Page:The Czechoslovak Review, vol3, 1919.djvu/269

 was straining every muscle to right the dangerous situation in Slovakia. So the socialist block and the democrats went into the elections in a very embittered state of mind.

The elections themselves passed away quietly; there were no disorders anywhere, and the result made clear the relative strength of the Czechoslovak parties in the nation on June 15. It should be, however, emphasized that no elections were held in Slovakia, where at the time bitter war with Magyars was in progress.

Of Czech parties social democrats were strongest. They received 922,782 votes, 29.80% of the total; after them came the republican party (agrarians) with 661,353 (21.36%); the third in strength were the Czechoslovak socialists, formerly known as national socialists, who got 493,359 (15.93%). With them are included progressives; this party was before the war led by Professor Masaryk, but in 1918 a majority of them coalesced with the national democrats, while a minority maintained their name and party organization, and after the revolution co-operated generally with the socialist block, while preserving freedom of action. President Masaryk himself since his return to Prague kept aloof from party struggles and does not permit any single party to claim him. After national democrats came the people’s party (Catholic) with 303,614 votes (9.81%), and fifth were the national democrats, formerly known as Young Czechs, long the leaders of the nation; they received only 265,769 votes, 8.58% of the total.

A number of minor parties and local tickets received votes. Their importance in national politics is not great, but they ought to be enumerated here so that a complete picture of the elections might be presented. Small landholders’ party received 125,820 votes, Czech fusion tickets in towns with German majority received 71,512, shop keepers’ party 57,526, citizens’ party in Moravia 16,710, farmers’ party 12,709, Czechoslovak labor party 7890, Czech progressives in Moravia 5065, and various local tickets 152,582.

Before we pass on to trace the influence of the municipal elections on national politics, it is necessary to record the fact that on June 15 the Germans of Bohemia, Moravia and Silesia turned out in full strength to hold all their real and artificial positions. The elections were the first free elections in the Bohemian lands, for under the Austrian rule the Czechs had always been intimidated in racially mixed towns. There was no complaint from the Germans against the fairness of the election of June 15; the Czechoslovaks claim that fully 200,000 of their men were unable to vote, because they were serving either in Siberia or against the Magyars in Slovakia. At any rate, of the total vote cast in the municipal elections in Bohemia, Moravia and Slovakia the Czechs received 3,096 ,391 or 68.21%, the Germans 1,422,038 or 31.33%, and the Jewish ticket got 21,076 or 0.46%. That means a considerable improvement over the Austrian statistics of 1910, which gave the percentage of Czechs in the three provinces as 62.54 and Germans as 34.91. It may be confidently expected that the next census will show 70% Czechs in the three Bohemian lands, and taking the entire republic it will show a Czechoslovak majority of more than three-fourths against a German-Magyar minority of something like twenty percent.

After the elections there were signs of an understanding between the socialist block and the republicans or agrarians. The socialists by virtue of their showing in elections demanded larger representation in the cabinet which would naturally have to take place at the expense of the national democrats. Offers were made to the latter to take them into the next ministry with a smaller representation. But the democrats refused. Conferences were held for several weeks, with many audiences by President Masaryk; the socialist block was apparently willing to give the republicans the doubtful privilege of putting their own man into the chair of premier, but in the end social democrats as the most numerous party received this honor, and Vlastimil Tusar, who served since the revolution as the Czechoslovak commissioner in Vienna and had thus been removed from personal quarrels of the past months, was charged with constructing the cabinet.

Of the fifteen members of the cabinet social democrats have beside the premier three, namely Haberman, Winter and Hampl; Czechoslovak socialists have three, Klofáč, Stříbrný and Heidler; progressives, numerically very weak, but with many intellectual leaders of the nation among them, have two, Beneš and Veselý. The republican party of the countryside has four represent-