of the country, especially for an important system of canals
which would bring additional prosperity to the coal-fields and manufactures
of Bohemia.

(J. W. HE.)

[Sidenote: Public works policy.]

The history of Austria since the general election of 1901 is the [v.03
p.0037] history of franchise reform as a crowning attempt to restore
parliament to normal working conditions. The premier, Dr von Koerber, who
had undertaken to overcome obstruction and who hoped to effect a compromise
between Germans and Czechs, induced the Chamber to sanction the estimates,
the contingent of recruits and other "necessities of state" for 1901 and
1902, by promising to undertake large public works in which Czechs and
Germans were alike interested. These public works were chiefly a canal from
the Danube to the Oder; a ship canal from the Danube to the Moldau near
Budweis, and the canalization of the Moldau from Budweis to Prague; a ship
canal running from the projected Danube-Oder canal near Prerau to the Elbe
near Pardubitz, and the canalization of the Elbe from Pardubitz to Melnik;
a navigable connexion between the Danube-Oder Canal and the Vistula and the
Dniester. It was estimated that the construction of these four canals would
require twenty years, the funds being furnished by a 4% loan amortizable in
ninety years. In addition to the canals, the cabinet proposed and the
Chamber sanctioned the construction of a "second railway route to Trieste"
designed to shorten the distance between South Germany, Salzburg and the
Adriatic, by means of a line passing under the Alpine ranges of central and
southern Austria. The principal sections of this line were named after the
ranges they pierced, the chief tunnels being bored through the Tauern,
Karawanken and Wochein hills. Sections were to be thrown open to traffic as
soon as completed and the whole work to be ended during 1909. The line
forms one of the most interesting railway routes in Europe. The cost,
however, greatly exceeded the estimate sanctioned by parliament; and the
contention that the parliamentary adoption of the Budget in 1901-1902 cost
the state L100,000,000 for public works, is not entirely unfounded. True,
these works were in most cases desirable and in some cases necessary, but
they were hastily promised and often hastily begun under pressure of
political expediency. The Koerber administration was for this reason
subsequently exposed to severe censure.

[Sidenote: Koerber's