CHAPTER VI.

DR. SCHWERTFEGER

On a warm September day the Chancellor--who, being also the Minister for Foreign Affairs, resided in the Foreign Office--stood on his balcony and, looking past the street, watched the doings in the public park. But the movement there seemed less animated than in past years,--only a few white-enameled baby carriages rolled over the paths, and in spite of the mild weather the chairs and benches were almost unoccupied.

Someone knocked at the door. Sharply the Chancellor called “Come in!” and his departmental chief, Dr. Fronz, entered.

At the end of June, shortly after the passage of the expulsion law, Schwertfeger had gone to the Tyrol to recuperate after the nervous strain of the great responsibility and hard work of the previous weeks. For more than two months he lived incognito in a village near the Arlberg. Except for his departmental chief no one knew his whereabouts; he permitted no letters or reports to be sent to him, paid no attention to current events, and let Fronz write him only of unusually important occurrences. As a matter of fact, everything had been provided for: The chief of the Viennese police and the captains of the various districts had received precise instructions, and Parliament had adjourned until autumn. Therefore Dr. Schwertfeger felt that he could be dispensed with, and considered it his duty to gather new strength and energy for the tasks to come. He had returned to Vienna this morning; and now Fronz was to give him a detailed report. After various departmental matters had been disposed of, Schwertfeger, with a thud, sat down before his desk, took pen and paper for stenographic notes, and, seeming very calm and cool though his every nerve was vibrating with excitement, said:

“Now, dear friend, tell me about the execution and visible results of the new law so far. How is our financial situation? I’m entirely in the dark, you know.”

Dr. Fronz cleared his throat, and began:

“Financially, things aren’t running as smoothly as we had hoped. At first the krone rose by leaps and bounds to the hundredth part of a centime in Zurich; then there were some slight though insignificant fluctuations, and since the end of July the krone has not progressed, but is remaining stationary, in spite of the enormous influx of gold from the treasuries of the great Christian associations and of the banker Huxtable. Strangely enough, our hopes for large payments from the exiles have not materialized as yet. No considerable amounts in either kronen or foreign securities are gravitating toward the revenue offices. It seems that our Christian fellow-citizens include thousands of parasites who unscrupulously take over the excess property of the Jews, taxes on which had been withheld fraudulently; and in return they give the Jews cheques on foreign banks.”

“That was only to be expected,” said the Chancellor, a contemptuous smile playing on his compressed lips. “All of them, Jew and Christian, are selfish and grasping!”

“The Jew papers mustn’t hear that,” thought Fronz as he continued:

“As I may conclude from the extremely pessimistic report of our Finance Minister, Professor Trumm, the expulsion of the Jews will burden us with enormous debts, payable in gold, while the circulation of our bank-notes will not be diminished to any appreciable extent.”

“Is everything going smoothly in the liquidation and taking over of the financial houses, banks, and corporations?”

“In this connection everything is in full swing; but unfortunately it seems that our native capitalists are either unwilling or unable to take over the large undertakings, so that the overwhelming majority of the new entrepreneurs are foreigners. Already the Länderbank, the Kreditanstalt, the Anglobank, the Escompte-Gesellschaft, and other great banks have fallen into the hands of Italians, Englishmen, Frenchmen, Czechoslovaks, and the like, as have also our great industrial enterprises. Only today a Dutch syndicate has taken over the Simmering locomotive factory. Of course we’re devilish careful that no foreign Jews worm themselves into the country in this way, and every sale contract emphasizes the clause that denies the privilege of either temporary or permanent sojourn in Austria to foreign Jews also. But there is no way of preventing Jews from being included among the stockholders and directors of the foreign companies which are buying up our corporations.”

The Chancellor rested his massive round forehead on his bony hand; with a wave of his hand he dismissed all unpleasant thoughts, and said evenly:

“Transitory manifestations, which will take care of themselves later. How is the expulsion going on?”

“Exactly as provided by the law. Both the police and the railway bureau are doing excellent work; an average of ten trains full of exiles leaves Austria every day, going in all directions; and so far about four hundred thousand Jews have left the country.”

Schwertfeger looked up in amazement. “How can that be? We had intended to exile about half a million. And now, when only a third of the calculated time has passed, we are through with four-fifths of them?”

Dr. Fronz smiled feebly. “We underestimated the great number of converts and of people of Jewish extraction. Today the state police, having a better view of the situation, no longer count with half a million, but with eight hundred thousand, perhaps even a million persons who are subject to the law. I might mention, incidentally, that the expulsion has had some untoward consequences, frequently very unpleasant, sometimes merely grotesque. Ten Christian-Social deputies had to be expelled as being of Jewish origin; almost a third of the Christian newspapermen were affected either directly or through members of their families. It has developed that our best Christian citizens are steeped in Israel--our oldest families are being torn apart. Indeed, there has occurred something that has made us the laughing-stock of not only the Jewish papers, which of course will badger us to the last minute, but of the foreign press as well. A sister of the princely Archbishop of Austria, Cardinal Rössl, is married to a Jew, and his brother to a Jewess, so that the law robs His Eminence of his closest relatives, including all his nieces and nephews! Perhaps it would be advisable, under these circumstances, to submit to the National Assembly an amendment to the law, providing that in certain cases persons of Jewish origin be permitted to stay....”

The Chancellor sprang to his feet and brought down his fist on the desk with such violence that the ink spattered out from its container.

“Never! Never, while I am in office. The granting of any such exceptions would make the entire law a universal joke, international Jewry would celebrate an unprecedented triumph, and all doors would be opened wide to corruption and bribery. You know our regional and government clerks with their open hands and empty pockets! No, there can be no exceptions, the grief of individual families may not shake the foundations of the law! The war that we waged in the name of the Hapsburgs cost a million lives--and no one dared say a word. Compared to that, what is a little inconvenience or vexation for a few thousand, or a hundred thousand persons? I will ask you to instruct the Christian papers accordingly. Better still, let the political press bureau immediately send out a statement on this to the papers. And I beg you never again to let yourself become the vehicle for such suggestions!”

Paling, Dr. Fronz bowed.

“Then it would be superfluous for me to tell Your Excellency of the terribly pitiful scenes that occur every day at the departure of the evacuation trains--scenes which often become so heart-rending that even the mob, gathered about the outgoing trains to abuse the exiles, is moved to silence and tears.”

“Such scenes were foreseen, and are inevitable! Let the police be instructed immediately to shut off the railroad stations, arrange that wherever possible the trains should leave at night, and see to it that the main stations should not be used, but only the shunting stations outside the city. And now one more question: How do people in general view the execution of the law?”

“With tremendous enthusiasm, of course. The police are having a hundred clever plain-clothes men mingle in the crowds and make observations. And they are unanimous in reporting that the Christian population is actually delirious with joy, and is expecting an early change for the better in general conditions, a decrease in the price of food, and a more equalized distribution of wealth. Even among the working-men who are still organized as Social-Democrats there is great satisfaction with the exodus of the Jews. On the other hand, however, it cannot be denied that the populace is excited and uncertain. No one knows what the future will bring, the masses live from hand to mouth, there is amazing extravagance among the lower classes, and intoxication is increasing from day to day.

“An important factor in the prevalent high spirits is the sudden end of the housing shortage. Since the beginning of July forty thousand apartments, hitherto occupied by Jews, have been vacated in Vienna alone. A direct result of this is a veritable flood of weddings,--the priests have to marry ten or twenty couples at a time.”

Schwertfeger, who was a bachelor, nodded and smiled with satisfaction. “I think we’ve done enough for today. Now that I have a more or less complete view of the situation I’ll settle down with the reports of the various ministries.”

A nod, and the departmental chief was dismissed. But Fronz remained in the room and, discreetly clearing his throat, regained the attention of the Chancellor, who had already opened one of his reports.

“I should like to inform Your Excellency that the Municipal Council of Vienna has decided, by a great majority, to change the name of the Schottenring to ‘Dr. Karl Schwertfeger Ring,’ and that a similar renaming of streets and squares has been resolved upon by three hundred other Austrian municipalities. In Innsbruck they have even organized a monument committee that expects to erect a marble monument to Your Excellency next year.”

The Chancellor rose, went over to the balcony, and again looked down on the park; furiously he paced twice through the large room before he said:

“Put a stop to all such tributes! Let them be postponed until we celebrate the tenth anniversary of the liberation of Vienna from the Jews!”