Vojta Beneš

“ In their campaign for independence the Czechs have not put as much stres on the financial exploitation of their people by their German rulers, as they were fully entitled to. They merely demanded freedom, the right to shape their own destinies, to develop their own racial individuality, But it cannot be denied that on material grounds alone, especially the unjust burden of taxation, Bohemia can make out a very strong claim for liberation from the Austrian yoke. ”

“ Tears ran from our eyes and through them we, the onlookers, smiled at each other, as if to say that our nation after all has in it eternal life and energy. It can bear and survive whatever heavy burden the fate may deal out. ”

“ The artists were skilled artisans without true enthusiasm and inspiration.
The first modern Czech artist who came close to the soul of his people is Josef Mánes. In fact he was the first great painter of the Czech renaissance and is today acknowledged generally as the founder of modern Czech art. A society which numbers among its members all the great living Czech decorative artists —Šimon, Švábinský, Mucha, Bílek—calls itself after Mánes to show that in their opinion he is the teacher of modern Bohemian school of art. ”

“ There are no rich men among the Bohemian people in America who could afford to give large amounts; besides more than money was needed. It was necessary that the fight for the Czech nation should have the moral support of all the emigrants from Bohemia, of all whose mouths were not shut by superior force. The fight for independence had to be backed by Bohemians in every Allied and neutral country. ”

“ Our people were thunderstruck by the imperial order commanding the enlistment of men up to the age of 51. Bohemians looked upon it as a deliberate attempt of the Vienna and Berlin rulers to slaughter the Austrian Slavs. As it was impossible to protest in parliament, which had not been called together during the war, Bohemian deputies attempted to protest in print against the drafting of elderly men, but declarations signed by the Bohemian Club and by the Socialist Club, comprising together all the Czech deputies, were confiscated and never saw the light of day. ”

“ While the incorporation of the Czechoslovak conscripts did not increase the effectiveness of the Austrian armies, the crops of Bohemia fed the armies of both Austria and Germany, the mines of Bohemia gave forth most of the Austrian iron ore, Bohemian steel mills produced the all-important steel, Bohemian gun factories furnished the famous Austrian howitzers, cattle of Bohemia and Moravia was the principal source of meat for the army, and the textiles of Bohemia kept the Austro-Hungarian soldiers warm. ”

“ When I left the old country, one of the leaders of Bohemia impressed upon me this message: “Tell our friends beyond the sea that we ask them to finance our action. Here we are allowed to give millions for the orphans, but not one cent for our nation’s liberation. ”

“ The Bohemian National Alliance will have a great influence upon our people in America. As soon as our great task will be over upon the conclusion of a just peace, this great organization will serve as the cultural center of Bohemians in the United States. Our first care will be the schools for the teaching of Bohemian, and we shall endeavor to have the study of Bohemian introduced into the curriculum of high schools and universities. Care of the immigrant, during his first difficult days in the new country will be our special task. ”

“ In 1869 54% of the population made their living in agriculture and only 31% in industry. But industry has been taking ever greater place in Bohemia, and the latest figures show that 42% of the people were employed in industry, 10.5% in commerce, and only 35.5% in agriculture. One of the conditions favoring industrial development is the fact that the Bohemian lands on account of the wealth and economic advancement of the people make an important home market for the industries which are not therefore mainly dependent upon the unstable export business. ”

“ They were men advanced in age, forty years and over, emaciated, feeble, with a dumb expression in their faces—and I do not say that by way of ridicule. Like loaded camels they carried their heavy war equipment, dragged their feet in a tired way, and their appearance made us feel as if all humanity had been beaten out of them. ”

“ Without the agricultural riches of Bohemia, Moravia and Silesia the Austrian monarchy would cease to be a Great Power, and without the food raised in Bohemia and confiscated by Austrian authorities Germany would have been compelled by hunger long ago to capitulate. ”

“ Since that time the young artist devoted himself to the study of his people. He proceeded to Moravia, where the Slav characteristics of the Czech people were less obscured by foreign influences; he learned to draw the cheerful and colorful costume of the peasant, mirroring his simple soul. ”

“ What a tremendous financial relief would be experienced by the Bohemian provinces, if they were freed from supporting the Austrian empire with its gay capital. Free Bohemia would rival Belgium or Holland in economic power. ”

“ Whereas the total of cattle for all Austria was 9,160,009 head the Czech lands had 3,188,291 head of the finest breeds, almost a million over the number which they should have in proportion to their area. In Denmark, the model cattle-raising country, there are 46 head of cattle to a square kilometer; Austria without the Bohemian lands has 27, and the Bohemian lands have 41.7, a remarkably good showing, when it is remembered that Denmark raises little grain, while Bohemia is both a grain growing and cattle raising country. ”

“ It is not true that our life in Szegedin is hell, that typhus and cholera rage here. It is not true to say that when a Czech soldier goes by the people here raise their hands to imitate the sign of surrender and that we are insulted. ”

“ They pay their state taxes in Vienna, and since in Austria the provinces and municipalities support themselves principally by collecting a certain additional percentage of the direct state taxes, the result is that the City of Vienna and the Province of Lower Austria have comparatively low taxes, because they are able to assess for their own local purposes the big industries carried on in the Bohemian lands. In Bohemia the small taxpayers have to bear an increased burden, because the big taxpayers pay in Vienna. ”

“ Whereas Norway has in fields only 0.7% of its area, Russia 15%, Austria 35.5%, and Hungary 41.4%, the lands of the ancient Bohemian crown, Bohemia, Moravia and Silesia, devote to field crops 51.6% of their area. Bohemia alone with its 5,194,809 hectares, has 50.47% of it in fields, 29.01% in forests, 17.14 in meadows, gardens and ponds, and only 3.38% of the total area is unproductive. That is the best evidence of great agricultural riches of Bohemia. The principal crops are grain crops. ”

“ His lyric art loved the study of the peasants’ life, their customs and songs. He painted the strong, handsome type of the peasant in his work, in his joys and his sorrows; his art sang, rejoiced and wept. His frequent children’s types are an expression of care free childhood in its sunny joyousness. ”

“ Often the householder in a Bohemian city has to pay 300% of the direct state tax for the support of his municipality, 75% for the support of the provincial government and 60% for county purposes. The financial system that has prevailed in Austria before the war was aimed at lightening the burdens of the Germans at the expense of the Slavs. ”

“ Roads are excellent everywhere in the Bohemian lands. There are fifty thousand kilometres of high roads in Bohemia, Moravia and Silesia, as against a total of 120,000 km. in all Austria; that is to say while Austria as a whole has 40 km. ”

“ Since the Bohemian lands are very fertile and excellently cultivated, one may expect to see a high development of those industries which get their material from the products of the farm. Beet sugar industry was early developed in Bohemia, and before the war the Bohemian and Moravian sugar mills supplied other Austrian lands, as well as the Balkan states and Great Britain with sugar. ”

“ In steel industry Bohemian lands far excell the balance of the Hapsburg possessions. The Skoda gun works in Pilsen are known the world over; the machine factories of Prague and the big steel mills of Austrian Silesia and Moravia consume all of the Bohemian iron ore as well as great quantities of Styrian ore. ”

“ The Council enjoys the confidence of the Czecho-Slovaks everywhere, because Masaryk, the grand old man of Bohemia, is known by all to be the ideal leader of the nation at a time, when its fate is in the balance. ”

“ What is true of grain crops as a whole, is particularly true of wheat, the staff of life. The total wheat harvest in Austria, including the lands of the Bohemian crown, was in round numbers 7,200,000 quintals in 1912. ”

“ The manhood of Bohemia was so exhausted that in the villages there were no men left with the exception of priests, old men and cripples. If the ordinary percentage of young men recruited in times of peace was 25, the second draft passed as fit from 50 to 60 per cent of those who had been rejected by the ordinary draft, and the third draft caught 80 per cent of the leavings of the former inspections. ”

“ Out of 27,658,147 tons of iron produced in all Austria, 9,322,588 were produced in the Bohemian lands. In the Middle Ages Bohemia had the richest silver mines of all the European countries, and even today silver and gold ores are mined in big quantities. ”

“ Lectures will be given and our remote settlers, as well as our large colonies in the large cities, will be kept in touch with the best there is in the spirit of American democracy. We shall also keep up economic relations with Bohemia and try to establish profitable commercial relations between our old country and our new home. ”

“ Other products of the farm show a much higher yield in Bohemia than in the rest of Austria. Bohemia raises 1,301,626 quintals of cabbage, 60,000 quintals of flax fiber, 208,577 quintals of peas, 32,475,385 quintals of potatoes, etc. Bohemian fruit has been famous all over Europe ever since the 18th century ”

“ Our hope and confidence was strengthened that the Czech people would emerge even from this terrible catastrophe unscathed and would have a part in the true brotherhood and more human civilization of future ages. ”

“ Should the worst come to pass, I believe that our organization in foreign lands will be preserved. We shall have to keep the Bohemian question continually before the international forum so that the radical movement at home might have a support abroad. ”

“ Of 669 savings banks of Austria 356 were located in the Bohemian lands and their deposits amounted to 42% of the Austrian total. The people of Bohemia average about twice as much in savings deposits as the inhabitants of the other Austrian provinces. ”

“ One of the factors exerting great influence upon the industrial and commercial welfare of the state is the intelligence of the population. In this respect the Bohemians make the very best showing. Fortunately we have statistics on this very point compiled by American authorities. ”

“ Soldiers without number went insane at the front, thousands came back crippled with rheumatism or broken-down nerves, thousands of poor beings lacking hands or feet crawl now along the streets. An army of cripples. The military schools for invalids have a gigantic task ahead of them. ”

“ Aleš’s pen was the pen of a democratic artist devoted to his nation and to democratic ideas which always were uppermost in the Czechoslovak soul. When Aleš died ten years ago, the nation lost a man who had done much to strengthen it for the great tribulation and the great glory that were in store for it.V. B. ”

“ Among other important manufactories of Bohemia one must note the shoe factories of eastern Bohemia, the famous shops for the making of musical instruments, match factories and pottery and porcelain workshops. ”

“ Or his Jan Hus—an ordinary priest, but with a firm hand and a determined look, indicating strength that flames could not subdue, strength that shook the supreme authority of the Middle Ages. How plain and real are his peasants who followed the teachings of Hus and singing the Hussite hymn, “Ye who are God’s warriors” defeated six crusading hosts. ”

“ That means that out of each one hundred men between the ages of 18 and 50 at least 92 were in the army. The last draft gathered in veritable physical wrecks. Medical inspectors were Magyars, because Bohemian physicians were not strict enough, and even the Magyar doctors were switched daily from place to place to avoid all possibility of bribery. ”

“ It was self-evident, and the people at home took it for granted that America would help. I wrote to America, and the Bohemians there, all honor to them, are financing in a satisfactory way our movement. ”