“ What shall we do with the mammoth plant upon which the livelihood of thousands depends, with which the prosperity of Pilsen and the whole district is inseparably bound up? Can the domestic market consume all that the Škoda factory can produce, can the plant compete with foreign capital in the manufacture of export goods? It is a problem that deserves the most careful and expert attention of our authorities. The most immediate need from the point of view of the workingmen is to guarantee enough coal to take care of the existing orders which will keep the men busy for the next four months. ”

“ For even before the war the Škoda Works had large departments making bridges, locomotives, motors, plows, together with immense technical outfit of machinery, tools, cranes, terminal railroads, all forming together a foundation for the most important industrial enterprise in the whole Czechoslovak Republic. ”

“ In the largest hall of the munition plant the mass of small guns is dominated by two40-centimeter monsters, and next to them are two immensely long steel tubes, long-reach cannon one of which was to have been employed against Paris and one against Venice. The steel beasts lie here powerless, covered with dust and contemptuously spoken of by all civilians who come now and then to inspect the masses of the steel war material. The mouths of the ugly guns and mortars that were employed in the perfidious invasion of Belgium face other heavy cannon used in the battles of Verdun and Piave. ”