Page:The Czechoslovak Review, vol3, 1919.djvu/80

 Rome and Washington, publish books and magazines.

Toward the end of 1917 a new task was laid upon the Czech and Slovak organizations in America, namely to furnish volunteers for the recently formed army in France. Up to this time it had been a question of furnishing money only, and for a short time, before the passage of the draft law, to stimulate volunteering for the United States Army. Now the leaders in Europe expected their people in America to furnish thousands of fighters for the Czechoslovak Army, and it was up to our people here also to create relief societies that would render to the Czechoslovak soldiers in France and Italy the same services as the American Red Cross, Y. M. C. A. and similar organizations render to the American Army. These necessities made a still closer joining of the three principal Czech and Slovak organizations necessary, and at a conference held in Chicago in February of 1918 the common sentiments and common aims of the Czechoslovaks in America, including Canada and South America, were embodied in a common organ consisting of 20 members and known as the National Council. This body had four departments through which its activities were exerted—political, press, military and relief. Charles Pergler, now commissioner of the Czechoslovak Republic in the United States, was made political representative with headquarters in Washington; his work consisted in making friends for the Czechoslovak cause among the leaders of the great public of the United States through lectures and by personal contact. Information through the medium of the press belonged to the press department. The military department was in charge of recruiting for the Czechoslovak Army in France; a camp was established at Stamford, Conn., where the volunteers were concentrated and trained, while waiting for their ship. The relief department was given over to the Czechoslovak women as their special trust and under the efficient leadership of Mrs. Libuše Moták accomplished great work for the young army. It sent necessaries and comforts to the value of tens of thousands of dollars to France, Italy and Siberia. Nor should one forget to record here the services rendered to our movement in the United States by a number of men who were sent here by the leaders from abroad—Captain Ferdinand Písecký, Lts. Holý, Španiel, Niederle, Horvath, Major [[Author:Jan Šípek|Šípek, Col. Hurban and Jan Janček. Their work made itself especially felt in recruiting volunteers for the Czechoslovak army in France. After our great leader Masaryk came to the United States in May of 1918, and after the great Allied Powers one after another recognized the Czechoslovak National Council as a belligerent government, the political department of the Czechoslovak National Council was transformed into an organ of the new government, and Mr. Pergler became the first representative of the Czechoslovak Government in this country. In place of this department a convention of the Czechoslovak organizations held in Cleveland in October of 1918, created a cultural department. At this convention also it was decided, in order to avoid using the same name as that under which the Czechoslovak Provisional Government had been recognized, to call the common organization of the Czechs and Slovaks in America the American Czechoslovak Board with headquarters in Chicago. Prof. B. Šimek is its president, and the writer of this article is the secretary. It was voted at this convention to collect all that relates to the history of our movement in this country, so that a careful account of it might be written. For the Czechoslovak people in the United States, Canada, and South America are proud of the share they had in winning independence for their brothers in the old country.

The Bohemian National Alliance during the four years and more of its existence published a number of pamphlets and books relating to the Bohemian question; the writers were Charles Pergler, J. F. Smetanka, Director of the Washington office of the American Czechoslovak Board, Thomas Čapek, who wrote a Bohemian Bibliography, Vojta Beneš, Prof. J. J. Zmrhal. Lectures and articles written by Dr. Masaryk and books and pamphlets published by the Czechoslovak National Council in Paris and London were sent out in thousands by the Bohemian National Alliance to public libraries and leaders of public opinion throughout the United States. An important part of this activity is the publication of the Bohemian Review, now the Czechoslovak Review, which has accomplished a great deal to wake up interest in and sympathy for the cause of Czechoslovak independence.