The Austrian Finance Minister's budget for the second half of 1921 has taken everybody's breath away. The State's expenses within that period are rated at some 50 milliard kronen, about a third of which is spent, ie. to a large extent wasted, on the army of 264,000 civil clerks, who, together with their families, make about 800,000 persons living on this poor country with six million inhabitants. Not old Austria, with seven times the population, could boast of such a tremendous staff. Nothing has been done to economize; on the contrary, the number has been increased by 1,000, and the costs are growing immensely. Notwithstanding such plenitude of hands, work is neglected woefully. The official railway management is exceedingly bad, the greatest disorder rules, and the local train service is about the worst and un safest imaginable. It is similar with the posts, telegraphs, and especially the telephone. The National Guards, who do nothing at. all, swallow. one million more than last year.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.