Page:The Bohemian Review, vol1, 1917.djvu/78

 dressed to Dr. Jaroslav F. Smetanka, secretary of the joint recruiting committee: “Will you express the thanks of the War Department to the Bohemian National Alliance, Bohemian Sokols and all American citizens of Bohemian birth for the remarkable effort you have made to have your young men join the colors. The response your people have made to my appeal for fighting men has been extremely gratifying. I gladly bear witness to the fact that no class of Americans has come forward to defend their country in time of war with better spirit than Americans of Bohemian birth and descent.”

Amid the scruples of officials and editors who fear to hurt Austria’s sensibilities lest it should declare war upon the United States, it is refreshing to come across the following editorial in the New York Tribune, one of the greatest dailies of America. The latter part of this article which appeared on April 22, is quoted here:

“The question of Austria is the question of the war which must appeal strongly to Americans. It is the question of the right of small peoples and of weaker races to follow their own will, to live under that system of law and to use that language which they desire. The liberation of the subject races of Austria will be one of the greatest of the contributions to permanent peace that is imaginable, because it is inconceivable that there can be a permanent peace as long as twenty-three millions of Austrians and Hungarians are permitted to enslave twenty-seven millions of Slavs and Latins. Now that Germany has conquered Austria, the peril becomes greater, because this vast population organized by Germany and dominated by the German military caste, would be an enduring menace to the liberties of the world.

It is a hopeful sign that Austria should seek peace. It is a hopeful sign that in seeking peace she renounces all projects of annexation. But no such program can enlist the support of an American audience, which must recognize that the war itself will be without any benefit to mankind if it perpetuates a system of human slavery and fortifies a Hapsburg-Hohenzollern tyranny along the Danube. We are marching toward peace. There are signs that are unmistakable, but the long agony of the world war should not blind people to the only method by which a repetition can be escaped. The Serb, the Italian, the Rumanian and the Pole should gain their liberty, and no just peace can be had which does not insure this.”

We are sorry that the Editor in his excellent analysis of the Austrian problem omitted to include expressly the Bohemian people among the races entitled to liberty.

The New York Times again has this to say of the dynasty which alone keeps the provinces and races of Austria-Hungary together, in an article entitled “The Patient Hapsburg” in the issue of April 20th.

“In St. Stephen’s Cathedral Sunday the Emperor Charles, ‘in a loud voice,’ read a prayer which contained this curious religious-historical medley:

In 1909 the patient Hapsburg, by means of documents forged by an employee of the Austro-Hungarian Legation at Belgrade, invented a “conspiracy” of Serbo-Croatians, aided by the Serbian Government, against Austria-Hungary. The truth was exposed in the famous Friedjung trial. It never would have been exposed, divers Croats and Serbs would have been shot, Serbia would have been invaded and gobbled up, if Russia had not yielded to the German ultimatum, which forced Russia to accept the annexation of Bosnia and Herzegovina by Austria and to leave Serbia in the lurch.

In 1913, the patient Hapsburg proposed to make war on Serbia, as was officially stated in the Italian Parliament in 1915.

The patience of the Hapsburg toward Serbia, his long-awaited prey, in 1914 is known to the world.

Even to the Almighty, who knows the truth, the Hapsburg cannot tell it.”

The Bohemian National Alliance will mail upon request without charge the following pamphlets setting forth the aims and aspirations of the Bohemian (Czech) and Slovak peoples:

Thomas G. Masaryk:

Charles Pergler: Bohemians in the Present Crisis.

The Heart of Europe.

Those who desire to read a more detailed study of the Bohemian problem are advised to get Thomas Čapek’s book: Bohemia under the Hapsburg Misrule, which will be sent postpaid upon receipt of One Dollar.

The same organization has recently received from England a number of copies of the following pamphlets: Philip Gibbs, The Germans on the Somme, and Britain Transformed. These will be sent free upon request.

Address all communications with reference to the above: Bohemian National Alliance, 3639 West 26th St., Chicago, Ill.

If you have friends that might be interested in the Bohemian Review, please send us their addresses, and we shall mail them sample copies.