Page:The heart of Europe; an address delivered by Charles Pergler in Washington, December 11, 1916, at a conference of oppressed or dependent nationalities (IA heartofeuropeadd00pergrich).pdf/30

 is merely to delay the solution of a problem that will never down. And in the life of nations, as well as of individuals, delay and procrastination, the tendency to postpone a final decision, is a crime for which penalties are sure to follow. Austria has lost its right to exist. Even now it has few of the attributes of a really sovereign state. It is a mere vassal of Germany. There is no reason for maintaining the ghost of life in a corpse from which the spirit has flown never to return. So much for what might be called the negative side of the Czech problem. What about the positive, the affirmative phase? Can a self-sustaining Bohemian-Slovak State be reconstructed? Are there present the necessary state-forming elements?