es worked so thoroughly for pan-Germanism that various Slovenes
were arrested--among them the mayor of a large village who wanted to
travel from Celovec--for asking in the Slovene language for a ticket.
With regard to schools, there were throughout Carinthia in 1860 some 28
Slovene and 56 Slovene-German foundations, whereas in 1914 there were 2
Slovene, 30 German and 84 mixed schools, where the two languages were
supposed to co-exist; they were indeed the home of two languages, for
the children were nearly all Slovene, whereas the teacher and the
language he used were German. Among 230 masters only 20 could read and
write Slovene. Qualified teachers who could satisfy this test were, as
we have mentioned, sent to other parts of the Empire. So far did the
system go that Slovene peasants upon whom the Government had forced a
German education speedily forgot the two hundred words which they had
learned, but as they had been taught no other script than the German
they were accustomed to write the Slovene language with German Gothic
characters. These peasants were fairly impervious to Germanization;
their strong sense of national consciousness was supported by the books,
religious and otherwise, which they received every year from some such
society as that of St. Hermagoras at Celovec, which distributed half a
million books a year among its 90,000 members.

But that which principally guided the peasant was the voice of his
priest, and the vast majority of priests in zone "A" were Slovenes. This
agricultural zone possesses no more than one or two small towns, where
the priest is less regarded. The traders and artisans frequently look
upon themselves as too highly cultured for the Church; they affect the
"Los von Rom" and the Socialist movements. By holding these menaces over
the Bishop's head a good deal of pressure could be brought to bear, and
this was done by the Germans, who were of opinion that the Church
unfairly encouraged the Slovenes. The Bishop of Celovec had both the
zones in his diocese until some months before the plebiscite, when a
temporary arrangement was made under which zone "A" was administered by
a vicar. But in bygone years the Bishop, with these threats hanging over
him, was wont to counsel prudence and to ask his clergy not to agitate
their flock, whom they were merely telling of their rights. In zone
"B," which mostly consists of the town of Celovec, the Church would
naturally be more susceptible to Germ