Page:The Czechoslovak Review, vol4, 1920.pdf/68

step by the conviction that our national conditions are far from black and that improvement and growth of better things are plainly to be seen. . . I recommend to your League to avoid indefinite and barren moralizing, but to study rather the actual moral condition of various classes, callings, localities etc. and to base on this study efficient moral self-help”. One symptom of this improvement in public morality is the plan of the government to suppress prostitution and to commit persons suffering with venereal diseases to public sanitaria, where they will be detained until cured.

The proposed budget for 1920, laid before the National Assembly on December 15, makes a better showing than the first budget of the Republic. The 1919 budget figured with a total deficiency of five bil lion crowns, although the minister of finance stated in January that the actual deficiency turned out to be only four billion; the 1920 budget expects to end with a deficit at the end of the year of about two and a half billion crowns. The total expenditures are estimated as 10,416,175,920 K; of that ordinary expenses are 4,926,691,823 K, extraordinary 5,489,484.097 K. The income for 1920 is figured as 7,750,770,773 K; ordinary income is 5,323,582,361 K, extraordinary income 2,427,188,412 K. Compared with 1919 the total expenses have grown by 1,890,830,000 K, the total income by 4,011,016,000 K. Among the important items of expenditure are following: interest on state debt 1,158,011,000 K, that is 746,200,000 K more than in 1919; ministry of finance asks for 1,055,158,000 or nearly double the previous year, most of which is needed to purchase tobacco abroad for the tobacco monopoly; posts and telegraphs need and telegraphs need 109,400,000 K more than the previous year by reason of growth of service in Slovakia and Rusinia and because of increased salaries; railways ask for 384,000,000 more, public works 20 mill. more, social welfare 933 mill. more for building of homes, care of children and maintenance of invalids, while pensions and unemployment grants will require less money than in 1919; ministry of national defense asks for 472 mill. less than in the previous year. A large share of the extraordinary expenditures is in the nature of investments; thus posts and telegraphs want 51 mill. for increase of telegraphic and telephonic communication, and 22 mill. to purchase mail trucks; ministry of railways wants 350 millions for rolling stock and new track. The total of appropriations in the nature of investments is 462,800,000 K.

It cannot be said of the Czechoslovak statesmen that they fear to lay on heavy taxes. The minister of finance and the National Assembly believe that a balance in the national budget must be reached quickly, and so they tax everything in sight. There are now graduated stamp duties on drafts, notes and other evidences of indebtedness averaging 0.4%; conveyances of real estate between strangers are taxed from 4 to 7% of the value; inheritance taxes have been sharply raised, so that they now range from 1.25% on small estates passing to immediate members of the family, to as high as 33% on estates valued at 10 mill. crowns passing to distant relatives; new stock issues are taxed from 2 to 6%. Recent cable reports announce the introduction of the long discussed special property tax, to be paid on all property exceeding 10,000 K in value; the tax will be graduated and will range from 1 to 30%; another new tax is an assessment of from 5 to 40% on the increase in market value of securities.

In Czechoslovakia, at least, there are no signs of a blow-up such as some pessimistic American correspondents have been picturing as a possibility for Central Europe. Coal situation is slightly improved, and the weather being unusually warm there is not as much distress, as there was reason to fear earlier in the season. Unemployment is constantly decreasing; the government is able now to maintain the promised ration of flour by the importation of American flour via the Elbe. That of course cannot continue indefinitely, as the cost of delivering American flour in Bohemia is greater than the original purchase price and the government is obliged to pay great sums out of its funds, so that flour may be sold to the people at a price which they can afford to pay. The economic situation is governed by three considerations: shortage of coal, lack of railroad cars and the low exchange value of the crown. There is a steady improvement in the first two points; the crown has dropped again in January in sympathy with the German mark. Owing