Page:The Bohemian Review, vol2, 1918.djvu/125

 his time in Washington, in conferences with the American statesmen and the Allied diplomats. On June 19th he was received by the President and talked with him for 45 minutes. Though official recognition by the American Government has not yet been granted to the Czechoslovak National Council, Masaryk is treated by everyone, including the highest government officials as the head of the revolutionary Government of Bohemia. In addition to that he is the commander-in-chief of the Czechoslovak troops in Russia and Siberia, the only disciplined force to be found between the Pacific and the German lines.

Prof. Masaryk’s daughter, Miss Olga Masaryk, arrived in the United States after a stay of nearly four years in London. During the past year she has been practically in charge of the Czechoslovak independence campaign in England. Since she has come to this country to be with her father, she has given to the newspapers a number of interviews that set out in a novel and convincing way the claims of Bohemia to complete freedom. Miss Masaryk is, like her father, a great scholar and a noble character.

Since the work in the United States has grown far beyond mere financing of the work carried on in Europe, some personal changes were deemed necessary, in order that the campaign here might be efficiently carried on. Mr. Chas. Pergler, who established the office of the CzechcoslovakCzechoslovak [sic] National Council in Washington has been commissioned by Professor Masaryk to act as the American representative of the Czechoslovak National Council of Paris. That made it advisable that another man should take charge of the Washington bureau, and Dr. J . F. Smetanka was appointed its director. Mr. G. H. Mika was placed in charge of the Slav Press Bureau which has been moved to New York and re-named the Czechoslovak Press Bureau.

Appeals to give and campaigns for war funds of many kinds follow so closely one another than the average citizen is hardly able to button his pocket for as long as a day. People of Bohemian descent have proved that they are second to none, both in lending money to the government and in giving to Red Cross and war chest funds. If it be remembered that for three years before America entered the war they had been financing the great campaign for Czechoslovak independence, one would expect to see a decline in the collections of the Bohemian National Alliance.

A year ago, after this country got into the war, the national officers of the Bohemian Alliance were greatly worried over the outlook. Calls made by this country would naturally come first, and it was easy to see that they would be heavy. At the same time the Czechoslovak National Council, originally a revolutionary organization, developed into the real revolutionary government of the Czechoslovak people and its needs were multiplied. There was, of course, always the alternative of calling upon the Allied governments to finance this anti-Austrian revolution and when it came as far as maintaining an army in the field, this course had to be pursued. But if the scattered Czechoslovaks were not strong enough to support an army, they had pride enough and money enough to support at least the revolutionary government of their native land.

It has been a pleasant surprise to the members of the Central Committee at Chicago to watch the rising tide of liberal giving among their member ship—and that membership includes today practically every man and woman born in Bohemia. The greatest source of revenue, exceeding in importance even membership dues, have been the big bazaars or rather national fetes. The Chicago bazaar this year brought in over $50,000 as against some $42,000 last year. Even better showing was made by the smaller settlements and the farmers. During the first years of the existence of the Bohemian National Alliance its chief financial support was drawn from the cities; today the farmers give the most. So the little Bohemian farming settlement of Schuyler Neb., held a fete which netted eight thousand. In Gregory, S. D., the few Bohemian farmers collected in one day $1,500 and in Tabor, S. D., one of the smaller farming communities of Bohemian-speaking people and practically unknown among the Bohemians of New York or Chicago, a bazaar actually crossed the ten thousand dollar line in one day.

The same spirit and the same incrcease in giving is manifested in the Slovak League. The bazaar of Chicago Slovaks netted over thirty thousand dollars, and the Slovak League is now taking its full share in the support of the Czechoslovak National Council.

Under this title a book of 256 pages has just been published by Fleming H. Revell Company. The authors are Thomas Čapek and Anna Vostrovský Čapek.

The need for a book of this sort has been felt for a long time. Some of the pamphlets and book lets written on Bohemia have contained a short bibliographic list of English writings, dealing with the country and the people of the Czechs, but all those lists were very incomplete, in fact amateurish. The new book is a work of scholars. In all America there is no man better fitted to deal in an exhaustive and critical manner with this subject than Mr. Čapek, who, in addition to his business as president of the Bank of Europe in New York, has given years of his life to the work of acquainting America with the nation from which he sprang. His wife is well-known as a translator of Bohemian literature into English.

Mr. Čapek’s book can fairly claim to be an exhaustive list of all that has been written in English on Bohemian subjects. Of special interest is the chapter “Bohemia in British State Papers and Manuscripts” for which the material has been drawn