Chapter 7: Chapter 7 – The Court of Public Opinion

Since his point had been made, Franz did not press the topic.

The greedy capitalists were not people to toy with as they possessed enormous sway over the working class at the bottom of society. Consequently, they couldn’t be ignored even if they held no major position in the government.

It was fine for Franz to question the social inequity; however, it would be out of the question to fight seriously against the bourgeoisie for the interests of the working class.

He believed that it would be better to let the conservative nobles tackle such a challenging task. In fact, Chancellor Metternich was supposed to be the spokesperson of the nobility.

Perhaps one day, the capitalists would demand the expansion of suffrage, the implementation of constitutionalism, and the liberation of serfs, while the noble lords would call for labor laws to protect the rights and interests of the working class.

The nobility, who were still holding on to feudalism, had a natural conflict of interest with the capitalists who wanted to turn the serfs into cheap labor and thus were their fierce opponents.

If, by the beginning of the 20th century, nobles and capitalists formed a single interest group then there would be no way to solve the issue by political means. The only option would be to overthrow the system and rebuild it.

Franz had plans beyond just stirring up trouble in front of Chancellor Metternich, for he never expected his words to impress the sly, old Chancellor.

He also couldn’t rely on their pleasant relationship since friendship was easy to dismiss in politics.

During the meeting, Franz had achieved his main goal: a license to run a newspaper. Newspapers were still under the control of the Austrian Empire’s system of censorship.

Before the Vienna Revolution in March of 1848, there were only 79 newspapers in all of Austria. 79 papers, not presses! Given that a press always issued more than one newspaper, until the revolution, the number of presses was only going to shrink. Through these numbers, one could see how hard it was to run a newspaper during this time period.

However, this was not much a problem for Franz.

Censoring and controlling the number of newspapers was intended to curb the spread of revolutionary ideas. Others might be suspected of supporting the Revolutionary Party, but not the heir to the throne, who would surely not revolutionize himself.

***

Franz, as a morally cultivated elite, was naturally concerned about the common people, so he named his newspaper “We Want Bread, We Want Cheese”.

The title of the newspaper was self-explanatory. In addition, for the sake of security, he decided to place the newspaper's office adjacent to the police station.

During the mid-19th century, running a newspaper could be pretty troublesome: even Franz, who could omit the most cumbersome part—procedures–had to struggle to find the right staff and location.

The most essential part was editors and reporters: These people needed to have the zeal to face up to this cruel society, but not be too hot-tempered to remember who their boss was.

The unfortunate poet of the country, fortunately, was given a sorrowful sentence.

This verse was quite sensible. In the middle of the 19th century, due to the influence of French ideas of romanticism, a large number of literati emerged in Austria, some of whom insisted on putting their creative work first, while others diverted themselves with political games.

Still, the public influence of a pen was not comparable to that of the nobility.

For example, the Hungarian politician , a major figure in propaganda and a world-renowned orator, began working toward Hungary’s revolution in 1847 and then became the head of the Republic of Hungary. However, because he was an idealist with the common faults of literati, he often drew up unrealistic plans which led to his uprising being quickly suppressed.

Franz did not favor employing Kossuth, despite his exceptional capability in propaganda, because he was an ultra-nationalist, specifically an ultra Hungarian nationalist.

Naturally, he was the polar opposite of Franz, but if he wanted, it would not be impossible to buy off Kossuth. However, Franz wasn’t interested.

In his view, loyalty was far more important in an employee than their competency. Not to mention, at the very least, he planned to avoid employing an enemy.

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After a moment of pondering, Franz listed a few names on a piece of paper, and then called for his attendant.

“Rolf, send someone to investigate the background of these people, and if nothing abnormal comes up, send each of them an invitation letter on behalf of the newspaper office.”

“Yes, Your Imperial Highness!” Rolf Lechner replied quickly.

It was not easy to recruit educated people that could read and write during those days, for university was still an ivory tower to the common people, where only the children of the bourgeoisie and the nobility could study.

The so-called inspirational stories were full of lies, as the tuition fees were simply too high to be covered by any work-study program for impoverished families.

Thus, the situation of intellectuals was not as poor as most people believed it to be, except for those whose families had sunk into poverty.

If one wanted to recruit a newspaper staff, one would need to hang a billboard in a busy place, advertise in another newspaper, or get introductions from one's acquaintances.

The last option—getting an introduction from acquaintances—certainly did not work for Franz, for none of his acquaintances were so low in rank that they would be in contact with average workers. After all, lions did not dwell with cats.

Ultimately, though, it was nothing that required that much worry. It was not that hard to recruit ordinary workers to work in the newspaper office, compared to other industries. More than enough people would apply for the positions in the office since they were still comparably good jobs.

Journalists and editors, on the other hand, would take much more time to recruit, and for those positions, Franz invited only well-known intellectuals.

It didn’t matter whether they came or not. If nothing else, the invitations would inform them that a new newspaper was being published in Austria, which could become an additional channel to earn a fee for publishing their articles.

Throughout the process, Franz never showed his face in public, although most of the staff would eventually find out that he was the boss behind the scenes.

If it weren’t for the cost, Franz would not mind opening dozens of newspapers, all at once, to compete all-out for dominance of publicity.

But considering the issue of return on investment, Franz quickly gave up on such a radical idea. It was adequate for Franz to call the shots or set trends when needed through controlling a single, influential newspaper.

***

Reform in Austria had been going on for many years, and Prince Metternich as the State Chancellor had been a representative of the reformists.

He was beset from within and without: the domestic bourgeoisie was discontented with his reforms which didn’t go far enough to fully satisfy their interests.

Meanwhile, the conservative noble also were averse to him because he posed a problem for their interests by advocating the liberation of serfs.

Even the staff inside Vienna Court took unkindly to him. The reason was simple: his bark was worse than his bite.

At this point, Franz was probably the one who understood him best. To paint a picture: the Austrian Empire was like a worm-eaten house, and no one knew how badly it would fall apart if any part of it were removed.

Thus, out of a cautious and responsible attitude, Chancellor Metternich’s reforms were feeble for fear of triggering total collapse.

A reform led with cowardice or excess hesitation was doomed to fail. How could a major reform succeed without enough bloodshed to awe those with vested interests?

 

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