Jozef Žák-Marušiak

“ Slovaks everywhere are engaged in cleaning out the last remnant of Magyar rule. Bolshevist agitation took no root in view of the social program of the new government; expropriation of large landed estates, separation of church and state, introduction of universal franchise, eight hour work day and higher standard of living.
The outbreak of red revolution in Budapest will find no echo in what used to be northern Hungary. If the Allies are firm and do not yield to this last trick of the Magyars, the Czechoslovaks, if only sufficient foodstuffs arrive, can handle the new danger. ”

“ It is dangerous for us that the nationalist question has been transferred to the west. Our Eastern question was solved by the fall of Serbia and Roumani, because the problem of the Eastern Slavs can be solved by force, by fist. But the problem of the Western Slavs who are more advanced is primarily a question of culture. If we do not want to lose we have to realize that.”
In these words the organ of Magyar capitalists pointed out a new orientation for Hungarian politicians, the aim being still the same, namely, to maintain Magyar rule over all Hungary. ”

“ All these facts—the government’s offer to the Slovaks, Karolyi’s negotiations with them and the statement of the Magyar workingmen—make it evident that in spite of the absence of all news the Slovaks must have made their Magyar rulers very uneasy. Everybody in Hungary realized that the sentiments and public acts of the Czechs found a ready response among the Slovaks, who had less opportunity and less liberty to say what they wanted. ”

“ It has been shown that a nation desiring to live can not be obliterated. We demand, and demand emphatically, the right of self-determination for our people, so that they may erect their own independent institutions on their own territory. ”

“ But as against that Slovaks will lose large fragments of their people who have been for centuries settled in small compact bodies in the midst of Magyar territory. In Budapest itself there are 25,000 Slovaks, and in the neighborhood of the capital there are many Slovak villages. These ethnographical islands are scattered throughout the Hungarian plains as far south as the territory of the South Slavs. The number of men thus lost to Slovakia is estimated at 450,000, more than twice as many as the Magyars will lose. ”

“ Revolution in Bohemia was carried out smoothly without the least bloodshed. It was a more complicated process in Slovakia for the slavery to which the Slovaks had been subjected was far more severe and debasing. In Bohemia the people had their Sokols, a highly developed national culture, strong economic and political organizations, a competent staff of public officials ”

“ No industrial concerns, no trading or co-operative societies, no social or educational associations were permitted to the Slovaks. The whole industrial and commercial life was in the hands of Magyar and German aristocrats and Magyarizing Jews, and so was more than half of the arable soil. Under such circumstances a revolution against the terrors of the old regime was bound to have many complications and cause some disorder.
Under Magyar rule governmental oppression to the majority of the people was personified by the village notary who executed the policies of the people higher up. ”

“ It is a misfortune of the Slovaks that under the former oppressive rule they could not produce enough professional men, and when Magyar officials were expelled, the void could not be easily filled. Many qualified men came from Bohemia, but in the less important positions, and particularly in the railroad and post office services, Magyars had to be retained, if they were willing to swear allegiance to the new government. ”

“ Considering the boundaries of Slovakia, as drawn by Colonel Vix, from the ethnographical point of view we come to the Magyar complaint that there will be some 600,000 Magyars in Slovak territory, that is to say 17 per cent of the population. This is so according to Magyar statistics, but the Magyars themselves, even Count Tisza, the greatest chauvinist of them all, admitted the strong bias of Hungarian statistics in favor of the Magyars. Thus statistics show Magyar minorities in Slovak counties where everyone knows there are no Magyar settlers or immigrants at all. ”

“ They told the people that the Czechs were Protestants and infidels and they would take away the Catholic religion from the Slovaks; on the other hand the promise was made that the ministers in Budapest would give Slovaks full autonomy. It was too much to expect that the people would forget so quickly the deep wrongs suffered by them. Everywhere meetings were held denouncing the Magyars and pledging loyalty to the Czechoslovak Republic. The attempt of the Magyar agents to create an independent Slovak republic met with a fiasco. ”

“ Our public administration, our policy toward the nationalities have endangered the vitality of our work in Hungary. That our administration is Asiatic was stated long ago by Baron Paul Szinnyey. We will not defend our administrative system, just because Staněk castigates it, but we shall attack it ourselves. We demand that things be changed ”

“ The people were told that the Allies decided to leave the country to the Magyars and that all Slovaks who were not opposed to Czechs would be punished later on. Airplanes were sent to scatter handbills calling on workers to strike and commit sabotage. In several cities strikes resulted from this agitation and in Bratislava seven people were killed in the quelling of a disorder. In Komarno Magyar strikers killed a Slovak who would not go out and strike with them. ”

“ The Magyar politicians have realized this, they want to pour new wines into old, rotten wine vessels, but the new wine will burst the old vessels. The Germans and their allies represent the old world, in which force was held up as the greatest thing. Under the new conditions it is no longer possible that at the command of one man, who claims the grace of God for his authority, millions of people should fall on their knees . ”

“ It is greatly to our interest that we should realize the situation in which we are placed and that we should not underestimate the efforts for dismemberment of Hungary which find an echo in the Versailles War Council and in the American White House. ”

“ While Germans of both Germany and Austria will ask for the separation from the new Slav state of large districts in the north of Silesia, Moravia and Bohemia, and in the west of Bohemia, there is little fear that their demands will be granted, especially as the German minorities concerned are themselves far from anxious to be incorporated into Germany. ”

“ An art critic wrote of this painting as follows: “In Úprka’s rich and colorful work the children have their place. The Slovak children are really adults in miniature; their parents do not invent a special dress for them, but cloth them as they do themselves, the only difference being size. Perhaps for that very reason these children strike us as particularly charming and gay. These little people dressed like young men and women look so funny and sweet that the eye does not tire of them. In depicting the children’s world Úprka shows keener psychology than elsewhere. ”

“ The few Magyars found there are state officials or rail road employees, and these men will naturally disappear with the disappearance of Magyar rule. According to the census of 1910 there were 134,060 such Magyar employees in Slovak land, so that the real of these people also has been artificially settled in Slovakia during the last fifty years, both in the cities and on large estates owned by Magyar noblemen. ”

“ When one remembers that some 130,000 Magyars were employed in Slovakia in official positions in the post-office, telegraph offices, rail roads, the amount of damage that was done by them can be imagined. ”

“ The famous and widely heralded franchise reform was so juggled that it would be practically impossible under this measure for three million Slovaks to elect a single deputy. The latest now is a law consolidating the counties and reducing their number from 63 to 48. ”

“ The conference unanimously adopted a resolution declaring Slovakia to be a part of the new Czechoslovak republic. It elected a national committee of 20 members and de cided to send a delegation to Prague to reach an understanding with the Czech leaders about the manner of uniting Slovakia with the Czech lands. ”

“ Therefore, the Czechoslovak delegation at the peace conference will demand a correction of the provisional boundary, especially in the county of Abauj so as to have the entire county included in the Czechoslovak Republic. ”

“ The longest-living author of this work died in 1979, so this work is in the public domain in countries and areas where the copyright term is the author's life plus 44 years or less. This work may be in the public domain in countries and areas with longer native copyright terms that apply the rule of the shorter term to foreign works. ”