Josef Tvrzický

“ Czechs and Slovaks at home fight the Austro-Hungarian government and dynasty, and Czechoslovak armies in Russia and France, as well as tens of thousands of volunteers of Bohemian blood in the American army, wager their lives and shed their blood in the cause of world freedom. ”

“ That would leave only the Germans and Magyars who would gravitate toward Germany, and against them the irreconcilable enemies of the Pangerman Central Europe plan, the Czecho-Slovaks and the Jugoslavs. Is it likely that tens of thousands of these men who fight today in every Allied army would peacefully submit once more to the yoke of Germans and Magyars? Bohemians and Slovaks, Serbians, Croatians and Slovenians will never rest, will keep Europe eternally in turmoil, until they also are free.
The empire of the Hapsburgs must go. ”

“ What will America do with Czernin’s overtures? Will it side with the Austrian dynasty or with the Austrian people? In Germany the dynasty and the people still seem to be at one, unless recent reports of strike disturbances turn out to be more serious than appears at this time. But in Austria-Hungary the majority of the subjects are definitely ranged against the 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. ”

“ Thomas Garigue Masaryk, the greatest living Bohemian, landed in Vancouver on April 29th and is now among us. To tell what his arrival means to Bohemians and Slovaks in this country one would need the pen of a poet. The man who had been deeply admired and respected by Bohemians for more years than most of us can count has now been for nearly four years the leader of the remarkable Czechoslovak revolution against Austria and the German plans of Mitteleuropa. ”

“ There is one thing that every Bohemian is anxious to impress upon the consciousness of the world in general, and of America in particular. That is that the Czechoslovak people have ranged themselves as definitely on the side of the Allies and of democracy as have the nations which declared war formally on the Central Empires. ”

“ He is now the head of the Czechoslovak revolutionary government and the civilian chief of three Czechoslovak armies, one in Russia, one in France and one in Italy. In him the intense yearning and consuming desire of Bohemians and Slovaks for freedom is personified. Masaryk will be received and honored by his coun trymen in America as the father of his people.
But the great Czech leader should be welcomed by the entire American people. Two generations ago the United States gave a royal welcome to Louis Kossuth, because he had been the leader of his race against the tyrannny of the Hapsburgs. ”

“ The Bohemian National Socialist party expects of its deputies that in accordance with the principles of the party they will faithfully interpret the indestructible hopes of our suffering nation. It expects of the whole people, and of its deputies especially, that they realize that the honor of the Bohemian name and of the Bohemian flag is concerned and that by the convocation of parliament the time for passivity has gone by, that to be silent now would mean sharing the guilt. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ And today there are men who imagine that after three years of close partnership, or rather of entire subordination, Austria under the Hapsburgs is capable of playing a part against Germany, which three times saved it from defeat, which controls its armies and enjoys the devotion of the ruling elements of the Dual Monarchy. In France some of the old royalists, in England a few diplomats of the old aristocratic school, even in America ill-informed publicists raise their voices in favor of saving for the Hapsburgs their inheritance. ”

“ Such is the present state of affairs in Austria. It really amounts to a revolution, even if a bloodless one. No other kind is possible. In Bohemia 90 per cent of men between the ages of 17 and 55 are in the army. Bohemian workingmen, like Belgians, have been deported in thousands to work in other Austrian lands, and the women, the children and the old men, without arms, cannot make an armed rebellion. If notwithstanding all this there have been great riots in Bohemian and Moravian cit ies, it is the final proof of the firm will of the Czechs to break away from Austria forever. ”

“ 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. ”

“ And Bohemia has the right to expect that the democracy of the United States will sympathize with her aims, that the leaders of America will support the peoples, rather than the dynasty of Austria-Hungary. ”

“ And so Andrassy extends recognition to the Czecho-slovaks and Karolyi offers to cede some parts of Slovakia to the new state.
The Czechoslovaks will have nothing in common with the “democratic” counts of Budapest. It is not easy to forget the barbaric treatment which has been the lot of the Slovaks under the countless generations of Magyar feudal noblemen; neither will the Czechoslovaks forget in a hurry the cruelties perpetrated by Magyar Red Guards on the wounded Czechoslovak soldiers in Siberia. ”

“ America is once more presented with the opportunity of taking the side of the people as against the rulers of Austria-Hungary. A recent report in the papers says: “Austria makes new advances to Wilson. It is known positively that Count Czernin, the Austro-Hungarian foreign ministerthrough private intermediaries has sent message after message to President Wilson assuring him of the sincerity of the Austrian diplomacy.” ”

“ There are many currents of influence and intrigue that work for the preservation of Austria. Empress Zita is a Bourbon, of the family that never learns anything new and never forgets the old. She has relatives and admirers in the aristocratic circles of France, Italy and Spain. ”

“ This country, true to its democratic ideals, has ever sympathized with the struggles of the oppressed peoples for liberation. Much has happened since then. The Magyars as a result of Prussian victories in 1866 received their liberty, only to subject a majority of the inhabitants of Hungary to worse oppression than they had themselves suffered at the hands of the Hapsburgs. ”

“ To men acquainted with Hungarian conditions it was quite unusual to see a Magyar nobleman of ancient lineage lower himself so far as to talk to the Magyar immigrants in America. Karolyi even invited Slovaks to his meetings, the same Slovaks of whom the Magyar proverb says that they are not men. ”

“ 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. ”

“ It is impossible to deny the Polish people the reunion of their three fragments. The Italian provinces of Austria with Trieste must go to Italy. Eastern Galicia and Bukovina with their Little Russian and Roumanian population is definitely lost to the Hapsburgs. ”

“ The fact is that the Austrian government is supported solely by the German minority of the Hapsburg subjects, and even this element will stand back of Emperor Charles only in so far as he stands back of Germany. The attitude of the rest of the people is best expressed in certain public pronunciamentos of the Czech people which are given herewith. ”