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RV 23

rights of the Czechoslovak nation in Bohemia, Moravia, Silesia, and Slovakia.

By proper means to work to the end that at the forthcoming solution of European political and national questions, which the present war inevitably leads to, the demands for a free development and government of any independent Czech state be taken into account. (Sokol Americky, November, 1916.)

Considering the outcome of the war, who can deny the farsightedness of these unknown states men? For, bearing in mind the results of the movement initiated by them, may we not, with all propriety, call them statesmen?

How spontaneous the movement was, and how it arose in a number of places at the same time, is well illustrated by the fact that in New York, as early as September, 1914, there was formed the American Committee for the liberation of the Czech people. A national scope was given to the organization by a conference held in Chicago, January 2–3, 1915, while the organization itself was perfected at a conference held in Cleveland, March 13–14, 1915. Thereafter the official designation of the national organization was the “Bohemian National Alliance ” which ultimately spread all over the country and toward the end of the war numbered 250 branches. The Czech