Page - 720 - in THE FIRST WORLD WAR - and the End of the Habsburg Monarchy, 1914 – 1918

720 Summer 1917 unclear and, overall, no goal and no time limits were specified. ‘The government retains the right to come forward at a suitable point in time with its own comprehensive rec- ommendations as to how in its view a satisfactory balance can be achieved between the needs of the state and the justified wishes of its peoples’, Clam-Martinic said. If one disregards the syntax and choice of words, one must ask, however, what the government declaration would have had to say and, specifically, what date it would have had to spec- ify, in order for it to win the agreement of the representatives. Unlike them, the Prime Minister was not able to come with radical phrases. He was only in a position to speak for the state as a whole, indeed, he was not even able to make specific statements about the war situation, and certainly not present an offer of peace. For this non-programme with its vague statements, the government gained no support from any side. It appeared to have nothing to offer.1640 The German middle classes held back. The Slav parties were up in arms. However, they would have reacted in the same way to any government declaration issued by Clam. In so doing, they would have known that Clam-Martinic had no room for manoeuvre and that, not least, they themselves had taken this away from him. Clam-Martinic explained his ideas for the Austrian Monarchy of the future, which would be based on federalism. He talked of ‘autonomist centralism’, but this, too, was nothing more than a rather peculiar and empty verbal shell. The issue that had dominated the House of Representatives right from the start, and that was being discussed with increased bitterness, was the status of the nations in relation to the state, and after the future of the Empire, the greatest obstacle was ultimately also dealing within an acceptable period of time with the countless individual items that could be regulated only by ordinances and emergency or exceptional decrees. Indeed, one could gain the impression that for many representatives, this had now become completely unimportant. However, there were some things that could not be avoided. According to the valid constitution, parliament had to be presented with the emergency decrees that had been issued in the interim for confirmation or rejection. The most important of these was the decree authorising the war economy of October 1914. Only very few peo- ple were satisfied with it. The emergency decree could not be annulled, however, since it formed the basis of the entire war economy, including the working conditions during the war, as well as countless edicts from the ministries that would all have needed to be annulled as well. The war would literally no longer be manageable. Therefore, the only course of action that remained open was to pass an authorisation act instead of the authorisation decree relating to the emergency ordinance clauses in the constitution. In the deliberations over the advantages and disadvantages of the decree that had been valid until then, it also by rights had to be acknowledged that with its help, the most urgent social measures had been taken and, indeed, had been enforced. One notable example of this was the tenant protection measure, which drastically reduced the rights of property owners. The authorisation decree had made it possible to introduce the