“ President Wilson is an optimist in so far as his faith in human nature is concerned; he hopes against hope that the wicked will turn from their evil ways. We, who were brought up in Austria and know the Bourbons of Vienna who never change and never learn anything, we who know the pigheadedness and the over whelming conceit of the big generals and of the Magyar oligarchs, the real rulers of the empire, we could not share the President’s evident hope that Austria-Hungary might yet break away from Germany. ”

“ President Wilson does not say that he favors the preservation of the anomalous dynastic state; he merely refutes the idea that America fights for its dismemberment or for any other purpose except the freedom of every nation, large and small, to settle its own affairs. The President no doubt knows that with the pressure from above removed the peoples now subject to the Hapsburgs will choose to live under sovereignties far different from the present dual monarchy. ”

“ When the Bohemians have a free choice, they will set up a Bohemian republic.
Declaration of war against Austria has, however, this effect on the lives of Bohemians in this country: those not naturalized will become technically alien enemies. ”