Page:The Bohemian Review, vol2, 1918.djvu/25

 reigning house. Here is a sample of their bold speaking: “In the Czech nation there is no party that does not desire the formation of a Bohemian state and the union of Slovaks with Czechs. The whole nation is at one in this demand, workingmen and the bourgeois, socialists and agrarians.Threats will not scare us, and if Count Tisza believes that our demands should be branded as treason, we have no objection. Even should the government charge the whole nation with treason, we shall not be ashamed of it. If he who battles for justice and freedom is a traitor, then we shall look upon the name as an honor.” So spoke Deputy Tuzar in the Vienna Reichsrat on behalf of all the deputies of Czech people. He continued: “The Russian revolutionaries demand a peace to be made by people with people. Count Czernin cannot negotiate with Russian socialists as the representative of the Austrian peoples.” And referring to the haughty declaration of Czernin that the emperor must be master in his own house Tuzar says: “We too want to be masters in our own house. We too want peace, but only such a peace as will bring freedom and independence to all nations.”

There is really nothing in Czernin’s extended hand except glittering generalities. No doubt he would be glad to see, if America could bring about general peace now; Austria needs it. But there is no sign in his speech in the Austrian delegation that he has any intention of complying with the President’s most liberal peace terms. As to any concessions to the oppressed nationalities of Austria-Hungary, the very idea is preposterous. Says the foreign minister with reference to the tenth article of Wilson’s peace program: “In the second place, I have to observe that I reject courteously, but resolutely, that advice as how we are to govern ourselves. We have in Austria a parliament elected by universal, equal and secret franchise. There is no more democratic parliament in the world, and this parliament, together with the other constitutionally authorized factors, alone has the right to decide upon the internal affairs of Austria. I speak only of Austria, because I should regard it as unconstitutional to speak in the Austrian delegation of the internal affairs of the Hungarian state.” Yes; the Austrian and German parliaments are models of democratic parliaments. Representation in Vienna parliament is so gerrymandered that the Germans are always in the majority, although forming only a minority of the population. And above this elected parliament are “the other constitutionally authorized factors”, namely the House of Peers, appointed by the Emperor, and finally the greatest factor of them all, the dynasty.

But in spite of the fact that the smooth approaches of Count Czernin are nothing but empty words, this country should answer them. And it should answer in terms that could not be misunderstood or misinterpreted. President Wilson should say to Austria: “You have had your chance. A month ago I invited you to break away from your evil associates and to reconstruct your own affairs on a just and democratic basis. But instead of repentance you have resorted to your old diplomatic game of foolery and deceit. You have pronoucedpronounced [sic] your own doom. The dynastic empire of Austria-Hungary must disappear to make room for free and independent republics.”

The Bohemian nation has always held the right of self-determination to be the inalienable right of every adult people. In the early years of the modern period of Bohemian political life F. L. Rieger, then the leader of the nation, proclaimed: “As our foremost watchword we declare to be the right of each race to determine its allegiance.” Thomas G. Masaryk, the leader of the present revolution against Austria-Hungary, gave expression to the same idea in his great work “The Bohemian Problem” in 1889: “We are not fully our own, until we shall rule ourselves and be our own masters.”

To emancipate itself from Austria has been the goal of our nation for many years, but latterly it proclaimed clearly that it demanded full national independence. To this end was tending all its political and cultural development, and for the sake of this consummation of its hopes the Czech