Page:Dr. Miroslav Tyrš, the founder of the Sokol Union (1920).pdf/7



The thirtieth anniversary of Tyrš’s death (August 8$th$, 1914) could not be celebrated in Czechoslovakia as intended.

War had just broken out, and the Sokols were compelled to leave their country to fight against those with whom, in peace time, they would have honoured amicably the memory of the founder of the Sokol-union. Years have passed since August 1914. The Habsburg-Roman combination which intended to exterminate the whole Czecho-Slovakian Nation had to recognise that there can be no victory in a fight against Justice and that the dream of Tyrš – Freedom of Czecho-Slovakia – had been realised.

Reality proved many of his sentences by which he encouraged his nation to intense work and true life; „The destiny of nations never has been decided on battle-fields; it was already determinated before the fight. No nation in the world, even if small, can perish so long as it is strong and valorous. Only decayed nations perish.“ – „No external power, no material or brutal force can destroy a nation. As long as it follows the path of fruth and public progress, it is invulnerable as a sunbeam, and perfidy and violences are powerless against it.“

The persecution of the Czech people became more and more brutal, yet hatred against Austria entertained common discipline. All were united in hate and in love. Abroad in Russia, France and Italy a new generation of God’s warriors arose, ready to struggle and die for the freedom of those who are „at home“. They never doubted but that victory would come to those whose cause was right.

Tyrš said: „Personality is nothing – totality is all.“ „The fewer we are, the more reliance will be placed on every man.“ Let us prepare ourselves for a better future by exercising our body and our mind.“

After a half century Tyrš’s plans were kwownknown [sic] in the widest circles of the Czecho-Slovakian people. The Sokols became the representatives of the common desire for national freedom and the promise of better times in the future. The Sokols began with gymnastic exercises and soon concentrated around themselves the greater part of national society. Oppressing conditions did not permit them to free the country by an act of common revolt; yet