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 it stands at the head of all Austrian nationalities. The Czechs have not quite four per cent of persons who can neither read nor write, while the Germans of Austria have six per cent, and the Magyars forty per cent.

With all this high degree of development, it still cannot be said that the existence of the Czechs as a nationality is secure. The Austrian constitution declares all nationalities to be equal, but in practice this provision means very little. Eleven million Germans in Austria have five universities, while ten million Czechs, including Slovaks, have but one university; the provisions for other school facilities are no better. This leads to the Germanization of thousands of Bohemian children; the only means of defense the Czechs have against this is an organization which maintains schools in many places for Bohemian children from funds raised by contributions of patriotic Czechs.

The Slovaks of Hungary, who now demand that they be united in an independent state with their Czech brethren, have suffered and suffer now even worse under the Magyar regime.

Just before the outbreak of the present war, the last measure of Bohemian autonomy was destroyed by the dissolution of the so-called council of the Kingdom, and by the creation of