.'39 
 
Hollinger Corp. 
 pH 8.5 
 
— »i>ii III! mi^^^mi-i^i n mi m n u nii^— mi u» un rQ 
 
 lOHEMIAN i 
 
 (CZECH) 
 
 I HOPES AND j 
 ASPIRATIONS i 
 
 A LECTURE DELIVERED 
 BY 
 
 CHARLES PERGLER, L. L. B. 
 
 AT 
 
 THE STATE UNIVERSITY 
 OF MINNESOTA 
 ON 
 ., MARCH 28th, 1916 
 
 tnica. 
 
 PUBLISHED BY THE 
 BOHEMIAN NATIONAL ALLIANCE 
 
 IN AMERICA 
 3639 W. 26th STREET, CHICAGO, ILL. 
 
 O"-^""— •"— MM— — Mil— un- 
 

 f- > /■ 0*. 
 
 Qm 
 
 f,. 
 
r** 
 
 BOHEMIAN— (CZECH) HOPES AND 
 ASPIRATIONS. 
 
 I. 
 
 It is only a tniism to say that the days of self- 
 sufficiency of any country are gone never to return. 
 
 For a generation, ever since the Congress of 
 Berlin, the prediction was often and freely made that 
 the future European war would start in the Balkans. 
 It did so start, and lately, as a result of the confla- 
 gration kindled in the Southeastern Europe, the 
 United States more than once have been brought to 
 the very brink of war. Yet, prior to this war, how 
 many of us interested ourselves in the Balkan prob- 
 lem? How many of us were aware of the fearful 
 results of the world's failure to sensibly and justly 
 -~££^je the problem of small nationalities in Europe? 
 
 This, of itself, is a sufficient justification for a 
 tWecture on any one of the small nationalities in Europe. 
 
 It may no longer be claimed that we are not our 
 brothers' keepers. Sociologically speaking, the doc- 
 trine so crudely expressed in the saying, "Each man 
 for himself, and the devil take the hindmost," has 
 been relegated to the limbo of things obsolete and no 
 longer true in any sense. It is contrary to our 
 conception of enlightened self-interest, it is contrary 
 to our modern ethical opinions and beliefs. 
 
 What is true of relations of individuals within a 
 state is true of international relations. No nation on 
 the face of the globe is safe so long as any other 
 nation is oppressed and has to struggle for freedom 
 and liberty. 
 
 Oppression and tyranny breed resistance. In 
 the words of William Lloyd Garrison, "Oppression 
 and insurrection go hand in hand, as cause and effect 
 are allied together. In what age of the world have 
 tyrants reigned with impunity, or the victims of 
 tyranny not resisted unto blood?" Friction growing 
 out of the relation of. oppressed and oppressors may, 
 at any time endanger the world's peace. ''\. 
 
 This is to be especially considered when we speak 
 of a country concerning which Bismarck said: 
 "Bohemia is a fortress created by God himself." 
 To paraphrase the expression of an eminent English 
 author, Mr. Seton Watson, it behooves the world, 
 in its own interest, as well as for the sake of justice 
 and humanity, to see to it that Bohemia becomes a 
 fortress, not of reaction, but of liberty. 
 
Best American traditions point in the same 
 direction. Wfe ourselves attained our independence 
 with the aid of idealistic individuals of other national- 
 ities. The names of Lafayette, Von Steuben and 
 Pulaski, speak for themselves. These highminded 
 men drew the sword in defense of an ideal, against 
 what they conceived to be wrong. 
 
 Whatever may have been the subsequent vicissi- 
 tudes of the Monroe Docrtine, the fact remains that 
 one of the motives leading to its enunciation was 
 American desire to see free, democratic and republican 
 institutions spread and prosper in the western 
 hemisphere. It should never be forgotten that the 
 Monroe Doctrine was aimed against the unholy 
 Holy Alliance. 
 
 When Hungary was struggling against Austrian 
 despotism, Daniel Webster, tHen Secretary of State, 
 did not hesitate to assert the right of America to 
 sympathize with the efforts of any nation to acquire 
 liberty, Cuba was liberated by American eff(5^ 
 and Americans always sympathized with those wh\^ 
 were oppressed, Belgians, Armenians, or any other " 
 race. In the words of Professor Bliss Perry, "The 
 ideal passions of patriotism, of liberty, of loyalty to 
 home and section, of humanitarian and missionary 
 effort, have all burned with a clear flame in the 
 United States." 
 
 Civilization would be a sham and a fraud, and 
 a hollow mockery, were there not certain things of 
 permanent value, were there no eternal verities. It 
 may be true that most things have only a relative 
 value, but this world would be a sad place indeed, 
 and Hfe would hardly be worth living, if out of the 
 mint of centuries of struggle and toil nothing came 
 'that we could look upon as an immutable treasure. 
 There is such a thing as right and wrong, and as 
 between right and wrong no individual, no nation, 
 can afford to be indifferent. 
 
 "Once to every man and nation comes the moment to decide, 
 In the strife of Truth with Falsehood, for the good or evil side; 
 Some gfCjit Cause, God's new Messiah, offering each the bloom or blight, 
 Parts thegpats upon the left hand, and the sheep upon the right. 
 And the'choice goes by forever, 'twixt that darkness and that light. 
 Has thou chosen, O my people, on whose party thou shalt stand. 
 Ere the Doom from its worn sandals shakes the dust against our land? 
 Though the cause of Evil prosper, yet, 't is Truth alone is strong. 
 And, albeit she wander outcast now, I see around her throng 
 Troops of beautiful, tall angels, "to enshield her from all wrong." 
 
 — James Russell Lowell 
 
 II. 
 
 The Czechs, or Bohemians, are a branch of the 
 Slavonic race, which is of central European origin. 
 
according to Professor Lubor Niederle, of the Bohe- 
 mian University of Prague. The Slavs are pure 
 Aryans, just as the Celts, Germans and Latins. 
 
 Many popular prejudices to the contrary not- 
 withstanding, the Slavonic races have contributed 
 their share to modern culture and civilization. 
 
 When we' think of the Russians, we must inevi- 
 tably also think of Puskin, Gogol, Turgenev, Dosto- 
 jevskjr, and Tolstoj, names that are mentioned only 
 with respect, whenever the world's literary treasures 
 are discussed. Russian music is becoming well 
 known and appreciated in the English speaking world. 
 In the field of mathematical research, the names of 
 Lobacevsky and Minkovsk5r are known to all 
 mathematicians, and in the realm of physical science 
 we need only to point to Lebedev, while the name of 
 the great biologist, Mecnikov, is almost a household 
 word. The names of Plechanov and Karejev are 
 known to all students of sociology. 
 
 The Poles have given to the world Copernicus, 
 the poet Mickiewicz, the novelist Sinkiewicz, and a 
 host of others. 
 
 The most admired artist in London just now is 
 the Serbian sculptor, MestroviS. 
 
 It must always be remembered that the Czech, 
 John Hus, preceded Luther by one hundred years; 
 that Komensky was one of the greatest educators of 
 all ages; that Peter Chelcicky preceded Tolstoj by 
 four hundred years; that the Czech warrior Zizka is 
 regarded as one of the originators of modern strategy. 
 
 In fact, Bohemia has had fascinating history, 
 full of misfortunes and suffering, it is true, yet also 
 replete with incidents and struggles, of which any 
 individual of Czech origin may well be proud. 
 
 Mr. John W. Burgess, of Columbia University, 
 who, since the outbreak of the present war, has be- 
 come such an ardent defender and advocate of all 
 things Teutonic, in his otherwise great work on 
 "Political Science and Comparative Constitutional 
 Law" lays down the proposition that the Teutonic 
 nations are the political nations par excelltenct^, and 
 that the Slavs and Greeks lack in political *e4p,acity. 
 
 The history of Bohemia furnishes a refutation of 
 this assumption as far as the Slavs are concerned. 
 
 As early as the seventh century, when the 
 historical data relative to Bohemia begun, we find 
 traces of a Bohemian State. 
 
 In the eleventh centur}^, Bohemia, Moravia, 
 Silesia and Poland were united under Bfetislav I, 
 and, in the words of Count Luetzow, "The idea of a 
 West Slav Empire seemed on the point of being 
 
realized, but Germany stepped in to prevent the for- 
 mation of a powerful Slav State on her borders." 
 
 Otokar II., of the House of Pfemy^l, for a time 
 extended Bohemian domination from the Adriatic 
 to the Baltic. 
 
 Under the "National King", George of Podebrad, 
 in the fifteenth century, Bohemia was a European 
 power of the first order. 
 
 All these accomplishments, attained under 
 sovereigns belonging to houses of Czech origin, 
 certainly show a high degree of political capacity. 
 
 The fact that later Bohemia succumbed to over- 
 whelming brute force is not proof of want of political 
 capacity. After all, might does not make right, and 
 if right happens to be overcome by might, that 
 furnishes for might no justification. 
 
 III. 
 
 During the fifteenth century the Czechs fought 
 for the freedom of conscience against the whole of 
 Europe. For more than a generation they victorious- 
 ly repulsed the onslaughts of army after army. 
 This was the time when Bohemia became known as 
 the country of the book and the cup; this was the 
 time when "the meanest Hussite woman knew the 
 Bible better than any Roman priest", as testified to 
 by Pope Pius II. (Aeneas Sylvius.) 
 
 But the country paid the penalty for the bravery 
 of its people and their courage and perseverance in 
 fighting for what they conceived to be right. When 
 the Hapsburgs came to the Bohemian throne in 1526, 
 and forthwith launched upon a career of encroachment 
 upon Bohemian liberties, of centralization and 
 germanization, and of broken pledges, the Bohemian 
 power of resistance was largely spent. 
 
 The Hapsburgs were called to the Bohemian 
 throne by a free choice of the Bohemian people, 
 and in mounting the throne, they confirmed all the 
 ancient liberties and privileges of Bohemia, only to 
 later break every promise, pledge and oath taken, 
 by theni.';^ 
 
 At "this time Bohemia became associated with 
 German- Austria and with Hungary, but she remained 
 an independent Kingdom, being bound to Austria 
 and Germany merely by the person of the common 
 king. 
 
 One of the most important acts of the reign of 
 Ferdinand the First was destruction of the autonomy 
 of Bohemian cities in 1547, accompanied by the 
 execution of two knights and two citizens, who 
 shortly before that were leaders in a movement. 
 
aiming at the re-establishment of the elective charac- 
 ter of the Bohemian Crown; establishment of liberty 
 for all religious beliefs in Bohemia, and the curtail- 
 ment of the rights of the sovereign in various points. 
 
 After that the history of Bohemia is largely one 
 of a struggle between the Hapsburgs, aiming at 
 centralization and germanization, and violating their 
 oaths to maintain the independence of the Bohemian 
 State, on the one hand, and the Bohemians, seeking 
 to preserve their independence, on the other hand. 
 
 The struggle culminated in a revolt, signalized 
 by the "Defenestration of Prague" in 1618, when the 
 representatives of Bohemian nobility threw from the 
 window of Hradcany, the royal castle in Prague, 
 representatives of the Hapsburg King, following this 
 incident up by a dethronement of the Hapsburg 
 dynasty and the Elector Palatine's election to 
 Bohemian Kingship. 
 
 But in 1620 the Hapsburgs were victorious in the 
 Battle of White Mountain, and a period of indescrib- 
 able martyrdom began for the Czech nationality. 
 
 After the battle of White Mountain, twenty- 
 seven leaders of the Bohemian Rebellion against 
 Ferdinand the Second were executed, many of them 
 tortured, and thirty-six thousand families forced to 
 leave their native land and their property confiscated. 
 
 The ruthless persecution following the battle of 
 White Mountain all but wiped out the Czechs as a 
 distinct national individuality. A policy of germani- 
 zation was followed unmercifully, and indeed toward 
 the eighteenth century the Czech nation was looked 
 upon as dead. 
 
 The results following* the battle of White Moun- 
 tain are thus stated by an eminent Bohemian author: 
 "On the battlefield of White Mountain, an iron die 
 was cast not only to decide the fate of the crown of 
 St. Wenzeslaus and the Imperial Crown of Germany, 
 but also the fate and language of the Bohemian 
 nation. , The fatal decision cost the rebellious noble 
 his head, deprived the burger of his property, enslaved 
 the peasant, destroyed the nation, wiped out the 
 literature. As a strong tree stood our liticrature, 
 prior to the White Mountain catastrophe. The axe 
 was applied to the trunk, the branches dropped, and 
 the falling leaves enriched foreign soil, while the stump 
 rooted in domestic soil remained without branches, 
 without blossoms, without fruit. The flower of the 
 nation perished under the hand of the executioner, 
 and died on foreign soil; the enslaved and down- 
 trodden remnants of the people remaining in the land, 
 impoverished and held in contempt, forgot their past, 
 
their rebellion, and their martyrs of the present and the 
 past." Pisemnictvi Ceske, by Dr. Vaclav Flajshans — 
 page 402. 
 
 IV. 
 
 The peasant may perhaps be called the savior of 
 Bohemian nationality. While the Hapsburgs 
 succeeded in almost completely germanizing the 
 cities, the flame of Bohemian national life was kept 
 alive in the country districts and in the villages. 
 Without this fact, the efforts of Czech men of letters, 
 who begin to appear during the first years of the 
 nineteenth century, to arouse the Czech nationality 
 to a new national consciousness, would have been futile. 
 
 Until the revolutionary year of- 1848, the efforts 
 of leading Czechs were largely literary and devoted 
 to a revival of the Czech language as a medium of 
 literary expression. The movement finally, as was 
 inevitable, obtained a political coloring, and the 
 forties see the establishment of Czech press, led by 
 Karel Havlicek, a brilliant journalist in a very real 
 sense of the term, and the revolutionary year of 1848 
 brings a political renaissance. 
 
 In the second half of the nineteenth century the 
 nation reached a cultural level surpassing that of any 
 other nationality in Austria. In literature and arts 
 it is second to no nation of its numerical strength. 
 In modern times it has produced at least three poets 
 of the first rank, Vrchlichy, Cech, and Machar. 
 Of the musicians and composers, one need only to 
 mention Smetana, Dvorak, and Kovafovic. Of the 
 novelists there is a legion, and they have produced 
 real works of art. In philosophy, the names of 
 Masaryk, Krejci and Drtina are known to all scholars. 
 
 In cultural respects the Czechs stand at the head 
 of all Austrian nationalities. They have not quite 
 four per cent of illiterates, while the Germans of 
 Austria have six per cent, and the Magyars forty 
 per cent. 
 
 . It cannot be over-emphasized that all this 
 progre.ss\^as achieved by the Czechs in -the teeth of the 
 most yiblfent and brutal opposition of the Austrian 
 government, and the Austrian Germans. Few are the 
 Czech schools indeed that were not established as 
 the result of a fierce parliamentary struggle, and 
 without years of hard fighting. 
 
 Even now, eleven million Germans in Austria 
 have five universities, while ten million Czechs, 
 including Slovaks, have but one university. 
 
 As regards institutions corresponding to our 
 high schools, the situation is no better; indeed, before 
 
the war, Czechs were frequently forced to struggle for 
 adequate common school facilities. Municipalities 
 that still happen to be in German hands refuse to 
 provide suitable school buildings for children of Czech 
 citizens. This leads to the germanization of thousands 
 of Czech children. The only means of defense the 
 Czechs have against this barbarous treatment is a 
 voluntary organization which maintains schools in 
 many places for Czech children from funds raised by 
 contributions' of patriotic Czechs. 
 
 As another example of the unfair treatment 
 meted out to the Czechs under the Austrian govern- 
 ment, we may refer to the fact that in Bohemian 
 cities, where there happens to be a German majority, 
 actual .or only apparent, created by fraudulent and 
 false statistics, the courts frequently refuse to transact 
 business with Czechs in their mother tongue, and to 
 hear complaints in the language of a large majority 
 of the country's population. 
 
 All this, of course, makes a hollow mockery of 
 the nineteenth section of the constitution of Austria 
 which reads as follows: 
 
 "All races of the state enjoy equal rights, and 
 every race has an inviolable right to assert its 
 nationality and to cultivate its language. The equal 
 rights of all languages" of the country, in school, 
 office, and public life are recognized by the state." 
 
 As an example of the level to which opponents 
 of the Czech nationality descended, even prior to the 
 war, we may cite an expression of Mr. Peschka, then 
 a member of the Austrian Cabinet, who several years 
 ago at a public meeting in Graz declared that the 
 struggle between the Bohemians and Germans 
 ultimately would be decided by force, and that in 
 such contest the Austrian Germans would be victor- 
 ious with the aid of their kinsmen from the Empire, 
 and that the result would be a complete wiping out 
 of the Czechs. 
 
 V. 
 
 In speaking of the Czechs, we must fif/t' forget 
 the Slovaks, who are really a part of tlie saiiie ethnic 
 group, so much so in fact that now they are demand- 
 ing that they be united with their Czech brethren in 
 an independent Bohemian- Slovak State. 
 
 Three million Slovaks live under the Magyar rule 
 in Hungary. The fact may come as a distinct shock 
 to many Americans, but it is a fact just the same that 
 what the Slovaks had to suffer under Magyar rule 
 even before the war beggars all description. 
 
The Magyars have a trick of posing before the 
 world as chivalry personified and as defenders of 
 liberty. In the United States, their struggle against 
 Austria in 1848 and 1849 is well known and the 
 traditions of the Kossuth visit in the early fifties of 
 the last century are still strong. Americans find it 
 hard to believe that the Magyars, who attained 
 practical independence in 1867, gained it merely to 
 oppress other nationalities infinitely worse than they 
 themselves ever suffered. 
 
 Hungary forms with Austria what is usually 
 known as a Realunion. Hungary has fnore than 
 twenty million inhabitants, but of these the ruling 
 Magyar nation forms not quite nine million. The 
 rest of the population consists of Slovaks, Roumanians 
 Germans, Ruthenians, Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes. 
 The Government is in the hands of an oligarchy of 
 feudal nobility. For anything like it we would look 
 in vain anywhere else in Europe. It is Asiatic in the 
 worst sense of the term. Hungary has only about a 
 million of voters, and Hungarian elections are a 
 synonym for violence and corruption. Owing to the 
 extreme exploitation of the people by feudal nobility, 
 before the war a continuous stream of immigrants 
 came to the United States from Hutigary. 
 
 For three million Slovaks there does not exist 
 in Hungary a single adequate common school con- 
 ducted in the Slovak language. Even before the 
 war the Slovak press was systematically persecuted, 
 and Slovak papers subjected to unimaginable clii- 
 canery. It is an interesting fact that there are more 
 Slovak papers in the United States than in Hungary. 
 These American papers the Hungarian government 
 considers a menace to the Magyar state, and accord- 
 ingly Refuses them postal privileges. 
 
 The leaders of the Slovak people are imprisoned 
 whenever the slightest pretext arises, and Slovak 
 editors in Hungary are more familiar with Magyar 
 jails than with their own editorial offices. 
 
 These are generalizations, of course, but within 
 the scope, of this lecture it is impossible to go into 
 details." 'c However, if details are desired, let me refer 
 those interested to the comprehensive work of Mr. 
 Seton- Watson (Scotus Viator) on the "^.acial 
 Problems in Hungary". This book contains a wealth 
 of detail and constitutes a terrific indictment of the 
 Magyar oligarchy. 
 
 Magyar misrepresentations for years succeeded 
 in deluding the world into the belief that Hungary 
 was an "isle of liberty", as Count Apponyi once 
 expressed it. The world is nqw beginning to realize 
 
that the Hungarian isle of liberty is a vast penitentiary 
 for all non-Magyar nationalities, with the difference, 
 however, that in an ordinary penitentiary usually 
 only the guilty are imprisoned, while for non-Magyar 
 nationahties Hungary is a jail because they refuse 
 to betray some of the most cherished ideals of the race. 
 
 VI. 
 
 Mettemich, the arch-reactionary, once called 
 Italy a mere geographical expression. This statement 
 was never really true of Italy, but it is true when we 
 speak of Austria. Who ever heard of any one calHng 
 himself an Austrian? Even the present Austrian 
 Emperor once asserted that he was a German Prince. 
 There is no Austrian language, no Austrian literature, 
 no Austrian nationality, no Austrian civilization. 
 Most Austrian subjects would consider it nothing 
 short of an insult to be called Austrians. 
 
 Yet the impression is not to be gained that the 
 Austrian state never had. its justification. Dynasties, 
 no matter how powerful and astute, after all cannot 
 form states unless aided by social, economic and 
 political factors. 
 
 Austria's justification for existence may be found 
 in Asiatic invasions, that is, of the Huns (Magyars) 
 and later of the Turks.' With the waning power of 
 Turkey, Austria loses its ruling idea; it becomes a 
 rudderless craft on the vast sea of political life. 
 
 But the Bohemians for a long time did not seek 
 Austria's dismemberment. They felt that the 
 Austrian State might become a federalized union of 
 nationalities with equal rights. Austria's mission was 
 to become a guardian of European peace by the 
 creation and maintenance of a United States of 
 nations in Central Europe. That is what Palackj^, 
 the great Czech historian and statesman, had in 
 mind when he declared, "If there were no Austria, 
 it would be necessary to create one". 
 
 The condition precedent to Austria's existence 
 in modern times became justice to, and fait treatment 
 of, all nationalities. 
 
 This condition was never lived up to. Since 
 1866, and especially since the formation of the defunct 
 Triple Alliance, Austria became nothing else but an 
 appendage of Berlin, and it is Berlin only that has 
 upheld and still upholds the rule of the German 
 minority in one half of Austria, and of the Magyar 
 minority in the other half. Austria has been for 
 more than a generation, and is now, merely Germany's 
 vassal. What right to existence has a state like that? 
 
 11 
 
Palacky himself fully realized before his death 
 that it is hopeless to attempt to retrieve Austria, and 
 that is the secret of his later equally famous statement : 
 "Before Austria was, we were, and when Austria no 
 longer is, we still shall be". 
 
 I am not insensible of the obligations imposed 
 upon me by your hospitality, and I shall refrain from 
 any expression of personal opinion as to the cause of 
 the present war, but permit me to state as a fact that, 
 in the judgment of all Bohemians, this war was 
 provoked by Vienna at the behest of Berlin. Bohe- 
 mians well know that as early as 1913 Austria at- 
 tempted, to cause a war with Serbia by means of 
 documents forged by the Austrian legation in Bel- 
 grade, and they know that Austrian militarists have 
 long been hoping for an opportunity to attack Serbia. 
 
 Austria has become a state that may be compared 
 to a mother devouring her own children. 
 
 Again, Austria in entering the present conflict 
 has forced her Slav subjects into what they regard as 
 a fratricidal struggle. It is only natural that the 
 Czechs think only with horror of even the possibility 
 of being compelled to fire upon their Slav brethren, 
 the Russians and the Serbs. 
 
 Also, the Czech public opinion ever since the 
 national renaissance in the first half of the nineteenth 
 century has always been pro-French and pro-English. 
 
 From all this it is easy to understand why the 
 Czechs look upon the present war with loathing and 
 horror, and why it has led them to demand indepen- 
 dence regardless of Austria's ultimate fate. 
 
 The Czechs and Slovaks are now a unit in asking 
 for an independent Bohemian - Slovak State. 
 Independence — that one word expresses the supreme 
 hopes and aspirations of all real Czechs and Slovaks. 
 
 VII. 
 
 The Czech and Slovak demand for independence 
 was voiced by the Bohemian Foreign Committee in a 
 manifesto issued in Paris, November 14th, 1915, the 
 foremost: of the signers of this historical document ' 
 being Bref ." Masaryk, deputy, former member of the 
 Austrian delegations, chairman of the independent . 
 Czech deputies Club from Bohemia and Moravia in 
 Austrian Parliament and a famous Czech philosopher, 
 and Mr. Jos. Duerich, member of the Austrian 
 Parliament and president of the "Komensky" 
 Society for the support of Czech schools in Vienna. 
 
 This manifesto is simply an expression of the 
 opinion of the whole Czech nation, as shown by the 
 behavior of Czech troops following the declaration 
 
of war against Serbia. Czech regiments have been 
 surrendering to the "enemy" whenever an opportunity 
 has afforded itself. As an illustration, let me cite the 
 example of the 28th regiment, recruited from the 
 Prague population, which on the third day of April, 
 1915, surrendered in the Carpathians to the Russians, 
 led by its officers, as best attested by an army order, 
 signed by the Austrian- Emperor himself, striking this 
 regiment as forever "disgraced" from the army roll. 
 
 This behavior of the Bohemian troops in the 
 Austrian army is not due to cowardice. Many of the 
 soldiers who have surrendered have re-enlisted in the 
 Russian army, and are now fighting against Austria. 
 "There is a Bohemian legion fighting in the Russian 
 army which has been frequently mentioned for its 
 valor in the orders of the day. Indeed, many of the 
 Bohemian soldiers serving in the Russian army and 
 fighting against Austria have been decorated for valor 
 by order of the Russian Czar. There is a Bohemian 
 legion fighting with the armies of France and only 
 recently twenty members of this legion received from 
 a special envoy of the Russian Czar the Cross of Sts 
 George, always awarded only for conspicuous deed, 
 of bravery. 
 
 When the war broke out, the Austrian govern- 
 ment — the only one of all belligerent countries, 
 Turkey not excepted — did not dare to convoke the 
 Austrian Parliament, fearing especially the Czech 
 protest, but it did attempt to induce the Czech pohti- 
 cal parties to publish a manifesto supporting the war. 
 For answer it received silence which at this time is 
 indeed more eloquent than words. 
 
 The Czech press is today muzzled and leading 
 Czech politicians and statesmen are jailed. Dr. 
 Karel Kramar, besides Prof. Masaryk the best known 
 of Czech leaders, even now is on trial for treason 
 against the Austrian State. Deputy Klofac is in 
 prison since the outbreak of the war, and Dr. Scheiner, 
 the President of the Bohemian Sokol (Gymnastic) 
 Societies, is also in prison. 
 
 The "Neues Wiener Tagblatt", with the per- 
 mission of the Austrian censor, recently published 
 statistics of executions in Austria since the outbreak 
 of the war, and- according to these figures during the 
 first fourteen months of the war Austria Hungary 
 has been the scene of the execution of three thou- 
 sand three hundred seventy-three persons. These 
 executions occured for political offenses, and are di- 
 vided as follows: 
 
 Slavs: In Bohemia, 720 persons hanged or shot; 
 in Moravia, 245 persons; in Bosnia and Herzegovina, 
 
800 persons; in Galicia, 486 persons;. in Bukowina, 
 330 persons. 
 
 Italians: Two hundred persons executed in 
 Trieste, 90 in Istria, 330 in the Trentino. 
 
 Austria is conducting war against her own people, 
 and her people are looking forward to the time when, 
 concerning her fate, they will be able to quote 
 Robert G. Ingersoll on "The Doom of Empires": 
 
 "The traveler standing amid the ruins of ancient 
 cities and empires, seeing on every side the fallen 
 pillar and the prostrate wall, asks why did these cities 
 fall, why did these empires crumble? And the Ghost 
 of the Past, the wisdom of ages, answers: These 
 temples, these palaces, these cities, the ruins of which 
 you stand upon, were built by tyranny and injustice. 
 The hands that built them were unpaid. The backs 
 that bore the burdens also bore the marks of the lash. 
 They were built by slaves to satisfy the vanity and 
 ambition of thieves and robbers. For these reasons 
 they are dust. 
 
 "Their civilization was a lie. Their laws merely 
 regulated robbery and estabhshed theft. They 
 bought and sold the bodies and souls of men, and the 
 mournful wind of desolation, sighing amid their 
 crumbling ruins, is a voice of prophetic warning to 
 those who would repeat the infamous experiment, 
 uttering the great truth, that no nation founded upon 
 slavery, either of body or mind, can stand." 
 
 VIII. 
 
 The irony of fate has it that in demanding the 
 establishment of a Bohemian- Slovak national state, 
 Czechs and Slovaks may safely refpr to the theories 
 of the Germanic school of political science, led in 
 America, as heretofore suggested, by Mr. Burgess, 
 from whose "Political Science and Comparative 
 Constitutional Law", (Vol 1. pages 38 and 39), I 
 again take the liberty to quote: 
 
 "The national state is the most modern product 
 of political history, political science and practical 
 politics. It comes nearer to solving all the problems of 
 political organization than any other system as yet 
 developed. In the first place, it rescues the world from 
 the monotony of the universal empire. This is an 
 indispensable condition of political progress. We 
 advance politically, as well as individually, by contact, 
 competition and antagonism. The universal empire 
 suppresses all this in its universal reign of peace, 
 which means, in the long run, stagnation and despotism . 
 At the same time, the national state solves the problem 
 of the relation between states by the evolution of the 
 
 14 
 
system of international law. Through this it preserves 
 most of the advantages of the universal empire while 
 discarding its one-sided and intolerant character. In 
 the second place, the national state solves the problem 
 of the relation of sovereignty to liberty ; so that while 
 it is the most powerful political organization that the 
 world has ever produced, it is still the freest. This is 
 easy to comprehend. The national state permits the 
 participation of the governed in the government. In 
 a national state the population have a common 
 language and a common understanding of the princi- 
 ples of rights and the character of wrongs. This 
 common understanding is, the strongest moral basis 
 which a government can possibly have; and, at the 
 same time, it secures the enactment and administra- 
 tion of laws whose righteousness must be acknowledged, 
 and whose effect will be the realization of the truest 
 liberty. In the third place, the national state solves 
 the question of the relation of central to local govern- 
 ment, in that it rests upon the principle of self- 
 government in both domains. In the perfect national 
 state there can thus be no jealousy between the 
 respective spheres ; and the principle will be universally 
 recognized that, where uniformity is necessary, it 
 must exist ; but that where uniformity is not necessary, 
 variety is to reign in order that through it a deeper 
 and truer harmony may be discovered." 
 
 Mr. Burgess concludes that the national state is 
 the most modern and complete solution of the whole 
 problem of political organization which the world has 
 as yet produced, and Czechs and Slovaks might well 
 rest their case on this proposition. 
 
 For that matter, the fact cannot be over-em- 
 phasized that the Czechs were deprived of the 
 national state tKey once had by force. In demanding 
 independence, Czechs can plant themselves not only 
 upon the proposition that any nation has the right 
 to self-government, but also upon laws and constitu- 
 tions which have never been repealed or abrogated 
 with the consent of the Bohemian people. 
 
 Almost four centuries ago Bohemia, Moravia 
 and Silesia (with the two Lusatias) constituted an 
 independent kingdom, just as Hungary was then an 
 independent kingdom. In 1526 Czechs called the 
 Hapsburg dynasty to the Bohemian throne for 
 practically the same reasons and on the same condi- 
 tions as the Magyars. Together with the Pragmatic 
 Sanction, the terms under which the Hapsburgs were 
 called to the Hungarian throne formed what we might 
 call the legal foundation of the Hungarian revolution 
 in 1848. The Czech case, legally speaking, is every 
 
bit as strong, if not stronger, as was the Magyar case 
 in 1848. The compact of 1526, together with the 
 coronation oaths and a large number of other historical 
 documents too numerous to be here mentioned, form 
 the legal basis of the Czech revolution in 1915. 
 
 De facto the Bohemians lost, their independence, 
 de jure they still have it, and are now demanding 
 something of which they were illegally deprived. 
 Just as no one can be legally deprived of his property 
 by force and violence and without due process of law, 
 just so the Czechs retain their legal title to indepen- 
 dence. 
 
 All this of course makes the Czech case unassail- 
 able, but it could not be regarded as weak even with- 
 out these historical and legal reasons and arguments. 
 Indeed, once a nation has become conscious of its 
 nationality, demands liberty and independence and 
 has proven its possibility by its economic and cultural 
 development, its right to independence is taken out 
 of the sphere of debatable questions. 
 
 It makes little difference whether the nation 
 referred to is large or small. Questions of right and 
 morals do not depend upon size and quantity. More- 
 over, the belief in the necessity of large states, rife 
 in certain circles of economic and political theorists, is 
 one of the superstitions that periodically grip man- 
 kind, only to be abandoned upon a sober second 
 thought. Again, the reaction against this superstition 
 is already beginning to set in, as evidenced by the 
 recent address of Mr. L. P. Jacks, editor of the 
 Hibbert Journal, before the London Sociological 
 Society. 
 
 Mr. Jacks thinks that before long we shall see the 
 rise of a new criticism of the -whole idea of government. 
 What are, he asks, the limits of government? Will 
 not the tendency be to eliminate a number of un- 
 manageable propositions from the scope of human 
 design? Mr. Jacks believes that the next great 
 movement of political thought will be in the direction 
 of restricting rather than expanding, concentrating 
 rather than spreading, the objects of social endeavor. 
 The deeper thought, he says, starts from the human 
 end of the problem ; its first principle is that "industrial 
 civilization is made for man, not man for industrial 
 civilization". 
 
 Lord Bryce thinks that possibly the modern 
 states have become too big to manage. 
 
 But it is necessary to point out that independent 
 Bohemia will not be a small state — will not be, I say, 
 because I firmly believe this war must bring the Czechs 
 freedom and liberty. 
 
 16 
 
'rf^t' 
 
 An independent Bohemian- Slovak state will have 
 a population of over twelve million, and its territorial 
 extent will be about fifty thousand square miles. 
 The Bohemian- Slovak state will be eighth among 
 twenty-two European vStates. 
 
 Economically and financially Bohemia is the 
 richest of Austrian "provinces", and after the war, 
 separated from Austria, she will be richer, because she 
 will not be forced to support the economically and 
 financially "passive" Austrian lands. Today Czechs 
 pay more than four hundred million crowns yearly 
 by way of taxes to the Austrian government, but all 
 this money stays in Vienna and Bohemian needs are 
 being neglected. 
 
 A standard authority thus states the industrial 
 resources of Bohemia: 
 
 "The industry of Bohemia, favored by its central 
 situation, has .long rendered it one of the most im- 
 portant governments of the Austrian Empire. Spinning 
 and weaving are extensively carried on in the northern 
 and southeastern districts; manufactures of lace, 
 ribbons, metal, and wood work, chemical products, 
 and other branches of skilled industry are also largely 
 developed. Pottery, porcelain, glassware, cutting of 
 precious stones, give employment to many hands. 
 The glassware of Bohemia alone, which is known all 
 over Europe, employs 50,000 workers. Large quanti- 
 ties of beer (Pilsener) of the kind known as lager are 
 exported. Prague, the capital, is the centre of the 
 manufactures and of the commerce of the country. 
 The largest towns are Prague, Pilsen, Reichenberg, 
 Budweis, Teplitz, Aussig, and Eger. For internal 
 intercourse there are excellent highways, extending 
 to 10,000 miles, and several important lines of railway 
 leading both southeast to Vienna and northwest 
 toward Dresden." (The Americana, Vol. 3, article 
 Bohemia) . 
 
 An independent Bohemia will mean the addition 
 of a cultured and economically self-sustaining state 
 to the international family. 
 
 IX. 
 
 Throughout Bohemian history we find evidences 
 of idealism. Spiritual values have never been under- 
 estimated by the Czechs. The Hussite wars, while 
 they had their social and economic background, 
 after all were fought for a religious and civil ideal, 
 for communion in both kinds and for the rights of the 
 Czech language againsf the aggression of the Germans. 
 Palacky may have been somewhat carried away by 
 national pride when he said so, but nevertheless his 
 
 17 
 
contention that the Hussite War is "the first war in 
 the world's history that was fought not for material 
 interest, but for intellectual ones, for ideas", can well 
 be defended. 
 
 The Czechs have their faults and vices, no doubt, 
 just as all nationalities have them, but hypocrisy 
 certainly is not one of these. 
 
 The recent Bohemian declaration of independence, 
 for that it is, declares that, "We take the side of the 
 fighting Slav nations and their Allies, without regard 
 to victory or defeat, because right is on their side. 
 The problem which side is right in this fatal war is a 
 question of principle and of political morals, a question 
 which at present no honest and sincere statesman, 
 no conscientious and thinking nation, can evade." 
 
 This statement, I think, represents the best Czech 
 thought on the subject of politics and political morals. 
 To the Czechs politics is not a game, but it is the 
 expression of the nation's hopes and desires. Best 
 proof of this lies in the fact that the manifesto was 
 issued when the Russian army was forced to retreat 
 from the Carpathians, and when the situation from 
 the Allies' point of view was gloomy indeed. 
 
 Freedom regained, liberty achieved, and such a 
 nation certainly will add still more to the world's 
 spiritual treasures. 
 
 • X. 
 
 The American Institute of International Law at 
 its session, held in the City of Washington, on the 6th 
 day of January, 1916, adopted a declaration, now 
 known as the Declaration of the Rights of Nations, 
 in which the following passages occur: 
 
 "Every nation has the right to exist and to 
 protect and to conserve its existence; but this right 
 neither implies the right nor justifies the act of the 
 State to protect itself or to conserve its existence by 
 the commission of unlawful acts against innocent 
 and unoffending States. 
 
 "This right is and is to be understood in the sense 
 in which right to life is understood in national law,, 
 according to which it is unlawful for a human being 
 to take human life unless it be necessary so to do in 
 self-defense against an unlawful attack threatening 
 the life of the party unlawfully attacked. 
 
 "Every nation has the right to independence in 
 the sense that it has a right to the pursuit of happiness 
 and is free to develop itself -v^thout interference or 
 control from other states, provided that in so doing 
 it does not interfere with, or violate the rights of 
 other States. 
 

 "Every nation is in law and before law the equal 
 of every other State composing the society of nations, 
 and all States have the right to claim, and, according 
 to the Declaration of Independence of the United 
 States, 'to assume, among the powers of the earth, 
 the separate and equal station to which the laws of 
 nature and of nature's God entitle them.' 
 
 "Every nation entitled to a right by the law of 
 nations is entitled to have that right respected and 
 protected by all other nations, for right and duty are 
 correlative, and the right of one is the duty of all to 
 observe." 
 
 In laying, down these principles, the authors 
 largely had in mind questions of international law and 
 the rights of states. Nevertheless, these very prin- 
 ciples apply with equal force to nationalities struggling 
 for independence, or seeking to regain it. Every 
 nation has the right to independence. 
 
 Certain it is that the terms agreed to by a future 
 conference of the belligerent powers will not lead to a 
 permanent peace unless they have due regard to the 
 principle of nationality. The peace following this war 
 cannot be durable and cannot be permanent if ancient 
 injustices are perpetuated. 
 
 At this critical juncture of the world's history, 
 it is well to recall what Wendell Phillips said after the 
 outbreak of the Civil War, in December, 1861, in 
 an address in Boston: 
 
 "In my view, the bloodiest war ever waged is 
 infinitely better than the happiest slavery which evei 
 fattened man into obedience. And yet I love peace. 
 But it is real peace; not peace such as we have had, 
 not peace that meant lynch-law in the Carolinas, and 
 mob-law in New York; not peace that meant chains 
 around Boston Court-house, a gag on the lips of 
 statesmen, and the slave sobbing himself to sleep in 
 curses. No more such peace for me; no peace that is 
 not born of justice, and does not recognize the rights 
 of every race and every man." 
 
 NatioDal Printing & Pub. Co. i(gm%, n i 2146-2150 Blue Island Are. 
 
^^ome American and English 
 Books on Bohemia 
 
 Count Lutzow: Bohemia (Encyclopedia Britannica). 
 
 Count Lutzow: History of Bohemia. Everyman's Library, 
 London 1910. 
 
 Count Lutzow: Story of Prague. Medieval Town Series, 
 J. M. Dent. London 1907. (2nd ed.) 
 
 Count Lutzow: The Life and Times of Master John Hus. 
 J. M. Dent. 1909. 
 
 Count Lutzow: English Translation of: The Labyrinth of 
 the World and the Paradise of the Heart by John Amos 
 Komensky, J. M. Dent. 1905. 
 
 Count Lutzow: A History of Bohemian Literature. London. 
 (2nd ed. 1907.) 
 
 Baker James: Pictures from Bohemia. Chapman and Hall. 
 London- Chicago 1894. 
 
 Balch Emily G. : Our Slavic Fellow Citizens. New York 1910. 
 
 Gregor Frances: The Story of Bohemia. Cincinnati and New 
 York 1896. 
 
 Maurice Charles Edmund: The Story of Bohemia (Story of 
 the Nations Series). New York and London 1896. 
 
 Monroe Will S.: Bohemia and the Czechs. L. C. Page. 
 Boston 1910. 
 
 Schaff S. David: John Hus after 500 Years. Chas. Scribner's 
 Sons. New York 1915. 
 
 SchwarzeW. N.: John Hus, the Martyr of Bohemia. Fleming 
 H. Revell. New York 1915. 
 
 Vickers Robert H. : History of Bohemia. Chicago 1894. 
 
oome DVOKiets 
 on the Bohemian Cause 
 
 Fublished By The 
 
 BOHEMIAN NATIONAL ALLIANCE 
 
 DECLARATION o^f the Bohemian (Czech) 
 Foreign Committee 
 
 ADDENDA: 
 
 Professor T. G. Masaryk as a Lecturer in London University. 
 Comments of London Papers. 
 
 The Position of the Bohemians (Czechs) 
 in the European War 
 
 CONTENTS: 
 
 1. Why the Bohemians are not friends of the Germans. 
 
 2. Bohemians for America and against Austria. 
 
 3. Resolution of protest against the "Appeal to the American 
 • People". 
 
 4. British, French and Russian comments on the attitude of 
 
 the Bohemians. 
 
 Bohemia's Claim to Independence 
 
 An address delivered by Charles Pergler L. L. B. before the Com- 
 mittee on Foreign Affairs of the House of Representatives 
 of the United States. 
 
\ 
 
 Boh< 
 
 lemian (Czech) National 
 Alliance in America 
 
 The Bohemian National AUiance in America is an orga- 
 nization composed of the ' ' Sokol ' ' gymnastic societies, of the 
 principal Czech fraternal organizations, of social clubs and labor 
 bodies. It has branches in most of the larger cities of the United 
 States, as well as many branches in Canada. It is entitled to 
 speak for the 700,000 Bohemians in the United States. 
 
 The Bohemian National Alliance is working actively for 
 the freedom of Bohemia, an object which is bound up with the 
 success of the Allies. It opposes the false neutrality tactics em- 
 ployed by Germans living in the United States, particularly their 
 efforts to stop the export of munitions of war. 
 
 With the Bohemian National AUiance in America are af- / 
 filiated similar organizations of Czechs living in London, Paris •'■. 
 and Switzerland.