Neue Freie Presse
- The Probable Concessions to the Civil Servants
- Vienna and Graz.
- Further Rise in the Lira Rate.
The Neue Freie Presse of 11 October 1926 previewed that day's cabinet meeting in Vienna, where the Finance Ministry was to present calculations for a permanent settlement of federal employees' pay; the leading idea was reportedly a linear percentage increase plus a separate payment twice a year. An editorial under the heading "Vienna and Graz" argued that Dr. Rintelen should have drawn the consequences from the "sad events" in Styria, warning that forcing him to stay would arm the opposition against the whole Christian Social Party, and reported that the four-seat Greater German group would join no coalition without guarantees of clean public life. Under a headline on the lira's further rise, the paper profiled the Italian philosopher Giovanni Gentili, Croce's former collaborator who became Mussolini's education minister in 1922.
Translation
The Probable Concessions to the Civil Servants
No. 22298 The Probable Concessions to the Civil Servants Today's Council of Ministers. Vienna, 11 October. Today's Council of Ministers will receive the Finance Ministry's proposals on the permanent settlement of the pay of federal employees. A number of calculations are available, and the Council of Ministers will decide both on the extent and on the form of the new arrangement. It is reported that the idea in the foreground is to carry out the permanent settlement in such a way that the federal employees are offered a linear percentage increase in their pay and that, in addition, a separate payment is made twice a year, namely before Christ—
Vienna and Graz.
…of the Landeshauptmann. We have already stressed that we would have thought it more correct if Dr. Rintelen had drawn the consequences from the sad events, if only because, if his remaining in office is forced through, the opposition will always be handed a strong weapon that can also be used against the whole Christian Social Party. The Greater Germans in the Styrian Landtag have passed a declaration that they are not disposed to form a coalition with any bourgeois party unless adequate guarantees are given for the purity of public life, and that they would follow a call demanding the dissolution of the Landtag. The Greater Germans hold no more than four seats in the Styrian Landtag. It will depend on whether the Landbund members, who are considerably stronger, will follow them. A …
Further Rise in the Lira Rate.
… The paper expects that Gentili will also represent Italy at the subsequent Congress for Music History in Vienna. * * * Giovanni Gentili is regarded as one of the most important philosophers of modern Italy. For many years he was a friend and collaborator of Benedetto Croce, but unlike him he has declared himself for Fascism. He showed this especially clearly when, in November 1922, he accepted the education portfolio in Mussolini's ministry, the same portfolio that Benedetto Croce had held in Giolitti's last ministry. Gentili's main work is the two-volume "Pedagogy as a Philosophical Science". True education — this is one of the work's main ideas — is the continuous self-education of the mind, and mind is freedom. In this formulation one easily recognizes the Hegelian foundations of Gentili's philosophy.
Context
Ramek's cabinet and the civil-service pay question in autumn 1926
The Council of Ministers the paper expected to meet on 11 October was that of Chancellor Rudolf Ramek, a Christian Social who had led the government since November 1924. Until July 1926 a commissioner-general appointed by the guarantors of Austria's international loan, Alfred Rudolph Zimmermann, had worked in Vienna and could in practice give instructions to the finance minister; League of Nations supervision of the country's finances ended that year, but the depression continued and unemployment kept rising. The Finance Ministry's plan for a permanent pay settlement thus came after that outside control had lapsed and in a weak economy. The cabinet was also absorbed by bank failures: in early July 1926 it had to rescue the insolvent Centralbank der deutschen Sparkassen, and in September the scandal at the state Postal Savings Bank, which had speculated in an attempt to avoid inflation losses, became public. Ramek resigned during that Postsparkasse crisis on 20 October 1926, nine days after this report, and Ignaz Seipel succeeded him. The article itself describes only the proposals expected before the cabinet, a linear percentage rise and two separate annual payments, not a decision.
Rintelen, the Steirerbank and the demand that he step aside
Anton Rintelen, the Christian Social politician at the centre of the editorial, had been Landeshauptmann of Styria from 1919 to 1926 and in 1926 became federal Minister of Education. He had founded the Steirerbank and was its president. That bank was among the troubled, Christian Social-leaning institutions that, at the finance minister's urging, were loaded onto the Centralbank der deutschen Sparkassen controlled by Wutte; the Centralbank itself then became insolvent and had to be rescued by the Ramek government in early July 1926. The "sad events" the editorial mentions most likely refer to this banking affair, and the paper's fear was that keeping Rintelen in office by force would give the opposition a weapon against the whole party. The Greater German demand for guarantees of "purity of public life", and the question of whether the stronger Landbund would follow it, are the paper's report of Styrian coalition bargaining. Rintelen's later record shows the outcome: the scandal after the bank's collapse cost him the governorship for a time, and his second term ran only from 1928 to 1933.
Mussolini's Quota 90 and the rising lira
The headline on a further rise of the lira belongs to a currency being pushed upward by political decision. The lira had weakened sharply by 1926, at one point reaching 150 to the pound. In a speech at Pesaro on 18 August 1926 Mussolini announced the "Quota 90" policy, pegging the exchange rate at 92.46 lire to the pound. Mussolini held that a weak lira would look bad for the country when presenting Italy as a great power, so the revaluation served national prestige as much as monetary policy. Its costs fell on workers soon afterwards: the Quota was accompanied by wage reductions in industry and agriculture in 1927. The text read under this headline, however, concerns the philosopher Giovanni Gentili, whom the paper presents as Croce's former collaborator and as the education minister Mussolini appointed in November 1922; those biographical statements are the paper's own.
Original
Die voraussichtlichen Zugeständnisse an die Beamten
Nr. 22298 Die voraussichtlichen Zugeständnisse an die Beamten Der heutige Ministerrat. Wien, 11. Oktober. Der heutige Ministerrat wird die Vorschläge des Finanzministeriums über die Dauerregelung der Bundesangestelltenbezüge entgegennehmen. Es liegen eine Reihe von Berechnungen vor und der Ministerrat wird sowohl über das Ausmaß als auch über die Art der Neuregelung Beschluß fassen. Wie verlautet, steht der Gedanke im Vordergrund, die Dauerregelung in der Weise vorzunehmen. daß den Bundesangestellten eine perzentuelle Erhöhung der Bezüge linear angeboten wird und daß außerdem zweimal im Jahre eine gesonderte Auszahlung, und zwar vor Weih -
Wien und Graz.
Landeshauptmannes. Wir haben bereits hervorgehoben, wir hätten es für richtiger gehalten, wenn Dr. Rintelen die Konsequenzen aus den traurigen Ereignissen gezogen hätte, schon deswegen, weil, wenn sein Verbleiben erzwungen wird, doch immer wieder der Opposition eine starke Waffe gegeben ist, die auch gegen die ganze christlichsoziale Partei angewendet werden kann. Die Großdeutschen im steirischen Landtag haben eine Kundgebung beschlossen, sie seien nicht gesonnen, mit irgendeiner bürgerlichen Partei eine Koalition zu schließen, wenn nicht angemessene Bürgschaften gegeben werden für die Reinheit des öffentlichen Lebens, und sie würden einer Parole folgen, welche die Auflösung des Landtages fordern würde. Die Großdeutschen haben im steirischen Landtag nicht mehr als vier Mandate. Es wird darauf ankommen, ob die Landbündler ihnen folgen werden, die wesentlich stärker sind. Eine Ab -
Weitere Kurssteigerung der Lira.
treten. Das Blatt erwartet, daß Gentili Italien auch bei dem darauf folgenden Kongreß für Musikgeschichte in Wien vertreten wird. * * * Giovanni Gentili gilt als einer der bedeutendsten Philosophen des modernen Italien. Er war viele Jahre Freund und Mitarbeiter von Benedetto Croce, hat aber im Gegensatz zu diesem sich zum Fascismus bekannt. Das bekundete er besonders deutlich, als er im November 1922 das Unterrichtsportefeuille im Ministerium Mussolini annahm, dasselbe Portefeuille, das Benedetto Croce im letzten Ministerium Giolitti innegehabt hat. Gentilis Hauptwerk ist die zweibändige " Pädagogik als philosophische Wissenschaft ". Die wahre Erziehung, das ist ein Hauptgedanke des Werkes, ist fortdauernde Selbsterziehung des Geistes und Geist ist Freiheit. Man erkennt in dieser Formulierung unschwer die Hegelschen Grundlagen der Philosophie Gentilis.