Page:The Czechoslovak Review, vol3, 1919.djvu/79

 Texas and Nebraska, the workingmen of the East and Central West. As a result the Bohemian National Alliance has now more than 350 branches, each of them a center for collecting money and creating patriotic sentiment in favor of winning the war.

In organizing the National Alliance it was necessary to take into account the existing conditions among the Bohemian people in this country. Thus the organization was not perhaps as clean cut and logical as might have been desired, but it was wonderfully efficient. Its members were both individuals and Czech societies, beneficial, athletic, social and workingmen’s societies. It enrolled the great number of 100,000 direct members and almost that many indirect members through organizations which entered its membership with the Alliance. That included practically everybody born in Bohemia or descended from Bohemian parents. And when America finally decided to take part in the great fight for justice and right, the government did not have to worry over the attitude of Czech and Slovak immigrants. It did not have to start an educational campaign telling, how war came to America or why every citizen should do his best. Our Czech and Slovak boys rushed in thousands into the American army in April and May of 1917, and great was their disappointment when later on they were left to attend to the camps in this country, instead of being sent to France, just because they had been born under Austrian rule. In spite of many disappointments, in spite of the constant discrimination against Bohemians and Slovaks as suspected Austrians, the Czechoslovaks kept up their patriotic activities to win the war and their record is better than that of any other immigrant race. In the Third Liberty Loan Campaign they subscribed $37,000,000, far exceeding per capita their share, as compared to other foreign speaking elements. In the Fourth Loan they took over $40,000,000, in other words more than $40 to each man, woman and child, and there are no millionaires among them. It should go to the credit of the Bohemian National Alliance that the Bohemian speaking people in this country did their full duty and more than their duty as American citizens, and the same thing is true of the Slovak League. But going back to the participation of our people here in the struggle for Czechoslovak independence it should be emphasized that their scattered branches of the Alliance were centers of zealous and enthusiastic propaganda. All our people could read and write, all knew the history of Bohemia, all knew the true nature of Austria-Hungary and Germany. In all the northern and western states there were thus men who of their own accord and without the slightest idea of being paid for it tried to inform their American neigbors about the true conditions in Austria. They countered every piece of German propaganda, as far as their small strength would permit, and they took every opportunity in newspapers, public meetings and private conversation to tell their neighbors what the Czechoslovaks demanded and where they stood.

The common interests of Czechs and Slovaks brought together the organizations of the two branches of the Czechoslovak race at a very early stage of the fight. But a formal organization of the two did not take place until the spring of 1917. We both declared for the same aims and pursued these aims by similar means. In the summer of 1917 the Catholic camp which began organizing itself during the preceding year declared itself without any ambiguity for total independence of the Czechoslovak nation, and their organization became an autonomous part of the Bohemian National Alliance. For nearly two years all the Czech and Slovak organizations have been working in complete harmony.

In 1916 we were able to send to Professor Masaryk the full sum for which he asked. For by that time the distrust which at first made the collection of money difficult disappeared almost completely, and the one objection that was still frequently raised was the necessity of keeping confidential the amount of money sent to Europe. We did not want Austria to know who much or rather how little, we collected, and for what purpose the money was used. And out of this necessary secrecy the enemies of the organization, whether actuated by personal spite or influenced by the Austrian consulates, had a chance to create distrust. But after all our people in spite of the impossibility of furnishing detailed accounts knew that the men who had under taken the collection of this money were honest, and the amounts collected kept on increasing. In 1917 so much was collected that the Czechoslovak National Council could maintain offices in London, Paris,