troops and 100 gendarmes to " preserve order " in a single constituency ; -^ and the Magyar Press is full of tales of the " terrorism " exercised by the Non- Magyar agitators in such favourable circumstances ! Of course, in reality, so far from being able to terrorize, they are scarcely free to turn round without the permission of the authorities, who shamelessly set the law at open defiance. At the elections of 1910 all previous records were eclipsed in this respect. Troops were employed in 380 out of the 413 constituencies of Hungary ; and in answer to criticisms of its procedure, the Hungarian Government published on June 15 an official statement declaring the press estimates of the troops employed to have been greatly exaggerated, and stating that "only" 194 battalions of infantry and 114 squadrons of cavalry had been employed. In other words, the Government admitted what virtually amounts to a partial mobilization of the Joint Army. When over 173,000 troops 22a are required to maintain order on election day, it is safe to assume that some- thing unusual is taking place, and that all is not well in the best of all possible worlds. Hitherto the Hungarian Govern- ment has been free to employ the military for purposes of electoral corruption ; but the Austrian Reichsrath has shown that it is not likely to submit indefinitely to this misuse of the splendid institution of the Joint Army. The news that Count Khuen-Hedervary had used Austrian regiments to hold back Slovak electors from the polls aroused great indignation in parliamentary circles in Vienna, and formed the subject of a killed a Liberal voter. At Tura, the gendarmes, in trying to separate Liberal and Opposition voters, used their weapons, and killed one and severely wounded two others. Many of the most scandalous incidents, especially those in Roumanian districts, are not reported at all, the Neue Freie Presse merely giving prominence to cases where the People's Party (rabidly anti-Semitic) was concerned. ^2 It is interesting to follow the movements of the troops on the eve of a general election, as recorded in the Press. See Austrian and Hungarian Press (Oct. 25-26, 1896, and May 29-June i, 1910). 2^* I am reckoning a battalion at 600 men (116,400) and a squadron at 500 men (57,000), allowing for absences, etc., in time of peace. 2* At a bye-election in Szentes in January, 1900, two battalions of infantry, 50 gendarmes and many police were sent to " preserve order." The streets were patrolled as if under martial law ; a cordon was drawn, and only voters were let in. Cases could be cited where no fewer than 800 gendarmes were present in one constituency, at a second ballot. II ELECTORAL CORRUPTION AND ELECTORAL REFORM lively if belated day's debate (June 8, 1910), in which all parties and races united in their condemnation of Hungarian methods as unworthy of a country which claims to be in Europe. There is, then, some room for hope that on future occasions Austrian public opinion will assert itself in time, and will insist that the Hungarian Government, even if it be un- able to conduct an election on Western principles, shall at any rate be left to depend solely on its own resources for bolstering up a corrupt and effete system. In this connexion it is necessary to add that to prohibit the use of the Joint Army at Hungarian elections, would not be under existing circumstances an unmixed blessing for the Non- Magyar population, since it would leave them to the tender mercies of the Honved or mihtia, among whose officers Chau- vinism is rampant, and of the gendarmerie, compared with whom the Honved is a veritable sucking-dove. The gen- darmes, as instruments of the administrative officials, act for weeks before an election as electoral agents for the government candidate, and terrorize the peasantry if they dare to take sides. The fear and hatred with which they are regarded by the common people throughout Hungary, but especially by the Non-Magyars, is one of the most notorious facts in Hungarian country life ; and indeed it is not necessary to travel long in Hungary without obtaining some practical illustration of their brutality. They are at all times over-ready with sabre and bayonet, and many think nothing of bestowing a kick or a box on the ears or of using the butts of their rifles against the ribs or back of a refractory peasant ; and as at election time feeling naturally runs high, their acts of violence not infre- quently lead to bloodshed. Indeed, officers of the Joint Army are sometimes obliged to intervene and protect the peasantry from ill treatment. In short, the gendarmerie is one of the most valuable assets of every government in its political cam- paigns. Doubtful constituencies are overrun by them, free intercourse between Opposition leaders and their adherents is rendered impossible, refractory persons or strangers are sum- marily arrested, and if necessary, the voters are kept back forcibly from the poll. It must not, of course, be supposed that such practices are universal in Hungary. All depends on the locality and the administrative officials. While, for instance, in the county of Nyitra, the corruption and tyranny of the authorities baffles description ; in the adjoining county of Pressburg an entirely 12 ELECTORAL CORRUPTION AND ELECTORAL REFORM different system prevails, and the elections are conducted in an orderly and impartial manner. At the same time, it is no exaggeration to say that for the past forty years an honestly conducted election in a Non-Magyar constituency has been a very rare occurrence ; ^^ and the Roumanian petition of 1892 to His Majesty was only stating the brutal truth when it as- serted that a Non-Magyar citizen " can only take part in the electoral campaign if he disregards his life and personal safety," and that Hungarian elections " have well nigh assumed the character of a civil war." ^s What better example can be given of this than the fact that Non-Magyar peasants some- times come to a lawyer and ask how they can get rid of their vote, and with it of the chicaneries and intimidation to which its possession exposes them ? The way in which electoral rolls are prepared in Hungary throws a lurid light upon local administrative methods. Every- thing depends upon the personal character of the local notaries, szolgabiro ^^ or village mayor, of whom the former are notorious for their arrogance and Chauvinism, and the latter for his helpless subservience. Applications by Opposition electors, above all applications by Non-Magyars, are often simply ignored. Names are arbitrarily omitted or intentionally mis- spelt, or entered with wrong age, profession or address, and thus disqualified at the poll ; and the fact that the lists are drawn up solely in the Magyar language, even in parishes where those speaking Magyar may be counted on the fingers of one hand, makes these manipulations a safe and easy task. Per- sons accused or suspected of " Pan-Slav" tendencies are thus apt to find their names passed over in the electoral rolls. Their verbal complaints will be met with insolent or stolid neglect, and their formal written appeals are in danger of finding their way into the waste paper basket. Needless to say, the higher the qualification and the intelligence of the persons concerned, the more likely is this abuse to occur, and I myself know the manager of a large bank and a prominent Slovak advocate who were in this way deprived of their votes at a former election. ^^ ** With the exception of the 12 Saxon constituencies in Transylvania, which invariably support the government of the day. ** Brote, Appendix xli. Denkschrift der Rumanen an den Kaiser- Konig, p. 332. *• Stuhlrichter, or local executive official. ■* Most of the so-called Pan-Slavs in the County of Turocz, have been treated in this way. According to the author of Die Unterdriichung 13 ELECTORAL CORRUPTION AND ELECTORAL REFORM As an instance of what is possible among the officials who direct the elections in Hungary, I cannot do better than quote an incident which occurred in June, 1907, at Gernyeszeg, a purely Magyar constituency in Eastern Transylvania. Here, at a bye-election between two rival candidates of the Indepen- dent Party, the opening of the poll had to be delayed for several hours, because the voting roll had mysteriously disappeared ! Needless to say, the officials take an active part in politics, especially during elections ; and nowhere is their zeal so mani- fest as in the Non-Magyar districts. The regulations which enjoin their political neutrality are openly flouted, and the local officials are frequently the most prominent, not merely in can- vassing, but in intimidating and bribing the peasant electors. In most Roumanian constituencies the chief szolgabiro ^^ makes a tour through his district during the electoral campaign, with the object of giving strict marching orders to the village notaries, threatening the village mayors, and canvassing among the more prominent peasant voters. The village notary especially keeps a close eye upon the voters of his district, and his intimate knowledge of their private means and taxable capacity, backed often enough by his alliance with the all-powerful Jewish publican and usurer, enables him to exercise very considerable pressure when the day of the election comes round. If the fight is closely contested, unwilling or wavering voters are often dragged from their houses, and browbeaten into voting for the "desirable" candidate. The Magyar officials know very well that these illegalities, so far from exposing them to reprimands or punishments, are the surest path to promotion and the favour of the authorities. Those who shout loudest are the greatest patriots, and those who prefer to be patriotic in their mother tongue are traitors and agitators, and as such must be ruthlessly suppressed. In each county the High Sheriff, being openly by law the nominee of the Government, may be expected to hold the vari- ous threads in his hands. Where the Vice-Sheriff and the other officials who owe their posts to sexennial election in the county assembhes, are opponents of the Government, the High Sheriff's der Slovaken, there were in 1895 22,812 electors in the county of Nyitra, but a few years later they had sunk to 17,073, and of the 5,739 thus disqualified, not a single man was a Magyar. The significance of this begins to emerge when we realize that 73 per cent, of the population of this county is Slovak. *" The chief local administrative official. 14 ELECTORAL CORRUPTION AND ELECTORAL REFORM task is rendered difficult ; and cases have occurred — notably at the elections of 1910 — where the local officials set the High Sheriff at defiance, and openly agitated in favour of the Kossuthist candidate. 2^ But such a thing cannot of course occur in a Non-Magyar constituency, since the present system of county government everywhere excludes the nationalities (except the Saxons) from political influence ; and where the Magyar hegemony is endangered by the candidature of a Slovak or Roumanian, the High Sheriff and the county officials are united in their patriotic efforts to defeat the nationalists. For instance, in 1906, when the election of the Slovak candi- date at Rozsahegy seemed certain, the High Sheriff of Lipto came over .in haste and canvassed from door to door among the Jewish shopmen, until a majority could be secured for the Magyar and Anti-Semite candidate. The same partiality prevails among the officials who direct the elections. As I have already indicated, administrative efficiency varies greatly in the different counties, and one result of this is, that while in one county corruption and bri- bery are confined to the agents and canvassers of the candidates, in another the electoral officials are themselves guilty of the most outrageous illegalities. In each county the recording officers are appointed by the Central Committee of the County Assembly, which is only too often a mere tool in the hands of the High Sheriff or of a few powerful local magnates, A great deal, therefore, depends on the personal character of the re- cording officer, for he is charged with all preparations for the poll and disposes over the gendarmes and troops which may have been requisitioned to preserve order. With him are present during the election representatives of each commune in the constituency (generally their mayors) and also repre- sentatives of the rival candidates.^ But their helplessness be- comes at once apparent whenever the president stoops to illegalities. Their protests are disregarded, and their with- drawal only opens the way for even greater abuses. For in- stance, cases could be cited where during the five or ten *' On July 2, 1910, in answer to an interpellation of George Szmrec- sanyi, the Premier Count Khuen-Hedervary made the following asser- tion : — " I have knowledge of the fact that the autonomous elected (county) officials often exceed their official powers (surely a humiliating admission !) and actually take up a hostile attitude even to the candi- dates of the Party of National Work." *" What the Germans call Vertrauensmdnner. 15 ELECTORAL CORRUPTION AND ELECTORAL REFORM minutes which elapsed between the departure of one Vertrauens- mann and the arrival of another, the president arbitrarily dis- qualified a whole batch of electors and even credited some of their votes to the other side ! There is no secret ballot, and to vote by public declaration before a mainly Magyar electoral committee requires very considerable courage on the part of a Slav or Roumanian peasant voter, who knows only too well the acts of petty tyranny and injustice by which the local demi-gods can re- venge themselves for his refusal to support their candidate. The minutes and the entire proceedings of the election are conducted in Magyar, and the slightest slip in that language often serves as an excuse for disqualifying him. Votes are sometimes annulled en masse on the wildest pretexts. For instance, a voter who, from ignorance of the language, failed to understand a question put to him, or mispronounced the candidate's name, or put his Christian name before his sur- name (and not vice versa according to the Mag37ar custom), is often ordered to stand aside, and loses his vote. The re- turning officer, if bent on illegality, will decline to accept the identity of numerous electors, or will get the local notary to contest their identity and then accept his word without dis- cussion. A standard trick of the officials is to refuse to recog- nize electors with whom they are personally acquainted, and thus to let them lose their vote for lack of identification. A still worse trick — and one by no means uncommon — is to allow unqualified persons to vote in the name of dead electors whose names have been intentionally left upon the register. In 1910 two ingenious returning officers in Transylvania hit upon the idea of setting up at the last moment a bogus candi- date, bearing the identical name of the Opposition candidate ; and before the trick was discovered, a number of Roumanian votes had been credited to a person who had never existed (see pp.133, 137)- The list of such sordid electioneering tricks could be added to almost indefinitely, but the lengths to which this swindling is sometimes carried can best be realized from the following account of the notorious Szenicz and Verbo elec- tions in May, 1906. Szenicz is a constituency of 2,391 electors, situated in the county of Nyitra on the Moravian frontier. The population is entirely Slovak, with the exception of a handful of officials and Jewish tradesmen. On the eve of the general elections of 1906, Szenicz and the neighbouring villages were filled 16 ELECTORAL CORRUPTION AND ELECTORAL REFORM with gendarmes and troops ; and on the polhng-day the returning officer, Mr. Coloman Szabo (the szolgabiro of HoHcs) , cut off the Slovak voters by a mihtary cordon from all access either to the polling-booth, or to the village inns. Their leaders were not allowed to communicate with them, and they were kept waiting outside Szenicz without food or drink till late at night, before they were even admitted to record their votes. As there seem.ed to be no prospect of the Magyar candidate being returned, Szabo and Pfauser, the presidents of the two committees, then proceeded to annul votes wholesale. Fifty- seven Slovak electors were disqualified because they either pronounced the candidate's name wrongly, or credited him with a wrong Christian name, or omitted, or were ignorant of it, or described him as "Frank," or " Frano " Veselovsky, instead of " Veselovsky Ferencz " (the Magyar form). Others were rejected because their names or ages were entered in- correctly on the voting roll, even when there could be no question of mistaken identity ; while certain names were treated as having been struck off the roll, because a careless clerk had written them half through the line instead of above it. In short, every possible trick or manoeuvre, some just within the letter of the law, others far beyond it, was employed to thin the ranks of the Slovak electors — with the result that 326 Slovak voters were disqualified and the Magyar candi- date was elected by a majority of 141 votes. After the election, 214 voters charged Szabo with misuse of his official position and violation of the law regulating elections. The inquiry into the case was entrusted to Dr. Szale, the szolgabiro of the neighbouring district of Szabolcza, who had organized the electoral campaign in favour of the Government candidate. The plaintiff's counsel was not allowed to attend the inquiry, and Mr. Szale did not even examine Szabo, the accused offi- cial ! On the other hand, he succeeded by threats and other devices in inducing 86 of the petitioners to withdraw from the action. The remainder held firm, but the Fiscal, in rejecting their appeal, did not scruple to argue that their evidence could not be considered, because they all belonged to the Slovak party ! ^^ '1 See his verdict, translated in Appendix 27. This verdict is suffi- ciently characteristic of Dr. Szale's methods. But I venture to think that the document which I have printed in Appendix 28 — the verdict of acquittal given in favour of the former Slovak deputy Dr. Veseovsky, in a case of alleged libel brought against him by Dr. Szale — will make an even greater impression upon the reader. In some C.R.H. 17 C ELFXTORAL CORRUPTION AND ELECTORAL REFORM The election of Szcnicz was wholly edipsed by that in the neighbouring Slovak constituency of Verbo, where the total number of electors only amounted to 1,522. Baron George Rudnyanszk3^ the candidate of the Constitutional Party, was opposed in the interests of the Slovak national party of Dr. Juhus Markovic, a well-known Slovak doctor in Vagujhely, who has done more than any other man to improve the con- dition of the Slovak peasantry by the foundation of village banks and co-operative societies, and by strenuous opposi- tion to the fearful abuses of usury as practised by the Jewish tradesmen of North-west Hungary. Out of the 1,522 voters, the Magyars could not count on more than 400 to 500, even in- cluding those amenable to bribes, and thus in order to bring in their candidate, extremely drastic measures were adopted. Voting, it must be remembered, is by public declaration. A peasant, then, is asked to name the candidate for whom he votes. " Gyula Markovics," he may reply. " Gyula ? Gyula ? " says the returning officer, " there is no candidate called Gyula. Stand aside." And the unlucky voter, who ought to have said, " Markovics, Gyula," instead of " Gyula Markovics," has lost his vote. Another may make the same mistake with his own name, or may from ignorance of Magyar, use a wrong number in stating his address. By these and similar dodges man after man was disqualified ; yet at 10 p.m., after all the Magyar voters had polled, the Slovak candidate was still leading by 150 votes, and Rudnyansky's cause seemed desperate. The situation was saved by a little band of roughs, who were allowed to force their way into the polling-booth, upset the president's table, and smashed the lamp. In the darkness the registers were torn up, and thus the election had to be annulled. The Magyar papers ignoring the fact that Markovic was known to be leading easily, had the effrontery to assert that the disturbance was due to his supporters. Such an accusation merely added insult to injury, for the Slovak headquarters were outside the village and were sur- rounded by troops and gendarmes, who also guarded the polling-booth, and who could have stopped such disturbances in a moment, unless they had been given the hint to hold aloof. 22 Most significant of all, no inquiry was ordered, and other countries such a decision would have been fatal to Dr. Szale's official career. " At the time of the elections I was in Budapest, and the newspaper which I happened to buy next day contained the following report of 18 ELECTORAL CORRUPTION AND ELECTORAL REFORM the drunken louts who had caused the mischief were allowed to go unpunished. A fortnight later, on May i8, a fresh election was held at Verbo, the chief szolgabiro Szale acting as returning officer. Over 1,200 troops and lOO gendarmes had been requisitioned to preserve order, and on an appeal of Mr. Hodza to the Minister of the Interior, instructions had been issued for a " pure election." Three Slovak deputies (Jehlicka, Juriga and Skycak) were, despite their immunity, forcibly expelled by the gendarmes. The main body of Slovak electors was as- sembled outside the village, and, despite heavy rain, were kept waiting till dusk in the open fields, surrounded by a strong force of troops. They were not allowed their own " marshals," but were placed at the mercy of a Magyar can- vasser, who beguiled over 150 peasants before an entirely sham electoral committee, where they recorded their votes without discovering the deception. The Slovak candidate, hearing of this in time, collected them once more and brought them to the proper polling-booth, only to find that Szale absolutely refused to admit them. Meanwhile votes were annulled wholesale on the most flimsy pretexts. All those who failed to give the candidate's name, age and address in correct Magyar were promptly disqualified, and the Slovak candidate was robbed of something like 700 votes. Dr. Mar- kovic's representative on the committee was changed no fewer than six times, and for the last two hours no Slovak representative was present at all, with the result that whole batches of Markovic's supporters were credited to the rival candidate ! Thus an absolutely safe majority of over 200 for Markovic was twisted into a minority, and Rudnyanszky was declared elected by 95 votes. Not content with their victory, the authorities took action against a number of the incident : "At 10 p.m. Julius Markovics (Nationalist) had 494, George Rudnyanszky (Const.) 349 votes. Owing to the unbridled agitation of the Nationalist party a brawl arose with the second com- mittee. The petroleum lamp was tlxrown down on to the voting cards of the Constitutional party. After the general panic Zocher, the Returning Officer, quashed the election." (See Magyar Hirlap, May 4, 1906). This was printed in ordinary type, among a crowd of other electoral results, as if such an event was of every-day occurrence. In other countries whole columns would have been filled with sensational details and indignant protests : in Hungary it was not even thought worthy of editorial comment. No more eloquent proof of the prevalent corruption could be found than this unnatural indifference. 19 ELECTORAL CORRUPTION AND ELECTORAL REFORM villagers for carrying white banners on the day of the election — an ancient custom which denotes that the villagers to which the banners belong intend to vote solid for one particular candidate. The Lutheran pastor of Krajne and seven peasants were sentenced to ten days and 150 crowns (£6 5s.) each, and five others to five days and 100 crowns each. Such is the history of this astounding election, which threatens to rob Coloman Tisza and Banffy of their laurels, and reveals the Coalition Government as the worthy champion of the Magyar "liberal" tradition. ^^^ Wholesale bribery has always been recognized in Hungary as a political instrument of the first importance, and it formed the basis of that far-reaching system of corruption to which the Liberal Party owed its thirty-eight years of power. In former years the electors were invariably regaled with food and drink for days, sometimes for weeks, before the day of the poll ; and the money which in Britain is spent in hiring public halls and deluging the country with pamphlets and fly-leaves is applied in Hungary to the refreshment of the inner man. Though at the elections of 1901, 1905 and 1906 greater respect may have been shown for appearances, the corruption strikes as deep roots as ever, while in the Non- Magyar districts no trick is too mean or discreditable to ensure the return of a " patriotic " member. The large proportion of uncontested seats is in no small measure due to previous monetary arrangements, especially where there is a limited number of voters ; and rumour has it that not a few deputies speculate upon their parliamentary salaries. Be this as it may, a large mass of electors have their price, and even to-day an election is still regarded in many countr}' districts as an oppor- tunity for getting blind drunk for nothing. No disgrace attaches to bribery, and indeed its success is only too often regarded with envy and admiration. Indeed certain con- stituencies are alleged to rely upon a periodical electoral campaign to restore their falling fortunes or to accumulate fresh capital. In 1899, i^ is true, Mr. Coloman Szell introduced an elaborate Corrupt Practices Act, as a reaction against the disgraceful trickery and violence of Baron Banffy' s regime ; but this law, like so many others in Hungary, has for the most part *» I intentionally leave this phrase as it originally appeared in Racial Problems in Hungary. Readers of the present volume will agree that the elections of 19 10 have totally eclipsed all previous records. 20 ELECTORAL CORRUPTON AND ELECTORAL REFORM remained merely ornamental. The blame for this does not attach to Mr. Szell, who was probably genuinely disgusted at the excesses of his predecessors, but to the bad adminis- tration against which every educated Hungarian inveighs ; and until the latter is radically reformed, no great improve- ment can be expected in the matter of purity of elections. Nothing can give a better idea of the prevalent corruption, alike of the electorate and of the administration, than the long array of monstrous illegalities which it is thought necessary to guard against in the Act of 1899. For instance, an election is declared to be invalid in the following cases (I merely give a selection) : — (i) If a public official instructs an elector who is subordinate to him as to how he should vote, or influences an elector's vote by promises or threats or other misuse of his official power (§3, al. 11 a). (2) If the gendarmerie or troops are used to summon, collect and escort the electors, for the purpose either of bringing them to the poll or keeping them from it (§ 3, iib). (3) If electors are prevented from reaching the poll and it can be proved that their voting would have deprived the successful candidate of his majority (§ 3, 12).'* (4) If electors are rejected by the returning officer {§3, 13). (5) If the returning officer infringes the provisions of the law " with the intention of falsifying the result of the election in favour of the member" (§ 3, 16). (6) If the returning officer fails to open the poll at the pre- scribed hour and place (§ 3, 17). (7) If he refuses to accept a candidate's nomination (§3, 18). (8) If he does not allow representatives of the parties to be present (§ 3, 19). (9) If he announces the withdrawal of a candidate who has not withdrawn! (§ 3, 24). (10) If the arrangements regarding the close of the poll are violated (§ 3, 26). (11) If the person proclaimed by him as member has not received the absolute majority ! (§ 3, 27). Further, paragraph 4 deals with " votes of persons whose names do not occur in the registers " and " votes which have ** As this paragraph reads, it would seem that the election would not be invalid if electors had been kept back from the poll and it could be proved that this did not afiect the result. 21 ELECTORAL CORRUPTION AND ELECTORAL REFORM been recorded by unqualified persons." In other words, the law contemplates the very grossest abuses on the part of its own officials, and its very precautions tell a more conclusive tale than the complaints of the victims of electoral abuse. Meanwhile, even this] law directly sanctions bribery under certain prescribed forms. In other words, the candidate may drive his supporters to the poll at his own expense, the only check being that the fare may not exceed the legal tariff. No attempt is made to control the amounts actually disbursed ; such a control would indeed be impossible. Electors coming from a distance may be supplied with the " requisite pro- visions " (§ 7b), and the candidate may entertain individual voters in his house " so far as this does not exceed the limits of ordinary hospitality."^^ With these exceptions, however, the new law looked very promising on paper, and meanwhile the local authorities might be trusted to maintain their ancient reputation. The baneful effect? of the system upon the moral standard of the peasants, and indeed of society as a whole, cannot be too strongly emphasized ; and one of the most sterling merits of the little band of Non-Magyar deputies is their resolute condemnation of corrupt practices, and their endeavour to appeal to the reason and sentiment rather than to the appetite and pockets of their constituents. Of course no one will ever know the sums spent by the Governments of the past forty years for electoral purposes ; but the scandals which came to light in the spring of 1907 render it highly probable that considerable sums have been diverted from the Budget for necessary electoral " expenses." Mr. Ugron, the well-known Clerical Independent, did not hesitate in 1900 to accuse Baron Banffy of not handing over to his successor the electoral fund of the Liberal Party ; and though Mr. Ugron' s statements are not always wholly re- liable, the existence of such a fund can hardly be called in question. In this connexion we cannot do better than quote from an Address moved in November, 1898, by the National Party, under the leadership of Count Albert Apponyi : " The Premier has partly in his earlier, partly in his most recent announcements, declared it to be the duty and business of the Government, to collect, control and distribute electoral money for the support of official candidates, and make use of the power of the public offices." In a word, the brazen assertion of Baron Bantty, that absolutely no incorrect use »» 1899, XV. § 9. 22 ELECTORAL CORRUPTION AND ELECTORAL REFORM of money was made at the elections of 1896, need not be taken seriously ; indeed it was reeeived by the House in the same spirit in which it was uttered. In the course of the same debate (Feb. 17, 1898), Mr. Rohonczy, a Liberal deputy, had openly asserted in the House that at the " Banffy elections " the Government spent six million crowns to defeat opposition candidates. His assertion was, of course, denied, and he sub- sequently admitted that he was not in a position to prove the exact sum. But when he confessed to having himself received 9,000 crowns on that occasion, and 4,000 crowns at each of the two previous elections, his statement was accepted on all sides as bona fide.^^ Of course there is not necessarily any- thing discreditable in the grant of pecuniary support to a poor candidate by his party ; the real significance lies in the admis- sion of the manner in which a large portion of this money was spent, and of the direct and active suoport received by " de- sirable " candidates from the centnJ and local executive authorities. Besides there is all the difference in the world between a party fund for electoral expenses, and a Government fund for the same purpose. It is the latter which exists in Hungary, and in the so-called " pure" elections of Mr. Szell (1901), and Count Tisza (1905), the Governmental support to Governmental candidates was reckoned at close upon ten crowns a head for the number of electors. For instance, in a constituency with 1,000 electors, the " desirable" candidate would receive from 8,000 to 10,000 crowns, and made his arrangements accordingly. 3' Each of these general elections must, therefore, have cost the Government at least eight million crowns, exclusive of the expenses of thousands of soldiers and gendarmes. The Opposition Press estimated the election expenses of Count Khuen-Hedervary at thirty million " On July II, 1891, Mr. Charles Eotvos, the well-known Indepen- dent deputy, admitted that his candidature in Papa cost him 6,200 crowns (of which 800 were not spent in a lawful manner), but main- tained that his rival, afterwards a Secretary of State, spent over 40,000 crowns in order to obtain a majority of eleven votes. *' I have been assured that no less than 500,000 crowns were spent in three elections in the single constituency ofLipto S. Miklos, in order to secure the return of Mr. Lanyi, a member of the Liberal Cabinet. Needless to say, such a statement cannot be proved ; but the fact that a man like my informant could have even believed it possible is highly suggestive. Count Tisza's election in Arad in June, 1910, against the Independent leader, Mr. Bela Barabds, is alleged to have cost 600,000 crowns, though here again proof is impossible. 23 ELECTORAL CORRUPTION AND ELECTORAL REFORM crowns ; and while this is probably exaggerated and certainly incapable of proof, it is interesting to note that the Govern- ment did not think it worth while to deny the charge. Thus with charming impartiality the Government provides money for its own supporters and troops and gendarmes for the benefit of its opponents. The money thus placed in the hands of candidates is of course distributed with varying degrees of delicacy. The banknotes may be handed over concealed in a newspaper, or may be left protruding from a pocket in sight of the proper people : on other occasions such hypocritical tricks may be dispensed with altogether, and votes are bought openly in the streets. Meanwhile, Mr. Rohonczy's avowed object of provoking an inquiry was not achieved, and time after time, when inter- pellations have been made respecting specially outrageous electoral incidents, the House has almost unanimously decided to ignore them, and has accepted with significant readiness the most childishly inadequate explanations. Scandals of this kind, instead of being probed to the bottom, are ignored or hushed up ; for " no nation possesses so much esprit de corps as the Magyars, and nowhere are all facts which might compromise the ruling nation in the eyes of the foreign public passed over in such unanimous silence." ^^ As Mr. Rakovszky, the clerical leader, once pertinently remarked in Parliament, 3» a single newspaper article would suffice in Britain to produce a parliamentary inquiry on a question of corruption. But in Hungary matters are very different. The county in which Mr. Rakovszky' s home is situated, has long been the scene of specially flagrant electoral corruption and political persecution, and yet his attitude has been one of open and unqualified approval. Electoral freedom of speech and action is a mere farce wherever opposition voters are concerned, and is continually violated in the case of Non-Magyar candidates. Not merely are voters intimidated or forcibly prevented from recording their votes, but obnoxious candidates are prevented from addressing meetings of their adherents. For instance, in 1907 »' These remarkable words, which have gained in truth during the forty years which have elapsed since they were written, are quoted from a leading article of the Neue Freie Presse (Nov. 18, 1868). In those days the Viennese organ had not yet joined the conspiracy of silence which too often surrounds the truth in Hungary. *• Ten years ago, it is true. ^ 24 ELECTORAL CORRUPTION AND ELECTORAL REFORM at a bye-election in Bazin (County Pressburg) two Slovak deputies were forcibly ejected from a village where they wished to speak in favour of the Slovak candidate, Mr. Ivanka.^ An even more typical case was reported in the following laconic words in the Pester Lloyd during the elections of 1905 : — " Cseke (Bihar Co.) — The Roumanian candidate has roused the population to such an extent, that he has been arrested by order of the foszolgabiro ! " An incident whose occurrence in any other country might have caused the fall of the Government, is in Hungary dismissed in a couple of Ijnes. Incidents of this kind occur so frequently, that public opinion has long ceased to wax indignant, especially as the majority of these illegalities are committed against the non- Magyar helots, and not against "the ruling nation" (azural- kodo nemzet). An incident which occurred at the general elections of 1906 will give the reader a still clearer idea of the arbitrary and scandalous conduct of the local authorities in many Hungarian counties. The constituency of Giralt in the county of Saros, on the Galician frontier, was to be con- tested by Count Aurel Desewffy, a member of the Constitu- tional Party, and Mr, Pivko, a small Slovak proprietor, as a Slovak national candidate. Giralt contains 2,027 electors, of whom the vast majority is Slovak, and as there was a real danger of Pivko being elected, drastic steps had to be taken to avert such a disaster. One fine morning Pivko was arrested by a couple of gendarmes and thrown into prison at Eperjes. Though he had all the necessary papers to prove his identity, all his protests were in vain, and he was neither allowed to call in an advocate, nor to wire to his brother or to the Minister of the Interior. In prison he remained for forty-eight hours, and meanwhile, as he failed to present himself for nomination, his rival Desewffy was elected unopposed ! He was then released with faint apologies, and no further proceedings were taken against him. By way of adding insult to injury, the szolgabiro Kerekes forbade him to set foot in the county of Saros for ten years to come, though needless to say no legal title could be found for such a prohibition. " This treatment is not confined to Nationalist deputies. At a for- mer election in Dunapataj two Magyar members of Parliament, Messrs. Nagy and Madarasz, were forcibly ejected from the town by order of the returning officer. They protested to the President of the Chamber against tJiis violation of their parliamentary immunity, but without obtaining any satisfaction. 25 ELECTORAL CORRUPTION AND ELECTORAL REFORM Those Non-Magyars who succeed in running the electoral gauntlet are often prevented from addressing their consti- tuents. For example Mr. Milan Hodza had arranged to hold meetings on one Sunday in the autumn of 1907, in order to dehver the customary annual report of his parliamentary activity. But the chief szolgabiro of Neusatz (Ujvidek) in- terposed his veto on the ground that the general discontent among the population, and especially among the working classes, had assumed such dimensions that such meetings were calculated to endanger the public order ! Meanwhile the unsuccessful candidates are brought to trial for remarks made on electoral platforms or contained in their party programmes. Here again examples might be quoted ad nauseam. On Sep- tember 6, 1902, Dr. Rudolf Markovi6 and his brother were found guilty of holding a meeting in the previous October in the village of Hrusso without previously intimating it to the authorities.*^ One of the incriminated passages in the for- mer's speech was the following sentence : " Let us hold together, there is no power on earth which can crush us." These out- rageous remarks savoured of treason to the Magyar officials, the plain fact being that a Slovak who no longer cringes to the local tyrant already stands self-convicted of " Panslav" leanings. It is evident that an electoral system such as has been described above, so far from being worthy of a country whose constitutional Charter dates from the thirteenth century, actually eclipses that of England in its most corrupt epoch before the Reform Bill, and that of Tammany at the present day. The system has so many grave defects that it is difficult to know where to begin with a reform ; but this does not supply any excuse for further delay. An extension of the franchise is now admitted on all sides to be inevitable, and the only question now at issue is whether the ruling caste can succeed in rescuing some fragments of its old privileges from the grasp of the young democracy. The Coalition was guilty of a fatal error of judgment in refusing to accept office in the spring of 1905 ; for the so-called " unconstitutional" Government of Baron Fejervary was thus enabled to overtrump the Opposition by including Universal Suffrage in its programme. The proposals of Mr. Kristoffy aroused rage and consternation in the camp of the Coalition, and corresponding enthusiasm among the working classes *^ See pp. 324 sqq. of Racial Problems in Hungary. 26 ELECTORAL CORRUPTION AND ELECTORAL REFORM and the Non-Magyar helots. The Russian revolutionary move- ment of that autumn had already prepared the soil, and the ideas of Kristoffy, transplanted into Austria, rapidly grew into the stately tree of a rejuvenated and democratic Reichs- rath. Meanwhile at the eleventh hour the Hungarian Coalition capitulated to the Crown (April, 1906) and accepted office on the basis of a transitional programme. The new Cabinet solemnly pledged itself to postpone all discussion of the military questions which had evoked the crisis, until a radical measure of electoral reform had been adopted by the House and a new Parliament elected on a really representative basis could express its opinion at the polls. The Wekerle Cabinet was well aware that the example of Austria made it impossible to shelve reform indefinitely, and its main object therefore was to postpone the evil day as long as possible. Shrewd observers were always of the opinion that Universal Suffrage would never succeed in running the gauntlet of a House whose mainstays were the landed interest and professional politicians. The former were well aware that electoral reform can only be the prelude to other far-reaching reforms ; that the agrarian population will be rescued from the bondage imposed by the reactionary legislation of Mr. Daranyi ; that the obsolete methods of county government, which at present secure the real power to a few county families, will be replaced by a truly democratic system, and that the present unjust incidence of taxation, which weigh heavily upon the small holder and lightly upon the owners of latifundia will be abolished in favour of a system which shall spare necessities rather than luxuries. Meanwhile, at least a quarter of the House is composed of mere " carpet-baggers," who owe their position solely to the narrow franchise and to the favours of some all-powerful pohtical Maecenas. When entrance to Parliament is no longer largely dependent on the wirepulling of a few individuals and the greasing of a few hundred palms, but on the successful organi- zation of a numerous electorate, then an entirely new class of men will enter the worn-out Parliament of privilege, and the poisonous Chauvinism of the present day will be supplanted by a growing enthusiasm for social reform. Unhappily the Coalition House was Kossuthist merety in its attitude towards Austria, and in all internal questions favoured a scarcely-veiled mediaevalism such as might well make its former leaders turn in their graves. Dr. Wekerle, the brilliant financier who gave his name to the Cabinet, had always been 27 ELECTORAL CORRUPTION AND ELECTORAL REFORM an opportunist of the first water, while the two representatives of Western culture, Mr. Francis Kossuth and Count Albert Apponyi, were the reluctant victims of their corrupt milieu. This fact became apparent to all the world when these men and Count Julius Andrassy consented to share the sweets of office with Mr, Geza Polonyi, whose scandalous collapse in February, 1907, cannot have surprised any of his countrymen, and who was peculiarly unfitted for the position of Minister of Justice. Under these circumstances reaction completely gained the upper hand in Hungary, and it became more and more obvious that a Parliament so essentially oligarchic in character as that of 1906-1909 would make desperate efforts to modify in an illiberal sense any measure of Universal Suffrage which might be laid before it. Its main anxiety was on the one hand to preserve so far as possible the political power of the great proprietors, and on the other to prevent anything like an adequate enfranchisement of the Non-Magyar nationalities. How to effect this and at the same time fulfil the pledge given to the Crown to introduce Universal Suffrage " on at least as broad a basis" as the project announced by Mr. Kristoffy in 1905, was the great problem which faced the reactionaries. The natural way to neutralize any accession of strength to the Non-Magyars would be to give to the Magyar districts and the chief towns (where the Magyar element is dominant, at least so long as the Germans and Jews adhere to it) more than their fair proportion of seats. But such a manoeuvre would only have the effect of strengthening the Social Democrats, whose chief following lies among the artisans and factory hands, and the Agrarian Socialists, whose influence upon the masses of the Magyar population of the Alfold (or Great Hun- garian Plain) is real and growing. Reactionary Agrarian legislation, the unchecked growth of vast latifundia,*^ the unjust incidence of taxation, wretched wages and still worse housing conditions, and finally the ruthless repression of ** Since 1870 the extent of lands held in fidei commissa has been allowed to increase from 648,692 to 3,309,350 acres and the extent of Mortmain (Church lands) from 1,803,200 to 3,508,400 acres, while in the same period the number of independent proprietors of land has decreased by 118,235. The net income of mortgages on land has risen from 2,872,528 crowns in 1877 to 4,563,000,000 crowns in 1902. See Racz, pp. 29-30 (cit. p. 15 of La Hongrie Contemporaine el le Suffrage Universel). 28 ELECTORAL CORRUPTION AND ELECTORAL REFORM strikes and combination, have greatly accentuated the ahready prevaihng land-hunger ; and a vast stream of emigration is the only safety-valve which prevents the outbreak of fresh agrarian unrest such as marked the years 1 898-1 900. In short, the alienation of the Magyar peasantry from the domi- nant caste is complete ; and in a reformed Parliament it is far more likely to ally itself with the nationalists, whose pro- gramme is essentially democratic, than with the representa- tives of a semi-feudal land system and of monopoly in countv government. Unfair distribution, then, if carried very far, might become a two-edged weapon. Skilful gerrymandering might place the Non-Magyars in a minority in all constituencies which are situ- ated on a linguistic frontier, since the Magyars can hardly be expected to adopt the just and enlightened system now in vogue in the Moravian Diet, by which each race has a separate register and all inter-racial contests are avoided. But even when all the resources of geometry have been exhausted. Universal Suffrage is bound to bring a great accession of strength to the Non-Magyars, especially in Transylvania — for the simple reason that the existing franchise throws all its weight into the Magyar scale. Hence a much more insidious plan began to be discussed, and found favour even with certain sections of the nominally " Radical" party of Independence. Universal Suffrage, it was argued, was a pledge to which the Government stood irrevocably committed. But of course this universal suffrage must be brought into harmony with " the idea of the Magyar state" (a magyar allam eszme), audit was obvious that in any well-regulated country a knowledge of the language of state ' ' was an essential qualification for a vote. In other words, these Radical stalwarts proclaimed their ad- herence to the great principle of Universal Suffrage, but at the same time were anxious to exclude from its benefits those 40-9 per cent, of the population who are still entirely ignorant of the Magyar language ! The difficulty would thus be solved in a manner worthy of Magyar constitutional casuistry. Fortunately this sorry trick is quite irreconcilable with the Kristoffy measure, which, as that statesman reminded the public in a brilliant speech in March, 1908, secured the fran- chise to all men over the age of 24, who could read and wTite in any Hungarian language.*^ The frantic efforts of the ** The 194,000 illiterates already enjoying the franchise were to retain their rights. 29 ELECTORAL CORRUPTION AND ELECTORAL REFORM ruling class to devise some scheme for falsifying the results of reform were foredoomed to failure ; for, in Mr. Kristoffy's own words, " the political nation is to-day fighting on four fronts — against the dynasty, against Croatia, against the nationaUties and against our own working population. Of these struggles one would suffice to exhaust the forces of the nation ; but to conduct all four at once means nothing less than final anni- hilation." ** Fortunately it is safe to assume that the sove- reign would never give his sanction to a Bill which excluded half the nation from political rights for no other reason than for the accident of their birth. The imposition of a strict " patriotic " test upon all candi- dates for Parliament is favoured by another group of Chauvin- ists, as a means of excluding at any rate the ablest of the Non-Magyars or Socialists ; but it may be doubted whether such a scheme would prove effective in the long run. In any case, under the Coalition regime aU kinds of fantastic schemes were on foot, whose sole and avowed object was to counteract the effect of a reform of the franchise. In short, Mr. Issekutz, a well-known member of the new Government Party, voiced a widespread opinion among the Magyar ruling class, when on July II, 1910, he spoke in Parliament as follows : " If we (Magyars) let the sovereignty out of our hands, we can never recover it. No serious man in this country can be a supporter of Universal Equal and Secret Suffrage." This speech, which earned him the applause of the House, is little better than a paraphrase of the words so often heard on Magyar lips : " We want to be masters in our own house." One-half of the popu- lation as masters, the other half as servants — such is the sole theory upon which " the Magyar national state" can rest. The day of reckoning could not be postponed indefinitely. After thirty months spent in the vain attempt to reconcile the principles of Universal Suffrage and Magyar ohgarchy, Count Juhus Andrassy, on November 11, 1908, laid before Parliament a measure of franchise'reform, which was at once more compli- cated and more reactionary than any previous measure of the Coalition Government. It would to-day be superfluous to discuss its provisions in any detail, for, reactionary as they were, the majority of the House regarded them as far too radical. By its graduated system of plural voting, by its devices for reducing to zero the pohtical influence of the illiterate, and by its retention of public voting, Andrassy' s Bill made a mockery ** See Pester Lloyd, March 8, 1908. 30 ELECTORAL CORRUPTION AND ELECTORAL REFORM of Universal Suffrage and aimed at prolonging the racial mono- poly of the Magyars and the political thraldom of the working classes. According to the official calculations published with the Bill, 217,791 persons were to receive three votes, and 866,267 persons two votes, while the 1,270,924 illiterate voters were only to be allowed to vote indirectly, every ten of them appointing a deputy to vote for them. Thus while 217,000 people gave 653,000 votes, 1,270,000 others were only to possess 127,000 votes, with the result that some citizens would have acquired thirty times as much voting power as others. Such was Count Andrassy's idea of universal and equal suffrage, his manifest intention being to ensure that the dominant caste, with its dependent officials and employes, should still outweigh the independent middle class. In his own words, " thanks to this system, we can accord electoral rights to millions who did not possess them, but the element which has hitherto governed will not become the minority."^ As he significantly admits, " when there is in every constituency a materially larger number of electors, then bribery and the possible pressure of the Govern- ment will no longer produce the same effect on the electors as hitherto." In order, then, to minimize as far as possible the dangers of the electorate suddenly emancipating itself from the governing class and so upsetting Count Andrassy's elabor- ate precautions, the prevailing practice of public voting was to be retained. " Secret ballot," the preamble to the Bill sententiously declares, " everywhere confficts with the views, the customs and the moral feelings of society. ... It weakens the true moral principle that it is every man's duty to have the courage to express his opinion freely." In sublime oblivion of the monstrous corruption which public voting has fostered in Hungary, Count Andrassy surveys from a moral pinnacle the degradation which the ballot may be assumed to have introduced into West European politics : " In practice — especially in the case of those who because of their weakness really need protection — the ballot only pro- tects the freedom of the dishonourable, of those who do not regard the fulfilment of their word as binding." ^^ In this sentence, he tacitly assumes that promises and pledges are habitually exacted from subordinate voters and thus under- ** Well might the able writers of La Hongrie Contemporaine et le Suffrage Universel (French edition of the Sociological Review, Huszadik Szdzad) commend this astonishing phrase to the Western admirers of Count Apponyi. 31 ELECTORAL CORRUPTION AND ELECTORAL REFORM mines his own appeal to morality. Finally, he cites the name of Stuart Mill to give a veneer of democracy to an essentially oligarchic measure. Count Andrassy's Bill could not be regarded as in any way redeeming the Coalition's pledge to introduce reform "on at least as broad a basis as Mr. Kristoffy's Bill. The project satisfied nobody, and cynics have maintained that it had never been intended seriously by its originator. Enlightened opinion both at home and abroad was unanimous in its condemnation of the Bill, while the extremer Chauvinists would have favoured a still more reactionary scheme. Thus its failure was happily from the first a foregone conclusion. The international crisis evoked by the annexation of Bosnia, and the agitation in favour of a separate Hungarian Bank, diverted attention from the question of Electoral Reform, and by the time the crisis was over, the Coalition Cabinet was no longer capable of any act of constructive policy. The collapse of the Coalition (December, 1909), and the accession of Count Khuen-Hedervary to power (January, 1910), seemed at first to give promise of a more liberal regime in Hungary, and the abandonment of mere repression as a remedy for the racial question. The new Premier, despite his evil record in Croatia, had never been identified with the extremer forms of Chauvinism, and had more than once proclaimed his belief in a wide extension of the franchise. As confidant of the Crown, he was assumed to share the liberal views of the Emperor-King and the Heir-Apparant on the franchise ques- tion. But the dominant influence in the new Government has fallen more and more to the ex-Premier, Count Stephen Tisza, whose great ability and transparent honesty of charac- ter are alike overshadowed by his frankly reactionary political creed. The appointment of Mr. Alexander Jeszenszky — who first won notoriety as Public Prosecutor at the Rou- manian Memorandum Trial, then conducted the " National- ities-Section " in the Premier's office under Baron Bdnffy, and finally organized for the latter the corrupt elections of 1896 — as secretary of state in the Ministry of the Interior, was an outward and visible sign of Count Tisza' s triumph ; for it showed that the Government was hostile to the Non-Magyars and indifferent to the claims of the working classes. Five months were devoted to " preparing" the constituencies, and it soon became apparent that the general elections of 19 10 would be conducted with the same brutality and lack of 32 ELECTORAL CORRUPTION AND ELECTORAL REFORM scruple which characterized those of 1896. The result ex- ceeded the worst fears of the Opposition, and Count Khuen- Hedervary, who had entered the contest without a party in the House, returned at the head of a powerful majority. The ranks of the rival parties of Independence (Kossuth and Justh groups) were decimated ; the People's Party was re- duced to half its numbers ; while the little band of non- Magyar deputies — thanks to the Government's open defiance of the law — sank from 26 to 8. Time alone can show whether the new majority will show a greater disposition than its Coalition predecessor to shake off the suspicious lethargy which assails most Magyar politicians whenever it is proposed to advance beyond the stage of theoretical approval of Reform to that of active co-operation. A few years may still elapse before Electoral Reform is achieved, and with it the emancipa- tion of nationalities from their present political bondage ; but that both are inevitable sooner or later no one who believes in historic evolution will be inclined to deny. C.R.ii. 33 CHAPTER II Hungarian Election Practice (By An Old Parliamentarian).''*' THE foreign public is apt to obtain an entirely false im- pression of the results, the importance and consequences of general elections in Hungary, since it depends in large measure for its information upon reports prepared officially and printed without question. An accurate and impartial estimate of the elections is only possible, if an attempt is made, sine ira et studio, to master the laws and regulations which govern election procedure, and the manner in which they are actually carried out in practice, and to do this independently of any party standpoint or any particular election. How greatly Hungary stands in need of a thorough and honest Electoral Reform, may be gathered from the fact that while the Hungarian and Transylvanian electoral laws of 1848 were inspired by genuine ideas of liberty and greatly extended the franchise (till that year monopolized by the nobility), the changes and codification introduced by Law xxxiii of 1874, aimed not so much at enabling the will of the nation to express itself more easily, as at impeding and thwarting its expression. Francis Deak's work, the Ausgleich of 1867, was to be pro- tected against the onslaughts of a hostile Kossuthist opposi- tion, by far-reaching intimidation of the electors. For this reason the secret ballot, which had till then lain in the option of each county or municipal authority, was abolished ; the preparation of the voting registers was bound up with for- malities which rendered it much easier to expunge the names of opposition voters ; while the dictatorial power assigned to the returning officer opened a way for the intimidation of the electors and even for their forcible holding back from the poll. Moreover, electoral practice has created the widest ♦' Specially written for this volume, at my request. 34 HUNGARIAN ELECTION PRACTICE possible field for terrorism on the part of the authorities — a fact which the Opposition parties could not condemn too bitterly during the dominance of the Liberal Party (1875- 1905). All parties, however, were unanimous in tolerating the grossest abuses, whenever it was a question of preventing the election of a Nationalist candidate, Roumanian, Serb or Slovak. (The Germans of Hungary, with the exception of the Transylvanian Saxons, had at that time not yet awakened to national consciousness.) Under such circumstances, a parliamentary election in Hungary does not consist in testing by lawful means the forces of rival political parties, which, in order to win a majority of the electors, employ every weapon of argument and logic, every imaginable device of propaganda. It consists far rather in an unscrupulous system of vote catching, by which the Government of the day sets in motion the whole administra- tive machine in aid of its own candidates, while the free exercise of the franchise on the part of officials or persons dependent upon the Government is made wellnigh impossible. Even more dangerous for the political morality of the country was the indulgence shown by Parliament itself to a continuance of abuses, by giving the sanction of the law to various forms of direct and indirect bribery. Even in the most flagrant cases electoral petitions remained without effect. The most in- credible abuses were calmly acquiesced in and left unpunished. These scandalous conditions at length led to the transference of the judicial power in the matter of disputed elections to the Royal Curia, the supreme Court of Hungary. But a step which was in itself admirable was, from the first, rendered illusory by a crowd of formalities and by the expense involved, while at the same time technical changes were made in those sections of the Electoral Law of 1874 referring to electoral procedure, such as nominally aimed at checking abuses, but in reality legalised in all form the bringing of material influ- ences to bear upon the electors, an abuse which had till then only been tacitly tolerated. The untenable state of the Hungarian electoral system led as early as 1877 and 1881 to the introduction of Bills for devolving electoral disputes upon the Curia, but Parliament clearly demonstrated by its rejection of both Bills that it had no serious desire to check the growth of electoral abuses. The Hungarian deputy, Mr. Szivak, himself a member of the party of the majority, has treated the matter as follows in his work on Parliamentary Elections 35 HUNGARIAN ELECTION PRACTICE and the Judicature of the Royal Curia : "At the elections of 1884 and 1887, the well-known practices of electoral corrup- tion — official candidatures and misuse of power on the part of the authorities, unlawful influence of officials, the unlawful employment of armed force, the use of legal quibbles and technicalities by the election functionaries, bribery, treating with food and drink, unbounded agitation and terrorism, in a word, every weapon of the arsenal of party fanaticism — were resorted to so freely, that it was generally believed that in many constituencies the official result did not express the lawful will of the electors." Although confidence in the im- partiality of the decisions given by the Elections Committee of the House in the matter of electoral petitions had been re- duced to a minimum, numerous petitions were none the less presented, and it is of these that the book which we have already quoted writes, that "many produced a surprising and even rousing effect upon political life as a whole, and the verification of many of the elections in a sitting of the whole House supplied material for the most passionate debates." Article xv of the year 1899, dealing with Corrupt Practices at Elections, had been drafted by the Minister of Justice, De- siderius Szilagyi, and laid before the House as early as 1891, and then again in 1892, but had been rejected by the House of Magnates. Though at length sanctioned under Koloman Szell in 1899, it has not in any way fulfilled its main object of forestalling and preventing the abuses which have their roots in old customs and habits and further the interests of the ruling classes and the party in power. And if this object has not been achieved, the further object of strictly punishing such abuses as occur, has also only been very partially attained. That the elections which took place in 1902 under Mr. Szell as Premier were tolerably " pure and free,"^^ must be ascribed far less to the provisions of the new law than to correct attitude of the Premier himself, whose motto ran, " Right, Law and Justice." At the stormy elections of 1905 the Premier, Count Stephen Tisza, exercised far less influence upon their course than most of his predecessors — and this in spite of the unexampled bit- terness of the allied parties of the Opposition, and thus it was possible for the Liberal Party to lose its majority, thanks to the general distaste, which its thirty years' rule had inspired. *' For certain exceptions to this see pp. 16-19. — R- W. S. W. 36 HUNGARIAN ELECTION PRACTICE The paroxysm of joy — as the event showed, quite uncalled for — into which Hungary was plunged by the appointment of the Coalition Cabinet (April, 1906) naturally assured a great majority to the Party of Independence ; and as the Liberals withdrew altogether from the struggle, no special effort was required, and electoral abuses were not very much in evidence. But the elections ordered last summer by Count Khuen-Hedervary, with a view to securing a new working majority, presented a really terrible picture of the corruption which is possible under the existing electoral sys- tem. The paragraph of the law which permits the candidate to entertain at his own expense the two or three thousand electors, who often come miles to the polling place, has proved itself to be a mere cloak for far-reaching bribery. In not a few constituencies 200,000 to 300,000 crowns have been proved to have been expended for electoral purposes. The calcu- lation made by the Opposition that the Government spent 25-30,000,000 crowns (/^i, 000, 000 to £1,250,000) to obtain a majority, has never been disputed by the new Party of National Work. Naturally enough such facts and figures as have been men- tioned above strike a West European as incredible. But then Hungary is, in the field of national repression and political immorality, " the land of unlimited possibilities." If the Magyars, that is to say, if the ruling caste of that race, wish to win recognition for their claim to equal rank with the civi- lized peoples of Europe, then they must not only enforce a political and racial equality which to-day merely exists on paper ,*^ but must also introduce an honest reform of an obsolete electoral system, which to-day merely serves to ob- scure the true wishes of the country and degrades the exercise of political rights to a deceptive comedy. Of course this would involve the abandonment of many a national Utopia, the removal of many an unjust privilege ; some real approach would have to be made to the progressive ideas of West Europe, an approach hitherto advocated only by a small group of courageous Sozialpolitiker. Consequently a hard fight must still be fought against class selfishness and Chauvinism, before the foundation of modern development, universal and secret *" A reference to the fact that the law guaranteeing the Equal Rights of the Nationalities (xliv. 1868) has remained in almost every particular a dead letter. See Racial Problems in Hungary, pp. 147- i6o. 37 HUNGARIAN ELECTION PRACTICE suffrage, with voting in every commune, can be laid in Hungary. If then even the motives and the concrete provisions of the existing electoral laws are open to the gravest criticisms, their effect is heightened by the manner in which parliamentary elections are carried out in practice, and indeed it is not too much to assert that the whole system of popular representation in Hungary is a worthless comedy. A large section of the electorate is politically far too unripe to comprehend the full consequences of a parliamentary elec- tion, and regards it rather as a joke, as an occasion for ' doing himself well.' Only in a few constit^uencies are ethical, politi- cal, racial, confessional or economic influences more powerful than the indifference and indolence of the electors. Hence it is only in certain specific cases that the general feeling of the population is decisive for the issue of the election. That is also true of the elections of 1910, from which far too sweeping conclusions were drawn respecting the feelings of the Hungarian peoples and the prospects of the new Party of Work as a durable factor. Members of the Khuen Cabinet put forward the argument that it was the disappointment of the population at the achievements of the Coalition — once hailed as con- summator of the national wishes — which led the electors to desert the national idols, Apponyi, Kossuth, Andrdssy, and caused the surprising victory of the Government at the June elections. But this assertion is only partially correct. This feeling of disappointment unquestionably existed, and doubt- less tiu*ned the balance in favour of Count Khuen' s candidates in most of the town constituencies. But in the far more numerous county constituencies ^^ the decisive factor at this, as at all previous elections, was the possession and unscrupulous use of the administrative power, and with it the influence, or better said, the terrorising activity of the county olficials. The most drastic example of the influence of the authorities upon the result of an election is supplied by the words of a prominent official in the constituency where the former Slovak deputy, Milan Hodza stood as candidate : " Even though 90 per cent, of the electors should decide for you, you still won't be elected ! " The actual resujt of overpowering the Opposition candidates, and above all those of the nationalities, is attained in many *» The towns only have 41 members, as compared to 372 for the counties. 38 HUNGARIAN ELECTION PRACTICE different ways. In the constituencies where they had won on former occasions, many of their supporters are simply omitted from the new voting registers ; simple peasants are not in a position to indulge in the expenses of an appeal. Or the age or baptismal name or even the surname is intentionally inserted WTong ; then when its owner comes to record his vote he is challenged and rejected. Where the dominant party has not adopted these precautionary measures, or if it has mean- while become the Opposition, the electors from villages which support the Opposition are prevented from reaching the poll, the district doctor having just on the eve of the election discovered some epidemic or the veterinary surgeon some cattle disease, so that communication with such places is blocked. Where a bridge gives the sole access to the polling place, it will be made impassable on election day of all days, or declared closed for traffic owing to its dangerous condition. As the electors of the different parties have to assemble separ- ately at the polling place, the returning officer assigns to the Opposition voters, who often come half a day's distance to the poU, unfavourable places, where they are exposed to wind and weather, and possibly can find no inn where they can get refreshments during what is often a wait of twenty-four to thirty-six hours ! The order in which the various villages have to vote is fixed by the central committee of the county (in whose hands are all the arrangements for the election) in a way which is unfavourable for the Opposition. Under pretext of averting open hostilities between the parties, troops are ordered to most elections, and during their course the returning officer enjoys absolute control of these. Then cor- dons are drawn, and no undesirable person is let through. The agents of the one party then endeavour to incite the other to blows, in order to obtain an excuse for the intervention of the military. At the poll itself the representatives {Vertrauens- mdnner) of the nationalist parties are insulted, the attempt is made to render intercourse between them and their electors impossible, by refusing them free passes or by only giving them a trifling number. As Roumanian, German or Slovak electors often do not pronounce the Magyar name of a candidate quite accurately, this is at once made an excuse for rejecting their votes. As all these things are well known to the electors, it is only natural that those of them who do not come to the poll merely for their fare and for the food and drink supplied them by the 39 HUNGARIAN ELECTION PRACTICE candidate, but out of conviction, must arm themselves with self-sacrificing courage. They must face the danger that after the election, if they have failed to vote for the official candidate, they may be subjected to all kinds of vexations by the local notaries and szolgabiro's, and punished on trumped- up charges of disturbance of the peace. Electors with back- bone are in this way often brought to the verge of material ruin. The electoral propaganda, which is carried on as a matter of course in all constitutional countries, is in Hungary made as difficult as possible for Opposition candidates and party agents by the authorities. The holding of electoral meetings is for- bidden on the most trivial grounds ; persons who distribute election tracts and literature or the programmes of the can- didates are molested or expelled by the gendarmerie. The official candidates are free to do as they please. Many of them must, it is true, make their electoral campaigns under the protection of gendarmes and troops, to avoid being in- sulted by the electors. This actually happened to Count Stephen Tisza, the Apostle of " Old Liberalism." Besides, the Opposition also naturally indulges in incitement of the electors, since in the unequal fight it does not hold at its disposal the powers of the executive authorities. The proof of all such abuses, which according to the law would involve the annulment of mandates thus acquired, is rendered extraordinarily difficult to the beaten parties. Most people are afraid to give evidence against official persons or influential gentry. A large number of the things we have described is only too often incapable of subjective proof, even when most notorious. The expenses of an electoral petition, the fees of the advocates who have to be employed, are extra- ordinarily high, and as each petition is submitted to the Curia, a surety of 3,000 to 6,000 crowns must be deposited. The hearing of such petitions, the preliminary inquiries and the examinations of witnesses, are prolonged indefinitely ; ^° and a deputy whose election is challenged has always the option of resigning his seat if he sees the matter taking an unfavourable turn. The petition is thereby quashed, and the expenses fall to the petitioners ! '" E.g. of the 64 electoral petitions lodged last July, as the result of the general elections, not a single one has yet been decided, and the great majority are still awaiting consideration. — (R. W. S. W., Dec. i, 1910). 40 HUNGARIAN ELECTION PRACTICE In Hungary there can be but few parliamentary elections which would not be annulled in England or in Germany. To cite them as the expression of the popular will is either hypocrisy or naivety. In Hungary every man and every party knows that only too well. Consequently every Cabinet hitherto — with one exception, that of Count Stephen Tisza — has been overthrown from above, not from below ; in other words, never by a verdict of the nation or the electors, but merely through the influence exercised by parliamentary minorities upon the Crown, or by obstruction or by party dis- placements in the House. The fall of Bitto's Cabinet (1875), the end of Coloman Tisza's dictatorship (1890), the fall of the Szapary (1892), Wekerle (1895), Banffy (1899), and Szell (June, 1903) Cabinets, are all due to one or other of these causes. The first Khuen-Hedervary Cabinet (Nov., 1903) alone was abandoned by the Liberal party. Every election — with the solitary exception of 1905 — resulted in a more or less big majority for the dominant party, a fact which the reader ought to have no difficulty in understanding. Even the Fejervary-Kristoffy Cabinet (June, 1905-ApriI, 1906), frantically opposed as it was by the so-called " National " parties, would have obtained a majority if it had ordered new elections, though no doubt it would have owed this mainly to the attractive catchword of Universal Suffrage. It was nothing less than a realization of this fact which led to the Coalition's capitulation to the Crown, and to the notorious " Pact " of 1906, which will be an undying strain upon the political morality of the Magyar oligarchy. 41 CHAPTER III The Parliamentary Debates upon Corruption " We have no intention of adopting an ostrich poUcy in regard to electoral abuses. Certainly the elections have cost money, much money, and the administrative machine, as well as the various returning officers, have certainly influenced the elections in more than one case in a manner far exceeding their authority. But if one would be honest, one must admit : peccatur intra et extra muros. The Opposition parties have not only tried, just like the Government Party, to influence the elections by money, but where the administrative machine and the returning officers were in the hands of their supporters, they have used their predominance without any scruple." — Leading article in Neues Pester Journal, June 12, 1910.^"* Count Albert Apponyi at Halas, June 12, 19 10 : — " We wish . , . to protest against the methods adopted by the Government party to secure victory. If in this country all the authorities and official power had shown that impartiality which the law prescribes, if no pressure had been put upon the electors in order to influence their political attitude, . . . would the Government have succeeded in obtaining a majority ? " ^"^ Count Theodore Batthyany at Szekszard, June 5, 1910 : — " The ( Government has collected huge sums for the elections, by squandering in return for money the king's right to confer titles and dignities. The I returning officers throughout the country consistently committed the grossest violations of the law. . . . Many thousand electors have been prevented from recording their votes. Not only the Minister of Com- merce but also other ministers put pressure on their officials : there were cases in which the official chiefs stood before the polling booth and watched their juniors. Officials voting for the Opposition were simply transferred and plunged into misery. . . ." *°<= THE subject of electoral corruption claimed the atten- tion of the new Parliament even in its first moments of existence. At the opening sitting of the House, the oldest 6oa << Respectable and moderate Ministerial journal " {Times, June 14, igio). '0'' Report of Pester Lloyd, June 13, 1910. *»« Ditto, June 6, 1910. 42 THE DEBATES UPON CORRUPTION member occupies the Chair until the first formahties have been concluded, and on this occasion the privilege fell to Mr. Joseph Madarasz, a man of ninety-three, and one of the few survivors of the Revolution of 1848. This venerable member of the Independent Party showed a courage and resolution worthy of his past career in opening the Sitting with the follow- ing words : — " In taking the President's Chair, and in heartily greeting those deputies whom the true and unfalsified will of the people has sent into this House, I cannot help at the same time expressing my grief at the acts which the Government has committed in an illegal and unconstitutional manner. . . ." During the debate on the Address to the Throne the question of electoral corruption was repeatedly raised, and the attitude of the various Opposition parties was clearly foreshadowed by certain passages in the rival Addresses which they laid before the House. The Address put forward by the Kossuth Party expressed its deep regret that the Government's unconstitutional action in publishing a remark of His Majesty expressing approval of the result of the elections. It then went on : " The present Cabinet ... in throwing into the balance the weight of Royal declarations in order to strengthen its own political aims, merely set a crown to its use of the power of the State for party aims, which was made a system at the present elections, and which, in view of the large sums of money at the ruling party's dis- posal, made the constitutional struggle not only unequal, but in many places absolutely impossible, and hence raised doubts as to the genuine expression of the national will, led to degra- dation of character, and furthered moral ruin to a degree hitherto unknown. . . .^1 The Justh Party was even more outspoken in its Address. " With due openness," it said, " we inform Your Majesty that the Government, by its misuse of the power entrusted to it by Your Majesty, has literally trodden under foot the constitu- tional freedom of the country. It has illegally influenced the officials and those dependent on the authorities ; by means of such elements as are hungry for money or power it has indulged in a corruption which baffles all description. It has spent many millions to bribe the relatively small number of electors, and to make them drunk. Not content with using such gen- 61 Pester Lloyd, July 8, igio ( Abendblatt) . 43 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES darmes, police and soldiers as were in the country, it brought the military in large numbers from abroad, in order to intimi- date the electors by their help and to indulge with impunity in violence and illegalities. Never have there been elections in this country, which were carried out with such corrupt and immoral methods, as the present election. . . ."^la The People's Party, in its Address to the Throne, submitted to Parliament on July 9, expresses itself as follows : "... We cannot regard the recent elections as the free expression of the people's will or the present majority as the true repre- sentative of the national aspirations. The preponderance of power suppressed the free expression of conviction. The officials and employes of all ranks where unjustifiably influ- enced, partly enticed by the promise of advantage and partly intimidated. The jurisdiction of the Curia, owing to its rigid formalism, fails to assure the free and pure expression of the popular will at elections. Under such circumstances corrup- tion and bribery were rampant, and hence the national repre- sentation does not express the wishes and convictions living in the soul of the nation. ..." ^^^ One of the earliest speakers in the debate was Count Theodore Batthyany, the well-known Independent politician, who, after a lengthy criticism of the Government programme, turned to the question of electoral corruption., " Social reform," he said " is inconceivable without the introduction of Universal Suffrage. The last elections have shown that under the existing franchise even the constitu- tion is badly off. These elections have created a situation in which it would be tempting Providence to have new elections under the present franchise. At these elections one exclusive system was adopted : Money. Peter Ertsey. — You looked for rich candidates ! A Voice on the Right. — What did the Kossuthist returning officers do ? Count Batthyany. — If some of them have broken the law, we are the first to condemn most emphatically their behaviour. (Applause from the Justh Party.) '^•'» Pester Lloyd, July 8, 1910 (Abendblatt). ""' Throughout this chapter I have translated verbatim from the reports in Pester Lloyd, rather than from the official Magyar reports, so that the reader can, if he wishes, convince himself that such things were really said in the Hungarian Parliament. 44 UPON CORRUPTION W. Siimcgi. — ^The returning officer in Zombor ! Zoltdn Ugron. — Talk about the election in Szekelyhid ! George Szmrecsdny. — Better talk of the scoundrelly tricks at Privigye and Tapolcsany. The President appeals for quiet. Count Batthydny. — Never was manipulation with money at elections practised so openly as this time. The canvassers of the Work Party carried money in open baskets. (Great amusement. Cries : " In barrels.") On the basis of my own experience I can prove that the administrative apparatus has never since 1867, even on the most notorious occasions, shown such activity in favour of the Government candidates as at the recent elections. In this connexion one novelty occurred : the High Sheriffs, who formerly sought to influence the electoral campaign through their office and the officials under them, this time condescended to the people in their own persons. (On the Right : " The High Sheriffs now stand on a democratic basis." Laughter.) They employed the most illegal methods to intimidate the electors. They used the most modern means of communication, for instance the telephone. (Loud laughter on the Right.) One cannot pass these excrescences by with laughter. W. Siimegi. — The institution of High Sheriffs must be abolished. Alex. Sopkez. — In that case the institution of the telephone would also have to be abolished ! (Uproarious laughter.) Count Batthydny. — In numerous cases the right of assembly was trodden under foot. Hundreds of electors were robbed of their vote, by being summoned from their homes on matters connected with their employment. Of the feasts prepared for the electors I prefer not to speak. Julius Muzslay. — When were elections ever conducted in this country with water ? Count Batthydny. — The interrupter means that my electors did not drink water either. Perhaps : but it was not I who paid for it. (Laughter.) In other ways too the grossest illegalities were committed. Besides the Government has done the Army a poor service, in using the troops to intimidate electors, (Stormy protest on the Right. Cries : " You are insulting the Army.") Baron A. Podmaniczky. — You are bringing charges against the officers' corps. Count Batthydny. — I am not blaming the officers. They 45 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES acted on the orders of the returning officers. (Great noise.) Geo. Szmrecsdny. — In numerous places the officers them- selves protested against the orders of the returning officers. (Protest and noise on Right.) Count Batthydny. — After all this there is nothing left but to press for the introduction of a true democratic franchise as soon as possible." ' On July 9, when the debate on the Address was resumed, Mr. Bela Rakovszky was the first speaker. " He asserts that the measure of a nation's culture and inner political worth lies in the moral progress which it shows in the course of years. Hence every really patriotic government must regard the culture and development of the national morality as its noblest duty. The Government can fulfil this duty the more easily because it has the power in its hand. But few men know how to use power, and most men misuse it. . . . The Premier, who has been for years in political life, knows what inner political value a nation possesses, whose political con- science is put up to auction ; what moral value a mandate possesses which is obtained from the confidence of a nation whose administrative organs receive the command how many mandates must be secured to their rulers, and are willing to com- ply with this command wherever they are given a free hand. We must blush before the civilized world, when we see how existing laws can be violated, and how the organs of govern- ment, down to the gendarmes, may bully the electors with impunity. (" That is not true.") A Parliament, whose majority has come into being through bribery and violence, cannot be a force for the safeguarding of the State. The President of the House said in his opening speech, that Hungary with- out parliamentarism is inconceivable. But parliamentarism demands the free expression of the nation's will and not only a parliamentary form which conceals absolutism. Zoltdn Ugron. — How can one produce such common places ? B. Rdkovszky. — When the Government corrupts the election by bribery, it brings public morality to the scaffold, weakens us abroad and drains our blood at home, because it does not rest on the true opinions of the nation. . . ." 1^ At the close of his speech Mr. Rdkovszky criticised the passage in the Speech from the Throne, which expressed the 46 UPON CORRUPTION Crown's satisfaction at the result of the elections. "This passage drags the person of the King into party strife, and the Government treats the Crown as though it could be used for canvassing purposes. . . . The speaker is convinced that the King, if he had known of the unqualifiable electoral abuses of the Government, would never have accepted this passage. ..." The next speaker, Stephen Szabo (M.P, for Nagyatdd and himself a Magyar peasant and village mayor), refers to electoral abuses, and maintains that cases of money bribes are openly admitted. " The equivalent of this money will have to be paid dear by the nation. . . . These violations of the law by officials . . . Julius Muzslay. — Have them put in prison ! 5. Szabo. — All electoral abuses committed positively en- danger the future of the nation, because they show Vienna how it has to treat Hungary. Baron Podmaniczky. — Yes, if the Coalition still existed. (Great uproar.) Samuel Bakonyi. — It is infamous to talk like that." Stephen Szabo eventually read the Address of the Indepen- dent Agrarian Left, which among other things demands Uni- versal Suffrage and describes the result of the elections as illegal, because they were carried through by bribery and intimidation. After the pause Ernest Csermak (non-party Kossuthist) " gave details as to electoral abuses and bribery in his constituency, Szikszo, and began with his own case, having, he alleged, been offered 30,000 crowns if he would withdraw from his candidature. He produced a document in which a certain Reichmann in the commune of Derencs promises to thirteen electors 418 crowns for a day's work and driving, if they vote for Bela Darvas. (Noise and disturbance.) These elections were a disgrace (loud applause on the Left), and every one who gained possession of a mandate by forcible means must be ashamed of himself." Monday, July ii. Elemer Preszly (non-party Independent) declared that " in view of the fact that the majority owed its existence to the negation of every parliamentary principle, to elections in which every member of the Opposition was an outlaw, every one must feel doubts as to whether parliamentary activity means 47 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES an increase in our happiness or service in the development of our liberties. . . ." Theodore Mihaly (President of the Party of the Nationalities), in introducing the Address of his party, not unnaturally dwelt upon the monstrous illegalities employed to prevent his Roumanian colleagues' election. At the same time he discussed in considerable detail the grievances of the Non- Magyar races in general, and thus led to a two days' debate on the racial question in Hungary, the main feature of which was a brilliant, but highly reactionary speech by Count Stephen Tisza, who advocated even greater severity towards the Non- Magyar leaders than had hitherto been employed (see p. i88). As however my object in reproducing the parliamentary debates is to show to my readers the Magyar attitude towards electoral abuses committed in Magyar constituencies, I have omitted the speeches of Count Tisza and others on the racial question, and therefore also that of Dr. Mihaly. I shall how- ever return to them in another place (see pp. 187-90), since they throw a most interesting light upon the attitude of the dominant Magyar caste towards " the subject races." July 12. Samuel Bakonyi also referred to electoral abuses. "He read out an electoral report (Wahlprotokoll), according to which two electors in Debreczen wanted to record their votes for the Government candidate, on condition that they received the promised 50 crowns. That is the so-called Liberal policy, which here in the House conflicts with the democratic demand of Universal Suffrage." He then proceeded to illustrate the extent of his own democratic feelings by arguing that reform on a basis of the existing electoral distribution would bring over 100 representatives of the nationalities into the House, but that this " could be completely prevented by a radical electoral reform. ..." July 13. Desiderius Polonyi. — ". . . At the recent elections the old Habsburg policy has been enforced, to win power in Hungary by money and corruption. The Government appointed a state official to conduct the elections, and he quite openly adminis- tered a central Chest. But a state official can legally only administer public money. We shall demand public account 48 UPON CORRUPTION of these monies. . . ." (He was afterwards called to order for a vulgar impertinence directed against the person of Count Tisza.) Sigismund Varady maintains a debate on the Address to be altogether barren, and finds it hard to believe that the Opposition consider hackneyed complaints about electoral corruption to be their highest function as popular representa- tives. After a lengthy defence of the Liberal Party against Apponyi and Batthyany, he returned to the subject of electoral abuses. " He would not deny that such had occurred, but they cannot be ascribed to the Government and its party. (Protest.) It must not be forgotten that we are Hungarians, that electoral abuses reach far back in Hungarian history, that Szilagyi also committed an electoral abuse with his 40,000 men on the ice of the Danube. (Applause and laughter on Right.) Think too of Deak's election at Zala. D. Polonyi. — I read that differently. S. Varady. — ^We can all read, the only difference is that not everyone can understand what he reads. (Great laughter on Right.) Electoral abuses are for centuries past a continual fault of all parties. Julius Gyorffy. — A disgraceful confession. S. Varady. — What is disgraceful is that such expressions should be used in Parliament . . . (continuing) he declares that he wishes to insult no one, but merely to point out that electoral abuses, if they really occurred, were committed by all parties, so that they have nothing to reproach each other with. (Loud applause on Right ; noise on Left.) Lad. Mesko. — Did we too have a Party Chest, I wonder ? (" Of course.") 5. Varady. — The Party of Work never greeted its oppo- nent with stones, and did not introduce the institution of rotten eggs at elections. (Laughter and applause.) The bells which never ceased during the speeches of the candidates were not for church services, but for the speakers of the Party of Work ; incendiarism, which was never so frequent as now, was directed almost exclusively against supporters of the Party of Work, just as all injured persons, at any rate in his own constituency, unfortunately belonged to his party. Com- plaints were made of the terrorism of the administration, whereas the speaker had convinced himself that very many officials worked against the Government and for the Opposition. c.R.H 49 E PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES As for cases of bribery, he bade each individual deputy to examine himself, and each will admit that these abuses occurred in every party. (Loud protests on Left ; approval on Right.) It was high time that the Opposition stopped dragging out electoral abuses. These abuses were submitted to the Curia at the wish of the Opposition, which declared the House to be unqualified to discuss them. So the Opposition should stop wasting the House's time with the discussion of these questions. As to the causes of abuses, the member for Debreczen involuntarily supplied information when he set them down as the poverty and lack of education of the people. That is the real cause, and so long as the people is uncultivated and poor, there will always be electoral abuses. . . . At the close of his speech Varady was greeted by loud applause and cries of " Eljen " from the Right, and received the congratulations of many deputies. July 14. Samuel Kelcmen. — " . . . With troops and gendarmes public opinion can be suppressed but never convinced." July 15. Charles Huszdr. — The Premier's opportunity came in the party strife inside the Coalition. Success was only possible through the elections whose witnesses we were. Alexander Jeszenszky was right in his dictum : " There is no castle which cannot be taken by a donkey laden with gold." (Laugh- ter. *' When and where did he say that ? ") An educated class without backbone and a hungry people could not resist the influence exercised by factories, banks and demesnes, by bribery and feasting. Baron Podmaniczky. — Didn't you also give drinks ? C. Huszdr. — No. The speaker suggests to his interrupter that the electoral accounts should be published. {Great amusement.) The unexpected victory of the Government is to be ascribed to the deadening of the popular consciousness by money and drink. Besides this there were honours and favours of all kinds, and the tricks of the administrative officials. And yet the Premier maintained in an interview, in the Fremdenhlatt,^^^ that the victory was a victory not only of the Dualist principle but also of sound commonsense and culture. But the members of the majority confess to »><= The official Viennese organ of the Austro-Hungarian Foreign Office- 50 UPON CORRUPTION each other that their success was not a victory of Dualism but of Judas money and alcohol. Alois Rudnay. — ^We will talk of your abuses, too ! C. Huszdr. — If there is any one here who possesses an usurped mandate, it is Mr, Alois Rudnay.^- (Great noise. " Order." Huszar is called to order.) But that power which was acquired by corruption is merely delusive and temporary, seems to be realised by Count Stephen Tisza, who warned against too much joy over the first success. And he is right ; for there is no proper contact between the people and this majority. The speaker then pointed out that the proposed revival of the name of " Liberal Party " had been rejected before the elections by the Government's supporters, which showed them not to be enthusiastic Liberals ; and in any case Liberalism had done nothing against usury and dishonest competition. After thirty-eight years' Liberal rule the number of illiterates in Hungary was over 50 per cent. . . . The educated classes have totally neglected the people. . . . In social matters not even the question of child-work has been regulated ; there is no protection against overworking ; there are factories and businesses in which the workmen have to work fourteen to twenty-four hours on end. . . . The speaker continues to address an almost empty House, the Right having gone out. He refers to the lack of doctors, chemists and hospitals throughout the country, and over 40,000 idiots and persons of weak mind are totally uncared for, etc. . . ." After Huszar, Alois Rudnay speaks : " I should not have spoken if the reproach had not been made against me that I am usurping the mandate of Privigye. (Noise.) Geo. Szmrecsdnyi. — It is a piece of impudence to come here at all. (Great noise. Cries of " Order." The members of the majority spring up excitedly from their seats.) Don't shout. We won't let ourselves be terrorised. Julius Justh. — You terrorise. We won't submit to that. A. Rudnay. — My mandate has been challenged. Sub fudice lis est. Hence I can only qualify the invectives which were raised against the legality of my election, as an attempt to address the people at home. ... I can understand the excitement of the People's Party, for through my election one of their most valued members is excluded from the House. (Noise among the People's Party.) *' See pp. 77-9. Petition against Rudnay 's "election. 51 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES C. Huszdr. — One worth far more to Catholicism than you. (Great noise. President rings his bell.) A. Rudnay. — Hitherto only the Party of Work has been charged with electoral abuses. I will try to supply some facts regarding the abuses of the Opposition, especially of the People's Party, to show how they give expression to the people's will. G. Szmrecsdnyi. — We are really curious to hear them. A. Rudnay. — I was not prepared to speak here to-day, so that I cannot prove with documents the methods employed by the People's Party. (Great noise.) C. Huszdr. — Why do you speak, then ? G. Szmrecsdnyi. — Sit down. We want proofs. (Noise.) A. Rudnay. — I would only ask you to take up the Christian Socialist papers, which .ire accessible to every one. [Sztnrec- sdnyi. — You are angry at them because you are not praised there.) The German Christlichsoziales Volkshlatt says of the new House : " In the prison of Illava there are not so many criminals as in the Hungarian Parliament." (Laughter.) It is hard to describe the methods employed in my constitu- ency ; I will only give a few special instances. A fortnight before the election five persons came to my sacristy for con- fession. Four confessed, the fifth would not come, and when I asked why, he said he wanted to confess to the curate. . . . Finally, he admitted to me, with tears, that the clergy of the People's Party had told him that absolution given by me was invalid. (Great noise on Right. "Scandalous," "Incre- dible.") Szmrecsdnyi. — Nurserymaid tales. Not a word of truth. Huszdr. — Fairy tales. (Tremendous noise.) A. Rudnay. — In Handlova, where I appeared with the provost's cross, I was met by a gang of people carrying on a staff an obscene drawing with the emblem of the Redemption in the middle. (Noise, and cries of disgust.) Stephen Haller. — One doesn't go canvassing with a provost's cross. (Noise. President rings his bell.) A. Rudnay. — In another commune the priest, whom I got appointed, agitated against me with the catchwords that, if the electors voted for me, serfage would be brought in again, the church closed and the marriage institution abolished. (Stormy protest on Left. Several members of the People's Party shout and bang their desks. Haller : " That has always been said for fifteen years.") A priest called Klinger made a 52 UPON CORRUPTION speech to the people before the church. Knowing that many electors had already promised to vote for me (Cries : " For how much ? ") . . .he begged them on his knees, with tears in his eyes, not to vote for me. He said, " Go to the church- yard, dig up the bones of your parents, tear the crucifix from their hands and spit upon the cross, if you are capable of voting for Rudnay." Is this kind of thing allowable ? I won't trouble the House further with these tasteless things ; I only ask if it is permitted to play upon the people's religious feelings by such means ? (Great noise.) C. Huszdr. — You are a priest who agitate against Chris- tianity. Shame. (Noise.) Szmrecsdnyi. — What about the 400 electors who were not allowed to vote ? The remainder of Rudnay's speech was an apology for the policy of the Liberal party and its promised reforms. While charging the People's Party with exploiting the religious feehngs of the people for political purposes, he made no attempt whatever to answer the accusation that he himself owed his seat to monstrous corruption. July 16. Stephen Cs. Pop (Roumanian) dealt in a lengthy speech with Count Tisza's speech on the racial question (see pp. 184-6), and then turned to the electoral abuses. As the Pester Lloyd elegantly puts it : " For hours he told stale old tales of horror about electoral excesses and illegalities of the administration," until, at I p.m., " having drunk three glasses of water and filled three handkerchiefs with sweat and crocodile tears," he made way for the former Under-Secretary for Agriculture. When a reputable Government organ can write in such a strain, it can be imagined how less moderate and respectable newspapers treat the opinions of the Non-Magyar leaders. Mr. Pop said : " Many candidates of the majority were hardly in their constituencies. Aurelius Forster. — Many would not have been elected if their photographs had been sent to their constituencies. Stephen Pop makes a violent attack on the outrages of the szolgabiros. (Applause on Left.) The interference of the gendarmerie in the electoral campaign has no parallel (approval on Left), and tends to injure their reputation and make of them enemies of the people. The speaker was himself, when already elected as member, abused by the gendarmes and deprived of his rights. 53 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES Szmrecsdnyi. — The racial question cannot be solved by such outrages. For that matter the same was done to us. Julius Justh. — That was done everywhere. Stephen Pop declared that he would bear the consequences, if it could be proved that during the campaign he had on any single occasion agitated against the Hungarian State. And yet he was haled from one place to another under gendar- merie escort. (Great noise. President rings.) All that only happened in constituencies where the candidates of the nation- alities stood against Government candidates. In consti- tuencies where the nationalities fought against the Justh party, the gendarmerie did not interfere. (Great noise.) The speaker describes further excesses of the authorities and the gendarmes. G. Szmrecsdnyi. — If he says that at any election meeting, he is put in prison. Louis Ilosvay. — Serve him right, too ! Stephen Pop. — At the elections the gendarme-corporal was the great man. The gendarmes have no numbers, they can do what they please ; one can never find out which of them has done a thing. (Laughter on Right.) Szmrecsdnyi. — Don't laugh ; that is all true. 5/. Pop. — Open Absolutism is far better than these lament- able conditions. John Molndr. — That is what we have said a hundred times. 5/. Pop. — Severe punishment of such abuses is worth far more than many such speeches as Count Tisza's. . . ." July i6 (afternoon). Bela Mezossy (Kossuthist ex-Secretary of State), after criti- cising Count Tisza's speech and the prospects of Dualism, continued : " . . . The deputy Sigismund Varady, who is un- questionably gifted, seems to have a large clientele in criminal cases, for his moral attitude fully coincides with that of his cHents. The chief part of his speech was devoted to proving that bribery in Hungary is really an accepted constitutional method. (Protest.) The speaker told how Deak, in 1848, replied to an interpellation dealing with a case of electoral abuse, that the Government had not set up a single candidate and had recom- mended nobody. Peter Ertsey. — The Coalition simply nominated the deputies ! Francis Kossuth himself reproached many of them with having received their mandates from him. (Noise.) B. Mezossy. — Francis Dedk argued that the Government 54 UPON CORRUPTION did not require an artificially-made majority. The national will must express itself freely, for that alone can form the true basis for Government activity. As for the Coalition elections, the national will did express itself freely then ; and the best proof is that of the gentlemen of the present majority not one was elected. (Protest and laughter.) The speaker cited several petitions from former times, by which mandates were annulled for bribery. Those were idyllic times, compared to the abuses, bribery and intimidation of the recent elections. W. Sumegi. — In every constituency hundreds of thousands were paid out. B. Mezdssy. — For half a year the nation was doctored up (for the elections), and during that time towns and villages were simply turned into inns. The speaker declared that he regards Mr. Pop's statements regarding abuses by the authorities as true. And after such a campaign the Premier declared to the correspondent of a foreign paper that these elections had an ennobling effect upon morality. (Voice on Left : " What cynicism ! ") The speaker did not envy the Premier his judgment, his views on morality or his good taste. It is true the Premier long lived close to the Orient, and brought from there his ideas of morality and good taste. Yet there is no doubt that this electoral campaign has done great harm to public morality in Hungary, and that many years must pass before it can be made good. That the Premier does not mind this is easily understood, for his first political task in Hungary was begun with similar weapons. But we will never forget it and will sour his eternal smile. ..." July i8. George Szmrecsanyi, in the course of his speech, said that what occurred in the county of Trencsen was characteristic for the elections as a whole. There the elections have no mere local importance ; for the political opinions which emanate from there set the tone for all North Hungary . . . which learns that electoral abuses may not merely be committed with impunity, but that they are far rather rewarded. This was the case at the Banffy-Jeszenszky elections in 1896. In Csacza, for instance, the returning officer declared on the polling day that two candidates had been notified, the one he knew personally, the other not, and as the identity of the second was not proved, the returning officer rejected his 55 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES candidature and announced the unanimous return of the other candidate. These Banffy-Jeszenszky elections were typical of this time too. (John Richter. — You had your share in them.) At that time I could merely have been present as onlooker ; but the interrupter agitated for the People's Party. I am glad that I no longer see him in this party. The High Sheriff Szalavszky, who arranged all these abuses with the Minister of the Interior, Desiderius Perczel, was then honoured with the Order of St. Stephen and the title of a Privy Councillor, The little blackguards are left alone. The great majority of 327 deputies broke up after a year. Now the game repeats itself. Immediately after the appoint- ment of Alexander Jeszenszky as Under Secretary of State and of Szalavszky as once more High Sheriff of Trencsen, it was made clear to the deputies of the County of Trencsen by the county officials and administration that they had nothing more to seek in this county and would not be elected. The Party of National Work was organized in every district by the officials, and the summons to join that party was actually signed by the president of the District Court and five judges, though this is illegal. . . . The speaker had already brought interpellations on March 21 on the subject of the abuses to which he had been subjected as member of the People's Party. The system introduced by Desiderius Perczel and the Liberal Party in the county was revived. D. Perczel. — That is not true. The hon. member himself showed great zeal for the Liberal Party in 1905. John Hock. — He had to, for he was szolgabiro. Szmrecsanyi, continuing, admitted that in 1905 he was elected as a Liberal. But the Party of National Work refused to accept the name of the Liberal Party. The national resis- tance (1905-6) and the fiery ordeal of the last elections had destroyed the last traces of his adherence to that party. . , , He complained that Dr. Kuthy, the judge against whom he had demanded a disciplinary inquiry, had been promoted by the Minister of Justice over the heads of fifty-four other judges. . . . The returning officers in most constituencies of North Hungary did executioner's service ; they took upon themselves deliberately to falsify the results. Formerly worthy and honourable men used to be appointed as returning officers ; but this time, where necessary, political desperadoes were appointed, who knowingly committed the greatest blunders." ■56 UPON CORRUPTION After a pause, the president called Szmrecsanyi to order in a most dignified manner for his use of the word " rascals " to describe absent persons ; and Szmrecsanyi, in sub- mitting to his ruling, claimed that he had no intention of bringing the name of the High Sheriff Szalavszky into connexion with the smaller fry to whom he had referred. " He then went on to describe the election in Csacza, where a new means of intimidation was employed. The frontier police, disguised as peasants, had to act as detectives and persecutors, collect facts for possible petitions later on, and provoke dis- turbances at the meetings, so as to give a pretext for imposing fines or arrest on the Opposition voters. The Opposition candidate, Emil Gonczi, was at the meetings not even allowed to read out the law regarding electoral petitions, on the ground that this was incitement ; while a notorious Socialist nationalist agitator was free to scatter thousands of copies of Skicsak's newspaper. But not only the authorities, but also the candidate of the Work Party, Baron Louis Levay, interfered with the course of the election. In Csacza the post of public notary was vacant. Baron Levay promised this post by letter to the advocate, Dr. Julius Eichenwald, if he would influence the election in Baron Levay's favour, and if he was elected. Nicholas Zboray. — Levay was elected, but Eichenwald was not appointed. Szmrecsanyi. — Baron Levay presumes to heap invective on the rival party, though he has once already got into the House in 1905 after one of the most scandalous elections. His then opponent, Stephen Vikar, came to the polling place with a large majority, but withdrew his candidature during the poll. /. Richter. — Exactly what happened to your own father at Alsokubin. (Great amusement.) Szmrecsanyi excitedly rejoined that the honour of a dead man is in question, that his party did not commit such abuses, and that if Mr. Richtei ventured to maintain the contrary, he, the speaker, can only express his contempt for him. (Called to order by the President.) He then describes the electoral agitation in various other districts. In one place the priest infoimed the faithful in an address from the pulpit, that the Bishop bade them vote for the Party of National Work . . . and those who vote for the rival parties will be damned. Even the Jewish Rabbis issued letters in the interests of the Work Party. He 57 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES read out the so-called pastoral letter of the Rabbi Lazarus Low in Satoraljaujhely, urging the Jews to vote for Under- Secretary Kazy. The action in aid of the Ruthenes is described as anti-Semitic, and Mr. Kazy is not to be blamed for it, because he only acted at the King's command. (Cries : " Where did you get that ? ") In the Pesti Hirlap. He then dealt with the election at Locse (Leutschau), where the People's Party had Dr. Michael Domotor as candidate. Here the returning officer arbitrarily delayed the close of the poll for hours, till the High Sheriff succeeded in forcing the officials to vote for the Government candidate and so got a majority. He then turned to the election'of Privigye, which he described as an unparalleled visitation. Everything was quiet in the district, yet three squadrons of hussars appeared to act as bodyguard to Provost Alois Rudnay, the Government candi- date. George Rudnyanszky. — That was when you began to throw (stones). Szmrecsdnyi. — . . . When the authorities saw that pressure was useless, the returning officer came upon the scene. (Cries : Who was he ?) A certain Stephen Csemez, formerly chief szolgabiro, now administrative go-between. He committed appalling illegalities. C. Huizdr. — And then the people is to rely on law and justice. (Laughter on Right.) W. Sumegi. — These fellows must be put in prison. (Renewed laughter.) Count P. Batthydny. — Do you laugh at such things ? That is frightful cynicism. Szmrecsanyi is not telling these things for fun : not that the majority may take its perverse pleasure in them, but that they should amend their ways. Csemez's real activity only began in the evening, when he and his gallows' assistants (Great noise. President calls him to order.) In the evening these people began. A subnotary, with approval of the gendarmerie officer, decided who might enter the polling station. (Count Batthyany — Long live the Army. Great noise.) Consequently, of 270 voters from the commune of Handlova only 150 were allowed to vote. When some people remonstrated at not being admitted to vote, the returning officer called out to the gendarmes : " Knock the dogs down, if they want to vote by force." (Huszar. — " That is law and 58 UPON CORRUPTION justice.") The priest William Fegyveres, whose surname was incorrectly inscribed on the voting roll, was addressed by the returning officer with the words, " Pig of a priest, you want to swindle." (Great noise. Laughter on Right.) John Justh. — You get into the House like that, and then you grin over it. That's a filthy business. (Noise. Pro- tests. " Order.") Count P. Batthydny. — That's the majority's " moral basis " ! Szmrecsdnyi. — Of the electors of the People's Party 203 were rejected and thirty driven away, of the Government electors only three were rejected. And yet Provost Rudnay was only elected by a majority of thirty-seven, . . . Mr. Rudnay has complained here of a priest who is alleged to have denied Rudnay's right of granting absolution. That is a very grave charge : either it is untrue or if true, why did he not lodge a complaint ? I know that he never com- plained of it to Bishop Radnai. Such behaviour is unworthy of a deputy who is also Provost. Against the People's Party it is further alleged that their leaders at elections tell the people that if they vote for candidates of the Party of Work, the time will come when churches will be turned into stores, theatres and inns. The speaker openly admits that he has said things of the kind. He points to the example of Paris, where, in consequence of the rule of Freemasonry and Radi- calism, Church property has been confiscated. Church money seized and most of it stolen. Out of churches stores, theatres and inns have been made. So that is no incitement of the people, but merely a summary of facts. All these instances prove that Universal, Equal and Secret Suffrage must be introduced as soon as possible. July 19. Henry Bela defends the officials of Trencsen and High Sheriff Szalavszky against the charges of Szmrecsanyi, who, he said, ought to know them better, having been member for a Trencsen constituency for nearly four years. He also defends the view that county officials are free to take part in political meetings, except in direct connexion with elections, and to express their political views like other citizens. The Trencsen officials he regards as attached to the law and as the true leaders of the citizens, besides fulfilling an important national and social mission among the Slovaks of the county. " The High Sheriff Szalavszky is a distinguished personality, 59 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES with rich gifts of mind, friendly and loyal to those to whom he has attached himself." Julius Nadanyi describes the abuses committed in Barand in the county of Bihar. " The gendarmerie was guilty of great excesses towards a peaceful population. Ten persons were injured seriously, as is proved by the report drawn up. The speaker complained to the Minister of the Interior. The inquiry was slackly conducted, and the injured persons were forced to sign statements, while the speaker was informed that his charges did not tally with the facts in these statements. He then violently attacked the authorities in a newspaper, but no action was brought against him, because every one in the county knows that the charges are true. The injured persons were after the elections sentenced to fines. John Richter began his speech by an apology for his remark on the previous day regarding the deputy Szmrecsanyi's father, who as High Sheriff of Arva had been highly respected. He had meant to allude to the notorious Tarnoczy election in Nyitra ; Parliament was obliged to send a commission with George Szmrecsanyi, senior, at its head, and he found no fault with this election, which was so notorious throughout the country. Richter then polemised against the People's Party and Szmrecsanyi, whose election as a Liberal in 1905, according to his own admission, cost 48,000 crowns. (Stephen Haller : " What has yowy election cost ? ") . . . In his own constituency the People's Party wasted 80,000 crowns. (Cries : " Is water so expensive ? ") For months all the electors of certain communes were drunk : in Turdosin alone, where the People's Party had nineteen electors, 1,600 crowns were paid for drink, and the priest shared in the revels. If the People's Party talks of official pressure, the speaker can also say something on that head, for he had to fight against the former High Sheriff Bulla, of the People's Party, who before he resigned made all the administrative officials give their word to vote for the People's Party. Several notaries illtreated the speaker's adherents, and wanted to prevent him from giving his addresses. The county judge, Antony Bulla, canvassed with loaded rifle in Beszterczebanya for the People's Party and terrorized the electors. The deputy Huszar had called out to the deputy Rudnay that he usurped his mandate : but Huszar himself owed his mandate to an usurpation. He drove Otto Forster out of 60 UPON CORRUPTION Sarvlr by giving himself out as the official candidate from headquarters and collecting signatures in his own favour, though sent to prepare the ground for Forster. At head- quarters he used the signatures as a proof that the constituency wanted him. , , . The worst electoral abuses of the People's Party occurred at Csorna, at the election of Stephen Rakovs- zky. The speaker quotes from the petition against this elec- tion ; the party of Cziraky (National Work) was abused as a Jewish party. Jew dogs, stinking Jews, party of scoundrels are mild expressions for the People's Party. . . . The people were urged not to let the Jews rob them of faith and Church, and told that the Jews are destroying marriage, want every man to have six wives, and are all scoundrels. (Haller : " That is an infamy. That was not said.") He then quoted from the electoral speeches of Stephen Rakovszky. Formerly, said Rakovszky, there were " House Jews," now there are House Christians : and when one sees that the young Count Cziraky goes about under the emblem of two worn-out shoes and an empty pot, one must assume that he has become a House Jew. (Here Haller, the only member of the People's Party present, leaves the House amid derisive cries.) ..." The remainder of Richter's speech consisted of an attack on the fanaticism, terrorism and calumnies of the People's Party. The Jewish Pester Lloyd not unnaturally gives great pro- minence to Richter's castigation of that party's anti-Semitism. July 20. Julius Justh (President of the House, 1905-1909, and now leader of the Party of Independence). — "A speaker of the majority has described the debate on the Address as useless. . . I admit that in states where the sovereignty of the people is in full force . . . that debate is of no great importance. But with us, where the parliamentary form of government lies almost utterly in ruins since the last elections (loud applause on Left), where the sovereignty of the people is a mere meaningless phrase, where our complaints and grievances cry to heaven, where every interest of state and nation is subordinated to the idea of the unitary Monarchy, the great importance of the debate on the Address cannot be contested. . . . Especially not now, after these frightful elections. . . . The dissolution of the House is hedged round by laws, and the provisions of these laws were com- 61 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES pletely ignored. . . . Against the will of the House an appeal was made to the will of the nation. We could reasonably expect that illegal methods would be avoided all along the line, so that the will of the Hungarian nation could be freely expressed. . . . But the most illegal methods were employed at the elections. . . . The Party of Independence has un- happily suffered a severe defeat : one cannot be surprised after such illegalities. , . . The Government's victory is not a victory of principles, but of brute force and of corruption. The electors were regaled with food and drink, and it is no excuse that the same thing happened on this side too. That would be as if a man charged with theft put forward the defence that X and Y had also stolen. Our constitutional freedom was trodden under foot for months ; there were communes and districts where the electors lay drunk on the street (Szmrec- sanyi : ' That is true : I've seen it ') and voted in a drunken condition." (Cries : " When ? ") Zoltdn Vermes. — For instance in Galanta, Szmrecsdnyi.—hi Nagyszombat the people are still drunk. Julius Justh. — I will produce evidence. It is no excuse for the other side, if a case occurred in Galanta too. There was bribery in the streets. There were threats and promises. Inn licences and tobacconist concessions were withdrawn and accorded. Officials were transferred. . . . The schoolmasters, railwaymen, secondary school professors, and officials of all ranks were exposed to unexampled pressure. (Cries : " Well, they voted for the Opposition too ! ") Some did, but the great mass voted against the Party of Independence, because their existence was endangered. (Prolonged noise on Right.) When all that was not enough, then came the gendarme, military force, and finally the returning officer, who simply ejected the representatives (Vertrauensmanner) of the Opposition (Cries : " In Zombor ") and prevented Opposition voters from voting. Then as many opposition voters were rejected as were needed to secure a majority for the Government candidate. (Cries : " Where ? " Szmrecsdny. — At Privigye, at Nagytapolcsany, at Ersekujvar.) All these violations of the law took place with the knowledge of the High Sheriffs. (Cries on the Right : " That happened under the Coalition too.") Count Albert Apponyi. — There we protest. Never ! (Pro- test on Right.) Julius Justh. — One can reproach the Coalition with many 62 UPON CORRUPTION things, but not with using violence and corruption at elections.^^ Zoltdn Ugron. — One could make a regular museum of Coalition abuses. Julius Justh now offers to produce proofs. In Komarom, five days before the election a telegram was stuck up, to the following effect: "To the Mayor of Komarom. I have granted the inhabitants of Komarom exemption from tolls on the Elizabeth Bridge of the Danube. For the Minister — Under-Secretary Kalman." (Laughter.) "Citizens! This we owe to our candidate Emerich Szivak." In Paks the Government candidate was Ferdinand Niesergall. Before the election he wanted to put the matter of his pension in order. The county committee credited him with ten years' service. The tax official, Louis Szabo, appealed against this resolution and was therefore transferred to Zsombolya, In Mako the speaker's rival engaged an inn, where his elec- tors could eat and drink as much as they pleased, and when it came to pa3mig, the waiter called into the bar that the party funds would stand the cost. In Mako still worse happened. A teacher in a state elementary school called Joseph Nyeki, because he is an adherent of the Independent Party, was, at the instance of the High Sheriff and without the school inspec- tor of Mako being consulted, transferred to a place where there was no vacancy ; so that there were two teachers there, while the school at Mako had to be closed owing to lack of a qualified teacher. Nyeki, having nothing to do, took leave and came to Mako on the day before the election. Hardly had this been announced to the High Sheriff, than he telegraphed to the Ministry of Education requesting that Nyeki' s leave should be stopped. The High Sheriff went stiU further, and — once more without consulting the school inspector — commissioned the sub-inspector to travel through the county and induce the schoolmasters everywhere to vote for the Government candidate. At Szabadka a railway official was transferred because he refused to remove the flag of the Independent candidate.^'* ^3 Here unhappily Mr. Justh is wrong. The elections of Verbo and Szenicz in 1905 (see pp. 16-19) were among the worst on record. But the elections of 1906 as a whole were purity itself, when compared with those of 1896, and these latter have been utterly eclipsed by those of 1910. ^* At Hungarian elections it is customary for electors to hoist a Hungarian tricolour, inscribed with the name of the candidate whom 63 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES In Eger secondary school professors, who canvassed for the Government, called the parents of their pupils to them and informed them that their children would fail in their examina- tions, if the parents did not vote for the Government. Mr. Justh then described the election in Nagyiklod, where two rival candidates of the Government party opposed each other, one belonging to the Tisza fraction, the other to the Khuen fraction. The High Sheriff sided with the Khuen candidate, who had a majority of the electors ; and yet the Tisza candi- date was elected (stormy laughter on Left), because the return- ing officer would not let the Khuen supporters come to the poll. (Prolonged laughter on Right, in which the Premier himself joins.) Emerich Montbach (springing up excitedly). — That is a lie. (Prolonged tumult, during which Montbach is called to order.) Julius Justh (continuing). — In Szolnok-Doboka the Opposi- tion electors were prevented from recording their votes. In Margitta on the two days before the election a regular reign of terror prevailed. The traffic was closed for the Independent electors. Count Albert Apponyi. — One might not even go into the neighbouring parish. Julius Justh. — ^That cannot be laughed away. (Noise on Right.) If you go on in this way, there is a most gloomy perspective for Hungary's freedom and independence. (Count Apponyi : " That is so.") In Mako the persecution of the electors of the Independent Party is still continued to-day. In Berettyoujfalu the chief tobacconist was deprived of his concession. In the district of Temesrekas the tenants on the state lands were threatened with the loss of their tenancies if they did not vote for the Government candidate. (Protest.) The speaker reads aloud an instruction of the estate office in Arad regarding this matter ; about thirty-eight tenants who had voted for the Independent candidate lost their tenancies. The speaker then read out instructions sent round to the gendarmerie patrols. It says : " If canvassers of the Govern- ment candidate request the intervention of the patrol, this is to be ordered at once. (Cries : ' That is quite in order.') The closing hours of the inns are to be strictly supervised. (Ap- plause.) Quiet and order are to be maintained. The safety they support, outside their house. The law permits the candidates to present such flags to their adherents {1899, xv. § 9). 64 UPON CORRUPTION of the persons and property of electors of the Government candidate are to be defended. (Cry : " Why is a distinction made ? ") The complaint had been made — continue the instructions — that the gendarmerie quietly puts up with the abuses committed by the Opposition candidate and his canvassers, and their terrorism, and that the counteraction which the law prescribes has not been undertaken. The gendarmerie is therefore ordered to employ every lawful means for checking the Opposition's abuses and terrorism and for supporting the Government candidate." (Laughter on Left ; applause on Right.) The speaker then read out the well-known resolution of the county committees of Maros-Torda and Szilagy, expressing their regret that on the eve of the elections the High Sheriff in the interests of the Government has exercised pressure on the political attitude of the public officials and employes. The Szilagy county committee also espoused the complaint of the returning officer of Tasnad, according to which the commander of the troops refused to obey the returning officer. This he had no right to do ; at the elections the whole armed force is under the returning officer's control. The speaker wishes to give an instance how the Government only let the Opposition feel its punishing hand. In Arad the editor of Aradi Kozlony, Joseph Stauber, was ennobled. It may be a coincidence, but it certainly occurred at the elections, and Stauber and his paper had done all in their power to secure Count Stephen Tisza's victory. It is curious that this Stauber shortly beforehand was sentenced to arrest, and a fine for slander and insult ; this punishment was however commuted before the elections. I will not continue. I only wanted to give a sample of all the various kinds of electoral abuses, so that every one can see what a civilizing event (Culturereigniss) the victory of the Government party is. (Sensation.) But by creating a majority, which, in order to restore the shattered harmony between nation and crown, proclaims the policy of renunciation and blind submission to the will of the Crown, the Government is serving the interests not of Hungary but of Austria. (Strong protest on Right.) . . . Can we hope for any progress if in this House a majority has scraped itself together (sensation and noise), whose device is renunciation and which only respects the will of the Crown ? (Sensation.) Electoral abuses can only be cured by the introduction C.R.H. 65 F PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES of Universal Equal and Secret Suffrage, with voting in each commune. The supremacy of the Magyar race is not thereby endangered, for that rests on the strength and culture of this people (sensation and noise on Right), not on force and ille- gality. May God protect the country from having the elections conducted then by the same elements as have them in their hands to-day. For then it would be simpler to pass a law, that the deputies should be nominated by the High Sheriffs. The majority wishes peace, and we wish it too. But clumsy Government measures and tyranny can only make a rotten peace. Peace will only come when the rule of truth is restored. " Emerich Montbach asserts that the facts adduced by Mr. Justh regarding the election of Nagyiklod are simply untrue. The speaker obtained 545 votes out of 830, and his rival only 8, He did not know the returning officer. Julius Justh points out that Mr. Montbach had not denied his main charge, that the electors of the rival candidate were not admitted to the poll." July 21. Towards the close of the debate, the Premier, Count Khuen- Hedervary, delivered a lengthy speech dealing with the policy of the Government. After prolix but extremely vague refer- ences to the need of electoral reform, he at length turned to the question of electoral abuses. "This has cost the House a great deal of time, owing to the enumeration of very inter- esting incidents, which my honourable colleagues mentioned partly to shake the belief in the legality of the method by which a majority was secured, and partly to prove the opposite. Ever since there have been such things as elections, such com- plaints have occurred and always will occur, and this question will never go out of fashion. Samuel Kelemen. — Under Szell" there were no complaints. Count Khuen-Hedervdry. — That time 64 petitions were lodged. ... 7 repeat that it always was so, is, and always will be, and it is regrettable that this should be the case ; but it is not a phenomenon peculiar to our country and nation, that we should meet with such complaints before and after elections. In every country we find almost the same charges and criticisms (protest on Left) as were produced here. By debating these things here, we shall not stem their course, since the House is not competent. The House has itself passed a law as to *» Premier, 1899-1903. 66 UPON CORRUPTION who shall judge these abuses. I myself admit that these questions require a judge, that no one can approve such events, and I am the last who would ever approve or conceal abuses. But unfortunately abuses cannot he avoided. When it is a question of the exercise of political rights, we can observe in the life of the nation, that in no province is the inventive talent of the human genius so highly developed as in evading the legal provisions which deal with abuses (Great noise. Cries : " We have seen that. The greatest genius is Jeszen- szky ") ; and consequently it has hitherto nowhere been found possible to create such restrictive laws as would exclude abuses. Since, however, I have to deal with charges of so general a character {sic), and since on the one hand it is said that every instrument of the power of the state was employed to decide the elections in favour of the present majority, that the telephone was in continual use between the High Sheriffs, the candidates and the constituencies, that the officials were terrorized by threats of the endless consequences of not voting for the Government (great noise) : then I must simply reply to this, that I believe the gentlemen who make these assertions to be greatly exaggerating. It was not these incidents but quite other reasons . . . which decided the issue of the elections. Among other things it was also asserted that money played its part, that the administration had a distinguished share in securing this result, that the High Sheriffs did nothing else but supervise the election in every point. Yes, in this last assertion there is some truth. (Great noise.) Count Paul Batthyany : "You confess it." Uproar; President rings his bell.) I believe that the former Government, the former majority, did not change the High Sheriffs (great amusement and applause on Right) with the object merely of ensuring and improving the administration, but owing to the same tendency which influenced us in filling those posts. It very rightly wanted to create supporters of its political aims. The High Sheriffs are openly in the sense of the law the confidants of the Government ; hence it cannot be denied that they have a certain function in this direction. But though the High Sheriffs have in this respect supported the Government — for we expected this of them — yet the verdict on the lengths to which they have gone in this direction has its limits, and these are the maintenance of the laws, and at the same time satisfying of political interests. (Applause.) If they kept to these limits, then no one has committed any fault, and we 67 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES cannot be reproached with anything — the more so since what happened at the elections of 1906 has not occurred at the present elections, that individual Government leaders [The remainder of the sentence was drowned in uproar, but Count Khuen-Hedervary had referred to the Coalition leaders' prac- tice of sending down nominees to the constituencies.] (Up- roar. Eitner calls out the name of Szilassy.) Zoltan Szilassy. — I got no recommendation. (Prolonged uproar. Cries on Right : " You were nominated." Pro- tests on Left. President rings his bell and requests Mr. Eitner "to make less frequent interruptions.") Count Khuen-Hedervdry (continuing) — which happened every da}/ then. I certainly do not wish to reckon that as a special sin, but it is a fact that the candidates went from house to house with letters from Cabinet Ministers. (Noise.) ... I think that we have certainly not deserved the reproach of abuses in this direction, from those who would perhaps in their day have met with the same reproach from the other side. Count Albert Apponyi. — No. Never. Alexander Gal. — What have the elections cost ? Aurelius Forster. — Have you come for your own money ? (Noise.) Count Khuen-Hedervdry. — / think, gentlemen, it is best not to touch upon this question any further. (Laughter on Right.) We cannot decide it by a resolution. We shall never reach agreement as to when greater or lesser abuses were committed. That is the judge's business. Let us submit to his decision. Meanwhile, I am of opinion that in a given situation it is far more patriotic to admit their consequences than to cast the blame for our evil fortune upon others, and to seek its causes else- where. Even in my own political practice it has occurred Sigismund Eitner. — In Croatia you had a great practice. ^^ Count Khuen-Hedervdry. that when after successful elec- tions the Diet met — for I really am speaking of Croatia — a member, in my opinion a real patriot but my inflexible political enemy — gave the following declaration in a sitting of the Diet : " Let us put aside these complaints, let us recognize that the nation has turned against us, for by omitting that, we in no way renounce the effort to realize our principles. We do not give them up, but we admit that the nation does not at present *' A reference to the notorious Khuen regime, under which Croatia groaned for twenty years (i 883-1 903). ^8 UPON CORRUPTION wish their enforcement ! That is a patriotic attitude, which does not preclude those who are to-day in the minority from some day forming the majority. ..." I have hitherto carefully refrained from all comment upon these astonishing debates. But I think that the reader will already have reached the conclusion that for cynical indiffer- ence to the elements of political morality the speech of the Hungarian Premier is not easily matched. " Politics are a filthy game," he seems to say; "why should we alone be expected to have clean hands? " When the Premier takes up such an attitude, it would perhaps be unreasonable to expect too high a moral tone from his followers. But the indulgence shown by Parliament itself towards electoral corruption is one of the most depressing proofs of the complete decay of pohtical morality in Hungary since the great days of Francis Deak. It proves abuses to be so widespread that any attempt to punish even the worst of them would involve the unseating of an alarming proportion of the sitting members. As Mr. Varady caustically observed in the House, if every member were to examine himself, he would have to admit that abuses were common to every party. A Parliament of which this could be said by a member of the majority, amid the approval of his own party, stands self-condemned in the face of Europe. Indeed, not even the most confirmed optimist has the right to expect any genuine measure of electoral reform from a Parliament whose origin is so highly questionable. The new majority is likely to succumb to the same process of political dry rot as proved fatal to its predecessor. Count Khuen-Hedervary's experiment is the last stake of a desperate gambler ; if it should fail, the dominant caste will lose its last prospect of stemming the tide of democratic progress, of prolonging the old system of corruption and monopoly. Re- form may, it is true, be delayed for a few years, but only in so far as the Government can exploit the age and physical weariness of the venerable Sovereign. But even in that case the course of nature will bring its changes ; and the injustices and inequalities which Francis Joseph has been unable to remove, despite a long life of unexampled devotion to the cause of duty and progressive evolution, will yield to the hand of a successor who is at once younger and less prone to compromise. The present conditions are untenable, and 69 APPENDIX I the longer their reform is delayed, the worse for the authors of that delay. APPENDIX I ELECTION NEWS (EXTRACTS FROM THE HUNGARIAN PRESS). Cases of assault, violent demonstrations, egg and stone throwing, etc., were more numerous at the general elections of 1910 than on any similar occasion during the last thirty or forty years. But such incidents were due to the keen feelings aroused by a prolonged crisis and an obscure and doubtful future, and do not concern us here. In the following section I have confined myself to selecting a few of the more startling cases of illegality and corruption which were cited by the more reputable journals of Budapest. I refrain from quoting the statements of the nationalist organs, or of Neps- zava, the chief Socialist newspaper of Hungary — allot whom natur- ally indulge in pretty violent language — and have confined myself to Magyarorszdg, now the leading organ of the Party of Indepen- dence, and Pester Lloyd, the semi-official interpreter of Hungary to the foreign public and the organ of the wealthy Jewish commercial classes of Budapest, a paper which is as a rule singularly moderate in tone. Magyarorszdg, June g, igio (leading article). "... The bayonets of gendarmes, money, brandy, violence — all this found a vent at the elections ; the will of the people remained silent. Khuen expended huge sums on the elections. In some con- stituencies it cost more than 300,000 crowns (;^i 2,000), in many even more. In Kassa, for instance, 500 to i.ooo crowns — yes, even 1,200 crowns — were paid for a vote. . . ." Same dale. From Kunszentmarton. — " The mandate of Ernest Kiss is being challenged in a petition by the supporters of his defeated candidate, Arpad Bozoki. The petition maintains that 700 out of the 822 votes received by the elected deputy are invalid, having been given only as a result of bribery, pressure and entertainment of the electors. All the higher and lower officials worked for him. Bribery was practised so shamelessly, that votes were bought openly in the street. The retired judge of the Royal Table, ^' William Lippe, managed and distributed the money, and the neighbouring landed proprietors and their employes also distributed money on the night before the election. . . ." Magyarorszdg. Jttne 5, 1910, under heading " Election Struggles." " Elesd. Here 50 to 500 crowns were paid for a vote from the Government party — and paid openly, without any shame. For instance, in the commune of Czigdnyfalva, where there are only thirty- *' Court of second instance in Hungary. 70 ELECTION NEWS eight electors, a government official openly handed over to the village mayor 2,000 crowns for distribution among the poor, if the Government candidate should get in. For three days brandy flowed in streams, so that there was no sober man far and near. Jarmay, railway super- intendent in Kolozsvar, personally visited all the stations of the district and exacted from the railway officials the promise that they would vote for the Government candidate. Teachers and notaries devoted themselves for weeks exclusively to electoral agitation. ... It is char- acteristic of the violence of the Government officials, that for instance in the commune of Bakovany, the szolgabiro Czegledy did not permit Far- kashazy [the candidate] to hold his legally-notified electoral address, and did not even allow the assembled electors to speak to each other, but scat- tered them with gendarmes. The same szolgabiro forbade Farkashdzy '3 speech to be translated into Roumanian, in the commune of Kotyiklet, because the Roumanian speaker had not been notified. In spite of all this victory (i.e. of the Opposition candidate) sfill seemed certain on the day of election, for in his camp were assembled 2,000 electors, thus making the absolute majority. But many of them were rejected on trivial grounds, so that his following was reduced to 1,790- -^^ 'the same time, the notaries called up quite a number of absent and dead persons as voters of the Government party. As if this was not enough, about seventy or eighty supporters of Farkashazy were twice driven over by the soldiers into the camp of their opponents, while the ' mar- shallers' with them were separated from them by means of blows from rifles. In this way it was possible to scrape together a majority of 210 votes for the Government man. These unexampled abuses plunged the population of the constituency into real despair, and feehng is so bitter, especially in Flesd and Mezotelegd, that the chief sz61gabir6 telegraphed through the Vice-Sheriff to the Minister of the Interior, requesting him to leave the troops for at least eight days longer in the district. This was ordered by telegram. The electors of £lesd decided to hand in a petition against the election, and declared them- selves ready to prove that 1,500 Government electors were bribed. " Nagy Becskerek. — A section of the electors of the town, who cannot compose themselves owing to the manner in which the electoral campaign was conducted by the Party of National Work, hzis decided to attack John Rohonyi's mandate by a petition. The bases of the accusation are not only treating, bribery, intimidation and misuse of religious means of grace — as forbidden by Law XV of 1899 — but also the illegalities and abuses which occurred at the poll itself. "Mateszalka. — Even at the most notorious elections there never occurred such grave abuse of official power as this time at Mateszalka. The supporters of Szunyog were deprived of every means of communi- cation, while the canvassers of the rival party were free to move about. The motor-car of the candidate, Michael Szunyog, was not allowed to go about, on the ground of a ministerial order, while the electors of the Government party were transported in motor-cars. On the last day 200 to 300 crowns, and even 1,000 crowns, were paid for a vote. The communal notaries went from house to house to canvass and intimidate electors. The returning officer in a partisan manner rejected over forty of Szunyog's electors. The former chief judge, Albert Lencses, came by railway from Szatmdr to vote for Szunyog, but was 71 APPENDIX 1 seized by the gendarmerie at the instance of the Szalkai party, and only released after the close of the poll. The village mayor of Nyirs- zalka, Alexander Nehez, an adherent of Szunyog, was arrested by gendarmes, and only released when after long discussion he promised to vote for Szalkai. The elector Alexander Varga, of the Szunyog party, was killed. The Public Prosecutor has already instituted a strict inquiry in this matter. . . . " Magyarkaniza. — . . . Special indignation was aroused by the behaviour of the captain of gendarmerie, John Fratricsevics, who without any reason arrested electors of the Party of Independence, among them proprietors of high standing. Strongly condemned also was the returning officer, Mladen Jozsiti, Greek Catholic priest of IM^rtonos, who rejected about seventy electors on the most absurd grounds. " Kormend.-^Nine whole weeks before the election the Government party opened in the constituency a lively agitation, by means of wine, which flowed in streams, and free bribery. The officials committed all kinds of acts of violence. Everywhere the so-called " day's wages " were given out in return for receipts. ^^ On the day before the election 140 carriages drove through the seventy-seven communes of the con- stituency, about 120,000 crowns being distributed in one night. When at last towards midnight the money gave out, the offices of the Savings Bank in Szenyehaza were opened, under the High Sheriff's guarantee, and 40,000 crowns withdrawn from it. The party leaders themselves admit having given out about 200,000 crowns in nine weeks, but it probably was at least 260,000. The poll was drawn out with great skill by Emanuel Szakacs, so that the canvassers of the Party of Work found time to mix in the ranks of the Party of Independence and buy votes there. But this was without effect, because the village mayors paid back in the office of the Party of Work 40,000 crowns in cash, be- cause the inhabitants of their villages had refused to accept bribes. . . . " Csikszentmarton. — Augustus Bartalis, chief sz61gabir6 of the district, by his orders on the day before the election, made it impossible for the candidate of the Justh Party, Dr. George Nagy, to obtain carriages. On the night before the election he went to Nagykaszony with 40,000 crowns, went with the village mayor and two gendarmes from house to house, and forced the electors to get into the carriages in order to go and vote for the Government candidate, Dominic Incze. On the election day itself forty of Nagy's electors were detained at Mensag. . . . Nagy's V evtrauensmdnner , who hired drivers, were arrested. The electors in Kozmas got 200 crowns each, for stop- ping at home and not voting for Dr. Nagy. When the electors re- fused the Judas-reward, the szolgabiro Bartalis began to cry out in front of the polling station, that those who voted for Incze would have their fines for poaching remitted. The inhabitants of Kaszony- ujfalu, all Szekels of the purest blood and members of the Party of Independence, were surrounded by Austrian dragoons, so that they could not stir." Pester Lloyd, May 17. " Szekelyudvarhely. — In Agyagfalva the candidate of the Party of *^ Cp. p. 150. 72 ELECTION NEWS National Work, Zoltan Szakacs, who was accompanied by the village mayor, the notary and the cashier, was attacked on the open street by a band of sixteen persons, thrown to the ground and wounded. The chief szolgabiro at once went with gendarmes to Agyagfalva, and arrested ten of the assailants." Ditto, May ly (evening). " Kormoczbanya.^ — Bishop Radnai, of Beszterczebanya, forbade Dr. Nicholas Griger, the priest of Janosret, under pain of suspension, to accept the candidature of Kormoczbanya offered him by the People's Party. Griger has consequently withdrawn, so that the Minister of Finance, Ladislas Lukacs, has only one opponent, Francis Vizy (Kos- suthist) . " Szekszard. — Count Theodore Batthyany (Justh Party) wanted to give an electoral address in the commune of Decs. The chief szolga- biro allowed his application, on condition that Count Batthyany should only enter the commune with an escort of twelve persons at most, that no special preparations should be made for his reception, and further that only Count Batthyany's adherents in Decs should attend the meeting, and that the speech should be dehvered in a closed room to be notified previously to the authorities. All these measures the szolgabiro considered necessary in view of the violent electoral agitation, and in the interest of the safety of property and person and the main- tenance of public order ; all were strictly carried out." Ditto, May 19. " The Town Captain (Stadthauptmann) of Marosvasarhely detained Joseph Aszalos, a citizen of good standing, for attempted robbery, because he broke a flag of Francis Szekely (candidate of the Government Party). At midday to-day Aszalos was released on the intervention of Soma Fenyvessi." May 20 (evening). " Kormend. — The Justh Party, whose candidate is Louis Beck, intended to hold a meeting on Sunday, at which Julius Justh was also to speak. The chief szolgabiro, Fr. Kulay, however, refused his per- mission. The szolgabiro gives as his reason, that he would gladly permit a meeting on any other day, but not on Sunday, since the Bishop of the diocese is to dispense the sacrament of confirmation in the town on that day, and it was not fitting that under the prevailing political excitement a political meeting should take place at the same time as a Church festival. The party submitted to this fi.nding." May 21. " Marosvasarhely. — Several communal mayors complained to the High Sheriff Erosdy, that the second vice-notary of the county, Joseph Szenner, tried to force them to vote for the candidate of the Party of Independence. The inquiry, which was at once instituted, showed that the complaint was grounded, and hence the High Sheriff suspended Szenner." " Karansebes. — The Greek Oriental priest Muste and the advocate Dr. Haban, who agitated in the commune of Glimboka in the interest of Aurelius Vlad, were arrested for incitement against the state, and were handed over to the Public Prosecutor." Ditto, May 26. " Nagytapolcsany. — As feelings are roused to an extraordinary 75 APPENDIX I degree, the High Sherifi forbade the holding of electoral addresses on Corpus Christi Day." Ditto, May 27. " The Trencsen Officials. — When the Party of National Work was constituted in the county of Trencsen, several county and state officials signed the appeal for party organization. The former deputy de- nounced this to the Minister of the Interior and brought inl[an inter- pellation, which contained serious charges against the High Sherifi and the officials. At a meeting of the county assembly on May 21 this unjust and unworthy attack was unanimously condemned, and the High Sheriff, Julius Szalavszky, and the corps of officials were assured of its complete confidence." Ditto, May 28. " Csikszentmarton. — The chief szolgabiro, Augustus Bartalis, issued an order by which persons who have no permanent residence or em- ployment in the communes of the district, or are not there in order to visit relations, are to be expelled from the communes, even if their papers are in order. The szolgabiro further forbade the escorting of the peur- liamentary candidates by their adherents from one commune to another. George Nagy (Justh Party), the rival candidate to Dominic Incze (National Work), has appealed to the Minister of the Interior against this order." Ditto, May 29. " Moravicza.' — The returning officer has ordered that the electors of Caius Brediceanu (Nationalist) may only set out for the polling place on the day preceding the election, and must spend the night in the open. Brediceanu has appealed to the Minister of the Interior against this decision." Ditto, May 31. " Nagytapolcs^ny.' — Father Grammantik, a supporter of the People's Party, was arrested for incitement in the commune of Prasicz. Troops were sent to the constituency. " Belenyes. — The well-known Roumanian agitator Demeter Radu arrived to-day to assist the Nationalist candidate, Ladislas Lukacs (i.e. Father Vasile Lucaciu). The szolgabiro summoned Radu to leave the constituency at once, since his mere presence endangered public order. Radu has actually left already." Ditto, June i. " In consequence of the boundless agitation of the clergy, it came to numerous bloody brawls in the constituencies of Bartfa and Kiss- zeben, resulting in serious, even dangerous injuries. Detachments of troops patrol the communes and the main roads, under the command of gendarmerie sergeants." Ditto, June 4. " The Minister of the Interior has ordered a disciplinary inquiry against the officials of the town of Nyiregyhaza owing to electoral abuses, and has entrusted its execution to the mayor of that town, Bela Majerszky." Ditto, June 5. " Telegram from Szatm4rn6meti. — The Party of Independence here called a meeting for to-morrow, but it was forbidden by the Town Captain in view of the excited feelings of the supporters ot this party. 74 BLOODSHED AT MARGINEN The town magistracy confirmed the decision of the chief of police, in consequence of which the organizers of the meeting appealed to the Minister of the Interior." The above extracts merely form a small proportion of the charges of electoral corruption, which were bandied about by the Hun- garian Press for weeks after the election. Some of the statements may be exaggerated, or at least less reliable than those made upon the floor of the House ; but the fact that they have not been challenged, shows the widespread nature of the evil. I refrain from quoting the less reputable organs, though it might be worth some one's while to make a collection of " Election News," especially from the columns of the provincial press. BLOODSHED AT MARGINEN On May 22 the Roumanian paper Lupia (which appears in Budapest) published a black-edged edition, with the following words " Our dead ! A telegram from Fogaras informs us that in the \illage of Marginen five Roumanians were to-day killed by the gendarmes. The intimidation and terrorism of the admini- trative authorities is indescribable." I have decided to give only the Magyar and official account of this incident. The reader who remembers the number of troops and gendarmes engaged in assisting " the will of the nation " (see p. 11) will be able to draw his own conclusions as to which side indulged in the greatest terrorism. The Pester Lloyd, in its issue of May 22, quotes the above state- ment of the Lupta, and adds that it has been unable to obtain any direct information on the subject from Fogaras itself. It, therefore, contents itself with quoting a statement of the Budapest Correspondence : — • In the two constituencies of the county of Fogaras the wildest nationalist agitation is being carried on, and is already endangering public safety. The candidates of the Hungarian party are opposed by the excited drunken mob, ^ in many villages they had to risk a shower of stones. The political addresses of the Roumanian candi- dates are af&xed to the church doors, forbidden national colours are frequently used. As a result of the agitation wild scenes occurred a few days ago in the communes of Reuzor, lUeny and Szkore. In the commune of Marginen the gendarmerie, in defence of an official person, was forced to fire among the people. Two individuals were killed, two dangerously and one slightly wounded." The High Sheriff, Joseph Szell, applied for troops for these four communes. The judge of inquiry came to the place, and the Public Prosecutor was informed. * 92 per cent, of the population of Fogaras is Roumanian. * It transpired later that five were really killed. 75 BLOODSHED AT MARGINEN There never were such elections in the county of Fogaras. This unscrupulous terrorism, which does not even spare the blood of its own race,* is conducted in the interests of Dr. Alexander Vaida, but especially of Nicholas Sierban. It will, however, defeat its object, by spurring the Magyars and Saxons of Fogaras to greater endurance, and by alienating the sober Roumanian electors from the Nationalist candidates. On the same day (Sunda}', May 22), when, according to its own avowal, it had failed to obtain any first-hand information, the Pester Lloyd wrote as follows in its leading article : — • That famous fellow Mr. Serban (der famose Herr Serban) or Sierban, as he now likes to call himself, whose boundless Nationalist agitation to-day burdened his conscience with the sacrifice of two human lives, is also one of the go-betweens of the Parliamentary parties, who still have the courage to appeal to the people's confidence. This pseudo-Roumanian — for so we call him despite the fact that he is the son of a Roumanian priest — has been seen as political dude, with a white carnation, in the ranks of the former Liberal Party, where he played the Magyar hard, and for that very reason in a suspicious manner. To-day he stands in the county of Fogaras as candidate of the Roumanian nationality against an adherent of the Party of National Work. There in his distant home he works with the most senseless catchwords of Daco-Roumanian agitation, and without a touch of conscience brings his own blood, his co-religionists, in a^drunken state before the muzzles of the gendarmes' rifles. A good example of the oft-noted distinction between the unscrupulous agitator and the innocent peasantry ! The excited people doubtless attacked the gen- darmes and compelled them in self-defence to fire into the crowd. The case must be strictly inquired into. For Roumanian blood is also human blood. [Denn rumdnisches Blut ist auch Menschenblut) . . . . So writes a newspaper which deservedly enjoys the reputation of being the most moderate organ of Magyar public opinion ! No more striking example could be given of the mental attitude of so many Magyars towards the non-Magyar races. Also ! The following chapters will consist of authentic reports from a number of Hungarian constituencies, showing the monstrous ille- galities to which the authorities had recourse, in order to secure the return of the Government candidates, and above all to prevent the election of non-Magyar deputies. * As if , forsooth, the Roumanian leaders had killed the five peasants. 76 CHAPTER IV The Election in Privigye Candidates : Father Alois Rudnay, Party of National Work. Mr. Bresztensky, People's Party. A PETITION has been brought against this election, before the Royal Curia, by Messrs Louis Erdelyi, chemist ; Joseph Erdelyi and Joseph Vandor, professors in the Gymnasium ; Joseph Stancsek and John Pronai, elementary schoolmasters; Father John Javorka and eight others. The following analysis has been made from a printed copy of the petition in my possession. The petition is divided into various heads. In section A it is shown that five legally-qualified peasant electors from Koos, one from Kis-Csaucsa, one from Jalovec and three from Handlova (name, age, occupation, are of course given in every instance throughout) appeared at the polling station, and that when they had proved their identity in the ordinary way and had recorded their vote for the candidate Bresztensky, the communal notary, in reply to a question of the returning officer, declared that he could not identify them. In conse- quence of this their votes were disqualified. (Documents and witnesses adduced to prove this.) In section B it is shown that five electors from Privigye, one from Koos, five from Jalovec, two from Rasztocsno, four from Bruszno, two from Chrenoc, two from Nagy Csaucsa, three from Lipnik, six from Zazan, fourteen from Berzseny, four from Pollusz, five from Kisprona, three from Kanyanka, eleven from Nemetprona, six from Morovno, i.e. a total of seventy-three electors, were not merely rejected as above, but were not even inscribed in the list of those rejected ; while thirty-eight more electors (four from Kis Csaucsa, three from Nadaser, nine from Peruba and twenty-two from Handlova) were also rejected, because the representatives of the Govern- THE ELECTION IN PRIVIGYE ment party and the village notaries raised doubts as to their identity. In section C it is shown that seventy-nine electors (nine from Neczpal, seven from Cigel, twenty-five from Szebedrazs, nine from Nagylehotka, twelve from Kislehotka, seventeen from Hradec) were rejected by the returning officer, without his even consulting the representatives of the two parties or allowing them to be heard, and simply on the word of the communal notary. In section D special instances of illegality are given in detail. (i) Valentine Fabik, smith, of Privigye, was rejected because his name appeared on the voting roll as Fahig, although he had given his name correctly, and although the party representatives and the village mayor bore witness that there existed in the district no other person of the name with whom he could be confused.^^ (2) The Slovak peasant, Gregory Minich, from Koos, aged sixty-four, was rejected by the returning officer be- cause, when asked his name, he replied ' Gregor Minich,' and not " Minich Gergely " (in other words, because he had not complied with the Magyar habit of placing the Christian name after the surname). The returning officer said he had looked through the register and could not find any " Gregor Minich." (3) Thomas Chlpek, from Kiscsaucsa, aged sixty-three, and another elector, George Matyasko, were rejected in the same way, because they gave their names in the ordinary Slovak way, instead of calling themselves Chlpek Tamas and Matyasko Gyorgy. (4) Michael Sloszar, from Nadaser, was rejected because, speaking in the local Slovak dialect, he called himself Sloszjar. All the Vertrauensmdnner and officials admitted his identity, and the fact that in that neigh- bourhood the name of Sloszar was ordinarily pronounced with a " j " ; but this was of no avail. " The returning officer," adds the petition," also knows Slovak, and so he was aware that the Slovaks, with few exceptions, pronounce this name with the addition of a " j." (5) Another George Sloszar was rejected because his name had been wrongly entered on the voting register as Szolir, His identity was proved, as above, 5» For this ancient trick, cp. pp. 13, 17. 78 THE ELECTION IN PRIVIGYE (6) John Sloszar, from Lazan, was rejected on the same grounds as his namesake Michael. (7) Stephen Sidlo, from Nagylehota, aged seventy-five, was rejected because he did not announce himself as " Sidlo Istvdn." (8) Before the second electoral commission, Andrew Richter, a German from N^metprona, aged seventy-one, was rejected, because he gave his name in German, and not as " Richter Endre." Under section E it is shown that, by orders of the returning officer, Gustav Knogler, and with the assistance of the village notary, John Uskert, thirty electors from Handlova — whose names etc., are of course all given — were driven away from the polling place by gendarmes by main force, " in the interests of order." There follow fourteen folio pages, devoted to detailed juridical arguments. The whole petition runs to forty-one folio pages ! 79 CHAPTER V The Election in Szakolcza Candidates : Dr. Nicholas Kostydl, Party of National Work. Father Louis Okanyik, Independent Slovak Agrarian candidate. (A.) My Own Experiences [June I, 1910) THE larks were singing in a cloudless summer sky as we drove across the Moravian frontier and crossed the low ridge which blocked Szakolcza from our view. In another moment the little town lay before us, its towers and ruined walls bathed in quiet sunlight. As we entered we marvelled at its deserted aspect. But no ! at the end of the street are two horsemen, who signal to our coachman to stop. A double cor- don of hussars and gendarmes has been drawn round the town, and every approach is blocked. We leave one carriage in a side street, and advance on foot. Passports are demanded, questions are asked. But happily our precautions have saved us. The road which we had chosen was not the natural route for strangers coming from Austria (as we discovered on our return, a special patrol had been told off for that) ; and this doubtless explains why we only had to deal with two hussar privates and an inexperienced young official. As we had purposely delayed our arrival till five hours after the opening of the poll, and could mention the names of various acquain- tances in the town, we were at last grudgingly passed as harmless and allowed to proceed. What probably saved us were the tall hat and clerical collar of my companion. Dr. Alois Kolisek, of Coding in Moravia. Once through the first cordon, we soon found ourselves in the great square, empty save for a small group of officials and canvassers for the Government party, before the polling booth, and the inevitable hussars and gendarmes filling in the 60 THE ELFXTION IN SZAKOLCZA background. Some hussar officers were sitting on a bench outside the door, awaiting the returning officer's orders. Drunken howls came to us from every inn, accompanied by the scraping of many gipsy fiddles. The Government electors were being regaled with a thoroughness calculated to drown even the most desperate scruple. An old man of sixty lay in a drunken swoon beside the church door. Three young peasants staggered past, waving a banner of the Magyar candidate and hiccoughing " Eljen Kostyal " (Long live Kostyal). A peep through the inn door and a Government canvasser was at once on the spot, apparently in terror lest a stranger should tamper with some of his drunkards. But I had seen enough. Free beer tickets had done their work, and there was scarcely a sober peasant inside the cordon. For me it was a painful moment. Was it possible, I asked myself, that the Slovaks of Szakolcza, whom I had good reason for regarding as devoted to the cause of their nationality, were after all mere venal sots, to whom a few florins and a pot of beer outweighed the hope of political freedom ? But my doubts were soon dispelled. For at this moment we met a friendly townsman, who told us that the Slovak candidate and his supporters had been marshalled outside the town since early morning, and were still awaiting admission to vote. Obviously we must try to find our way to " the Slovak camp," and the sooner the better, for the glances of curiosity or suspicion directed towards us by the Magyar canvassers made it clear that the presence of strangers was not welcome. The " Catholic House" — the centre of Slovak life in the district of Szakolcza — had been closed for the day, and the building was deserted. We therefore took refuge in the house of acquaintances, and sought their advice as to our next move. Ten minutes later we passed through a court behind the house, and found our- selves in a street between the first and second cordons. After further wanderings, peasants led us through a wine-cellar und^ the old town-wall, and in a couple of minutes more we had reached our goal. Nothing could have been greater than the contrast between the centre of the town and the scene which now met our eyes. Inside the cordon, troops, officials and their drunken victims — the inns alone showing signs of life. Outside, in the " Slovak camp," it seemed as though the whole countryside was gathered together. The entrance to the town was as usual blocked by a detachment of gendarmes with drawn bayonets and a few C.R.H. 8i G THE ELECTION IN SZAKOLCZA mounted hussars. From where they stood the ground sloped gently downwards to the centre of a wide open space, bounded to the East by a long row of Slovak cottages, to the north by some trees and a steep and muddy ditch. As the sun sank lower the strategic value of their position became apparent ; for even at fifty yards it was no longer possible to distinguish figures standing at the gate, so dazzling was the sunshine in the eyes of the crowd. The square was filled from end to end with a crowd of several thousand peasants — including a strong contingent of women — from all the neighbouring villages. The ground was at least an inch deep in dust, and the sun blazed upon us with an almost tropical intensity. Most of the crowd had been waiting there since nine o'clock in the morning, after having been com- pelled to make long detours by sideroads, while the author- ities reserved the main routes for the Government electors. With the exception of a wretched little " public " outside the gate — where there was scarcely standing room, and where supplies had run out early in the afternoon — all the inns of the town had been reserved for the Government electors, who, as we have seen, were not wasting their chances. Yet despite all this, despite the grossly provocative attitude of the authorities, the utmost order prevailed among the crowd ; and its behaviour cannot be praised too highly. This was very largely due to the influence of the Slovak candidate himself. Father Okanyik, the popular town priest and Rural Dean of Szakolcza, who spared no effort to pacify his adherents. The scandalous institution of a military cordon had effectively banished him from his presbytery, which was of course in the centre of the town, within a stone's throw of the two polling stations ; and hence we found his improvised headquarters in a tiny cottage parlour. Voting in Hungary is still by public declaration, and as there is only one polling station (sometimes with separate booths) in each constituency, all the electors in the district are obliged to assemble there on the morning of the poll. They are then marshalled according to villages by the canvassers of the rival parties, and each village is summoned separately to record its votes in the order approved by the returning officer, who enjoys an almost absolute power for the day. Under these circumstances it is clear that any party which gives itself the trouble can ascertain beforehand the exact number of its adherents in the different villages, and can " beat them 82 THE ELECTION IN SZAKOLCZA up " on the polling day, the more so as the average number of votes cast in each constituency does not much exceed i, 600. and as 38 per cent, of the constituencies contain less than 1,500 voters. In Szakolcza, then, where there are 2,738, the cal- culation was easy enough ; and over 1,200 voters ready to vote for Father Okanyik had been waiting since morning in the Slovak camp, while it was known that the Government can- didate, after marshalling every available official, every de- pendent, every Jewish tradesman in the district and every peasant whose vote was for sale, had still at the very most 850 voters on his side. But these facts did not dismay the officials in whose hands the election lay. To begin with, all Government voters were given a free run of the town — and of the inns — and were admitted to the poll without delay, some- times in batches of ten and twenty. The Slovak voters from the town were kept waiting three hours in the street and when at last admitted were cross-examined like prisoners in the dock. A member of the Town Council was rejected on the ground that his name did not correspond to that on the register. The villagers of Vradisht were also kept waiting for hours, and finally told that they could only vote towards the close of the poll. At midday 180 Slovak voters from Verbovce were intro- duced between the two cordons and kept waiting there for several hours, their leaders not being allowed to accompany them. Meanwhile, 140 men from the same village were freely allowed to vote for Kostyal, and 84 more entirely sham votes were recorded for Kostyal in the name of Okanyik' s electors. Among the numerous illegalities committed during the day the following details may suffice : Votes were recorded in the names of John Stehlik, James Geyringer and Hermann Kohut, all three dead. A young boy of sixteen, Ignaz Reichsfeld, was permitted to vote. A certain Max Gajdushek voted first for himself and then for another of the same name. A retired priest, Rev. Imrich Foltyn, who owns land of his own (100 morgen) was disallowed from voting on the ground that the Foltyn entered on the register was a peasant proprietor, not a priest. The real reason for his rejection was of course his in- tention to vote for Okanyik ; and after he had gone his name was called out once more, and a voteless labourer of the same name recorded the absent Foltyn' s vote in favour of the Magyar candidate. The proxy of the Slovak candidate natur- ally protested vehemently against such illegal action ; but the returning officer thundered him down with the words, " Be silent, or I'll have you removed." 83 THE ELECTION IN SZAKOLCZA As the afternoon advanced, the villagers of Egbell — 152 for Okanyik — were admitted between the cordons ; but their priest, Father Paul Blaho, who acted as their guide (being the only one among them who could speak Magyar and so com- municate with the officials), was not allowed to accompany them. As time passed and the peasants were still kept waiting, Father Blaho succeeded in finding a friendly hearer in one of the Magyar canvassers, and with his aid reached the presence of the returning officer. " Wliy," said the latter as he heard the tale, " I've been waiting for the Egbell people for nearly two hours. Bring them in at once." The old priest hurried back in delight, only to find the ruse explained. During his brief absence orders had been given to drive the Egbell voters out of the town, and the spot where he had left them was already deserted. It was perhaps half an hour after we had arrived in the " Slovak camp" that a sudden tumult announced the arrival of these rejected voters. After all the long hours of needless waiting, to be disfranchised at the point of the bayonet — was this not provocation enough to rouse any peasantry in the world to fury ? The crowded square was now a sea of men — shouting, cursing, gesticulating. In vain Father Okanyik and his friends passed from group to group, appealing for quiet. " Long live Okanyik," shouted the crowd, and the clamour for admission grew louder. The entrance to the town was ringed round by a squad of gendarmes ; and in the few yards that separated them from the crowd a couple of mounted hussars were trying to soothe their frightened horses. The frantic efforts of some of the men to keep the women out of the line of fire showed only too clearly their opinion of the gendarmes. The readiness with which they resort to their weapons, their brutal demeanour towards the Slovak peasantry is as notorious as their reluctance to employ the language of the people with whom they have to deal. On this occasion, at the critical moment, one of them broke from the ranks and began violently abusing and threatening individuals in the crowd. Fortunately their commander, though too busy to notice this little incident, showed tact and moderation ; but it was easy to see from his face how critical he held the situation to be. " Quiet, quiet; for God's sake keep quiet," came from the Slovak canvassers, in their efforts to prevent a catastrophe. " Quiet, quiet," I re-echoed, in the hope of pacifying two excited peasants at my side. " Cursed Magyar," yelled one of 84 THE ELECTION IN SZAKOLCZA them, mistaking me for an agent of the Government party, and tried to fling me under the horse of the nearest hussar. When at last he reaHzed my nationaUty, he calmed down a little ; and a young fellow in the crowd behind began to talk excitedly about " the Island of Freedom." " Yes," cried another peasant, who knew who I was, " and now you'll be able to go home and tell of all the filthy tricks of ' Magyar szabadsag ' (Magyar liberty)." Others shook their clenched fists in im- potent fury. " Take us to the King, your reverence," cried an old peasant to my companion, " we'll make a deputa- tion. He must be informed of this." And an old peasant of seventy-five stood hat in hand almost at the bridle of the two hussar officers, and with a strange mixture of sarcasm, grief and indignation, cursed the officials for their brutality and corruption. Excitement had reached fever pitch, and a catastrophe seemed almost inevitable, when Father Okanyik appeared among the crowd, and assuring them that there was no prospect or possibility of securing fairplay, and that to persist could only lead to bloodshed, declared his intention of abandoning the contest, and implored them to return quietly to their homes. In the Magyar official Press next morning the Szakolcza election was dismissed as follows : " Dr. Nicholas Kostyal (Party of National Work) was elected by i,oii votes to 246." The distinguished Magyar Conservative leader. Baron Sennyey, once said of the Hungarian Administration, " We are in mid-Asia " • and I do not think that my readers will be concerned to deny the truth of his assertion. "Extra Hun- ga.na.m noil est vita," runs the old saw, " aut si est vita non est ita." The latter half is true. Since my experiences at Szakolcza on " the Glorious First of June," I can say from the bottom of my heart, " Thank God! outside Hungary non est ita ! It is not like this ! " 4: :): * :ic 4e Father Kolisek and I arrived in Szakolcza about half-past three in the afternoon, and left again shortly after seven. As we drove out of the town, this time on the main road to Coding, we passed the house of two ladies, old acquaintances of Dr. Kolisek. Mrs. Wilhelmina Drizhal is the widow of a former Rector of the Czech Realschule in Briinn, and being a native of Szakolcza, has resided there ever since her husband's death. She is now over seventy. On election day, neither she nor'her 85 THE ELECTION IN SZAKOLCZA daughter had ventured out of the house ; but as we drove past they were leaning out of the window, and called to my friend. We stopped the carriage at their door, and paid a brief call of twenty to twenty-five minutes. On June i6 the local authorities of Szakolcza cited Mrs. Drizhal, and imposed on her a fine of lOO crowns (£4) because she had failed to inform the police of the visit of the two foreign- ers ! She was at first accused of having given us lunch and quarters for the night, but her denial of this false assertion was finally accepted, it being made clear that otherwise she would have been fined double the amount. Mrs. Drizhal appealed to the county authorities of Nyitra, who, needless to say, upheld the decision of their colleagues in Szakolcza, She then appealed to the Ministry of the Interior, and though after four months her appeal still remains unanswered, it is to be hoped that she may obtain justice in the course of the next five years. On my return to Vienna I published a short account of my experiences at the Szakolcza election, in the Neue Freie Presse and the Reichspost of June 10. Hereupon the Hungarian Government issued the following official statement in the Pester Lloyd : — "The author, Scotus Viator, who has repeatedly misrepre- sented Hungarian conditions in a malicious and false manner, deals with the Szakolcza election in a Viennese newspaper, and tries to prove that the Slovak voters underwent all kinds of wrongs, were tormented and stationed outside the town, and that on the afternoon of the election day 300 Slovak electors were driven out of the town by gendarmes. From authorita- tive source the true facts are now given as follows : — Scotus Viator's gravest charge is that the camp of the Slovak electors, numbering about 4,000 persons, among them 1,200 women, were surrounded and watched by a cordon all day in the broiling sun. The truth is that the total number of electors in the constituency of Szakolcza is 2,600 [it is really 2,738], whose overwhelming majority supported the candidate of the party of National Work, so that if there really were 4,000 persons inside the cordon [I had of course said that they were outside, not inside, the cordon], only the smallest part of them consisted of electors, and the greater part, as Scotus Viator himself admits, of women and a mob of non-electors. The authorities cannot be blamed for not allowing the mob access to the poUing booth, for the writer himself admits that great 86 THE ELECTION IN SZAKOLCZA excitement prevailed [Yes, after the forcible ejection of Slovak electors from the town ; but for seven hours after the poll opened the utmost quiet and order prevailed] which through some unwarranted encounter might have led to bloodshed. No one kept back the voters of the Nationalist candidate from voting : the returning officer himself actually repeatedly ap- peared among the Slovak electors and summoned them to vote, [Yes, having previously given orders that no one should be ad- mitted through the second cordon.] If Scotus Viator maintains that he saw at 5 p.m. gendarmes drive 300 Slovak electors out of the town, he has certainly been dreaming. At first he main- tains that the Slovak electors outside the town were surrounded by a cordon and not let into the town, so that it is impossible to understand how 300 Slovak electors suddenly got into the town. The truth is that the Slovak electors themselves re- quested the returning officer to give them an armed escort in order that they might leave the town. [An escort ! Against whom ? Against the Government electors who held the town ?] The writer, then, saw those electors who were going home under the escort they themselves desired, while he speaks of electors who were ejected by the gendarmerie. His com- plaint that on entering Szakolcza on the election day he was summoned to show his papers is quite justifiable ; for it is only natural that wandering politicians, who, like Scotus Viator, make the slander of the country their object in life, should be asked as to the aim of their journey. In other countries this is done in a much more drastic manner." In reply to the Hungarian Government's dementi, I pub- lished a further statement in the Reichspost and Deutsches Volksblatt of June 15, giving eleven concrete instances of cor- ruption at the Szakolcza election, and concluding as follows : " If the Hungarian Government considers these assertions to be untrue or exaggerated, it should instruct the Hungarian Public Prosecutor to bring an action against me before the courts here (i.e. in Vienna). In that case I am prepared not only to state under oath in court what I saw with my own eyes, but also to produce numerous witnesses, who are in a position to prove the above statements." The Hungarian Government ignored this statement ; but Pesti Napio, in its issue of June 11, demanded my expulsion from Hungary, and the Premier Count Khuen-Hedervary, was credited by Filggetlen Magyarorszdg with the words, " Facts must be collected against him before proceedings can be taken. ^7 THE ELECTION IN SZAKOLCZA We are not afraid of an Englishman. The EngUsh Fleet can- not come here, and as for the English Army, we are not afraid of it." ^^ Expulsion being impossible (in the words of the Reichs- post " the stranger had already betaken himself to more friendly Austria ") the local authorities of Szakolcza wreaked their vengeance on Mrs. Drizhal in the manner indicated above. As this disgraceful act of petty tyranny was widely referred to in the Austrian Press, I published in the Reichspost and the Deufsches Volksblatt an open letter to the Hungarian Premier briefly stating the facts, and concluding as follows : " I take the liberty of publicly asking H. E. Count Khuen- H^dervary whether he is not prepared, as Premier of a con- stitutional state boasting a thousand years of life, and as an educated European, to disavow and condemn this Asiatic action on the part of the Szakolcza authorities. At the same time, I would politely request him to turn his attention to adminis- trative conditions in the county of Nyitra, where such cases are by no means unique. Under ordinary circumstances I natur- ally should not have ventured to make such an appeal to him ; but when a lady of seventy is subjected to the most unchival- *'* Pesti Naplo, after urging the Minister of the Interior to expel me from Hungary, asserting that I " make a good thing " out of my " abuse of the Magyars," and printing some outrageous misquotations from my book, proceeds as follows : " If a Magyar were to come to England, and there make statements hostile to the State idea and the nation, what would be done with him ? Prison would be regarded as a slight punishment ; the treadmill would be the lot of that Magyar, and English public opinion would hold this to be most natural." Now it so happens that a distinguished Magyar, Professor Arminius Vambery, did come to England in the eighties, and not merely took an active part in the agitation against the British Government's Near Eastern policy, but actually addressed numerous political meetings on the subject. It was considered at the time that his intervention contributed materially to the fall of the Government. Magyarorszdg, in an article of June 23, entitled " The Dove-Souled Englishman," calls me " the wandering apostle," says " there is no doubt he must get hard cash," and goes on as follows : " Let him go to Ireland (the cost of the journey is far less than to us), and ask the population how they like English rule. Then he can look at India, where he can get very interesting data about those natives whom plague, hunger and pestilence have not cleared away, and whom the whip of the conquering English has not beaten to death. Perhaps ho can also visit the Cape ; it is not very long since the dumdum bullet and bombs and grenades fiUed with deadly poison were employed there." After referring to Posen and Siberia in the same strain, and suggesting that I am too canny to set foot in Germany or Russia, the writ«r ends with a further reference to " tiie paid agents of agitation." 88 THE ELECTION IN SZAKOLCZA rous and illegal political persecution, merely because she received me for half an hour in her house, the most elementary sense of decency urges me to do all in my power to brand publicly this incredible incident, and to appeal regarding it to the chief representative of the 'chivalrous Hungarian nation.' " I need hardly add that this appeal was ignored. Note. — Lest the English reader should imagine that such incidents axe altogether exceptional, I think it worth while quoting the experi- ences of a distinguished American lady authoress, Miss Emily Balch, Professor of Economics at Wellesley Coll., Massachusetts, U.S.A., and author of a very able book on Our Slavic Fellow-Citizens (New York, 1910). She states that "the peasant family — returned immigrants — who entertained us overnight, were fined on the pretext that they did not notify the police (the circumstances were such that this was not legally requisite). I sent them the fine money — a small amount — but am not certain that they ever received it " (see also op. cit. p. 26). Similar cases are quoted in my Racial Problems in Hungary, p. 285. See also A cross the Carpathians, by Miss Irby, for account of the arrest of herself and her aunt in 1859 (pp. 160-172), " as persons suspect of Panslavistic tendencies " ; and Rudolf Bergner's In der Marmaros, pp. 136-143, for account of his arrest near Szinever in 1885. FURTHER NOTES ON THE SZAKOLCZA ELECTION (Supplied to me by personal acquaintances and eye- witnesses, ON WHOM I CAN IMPLICITLY RELY) Voting Registers. — ^These are drawn up by a commission sent out by the county assembly and duly sworn. The basis upon which the present franchise rests is the Taxa- tion Census (adoj ovedelem = Steuerzensus), which varies in almost every commune, and which is regulated according to the so-called Table B of the rate-book (see note 5). In the constituency of Szakolcza there are two Voting Register Commissions, one of which is composed as follows : — Chairman, Coloman Szabo, chief szolgabiro ; ordinary mem- bers : Bileczky, under-szolgabiro and Mathias Klempa, post- master of Holies. The following examples may be given of the care and impartiality shown by the Commission in the year 1910. In the voting rolls of Holies they filled in the occupation of the town priest and rural dean. Father Joseph Kucsera, as " tiler," and that of the curate of Holies, Dr. Hermann Herold, as " soapboiler." Needless to say, both were known personally to the members of the Commission. 89 THE ELECTION IN SZAKOLCZA In the commune of Egbell the Commission had notified that it would visit Egbell officially at 2 p.m. on March 21, to consider all claims or disputes relating to the voting roll. They did not, however, arrive till 5.30 p.m. that evening, and of the group of forty-two electors who were waiting with com- plaints, only three held out for three hours and a half. These three, Mark Vesely, John Jurena and John Kollar, were passed by Mr. Szabo as entitled to vote, and in half an hour the Commission was finished with the 200 electors of Holies. Their care and accuracy became apparent when the official register was published on May i. In it the names of the three men already mentioned figured as Veselsky, Jurina and Roller, instead of Vesely, Jurena and Kollar. On the other hand, a large number of unqualified persons had found their way on to the lists — for instance, agricultural labourers on the farms of the Royal domains of Holies and Sassin, all the male members of the families of the Jewish innkeepers and secondhand dealers, and even a local butcher, who figured as " elementary schoolmaster." Appeals were lodged against the electoral roll of Szakolcza constituency in no fewer than 435 cases ! The Candidate and his Election Addresses. — According to law, at election time every candidate has the legal right to visit unhindered any place in his constituency and deliver his electoral address there ; he is merely bound to give twenty- four hours' notice to the communal authorities of the day, hour and place of meeting. Dr. Okanyik announced his intended meetings to the com- munal authorities of the villages in question by registered letter. The chief szolgabiro of Szakolcza, however, sent written orders to all the communal notaries, that they must leave him to deal with any notifications of meetings sent in by the candidate. He then proceeded to prohibit Dr. Okanyik's meetings on the following grounds : — No. 1592/1910. — " . . . Sundays and festivals being the days which are least suited for the people being beguiled into illicit demon- strations under the influence of political addresses, and public squares near churches having been notified as the places of meeting, I regard it as an affront to piety that the neighbourhood of churches should be used for canvassing purposes. At the same time I give notice that I can only permit Dr. Okanyik to hold his electoral addresses on weekdays." Acting upon this sic volo, sic jubeu of Mr. Szabo, Dr. 90 THE ELECTION IN SZAKOLCZA Okan3ak notified meetings for the weekdays May 24, 25, 27 and 28, but they were forbidden on the following grounds : — No. 1795/1910. — " . . . Since Nicholas fKostyal [i.e., the Govern- ment candidate] has notified to me that he will deliver his election address on May 24, 25 and 27, and since I have authorized them, I cannot be present at the speeches proposed in the notification handed in [by Dr. Okanyik], and consequently cannot allow them, owing to lack of control. With regard to the other date, I could not authorize it, because I am engaged elsewhere on May 28 . . . further because on May 27 the electors from Katov and Kopcsan will be at the Holies market in considerable numbers, and will, according to custom, stop there some time ; and because the crowd of peasant women, being specially prone to passions, are, in the absence of the heads of families, very apt to indulge in excesses, criminal acts and demonstrations; while on the other hand I am certain that Dr. Okanyik devotes his election address to audiences of that kind. ..." Dr. Okanyik not unnaturally bombarded the Ministry of the Interior with express telegrams, protesting against this illegal behaviour of the chief szolgabiro and claiming protection against his arbitrary decisions. He received no direct answer of any kind ; but it is possible that his protests were indirectly responsible for the following circular which he received from Mr. Szabo : — No. 1798/1910 (Holies, May 22, 1910)."' — . . . The candidate of National Work [i.e. Kostyal] having abandoned his individual elec- tion addresses, I permit the candidate, Dr. Okanyik, to deliver speeches on May 27, 30 and 31 in the communes of Kopcsan, Kutty, Broczko, Egbell, Tovisfalu and Czoboczfalu, under the unconditional pledge that he shall notify to my of&ce at least twenty-four hours beforehand the time and place of any meeting which he proposes to hold there. ..." On May 28, however, Mr. Szabo telegraphed to the captain of police in Szakolcza, to the effect that the candidate, " Dr. Okanyik, may deliver his speech at 12.30 p.m. on May 30, but may not speak in any public square, but only in a closed locality to which only electors are admitted." While Mr. Szabo placed such unwarrantable interpretations on a law which is already illiberal enough, he was accom- panying the Government candidate, Dr. Nicholas Kostyal, throughout the constituency and helping him in the work of canvassing.*^ *" It should be added that Dr. Kostyal had plenty experience of electioneering in the district, having himself previously been szolga- 91 THE ELECTION IN SZAKOLCZA Dr. Okanyik, who as town priest might have been sup- posed to be a good judge of what would affect the spiritual welfare of his people, was not allowed to speak on Sundays or festivals ; but of course the layman, Dr. Kostyal, was exempt from such a veto and gave his address when and where he pleased — for instance, on May 5 at Peterfalu. Dr. Okanyik, on the other hand, was escorted at Szabo's orders out of the village of Czoborfalu between two gendarmes ; and his entrance to the village of Unin was blocked by a cordon of gendarmes, and he was even forbidden to conduct a service in the village church ! On Sunday, May 29, Father Michael Uhrik, at present curate-in-charge of Olohota, who had for- merly been curate of Unin, came there and spent the night, intending to record his vote on the Wednesday. On the morning of May 30, however, he was compelled to get into a carriage and was expelled from the village under pretext of an imaginary " nationalist agitation," though he is actually a Magyar and a native of Esztergom. Illegal Preliminaries to the Election. — According to Law XV. § 154 (1899) the returning officer is bound to consult the party agents (Vertrauensmanner) of the contending parties, before arranging the place of assembly of the electors, the distances from the polling booth, the assignment of inns to the respective parties, and the nomination, in equal numbers from each party, of " marshallers " to control the electors. If the Vertrauensmanner desire it, the places to be assigned to the respective parties must be decided by lot. None the less. Dr. Csemniczky, the returning officer at Szakolcza on June I, simply refused to discuss the above details with the four representatives of the Okanyik party (Messrs. Sandor, notary ; Paul Kostyal, advocate's clerk ; Dr. Cserny and Rev. Adam Slavik). He then prescribed for the Opposition voters a route of approach to the town which for many of them added more than two hours to their journey. He assigned to them quarters outside the town, 600 yards from the polling-station, and did not assign them any of the town inns. Finally a military cordon was drawn round the town, and another cordon of gendarmes placed before the quarters of the first bird of Holies, and having acted as returning officer at the notorious election in Szakolcza in i8g6 — an election which supplied the famous Hungcurian novelist Mikszath with material lor an admirable election story. 92 THE ELECTION IN SZAKOLCZA polling commission. At this Dr. Csemniczky himself presided ; at the second (which sat at a restaurant in a street leading off the central square) Dr. Uzonyi. According to legal practice the voters are summoned to the poll village by village, and the rival parties have precedence alternately. For instance, at the first commission the voters of Szakolcza itself were first summoned, the adherents of the party of National Work coming first and then those of the Opposition ; then followed the villages in the order prescribed by the returning officer, and in the first of these the Opposition voters would naturally have come first and then the Govern- ment voters, and so on alternately at each of the two commis- sions. The electors of the town of Szakolcza began to vote at 9.30. By 10.15 all the Government voters had recorded their votes ; the Opposition voters were obliged first to go out of the town, assemble in the Opposition " camp " and wait until sum- moned by the returning officer. Two hundred and twenty-six voted, but of these forty-eight were rejected, and the act of voting was spun out over nearly five hours — the object of course being to w^ar out the Opposition's patience by forcing them to wait all through the night in order to vote. Before the second commission, seventy-two voters from Holies presented themselves, and of these the returning officer rejected twenty-seven Opposition voters, while strange persons were allowed to vote, sometimes two or three times over in the name of dead electors or of others who were absent in America or elsewhere. After Holies, the voters of the next village, Vradis, were summoned before the second commission, and those of Broczko before the first. They were passed through the first cordon and kept waiting outside the inner cordon ; and as they did not appear at the polling-booth, the returning officer first ordered the Government voters to vote, and then told the Opposition voters that they must wait till the close of the poll, having missed their turn ! ! ! This manoeuvre is repeated. The Opposition voters from Verbovce are summoned, let through the first cordon and stopped at the second. Dr. Uzonyi despatches three passe- partouts to bring them to the poll ; all three return and announce that the Verbovce voters won't come ! The returning officer requests Mr. Slavik (the Lutheran clergyman who was one of Father Okanyik's Vertrauensmanner) to go and induce his parishioners to come, but refuses his request for a free 93 THE ELECTION IN SZAKOLCZA pass and merely sends with him a Government passe-partout, who leads him in an opposite direction. Mr. Slavik is finally obliged to beat a retreat to the polling-booth, to avoid being arrested as a canvasser poaching on the enemy's preserves. Dr. Uzonyi then ordered the Government electors from Verbovce to be admitted, postponed the Opposition voters from Verbovce till the close of the poll, and then summoned the Opposition voters from Egbell. The latter are admitted as far as the second cordon, and there find their friends from Vradis, Broczko and Verbovce crowded together, waiting. None of them are let through. After long discussion with the passe-partouts, Father Blaho, of Egbell, managed to induce one of them to bring him before the returning officer of the second commission. Dr. Uzonyi alleged that the Verbovce voters did not want to vote ; and when informed that on the contrary they had been waiting for three hours at the cordon, he requested the Egbell voters to wait, and told the passe-partout who had brought Father Blaho to introduce the Verbovce voters at once. Both he and Father Blaho hurried back to the cordon, only loo yards from the polling-place — only to find no one there. During the five minutes which Father Blaho had spent talking with Dr. Uzonyi, another passe-partout had told the facts of the case to Dr. Csemniczky, the other returning officer, who promptly gave instructions to the gendarmerie officer in command of the cordon. The latter, without a word to the crowd, drew his sabre and set his fourteen gendarmes in motion ; and the crowd of Opposition voters were driven steadily back at the point of the bayonet as far as the outer cordon, a distance of 600 yards. ILLEGALITIES COMMITTED AGAINST THE ELECTORS OF VERBOVCE By Rev. E. Sandorfi, Parish Priest of Verbovce The inhabitants of Verbovce were for many years supporters of the Government of the day, the explanation of this being that till emigration to America began, they were extremely poor and largely in the hands of the Jews, who controlled the whole hfe of the district and were of course the willing instruments of every government. This dependence formed part of the reckoning of the authorities, who, at the last 94 THE ELECTION IN SZAKOLCZA revision, instead of holding strictly to the property qualifica- tion (amounting to 19 crowns in Verbovce), inscribed as many as 352 persons on the voting roll, instead of merely 160 to 170. These additional votes naturally fell to men with little or no property, such as vegetable- or rag-dealers, or dependants or employes of the commune who could be forced to vote according to orders. Moreover, the commission charged with examining the voting rolls inscribed some who had been dead for eight or ten years, and sometimes by varying the names managed to inscribe others two or three times over. For instance they entered " Kozsik Maly Janos," then " Kozsik Janos," and finally " Maly Janos," obviously in order to get one and the same person to vote several times. On the other hand they omitted altogether from the roll some electors whom they knew to be either supporters of the Opposition or at least unreliable. Two brothers, millers, called Bebla- vovcov — the elder of whom is the second largest proprietor in the commune — were omitted altogether, and the same thing happened to others. But even all these tricks in the composition of the voting- rolls were unavailing. The population had gradually become much more independent and self-reliant, thanks to American emigration ; it freed itself materially from Jewish control, and the influence of the Slovak press — especially the Slovensky Tyzdennik — roused it to a consciousness of its own worth and duties. Thus in spite of the efforts of the authorities. Dr. Okanyik found enthusiastic support in Verbovce when he raised the banner of the small proprietors. When he spoke at Verbovce, it became at once apparent that the days were over when the men of Verbovce were brought to the poll like cattle to the slaughter-house, and that this former stronghold of any Government candidate could be relied upon no longer. When the Government party realized this, it did not scruple to employ any act of intimidation and illegality to influence the electors. The chief szolgabiro of Szenicz, Mr. Szale, at first forbade Dr. Okanyik to hold a meeting in Verbovce on a Sunday after church service, on the ground that Sunday was meant for prayers, and a political speech would disturb the faithful in their devotion. ^^ Finally Dr. Okanyik was granted leave •^ Lest English or Scottish readers should be tempted to take this seriously, it may be pointed out that Sundays and festivals are the 95 THE ELECTION IN SZAKOLCZA to deliver his address on a Saturday ; but on arriving at Verbovce, he was obUged by the mayor, Samuel Manak, to speak at the cattle-market outside the village and not in the principal square, where later on Dr. Kostyal gave his address under an escort of troops and gendarmes. Okanyik devoted his speech mainly to the needs of small landholders. He was continually interrupted by stupid remarks and threats ; but the speech made so favourable an impression, that even Okanyik's opponents attempted to challenge his arguments, and some even admitted their justice, thus showing that their support of the official candidate was only due to pressure. The authorities, in despair, canvassed day and night. In the parish council office there was no pretence at ordinary work for several weeks before the election. People were cited to the office under pretext of official business, and there offered money or deluded with promises. One was promised that his son would be released from military service ; others were warned that their sons on service would have their usual harvest leave docked, etc. As all these efforts seemed of doubtful efficacy, twenty-six hussars were despatched to Verbovce to " preserve order," though nothing whatever had happened which could justify such a measure. All these hussars were to have been quartered on the heads of the Okanyik party, and the latter would have been obliged to clear their own stables and byres for them, if the lieutenant in command had not rejected them as unsuitable for army horses. It should be added that this officer, Baron Filler, behaved in an absolutely correct manner towards Okanyik's adherents. The voting-roll of Verbovce contained 325 names ;• Okanyik had 187 adherents, hence the Government party cannot have had more than 140 voters. At the poll the Government electors from Verbovce voted before the second commission, at which Dr. Uzonyi, notary of Szakolcza, acted as returning officer. The voters were introduced in batches of six or seven in such a way that Okanyik's representative could not always see properly what was going on, and the voters' names were read out as they appeared before the returning officer. Where there were several voters of the same name, a Government voter was allowed to record a vote both in his own name and only really favourable days for meetings, the peasantry being on other days busy in the fields. 96 APPENDIX in that of his namesake. Quite imaginary voters recorded their votes in the name of dead men or of persons who either did not exist or had been fraudulently inserted in the voting roll. A Jewish boy of sixteen, Ignaz Reichsfeld, voted instead of his father of the same name, who though he died ten years ago is still on the roll. Indeed the roll contains three Ignaz Reichsfeld's, though only a single one actually exists. Further concrete cases are the following. Two votes were recorded in the name of Paul Manek, 3 votes each in the names of Paul Kuharek from Chvojnice and Paul Melicharek, while certain persons who had no vote at all, voted twice or three times, and others recorded the votes of dead namesakes. Okanyik's representative at the poll noted many other cases, but when he protested, the returning officer replied, " Don't interfere with my rights until I call upon you. Then you can speak," and all the former could do was to keep a careful record of these illegalities. APPENDIX II PROHIBITION OF OUT-OF-DOOR MEETINGS From the Chief Sz6lgabir6 of the District of Szakolcza No. 1464/1910. Dr. Louis Okanyik notifies that he wishes to hold a pubHc meeting on April 24 at 3.30 p.m. in Holies, on the public square before the Roman Catholic Church. Decision. I take cognisance of this notification, in accordance with ministerial order No. 766 of 1898, permitting the meeting not on the public square, but in a closed locality. Consequently I summon the notifier to find for himself a closed locality and to notify it to me in my office not later than 10 o'clock on the morning of the 24th, so that I can inspect it, to see whether it is suited for this purpose. Reasons. I had to sanction this meeting, for the person of the notifier as priest offers me the guarantee that he will not transgress the limit of free speech (szoUas szabadsag jogkoret). But I could not allow the party assembly on the place mentioned by him, viz. before the presbytery, for this place is exclusively for the Roman Catholic Church and its intrance, and so through the noise of the meeting the devotions might be disturbed ; on the other hand, this place is so narrow that the meet- ing might block up the street, with the result not only that communi- cations would be disturbed, but the people would be exposed to bodily injury. This place is also unsuitable because just at the time notified the people coming from service consist to a great extent of women and C.R.H. 97 H THE ELECTION IN SZAKOLCZA children, who are not qualified to take part in a meeting, and I should be compelled to remove them from the place, which might have incal- culable results. So public a place is also unsuited for the holding of political speeches, for the further reason that on feast days a large number of foreign elements from neighbouring Moravian villages are in the habit of mak- ing excursions to Holies ; and as their politiccd convictions are the very opposite of our own, this could give occasion to demonstrations which I could not prevent with the armed force at my disposal. For the maintenance of public order not the notifier but the autho- rities are responsible. Finally, since it is not the purpose of the party meeting that unquali- fied elements should take up position against the enjoyers of political rights, the meeting can only take place where such elements are ex- cluded, i.e. in a closed locality ; for the practice of holding meetings in public places and streets is not for serious politics, but usually for the unrestrained mob, since only class warfare and incitement against the community are wont to gain a foothold there. The interference of such crowds might also injure the political con- victions of the notifier. Against this decision appeal can be lodged within fifteen days either orally or in writing in my office or through the Vice-Sheriff. This is notified (i) to the communal authorities of Holies, (2) to Dr. Louis Okanyik, resident in Szakolcza. HoLics, April 23, 1910. Szab6, m.p., {Official stamp.) Chief Sz61gabir6. [The Magyar original of this document is in my possession. — R.W.S.-W.] APPENDIX III MEETING PROHIBITED AT 6 O'CLOCK, BECAUSE A RIVAL MEETING IS FIXED FOR 4 O'CLOCK From the Chief Sz6lgabir6's Office, District of Szakolcza No. 1465/1910. Dr. Louis Okanyik notifies that he wishes to hold a public meeting in the commune of Kopcsdny on April 24 at 6 o'clock. Decision. In accordance with Ministerial Order 766 of 1898, I do not take cog- nisance of this notification and forbid the holding of the meeting, while pointing out the legal consequences ; because on the same day, April 24, at 4 p.m., a similar public meeting takes place at Holies, which might be prolonged till evening, and because the force charged with upholding public order is occupied, and I am therefore not in a position to send the necessary force to maintain order in the commune referred to. If I gave my sanction, it might come to disturbances in the com- mune of Kopcsany, and for this I cannnot undertake the responsibility. . . . (appeal allowed within fifteen days). . . . HoLics, April 23, 1910. Szab6, m.p. [The Magyar original of this document is in my possession.] 98 CHAPTER VI The Election in Szenicz Candidates : Mr. Vagyon, Party of National Work. Mr. Milan Hodza, Slovak National Party. THE following account has been supplied to me by reliable persons in the constituency itself, who are in a position to bring forward witnesses or documents for every statement which it contains. " On March lo, 1910, a conference of the Slovak National Party in the constituency was held at Szenicz, almost every commune being represented, and Milan Hodza was unanimously nominated as candidate. ''The first electoral addresses were duly notified for Sunday, May I, in the communes of Stepano, Dojcs and Csacso, but were not allowed by the authorities, on the ground that the people of these communes would run great danger of being incited, on this international day of celebration, by unscrupu- lous Socialist agitators. In consequence of this, the electoral addresses were postponed till the following Sunday, May 8, but they were again not allowed. The decision of the autho- rities in Stepano (No. 517/1910) runs as follows : " This noti- fication is not taken cognisance of, because the electoral address is proposed for Sunday at 12 o'clock midday, in other words at the very time when the peaceable people are going home from the church service, and so it may be assumed that the public order and the safety of person and property would be endangered, and the authorities cannot assume the responsibility for this." The chief szolgabiro also informed the President of the Slovak National Party, Dr. Louis §imko, in his decision No. 2182/1910, that he would under no circumstances allow public addresses to be held in his district on Sundays or festivals, on the ground that the people are on such days peculiarly open to the hateful stump-oratory of unscrupulous agitators 99 THE ELECTION IN SZENICZ and homeless vagabonds (foldonfuto bitang), and that he had not enough gendarmes at his disposal to prevent excesses. Appeals were lodged against this action, but to no pur- pose. The candidate, when he applied personally at the Ministry of the Interior, was promised redress, but in the county another opinion prevailed. Hodza had reckoned upon the Ministry insisting upon a pure election in Szenicz, even against the will of the county authorities ; but it soon became obvious that he was out of his reckoning. He had to con- tent himself with speaking on weekdays in the villages : the chief szolgabiro having calculated that in this way Hod^a would only have small audiences, since the peasants are of course busy working in the fields on ordinary days. The chief szolgabiro, Dr. Louis Szale, adopted very skilful tactics, in ordering seven to twelve gendarmes to " accom- pany " each candidate. Their functions varied according as the candidate was called Vagyon or Hod^a. In the former case, they had to attend to the audience, since otherwise hardly any one would have appeared at the meeting except the village mayor and the local Jews. They also had to prevent awkward remarks on the part of the electors, or at least to punish them at once. In Hodza's case they had more to do, and there were generally a dozen of them. Above all, they had to keep a wide space free in front of the candi- date, so that it was not always easy to hear every word. And any one who tried to come nearer might easily be dropped upon. Straight opposite the candidate stood the szolgabiro, smoking, yawning, measuring the speaker with his angriest looks, occasionally interrupting. A good example of this oc- curred at Stepano. Hodza pointed out in his speech, that the King '^ also favoured the introduction of Universal Suffrage in Hungary, " and if our King ..." "I cannot allow the candidate to mention the King in his speech." The speaker went on, " And even though all those in authority were against us, God would still help us to our rights. . . ." " I forbid you," cried the szolgabiro, " to use the name of God in your speech ! " " Being limited to weekdays, Hodza resolved to open his campaign on Tuesday, j\Iay 17. Dr. Simko, in the name •• [The reader must not forget that Francis Joseph is Emperor of Austria only, and King of Hungeiry. — R. W. S. W.] 100 THE ELECTION IN SZENICZ of the party, notified that Hod^a would arrive at the station on Whit-Monday, i6th ; the szolgabiro requested him not to have a " banderium " to meet him, but consented to the candidate being welcomed at the station and addressing a few words to the people from the house where he was to stop. He also gave his word that freedom of speech should be re- spected. When the day came, however, the people turned out in such crowds that the row of carriages and carts stretched over a mile from the station, and several thousand people were in the town. The szolgabiro was furious at this. Hodza when he reached the house spoke a few words, in which two young clerks of the szolgabiro interrupted him with cries of "Be off." What he said was roughly this : " You have often proved your good sense, and your behaviour is different from that of these interrupters, who only shout and have no idea of the common good. We Slovaks respect the law and observe it, and we want to see that the laws are observed by those in this district whose duty it is to uphold the laws. My heartiest thanks, farewell ! " Hardly had he spoken, when a kind of panic arose in the crowd. The twelve gendarmes, on the orders of the chief szolgabiro, had attacked and driven back the crowd, and the szolgabiro then came forward and said, " As the candidate has charged the officials of the district with not observing the law, I forbid him to speak." " So that is your word of honour ? " answered Dr. Simko. " Next day (May 17) Hodza began his campaign, which was like a triumphal procession : observers, both friendly and hostile, of the popular enthusiasm, were certain of his election. Those however who knew better the game of the county clique, did not share this opinion. Above all, they took account of the fact that a large proportion of the independent electors had been expunged from the voting roll, so that out of a total of 2,400 no less than 500 safe votes had been lost to the Slovak Party. Among the local Jews and clerks, on the other hand. Universal Suffrage already prevailed, for practically all of them, over the age of eighteen, had been entered as voters. Besides this, a large number of the names of electors were wrongly entered, so that many could have been rejected in this way. "On May 31 the leaders of the Slovak party of Szenicz be- came aware of strange proceedings in the district. Eighty gendarmes, half a battalion of infantry and a squadron of lOI THE ELECTION IN SZENIC2 dragoons received orders to draw a triple cordon round the little town of Szenicz. In some of the villages drums were beaten and the people informed that only real electors would be allowed to pass through the cordons into Szenicz. This simply meant that the county officials and gendarmes would be free to let through just whom they pleased, since not a single free pass had been given out to the electors. "At 4 o'clock two Slovak Vertrauensmanner — Dr. Louis Simko and Dr. Cyril Horvath — went to the returning officer, to hand in the candidate's nomination and to request par- ticulars about the places to be assigned to the parties. The returning officer found that the names of three of the necessary twelve proposers were not written precisely as in the voting roll, and therefore handed back the document — a clear sign of how he would treat inaccurate spelling on the voting roll, when it came to voting. He then ordered that Vagyon's electors should enter by the main streets and take up their quarters in the square opposite the chief inn, while Hodza's electors were to go by paths outside the town and wait 250 yards outside, until they received further instructions. He refused to give a single free pass to Hodza's party. Thus from the very first the Slovak leaders were deprived of the possibility of bringing their electors to the poll. " As a result, all the Slovak representatives met that evening, and resolved to take no part in the election ; messengers were sent to every village, ordering that no Slovak elector should appear at the poll next day. Discipline was so good that only two men failed to comply.®^ " The necessary signatures having been added to the nomin- ation paper, this was accepted by the returning officer, who consequently opened the poll next morning. The officials naturally wanted to get together as many votes as possible, and so more than one labourer, who had no right to vote, voted two or three times for absent electors. In this way over 1,100 votes were recorded for the Government candidate, although, out of a total of 1,980 electors, only 700 at the very most were present in Szenicz that day. "Hodza, who was detained in Budapest by other matters, only heard of his withdrawal after all was over. His opponents, however, had spread the report that he had betrayed the people, by accepting some high post from the Ministry. •* The reason for abstention was that an attempt to assert their rights would inevitably have led to bloodshed. 102 THE ELECTION IN SZENICZ " On the morning of the poll, every entrance to the town was invested by troops and gendarmes. The Slovak party leaders felt that it was impossible to contend against over- whelming armed force, and were anxious not to involve their supporters in dangerous conflicts. "Since the election the supporters of the Slovak party have been subjected to continual annoyances. There are over i,ooo cases of persons being cited and punished by the szolgabiro; few are ever dismissed. Under such circumstances it is only possible to cite a few examples. "In many cases the gendarmes gave notice to the szolgabiro — presumably acting on instructions — that the dunghills in the small peasant proprietors' farmyards were not in proper order, or had been allowed to get too large, or that such and such a peasant had driven his cart too fast. The punishment for such offences varied from 2 to 200 crowns (is. 6d. to £8), and there are scarcely ten electors of the Slovak party in the constituency, who have not been cited. Many brought proofs of innocence, to no effect. For instance, Stephen Jurovaty, from Korlatko, when the gendarmes came to him, was cau- tious enough to get the village mayor and another member of the parish council, and to point out to them that his dung- hill had been cleaned out and was in perfect order. They both confirmed this before the szolgabiro, but he decided that the evidence of the gendarmes was more reliable than that of the mayor and councillor. He employed the same line of argument in many other cases. "Those who cited facts in their defence, fared badly. For instance, Florian Hrica, from Stepanov — who had been cited for not having any closet to his house — was fined 50 crowns {£2), simply because, as the szolgabiro himself empha- sized, he had pointed out that his neighbour, who was against Hodza, also had no closet. The others were only fined 4 crowns (3s. ^d.) " Kelemen Haba, fromDojcs, cited for an accumulation of dung in his yard, had the " impudence " to say to the szolga- biro that the property of the Kuffners in Szenicz itself had 100 times as much dung in its farmyard as there was in his. For this he was fined 40 crowns, while the other villagers of Dojcs, over sixty in number, only had to pay 2 crowns each. " As a result of the formal reception of the candidate on May 16, about 100 peasants were cited and fined 20 crowns each, for alleged furious driving. It is a notorious fact that 103 THE ELECTION IN SZENICZ such a thing was quite impossible on that day, the crowd being so great that the carts had to go at a walking pace. Several of the persons sentenced were able to prove that they were not there at the time alleged — for instance John Orgodik, from Kunov, who was in church. Others, for instance, John Macek, from Rovensko, proved that they had no horses, but only cows (and so could not have indulged in fast driving), but the gendarmes had denounced them, and this was enough. "Some young fellows of Smolinsko had erected a kind of triumphal arch in honour of Hodza. For this offence almost every young man in the village was cited and fined 20 crowns each, although the four " guilty" persons came for- ward and admitted that they alone had erected it. Even this was not enough for the szolgabiro. Later on he cited the fathers of the youths he had sentenced, and punished them also for the same offence. " The worst victims were the villagers of Hlboka. After the elections of 1906 the chief szolgabiro had withdrawn the licence of the inn of Hlboka, under the pretext that the inn was a centre for " Panslav " tendencies, but in reality because the villagers had voted for the Slovak candidate Veselovsky. Three years ago the village notary induced several peasant electors of Hlboka to sign a declaration before the chief szolgabiro, pledging them at any future elections to vote for the latter' s party ; and in return for this, the inn licence was restored. At the election of 1910 they wanted to atone for this behaviour, and so all held with their pastor, a keen supporter of Hodza. This, however, was too much for the szolgabiro. He intervened in person at the Finance and Excise Office in Nyitra, and the licence was again withdrawn, with right of appeal. The szolgabiro however ignored the right of appeal and at once had the inn forcibly closed. On Hodza taking steps in Budapest, a telegram was sent from the Ministry of Finance to the clergyman of Hlboka, informing him that he had instructed the local authorities to open the inn immediately. As no one came to do this, the clergyman applied to the szolgabiro, whom he happened to meet, and asked him to have the inn opened. The szolgabiro replied that he had no time, and the clergyman had better open it himself. When pressed by the latter, he answered, in the presence of numerous witnesses : " Open the place yourself ! It will soon be closed again, and then you can appeal to God Almighty ! " "The sequel of this incident was that some of the peasants 104 THE ELECTION IN SZENICZ of Hlboka were sentenced, for dunghill neglect, not to 2, 4 or even to 20 crowns, but to the maximum penalty of 200 crowns (£8) , and at the same time advised not to appeal, as it would be to no purpose. John Kubicek at once paid his fine, but on appeal it was reduced to 20 crowns. Even this was enough, con- sidering the continual rain which fell this year, and made it quite impossible to prevent streams of water running round a dunghill. " The clergyman of Hlboka was cited for reopening without authorization to do so. At his hearing, all the witnesses of the incident deposed on oath, that the szolgabiro had requested, or at least authorized, him to reopen the inn. The szolgabiro however denied this on oath. The court found the clergyman guilty and sentenced him to a fine of 40 crowns. " A week before the election almost all the inn licences — except those belonging to Jews — were withdrawn, permission being left to their owners to hold on until the period within which appeal is possible (i.e., fifteen days) had expired. In other words : whoever does not vote for Vagyon, will lose his licence finally after the election. " A stranger who hears all this, will be apt to inquire, ' How is it possible that the people put up with all this ? Can they not assert their rights ? ' The answer to this is that after the elections of 1906 more than 280 complaints were lodged against the administrative authorities, and that every one of these was rejected in every court. What else can be expected, when it is possible for the accused official to act as examining magis- trate {juge d' instruction) in his own case ? Some of these complaints, for instance, reflected upon the chief szologabiro of Szenicz, and yet it was he who inquired into them and reported on them to the Public Prosecutor." 105 CHAPTER VII The Election in Rozsahegy Candidates : Mr. Joseph Angyal, Party of National Work. Father Louis Bajor, Slovak National Party. I HAVE received from very trustworthy sources a report of the election in Rozsahegy, but although it contains many striking instances of the official attitude at election time, and of the difficulties with which non-Magyar candidates have to contend, I have decided not to print it, but to leave the following five documents to speak for themselves. From them the reader will see that the Slovak candidate was re- peatedly prevented from holding meetings in the constituency, on the most arbitrary grounds. It should be remembered that the constituency of Rozsahegy is the scene of the Slovak leader, Father Hlinka's persecution and of the massacre of Csernova. On November 26, 1906, Father Hlinka, the town priest of Rozsahegy, was sentenced to two years' imprisonment and a fine of 1,500 crowns, for a speech made in support of Dr. Srobar, the Slovak candidate, who was himself sentenced to one year's imprisonment for his electoral address (while three others received sentences of six months, one of four months, and six of three months each, in addition to fines). In May 1908 Father Hlinka was brought from prison to meet a fresh charge of " incitement," incurred in two farewell articles addressed to his parishioners on his entrance into prison, and was condemned to eighteen months' imprisonment and a fine of 200 crowns. In June 1906 he had already been suspended by his Bishop for taking part in the election. Hlinka appealed to Rome, and although the Bishop brought forward close upon sixty charges against him (including simony), he was at length, in March 1909, acquitted by the Roman Curia and triumphantly reinstated in his parish. 106 APPENDIX On October 27, 1907 (before Hlinka had entered prison, but during his absence from Rozsahegy), an attempt was made to consecrate by force a new church in HHnka's native village of Csemova, against the wishes of the peasantry. The gen- darmes who accompanied the would-be celebrants fired on the crowd, and fifteen peasants were killed, and many others wounded. The massacre was treated as a " revolt " : fifty-nine persons were brought to trial, and thirty-nine of these were sentenced to a total of thirty-six years and six months' im- prisonment (among others, Hlinka's sister to three years). See Racial Problems in Hungary, pp. 331-351. In October 1910 Father Bajor was brought to trial on a charge of " incitement against the Magyar nation," incurred in his electoral address, and was sentenced to three months' imprisonment and a fine of 200 crowns. I give a transla- tion of part of the Indictment made against Bajor (Appendix IX), in order that the reader may have an idea of the kind of phrases incriminated by a Hungarian Public Prosecutor. After perusing this document, he will perhaps revise his defi- nition of " freedom of speech at elections." APPENDIX IV PROHIBITION OF MEETINGS, OWING TO DISTANCE {A) From the Chief of Police of the Borough of R6zsahegy No. 1867, 1910. The parliamentary candidate, Michael Bajor, notifies his desire to deliver electoral addresses on the 17th of this month in Villaludrova, Vlkohnecz and Csernova. Decision. This notification is not taken cognizance of, because it is impossible to send police representatives on a single day to three places lying so far apart. At the same time no objection is raised to the parliamentary candi- date holding electoral addresses at two places on the day in question, but their place and hour must be notified without delay in the course of to-day. R6ZSAHEGY, May 16, 1910. {official stamp.) For the Commandant of Police, {signature unreadable), Captain of Police. (The original of this document is in my possession. — R. W. S. W.) 107 THE ELECTION IN ROZSAHEGY APPENDIX V PROHIBITION OF MEETINGS, OWING TO AN INCIDENT FOUR YEARS PREVIOUSLY Chief Sz6lgabir6's Office, R6zsahegy No. 2114, 1910. Decision. The notification of Michael Bajor, resident in Rozsahegy, parlia- mentary candidate, to the effect that he wishes to deliver an electoral address on May 22 between n.30 a.m. and 1.30 p.m. in Kozeprevucza on the meadow beside the house of Peter Mikula, inhabitant of Koze- prevucza, I do not take cognizance of. Because : The notifier wishes to deliver his electoral address in that commune in just such a connexion, at just such a time and in just such a place, as those in which in 1906 before the last parliamentary elections the Roman Catholic priest who is still working there influenced the elec- tions from the platform, with the result that he was sentenced to state prison in accordance with Law XV of 1899. In consequence thereof the calm disposition of the usually peaceful people was excited, and thus the security of person and property was seriously endangered. And since under such circumstances the authorities cannot assume responsibility for the security of person and property, the notification could not be accepted. Whereof I have given notice — (i) To Michael Bajor, resident in Rozsahegy, so that he can appeal against this decision within fifteen days to the Vice Sheriff of the County of Lipto, the appeal, however, being handed in to me. (2) To the mayor of Haromrevucza (Kozsegibiro, Gemeinderichter). (3) To the notary of Haromrevucza. (4) To the commander of the Royal Hungarian Gendarmerie in Oszada, for information and strict execution of this my decision. R6ZSAHEGY, May 21, 1910. Hornansky, m.p., {official stamp.) foszolgabiro. (The Magyar original of this document is in my possession. I also have a similar document (No. 2295, 1910). signed by the same szolga- biro, Mr. Hornansky, refusing to allow another meeting announced by the Slovak candidate, Mr. Bajor, for 3 to 5 p.m. on June 5, also on the meadow beside Mikula's house in Kozeprevucza. This second document has evidently been copied word for word from the above ; only the dates and the turn of a single phrase have been altered !) 108 APPENDIX APPENDIX VI THE CANDIDATE ORDERED TO BE PUNCTUAL, AND MADE RESPONSIBLE FOR PUBLIC ORDER (From the Chief of Police of the Borough of R6zsahegy No. 1957, igio.) -^i Michael Bajor, parliamentary candidate, announces that he will deliver an electoral address on May 22 at an unnamed street and place between 5 and 6 o'clock in the neighbourhood of the school, and on 23rd in Csernova in the square beside the church between 8 and 9 in the morning. Decision. That part of Michael Bajor's above notification which states that he will speak at Csernova on the 23rd between 8 and 9, I have taken cog- nizance of and I allow the electoral address to be held, on condition that the address be held not on the square near the church, but on that portion of the main street which stretches from the John Hlinka inn to the Lawcourt Street. I learn that the notifier is in the habit of not adhering punctually to the hour notified by him and allowed. I consequently point out to him that he should hold his electoral address punctually at the hours sanctioned, for if he does not hold it at the precise time, I shall not allow it to be held later. That passage of the notification which refers to the electoral ad- dresses of May 22 I do not accept, first because in it it is not made clear in what street and on what spot (hej) the petitioner (sic !) wants to hold his address, and second I cannot in the interests of public order allow this address to be held late in the afternoon, because the address or at least the gathering of crowds might last till late in the evening. Finally, I make the notifier responsible for public order and also for security of life and property at the time of the electoral address which I have allowed, and as long as the speech lasts and until the meeting disperses. I make this known to Michael Bajor, parliamentary candidate, resident in Rozsahegy. RozsAHEGY, May 21, 1910. {signature unreadable), {official stamp.) Captain of Police. (The Magyar original of this document is in my possession.) APPENDIX VII PROHIBITION OF MEETINGS, OWING TO RELIGIOUS PROCESSIONS Express Telegram to Michael Bajor, from Chief Sz6lgabir6 of R6zsahegy, May 25, igio " Electoral address notified for morning at Nagyborove I do not allow in view of religious processions. "Chief Szolgabiro." (The original is in my possession.) 109 THE ELECTION IN ROZSAHEGY APPENDIX VIII PROHIBITION OF MEETINGS, BECAUSE FIXED FOR OTHER THAN OFFICIAL HOURS, AND BECAUSE THE CANDIDATE FAILED TO APPEAR ON A FORMER OCCASION No. 639 (1910) Notice of the parliamentary candidate, Michael Bajor, regarding electoral addresses to be held on the 29th of this month. Decision. I do not take cognizance of Michael Bajor's notification, with the exception of the commune of Als6mattyasocz. Reasons. For the commune of Nagyborove the electoral address is fixed for the hour of twelve to one o'clock ; considering that official hours are not kept at that time and that the electoral address might just as well have been altered to another time, I do not accept the notification. "With regard to Hutti and Hoszuret, the holding of an electoral address was already notified once for those places on May 26, and I therefore appeared there and waited for the candidate till late in the evening ; the latter, however, without any reason, failed to give his address then. I am therefore not inclined to go out a second time, possibly again to no purpose, and for this reason I do not accept the notification. For the commune of Alsomattyasocz I permit the address, on con- dition that if it does not take place, my office is notified by telegram. Above decision can be contested by an appeal to the Vice Sheriff of the County. Michael Bajor in Rozsahegy is informed of the above. NtMETLiPcsE, May 27, 1910. Thur6czy, m.p., {official stamp.) Chief Sz61gabir6. (The Magyar original of this document is in my possession.) APPENDIX IX No. 3484, 1910. An inquiry has been instituted against Michael Bajor, charged with the offence of incitement. I submit herewith the indictment. I accuse Michael Bajor, native of Bobro, aged thirty-three, R.C. priest of H0II6 Lomnicz, of the offence of incitement under § 172 of the Criminal Code, in that he did on April 17, 19 10, in R6zsahegy before a crowd of 400 to 500 persons, publicly incite the Slovak nationality to hatred against the Magyars. I challenge especially the following parts of his speech : — " To the faithless doubter I point to Szeged, Vacz, Mdria-Nosztra and Illava, and I am convinced that if not even the cold walls of the prisons, but the clank of convict chains, and sighs which cry up to 1 10 APPENDIX heaven for vengeance and . . . the utter desertion should break down our devilish faithless denials, but actually cause them and convince them of the bitter lot of an individual who is conscious of his Slovak nationaUty . . . ." ... In the course of his speech he called the leading Magyar poli- ticians " a race of Tartar robbers," the Magyar nation a Tartar race (fajzat) which oppresses the Slovaks. Of the Magyar Government he made the following assertion : "It persecuted, tormented, imprisoned our leaders, in the belief that if one removes the shepherds, the sheep also scatter. But not even content with this, the plundering wolves fell upon the sheep, the peace-loving devout Slovak people. But why do I mention these heartbreaking injustices, why do I reopen the still unhealed wounds of the Slovak hearts, why do I set flowing again the Slovak people's bitter tears, when it would be better to stem them ? These Tartar ravages would still have lasted till the present day. . . ." " We want to put an end to these illegalities, which cry to heaven, which even our chief enemies admit, when they fully condemn the bloody persecution ^* to which the peace-loving Slovaks were merci- lessly subjected under the Coalition Government. . . ." "... lest unscrupulous official organs misuse the Slovak people's ignorance of the Magyar language. ..." " We want to live, we want to live as Slovaks. We only wish that no one should seize us with impunity, or persecute us, or spit in our face . . . merely because God Almighty created us as Slovaks and we want to remain Slovaks. We only wish that every fool may not be free to come and abuse the Slovaks as Slovak cattle . . ." " I should like to be the storm, the tempest which heals the miseries of the Slovaks, so that I might blow to-day throughout the Slovak district. ..." I propose the Royal Court of Rozsahegy as suited for the trial . . . Reasons. . . . Accused defended himself on the ground that he did not say more than is contained in the speech drafted by him, that in it he did not mention the Magyar nation, but criticised from a political stand- point the Government's attitude on Universal Suffrage and the declara- tions of Magyar politicians regarding the Slovak nationality. The political views of the leading politicians of the Magyar nation and of the Government are identical with the views of Magyardom in the racial question. When then the accused contrasted the leading politicians of the Magyar nation and the Government with the Slovak nationality, he awakened in his whole audience the knowledge that under the poli- ticians of the Government and the Magyar nation he really meant the Magyars. . . . Accused himself steps into the ranks of a champion of the rights of the Slovak nationality and provokes the order for arrest, in order that he may appear to the credulous Slovak population to act without self- interest. By the very fact that accused considers necessary a struggle between '* An allusion to the Csernova Massacre in October 1907. HI THE ELECTION IN ROZSAHEGY the Magyars and nationalities enjoying equal rights with them in this country, he wishes to rouse in his Slovak audience the conviction that the Slovak nationality is robbed of its rights in the face of the Magyars, and that he is not a citizen enjoying equal rights in this country. . . . •* (Here the extracts already given are told over again.) \\Tien then the accused, using the most violent expressions, maintains of the Government and the leading politicians of the Magyar State and of the executive offices of State, that these factors rob the Slovak population of their rights ... it is evident that thereby he contrasts the Magyar as the nationality which founded the State, with the Slovak nationality. But this contrast and the untrue description of the Slovaks' situation (that their chief leaders languish in prisons among convicts, that ravening wolves — by this the Magyars are meant — hurled themselves upon the peace-loving Slovak people, so that it is in misery and lives deprived of its rights and subject to official abuses — all this had no other purpose than to incite the Slovak audience to hatred against the Magyars. The inciting tendency of the speech is not removed by the context : " "We are devoted to our country from the depths of our hearts, . . . we shrink from no kind of sacrifice. ..." (He ends by claiming Bajor's punishment for incitement under Par. 172 of Crim. Code.) Julius Belopotoczky, PubUc Prosecutor. R6ZSAHEGY, July 20, 1910. •* In other words, it is a criminal offence to criticize the execution of the Law of Nationalities (admittedly a dead letter), by asserting that all citizens are not treated equally by the law. 112 CHAPTER VIII The Election in Kisjeno Candidates : June i : Count Ladislas Wenckheim, Party of National Work. Zoard Lazar, Party of Independence. Octavian Goga,** Roumanian National Party. June 1 6 (second ballot) Count Wenckheim v. Octavian Goga. " /^ OLD and Blood " would form a suitable title for a book V_T dealing with electoral abuses in Hungary ; for al- most everywhere these were the two decisive factors which secured the victory of the present Government. Our present object however, is not to prove that a large number of votes were bought by the Government party in Kisjeno, and that next to the weapons of the gendarmes, a liberal supply of cash was the most telling argument in their favour, but to deal with electoral abuses of another kind, and notably the illegal pressure exercised by the administrative officials and the brutal behaviour of the gendarmes. The chief strength of the Nationahst Party lay in the enthu- siasm kindled in the masses by contact with their leaders. It was only necessary to appear among the peasantry, to recite the catalogue of their grievances and to point out the remedies required — and they were ours, without the need for money or for highsounding promises. Hence it became essential for the Government party to isolate the Roumanian peasantry from its natural leaders, the educated class ; this once achieved, bribery and intimidation became more practicable. We have collected under three main heads a considerable number of concrete facts of electoral corruption. •• The most promising and'popular of the younger Roumanian poets. For a brief account of his persecution by the Magyar authorities, see my letters in the Spectator and Nation of Jan. 22, 1910. C.R.H. 113 I THE ELECTION IN KISJENO I. Isolation of the Electors from their Leaders. Arrest AND Expulsion of Roumanian Canvassers. The order was given to the gendarmerie that all persons acting for the Roumanian National Party and attempting to discuss any election matters with the people, should be expelled from the communes of the constituency. In this way Dr. Justin Marsieu, advocate, Dr. Adrian Popescu and Dr. G. Crisan, law students, and Brutus Pacurariu, bank official, were arrested and escorted out of the district. A Roumanian journalist, George Stoica, of the Foaia Popo- rului in Hermannstadt, had been sent to the commune of Keriilos to assemble the Roumanian electors there and bring them to Kisjeno on the day of the election. On the day after his arrival, he was arrested in the street by gendarmes. An old woman of sixty, the mother of the villager Theodore Palincas with whom Stoica was conversing at the moment, asked the gendarme what offence he had committed, to be arrested in this way ; but the only answer she received was the gen- darme's clenched fist in her face, drawing blood from nose and mouth. Brought before the village mayor, the journalist produced his passport and gave references to the priest of Keriilos, the Archpriest Augustus Tarsiu and his curate Julius Popp. None] the less he was kept under arrest in the village jail, under the pretext of " incitement against the Magyars," and at 9 o'clock the same evening was escorted by two gen- darmes in a farmcart to Kisjeno, where they arrived at 11 o'clock. Here Stoica was put into a filthy cell, which had been occupied till only a few hours before by a gang of wandering gipsies, and was kept there till nine next morning. Thanks to the efforts of the local Roumanian advocates Dr. C. Ardelean and Dr. G. Popovici, he was then examined by the chief Szolgabiro Csukai, and as there was no evidence against him, was set at liberty. He was however forbidden to move about in the district during the electoral campaign, on the ground that he was " a danger to the state," having been sentenced in February 1908 to 18 months' imprisonment for an article in the Lupta. Stoica' s first step on regaining his liberty, was to take a hot bath, to rid himself of the crowd of obnoxious companions whom "His Majesty's pleasure" permits to haunt the cells of Kisjeno. Before the second ballot, the Roumanian party leaders were treated in a still more summary manner. The strictest orders were given to expel all canvassers belonging to the Roumanian 114 THE ELECTION IN KTSJENO National Party, and consequently even the men who came to engage carriages for bringing the Roumanian voters to the poll, were ejected. Among others, on June 12 the law- student John Codrean and the small proprietor Uros Patean were expelled from the village of Szekudvar. That same day the former M.P. Vasile Goldis paid a visit to his sister in Sze- kudvar ; but it was only after a long and disagreeable dispute with the gendarmes that he was allowed to remain there, and the latter posted themselves at the door of the house and allowed none to enter or communicate with Goldis. After his visit was ended, the former deputy was escorted between drawn bayonets down the village street to the station. Dr. T. Maior, advocate, and Justin Capra, law student, were expelled from the village of Miske, and on June 14 Dr. Julius Marsieu, advocate, and Theodore Leucutia, schoolmaster, from Nagypel. On June 15 (the day preceding the election) the Roumanian party organizers were expelled all along the line, the object of course being that the peasantry should be left entirely without any person versed in the law and capable of holding his ground against terrorism and corruption. For instance. Dr. Aurelius Cosma, advocate in Temesv4r, the former M.P. Dr. John Suciu, advocate in Arad and Dr. Peter Ghozda, lawyer's clerk in Simand, were escorted by gendarmes out of the commune of Talpos ; from Szekudvar were expelled Dr. Justin Marsieu, advocate. Rev. Peter Marsieu, the newly elected priest of the village itself, and John Codrean, law student ; from Csintye, Dr. Cornehus Jancu, advocate ; from Gyulavarsand, Dr. Michael Marcus. In Keriilos the gendarmes expelled not merely two students, Aurelius Capra and Justin Capra, but also the newly elected deputy for Vilagos, Dr. Stephen Pop, who appealed in vain to his parliamentary immunity. In the commune of Szekudvar the chief canvas- sers of the Roumanian party, John Otava, John Igna, and John Dehel, were arrested on the day before the second ballot, and only released next day, after all the electors of the village had left for Kisjeno and so could no longer communicate with them. The gendarmes actually went so far as to expel the Rou- manian candidate, Mr. Goga, from the villages where he wished to hold meetings. On June 9, for instance, he wanted to attend the church service at Zarand, in company with Dr. Ardelean ; but at the entrance to the village his carriage was surrounded by six gendarmes, who ordered him with the utmost 115 THE ELECTION IN KISJENO insolence not to get out. They then escorted him with drawn bayonets as far as the boundary of the commune of Csintye, where other gendarmes were waiting to escort him to Nadab, and so on till he found himself back again in Kisjeno without having been allowed to speak to a single person in these three communes of his constituency. The record was reached when on the eve of the second ballot Mr. Goga was prevented from showing himself on the street, and warned by gendarmes with brusque effrontery that he would be arrested if he left the house. The local leaders of the Roumanian party — thirty or forty in each commune — were treated by the gendarmes in the most brutal manner. Everywhere the houses of the priests and the schoolmasters were watched by groups of four gen- darmes, who prevented them from communicating with each other. In Nagypel, for instance, the priest was only allowed to perform his priestly functions under gendarmerie escort, and the local physician Dr. Theodore Papp was forbidden to speak to the people on the street, as he went about his ordinary medical duties. The other priest of Nagypel, Rev. Michael Ratiu, an old man of seventy-eight, was stopped by gendarmes on his way with the sacred elements to a parishioner's deathbed, and ordered in insulting terms to turn back. " You old robber," cried one of the gendarmes, " have you gone out with the Bible, to make fools of the people ? " Another priest. Rev. Stephen Leucutia, of Simand, who had come to visit his mother-in-law on her deathbed, was escorted from the house by gendarmes. Such means effectively separated the masses from their natural leaders and left the officials free to bring into play every trick of the prevailing electoral system. Needless to say, the electors of the other party were treated in a very different manner. Count Wenckheim's agents and canvassers were free to go where they pleased. Gipsies fiddled in the inns, and wine flowed in streams. The notary sum- moned voters to him and made every effort to win them for the Government party. Even the chief Szolgabiro of the district went round daily in a motor-car and went into the peas- ants' houses, to tell them whom to vote for. A single in- stance shows the attitude of the gendarmes towards Count Wenckheim's agents. On June 12 three of Mr. Goga's party organizers Aurelius C;ipra, law student, John Ambrozy, clerk, and Theodore Tuleu, peasant, drove to the village of Agya, in 116 THE ELECTION IN KISJENO order to win o\-er the Magyar voters there for the Roumanian candidate's cause. When " held up " by the gendarmerie and ordered to prove their identity, they pretended to be agents of Count Wenckheim, whereupon the gendarmes at once saluted respectfully and let them pass without further ado. It was only through this trick that they were enabled to come into contact with the people for a few hours. The same gendarmes who forcibly ejected Mr. Goga's agents, acted as escort for the agents of his opponent and did everything to assist them. At the best a Roumanian canvasser here and there succeeded in finding his way by night over fences or hedges into the courtyard of a peasant, or, himself disguised as a peasant, with hoe upon his shoulder, accosted an elector as he worked in the fields. II. Intimidation and Blows' r Any one who lives in Hungary and has any knowledge of peasant life, is well aware that the tiller of the soil has no more persistent enemy than the gendarme. All the hatred and passion of which our peasant is capable reveals itself when he comes to talk of these guardians of public order. Those who have been present at an electoral campaign in Hungary, will have no difficulty in understanding this feeling. The gendarmes are the instrument for enforcing the plans laid by the local officials, and they thus become — sometimes, it must be admitted, quite against their will — the chief agents of illegality instead of the champions of order. Being for the most part thoroughly uneducated, they are naturally inclined, when once they throw off restraint, to indulge in gross abuse of their position. During the electoral campaign, daily com- plaints were brought to the Roumanian candidate by his supporters. Blows, boxes on the ears, knocks from the butt of a rifle, were freely dealt in by the gendarmes. More than once peasants who dared to call out the name of Octavian Goga, were treated to a box on the ears. The lengths to which the gendarmes went, may be gathered from their treat- ment of the Roumanian candidate himself. On May 6, for instance, Mr. Goga was holding his electoral address in the commune of Csintye. As he alluded in a chance phrase to " us Roumanians," the leader of the gendarmes charged with maintaining order at the meeting interrupted with the loud remark, " You are not a Roumanian : you are a Magyar, for 117 THE ELECTION IN KISJENO you eat Magyar bread." It is easy to imagine how such a man behaves towards simple peasants, if he treats their leader thus. Here are a few typical specimens of the gendarmes' behavi- our in Kisjeno. It was election day. The villagers of Szintye, who to a man supported the Roumanian candidate, were making their way to the polling station. Their leader, George Jencicas, with a tuft of fir in his hat and a confident smile on his face, drew upon himself the disfavour of the gendarmes, one of whom dealt him as he passed a hard blow in the back with the butt of his rifle. Surprised and angry, Jencicas turned to him with the question, " What are you hitting me for ? " As answer, he was dragged away from his comrades by three gendarmes and under a shower of blows led away to the town hall. What happened to him there only he can tell. It was only after some hours had elapsed, and after repeated appeals had been made to the returning officer, that he was brought back. Before setting him free, they washed his face, to remove the traces of their brutality. But none the less at 9 o'clock when he was restored to his friends, the poor fellow's face was one mass of bruises, and his shirt was soaked with blood. For no fault at all, he had been brutally beaten ; no explanation was given at his arrest and none at his release.'' Another typical example of gendarme brutality occurred in the village of Zarand before the second ballot. Here, too, all the electors with two or three exceptions were adherents of Goga. Some person unknown cut off the manes and cropped the tails of the horses of the local judge, Michael Varga. The latter not unnaturally informed the gendarmerie of the fact, but added that in his opinion only the peasant George Tamas or his son could have committed such an offence, since they were the most zealous supporters of Goga in all the village. The peasantry treated the whole matter as a joke, and showed •' On June lo complaints were lodged by him with the Gendarmerie Commando at Arad and with the Honved Ministry at Budapest. As witnesses that Jencicas was beaten with a rifle, were Dr. Cornelius Jancu, advocate in Arad, Rev. Peter Marsieu, Orthodox priest, Justin Capra, law student, John Kirila and Antony Morar, peasants. There are seven more witnesses to the fact that he was hit and beaten by gendarmes in the corridor of the town house. Finally there are two witnesses to the fact that when he was dismissed at 9 o'clock and his money was given back to him by the gendarmerie corporal, he was asked whether all was in order and simply said, " It is as it is," where- upon his ears were boxed. [The first draft of this petition and the postal receipts of its des- patch are in my possession. R. W. S. W.] 118 THE ELECTION IN KISJENO surprise at Varga's anger, since all that had happened to his horses was that they now looked just like the horses of Count Wenckheim whom he supported, instead of having long tails according to peasant fashion. The gendarmes took the affair much more seriously. Although no Hungarian law had been infringed — indeed the Supreme Court had once ordered the quashing of a trial arising out of a similar incident — they began a severe investigation, and without any grounds to go upon, arrested both George Tamas and his son. The inquiry was conducted according to their usual recipe. Tamas senior was not actually beaten, probably because he was an old man ; but he was stuck in a corner with his face to the wall, and kept there for two days without anything to eat or drink. Meanwhile the son, a young fellow of eighteen, was abominably ill-treated. To begin with, they belaboured him with the butts of their rifles till he was almost unconscious, and then they beat him with a switch on the soles of his feet, until to bring this treatment to an end he at last confessed to the deed. As, however, the gendarmes refused to stop until he produced the corpus delicti, the silly fellow, hoping at least to gain a short respite, told them that the hair clipped from Varga's horses was to be found in his father's stable. They took him there, but failed to find any hair, for the simple reason that he was not the culprit. Fresh ill-treatment followed, as a punishment for his attempt to mislead the authorities ; and at last in despair young Tamas told the gendarmes that he had buried the hair near the well at the end of the village, and offered to show them the spot if they would take him there. He could hardly drag himself along, but he pretended to look for the place, and then with a sudden effort plunged__headf oremost into the well (which is six fathoms deep). The brutality of the gendarmes had driven him to attempted suicide. They were now really alarmed, and with the help of some shepherds rescued George Tamas and brought him back to life. It might have been supposed that this would have been enough for the gendarmes. Needless to say, the peasants were furious and threatening, the gendarmes applied for reinforcements, and the very same day they were joined by forty comrades. And now there began a general pummelling in the village of Zarand. Something like 200 men, needless to say all adherents of the Roumanian party, were roughly handled by the gendarmes. By wa}' of intimidating the 119 THE ELECTION IN KISJENO village priest, the following trick was devised. The young Tamas was forced, after prolonged mis-handling, to declare that it was Father Aurelius Jancu himself who had persuaded him to cut off the horses' manes and tails. The priest was brought to the town house and charged with this offence. He denied it absolutely, and Tamas had to say to his face that he had instigated the deed. The priest, in astonishment, insisted that the boy was not telling the truth, when Tamas burst into tears and begged forgiveness. " It was not of my own accord that I falsely accused you, but only after they have been beating me for three days. Tamas was dis- missed, and the priest was also free to return home ; but for a whole fortnight afterwards four gendarmes stood on guard before his presbytery and prevented anyone from crossing the threshold. Yet another typical case. On June 12 the Magyar electors of Csintye fetched from Kisjeno five flags with which Mr. Goga had agreed to supply them.** Next day one of them, named Gabriel Molnar, hoisted Goga's flag over his house ; but the gendarmes promptly tore it down, and though it was a regular Hungarian tricolour, trampled it in the mud and destroyed it. Molnar they abused roundly for venturing as a Magyar to hoist the flag of the Wallach Goga. Molndr lodged an appeal against this in Kisjeno, and when Dr. Ardelean, as his lawyer, appeared in Szintye to go into the facts, both the local notary and the corporal of gendarmerie informed him that they knew of no such incident, in spite of the fact that Molnar charged the gendarmes individually by name. When the lawyer raised objections the corporal threatened him with his bayonet, exclaiming that he would take no orders from him and was not afraid of anybody. In the commune of Szekudvar a funeral was taking place, and as the procession started the church bell was about to be tolled, according to the usual practice in Roumanian villages. The gendarmes, however, forbade this, because Count Wenckheim was at that moment delivering his electoral address in the village and might be disturbed by the bell. Pages could be filled with similar incidents ; the above •» The usual custom at Hungarian elections is for every elector to hoist over the door of his house a Hungarian tricolour, inscribed with the name of the candidate whom he is supporting. These flags are presented by the candidates to their partisans, this being expressly sanctioned by law (1899, XV. § 9). 120 THE ELECTION IN KISJENO are mere fragments, hurriedly committed to paper. But for every statement witnesses can be produced, who are ready at any time to assume the responsibihty for its truth. III. Behaviour of the Officials. " Orders from Headquarters." " Not at Home " The Roumanian National Party appealed in vain to the local authorities for redress of these gross illegalities. The administrative officials remained absolutely indifferent to all complaints. Their attitude is well illustrated by the following incidents : — Mr. Goga, wishing to remain in close touch with his peasant supporters, had resolved to revisit all the communes in his constituency before the second ballot. He was especially anxious to visit the six pure Magyar villages of the district, where he had not hitherto addressed the electors and had now been invited to make a speech. With this object Mr. Goga notified to the chief Szolgabiro his intention to hold meetings in eighteen different villages on June 14 and 16 ; but in an official intimation, dated June 8, the latter prohibited them all, on the ground that the people was in an excited mood.^^ As he had never even set foot in no fewer than eight out of the eighteen villages, it is obvious that he could not have been guilty of much agitation there. An appeal was lodged against the szolgabiro 's decision, but it was con- firmed by the Vice-Sheriff of the county, on the ground that the original notice omitted the names of the intending speakers, that there were not enough officials to attend so many meetings in an official capacity, and that there was not enough gendarmes to maintain order. In this way Mr. Goga was altogether prevented from appearing in the villages of Agya, Belzerind, Simonyifalva, Nagyzerind, Feketegyarmat, Szaparyliget and Erdohegy, from which he was almost every day receiving invitations from Magyar opposition voters. •• No. 340 (Kisjeno), June 8, signed " Csukay, f6sz6Igabir6." — " Because tlie public feeling of the population has, owing to the election of June I and the preceding excitements, become very passionate, and because attacks on property, dangerous th/eats and even incen- diarism occur daily in the communes [this was not the case], the meetings notified will accentuate the differences between the two parties, and the crowd, driven to frenzy in popular meetings, will again resort to breaches of the law." On these grounds he forbade meetings in 18 viUeLges, 6 of which were pure Magyar. 121 THE ELECTION IN KISJENO Protests against the brutal conduct of the gendarmes were equally futile. The chief szolgabiro was never to be found at his house, or else had given instructions that he was not at home. The commander of the gendarmes simply stated that his men were under the orders of the szolgabiro. The Vice-Sheriff said that he had issued orders, and that the chief szolgabiro had replied that he would take no orders from him ! The High Sheriff was away from Arad, at his country bouse. The Roumanian leaders drive out there, and he refuses to receive them ! The Minister of the Interior, in reply to their telegrams, answers that he has ordered the proper steps to be taken. And things go on as usual. This state of affairs lasted for the whole fortnight which intervened between the election and the second ballot. It seemed as though the whole apparatus of government was out of order. Law and authority gave place to the rule of the bayonet. The Roumanian candidate only once succeeded in finding the chief szolgabiro of the constituency in his office. The latter received him and his two companions, Dr. Ardelean and Dr. Popovici, with extreme politeness, and urged Mr. Goga to withdraw and not to expose himself to the annoyances of a fresh contest. When the candidate remarked that he cared less about getting into Parliament than about keeping alive the aspirations of the Roumanian race, the official candidly rephed, "To me it is not at all a matter of indifference whether you or Count Wenckheim is elected." He expressed polite astonishment that the gendarmes should have expelled Mr. Goga from the villages of the constituency, and at once issued orders that he should be free to move about the district, and that the clergy, schoolmasters and other local leaders should not be hampered in their intercourse with the electors. He even went so far as to sign fifty free passes for the Roumanian party organizers, and they parted on excellent terms. The szolgabiro 's tactics became clear next day, when Mr. Goga found himself ejected by the gendarmes even more summarily than before the new order, and when a notice arrived from the szolgabiro revoking his signature on the fifty free passes. Henceforward it was impossible to find the szolgabiro at his office or in his house ; at best he could sometimes be seen flying past in Count Wenckheim's motor-car. After the recall of these passes, it was impossible for the 132 THE ELECTION IN KISJENO Roumanian leaders to enter any of the villages ; and as the sz61gabir6 could not be reached, they had recourse to the High Sheriff himself, who during this busy and exciting period had seen fit to abandon his post and retire to his country house in the commune of Simand. After looking for him in vain in his office every day for a whole week, the Roumanian candi- date drove out on June 12 to Mr. Urban's house, accompanied by Dr. Theodore Mihalyi, M.P. for Naszod and president of the Nationalities V, Party in the Hungarian Parliament; Dr. Justin Marsieu, advocate in Arad, and Mr. Cornelius Grozda, a local Roumanian proprietor. On their arrival Mr, Urban was engaged in playing taroc with some friends, and on receiving their cards, declined to see them. Not knowing where to turn, the Roumanian leaders addressed telegrams to the Cabinets-Kanzlei of H.M. the Emperor-King, to the Hungarian Premier and to the Ministry of the Interior. The two former remained unanswered, while the latter sent the laconic reply : — " Have given necessary orders. " Minister of Interior." Things remained exactly as before, and the polling day arrived without the Roumanian candidate or his agents having been able to come into contact with their supporters among the electorate. The result of the poll was : 1,246 votes for the Government candidate, Count Wenckheim ; 1,034 for the Roumanian candi- date, Octavian Goga ; igo Roumanian electors — small officials or peasants in a dependent position — voted for Count Wenck- heim, while forty Magyar peasants voted for Goga. One of the latter, Francis Makai, a prosperous Magyar peasant proprietor in Agya, has brought a criminal action in the ordinary courts against the successful candidate's father. Count Wenckheim, senior, and certain of his supporters, for bribery of the electors, and has cited 300 witnesses, all Magyars, to prove his case. This trial, when it takes place, will throw a startling light upon the electoral abuses so habitu- ally practised in Hungary. As all the persons involved in this particular action are Magyars, it cannot be ascribed to the influence of non-Magyar agitators, but rather to the innate sense of justice and fair play possessed by the Magyar peasantry as opposed to the governing clique." 123 THE ELECTION IN KISJENO Declaration We, the undersigned, hereby declare that all the facts adduced abore regarding the electoral campaign in Chi§ineu (Kisjeno) are true, and that we assume entire responsibility for them, since we can prove with witnesses and documents all the circumstances adduced. Arad, October 30, 19 10. (Signatures) Octavian Goga. Dr. George Popoviciu, advocate. Dr. Alexander Lazar. advocate. Francis Makai, mayor of the village of Vadasz. Dr. Justin Marsieu, advocate. John Ardelean, district notary. Dr. Cornelius Ardelean, advocate. George Adam, bank official. !' Dr. Romulus Veliciu, advocate. Dr. Cornelius Jancu, advocate. [The Roumanian original is in my possession. — R. W. S. W.] APPENDIX X THE KISJENO CATTLE PASS At the first election the former member, Mr. Zoard Laza, wasr at the bottom of the poll, and at the second ballot forty of his Magyar supporters recorded their votes for the Roumanian candi- date, Mr. Goga. As a good illustration of the feeling among the Magyar population of the district, I add a translation of a printed letter (in black letters on yellow paper — a clumsy allusion to the Austrian colours, black-yellow, and the Government's alleged dependence on Austria), which was sent between the first and second elections to the address of all the Magyar electors__,who had voted for the Government candidate, Count Wenckheim. Need- less to say, this letter originated in the camp of the Kossuthist party, and it is characteristic that, though its authorship was almost an open secret in the district, not one of the many hundred electors who received it took any steps to vindicate his reputation. OX! On the occasion of the last elections you have sold your country and yourself, denying the principles you have hitherto held, and have yourself accepted the sale price. On the i6th of this month there will be another market in Kisjeno, and lest you should at this new market fail to find a buyer owing to lack of a cattle-ticket, and lest the gendarmes for want of this should seize you as unowned animals, we send you herewith this free pass, with the fervent wish that the asses and sheep may be less numerous at this market than on the last occasion, because you will then certainly be given more than the price for which you were sold last time ; and with the further wish that the God of the Magyars may take back the Judas money you accepted, in such a way that even your nephews may lament your treachery. 124 THE KISJENO CATTLE PASS ^ree Cattle pass County of Arad. District of Kisjeno. Name of Owner : Yourself. Name of Cattle-dealer : Count Ladislas Wenckheim, Number of Animal : i. Description of Animal : Black- Yellow-haired sheep. Special marks of Identification : Double Eagle on Belly. Place of Destination : Kisjeno, Byre of the Count's Party. Exhibitor : The Belly Party. APPENDIX XI TELEGRAM TO THE IMPERIAL CABINETS-KANZLEI, HOFBURG, VIENNA In the name of the electors of the constituency of Kisjeno who are being hindered in the exercise of their most sacred civil rights, I turn most humbly to Your Majesty, drawing Your Majesty's attention to the fact that the administrative authorities and gendarmes are terror- ising the supporters of the Roumanian National Party in the most brutal way. The party organizers of the Roumanian candidate are in every commune brutally prevented by gendarmes from speaking to electors or bringing them to the poll. Among others I also, in spite of my immunity (as M.P.), was escorted between bayonets out of the commune of Keriilos. The candidate has been forbidden to stay in the commune and the gendarmes have expelled him. But every means of agitation is left open to members of the rival party, and they go through the constituency under gendarmerie protection, intimidating with money and force. Against these unexampled illegalities I have repeatedly appealed to the proper authorities, but without result. Consequently, the Roumanian population of this constituency is alarmed, and its confidence in the impartiality of the defenders of public order is lost. In its traditional confidence in the exalted Throne, they turn to Your Majesty, deeming it their duty to bring these injustices to the motice of the Throne. In humblest loyalty, Stephen C. Pop, M.P. APPENDIX XII TO HIS EXC. COUNT KHUEN HEDERVArY, PREMIER, BUDAPEST With deepest concern I inform Your Excellency that all administra- tive of&cials and gendarmes in the constituency of Kisjeno ignore the order of Your Excellency. There is here a real orgy of abuse of official power and of gendarme brutality. Delegates of Nationalist Party were escorted between bayonets out of all communes, and thus vote can- vassing is prevented. Among others I also, in spite of privilege of immunity, was ejected from the commune of Keriilos. Against all these illegalities we have in Vciin protested to the proper authorities. 125 THE ELECTION IN KISJENO Chief Szolgabiro Csukai is journeying through the district. We have repeatedly called at his oflfice and not found him, and the gendarmerie commander throws all responsibility for all illegalities upon adminis- trative authorities. Consequently the population of the constituency is embittered, and I beg Your Excellency with deepest indignation to take measures. Stephen C. Pop. M.P. APPENDIX XIII TELEGRAMS TO H.E. COUNT KHUEN-HEDERVARY. MINISTER OF INTERIOR In the constituency of Kisjeno the abuse of gendarmerie power is unbounded. The candidate, Octavian Goga, is not allowed to go through the constituencies, he is forcibly ejected by gendarmes and not allowed to return. Uros Pateanu and John Codreanu in the com- mune of Szekudvar, Dr. John Maior and Justin Capra in Miske, were seized by gendarmes, escorted between bayonets, and prevented from making arrangements for the transport of electors to the poll.'" The canvassers of Goga's party are not allowed to go into the villages, and his electors may not communicate with each other, while canvassers of the other party move about in every direction under protection of gendarmes. We request you to order an inquiry against the gendarmes and to take steps to prevent recurrence of such cases. Request tele- graphic answer to Kisjeno. Dr. Theodore Mihalyi. Reply — " Have given necessary orders. Minister of Interior." "> Under Law XV (1899), § 9. Cf. p. 22. 126 CHAPTER IX The Election in Dicsoszentmarton Candidates : Mr. John Sandor, Party of National Work. Mr. Romulus Boilla, Roumanian National Party. IN this constituency, as elsewhere, the Roumanian candidate's electoral campaign was rendered almost impossible by the attitude of the officials. He was only allowed to hold two public meetings in Kiikiillovar and in Szancsal. All other public meetings were prohibited, those of Mikeszasza, Radnot, Balasz- telke and Felso-Bajom on the ground that the candidate in- stigated the people and disturbed the peace and public order. The following documents will show the reader the methods adopted. APPENDIX XIV No. 1289/1910. Mr. Romulus Boilla, Dicsoszentmarton. In reply to your application lodged on May, 24, stating that you wish to deliver your electoral address as Parliamentary candidate at a party meeting in the Greek Catholic presbytery on Sunday, May, 29, at I p.m., I announce the following decision : — In accordance with decree No. 766/1898 of the Minister of the Interior, I forbid the party meeting intimated by you and the electoral address which was to be held at that meeting, and beg to inform you that should the party meeting take place on the day referred to in defiance of this decision of mine, I shall dissolve it by force and shall institute criminal proceedings against those present, in accordance with the Ministerial order already referred to. Grounds. From various quarters I have ascertained that the Roumanian- speaking inhabitants of the district of Hosszuasszo, irrespective of age, sex and religion, had, even before the meeting had been notified, been informed that the electoral address would be delivered in Mikeszasza on the 29th inst., and that they had been urged by the clergy and other persons to attend the meeting en masse, without distinction of age and sex. 127 THE ELECTION IN DICSOSZENTMARTON On this ground, then, and in view of the following phrase in your application — " Let electors of whatever party, and also citizens who have no votes, attend my electoral address " — it can be established that the party meeting announced by you is a mere pretext with a view to holding either a popular meeting or an electoral address. If, as I assume from your application, the object of this meeting is to acquaint the electors with your programme, then a meeting of electors can perhaps be authorized on the basis of a new application. Your application for permission to hold a popular meeting (or party meeting as you call it) could not be admitted or complied with, for the further reason that the date of the elections is already fixed and the feelings (of the people) are already roused to a high pitch ; should these feelings be still further kindled and should similar sentiments be aroused among the non-electors, this would affect the free expression of will on the part of the enfranchised citizens, and hence might hamper the unhindered course (sic) of the election, nay, might even cause the invalidity of the election. This decision is to be notified to Dr. Romulus Boilla, residing in Dicsoszentmarton, with the remark that an appeal can be lodged against it within fifteen days of its receipt, but this must be addressed to the Vice-Sheriff and submitted to me. Fazekas, m.p., F6sz61gabir6. HosszuASSz6, May 25, 1910. [The Magyar original of this document is in my possession.] APPENDIX XV No. 637, 1910. From the Vice-Sheriff of the County of Kis Kukullo. The chief szolgabiro — in his decision of May 25, No. 1289, regarding the party meeting which Dr. Romulus Boilla, candidate of the Nation- alities Party, proposed holding in the commune of Mikeszasza, in order to deliver his electoral address there — had refused to permit the elec- toral address and the party meeting. Dr. Romulus Boilla having sent a telegraphic complaint against this decision to the Minister of the Interior, I have consequently studied the telegraphic complaint, which bore the character of an appeal, and as the result of my inquiry I make the following decision, in second instance : I reject the appeal brought forward in form of a telegraphic complaint and confirm the above-men- tioned decision No. 1289/1910 of the upper szolgabiro. Grounds. I had to confirm it both owing to the reasons adduced in the Szol- gabiro's decision, and also because I too possess official information that the object of the advocate who lodged the appeal, in holding meetings and electoral addresses in various places, was not merely to win supporters for the point of view of his political party by the strength of argument and conviction, but to win over the masses by incitement and by the strength of racial feeling to his own person as Roumanian, and in this way to hinder his Roumanian compatriots 128 PROHIBITION OF MEETINGS among the electors in the free exercise of their will — in other words, to influence in his own favour, by means which the law does not sanction, the kindling of fanaticism among the masses. The advocate who lodged the appeal had, moreover, previously gathered together 500 to 600 Roumanians in the commune of Kiikiillovar to listen to his electoral address ; and among them were a great many persons who have no vote, Roumanian youths, women and growing children, before whom he dealt with the racial question in the course of a one-sided (tendencieux) speech so impudently and with such strong references to separatist aspirations, that this is calculated to disturb the well-known concord and peace which prevails between the various nationalities inhabiting our country. Such meetings — as the present instance proves — do not merely have the appearance of a party meeting, but definitely the character of a popular meeting, which, under the influence of in- flammatory speeches in the exciting electoral campaign which has already commenced, might result in the destruction (sic) of the public peace, and thus might not merely cause serious disturbances, but also endanger public order, for the fatal issue of which the county authorities cannot take upon themselves the responsibility owing to the lack of an adequate armed force of which they could make use, consequently the chief szolgabiro referred to had only performed his lawful duty in forestalling, by the measures mentioned in his Decision, the excesses caused by electoral excitement, and in thus providing due protection for person and property. And against this action there is all the less objection to be raised, because in his finding the way and means were indicated, by which the Parliamentary candidate, if he had adopted them and put them into operation, could freely exercise his legal right of delivering an electoral address, and if the appealing advocate none the less did not deliver his address, the ground of this is to be sought in some other circumstance, and not in the blame laid by him upon the chief sz61gabir6. Against this decision in second instance, which coincides in the main with the decision in first instance, there can be no appeal, but merely a petition for revision, which must be addressed, within fifteen days of the receipt of this, to the Minister of the Interior, but handed in to the authorities of first instance (viz., the sz61gabir6). I hereby return the documents and instruct the chief sz61gabir6 with a view to further steps in the matter. CsATO, m.p., Vice-Sheriff. DicsoszentmArton, June 5, 1910. For the authenticity of the above copy. G6ZA MiKLOS, Clerk. H0SSZUASSZ6, June 12, 1910. No. 1492/1910. Dr. Romulus Boilla, advocate, Dicsoszentmarton. I inform you of the above. Dr (unreadable) f6szbir6. [The Magyar original ofthis document is in my posession. — R.W.S.W.] Note. — It will be noticed that the decision is dated June 5, four days after the election was over, that the clerk took a whole week (June 5 to 12) to copy and forward the document to its destination, and that the sz6Igabir6 tent it on after adding two typewritten words (Mirol C.R.H, 129 K THE ELECTION IN DICSOSZENTMARTON Ertesitem) and an unreadable signature, in other words the authori- ties deliberately prevented the Roumanian candidate from holding rieetfngs dLegarded his appeals for justice, and then added insult to Siun/ by waiting till it was too late to obtain redress, and then cover- ing 7hee^ts of foolscap with legal quibbles of the most transparent absurdity. 130 CHAPTER X The Election in Alvincz TILL May 27 (four days before the election) there was only one candidate in the constituency, namely Dr. Julius Maniu, member of the Roumanian Nationalist Party. On the 27th Dr. Edmund Mayer, a Jewish advocate in Gyula- fehervar, was put forward as the official candidate. From this moment terrorism prevailed in the constituency : no meeting was permitted : all the active supporters (Vertrauens- manner) of the Nationalist party were forcibly escorted out of the communes ; and were under no circumstances allowed to have intercourse with the electors. For instance, Mr. Victor Muntean, bank clerk, was ejected in this way from the com- mune of Alamor, Messrs. Nich. Pop and Justin Hossu from the commune of Ohata, Dr. Justin Nestor from the commune of Kisenyed, Mr. Michael Serban from Dalya, Dr. Victor Macavei from Kutfalva, and Dr. Daniel Szabo from Alvincz. The village mayors, the officials and the innkeepers, were threatened with the severest penalties, if they did not vote for the Government candidate. Some of the inns were actually shut up and only reopened after their landlords had pledged themselves to vote for the Government. "The inns thus shut up were those of John Marginean in Alvincz, Avram Grecu in Kama, John Muntean in Buzd. In addition to these, the inns of James Stanea in Alvincz, John Vasin in Drombar, and Nich. Vancea in Demeterpatak are still closed to-day, with the result that their owners are completely ruined. The reason for this was that these inn- keepers recorded their votes for the Roumanian candidate. "Against this treatment the Nationalist Party protested, but entirely without effect. The fact of the party organizers having been expelled is proved by a telegram sent by the chief sz61gabir6 of Vizakna to aU the notaries in his district, 131 THE ELECTION IN ALVINCZ repeating two days before the election the order for ejection from all the communes in the constituency. (Appendix XVI.) The object was to make it impossible to bring the Roumanian electors to the poll at Alvincz. I "The Government Party tried to buy votes as high as 400 to 1,000 crowns (;^i6 to £40), in return for a pledge either to vote for Dr. Mayer or at least to remain at home. For instance Gabriel Gerbea received 400 crowns, and this gave rise to a criminal action. The agricultural labourer Nich. Ordean from Kama, and the schoolmaster of Kama, John Martin, also received 400 crowns, but none the less voted for the Nationalist candidate. In fact the latter actually deposited the 400 crowns which had been paid to him on the returning officer's table and then recorded his vote for Dr. Maniu. The two priests. Rev. John Batecuia, of Ohaba, and Rev. George Cutean, of Also-Varalja, as well as others, were promised 1,000 crowns each, if they would abstain from voting, but to no effect. ' ' All efforts were in vain. The Roumanian electors remained firm and loyally stood b}? Dr. Maniu. The administrative officials, when they saw this, endeavoured to prevent the electors from reaching Alvincz, where the polling station was. Not a single Roumanian party organizer was allowed to go to collect and fetch the electors, although all the time the Govern- ment Party brought in its adherents with the help of the gendarmerie and the local officials. The Nationalist Party could do nothing to help itself, while its opponents were free to scour the whole constituency in carriages and motor-cars. After repeated complaints the Roumanian candidate, Dr. Maniu, was at last permitted on the night before the election to visit his electors in two or three villages. " The efforts of the officials were unavailing, in view of the stubborn patience and self-restraint of the Roumanian peasant electors, who, though deprived of their leaders, persisted in coming to the poll. Consequently fresh tactics had to be adopted, in order to falsify the result of the election. In order to understand these tactics, it must be explained that the constituency of Alvincz contains fifty-two communes, — some of which are a long way off from Alvincz. where is the only polling-booth. The electors from thirty villages have to start at least a day before the election, in order to arrive at Alvincz in time, while the electors from the remaining twenty- two villages must also start very early, some even at midnight. The constituency contains only 1,004 voters, of whom 587 132 THE ELECTION IN ALVINCZ axe Roumanians, 191 Saxons, and 221 Magyars. The Saxons invariably vote for the Government, and on this occasion all the Magyars also. Thus after counting every priest, school- master, mayor and innkeeper, the Roumanians still command a majority of 170 votes, and consequently the Government could only secure the election of its candidate if it won over a minimum of 85 Roumanian votes. These votes had to be secured by hook or by crook. "To begin with, in order to prevent communication between the polling-station and the "camp" of the Roumanian Nationalist Party, only five free passes were granted to the latter's party organizers, though meanwhile in the Government " camp," in addition to the usual party organizers, quite a crowd of people — local notaries, village mayors, tradesmen and others — were supplied with red bands on their sleeves, which entitled them to pass freely everywhere, even in the Opposition " camp." The Roumanians were thus continually interfered with, not merely by the gendarmes, but also by the canvassers and agents of the other side, but in spite of pro- vocation they remained absolutely orderly. "Gross abuses were committed by the returning officer. Ten supporters of Dr. Mayer put forward an altogether fictitious candidate, under the name of Julius Maniu, from Fogaras, the object being to mislead the Roumanian voters. The ten proposers themselves, however, recorded their votes not for their own dummy candidate, but for Dr. Mayer. But when a Roumanian elector, in reply to the returning officer's question " For whom do you vote ? " said not " Dr. Julius Maniu," but, in peasant fashion, simply " Julius Maniu," then his vote was credited to the imaginary Julius Maniu, without the returning officer calling anybody's attention to the almost unknown fact that there were two candidates of exactly the same name. In this way it was possible to invalidate ten votes in favour of Dr. Maniu, ten voters having in their ignor- ance omitted to add the title of " Doctor " to the name of the candidate whom they were supporting. The trick was how- ever soon discovered, and when the returning officer saw that it would no longer serve his purpose, he resorted to other manoeuvres. Above all, he ordered that the Roumanian electors should only be admitted one by one to the room where the election was being held. As the voter entered, the return- ing officer, in order to confuse and frighten him, came towards him with a lighted cigar in his mouth, and holding it close 133 THE ELECTION IN ALVINCZ to the voter's face, addressed him very roughly. Then if the voter mispronounced the candidate's name or omitted even a single letter, his vote was at once rejected. Dr. Mayer's elec- tors, on the other hand, were received in the most friendly manner. " What is 3''0ur name, my dear friend ? " (Kedves baratom — a common Magyar form of address) and then, " Whom do you vote for ? " And it was enough for them merely to answer " The advocate of Gyulatehervar " : their votes were at once accepted. The different treatment meted out to the two sides is also shown by the fact that it took eighteen Roumanian electors nearly two full hours to get their votes recorded, while a whole batch of fifty supporters of Dr. Mayer were finished in ten minutes. "Finally, about five o'clock in the afternoon, the returning officer, under the pretext that in the Roumanian " camp" there were non-voters as well as voters, ordered its inspection by the szolgabiros, notaries and gendarmes. The real object of this inspection, however, was to count the number of Roumanian electors present, in order that they might calculate the exact number of votes which would have to be rejected if Mayer was to have a majority. As a matter of fact only real electors were found in the Roumanian camp, while the Govern- ment camp contained more non-voters than voters. But the Roumanians had been successfully counted, and hence- forward two or three out of every ten were regularly rejected, on the ground that their names were incorrectly inscribed on the voting-roll, or because their identity could not be established — although the village mayors, to whom the law assigns the task of identification, were present and formally recognized them. In this way fifty-eight votes were annulled. Sixteen more voters from the commune of Ohabawere rejected, on the astonishing ground that the village authorities were not present and identity could not therefore be established. On the same pretext three further votes were rejected, including that of the priest of a commune in the neighbourhood of Alvincz, who was known personally to every member of the electoral commission. Nine more electors were prevented from reaching the Roumanian camp, being forcibly detained at the mihtary cordon till five o'clock next morning. " The election lasted from eight in the morning till five next morning, and during all this time the Roumanian electors had no protection from sun or rain, the returning officer having even forbidden the use of umbrellas ! The total number of 134 THE ELECTION IN ALVINCZ votes recorded was 877. Of these, the Government candidate obtained 422 and Dr. JuHus Maniu 455. As, however, ten of the latter' s votes were assigned to the sham Maniu and seventy-four more rejected on various grounds. Dr. Mayer was declared elected. "On June 17, the unsuccessful candidate, Dr. Maniu came to Alvincz with the object of collecting documents and witnesses for an appeal against the election. " When the gendarmerie learnt that Maniu was in Alvincz, he was summoned to leave the commune. The gendarmes accompanied the ex-deputy as far as the boundaries of the commune, and informed him that he would be arrested if he came again to Alvincz. Maniu brought an action through the administrative authorities." "^ " Needless to say, the object of this measure was to prevent the facts regarding electoral corruption from coming to light." We, the undersigned, affirm and are ready to prove under oath, that all the facts contained in the above description of the election in Alvincz are literally true. To this effect we sign this declaration. Dr. Daniel Szab6, Advocate. Victor Muntean, Book-keeper in the " Patria " Bank. Vasiliu Suciu, Director of the Printing Press of the Episcopal Seminary. Witnesses to their signatures. Victor Maia, Bank-director. John Mihu. [This affirmation is in my possession. — R. W. S. W.] APPENDIX XVI ViZAKNA, 29 V. I9IO. No. 2184. To the District Notary. Every stranger found in your commune for the purpose of canvassing is to be ordered to leave instantly ; in case of refusal, use armed force. Chief-szolgabiro. [The original of this telegram is in the possession of Dr. Julius Maniu, who is producing it in his law action before the Royal Curia (the Court of Appeal in electoral matters) to contest the validity of the Alvincz election.] " Pester Lloyd, June 19, 1910. CHAPTER XI The Election in Magyar Igen IN the constituency of Magyar Igen the two candidates were Dr. Alex. Vaida de Voivod, for the Roumanian NationaHst Party, and Dr. Paul Szdsz, son of the High Sheriff of Also Feher County, for the Party of National Work. Any one acquainted with political conditions in Hungary will reaHze that the election of the High Sheriff's son was regarded as highly "desirable." " The constituency contains only 974 electors, of whom 629 are Roumanians. After allowance had been made for recent deaths among the electors and for absentees, it became clear that which ever party could secure 443 votes, would hold the seat. " The administrative officials, notaries and excisemen scoured the whole district and indulged in open bribery and every kind of pressure. The meetings of the Roumanian candidate were prohibited, and a whole week before the election his party organizers (Vertrauensmanner) were forcibly expelled. Enor- mous bribes were offered, but the Government party could not rely upon a safe majority, and found it necessary to adopt other tactics. 1. An order was issued, prohibiting any person from entering the commune of Magyarigen without a passport. Nine electors from Abrudfalva and T6tfalud, however, were refused such passports. 2. On the passports of the electors from Abrudbinya and Sdrd a secret mark was placed above the signature of the returning officer, and when they appeared at Magyarigen, and wanted to enter the village, they were not allowed to proceed, on the ground that these passports were forged. In this way forty Roumanian electors were kept back from the poll by a cordon of gendarmerie : half of them being determined fellows, man- aged to find their way through fences and gardens to the Rou- manian " camp," while the remaining nineteen failed to get through. 136 THE ELECTION IN MAGYAR IGEN 3. In order to confuse the Roumanian voters, ten supporters of Paul Szasz put forward a sham candidate under the name of Alexander Vaida ; and the returning officer not merely took no steps to make known the fact that there were three candidates, but actually would not allow the Roumanian candidate's re- presentatives (Vertrauensmanner) to inform the electors of this fact. By means of this trick, twenty-four votes were lost to the Roumanian candidate. Dr. Vaida, and credited to an entirely imaginary person of the same name. 4. Only two free passes were granted to the Roumanian party organizers, the object of course being to make communica- tion between the poUing-booth and the Roumanian head- quarters difficult, and so to expose the Roumanians to intimi- dation and corrupt influences. Many voters simply could not reach the poll, because their way was blocked by gendarmes and officials. In this way thirteen supporters of Dr. Vaida were forcibly prevented from voting. Four voters from Sard were rejected, on the ground that the notary from that commune was not present. "The final result was as follows: Dr. Paul Szdsz obtained 412 votes, Dr. Alex. Vaida 385, and the sham Vaida 24. Thirty-six Roumanian votes were disqualified, on the ground that their passports were false, or because they had none (having been refused them) : four more, on the ground that the notary of Sdrd was not present ; and seventeen other electors were prevented by the gendarmes from reaching the poll. Thus quite apart from the twenty-four voters assigned to the dummy candidate, the Roumanian leader was illegally deprived of fifty-seven votes, or a total of eighty-one votes. Dr. Szdsz was declared elected by a majority of twenty- seven votes, although in reality he was in a minority of fifty- four. After the election it transpired that votes had been recorded for Dr. Szdsz in the name of a dead man and of a man who at the time of the election was really at Marienbad. A petition against the validity of the Magyarigen election has been lodged with the Royal Curia. Witnesses to the above facts : Rev. Joseph Gombos, Abrudfalva. Dr. Lawrence Pop, Advocate, Abrudfalva. Dr. Candin David, Advocate, Abrudfalva. Augustine Dumitreanu, Sard. 137 CHAPTER XII The Election in Szaszvaros Candidates : Dr. Paul|Farkas, Party of National Work — 639 votes. Dr. Aurelius Vlad, Roumanian National Party — 584 votes. A PETITION has been lodged against Dr. Farkas' election, on the basis of the following charges : — I. Under Law XV (1899), § 3- ^^> ^^e votes of Philip Gazdeu, mayor of Feredogyogy, and of the mayors of ten other com- munes (in each case throughout the petition the full names, voting numbers, etc., are given) should, the petition claims, be declared invalid, because they were forced to vote for Dr. Farkas by the chief szolgabiro, Arpad Pogan}^ and the under szolgabiro, Alex. Szekely ; while the mayors of three other villages at their instance refrained from voting, II. Under Law XV, § 3. 2, the petition demands that the votes of the following electors shall be declared invalid, because they were bribed to vote for Dr. Farkas (" and at the same time," it adds, " we maintain that Dr. Farkas was concerned in the commission of these acts "). 1. Nicholas Dejan, from Gyalmar, received 10 crowns to vote for Dr. Farkas, and is dted as witness, on the ground that he himself adm,its it. 2. Geo. Csurdereszk and Adam Lazas received 50 crowns each. Witnesses cited : Samuel Bocz, who gave them the money, and Rev. J. Mocza and J. Adam, editor, before whom they both admitted receiving it. 3. Bocz is further alleged to have bought the votes of three other electors with 20, 30 and 30 crowns before the election, and 40, 30 and 40 crowns after the election, respectively. 4. The same man, in company with a butcher of Szdszvaros, is charged with having bought 9 votes from the village of Bereny at 60 crowns apiece, 9 voters from Szaszvaros at 50 to 100 crowns each, and three electors from Szereka at 100 to 500 crowns each. 138 THE ELECTION IN SZASZVAROS Four voters from Arany are alleged to have been bought for 50 crowns apiece. 5. It is alleged that on the evening of the election day Dr. Farkas, the candidate, himself promised John Eberstein, in the latter's own house in Szaszvaros, 300 crowns for his vote, but that after the election only 100 crowns was actually paid to him by the Captain of Police, Andrew Baksay. Three other voters were paid 30 crowns for not voting. Dr. Farkas is directly charged with comphcity in all this, on the ground that having been assured by various friends among the officials that he could not win without money, he deposited 70,000 crowns in a local bank (Szaszvaros Taka- rekpenztar), and that his agents used this money for purposes of bribery. Some of the bank officials and other townsmen are cited as witnesses to prove this. III. Under Law XV, § 3. 6 and 10, the petition demands the disqualification of the votes of forty-eight other electors (the names follow) , who were shut up in the Hotel Transilvania in Szaszvaros, from 5 p.m. on the day before the election until the following morning, and plied with food and drink, in order that they should vote for Dr. Farkas. " Every one could eat and drink as much as he could hold. But lest they should go to Dr. Vlad's party (because their convictions would have led them there), they were kept shut up in the large dining- room and other rooms of the hotel, their personal liberty being restricted, with the object of influencing the result of the elec- tion ; they were not let out even for the most necessary pur- pose, but a portable closet was erected in the large room. The key of the door was kept by the szolgabiro's servant ; the entrance and exit was watched and guarded by Andrew Baksay (Captain of Police) and Charles SchuUeri, so that no one should go out. ..." In the same way thirty-five electors (the names follow) were shut up on June i in Leopold Mahler's inn at Algyogy, and watched till the following day by gendarmes, so that they could not escape. The bill for the food and drink supplied to them was paid by the szolgabiro. "After a good booze they were on the morning of the 2nd loaded upon carriages by the chief szolgabiro, Arpad Pogany, in such a way that there was a gendarme and a soldier beside each elector, lest they should be torn away from the Farkas Party ; and in front of the electors thus secured went Arpad Pogany, the chief szolgabiro of Algyogy, in whose carriage were two gen- 139 THE ELECTION IN SZASZVAROS darmes. . . . These electors were plied with food and drink in the Hotel Transilvania at Szaszvaros, and the elected deputy was involved in this, not only because he gave the necessary money for this purpose to Samuel Bocz . . . but he was him- self stopping at the Transilvania, and when the electors of Szereka (five names follow) came to the hotel on June i, he received them and brought beer to them. Besides he several times in the course of the evening and night visited the electors shut up in the Transilvania and saw that they kept on eating and drinking, and most of them were completely drunk. ..." The names of eighteen more electors are given, as having been supplied with food and drink at the same hotel, in excess of what the law permits (XV. § 9). The hotel was on the election day surrounded by gendarmes and police. " The extent of the drinking and feeding (in the hotel) is proved by the fact that sixty-seven casks of beer and two large casks of wine were exhausted, that two calves and three pigs were killed. The bill of John Stefani, the innkeeper, amounted to 24,000 crowns. ..." IV. The petition further asserts that the School Inspector of Deva went round the communes of the constituency in Dr. Farkas's motor-car, and influenced the schoolmasters to vote for the latter, with the result that six actually did so and nine- teen others abstained from voting. V. Five communal officials, Roumanians, were, it is alleged, compelled to vote for Farkas, owing to the threat that other- wise they would lose their posts. VII. The names of fifty-eight electors are given, to whom Dr. Farkas, at his own expense, gave a dinner on May 7, in the club of Kudzsir. The petition argues that the votes of all these electors ought to be disqualified, under Law XV, § 3. (6 and 10). Needless to say, I can express no opinion upon the contents of this petition, which I have summarised from a copy in my possession. The decision of the Curia had not yet been announced, though nearly six months have elapsed since the election ; and as there seems no immediate prospect of a decision, I see no reason for keeping silence indefinitely on the subject. The judicial delays in Hungary are interminable, and meanwhile of course all the members whose seats are challenged, sit comfortably in Parliament and legislate for an almost indefinite period. 140 BEHIND THE SCENES APPENDIX XVII BEHIND THE SCENES On October 27 the Lihertatea (a local Roumanian paper in Szisz- viros) published in facsimile a letter written by Mr. Andrew Baksay, Captain of Police of Szaszvaros, and alleged to have been addressed to Dr. Paul Farkas, the newly elected member for Szasz- varos, against whom the above petition was brought. I have no means of judging whether the letter came into the possession of his opponents through fair means or through foul. But as it has already formed the subject of open discussion in the county assembly, and in the Hungarian Parliament, and as its genuine character is not questioned, I see no objecting to my publishing the following translation. While portions are only intelligible to local persons, others throw a lurid light upon administrative methods in Hungary. It is not the formal report of an official, but the private letter of an intimate friend, who always employs the second person singular. The inference to be drawn from this letter would seem to be that the Chief of Police in Szaszvaros and his correspondent work habitually together for political ends, and are engaged upon designs for withdrawing licences from their opponents, securing others for their supporters, bringing influence to bear upon the High Sheriff and even Government offices, and attempting to tamper with the decision of a judge in an action against a political opponent, which one of them had himself insti- gated ! My DEAR Friend ! I received your letter, and regarding it I wish to post you up in the following pages as to the situation of the district. Discussing affairs with Gorog and several others, we came to the following point of view. Considering that the agitation still continues in the district, and feelings in several places are very excited, we don't consider it suitable to hold party meetings at present. . . . Besides Mihu " is at home just now, and is visiting the Roumanian leaders ; they will now have their meetings in Szaszregen and soon afterwards at Dezse and Szeben, where Mihu wishes to open the main action. . . , In the district, chiefly in Kudzsir and Felkenyer and partly in Gyogyi, there is still a great movement, mainly against Oltean and Aron Herlea, who . . . even to-day has not yet got the promised inn, and is worrying at me ! I also went several times to the High Sheriff, who wrote in this matter to the Ministry of Finance ; but one must urge it there, because otherwise it sleeps. The document is at headquarters '* Mihu is one of the most prominent Roumanians in Hungary. Having hitherto kept away from active political life, he was naturally fitted to act as mediator in the negotiations which took place last summer between the Hungarian Government and the Roumanians, but which unfortunately seem to have ended in smoke. 141 THE ELECTION IN SZASZVAROS (" The increase of the number of inns in the commune of Felkeny6r "), and if this is sanctioned, the right could be granted to Aron. It would be good to have this and kindred matters attended to quickly, because the fellows are grumbling, and there is a danger of not being able to count upon them in future. In the same way the matter of the reduction of the inns at Szasz- varos, and the allied matter of the grant of licences to Mrs. Charles Low and Mrs. John Belgredean, and the transfer of the licences of Samuel Abraham and John Oprean, have also gone to the Ministry and are not yet attended to. The High SherifiE wrote about this also, and as you can remember, I mentioned to you that I spoke to His Excellency Hampel in the Ministry, and this matter was to be disposed of in the following way — that first the Finance Ofi&ce should make a report on these matters, that they should be issued or trans- ferred as the case may be, and then that the decision should be brought respecting the withdrawal (of licences). . . . Please attend to this quickly. . . . Under No. 41251/1910 of the Finance office of Deva is submitted the appeal against the withdrawal of the inn licence of George Bog- daneszk, of Szaszvaros. This is to be rejected, and the withdrawal approved, because he voted against us and is an inciter (izgato vankuj), and so that the others may see his example. The teachers and innkeepers, etc., who voted against us are still boycotted, continually incited against us and persecuted, and this can be traced to the fact that I did nothing against those innkeepers and tobacconists who voted against us, and so they can calmly agitate ever5rwhere. The list of teachers and innkeepers who voted against us, I handed in to the High Sheriff at the time ; but so far there has been no result. The Ministry of Finance must treat them severely, so that the rest may learn reason ! . . . I discussed the measures regarding the petition, together with Gorog, and he is to help ; it would be well to inform oneself as to the time of the trial. I bought all the copies of Libertatea and had them translated. In the very last number that dog Mocza once more incites violently. But perhaps this time will be stopped because Mihu is very confident in the success of his action, and then the tendency of the paper will change ! Mihu has won over Maniu, and it is believed, Vlad too.'' It would be a good plan for you also to write to him. Mocza has been fined 40 crowns for publishing an inciting tract, and on the ground of my information, the chief prosecutor proposed action, owing to the boycott summons not being sent in ; and for that the punishment goes up to 6 months' prison and a fine. / spoke with the District Judge Fekete, that he should impose the maximum upon him '* — but I wonder if that will be so ? Write you to him also in this matter, for Mocza must be squashed. '■■ Dr. Julius Maniu, formerly deputy for Alvincz, and Dr. .'\urelius Vlad, Dr. Farkas's rival candidate, two of the ablest of the Roumanian leaders. '* The verb used here (sozni) literally means " to salt." 142 BEHIND THE SCENES Adam Vaszi, teacher of Gyalmar, who voted with us, is exposed to continual persecution, his position is untenable, he has applied for the following two places — Kemend and Sarfalva. See that he get one or other ; the documents and application have been sent in to the Ministry. Yesterday at Kudzsir and Felkenyer, Herlea was again attacked and his house injured, and at the same time still unknown offenders blocked the floating of timber. These are all acts of revenge. In the town it is relatively quiet enough. . . . Bocz has not paid the Stefani account yet, because, as I told you, he would not give a receipt on the footing that the 5360 crowns are entirely paid up, and that he would have also claimed later the 400 crowns subtracted. For this swindle Bocz wants there to be a quarrel, and then he won't get so much, because in his account such things figure as were not ordered, and not supplied either, which we can prove. The money is at the savings bank ; this is Bocz's affair. I cannot write anything else of importance, but I am coming before September 10 and will talk things over with you. TUl then write your opinion of these things and how you manage. I await your letter. Au revoir. . . . August 30, 1910. Baksay. On December i, 1910, Mr. Stephen Pop, the Roumanian deputy, referred to this letter during the Budget Debate in the Hungarian Parliament ; and next day Mr. Paul Farkas made a rejoinder, which I give in the' words of the^ Pester Lloyd (December 2, Abendblatt). " The Lihertatea, the organ of the Roumanians, published this letter. The speaker points out, that there is nothing in the text to show that this letter is addressed to him, but even then he must repudiate all responsibility for the letter. As -for the alleged abuses, not even the deputy Pop has represented them as having happened. Besides the decision regarding the election is the Curia's business, and it would not be in order to express any opinion upon it just now." He then indulged in a lengthy attack upon the Roumanians of his constituency, and their methods of agitation and boycotting. In other words, he made no attempt to refute the charges of Mr. Pop. In the words of the Pester Lloyd, Mr. Farkas " managed to dispose of the personal side of the matter quickly and elegantly, and made an admirable use of the occasion, to place before the House details of the methods of agitation employed by the Nationalities. The speech may be regarded as necessary and authentic information for abroad, and as such, was received most sympathetically by all the Magyar parties of Parliament." The Pester Lloyd gives his speech at Considerable length, having dismissed Mr. Pop's speech the day before in a few lines. 143 CHAPTER XIII The Election in Karansebes Candidates : Mr. Constantine Burdia, Party of National Work. Dr. Aurelius Vlad, Roumanian National Party. THE Magyar originals of all the following eight documents from the constituency of Kardnsebes were submitted to me for inspection, and I was thus able to convince myself of the accuracy of the typewritten copies now in my possession. The source from which I received them would in itself have been a sufficient guarantee. They tell a more eloquent tale than any account from the beaten side. APPENDIX XVIII PROHIBITION OF MEETINGS BECAUSE THE RIVAL CAN- . DIDATE IS SPEAKING IN THE NEIGHBOURHOOD From the Chief Sz61gabir6 of the District of Kardnsebes. No. 2450/1910. (State administration.) Regarding the notice given by Dr. Aurelius Vlad, parliamentary candidate, advocate in Szdszvaros, that he will appear on May 29, igio, at 3 o'clock, in Voiszlova, on May 30, at 9 a.m., in Ohababisztra, to hold electoral meetings and deliver his address, and that he will open at 4 o'clock the popular meeting summoned in the commune of Borlova on May 26, I give the following decision : — I accept that part of the notice which gives 4 o'clock as the hour of an address on May 26. I also allow that a banderium (escort) of fifty men should accompany him to this meeting. The banderia must not contain more members than this. The banderium's behaviour, must, as it is a strictly personal escort of Dr. Aurelius Vlad, be one of restraint ; for if order was in any way disturbed by a member of the banderium, this would result in the premature dissolution of the meeting. . . . The hour of . . . the meetings allowed must be closely adhered to : they may not begin either earlier or later. . . . That part of the notification referring to Voiszlova and Ohababisztra ... I do not accept, but prohibit these meetings. 144 PROHIBITION OF MEETINGS Reasons. The remark limiting the number of members of a banderium seemed to me necessary, because a very large number of riders makes it most difficult for the political authorities to restore order if it is unexpectedly disturbed. I do not take it for granted that the banderium escorting the candidate intends to disturb the peace. The notifying and holding of each popular meeting must be carefully considered, and I therefore must insist upon adherence to the prescribed time, all the more so because the measures to be taken to preserve order depend upon the time. For the same reason changes of any kind must of course be intimated to me alone and not to the local authorities, twenty-four hours beforehand. For every change in the programme of a meeting once notified and sanctioned is equivalent to non-observance of the notifica- tion approved by the authorities, and thus the sanction of the autho- rities lapses, and a fresh notice of meeting is necessary. . . . The part of the notification referring to Voiszlova and Ohababisztra I do not accept, because the parliamentary candidate Constantine Burdia is holding on the same day two previously notified and sanctioned meetings in the neighbouring villages of Csiresa, Nandorhegy and Valameare. Dr. Aurelius Vlad is to appear in Ohababisztra not only with a banderium but also other escort, and counting also the crowd joining in of its own accord, which can hardly be kept back by force, it appears that both candidates will arrive with a large escort. As then both candidates appear on the same day in neighbouring villages, it is highly probable that they and their adherents will meet somewhere on the road. But it is highly improbable that this meeting will take place without disturbance, especially as the electoral campaign, which already runs high, will reach its height on the days in question. If then according to gendarmerie's reports feelings are already so strained that individual voters threaten adherents of the rival party with violence, then the holding of political meetings at one and the same time in two neighbouring places during the days immediately preceding the election cannot possibly be allowed, for the political authorities would be quite unable to check disorder and tumults arising simultaneously in different places. I notify this to Dr. Aurelius Vlad in Szaszvaros through Dr. Peter Barbu in Karansebes, adding that an appeal can be made within fifteen days to the Vice-Sheriff of the county, to be handed in through me. Karansebes, May -zi, 1910. Chief Szolgabiro. APPENDIX XIX PROHIBITION OF THE USE OF MOTOR-CARS BY THE ROUMANIAN CANDIDATE No. 2450 (1910). As supplement to my decision under the above number, forbidding a meeting called by Dr. Vlad in Ohababisztra for May 30, I decree as follows : — In the commune of Ohababisztra no popular meeting at all will be held in the near future, since there and in Nandorhegy according to medical report an epidemic of sore throat has broken out. C.R.H. 145 L THE ELECTION IN KARANSEBES The hours of the meetings allowed by me are to be strictly observed, so that the organizers of public order may have time to arrive from one place to the other, and the meetings are to be ended so that there shall be adequate time for this. Otherwise the representative of the political authorities has the right to dissolve the meeting. The drive from one meeting to the other is to be made in carriages and not in automobile. In those places where no meeting is to take place, even a halt for a short time is not allowed. . . . Reasons. According to information received, the organizers of the meeting have the intention of going from one place to the other by motor-car. Since, however, it is absolutely necessary for representatives of the political service to be present at such meetings, and since they drive from one meeting to the other in carriages, it might happen that the organizers of the meeting spin it out so long that there is only just time to reach the next meeting punctually by using a motor-car. In that event the representative of the Government who has to use the far slower conveyance of a carriage, would be obliged either to leave one meeting far sooner or to arrive late at the next. But popular meetings cannot possibly be allowed to take place for however short a time with- out the presence of the Government authorities. 7 also could not allow the slightest halt in places en route, because a banderium is in itself a sensational sight, and its halting for however short a time would bring a great crowd together. Under these circumstances I could not allow the organizers of the meetings to go in a motor-car, since if even one of them reached the next place of meeting before the officials, petty meetings might be held en route or at the next place, under pretext of preparations. . . . (Appeal allowed within fifteen days, but no suspensory power.) Karansebes, May 23, 1910. Chief Sz61gabir6. APPENDIX XX PROHIBITION OF RELIGIOUS EXAMINATIONS DURING ELECTION-TIME From the Sz61gabir6's Office, District of Teregova. No. 2045 (1910). To Rev. Ghidiu, Greek Oriental Archpriest, Teregova. Teregova, May 26, 1910. In accordance with the general rules which must be observed till the end of the parliamentary elections, I notify to you that I do not allow the holding of the religious examinations which have already been fixed upon or may still be fixed upon up to June i, and up to that date I forbid you to appear in the communes of my district. I therefore summon you to remove yourself from the territory of my district, after the close of the examinations in this commune. m.p., Sz61gabir6. 146 PROHIBITION OF MEETINGS APPENDIX XXI PROHIBITION OF RELIGIOUS EXAMINATIONS DURING ELECTION-TIME From the Szolgabiro, District of Karansebes. No. 31 (1910). I notify to the Rev. Archpriest that, in accordance with the rules which must be observed till the end of the elections, I prohibit the examinations prescribed up till June i, for the reason that, as is well known ( ) you are taking advantage of this tour, made under pre- text of examinations, for canvassing purposes and for agitation. {Unreadable signature), KarAnsebes, May 26, 1910. Chief Szolgabiro. APPENDIX XXII PROHIBITION OF MEETINGS, OWING TO EPIDEMIC OF SORE THROAT From the Chief Szolgabiro's Office, District of Teregova. No. 1926 (1910). Decision. I partially revoke my decision No. 1867 relating to the notification of Dr. Aurelius Vlad's electoral address for May 13, and do not take cognizance of the address planned for the 25th in the commune of Ormenyes, and I hereby prohibit its being held. Reasons. The District doctor maintains that in the commune of Ormenyes seventeen ases of the infectious disease of sore throat and whooping- cough have arisen. Order No. 5616 of 1892 forbids every gathering together so long as these infectious diseases last ; I therefore had to forbid the electoral address, which naturally involves a great gathering. I handed in the present decision to Dr. Vlad's representative, Dr. Michael Brediceanu, advocate in Teregova, since he has the right to appeal within three days by applying either here or through the Vice- Sheriff of the county. Teregova, May 24, 1910. Sz61gabir6. APPENDIX XXIII REFUSAL TO ALLOW ROUMANIAN CANVASSERS TO ENTER THE VILLAGES From the Chief Sz61gabir6 of the District of Karansebes. No. 2568 (1910). Regarding Dr. Aurelius Vlad's petition, that he may be allowed to send three representatives into each commune with the object of marshalling the electors of the Roumanian Nationalist Party and transporting them to the polling place. I give the following Decision . Finding this demand incapable of execution, I do not comply with it. 14; THE ELECTION IN KARANSEBES Because : Putting aside the fact that the organization of the parties throughout the constituency is already complete, and both parties have and can have leaders and representatives in the communes, I cannot permit individuals who are strangers to the commune (in question) to assemble, organize and bring the electors to the poll, for the further reason that this merely hampers the manifestation of the free will of the electors. This (decision) is further justified by the fact that, on the occasion of the general elections previously held in this county, the result of the elections was annihilated in consequence of agitation and terrorism, and that this agitation and terrorism is also noticeable on a large scale during the present electoral campaign. For this reason, and because it is my lawful duty to prevent the repetition of similar cases and to guard the free will of the electors, it was impossible to permit strangers to be sent into the communes since they could go from house to house without being controlled and would be apt to cause a repetition of the cases alluded to above. An appeal can be lodged against this decision within fifteen days after despatch of this letter, by means of a petition to the Vice-Sheriff of the county, handed in through me. KarAnsebes, May 29, 1910. (unreadable) m.p.. For Chief Szolgabiro. APPENDIX XXIV PROHIBITION OF CARRIAGES DRIVEN BY MEN WHO ARE NOT NATIVES OF THE PARTICULAR VILLAGE From the Chief Szolgabiro's Office, District of Karansebes. No. 2427 (1910). Final Decision. In addition to my decision of May 2 under above number, I see reason to make the following provisions to protect property and life, which are endangered by the electoral agitation, and to protect the electors' free expression of opinion. I St. The electors in the villages may only use such carriages as are driven by residents in the particular village, and not by inhabitants of some other place. 2nd. If the drivers are not natives of the place, they must wait outside the place until the electors come out to them. Strange drivers may not drive into a place to fetch voters. Reasons. As the time of the elections draws near, the agitation, leaving its normal course, is taking so dangerous a shape, that the Government authorities have the greatest difficulties in defending the electors' personal safety and free expression of opinion. Breaches of the peace and brawls, wliich are due to that agitation, prevail generally ; the strangers who wander through the villages and cannot be controlled, must be regarded as the instigators of these (brawls). Since the agita- tion of strangers in the villages is extremely dangerous to public 148 THE ELECTION IN KARANSEBES security and to the electors' free opinion, I regard it as my duty on the last day when the electors assemble and march off (to the poll) to keep strangers to the district at a distance, under aU circumstances. Hence, to prevent unchecked persons from obtaining entrance to the villages under the mask of coachmen or cart-drivers — who might possibly incite and rouse up non-electors and so hamper the electors in the free exercise of the franchise — I had to order that drivers who are not natives of the particular village, must wait for the voters outside. This decision I notify to the village authorities, the gendarmerie officers, and the leaders of the parties, the latter of whom can appeal within fifteen days to the Vice-Sheriff, by an appeal which must be handed in through me and which has no suspensory force. Karansebes, May 29, 1910. Chief Szolgabiro. [The szolgabiro published a further order (same number and date as above) forbidding the use of motor cars and motor cycles throughout the entire district of Karansebes on the polling day (June i) and the preceding day (May 31), in the interests of the crowds of electors on the roads of the district.] APPENDIX XXV PROHIBITION OF STRANGERS ACTING AS CANVASSERS From the Chief Szolgabiro's Office, District of Orsova. No. 2827, 1910. To Dr. John Popovics, advocate in Orsova. Decision. The request of the parliamentary candidate. Dr. Aurelius Vlad, of Szaszvaros, for permission to send three representatives to each com- mune with the object of organizing and bringing to the poll the electors of the Roumanian Nationalist Party, was rejected, since it appeared to me impracticable. Because : Apart from the fact that the organization of the parties is already completed in the whole district and both have confidential leaders in all the communes, or at least could have them, I consider it inadmissible that the electors should be assembled and organized and brought to the poll by persons not belonging to the place, because this simply hampers the electors in their free expression of opinion. This view is also justified by the fact that at the (last) general elections the election in this county was appealed against and in consequence of far-reaching agitation and intimidation was annulled, and that a simi- lar excitement and intimidation is noticeable during the present cam- paign. On these grounds and because it is both my legal right and my duty to avert the repetition of such things and to ensure the free will of the electors, permission could not be given for sending strangers into the villages, since they naturally go from house to house and tend to provoke fresh cases such as the above mentioned. . . . (Appeal within fifteen days.) Orsova, May 29, 1910. Chief Szolgabiro. 149 CHAPTER XIV The German Constituencies (A) The Election in Lovrin " At the elections the Roumanians were trodden pitilessly under foot. Those abuses which took place in other constituencies are mild events compared with the deeds of violence of which the nationalist districts were the scene." — Sildungarische Reform, Nov. 9, 1910 (Chau- vinist organ in Temesvdr). " A valuable admission, because it comes from the enemy. But if Scotus Viator or some other friend of the nationalities in Hungary writes the same thing, he is represented by the same Sildungarische Reform as a slanderer of the Hungarian fatherland." — Deutschun- garischer Volhsfreund, Nov. 18, 1910 (organ of Hungarian-German People's Party). THE following account is translated from the Reichspost, the leading Christian Socialist paper in Vienna (June 1 910). I am in a position to assert that this account comes from an absolutely reliable source ; and no attempt was ever made to refute its charges. " The candidates were Dr. Kremling of the Hungarian German People's Party : Zsark6, an unofficial candidate of the Work Party, and Dr. Baross, a '48-er supported by the Government. Dr. Kremling had the best prospects. Even opponents considered his election certain. But the decree of the Government was ' Dr. Baross must be elected ! ' Bribery and force began their operations. Men were sold in masses like herds of cattle to the great dealer Baross, and each indi- vidual had to fill in the following quittance for receipt of the bribe. " Quittance ' ' The undersigned pledges himself and confirms it by his word of honour, that at the election which takes place on June i, 1910, in Lovrin, he will give his vote for Dr. John Baross, and acknowledges 150 THE GERMAN CONSTITUENCIES receipt of the sum of crowns heller under the title of " lawfully due driving-fare." Witness Signature. Witness. " The price for a vote depended upon the property and influ- ence of the person bought. On the polUng day itself lOO to 200 crowns (£4 to £8) were offered for single votes. In spite of this Baross had not the majority. The canvassers began to work with feverish energy. Alcohol flowed in streams, and disgusting drunken figures were dragged to the polling station, where with slow tongue they gave their vote for their buyer. "Dr. Kremling, who had travelled through the district to give his electoral address, in ' triumphal procession,' accom- panied by over 200 carriages and two bands of horsemen : who had been received by the people with jubilation and greeted by the choral unions of the various villages with poems addressed to his own person — Dr. Kremling had to be defeated, and Dr. Baross, who was pelted with rotten eggs and is detested as a dangerous corruptor ever since his election at Csongrdd in 1 90 1 (where his mandate was annulled owing to bribery and treating, and the constituency suspended from the franchise for five years, it having been proved in court that only twenty- five votes out of all that he received had not been bought with money) was now elected in the same manner as then, perhaps indeed even more shamelessly. " The result of the election was as follows : Dr. Kremling 970, Zsark6 230, and Dr. Baross 1275 votes. Baross thus had an absolute majority of 75 votes. "Specially remarkable was the attitude of the troops, gen- darmie and authorities. "As is weU known, every voting centre is divided in propor- tion to the number of candidates, into equal camps, which are separated from each other by a cordon of troops or gen- darmerie. After the election has begun, all communication through the cordon is forbidden, except for the marshallers of the various parties, who receive free passes. "The 15th company of the6ist Line regiment was on duty. Dr. Kremling's party marshallers, with their free passes, were refused passage through the cordon, while those of the 151 THE GERMAN CONSTITUENCIES Baross party could go unhindered where they pleased. Still worse was the gendarmerie. In the German commune Csatad gendarmes ran up a bill of 78 crowns at the inn at the expense of Kremling's supporters, on the plea, ' We had to turn out on Dr. Kremling's accord to protect him, so he had better pay for us ! ' " But the whole system was crowned by the chief szolgabiro of Lovrin, H. Sal. On the day of the election, after 5.30 p.m., when the victory of the Baross party was still uncertain, a crowd of drunken adherents of Baross suddenly made a dash for the polling station, with wild shouts and scurrilous abuse of ' these accursed . . . Pan-Germans.' Dr. Otto Erling, one of the two representatives (Vertrauensmanner) of the Hungarian-German People's Party, was just at this moment making his way to the polling station to relieve the other representative. Dr. Oprean. He was recognized and threatened by the passionately excited Baross electors, and though he showed his pass, which gave him the right of free passage everywhere, the gendarmerie wanted to arrest him, instead of protecting him against the unrestrained electors. Dr. Oprean heard of the incident, and appealed to the chief szolga- biro Sal, who was the chief authority entrusted with order at the election, for protection for Dr. Erling. But Sal shouted at Oprean with a voice trembling from excitement : — ' I will hammer all you Pan-Germans and have you thrown into prison.' As the two German representatives saw that they were now a prey to every arbitrary measure, they withdrew from the polling station, and the election proceeded in the absence of Dr. Kremling's representatives. How honourably and purely it was conducted after this can easily be imagined by anyone who has acquired any knowledge of Hungarian conditions." The methods employed by the authorities at an earlier stage in the electoral campaign may be gathered from the following extract from the Siidungarischer General-Anzeiger of June 12, 1910 (a local German paper appearing in Versecz) : — " The German People's Party notified for April 4 a party conference at Lovrin, which almost the whole commune attended. The notary hurried to the place of assembly and cried out that this was no longer a ' conference,' but a ' popular meeting ' ; and such a meeting not having been notified, he forbade it to take place. " Many weeks afterwards Dr. Louis Kremling, advocate in 152 THE GERMAN CONSTITUENCIES Weisskirchen ; the respected Lovrin wood merchant, John Peter ; the Lovrin proprietor, Michael Hugel ; and the engineer, Reinhold Heegn, received a summons to the szolgabiro's office at Perjamos for holding a forbidden meeting. Finally, on the very eve of the election, these gentlemen were served with the written verdict of the szolgabiro Sal, according to which they were each condemned to five days' ordinary arrest, with feeding at their own expense, and a fine of 25 crowns. As extenuating circumstance the verdict considered the fact that the four gentlemen had not hitherto been convicted, but as highly aggravating, the fact that ' this meeting was called together in the interests of a political movement which seems calculated to shake the belief of the population in the national unity of the Hungarian state ! '" (B) The Election in Kisbecskerek The candidate of the Hungarian German People's Party, John Roser, junior, described his own experiences in the following signed letter in the Deutsch-Ungarischer Volks- freund (of Temesvar) of June 17, 1910. As no steps have been taken by his opponents to deny Mr. Roser' s assertions, I see no reason to doubt their substantial accuracy. " On May 31 I still had the absolute majority in my con- stituency. But the official apparatus then began its work. Our supporters were watched by troops and gendarmes, under the pretext that they must be ' protected.' The canvassers of the opposite party — notaries, etc. — received free passes, so that they were left free in the villages to rouse the people out of bed. Money was offered to the people, and votes bought. If some one would not (come) willingly, then he was stupefied with alcohol, laden on to the carriages which stood ready, and brought into the opponent's camp. This camp was shut off by four military cordons, so that he who was inside could no longer escape. Of the Government party every second man had a free pass. I had applied for free passes for twenty^, electors, but received at 2 p.m., in other words after the election [? had begun], the first and only free pass. The notary of Freidorf threatened the ten electors who remained true to me that they would feel the consequences after the election. The notary of Nemet Szent- Mihaly addressed in my presence an elector who had remained true to me, and said he must take action against him if he should vote for me. He declared the man would certainly 153 THE GERMAN CONSTITUENCIES be severely punished. I can assert that not a single elector of mine exists who was not summoned to the Town-house, where the notary threatened him while they were alone together. With us the election was made by force, gendarmes, money and alcohol. I am of opinion that a Parliament brought together in this way will not be able to stand against the popular fury. The decisive factors must be brought to abandon this fatal policy, for it means not quiet and work but struggle, and in fact a struggle of the people against the ruling chque. And from this struggle only the people can issue as conqueror." Roser had notified a political address at Szent-Andris for Sunday, May i, and this had been allowed by the chief szolgabiro. On the Sunday Roser arrived at lo a.m., accompanied by Dr. Kremling, Dr. Joseph Gabriel, Dr. Craciunescu, and numerous electors from Merzidorf, Kisbecskerek, etc. He was informed by the proprietor of the hall in which he was to have spoken, that it had been hired by the candidate of the Government party and therefore that Roser' s meeting could not be held there. The notary absolutely refused to allow him to hold his meeting in the courtyard or in the street. Dr. Gabriel appealed by telephone to the chief szolgabiro Somogyi, who then called up the notary ; and as the result of their conversation Roser was forbidden to make his speech anywhere at all. Roser protested against this illegality, and began to speak, but the notary declared the meeting dissolved, and Roser was obliged to give way, and leave Szent-Andras without dehvering his electoral address. A correspondent of the Deutsch-Ungarischer Volksfrcund of June 24, 1910, writes from Gyertyamos, on June 17, as follows regarding the attitude of the German electors. Without vouching for the accuracy of this anonymous writer's facts, I consider them to be sufficiently concrete and interesting to justify me in reproducing them. No attempt was made at the time to challenge or refute them. " The newspapers once more accuse the electors of not be- ing firm and letting themselves be bought, which is really more or less true. But, after all, men are not gods. To show how elections are made here, let us take the constituency of Kisbecskerek and each commune separately, and see all that was promised by the Government party. In Kisbecskerek the water meadows, which are State pro- 154 THE GERMAN CONSTITUENCIES perty, were promised to the electors if they voted for the Government candidate. In Ujbessenyo a State grant for the purchase of a steam- plough and a State stud-farm were held in prospect. In Beregszo it was promised that a distress loan of several thousand crowns would be written off. In Roman Szt-Mih41y a ten-year lease of the State meadows there was actually signed. In G5drok the State woods were put at the commune's disposal for free pasture. In Mosnitza there was a promise to throw open a State pasturage. In Paratz a new iron bridge was promised. In Szakalhaza the splitting up of the woodlands was promised. In each commune something of State property was held out, and indeed official persons canvassed quite openly with these promises. Indeed, the woodland pastures were placed at the disposal of some communes — for instance, that of Gyirok, two months beforehand ; and their immediate withdrawal was threatened if Gyirok did not vote for the Government. Consequently, and in order to avert subsequent disputes in the commune, Roser's supporters did not vote at all, for they were afraid that after the election the pastures would be withdrawn from the commune and that this would be credited to the nationalist electors. ..." (C) The Election in Lippa [Deutsch-Un^arischer Volksfreund, Jung lo, 1910.) " Several days before the election Mr. Victor Orendi (candidate of the Hungarian German People's Party) was pressed from several quarters to withdraw. He would not in any case be elected, and they would gladly give him 5,000, or if necessary even 10,000 crowns as " indemnity" ; even the chief szolgabiro and the returning officer tried to give him "friendly" and "well-meant advice." When all this was useless, it was given out in the villages that Orendi had with- drawn, had been summoned as reservist to Szeged, etc. Finally, his party organizers received only just before the election began, the necessary free passes, while the canvassers of the Government party had already invested aU the streets of Lippa early in the morning and caught the electors and decoyed them into the quarters of the Work Part}-." 155 CHAPTER XV Summary — The Problem of Reform THOSE of my readers who have followed me thus far, must have been forced to the conclusion that the present electoral system of Hungary is utterly untenable, and that only the most radical of reforms can save her from irre- parable disaster. He will also greet with considerable scepti- cism the Hungarian Premier's reference to the result of the election as " a great moral satisfaction " (sic !), and will realize that the present Government is hardly more likely than its predecessor to introduce a really genuine remedy. But Electoral Reform remains a burning question, and delay and evasion will in the end bring their own revenge. The dominant caste is almost at the end of its resources, and Count Khuen- Hedervary's experiment is the last entrenchment which can save the monopolists from reform. The aim of the present majority seems to be to postpone once more the evil day as long as possible and to induce the Crown to consent to this postponement, by adopting a policy of strict compliance with the Royal wishes in all those matters which led in 1905-6 to a rupture between the Crown and the parliamentary majority. Just as this rupture originally forced the Crown to give its approval to the idea of Universal Suffrage, so the removal of the causes of rupture might, it is argued, lessen the enthusiasm of an old man of eighty for the cause of reform. Just as Count Andrassy and his colleagues in the Wekerle Cabinet blindly submitted to Count Aehrenthal's Bosnian pohcy, in the hope that their complaisance would be rewarded b}^ the Royal sanction for the Andrassy Franchise Bill, with its plurahty and public voting ; so the present majority may hope to purchase, by subservience to the Crown on the questions of the Army and the Joint Bank, permission, if not to postpone, at any rate to dilute Universal Suffrage by reactionary admixtures. " So long as the dynasty is on our side, all is well ; ' such was the 156 SUMMARY— THE PROBLEM OF REFORM argument used to me some years ago by a member of the present majority; " but if the dynasty is against us, we are lost." This saying must be taken in conjunction with the assertion of another distinguished Magyar Liberal, " A Magyar who supports Universal Suffrage, follows the dictates of his heart and sets his head at defiance." This seems to be the view of many parhamentarians, and naturally leads to schemes for so manipulating Universal Suffrage and granting it in so mangled a form, that the present racial and class monopoly shall be perpetuated under the new reform. But the Emperor- King, with a true instinct for the great issues involved, has hitherto remained resolute in his desire to extend to Hungary the reform which rejuvenated Austria in 1907 ; and the Heir Apparent is, if possible, an even firmer behever in the need for admitting the democracy to its share of poHtical power. The decay of parliamentary life and the crying deficiencies of the administration render a thorough reform of the franchise inevitable. Universal Suffrage must come, and if the ruHng classes have neither the courage nor the energy to reform them- selves, reform must be undertaken by other hands. Nor must it be supposed that there are no progressive elements among the Magyar politicians of to-day, even though their presence in Parliament is confined to a small section of the dwindling group of Mr. Justh. The statesman who first brought Universal Suffrage within the range of practical poHtics, Mr. Joseph Kristoffy, has been hounded out of public life arid fiercely denounced as a traitor to his country and his nationality. But no amount of calumny has shaken his advocacy of democratic reform or his confidence in the eventual triumph of his political ideas ; and the march of events will inevitably bring him ere long into fresh prominence. Certainly the most hopeful factor in the situation is the existence of a small band of courageous and outspoken Magyar politicians and publicists, who though without influence in Parliament, have won through their organ, Huszadik Szdzad (the Sociological Re- view of Hungary), an ever-increasing following among the middle and lower classes of the country. With them and with Mr. Kristoffy hes, it is earnestly to be hoped, the future of Hungary ; for should they too fail to clean out the Augean stable the task will inevitably devolve upon Austria. The centralist regime imposed upon Hungary by Alexander Bach in the fifties of last century is still remem- bered, despite its illegahty and despotism, as having for the 157 SUMMARY— THE PROBLEM OF REFORM first time introduced order into the chaos of Magyar county administration and legal practice ; and there are to-day a growing number of persons in the Habsburg Monarchy who regard a brief period of Absolutism as the sole mode of retreat from the Dualist impasse. But it is unnecessary to point out that such a relapse would deal a terrible blow to the cause of constitutional progress throughout the Continent, such as might more than outweigh even the many advantages to be derived from the introduction of an equitable Federal system among the twelve races of the Austro-Hungarian dominions. The greater the abuses and decay of the prevailing system, the more radical must be the reform which attempts to remedy it ; and even many men who are far from accepting the abstract principle of Universal Suffrage, admit it to be the sole remedy under existing circumstances in Hungary. The main lines of reform must of course be the introduction of Universal Equal and Secret Suffrage, with voting in every commune. But this is not enough. Definite safeguards must be imposed upon the extended franchise, unless reform is to be rendered illusory. These safeguards may be roughly grouped under four heads. In the first place voting must be by ballot, for in the words of Mr. Krist6ffy, to abandon the ballot " especially in our country, where governmental and economic hypertrophy has reached its climax, is as much as to take back with one hand what has been given with the other." But in addition to this, the most stringent and detailed rules must be intro- duced for the guidance of voters at the poll. The voting papers must be printed on uniform paper, must not be trans- parent, and must be drawn up not in Magyar only as hitherto, but in Magyar and all other languages spoken in the consti- tuency in question. All writing on the voting paper must be strictly prohibited, and only a cross filled in opposite the name of the candidate for whom the elector wishes to record his vote. Great care must be taken to prevent the voter from being over- looked or influenced in any way while he is recording his vote, and still more to prevent him from carrying away a voting- paper from the polhng-booth. The old evil system of separate entrances to the booth for rival parties must of course be finally abolished. Moreover, strict precautions must be taken to pre- vent the result of the ballot in each individual commune from becoming known, and to see that the contents of all the voting-urns of a constituency are only counted at the central 158 SUMMARY— THE PROBLEM OF REFORM office, and not tampered with on the way. I mention these apparent trifles because they have been found in other coun- tries to be essential to the purity of elections, and their neglect might render the introduction of secret balloting entirely illusory. Secondly, there must be polling booths at regular distances in every constituency, so arranged as to enable all voters to reach the poll on foot in all weathers. It may not prove pos- sible to establish a polling booth in every parish (k6zs6g or Gemeinde) : but there is nothing to prevent them from being sufficiently numerous to enable every man to exercise his political rights without hardship or inconvenience. Thirdly, the elections must on no account be conducted by the county officials, who are mere creatures of the ruling oligarchy, and whose corrupt and autocratic tendencies would poison the whole reform. Royal officials from headquarters must be appointed ad hoc, and not appointed on the eve of the election by the influence of the Cabinet, but at stated intervals, and on the basis of some arrangement between all existing parties. Indeed it is not too much to say that unless this innovation upon the existing electoral law be made, the introduction of the ballot and the increase in the number of polling booths might lead to even greater abuses under Universal Suffrage than under the present system. Failing this innovation, there would be good grounds for the retention of public oral voting, as in that case there would at least be some means of checking the manner in which the various electors had voted, whereas with the present local officials in charge of the ballot boxes, there would in many communes be no real guarantee as to the accuracy of the election result. Finally, the means of appeal against electoral abuses must be made as rapid, cheap and easy as they are to-day slow, expensive and futile. I have purposely said nothing of electoral redistribution, because while it is generally admitted that a revision of the present system is essential it may fairly be argued that if the Magyars insist upon some such guarantee as would render it impossible for them to be placed in a minority under Universal Suffrage, it is in the direction of redistribution that this guarantee should be sought. If the Non-Magyars were to be assigned even fifty seats fewer than they are entitled to on a basis of population, this would be a very minor evil, if in 159 SUMMARY— THE PROBLEM OF REFORM return the present system of " voting," corruption and official pressure were at length to be abandoned.'^ Above all, it must be remembered that Electoral Reform is not an end in itself, but only a means to an end — the introduc- tion of modern and democratic ideas into the administrative machine of Hungary. In most counties, local administration is so bad that all honest Hungarians, irrespective of race, inveigh bitterly against it. And yet successive governments, instead of urging on its reform, have exploited its faults in order to strengthen their ovm position, while steadily augument- ing the horde of officials who depend upon them.^^ County Autonomy is the last bulwark of the governing clique, and must be subjected to thorough reform, before Hungary can be regarded as a modern democratic state. This reform must inevitably take the following lines : — (a) Abolition of " Virilist " votes ; in other words, of a system by which half the seats in each county assembly are assigned automatically to the virilists or most highly taxed persons in the county. (6) Wide extension of the franchise for the county assem- blies, but retention of a low tax qualification. (c) Abolition of the right of " candidature " for the chief county official posts. (At present, three candidates for each of the chief local offices are nominated by the county com- mittee, in which the High Sheriff commands the majority, and thus in practice the vacancies are virtually filled up by the High Sheriff himself, who is as a rule a prominent landlord of the county and consults the interests of his own narrow class." '* Just as Ireland, though on a basis of population only entitled to seventy seats, retains the right to return loo members, under the solemn political guarantee of the Act of Union : so, conversely, the Magyars might, in right of their superior political education and tradi- tions, retain fifty more seats for the Magyar districts than a basis of population would allow. The proportion of seats would then be : 265 Magyar, 148 Non-Magyar, instead of 215 Magyar, 198 Non-Magyar (to-day it is 405 Magyar, 8 non-Magyar !). If the Law of Nationalities were once enforced, the lines of party division would unquestionably be economic. Not racial. '* From 1892 to 1902, 37,500 more officials were created ; and the number of state officials in Hungary (exclusive of gendarmerie, frontier- guards and customs officials) rose from 207,249 in 1904, to 226,830 in 1907 and 235,705 in 1908. see La Hongrie Contemporaine et le Suffrage Universel, pp. 113, IQ3. " See Racial Problems in Hungary, p. 241, sqq. t6o SUMMARY— THE PROBLEM OF REFORM (d) Abolition of the sexennial election of officials, and their appointment for life, subject to good behaviour. {e) Employment of such officials only as have passed ade- quate tests in the various local languages, and stricter insis- tence upon the legal attainments of the higher officials. (/) Right of any member of a county or communal assembly to employ his own language during the debates. (g) Retention of Magyar as the official language of the minutes in all county and communal assemblies, but their publication also in any language spoken by one-third of the population in the county or commune in question. [h) A fitting cro\\Ti to the scheme of reform, but one which it will take many years to secure, would be the redistribution of the counties according to racial boundaries, and measures for the representation of racial minorities where the population is too mixed to enable hard and fast racial boundaries to be drawn. Side by side with administrative reform must go the en- forcement of the Law of Nationalities, which has in almost every provision remained a dead letter ; above all, the fulfil- ment of the state's pledge to provide instruction in the mother- tongue in primary and secondary schools, and to allow the use of the Non-Magyar languages in courts of first instance and (not to the exclusion of, but in addition to the language of state) in all railway and post-office notices, on taxation sche- dules and Government circulars and proclamations. Not less important are the introduction of the free Right of Assem- bly and Association, the extension of Liberty of the Press, the excision from the Criminal Code of the monstrous paragraphs dealing with political " incitement " and laudatio criminis ; educational reform ; the removal of the poll tax ; the reform of land taxation ; laws dealing with land reform, the growth of latifundia, emigration, overcrowding and other housing pro- blems, medical attendance, more effective factory inspection and limitation of working hours for women and children, to say nothing of men. In short, the modernization of Hungary is the task which awaits the new People's Parliament. Hun- gary already possesses certain model institutions — reforma- tories, studfarms, schools of forestry, etc. — but these are not sufficient to make a contented people. Besides, they are un- happily merely the Potemkin villages which lie along the route of the inquiring traveller, and mislead him, like the Czar of old, into taking the exception for the rule. Some serious C.R.H. i6i M SUMMARY— THE PROBLEM OF REFORM attempt must at length be made to enforce the many admirable laws which to-day merely serve a decorative purpose, as a con- venient device for deluding uninformed foreign opinion. But no such attempt will be made, so long as all political power remains in the hands of a racial oHgarchy whose own class in- terests are involved in a continuance of the present situation. The elections of 1910 have shown that Hungary enjoys re- presentative government in name only ; all pretence at " Govern- ment by consent " has been thrown to the winds. And yet a government which presumes to rule a polyglot state in defiance of this principle, stakes its very existence in a struggle where defeat can only be postponed but not averted. Only the future People's ParHament can regenerate Hungary. The experiment, if too long delayed, may lead to the brink of revolution and may even prove fatal to the country's independence. 162 Appendices APPENDIX XXVI MR. KRISTOFFY ON UNIVERSAL SUFFRAGE (Oroshaza, 8 May, 19 lo). The reader may be interested to read a speech of Mr. Kristoffy, the champion of Universal Suffrage, The reception accorded to him during the electoral campaign suppHes eloquent proof that the narrow oligarchy which at present controls Hungarian politics does not in any way represent the true feelings of the Magyar people as a whole. In the words of the Pester Lloyd (a paper not specially friendly to Kristoffy, though not directly hostile), " the farmers streamed in thousands to Oroshaza from the neigh- bouring places, in carriages and by train, men and women, to hear Kristoffy, whose entry became a solemn triumphal procession. At the station he was greeted by M. Pollak in the name of the bourgeoisie, by J. Rajki in that of the working classes. Six girls in white handed him bouquets. He then drove in, in a peasant's cart draped with flowers, drawn by five pairs of horses. The pro- cession was opened by a banderium of 100 riders, then 500 men carrying banners with the inscription, ' Long live Universal Secret Suffrage.' " It was several kilometres in length, and was greeted by " prolonged and enthusiastic applause " from the crowd. He thanked the audience above all for the splendid and enthusiastic reception. He knew very well that this enthusiasm referred not to his person, but to the great idea, which in spite of all "attacks, he had unwearyingly proclaimed for years, the great idea of Universal, Equal and Secret Suffrage, which is to-day not only a demand of the people, striving after prosperity and working in the sweat of its brow, but also the most important point in the programme of our good and venerable King. The reform has become an absolute necessity of State, the realization of which can no longer be evaded. He had joyfully com- plied with the wish of the deputation of citizens, that he should speak in Oroshaza in favour of Universal, Equal and Secret Suffrage, not only because this gave him the opportunity of unfurling the banner of Universal Suffrage in a pure Magyar town, inhabited by agricultur- ists, but also because he felt it to be his duty to appear wherever and whenever he was appealed to, to plead the cause of Universal Suffrage. The country is bleeding from a thousand wounds. Parliament has for over ten years been no longer capable of real work. This is why economic life is stagnant ; there is no work, no enterprise, no bread. The poor man is forced to take up the beggar's staff and emigrate to America, in order to maintain himself and his family. The parlia- mentary crisis is only a symptom of a far deeper-lying disease, whoae 165 APPENDIX seat lies not in Parliament, but in the altered economic conditions of the masses of the people. New economic factors wish to assert themselves. As many as five years ago the speaker had maintained that there was only one remedy : — To admit to political life the new rising economic classes, the broad masses of the population, by means of Universal Suffrage. He was then called a fool, an adventurer, a traitor to his country. But the outcome of events had justified him. One plan of salvation followed another, one experiment after another failed, yet the unedifying situation of the country and of Parliament has not altered. Every plan has failed, but the franchise policy which was stig- matized as treason has become a necessity of State, and the last anchor of safety even to those who not long ago described it as a national mis- fortune. There is no question that only by admitting the wide masses of the people within the bulwarks of the constitution by Universal Suffrage, can the Parliamentary force which has hitherto been ham- pered, assert itself and end the whole crisis. . . . Hungary must enter upon the only possible path of progress, the extension of popular rights. . . , It is an error to suppose that Universal Suffrage would endanger our constitution and the national rights which we have won. Will the con- stitution be the weaker for being defended by the strength of millions of the people ? The progress which this great idea contains within it, can be adapted equally to the ideas of 1848 and of 1867. ^^^ i^ ^^^ machinery of the constitution of 1867 no longer works, the fault is simply that Parliament, as at present composed, can no longer satisfy the needs and claims of the people. And if the glamour of the ideas of 1848 is beginning to fail, the cause is that the people is no longer satis- fied by the halo of national glory, because the people demands land, work and bread. Universal Suffrage will form a sure guarantee of our con- stitution and will remove friction between Crown and nation. The Ausgleich of '67 was an agreement between Crown and nation, whose aim was, and still is, to rule out every question of constitutional law, and thus to render possible the development of peaceful democratic pro- gress. But that is only possible if the millions of the people receive political rights and send such representatives to Parliament as will fight for the true interests of the people. . . . No policy can endure unless it rest upon the broad masses of the people. Where this community of interests does not prevent, friction and constitutional struggles always arise, and political passions gradually divert the attention of the people from its true interests. Under the electoral system of to-day the two conceptions, " nation " and " people " do not coincide. The Parlia- ment of to-day is elected by the so-called " political nation," by a privi- leged caste which hardly counts a million votes. The true millions of the people have no control as to whether the deputy elected really repre- sents the interests of the working people. Universal Suffrage will unify these two conceptions, for then the whole people will really be the nation. Through Universal Suffrage Hungary's free development will really begin. The present untenable economic position, which the present Parliament defends, ^ will be altered. The Government, it is true, makes great sacrifices to promote industry, but the result is very trifling. The This applies equally to the new House. 166 MR. KRISTOFFY'S SPEECH reason is that under the narrow franchise of to-day only landed pro- prietors and lawyers get into Parliament, which treats all economic ques- tions from the political standpoint. This ParUament has dragged even the question of a " Separate Customs Territory " into the domain of con- stitutional law, whereas purely economic interests are at stake here, without any political tinge. The situation will be quite changed when Universal Suffrage brings the consumers also into Parliament, and when economic questions are treated not only in the interests of the producer, but also of the millions of the people. Thus there will be no constitu- tional debates about the " Separate Customs Territory," the question will be, what is most in the interest of the masses, whether corn and industry duties are to be lowered or raised. And then in Vienna too the questions of the Bank and the Customs Area will be treated not as poli- tical, but as all-important economic questions, upon the proper solution of which the interest not only of Hungary and of Austria, but of the entire Monarchy depends. The speaker then demonstrates the advantageous results of economic change, describes the causes of the present serious condition of the small landowners, the drawbacks of the workman's existence, points to the low wages, the heavy burden of taxation and its unjust incidence, and claims that it will be the duty of the People's Parliament, without violating private rights, to make the landed property which is at present tied up, accessible to the honest, energetic, and industrious small proprietors. Without satisfying the interests of the masses, it is impossible to carry on the policy of a Great Power, nay, even to preserve a healthy national state. It was this idea which actuated the speaker in seek- ing a Universal, Secret and Equal Suffrage, the medicine which might heal the discontent and thousand evils of the people. He therefore advised the Crown to open Parliament to the hard-pressed economic classes, the people and the workmen. The King accepted this sugges- tion, and so Universal, Secret and Equal Suffrage became the Govern- ment programme, which can now no longer be suppressed nor falsified. Hungary is still a primitive productive state, in which it is easier to assert oneself by birth and wealth than by work and talent. This survival of the Middle Ages will be removed by Universal Suffrage. When once the exclusive rule of a few hundred families ceases, and the industrial and educated classes as a whole assume the conduct of public affairs, when we develop out of our present state of primitive produc- tion into an industrial state, when social discontent ceases and every clciss finds its place in the economic order ; when the small bourgeoisie and the working classes enter Parliament, and instead of barren constitu- tional strife and the promotion of onesided interests, the great interests of creative work predominate ; then only can the transformation of Hungary begin, then only can we hope to step out of the ranks of the Eastern States irJo the ranks of the democratic states of the civilized West. The struggle for Universal Suffrage is nothing else than a struggle for the great ideas of humanity, a rejuvenation of Christianity, whose first rays led to the liberation of the slaves. He who loves his country, must also love its people ; but the people only loves those who unbind the chains from its hands and enable it, in full possession of its rights, to secure for itself the conditions of its own wellbeing and progress. 167 APPENDIX He closed his speech with the following words : Our beautiful Hun- gary is like the Sleeping Beauty, whom an evil magician holds in his power. This country offers us all that eye and mouth can wish. Our fatherland is the treasury of Europe, but in it there lives a needy Tan- talus people, which sees its best forces crossing the ocean, to win clothes for its naked body and bread for its hungry stomach. Ours is a splendid country, nobly endowed by God, but it cannot develop, because every one here is asleep, all forces tied up, because Reaction, that evil witch, would fain have people believe that the country can only be happy if it remains in eternal immobility. Now the redeeming idea has come, the word to free us from the spell, and perhaps too from the mouth of a king's son ; and everywhere throughout the land the cry re-echoes : Rights for the people. Long live Universal, Equal and Secret Suffrage ! (Translated from Report of Pester Lloyd, g May, 19 lo). APPENDIX XXVII ELECTORAL STATISTICS A. Gen'r'l Elec- tions. Number of Uncontested Elections (with Voters.) Number of Electors on the Roll. P.c. of Total, popula- tion. Number of 'Electors actually voting. Total. P.c. Number of Votes falling to Elected Candidates Number of Votes falling to non-elected Candidates. Average number of Votes cast in each Constitu- ency. Average number of Votes fall- ing on each elected M.P. 1896 1901 1905 1906 1910 132 256,522 116 251,707 108 255,952 189 472,253 889,714 5-6 1,025,245 6-1 1,056,818 60 1,085,323 61 Details 654,633 73-5 690,725 67-3 716,397 67-8 672,762 619 not yet 479,507 468,167 516,248 542,930 published 175,126 222,558 200,149 129,832 1,585 1,672 1,734 1,629 1,161 1,133 1,249 1,314 B. Number of constituencies containing In 1881 Under 200 voters i From 200 to 500 voters 12 From 500 to 1,000 „ 52 From 1,000 to 1,500 „ 68 Under 1,500 , 133 From 1,500 to 3,000 „ 230 From 3,000 to 7,000 „ 50 Over 7,000 „ — 1907 10 . 7 48 . 36 48 . 35 108 . 80 331 . 200 74 • 136 7 168 THE SZENICZ ELECTION I. The 7 Slovak Counties. Arva Trencsen .... Lipt6 Z61yom Tur6cz Nyitra Saros The II Roumanian Coun- ties. Fogaras Hunyad Also Feher Szolnok-Doboka . Krass6-Szoreny Torda-Aranyos Kolozs Bestercze-Naszod . Szeben Arad Szilagy The 4 Szekel Cocnties. Udvarhely . Cslk . . . Haromszek Marcs Torda . (Maros Vasarhely) The 9 Magyar Counties (with 3 chief towns) Hajdu . Csongrdd Jasz, N. S. Heves . Szabolcs Gyor Borsod . Somogy Komarom (Kecskemet) (Debreczen) (Szeged) Total Popula- tion (igoo). 84,950 286,369 81,920 123,742 51,924 427,328 172,706 92,145 302,710 209,836 236,526 441,266 160,472 204,231 117,649 162,291 329,400 206,968 117,850 127,995 136,797 177,967 17,715 148,519 131,873 349,403 253,368 287,301 97,045 255,194 344,194 158,966 56,786 72,351 100,270 Magyar Population. * Total. P.c. of whole pop. 1,467 7,994 2,671 8,922 2,169 80,516 10,571 4,917 32,067 35,409 46,861 21,079 40,720 54,678 8,309 6,653 71,710 76,270 112,258 110,643 116,354 102,995 16,057 148,083 131,119 347,239 251,078 283,777 95,451 241,578 309,205 138,049 56,351 71,332 96,438 ? 1-7 2-8 3-3 7-2 4-2 i8-8 61 5-3 10-6 169 199 4-8 25-4 26-8 70 4-2 21-8 36-9 953 86-5 85-1 57-9 90-7 99-7 99-4 99-4 99-1 98-9 gS-4 94-7 89-8 86-8 99-2 98-6 96-2 Jewish Popu- lation. 11,315 3,082 2,842 2,022 24,890 12,179 855 4,032 3,852 11,767 4,343 2,465 5,124 6,346 1,029 3,083 8,874 1,198 1,514 3,340 1,625 6,613 2,098 10,681 10,246 23,226 3,085 16,341 10,929 4,896 1,926 6,078 5,776 Number of Constitu- encies. 1 See Ungarisches Statistisches Jahrbueh, siv. pp. 421-4. APPENDIX XXVIII Number of Electors. 11,148 10,388 7,184 8,536 3,879 23,933 14,915 2,669 10,642 5,013 7,453 26,338 3,790 3,791 2,947 5,276 19,394 19,609 7,146 6,307 6,027 6,181 1,496 10,754 6,969 23,298 15,003 14,669 6,319 15,739 26,070 10,228 3,708 6,044 7.726 Electors form p.c. of Popu- lation. 132 3-4 8-5 6-5 7-3 5-3 8-4 3-2 2-2 30 5-7 2-2 1-7 2-3 30 5-5 8-9 5-9 4-6 4-3 3-3 6-9 THE SZENICZ ELECTION (MAY 2, 1906) The following appeal was lodged with the Fiscal in Nyitra : — To the Royal Fiscus in Nyitra ! Sir! The undersigned herewith hand in the following charge against Coloman Szabo, president at the Parliamentary Election of Szenicz, and base it on §§ 154, 158 and 169 of Law XV of 1899, which C. Szab6 violated in order to influence the election in favour of the candidate, Mr. Emody. Regarding the marshalling of the electors, he made the 169 APPENDIX following dispositions : As headquarters for Emody's voters he se- lected the Arpad Square, where all roads meet, for Veselovsky's voters the square behind the hospital and churchyard. We raised no protest against this action, since we knew that it would have been in vain. The drawing of lots for these positions took place without our party being present, and it was confirmed by the Minister. Moreover, the President of the election promised not only to look out a good place for our party, but even to permit us entry into the inn of Stephen Holcik. When requested for the election passes,^ he replied that he would not give them on any account whatever. Not content with not keeping his promises on the polling day, he even ejected us from the square behind the hospital (in itself a bad enough position), on the pre- text that brawls might arise between us and Emody's supporters from Jablonic. The electors from Cacov Kovalov Sojc, St'epanov, Straz, Smolinsk, Carov and Sastin, had to get out of their carriages a long way from the town and to reach their comrades by a roundabout way, escorted by gendarmes. . . . The rope which was drawn round the market place, was only removed at midday by order of the commandant, so that the electors from Rohov, Rovensko, Kunov and Kovalov arrived too late. The military cordon was maintained till 3 o'clock next day as far as the Janossy house, so that our voters could not even get to any of the inns. When the innkeeper Holcik was about to set up a beer barrel at the Slovak headquarters, he was forbidden by the military commandant, under pain of losing his licence. At midnight the cordon was removed, except that which separated our voters from the polling booth and Holcik's inn. Passes were supplied solely to persons of the Emody party, who did not permit our voters to pass through the cordon, and even hindered an officer from letting them through. When Coloman Szabo and Alois Pfauser, the presidents of the second committee, found that even then the polling was unfavourable to Emody, they simply rejected 326 votes of our party, on which account our voters personally brought forward a charge of violation of the Elec- toral Law. We also bring toward the charge of deprivation of the franchise, and request that these two matters be treated together. As witnesses : Dr. C. Horvath, advocate ; C. Kresak, bank director ; Martin Braxatoris, evang. pastor ; Daniel Kopa, evang. teacher ; Samuel Hatala, evang. teacher ; and if necessary others also. We beg the Royal Fiscus to take up our charge. (Signed) St. Fajnor, Dr. L. Simko. The verdict of the Fiscus ran as follows : — 10466-1906. With regard to the above accusation and petition, in accordance with points i and 3, § loi, XXXIII of 1896, I suspend the inquiry. The plaintiffs have the right to appeal to the Fiscus in Pressburg. Grounds. — The accused deny having influenced the election in Emody's favour, Coloman Szabo maintains regarding the place of assembly of the two parties, that he conferred with the representatives of Veselov- ^ These passes enable the marshals of each party to circulate freely through the cordons of troops and gendarmes, 170 THE SZENICZ ELECTION sky's party, who then selected their own place. Regarding the assem- bling of the voters the president prescribed their routes in the interests of both parties, i.e. routes where the opponents could not come into collision. The military cordons did not prevent any person from voting. That the voters from the above mentioned villages arrived late at the poll and only voted towards the close, is explained by the fact that they had not yet reached the place of assembly. He does not believe that the military cordons roped off the way. Holcik's inn was only cut off from the voters till lo o'clock, and then it became so crowded that even Veselovsky and Fajnor requested that the voters should be removed, in order to prevent general drunkenness. For this reason the inn was again cut off from the voters, although even then Veselovsky's electors had free access to the bar. No elector was illegally deprived of his vote, only those electors were declared un- qualified to vote whose identity could not be established, or who owing to drunkenness could not pronounce either their own name or that of the candidates. The testimony of the witnesses cannot be con- sidered, since they all belong to the Veselovsky party and further make statements the truth of which they could not know under the circumstances, and which are not even contained in the accusation. But even if their testimony were recognized as authentic, they could not prove the guilt of the accused on the basis of § 154, xv. 1899, since the accused justi- fied themselves according to these sections ; for the party headquarters were by agreement between the representatives of each party situated at equal distances from the polling booth. Cards of legitimation were supplied to neither party, and regarding Holcik's inn, the latter sup- ports the accusation. For the rest, it cannot be proved that the accused influenced the election in favour of Emody. On the ground of inade- quate proof, the inquiry is suspended. Nyitra, December 31, 1906. CSERNANSZKY. On appeal to the Fiscus of Pressburg, the following decision was obtained. S. 11/1907. I hereby confirm the verdict of the Royal Fiscus in Nyitra, which I have carefully read through, with the remark that I personally in- quired into the matter of the other allegations. Stephen Kral. For statistics of 326 illegally annulled votes at Szenicz, see Appen- dix XXII of my Racial Problems in Hungary, p. 497. Between 1906 and 1910 the greater part of the protesting electors were removed from the voting register, whose numbers sank from 2,391 to under 2,000. 171 APPENDIX APPENDIX XXIX AN OFFICIAL'S OATH The following document throws a somewhat starthng light upon the manners of a local executive official towards the Slovak popu- lation. This same official, Dr. Szale, whose sworn statements the Court of Nyitra rejected as untrue, continued to occupy the position of Szolgabiro of Szenicz, acted as returning officer at the notorious election of Verbo in 1906 (see p. 18) and played a prominent part in the election of Szenicz in 1910. So long as such officials are not merely left unchecked, but directly encouraged by their superiors, it is useless to expect much improvement in the political situation of the Slovaks. No. 9801/1906. In the Name of H.M. the King ! The Royal Court of Nyitra, under the presidency of Dr. Zoltan Pazar, . . . in re the charge No. 539/1906 of libel, brought against Francis Veselovsky, has, after the public trial in Nyitra on November 13 and 14, 1906, . . . passed the following verdict : Francis Veselovsky (born on September 30, 1S42, at Lupina, and residing there, R.C., married, childless, propertied, advocate) is ac- quitted of the charge of libel brought against him under § 260 of Criminal Code, . . . and of the further charge of libel in two cases, incurred through blackmail. . . . Costs amounting to 436 crowns 92 heller fall upon the Treasury, under § 482. Reasons : The Public Prosecutor claimed that the accused be declared guilty of libel in three cases, . . . because — in a petition brought on May 20, 1903 (No. 12497/ 1903), against the decision of the Vice-Sheriff of the County of Nyitra concerning his complaint against the chief szolgabiro of Szenicz, Dr. Louis Szale — he had asserted, in respect of Dr. Szale, that the political officials drive the people out of the country, as was habitually done by Dr. Szale ; And also because the accused — in his appeal of July 9, 1903 (No. 13992), directed through the Vice-Sheriff of the Nyitra County to the Minister of the Interior — had asserted of . . . Dr. Szale and of Theo- dore Zlocha, district curator of the Board of Orphans, that blackmail was exercised in a dreadful manner in their name in the district of Szenicz. At the trial the accused, Francis Veselovsky, admitted having com- posed both the appeals in question . . . and offered to prove the truth of . . . the incriminated assertions, having only had the public interest in view. . . . This the Court allowed . . . under § 263 : 5 of Criminal Code. Dr. Louis Szale stated as witness under oath, that it was untrue that he had declared to the deputation from Jablonica, which came to him regarding the candidature of Stephen Kristufek, " that he would take a stick in his hand, go to Jablonica, and there go from house to house and beat them till they fled to America." He also said that it was untrue that he had said to natives of Szottina assembled in the notary's 172 AN OFFICIAL'S OATH ofiSce of that village, " that he who was not pleased with Hungary, had better clear out, and might go where he liked." In opposition to Dr. Louis Szale's evidence, however, the Court con- sidered the sivorn evidence of John Skapik, Emerich Mikulka, John Zubek, and Martin Kukan, as proving that Dr. Szdle did say to the deputa- tion from Jablonica early in December, 1902, ..." that he would take a stick in his hand, go to Jahlonica, wander from house to house, and force them all to fly to America : then they would find out who the chief szolgabiro Szdle was." The Court considered the sworn evidence of Paul Kalemen, John Tomes, Martin Szvati, Martin Rehus and John Kuklis as proving that Dr. Szale at the beginning of November, 1901, in addressing the villagers gathered at the notary's office at Szotina, called them Panslavs, Hurbanites,'^ and Scum ( ), who deserved nothing better than to be exterminated, and that he finally declared, that he who was not satisfied here, had better go to America. These expressions, which Dr. Louis Szale made on two different occasions to a crowd lacking in the necessary culture, appeared to the Court, in view of the official position of the speaker, as well calculated to awaken fear and bitterness among the people and to cause it to abandon the Hungarian fatherland. As consequently the accused has succeeded in proving the truth of the incriminated assertions in his Appeal No. 12497/1903, he had to be acquitted of the offence of libel in one case. . . . With regard to the offence of libel committed in two cases through a charge of blackmail, the Court considered the sworn evidence of the witnesses Theodore Zlocha, John Nemecskay, Alexander Czintula and Michael Tomecsek, as proving that the former pubUc notary, Andrew Pullmann, in Dojcs in the spring of 189S, wheedled 500 crowns out of John Nemecskay, native of Dojcs, with a view to procuring a special marriage licence, by misuse of the names of Dr. Louis Szale and of Theodore Zlocha, he having declared to J. Nemecskay, who thought the amount too high, that the greater part of the amount belonged not to him but to the chief szolgabiro of Szenicz, Dr. Louis Szale, and to the former curator of Orphans in Szenicz, Theodore Zlocha. Since the appeal brought by the accused under No. 15992/1930 does not refer either to the person of Dr. L. Szale nor to that of T. Zlocha, not merely according to the commonest sense of the words, but also according to their grammatical context ; and since . . . accused's argument that he did not cite the Nemecskay incident as a reproach against Szale and Zlocha, but solely as illustration of the conditions prevailing in the district of Szenicz ; as then the incriminated passages ... do not contain the offence specified in § 260 of the Criminal Code, . . . the accused had to be acquitted of the offence of libel in two cases. . . . November 14, 1906. Sandor, m.p.. President of Royal Court. Dr. Bartal, m.p.. Court Notary. * Dr. J. M. Hurban was one of the leaders of the Slovaks in 1848, and his son, Mr. Svetozan Hurban, the distinguished poet and novelist, is to-day one of the most prominent Slovaks. APPENDIX APPENDIX XXX THE NOTARY'S ADVICE— OFFICIAL INTIMIDATION The following is a literal translation of an " Appeal," lithographed copies of which were scattered broadcast in a Roumanian con- stituency in Hungary, by a local notary. Appeal. It is said that many priests put those who do not follow them under a curse. This curse is merely the barking of a dog. No one should be frightened at this curse, for the priest who curses the people is no priest, but a Judas. The clergy want a deputy who will secure a good salary for them and increase the salary of the schoolmasters, but burden it all on the people's back. What good can the priest do you ? Listen, men ! To whom must we appeal both by day and by night ? Is it not the notary of the Commune ? Has he not always listened to us ? Has he not fulfilled what he promised us ? Take good care what you do, lest evil befall us. Do you want the notary to press us into a corner with taxes ? Do you want him to fine us for brawling, for neglecting our dunghills and for all that kind of thing ? Do you want him not to allow us to stack hay and straw in the yards, so that we must always fetch home what we need bit by bit ? Do you want him to force us to work for months at road-mending, at the busy time in the fields ? Do you want us not to get any more pasturage from the State lands ? I advise our following the notary, and then nothing can happen to us. He who won't listen to me, must be responsible for all that comes over us, and also for the punishment which will follow. So let us go with the notary ! An Elector. Readers of this astonisihing " appeal " will be able to appreciate the grounds upon which a certain Roumanian priest in South Hungary refused to come forward a second time as candidate for Parliament. He had not the heart, he said, to expose his people to the endless petty acts of persecution by which the administrative officials took vengeance for the support accorded to him at the polls. APPENDIX XXXI ; " THE FLAG OF TUNIS AND MOROCCO." The following document has no direct connexion with the elec- tions ; but I give it as an astounding instance of the lengths to which the Hungarian authorities go in their petty tyranny towards the Non-Magyars. Unless I had actually had the document in my hands, I confess that I would have rejected its contents as 174 "THE FLAG OF TUNIS AND MOROCCO" incredible. Not being able to retain possession of the original, and fearing that even my best friend might doubt my sanity if I told the story without documentary proof, I got a sworn court interpreter of the Magyar language to make a typewritten copy and an attested translation, with official stamp ; and this is now in my possession. B 403/1906. Royal District Court in Bozovics. Z 525/1906. Verdict. (i) John Brinzey, aged 42, married, father of two children, un- punished, Greek Oriental priest and religious instructor, resident in Bozovics. (2) Moses Smeu, aged 17, unmarried, unpunished, resident in Bozovics, are found guilty by me of the offence of using a foreign flag, contrary to the Order of the Minister of the Interior {1885, Z 62693) • • • ; and the first accused is therefore condemned to ten days' arrest and a fine of 200 crowns, the second accused to three days' arrest, at his own expense, and a fine of sixty crowns. The accused are bound over to pay the fines, which in case of non-payment can be converted into a further arrest of ten and three days respectively, in each case at his own cost. . . . (They are also ordered to pay 15 crowns 40 hellar as the cost of hearing the gendarmes as witnesses). . . . Reasons. On the information of the gendarmerie corporal in Bozovics, that John Brinzey, the Greek Oriental priest of Bozovics, at ... a mar- riage procession in which he took part as best man (nasznagy), had a strange red flag carried in front, instead of the national tricolour which is usual in the district — the flag was seized, and an inquiry instituted. As the result of the admissions of . . . the two accused, and of the evidence of the gendarmes, . . . this offence was unques- tionably proved. Both the accused were then condemned, the first because he had admittedly had the flag prepared, the second because he had carried the flag before the wedding procession at the bidding of the first. In view of the fact that national flags serve to characterize the inde- pendence of the nation, and that consequently the use of any foreign flag violates the territorial dignity of the Hungarian State ; In view also of the fact that the above-cited Order . , . forbids the use of foreign flags on any occasion and under any pretext — which applies also to this red flag of Tunis and Morocco, that is, of a foreign state ; In view finally of the fact that the accused admitted having inten- tionally carried a red flag instead of the national tricolour, . . . they were condemned as above, and the confiscated flag, as corpus delicti, was destroyed. In fixing the sentence, it was in the case of the priest John Brinzey considered an aggravating circumstance that he, being possessed of considerable intelligence, could weigh the importance and conse- quences of his act. APPENDIX And also that he made a demonstration against the territorial dignity of the State, at a time when the concord between the Hungarian nation and its exalted crowned ruler was impaired. A final aggravation was the fact that the accused fills the post of religious instructor at the state elementary school here and receives for this a state grant of 80 crowns ^ . . . (Appeal allowed in three days.) [signature unreadable) * Chief Szolgabiro. Bozovics, June 2, 1906. On appeal, the sentence was upheld on the following astonishing grounds — Z 18067/1906. From the Vice-Sheriff of the County of Krass6-Szor£ny. In re offence of John Brinzey and companion. Decision. (The facts of the original sentence are summarized.) . . . On the ground of the accused persons' appeal, the matter was revised by me, and confirmed in view of the grounds adduced, but with one limitation, namely that the passage relating to Tunis and Morocco is to be omitted as superfluous, for I find the criminal offence to consist in the fact that, contrary to the practice of the district, instead of the national Hungarian tricolour, a flag of another colour was ostentatiously used, or rather that the Hungarian tricolour was ostentatiously left aside. At the same time it is ordered that as soon as the verdict comes into operation, the documents shall be sent to the Chamber of Advocates in Temesvar with a view to disciplinary steps being taken against the abuse contained in the appeal submitted by Dr. S. Vladone, advocate in Bozovics, in the name of the accused Brinzey and companion. . . . FlALKA, m.p., Vice-Sheriff. LuGOS, August 31, 1906. Z 1667/1906. You are informed of the above, with the remark that you are free to appeal within three days against this decision in the second instance, to the Ministry of the Interior. [signature unreadable)- Chief Szolgabiro. Bozovics, September 5, 1906. In other words, the Vice-Sheriff knocks the bottom out of the szolgabiro's decision by deleting the reference to the " foreign flag," and then upholds it none the less. It should be added that Father Brinzey had specially ordered the pole on which the flag hung to be painted red also, in the idea that this would make it impossible for any one to accuse him of using Roumanian colours * He is, therefore, fined a sum amounting to 2^ years' salary ! ! 2 This ofiicial, who deserves immortality, was called William Macassy. 176 THE MAY TREE (which are red, yellow and blue). If the pole had been left un- painted some gendarme might have argued that it was yellow, and that yellow and red being two out of the three Roumanian colours, his intentions were suffiiciently obvious. This logic would have sufficed — in Hungary — to have him convicted of carrying the colours of Roumania. APPENDIX XXXII THE MAY TREE A similar but even more outrageous verdict was given by the szolgabiro of Nagyszentmiklos in May, 1904, against three servants of Dr. Nestor Oprean, a Roumanian advocate residing in that town, for erecting a may tree with Roumanian colours in front of their master's house ! This was treated as an offence of " hostility to the State " (under Ministerial Orders 26559/1874 and 62693/1885), and Rosalia Mayer, Elizabeth Wolf and Vasilie Minijan were therefore each sentenced to fifteen days' arrest, at their own expense, and to a fine of 200 crowns each, or £24 in all ! It is hardly neces- sary to add that this act of petty tyranny was directed against Dr. Oprean himself, as he naturally had to pay his servants' fines. The reasons adduced by the szolgabiro are most interesting. No. 255/1904. From the Sz6lgabir6 of Nagyszentmikl6s. . . . Rosalia Mayer and Elizabeth Wolf erected on the night of May 13-14 before the house of Dr. Nestor Oprean a may tree decorated with Roumanian colours and signs, and were therefore sentenced to two days' prison each and to fines of 100 and 10 crowns respectively, the authorities pointing out to them that it is forbidden to use such foreign signs. At 5 p.m. on May 14 the verdict was announced to the accused : and in spite of this they again erected a may tree before Dr. Oprean 's house, at half -past eleven the same evening, with the help of Vasilie Minisan. This time it was only decorated with red and blue bands. The communal watchman John Steflik saw this and warned the accused of the consequences of their act, but they none the less erected the may tree : whereupon information was lodged. ... In fixing the sentence it was regarded as an aggravating cir- cumstance that Rosalia Mayer and Elizabeth Wolf put up the may tree immediately after their punishment and in spite of warnings, in order to render futile the action of the authorities. In Vasilie Mini^an's case it was regarded as aggravating that he, as son of a village watch- man, must know that the use of foreign colours is forbidden, and may also have known that the erection of a may tree before Dr. Oprean's house had been punished by the authorities. The argument of the accused, that on the second may tree there was no Roumanian tricolour but only red and blue ribbons, and their C.R.H. 177 N APPENDIX assertion that they had no idea of demonstrating . . . could not be considered. For if they had simply wished to give their master some pleasure with the may tree, they could have erected it in the court. It is quite true that there were only red and blice ribbons on this tree ; but it was also decorated with green sprigs, and these go yellow after a few days, so that the may tree would after a few days again have shown the colours Red — Yellow — Blue, that is, the Roumanian tricolour. There is, therefore, good reason to suspect that the accused wanted to mislead or fool the authorities, when they only decorated the tree with red and blue ; and so they had to be punished all the more severely. Vazul Sztojanovics, m.p., Szolgabiro. Nagyszentmikl6s, May 20, 1904. Cases are continually occurring, in which persons are punished for wearing the Roumanian colours (which are, it should be added, also the colours of Transylvania). Two incidents may be cited, which occurred as recently as July, 1909. At the funeral of the well-known Roumanian editor and politician Andrew Muresianu, a large number of WTeaths were placed upon the coffin. Among others, the Bucarest Society of Roumanian Journalists had sent a wreath decorated with Roumanian national colours ; but as the funeral procession started for the cemetery the police of Kronstadt (Brasso) appeared upon the scene and re- moved these colours from the hearse. In the little town of Brad (County Hunya) a gendarme arrested a small girl of six for wearing the Roumanian colours in her hair. The szolgabiro before whom she was brought found her parents guilty of incitement against the Magyar State, and sentenced the father, Nicholas Badea, to five days' arrest and a fine of 100 crowns, the mother to five days' arrest and five crowns, and the nurse, who had tied on these " treasonable " colours, to two days' arrest and two crovMis. As if this were not enough, the unfortunate father was promptly suspended from his post as secretary of the commune. APPENDIX XXXIII WHY INN-LICENCES ARE WITHDRAWN IN HUNGARY. One of the commonest methods of intimidation at a Hungarian election is the withdrawal of inn-licences from landlords who venture to vote against the official candidate. A capital example of this evil practice is supplied by the following petition addressed by a Slovak innkeeper to the county excise authorities. Though long- winded, it gives so clear an account of what occurred, that I have given a verbatim translation, merely omitting the long and technical legal arguments with which it concludes : — 178 WTTHDRAWAT OF INN-TTCRNrF Appeal of Samuel Slavik, innkeeper in Mijava. To the Royal Hungarian Finance and Excise Office in Nyiira I appeal against the decision No. 35,472 (1910) IV., upon the following grounds : — (i) The only reason of the withdrawal of my drink licence is my political attitude at the last elections. Throughout the county of Nyitra the elections were fixed for June i. In the constituency of Verbo, to which the commune of Mijava belongs, the candidate of the Party of National Work was George Rudnyanszky. In spite of the fact that Rudnyanszky had no rival candidate up to May 29, the chief szolgabiro of the district of Mijava summoned me by word of mouth at 9 o'clock on the evening of May 23, to appear at his office at 8 o'clock on the morning of the 24th, because on the previous day I had refused to accept and hoist a flag of Rudnyanszky, and because I had repeatedly not allowed his placards to be pasted on the walls of my house. At the hour prescribed I appeared at the office, in company of Stephen Lendler, communal notary of Mijava ; when the chief szolgabiro called me to account for not accepting Rudnyanszky 's flag and not allowing his placards to be posted on my walls. I then replied that as I entertained both Magyar and Slovak customers and had never tolerated electoral signs in my house, and had grown old in this fashion, I would take no part in the electoral campaign, whether there was a rival candidate or not. Electoral signs (flags, placards, etc.) I would accept from no party. I would abstain from voting and preserve the strictest neu- trahty. The chief szolgabiro hereupon asked me again in a voice of thunder, whether I would hoist Rudnyanszky's flag and allow his placards to be stuck up. As I dared to maintain my former attitude, the chief szolgabiro made the following threat to me : " Very well, I inform you that after to-day no one of the Rudnyanszky party will be allowed to enter your inn garden. . . ." He then went on : " But I tell you this too, that the extension of your licence to the garden, the petition for which I have, will not have my backing at the Finance Office." As I received this also calmly, he said, turning to me and striking himself on the breast, with threatening voice : "I forbid you to sell drinks in the garden after to-day." And when I answered that he can do so if he has the right, he finally addressed these words to me : "At the same time I assure you that your licence will be with- drawn in two or three days." I have as witnesses of all this, Stephen Lendler and John Bardos, communal notaries, living in Mijava, and I demand their summons. (2) The chief szolgabiro, on that day and on the next, declared openly in a loud voice, in his office, on the street and in the club, that he was depriving me of my licence because I had refused to hoist Rudnyan- szky's flag and stick up his placards. For this I have as witnesses Joseph Kubinyi, szolgabiro ; Stephen Lendler and John Bardos, com- munal notaries ; Louis Batka, Michael Zigany, W. Tihanyi, and Henry Haberfeld, residents in Mijava. (3) The chief szolgabiro carried out his threat, when on May 28, 1910, the excise officer made the most minute inspection at my inn, declaring that he had a more important errand, but that as notice had been given against me, he had to come to Mijava on my account. 179 APPENDIX (4) On June i was the election, in which I took no part. (5) On June 5 two excise officials appeared to forbid me to continue selling drinks in the garden ; they drew up a report on this, which I signed, voluntarily giving up my right to sell drinks in the garden, till the Finance Office decides in this matter. (6) On June 8, when I was examined in the matter of my offence, the chief szolgabiro told me that though he was sorry for me owing to my honesty he yet had to withdraw my licence — 1st, because he had already told me that he would withdraw it ; 2nd, because the other innkeepers ask it of him, and they deserve that their business should improve through the withdrawal of my licence, because they submitted to him. 3rd, because he wants to show the innkeepers of Mijava that they must obey him. At the same time he assured me that if I would vote at the next elections, he will restore my licence, as he has the right to grant and withdraw licences. For this I have as witness Joseph Kubinyi, szolgabiro of Mijava. (7) On June 10 I received the decision against me. (8) In order to make clear how far the misuse of his official power went, I enclose (under A) the weekly paper Obzor, edited by him, which writes as follows in an article of June 12, 1910, under the heading " Mijava" : "He who thinks or acts unpatriotically " (i.e. he who does not vote for his candidate), "be he official or innkeeper, must lose his post or his licence." These words regarding the Verbo elec- tion refer to my case and that of the parish councillor, Stephen Zeman, who did not go from Mijava to Rudnyanszky's electoral address in Verbo, and who, being called " Panslav pig," was forced to resign his office. For Zeman's case there are witnesses : St. Lendler, J. Bardos, Jos. Kubinyi, L. Batka and S. Zeman, all of Mijava. . . . These eight points prove that in the withdrawal of my licence the lion's share falls to the chief szolgabiro, that its reason was political revenge, and its aim to induce the other inn keepers to vote for his candidate. This is the political background of the withdrawal. If there had been no election, the chief szolgabiro would have taken no exception to me, for I have sold drinks for twelve years in Mijava under No. 299, and since March 23, 1893, under No. 247, and have never till this moment been charged with any offence in all my twenty-nine years as innkeeper. There are indeed few innkeepers who in twenty-nine years were never published for irregularity or offences. I was proud of this, and behold, rny licence is suddenly withdrawn. Leaving aside the ugly political background, I will now treat the matter from the juridical point of view. . . . (This he does at tremendous length, and after pointing out that he had never broken any rules, he asks that witnesses be heard and the decision annulled.) Samuel SlAvik, m.p. Innkeeper. Daniel ProkSaI ^^0^35^3 Du5an KuliSek J ^«°esses. 180 Yrs. Mths Dys. Fines (in crowns • 93 I 23 42,464 . 38 9 3 51.327 2 10 10 7.720 5 2,100 I I 2,500 . 91 7 26 42,121 BLOODSHED AT ELECTIONS APPENDIX XXXIV SUMMARY OF POLITICAL TRIALS 143 Roumanians (1886-1896) 210 Roumanians (1897-1908) 14 Germans (i 898-1 903) 7 Ruthenes (1904) 4 Serbs (1898-1906) 560 Slovaks (1896-1908) 938 non-Magyars (1886-1908) . . 232 6 2 148,232 These statistics only reach down to the summer of igo8. A large number of similar trials occurred during the remaining eighteen months of the Coalition regime . The new Minister of Justice, Mr. Szekely, who seems to be the most enlightened member of the Khuen-Hedervary Cabinet, quashed a large number of the trials pending at the time of his taking office, and political trials have been rarer since February, 1910. But the local courts and officials remain as Chauvinist as ever. APPENDIX XXXV BLOODSHED AT ELECTIONS Bresnitz von Sydacoff, in his sensational tract Die Wahrheit ilher Ungarn (pp. 70-71) quotes verbatim the following report of Mr. Julius Endrey, M.P., upon a bye-election at Maros-Vasarhely during the Premiership of Mr. Szell : — To-day's election was stained not only by bribery and official pres- sure, but also by a bloodbath started by the gendarmes. The polling- booth, the school, and indeed the whole neighbourhood was thickly beset with gendarmes and military. Since the public could not, owing to the cordon, enter School Street, it collected in the neighbouring Louis-Kossuth-Street, and cheered the voters of the Kossuth Party. Between midday and one o'clock, when the supporters of the Govern- ment party appeared and proceeded to vote, they were received with hooting by the crowd. Some children even threw snowballs at the carriages in which the voters of the Government party sat. A gendarme then seized a child and began to ill-treat it, by belabouring it with the butt of his rifle. Several persons in the crowd tried to intervene in the interest of the child. " Don't ill-treat it," said a townsman, " it is only an unripe child." The gendarme then let go of the child, which disap- peared crying in the crowd. In the next moment one gendarme raised his rifle : two others followed his example, and several shots fell in rapid succession. A fearful outcry filled the air. Several persons staggered to the ground covered with blood. Ten persons had fallen victims to the volley — among them three who were killed on the spot. These are Daniel Nagy, miller ; John Pipas, peasant, and Isaac Farkas, miller's apprentice. The seventeen-year-old car- 181 APPENDIX penter's apprentice, John Simon, was brought into hospital in a dying condition. Six others were brought into hospital, several of them fatally wounded. The rest will be crippled for life. At the news of the bloodbath the voters of the Kossuth Party scattered, not daring to go to the poll. Thus the candidate of the Government Party was declared elected. Witnesses state that there was absolutely no reason for the gendarmes using their weapons. High Sheriff Arpad Miko had received the order from the Premier, Mr. Szell, that the constituency must unquestionably remain in the hands of the Government party. APPENDIX XXXVI PARLIAMENTARY TOLERANCE AND THE NON-MAGYARS Even the few Non-Magyars who succeed in running the parlia- mentary gauntlet are by no means free from political persecution. In 1894 the Minister of the Interior actually dissolved the Rou- manian National Party ; and since then the argument has been repeatedly put forward, that any party based upon Non-Magyar nationality is unconstitutional and unpatriotic, and cannot be tolerated. Under the Coalition Government a fresh device was adopted to frighten the Non-Magyars into silence — the suspension of parlia- mentary immunity. On November 16, 1906, Father Ferdinand Juriga, one of the seven Slovak deputies, was sentenced at Press- burg to a term of two years' imprisonment and a fine of 1,200 crowns ; his offence consisted in " incitement against the Magyar nationality," incurred in two newspaper articles attacking the Chauvinists and defending himself against the charges of disloyalty which they brought against him.^ Soon afterwards, two other Non- Magyar deputies, Messrs. Hodza and Petrovic, were sentenced to terms of two and six months' imprisonment for similar offences. Father Jehlicka, another Slovak deputy, was also charged with " incitement against the Magyar nationality," and was threatened by the ecclesiastical authorities with suspension from office, unless he withdrew from an active part in politics. His attachment to the priestly calling proved too strong for his Slovak sentiments ; he resigned his seat, and nothing more has been heard of the charge of " incitement." The Bishop, who disapproved of JehliCka's political activity, raised no objection to a Magyar priest standing for the vacant constituency ; and the growth of national feeling among the Slovak Catholic peasantry was strikingly illustrated by ' For a full analysis of the Law of Nationalities (Law xliv. 1868) and a contrast bct-.veen its theory and practice, see my Racial Problems in Hungary, pp. X47-159. 182 PARLIAMENTARY TOLERANCE their election of Mr. Ivanka, a young Lutheran advocate who had only recently settled in Nagy Szombat (Tyrnau). The Govern- ment wreaked its vengeance on Mr. Ivanka by a political action for " incitement," incurred in his electoral address ; and on August 2, 1908, he was sentenced to a year's imprisonment and a fine of 12,000 crowns. Moreover, the little group of nationalist members was subjected to repeated insults and abuse in the House. Mr. Justh, the Coalition Speaker, was conspicuous for his dignified impartiality ; but the Vice-Presidents vied with each other in setting his example at defiance. One of these, Mr. Stephen Rakovszky (one of the leaders of the People's Party), called out during the speech of a non-Magyar deputy, " Get out ! Ass, stupid fool, coward ! " Father Lucaciu, who was sitting near him, asked him whom he was addressing, whereupon Rakovszky flung the word "coward " at him. When the Roumanian leader retorted, " A coward is he who insults a priest, knowing that he cannot claim satisfaction with weapons," the ex-diplomat simply exclaimed, " Be quiet, or I'll box your ears." (See Pester Lloyd, April 3, igo8.) The temper of the House towards the nationalities was reflected in its reception of a speech made by Mr. Goldis during the Educa- tion debate (April 6, 1907). When he quoted the saying of Edmund Bartha, " that it was both mistaken and impossible to bring up Magyar children in a German spirit," he was greeted with loud applause ; but when he added, " equally mistaken and impossible is it to educate Roumanian children in a Magyar spirit," the ap- plause changed to loud and angry protests. (See Pester Lloyd, April 6, 1907.) An appeal having been lodged against Dr. Polit's mandate (June, 1906), Mr. Olay, one of the members of the Judicial Committee to which the case was referred, told Polit to his face that his mandate would be annulled, even if no valid ground was found — because he was cultured and a good speaker, and consequently the most dan- gerous of the Serbs. (See Pester Lloyd, June, 1906.) But the most starthng example is supplied by the notorious Vaida incident in the spring of 1907. Towards the close of a lengthy speech against the new Education BUI of Count Apponyi, Dr. Vaida recited two Magyar poems, the one written by a Mag>'ar Chauvinist in abuse of the Roumanians, the other by a Roumanian patriot returning these insults with interest in the language of his enemies. This later poem, he argued, went far to prove the futility of the present policy of Magyarization in the schools : for this pohcy did not convert the Roumanians into Magyars, but either produced no effect whatever, or else made the Roumanians bilingual and thus doubly dangerous to the Migj'ars. Dr. Vaida had spoken to a thin and inattentive House, and it was only next day that the Chauvinists realized, from the stenographic report of the debaie, 1^3 APPENDIX the nature of the poems which he had cited. The House worked itself into a frenzy of indignation, and Count Apponyi argued that after such a disgraceful and unpatriotic speech there was nothing left for Dr. Vaida but to resign his seat. His Non-Magyar colleagues induced him to offer a public apology to the House (April lo, 1907), though there was absolutely no cause for apology ; but when he rose to his feet, he was greeted by a storm of abuse and insult and was hardly able to proceed. When, two months later (June 7, 1907), he again appeared in the House, a still more disgraceful scene occurred. Mr. Eitner described him as a " traitorous villain " ; Mr. Joseph Horvath cried, " What do we care for the rules of the House ? It is a disgrace to the Magyar nation if this blackguard is here." Mr. Ratkay addressed the House as follows : " My own opinion is that so long as the deputy Vaida possesses a man- date, he is entitled under the rules of the House and of the Con- stitution to enter this House. But a sense of honour, Magyar patriotism and the sovereignty of the Magyar nation . . . must surely bid him not to appear here. I beg to remind him that so long as he remains in this House the standing orders and the laws protect him. But I advise him not to claim this right too long, for there are feelings and questions which cannot be bound by the standing orders for any length of time. (Applause.) The honour- able member should take care that the House does not employ this means of satisfaction against him." This menace naturally in- creased the tumult, and the President had to suspend the sitting. After the interval a solid mass of Magyar deputies bore down upon Vaida and his tiny group of friends, and pressed them through the folding doors at the back of the House. On February 16, 1909, similar treatment was meted out to the Roumanian leader. Dr. Julius Maniu, who acted as spokesman of the nationalities during the debate on the new Army Bills. He began by emphasizing the historic mission of the Dual Monarchy, as the vanguard of Western civilization and as the protector of numerous races too weak ever to form separate political entities. He then described as mistaken the policy which in 1867 erected a German hegemony in Austria and a Magyar hegemony in Hungary to the detriment of the other races of the Monarchy, and he went on to lament the racial exclusiveness which hindered the develop- ment of the nationalities in every branch of pubUc life. The dis- content was already great, he added, and to introduce the racial struggle into the ranks of the Army would increase this discontent tenfold. The noisy protests which this remark evoked, led Mr, Maniu to exclaim : " You want to Magyarize every one in this country. (Noise on the left, and cries : " Of course we want to ! ") Can you then find faiilt with a Roumanian for protesting against this? (Noise and cries: "You are a Magyar deputy." "Go to Roumania 1 " etc.) In such circumstances, you cannot com- plain if every Roumanian resists such tendencies. (Great noise.) 184 PARLIAMENTARY TOLERANCE You wish gradually to introduce Magyarization into the Army also." Ladislas Okolicsdnyi (Kossutliist) : " The Army is a possession of the Hungarian State [a Magyar dllam)." Stephen Pop : " The Army is not there in order to Magyarize, but to defend the country," Okolicsdnyi : " That is a blackguardly remark ! Thai is un- patriotic ! Traitor ! " The President calls him to order. Julius Maniu (continuing) : " We are not inclined to vote taxes of money and blood to an Army which you place at the service of such tendencies! (Prolonged uproar; cries of "outrageous.") I reached this standpoint by studying military statistics." (Cries ; " Did you find Roumanian courage in them ? ") Stephen Pop : "No one who knows history can doubt that." (Great noise. Cries : " You can murder women and children ! ") Maniu : " In a War Office Report of two years ago we find that the Magyar language was made the language of the 37th Infantry Regiment. Such tendencies are dangerous for the Army." (Great noise. Cries : " Go to Austria ! " " Hold your jaw ! ") Emil Nagy : "A piece of impudence." L. Hammer sberg : "In the Hungarian Parliament no one may speak like that." L. Kdllay : " We won't listen to him. That's a filthy busi- ness." The uproar then became so great that the President suspended the sitting. On resuming, the President reminded Mr. Maniu that in attacking the Magyar language he forgot that he was in Hun- gary, where Magyar is the language of state : " There is no Parlia- ment which would tolerate agitation against the language of State (Loud applause.) . . . We want to introduce into the Army the language of State, the nation's true form of expression. (Loud applause.) That is not the same as introducing the racial ques- tion into the Army. I must beg the Hon. Member to remain within these limits, otherwise I shall not allow him to proceed." (Loud applause on aU sides. Count Batthyany calls out : "Go to Vienna or Bucarest.") Mr. Maniu then proceeded : " The Army must be kept free from the effects of such movements, and must not be in the service of particularist interests." (Great noise. Cries : " That is too much ! ") The President thereupon " deprived him of the word." The same afternoon the incident was discussed at a meeting of the Independent Party. Mr. Oscar Petrogalli (not a very Magyar name !) proposed a revision of the Criminal Code, in order to deal with such attacks upon " the idea of the Magyar State-! " The Minister of Justice, Dr. Giinther, whUe condemning Maniu equally strongly, announced that such a law had long been in preparation ! Finally, the Minister of Education, Count Apponyi, declared that 185 APPENDIX as the Government aimed at extending the influence of the Magyar language in every direction, it was bound to regard Maniu's speech as an attack upon its aims, and he favoured an energetic retort on the part of the Independent Party. Next day Count Batthy- any, in the name of the party, declared in the House, that the utterance of " such insults and provocations under cover of Parlia- mentary freedom of speech" can no longer be tolerated. Perhaps even more lamentable than these outbursts of Chauvin- isms on the part of the House, are the public utterances of leading Magyar statesmen on the racial question. On June 2, 1906, the Premier, Dr. Wekerle, had openly announced in the House that he was not in a position to fulfil the linguistic clauses of the Law of Nationahties, especially that affecting legal decisions.^ On July II of the same year, the former Premier, Baron Banffy, attempted to defend his " system " against the attacks of the Roumanian and Slovak deputies. " The legal State," he declared, " is ike aim, but with this question we can only concern ourselves when we have already assured the national State. . . . Hungary's interests demand its erection on the most extreme Chauvinist Hnes." 2 A year later Baron Banffy spoke still more openly upon the racial question. ' In a peaceful manner this question cannot be solved. An understanding cannot be reached between us ; for we wish the unitary Magyar national State, while they wish the polyglot State, with equal rights of the nationahties." Baron Banffy's violent and tortuous policy has gradually ahenated all his followers ; but his pronouncements on the racial question are always sure of a favourable reception from a majority in the House. Count Jiihus Andrassy, the Minister of the Interior, in an impor- tant speech on the racial question (November 27, 1906), described the poHcy of the nationalities as " dangerous, anti-national and hostile to the State," and refused to recognize their existence as a party, because he knew their " poHtical aims to conflict with ' the idea of the Magyar State.' " Andrassy went on to admit that the principles embodied in the Law of Nationahties had been abandoned by subsequent legislation, and assured the nation- ahties that they themselves were to blame for the fact that this law " will shortly have to be repealed." He closed with the follow- ing definition of policy : " Kindness and justice toward the masses, but pitiless severity in the prosecution of the agitators." Six months later Count Andrassy expressed himself even more uncompromisingly. On May 25, 1907 (in answer to an interpella- tion of Dr. Vaida on electoral corruption), he openly admitted the racial question in Hungary to be one of brute force. The aims of the nationahties, he argued, could only be attained, and if once 1 Pester Lloyd, June 3, 1906. * Pester Lloyd, July it, 1906. l85 COUNT TISZA'S SPEECH attained could only be defended, by blood and revolution ; for " a situation which is opposed to the wishes and interests of the Magyar nation and of the strongest factors in the country will always be untenable." Even more remarkable was a pronouncement of another ex-Premier, Mr. Coloman Szell, who had hitherto enjoyed a reputa- tion for tolerance and moderation. Speaking on June 21, igo8, at the annual Congress of the Magyar Cultural Leagues, Mr. Szell described " the unitary Magyar State " as the foremost aim of Hungarian pohcy, in the furtherance of which every statesman is intransigent. " Every citizen," he declared, " is equal before the law, with the single limitation regarding language which is demanded by political unity and the unity of administration and justice." The Non-Magyars are free to develop their own language and culture ; only one thing is asked of them — that they should declare themselves adherents of " the idea of the Magyar State." In short, " this country must first be preserved as a Magyar country, and then it must be cultured, rich, enlightened and progressive." At a banquet which followed the congress. Count Apponyi, the Minister of Education, endorsed the speech of Mr. Szell with the assertion that " an energetic national pohcy " alone can solve the racial question in Hungary. As this statesman argued on another occasion, it always has been and still is a tradition in Hungary to create a unitary Magyar nation. It has, however, been reserved for yet another Hungarian ex- Premier, Count Stephen Tisza (perhaps the ablest statesman whom Hungary possesses) to voice the standard view of the Magyar governing caste upon the racial question. His famous speech of July 12, 1910, and the discussions to which it led, deserve the close attention of those who wish to understand the Magyar atti- tude ; and I therefore make no apology for quoting from it at some length. The whole House, without distinction of party, must. Count Tisza argued, welcome " with patriotic joy " the fact that the elections " virtually wiped the nationahst agitators out of pubhc life." Now, however, it is our duty to draw the conse- quences from this, and to take an important step in the direction of solving the racial question, which is unquestionably one of the greatest of modern problems. He then proceeded to emphasize the need for friendship and harmony with the small nations across the frontier, " which can find the surest guarantee of their existence in the political power of the Magyar nation " ; and put forward the singular theory that it was Hungary which a generation ago first introduced into international politics the idea of the free and independent develop- ment of the Balkan peoples. After flattering references to Francis Joseph's Balkan policy, as having always rested upon Hungarian ideas, he argued that the introduction of Federalism in Austria- 187 APPENDIX Hungary would inevitably lead to " efforts at expansion," and that therefore Dualism and the present poUtical position of the Magyars supplies the sole check upon a movement which must prove fatal to the independence of the smaller Balkan nations. From this questionable premiss he passed, through the tacit assump- tion that the Non-Magyar races of Hungary are bound to con- sider the interests of Roumania and Servia, to this ingenious conclusion : " Hence a complete harmony of interests prevails between all national aspirations of our citizens of Non-Magyar tongue and the Magyar nation," and a complete agreement, in pursuit of identical aims, ought to be attainable. But " our Non- Magyar fellow-citizens must first of all reconcile themselves to the fact that they here belong to a national state, which is not a conglomerate of different races, but which one nation has conquered and founded, upon which one nation has stamped the ineradicable impress of its individuahty, a nation whose indivi- dual importance and character must attain to full expression in the State. I was alwajs a supporter of concord, peace and brotherly relations with the nationaUties, and shall, I beheve, always remain of this opinion, I gladly concede them all which is compatible with the national character, the national unity of the Magyar national state. But this is the limit beyond which we cannot go one iota. (Applause in whole House.) That is the rock against which every one will certainly break his head, who attempts to burst through it." (Loud and general applause.) The Non-Magyars must reahze that " they can only do a service to the independent national existence of their kinsmen across the frontier, if they submit to becoming true and trusty citizens of the Magyar national state." (In other words. Count Tisza asked the Non- Magyars to commit the insanity of placing the interests of foreign kinsmen higher than the interests of their own bare existence !) To promote the reahzation of this truth, " The duty of the Magyar state and nation is twofold. On the one hand they must treat agitation and the agitators with pitiless severity (general applause) ; on the other hand they must foster and support all just aims and interests of our Non-Magyar fellow-citizens wth the fullest brotherly fairness, consideration and respect for the law." (Loud and general applause.) Count Tisza further expressed regret that so Httle is done against the agitators ! " It is shameful that there are not even the rudi- ments of a police organization, such as is necessary in order to observe, examine and discover incitements. It hardly exists, though it is absolutely necessary in a state which has so many internal enemies. One might laugh, were it not so sad, at the fact that the provisions of the criminal code, and the judicial machinery for its enforcement, are so powerless. But it is really wonderful that there is so httle talk of rendering more stringent 188 COUNT TISZA'S SPEECH the punishments imposed upon nationalist incitement. Any one who follows judicial results with any care, and who knows the boundless laxity of the laws in this direction, and who considers the interpretation placed by our legal practice upon the idea of ' direct incitement ' or ' assembly,' will recognize that it can hardly happen that even a naive unlucky beginner in the field of agitation remains sticking in the meshes of the criminal code.^ In this direction matters have been neglected which must be made good, and / cannot imagine any proper racial policy in Hungary, unless we strengthen in the field of police and of criminal law the power of the Magyar state towards these agitators." Count Tisza reached firmer ground when he proceeded to con- demn " the policy of corn -treading " hitherto practised against the nationalities, " the acts of tactlessness " and " unfortunate trifles," which are skilfully played upon by single agitators, and so drive peace-lo\'ing citizens into the latter's arms. The result of all this was " that those who posed as the qualified representa- tives of the nationalities can say so now with more right than a few years ago, and that many important persons among the Non-Magyars sadly stood aside, who a few years ago might have been had for a compromise." Thus on the eve of the elections a compact with the nationalist leaders seemed possible. "I for my part never wished such a compact. ... I am always ready with open arms to come to terms with my Non-Magyar fellow- citizens ; hut with nationalist parties I will never make compromises (stormy applause). The agreement failed, the fight broke out, and the nationalist gentlemen were far from particular in their choice of methods." Stephen C. Pop : " And were you so particular ? " Count Tisza : "If towards you, who agitated in such an unpa- triotic way, used religious fanaticism and boundless terrorism towards us, and behaved with so little scruple towards us, and goaded into hatelhe devout souls of your fellow-citizens — (protest) — if towards you we had been more particular , then we should have been oafs, and should not have done our duty to the country. Now the war is over, and it has ended with the complete collapse of the Nationalities party. And so the moment has come to proceed boldly and hopefull}^ to the solution of the question, for our Non- Magyar fellow-citizens are freed from the nightmare of their terror- ism and can convince themselves that they were merely walking 'on stilts, when they gave themselves out as powerful. . . ." " All concessions which the Magyar state and nation announce and promise to-day — (prolonged noise ; President rings his bell) — ^ Contrast with this the long array of political trials for " incitement " during the last ten years in Hungary. See Appendix xxxiii. See also my Racial Prohlem,s in Hungary, pp. 441-466. Count Tisza apparentlj' considers all this hopelessly inadequate. 189 APPKNDIX have the moral value, that every one will regard them as a spon- taneous gift of the victor, the victor who regards the agitators as enemies, because they really are enemies of the Magyar state, but also, by seeking to endanger it, enemies of their own race." Count Tisza then appealed first of all to " the leaders of the Roumanians, because of all races in the country national conscious- ness beats most strongly in the breast of the Roumanians : because I really see in them the greatest material, spiritual and moral strength, and because beside the frontier the proud kingdom of independent Roumania rises in undreamt-of and unhoped-for splendour — factors which offer the strongest nourishment to national consciousness and enthusiasm." This formed the preface to a really eloquent appeal in favour of joint action between the Rou- manians ?and Magyars,^ during which he expressed " the sympathy of the Magyar nation for Roumania " despite the slanders which poisoned Roumanian public opinion against it, and again urged upon the Roumanians of Hungary the need for strengthening the position of the Magyar nation, if they seek to preserve and further Roumania's independence. Count Tisza found one cause of misunderstanding between the two races in Hungary in the political passivity of the more reputable Roumanians, and appealed to them to take the lead in the cause of unity. They must not, however, attempt to meet the nationalist party by forming a moderate Roumanian party. " For in the moment when our Roumanian fellow-citizens form parties on the basis of nationality, they are already denying the political unity of the Magyar nation ! With this shade of opinion there can be no nego- tiations. It must be fought, and if we conquer, we must destroy it ! " Among the nationalists " are very many whom other prin- ciples separate from their party. Let them then join that Magyar party which is nearest to them. Let them take part in Hungarian public life, not as a hostile separate body, but blended in the body of the Hungarian parties." Party politics should, however, be excluded from the racial question. The high Roumanian clergy is naturally quaUfied to lead the Roumanians in such negotiations ; " unqualified factors must have no influence upon the details " ; and some guarantee must be found that possible concessions will not merely be thrown away. An historic moment has arrived. " Here in south-east Europe — where events follow fast on each other, where nations are born, struggle, disappear, where the situation changes like a kaleidoscope — here for decades the decisive moment was lacking, in which our nation should secure in the hearts and feelings that position which it deserves and which it must obtain if it is to fulfil its mission, to exist and grow powerful and protect the independence of its neighbours. ' At this point Mr. Pop called out, " Between master and servant there never can be agreement." 190 COUNT TISZA'S SPEECH Now, it seems to me, the moment has come, and the chances are more favourable than for long years past. The goddess of Fortune seems to smile upon us, and offers us for a brief quarter of an hour an oppor- tunity of seizing the initiative for a long period to come. The time has come : and I turn to all who could play a part in solving the question, with the request : Let us seize the occasion by the fore- lock ! " This speech, which revealed all Count Tisza's accustomed brilli- ancy and fertility of thought, unhappily also proclaims him to be utterly reactionary in the racial question. The idea that the nation- alities should abandon their political organization and enter Magyar parties before negotiations are possible ; the idea that the three million Roumanians of Hungary must consider the interests of Rou- mania rather than their own very existence : the idea that former Governments have been far too mild in their treatment of the non- Magyar leaders, and that the already intolerable system of political police control and judicial persecution must be greatly extended — all this is so preposterous and unpractical as more than to outweigh all the conciliatory phrases with which the speech is interspersed, and which, it may be at once admitted, are in Count Tisza's own case altogether genuine and bona fide. Unhappily, there can be no question that Count Tisza's views form the irreducible minimum which the present governing Magyar caste is prepared to concede to the nationalities ; and it is obvious that not even the most moderate Roumanian or Slovak nationalists would dare to recommend their acceptance by his compatriots. We are thus faced by a deadlock in the^acial question from which Universal Suffrage provides the sole possible means of escape. APPENDIX XXXVII "HYAENISM IN HUNGARY" As this book goes to press, an act of petty tyranny has been brought to my notice, such as will hardly find its equal even in Hungary. It was committed by Dr. Szale, szolgabiro of Szenicz (see Appendix XXIX. " An Official's Oath "). A tombstone had been erected by public subscription to the memory of the well-known local Slovak patriot and musician, Dr Stephen Fajnor, advocate in Szenicz. On August 20, 1910 (his name day, St. Stephen of Hungary), his friends and admirers assembled round his grave in the Lutheran churchyard of Szenicz. ^ Two Slovak chorales were sung, Mr. Sekerka, the Lutheran pastor, gave a short address and offered up prayer. At this stage Dr. Szale and his gendarmes appeared upon the scene and brutally scattered the crowd. As a sequel to this incident, the following persons were sentenced * Dr Fajnor was one of the leading laymen of the Lutheran Church in the Presbytery of Nyitra, being " Senioral Inspector." 191 APPENDIX to fines of twenty crowns each, for having held " a meeting bearing the character of a popular assembly," without notifying it to the authorities." Rev. Paul Sekerka, Lutheran pastor of Hluboka ; Rev. Adam Slavik, Lutheran pastor of Verbovce ; Rev. Martin Braxatoris, Lutheran pastor of Szenicz ; Joseph Voda [est. 68), retired Lutheran schoolmaster; Samuel Novomesky (cBt. 77), retired notary ; Cyril Gallay, retired schoolmaster ; Dr. Cyril Horvath, advocate in Szenicz ; and thirteen others, including a bank official, a shoemaker, a hatter, a butcher and several peasant proprietors. The following extract is made from the official sentence, No. 400/1910, November 18, 1910, signed by Dr. Louis Szale, szolgabiro of Szenicz. " On August 20, 1910, a group of 300 to 400 persons assembled in the Lutheran churchyard of Szenicz at the grave of the late Stephen Fajnor, on which occasion a tombstone erected by grateful Slovak nationalists was unveiled, with an address of the clergyman of Hlboka, P. Sekerka, and the singing of a Slovak song. As this gathering had the character of a popular assembly and was not announced to the authorities and not allowed, those taking part in it had to be punished according to the above cited Order (No. 766/908 of Minister of Interior). They also had to be punished because churchyards are under the supervision of the authorities, and because assemblies of anti-Magyar tendency, arranged there by Slovak nationalists, on the national festival of all times, could not be permitted and those who none the less held and took part in a demonstrative meeting there could not be left unpunished. The plea of some of the accused, that they were related to the late Stephen Fajnor, could not be considered, because relationship cannot influence the prohibitions of the law. . . ." This incident should be compared with an equally brutal incident in 1892, where gendarmes with drawn bayonets drove the Slovak peasantry away from the grave of their dead leader Joseph Miloslav Hurban, in the village churchyard of Hlboka. The dead man's son, Svetozar Hurban, the distinguished Slovak poet, gave vent to his outraged feelings, in an article entitled " Hyaenism in Hungary " (see my Racial Problems in Hungary, pp. 306-7), and for this he was sen- tenced to one year's imprisonment. Dr. Szale has now supplied us with a fresh illustration of the fact that a Slovak leader, even in his grave, is not free from insult. »^" This is untrue. They sang two chorales from the Slovak hymn- book Funebral. 192 'i INDEX Absolutism, 54 Abuses, electoral, in Hungarian history, 49; "inevitable," 67 Administrative reform, 160 Agrarian Socialists, 28 Alfold, 28 Also-Kubin, 57 Alvincz, election at, 13 1-5 Andrassy, Count Julius, 2, 28, 30, 31, 156, 185 Andrassy Franchise Bill, 2, 30, 156 Anti-Semitism, 61 Apponyi, Count Albert, 2, 22, 28, 42, 49, 64, 68, 183, 184 Arad, 23 Army, use of, at elections, 11-2, 46 Army Bill, 184 Arva, 60 Ausgleich, Austro-Hungarian, 34 Austria, Universal Suffrage in, i, 27 Austrian Reichsrath, on use of troops at Hungarian elections, II, 12 Bach, Alexander, 157 Badea, Nicholas, 178 Bajor, Father Michael, 107-12 Bakonyi, Samuel, M.P., 47, 48 Baksay, Andrew, Chief of Police, 139-42 Ballot, 31, 158 Banffy, Baron D., 20, 22, 41, 187 Bank, Hungarian, 32, 156 Barabas, Bela, 23 Bar and, 60 Baross, Dr., M.P., 150-2 Batthyany, Count Paul, 58, 67 Batthyany, Count Theodore, 42, 44. 45. 49. 73 C.R.H. 193 Bazin, election at, 25 Bergner, Rudolf, 89 Blaho, Father Paul, 94 Bloodshed at elections, 10, 11, 75 Bogus candidates, 16, 133, 137 Boilla, Mr. Romulus, 127 Bosnia, annexation of, 2, 32, 156 Bribery legalized, 23, 35 Brinzey, Father John, 175 Canvassers, expulsion of, 114-5, 135. 149 Cattle pass of Kisjeno, 124 Christian Socialists, 52 Coalition Government, i, 2, 26, 30, 32, 37 Confessional, 52 Corrupt Practices Act, 20-21, 36 Croatia, 68 Csacza, 55 Csemniczky, Dr., 92 Csermak, Ernest, M.P., 47 Csernova, massacre of, 106 Csikszentmarton election, 72, 74 Csorna, 61 Curia, Court of Appeal, 35 Cziraky, Count, 61 D Daranyi, 2, 27 Deak, Francis, 34, 49, 54, 69 Debates, Parliamentary, upon cor- ruption, 42-69 Debreczen, 6, 48 Desewffy, Count Aurelius, 25 Deutsches Volksblatt, 87 Dicsoszentmarton, election at, 127, 130 Drizhal, Mrs., fined because I called at her house, 85, 88 INDEX Dunapataj, 6, 25 Dunghills, 103 Egbell voters, 84, 90 Eichenwald, Dr. Julius, 57 Elections of 1896, 5, 23 Elections of 1905, i, 5 Election practice, 24-30 Electoral Law of Hungary, 3, 4, 35 Elesd, election at, 70 Emigration, 29 Emperor- King, 32, 6g, 157 Englishman, The Dove-Souled, 88 Eotvos, Charles, M.P., 23 Epidemic of sore throat, 147 Equal suffrage, Andrassy's idea of, 31 Ertsey, Peter, M.P., 44, 54 Fabik, Valentine, 78 Factories, work in, 51 Farkas, Dr. Paul, M.P., 138-40 Federalism, 158 Fejervary, Baron Geza, 26, 41 Flag, use of foreign, 174-5 Fogaras, 76, 133 Foltyn, Rev. Imrich, 83 Forster, Aurelius, M.P., 53, 68 Forster, Otto, 61 Freedom of speech at elections, 24 Freemasonry, 59 Fremdenblatt, 50 Fiiggetlen Magyarorszdg, 87 Galanta, 62 Gendarmerie at elections, 12, 60, 65, 117-20 German constituencies in Hun- gary, 149-55 German People's Party in Hun- gary. 150-5 Gernyeszeg, 14 Gerrymandering, 3, 29 Giralt, 25 Goga, Octavian, Roumanian poet and candidate, 113 sqq. Goldis, Vasilie, ex-deputy, 115, 183 Gyorfly, Julius, M.P., 49 H Haller, Stephen, M.P., 52, 60 Handlova, 52, 58 Heir-Apparent, 32, 157 Herlea, Aron, 141 High Sheriffs, influence of, at elections, 14, 45, 62, 67, 122 Hlinka, Father Andrew, 106 Hock. John, M.P., 56 Hodza, Malan, 19, 26, 39, 100, 182 Holies, 17, 91, 98 Hotel Transilvania, at Szaszvaros, 139-40 " Hurbanites," 173 Huszadik Szdzad, 157 Huszar, Charles, M.P., 50, 52, 58 Illava, prison of, 52 Illiterates, 29, 31, 51 Independence. Party of, i, 33, 62, 63 India, 88 Indictment, a Magyar, 110-2 Inequalities of franchise, 6 Inn -licences, 62, 104, 131, 141, 1 79-80 Issekutz, Victor, M.P., 30 Ivanka, Milan, 25, 183 Jehlicska, Father, 182 Jeszenszky, Alexander, 3, 32, 50. 67 Juriga. Father Ferdinand, M.P., 182 Justh. John. M.P.. 59 Justh, Julius. M.P.. 33. 54, 61-6, 157 Justh Party. 33, 43 K Karansebes, 8, 73 ; election at, 144-9 Kelemen, Samuel, M.P.. 50. 66 Khuen-Hedervary. Count, 2, 3, 15. 32. 33. 37. 41. 64. 66-8, 87, 125, 156 Kisbecskerek, election in, 153-4 Kisjeno election in, 113-26 Kolisek, Dr. Alois. 80, 85 194 INDEX Komarom, 63 Kormend, 72, 73 Korosbanya, 10 Kossuth, Francis, 2, 28 Kossuth, Louis, i Kossuth party, 33, 43 Kostyal, Dr. Nicholas, 80, 85, 91 Kozeprevucza, 108 Kremling, Dr. Louis, 150-2 Kristoffy, Mr. Joseph, 27, 28, 32, 41. 157-9. 165-7 Kunszentmarton, 70 Lanyi, Minister of Justice, 23 Latifundia, 28 Levay, Baron Louis, M.P., 57 Liberal Party, i, 37, 49, 51 Libertatea, 140, 143 Lippa, election in, 155 Lipto Szent Miklos, 23 Locse, 58 Lovrin, election in, 150-2 Low, Rabbi Lazarus, 58 Lucaciu, Father Vasilie, 183 M Madarasz, Joseph, M.P., 43 Magyar Igen, election in, 136-7 Magyar Kanizsa, 72 Magyarorszdg, 70, 88 Makai, Francis, brings action for bribery, 123 Mako, election in, 63 Mameluke Party, 5 Marginen, bloodshed at, 75 Margitta, 64 Markovic, Dr. Julius, 18, 26 Marosvasarhely, 73 Mateszalka, election at, 71 May tree, the, 177-8 Mesko, Ladislas, M.P., 49 Mezofi, M.P., 2 Mezossy, Bela, M.P., 54-5 Mihaly, Theodore, M.P., 48, 123 Mi Java, 179 Minich, Gregory, 78 Modernization of Hungary, 161 Violnar, John, M.P., 54 ►lontbach, Emerich, M.P., 64, 66 ilorality. Public, 46, 55 loravian Diet, 29 Moravicza, 74 Mortgages on land, 28 Mortmain, 28 Muresianu, Andrew, 178 Muzslay, Julius, M.P., 45 N Nadanyi, Julius, M.P., 60 Nagybecskerek, 71 Nagyiklod, 64 Nagytapolcsany, 62, 73, 74 Nationalities, Law of, 37, 112, 161 National Party, 22 National Work, Party of, 37, 38, 45. 52, 56 Neue Freie Presse, 86 Neusatz, 26 Notary's Advice, a, 174 Nyeki, Joseph, 63 Nyiregyhaza, 74 Nyitra County, electors in, 14 O Oath, an Official's, 172-3 Okanyik, Father Louis, 82-5, 90 Oprean, Dr. Nestor, 177-8 Orendi, Victor, 155 Oroshaza, 165 " Pact " between Crown and Coalition, 41 Paks, 63 Pancsova, 10 " Panslavs," 13, 26, 173 People's Party, 33, 44, 51, 52, 60 Perczel, Des., M.P., 56 Pester Lloyd, 42, 43, 44, 53, 61, 70, 75. 165 Pesti Naplo, 88 Petitions, electoral, 36, 40, 66, 138 Pivko, Slovak candidate, 25 Plural voting, 3, 158 Podmaniczky, Baron, M.P., 47, 50 Pogany, Adolf, 139 Polit, Dr. Michael, 183 Polling booths, 9, 16, 39 Polonyi, Geza, M.P., 2, 28 Polonyi, Desiderius, M.P., 48, 49 Pop, Stephen C, M.P., 53, 54, 55, 125. 143 m INDEX Preszly, Elemer, M.P., 47 Privigye, election in, 51, 62, 77-9 Prohibition of meetings, 26, 73, 90, 97-8, 107-12, 121-2, 127-30, 145-50 Public voting, 16 R Rabbi's election letters, 57 Racial question, 48, 185-8 Radnai, Bishop, 59, 73 Railway Act of Mr. Kossuth, 2 Rakovszky, Bela, M.P., 46-7 Rakovszkv, Stephen, M.P., 24, 61, 183 Ratkay, J., M.P.. 184 Reichsfeld, Ignaz, 83 Reichspost, 86, 87 Returning officers, 65 Richter, John, M.P., 56, 57, 60, 61 Rohonczy, Gideon, M.P., 23 Roser, John, 153 Rotten boroughs, 4 Roumanian colours, 174-8 Roumanian voters, 7, 75, 113-26, 1 3 1-5 Rozsahegy, 15, 106-12 Rudnay, Alois, M.P., 51, 52 Rudnyanszky, George, M.P., 19, 58, 179 Sal, H., 152 Sandorfi, Father E., 94 Satoraljaujhely, 58 Saxons of Transylvania, 35 " Scotus Viator," dementi of Hun- garian Government against, 86- 7 ; my expulsion demanded, 88 Sennyey, Baron, 85 Sierban, Nicholas, M.P., 75 Simko, Dr., loi Slavik, Rev. Adam, 92, 93 Slavik, Samuel, 179 Sloszar, Michael, 78 Slovaks, 35, 59, 81 sqq., I00-3 Sopkez, Alex., M.P., 45 Srobar, Dr., 106 Stauber, Joseph, 65 Sumegi, W., M.P.. 45, 55, 58 Szab6, Coleman, 17, 89, 90, 98 Szab6, Stephen, M.P., 47 Szakolcza, election at, 80-98 Szalavszky, Julius, 56, 59 Szale, Dr. Louis, 17, 19, 95, 100, 172-3 Szapary, Count Julius, 41 Szasz, Dr. Paul, 136 Szaszvaros, election at, 138-43 Szatmarnemeti, 74 Szekszard, 73 Szell, Coloman, ex-Premier, 21, 36, 41, 66 Szenicz, election of (1906), 16-7, 169-71 Szenicz, election of (1910), 99-105 Szent Andras, 154 Szentes, 1 1 Szilagyi, Desiderius, 36 Szilagy-Cseh, 10 Szilassy, Zoltan, M.P., 68 Szintye, 118 Szivak, book on election, 35-6 Szmrecsanyi, George, M.P., 15, 45, 51. 52, 55-8, 60 Taraas, George, ill-treatment of, 119 Tarnoczy, election, 60 Tisza, Coloman, 20, 41 Tisza, Count Stephen, i, 32, 36, 40, 41, 48, 51, 187-91 Transylvania, franchise in, 6, 34 Trencsen, officials of, 55 Tricks at elections, 16, 39 Tricolour at elections, 120 Troops, use of, at Hungarian elections, 10, 86, 96, 102 Tunis and Morocco, flag of, 175 U Ugron, Gabriel, M.P., 22 Ugron, Zoltan, M.P., 45, 46, 63 Uhrik, Father, 92 Universal Suffrage, 3, 27, 28, 30-3, 66, 156-9, 165-7 Uzonyi, Dr., 93 Vaida, Dr. Alexander, 75, 136, iS- Vambery, Professor, 88 196 INDEX Vdrady, Sigismund, M.P., 49, 54, 69 Varga's horses, 118 Verbovce electors, 83, 93-7 Verbo, election in (1906), 18-9 Vermes, Zoltan, M.P., 62 Vertrauensmanner, 15, 39, 62, 136 Veselovsky, Francis, 17, 172 Vlad, Dr. Aurelius, 73, 139, 141, 144-9 Voting register, 13, 83, 89 Vradist, 93 W Wekerle, Dr. Alexander, ex-Pre- mier, 27, 41, 156 Wenckheim, Count Ladislas, 13 Zboray, Nicholas, M.P., 57 Zlocha, Theodore, 172-3 Zombor, 63 Puller & T«nn«r, The Selwood Printing Works, Frome, and Londoq, BY THE SAME AUTHOR. RACIAL PROBLEMS IN HUNGARY With 42 Illustrations of Peasant Art and Costume, Including Six in Colour and a Map. Demy 8vo. 540 pages. Price 16/- net. PRESS OPINIONS. Edinburgh Review — " A serious, and we must at once admit, a con- vincing indictment of the whole policy of the dominant Magyars towards the subordinate races." Quarterly Review — " His method is to leave nothing unproved, but to give chapter and verse for every assertion, so far as possible from Hungarian and ofi&cial sources." Spectator — " Extraordinarily documents." Nation — " His book will at once take rank as the standard authority on this immensely important subject." Times — " The book is a sincere and courageous attempt to illuminate an obscure corner of Europe and to do justice to one of the most gifted and interesting of Slav races. No student of Hun- garian politics, and no writer on Austro-Hungarian affairs, can afford to ignore it, for it rests on sound^historical know- ledge such as is rarely acquired by foreigners. ..." Morning Post — " An indictment of the Magyar oligarchy so heavy and so circumstantial as to form an important historic document. When the history of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries comes to be written, this book must form a source of reference for infor- mation on a dark and little known side of the political evolu- tion of Middle Europe." Westminster Gazette — " A complete answer to (a) . . . recent work on the same subject, and one exceedingly difi&cult to refute." Pall Mall Gazette — " One of the strongest, most reasoned and most impressive indictments of Magyar policy that has ever appeared from the pen of an English writer." RACIAL PROBLEMS IN HUNGARY {continued),— Morning Leader — " Not only the best book in English about Hungary, but . . . likely to be for long the standard authority on its subject. To every serious student of European politics it is indispensable." Glasgow Herald — " A work of distinction and power, which no student of Hungarian politics or of the racial question in Europe can afford to neglect." Freeman's Journal — " A most interesting book." Dundee Advertiser — " Of first importance as a fresh and illuminating study of the racial question." Northern Whig — " A most striking and original contribution to the study of South-Eastern Europe and its urgent problems." Scottish Historical Review — " The sober judgment, the orderly arrange- ment and the skill in marshalling complicated facts, for which chapter and verse is everywhere given either in footnotes or appendices, are beyond all praise. Bookman — " Mr Seton-Watson is already known as a sound and interesting historian, and his work all through shows the same evident marks of careful study and scholarship." Mr. Hermann Bahr in Mdrz — " The condition of Hungary, of which little or nothing is known in Austria, still less abroad, may be gathered from two books. . . . The second is Racial Problems in Hungary." Mr. Oszkar Jaszi in Huszadik Szdzad (the Hungarian Sociological Review) in an article of twelve pages — " The picture which it paints of modern Hungary, though here and there exaggerated and not always in good perspective, is on the whole a repre- sentation of the racial question in Hungarj^ so deep, thorough, and complete that it can only be compared to the works of E6tv6s» . . ." Mr. J6zsef Sachse in Nepszava — " A book treating of the racial ques- tion in Hungary with such thoroughness and detail and in so modern a spirit, as this book, has not yet appeared in any language." " Verax " in Die Wage (Vienna) — " A positively stupendous mastery of the material of the subject." ^ Baron Joseph Eotvos, the friend of Deak and Andrassy, Minister of Education in 1848 and 1867, the founder of the modern educational system in Hungary, and the chief Hungarian authority on the racial question (see his books, The Question of the Nationalities, The Leading Ideas of the Nineteenth Century). UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY Los Angeles This book is DUE on the last date stamped below. •