which a committee of 35 members should be set up to draft a law
for the introduction of universal suffrage, to regulate the elections
and to collect the necessary statistics. The importance of this
proposal lay in the fact that it introduced the question of uni-
versal suffrage for the first time into the Hungarian Parliament,
and from that time onwards till the outbreak of the revolution
(Oct. 1918) it was always present on the Order of the Day. It
was brought forward on behalf of the Government by Joseph
Kristoffy (b. 1857), Minister of the Interior in the Fejervary
Cabinet, on July 28 1905, on the occasion of an address to a
labour deputation. Kristoffy's electoral system gave the vote
to 2,691,000 electors. This enfranchised all males over 24 years
of age who were able to read and write. After Kristoffy each
new Government had to bring forward a new programme of
franchise reform. On April 10 1906, Alexander Wekerle, Min-
ister-President of the Coalition Cabinet, declared himself in
favour of universal suffrage, in agreement with the speech
from the throne. On Nov. 12 Count Andrassy, as Minister of
the Interior in this Cabinet, brought forward a plural voting
law, which gave two to three votes according to an educational
qualification. The party led by Justh, the radical wing of the
Independence party who were opposed to the principle of plu-
rality, left this party, and thus brought about the failure of
Andrassy's scheme.
The Government of Count Khuen-Hedervary, which followed, completed the statistical preparations for a new electoral law. This was moved by Khuen's successor, Minister-President Ladislaus von Lukacs, but only carried by Stephen Tisza's Ministry, as the so-called " Lukacs-Tisza Electoral Law of 1913." It gave the vote to 1,627,000 electors, but was destined not to satisfy the supporters of radical reform. The secret bal- lot was restricted to a certain proportion of the electoral dis- tricts. Tisza himself recognized its weaknesses and the neces- sity of revision. In particular the industrial classes seemed at a disadvantage, since he had intended to widen their franchise considerably. Accordingly Tisza determined to remedy this when the new list of electors was compiled. When, however, Stephen Rakovszky, a member of the Catholic People's party, proposed to give the vote to all soldiers on active service by means of a supplementary amendment to the Electoral Law, Tisza protested most firmly against such a demand. He held that the franchise must not be regarded in the light of a reward, and that to accept Rakovszky's proposal would mean universal suffrage, which he regarded as inadmissible. Accordingly Rakovszky's motion was lost. On April 28 1917, however, the young King Charles announced in an autograph letter an exten- sion of the franchise in consideration for the sacrifices made by the population during the war. Tisza however interpreted the royal letter in a manner which, according to the Opposition, was not in agreement with its contents and sense. Tisza would not yield, since in his opinion a radical franchise policy which outstripped the development of educational and economic policy would be a serious danger to the country and the dynasty alike. The Cabinet fell. In announcing his programme in Parliament on June 21 1917, Tisza's successor, Count Maurice Esterhazy, declared electoral reform to be the chief plank in his platform, and said that he had undertaken to extend the fran- chise in the sense of the royal letter of April 28 and for the rea- sons given in this, keeping in mind at the same time the exigen- cies of the Hungarian State. When Tisza proposed, as a com- promise, that for the time being only industrial workers should receive the vote, Count Apponyi refused, on behalf of the Gov- ernment, to consider this. Vazsonyi, as Minister of Justice, strongly attacked Tisza, whose electoral reform of 1913 he described as a sham and denied that a democratic franchise would prove a danger to State or dynasty. Wekerle, Ester- hazy's successor, in putting forward his programme on Sept. 12 1917 also insisted on suffrage reform as the fundamental basis on which his Government would stand or fall. On Dec. 21 Dr. Vaszonyi, the Minister in charge of the Electoral Law, put forward before the House of Deputies the scheme announced by the Ministry on its formation. It provided, inter alia, that
the franchise should be exercised by every Hungarian citizen, 24 years of age and over, who could read and write; by all who had received the military medal for courage or the military cross founded by King Charles (Karl-Truppen-Kreuz); by all who paid taxes amounting to at least 10 kr.; by all who had been on active service or attained the rank of non-commissioned officer, irrespective of length of service; or who followed a trade. Moreover all women were entitled to vote who were over 24. years of age; who were of Hungarian citizenship; who had passed through four forms of a secondary school, or attained a similar degree of education; whose husbands fell during the war or succumbed to their wounds, if there was a child; or who had for two years been members of a scientific, literary or artistic society. But the revolution of Oct. 1918 and Bolshevism revolutionized everything and imposed by force the rule of one class the proletariat on all ranks of society.
A sketch of social conditions in Hungary would be by no means complete, nor could its development be properly understood without some knowledge of the activity of the " Sociological Society" (Tarsadalomtudomdnyi Tdrsasdg). It had a deep influence on the development of the ideas of the young genera- tion of " Intellectuals." Its founders were followers of Prof. Julius Pikler's opinions on the solution of theoretical as well as of practical problems. The journal " The Twentieth Century " (Huszadik szdzad) served as the organ of this society for the scientific discussion of social problems, and its columns were open to the free discussion of every question. It was the rally- ing point of from four to five thousand enthusiasts. At the same time the Galileo Club (Galilei Kor) was the centre for the contest which a section of the Budapest University students carried on against the Catholic congregationist unions. This club gradually developed into a students' Socialist organization, in which the Jewish element predominated. As a result of the distress caused by the war, which was severely felt by these young men, who were for the most part without means, anti- military and syndicalist doctrines spread in their ranks, and a few weeks before the outbreak of the Oct. Revolution of 1918 the police authorities found it necessary to suspend this club and arrest many of its members. The twenty-year-old " In- tellectuals " of the communism which followed had all belonged to the Galileo Club, and, having nothing to lose and everything to gain, were prepared to go to any extremes.
The Jewish question has become important in Hungary. In 1785 there were 73,089 Jews in Hungary; in 1840, 241,632 (an increase largely due to immigrations from Galicia); in 1880, 730,342; and in 1910 as many as 932,458. This growth must be ascribed to their great wealth. Only half a century earlier than 1921 they were to be found in small towns and villages where they lived the isolated life of the ghetto. In time, as they grew rich through trade, the ghetto became too small for them. As they owned no land they were not tied to the soil, and streamed to larger cities, where they found more opportunities of mak- ing money and adding to their wealth. Above all Budapest, as the centre of commerce and industry and the seat of the banks, had a strong attraction for them. Three distinct classes of Jews grew up: the Orthodox, who wished to remain Jews with all the habits and customs of the ghetto; those who in most respects had relinquished their position of religious isolation and strove after assimilation, in opinions and culture, with the genuine Hungarian element, in so far as they had not already been so assimilated; and thirdly the cosmopolitan Jews, the revolutionaries, who were the enemies of national feeling and represented materialistic internationalism. It was the part played by this third class of Jews not the action of those who had become partizans of Hungarian nationalism which has made the Jewish question acute in Hungary. As Hungary has no true middle class, they exercised great influence on the intellectual life of the country, and without them its economic life, which was preponderantly in their hands, would have been condemned to stagnation.
Language and Nationality. It has become customary to re- gard Hungary as the battleground of the nationalities inhabit-
