Bohemian National Alliance

“ The Bohemian National Alliance, in convention assembled in Chicago, pledges anew to you and through you to America, the allegiance of all Czechoslovaks. The delegates assembled here received enthusiastically your last message to Congress declaring that all well-defined national aspirations must be satisfied, if permanent peace is to prevail. We realize this necessarily leads to an Independent Czechoslovak State. ”

“ If it be remembered that for three years before America entered the war they had been financing the great campaign for Czechoslovak independence, one would expect to see a decline in the collections of the Bohemian National Alliance. ”

“ In addition to their Cyril-Methodius Relief Fund Committee they organized the National Alliance of Bohemian Catholics with the purpose of helping to liberate Bohemia. After the entrance of the United States into the European war the relief work was necessarily put aside and all emphasis placed on obtaining political independence for the old home beyond the seas. Officers of the Catholic Alliance, which grew very rapidly, entered into negotiations with the Central Committee of the older organization, and agreement was reached which after proper ratification was made public on Independence Day. ”

“ After the Fourth of July which was celebrated with extreme enthusiasm in every town in this broad land in which there is a branch of the Alliance or the Slovak League came the French National holiday. There is no other land for which the Bohemians and Slovaks feel so much affection as for the brave France, which gave its hospitality to the Czechoslovak National Council, organized the Czechoslovak Army| and was the first of the Allied Powers to recognize the Czechoslovak National Council as the supreme representative of its people. ”

“ What Bohemia does, not what Mr. Masaryk cables, settles Bohemia's fitness to rule herself.
A country that has not advanced far enough to grant freedom to others is too backward to deserve liberty for itself—many countries in Europe will find that out.
THE ANSWER:
JEWS IN THE CZECHOSLOVAK STATE.
It is to lay at rest and prevent such statements as the foregoing, founded on ignorance of facts, prejudice and often willful malice toward the Czechoslovak Republic that this article has been written. ”

“ The unfavorable diplomatic situation has emphasized the supreme importance of the Czechoslovak army. The decree of the French president published elsewhere in this issue and a ringing call to arms by Masaryk as head of the revolutionary government helped to increase the number of recruits for the army in France. If only volunteers from Russia can be brought soon to France, the Czechoslovak army will give a good account of itself in the campaign of 1918 and thus strengthen tremendously the claims of Bohemia. ”

“ At all events, the workers in the cause of Bohemian independence recognize that the concrete fact of hostilities between the United States and the Dual Empire far outweighs in importance a few words in the presidential address. ”

“ The manly independence and the solicitude for individual political rights always exhibited by the Bohemian people have rendered them the teachers of nations; and their principles and parliamentary constitution have gradually penetrated into every country under heaven.
"They protected and preserved the rights of men during long ages when those rights were elsewhere unknown or trampled down. Bohemia has been the birthplace and the shelter of the modern politics of freedom."
But Bohemia has also been for centuries the culture center of central Europe. ”

“ The Estates might make Protestant laws, and refuse to vote necessary taxes for his wars; their power must therefore be practically suppressed; the king must be allowed to re-model the Constitution, to appoint officials, to raise forces, and to levy taxes, without interference from any other authority. Nay, might not Prague rise, again, against his authority? Therefore the king must carry off the Bohemian crown to Vienna, and govern Bohemia by the advice of Austrian councillors. ”

“ The only offense of the Bohemian king is that he is Slav, but that, with the jealousy of his power, the democratic institutions, and the wealth of his country, which contains the richest mines of silver in Europe, is sufficient. Great armies, German and Hungarian, are raised against him; finally he is treacherously slain in battle, his kingdom torn apart, and Bohemia is ravished and reduced almost to a "possession" or a fief of the Empire.
Yet the wound is not mortal, the nation is too strong ”

“ The Bohemian question is not a mere question of nationality, and cannot be solved by granting a greater or less degree of home rule and autonomy; there are political considerations as well. Bohemia is struggling for independence, and the achievement of that independence is in the interests of the Allies—nay more, it is a necessity for them. ”

“ The rights of the Bohemian language are ruthlessly violated and curtailed, as the war is going on. Military power overrides all laws and treats the Bohemian lands, and all non-German and non-Magyar districts, as conquered provinces. Bohemian publications are confiscated and suppressed for expressing their opinion, whereas our national enemies are allowed to inveigh against the Bohemian people, and Vienna and Budapest encourage pan-Germanic excesses in the spirit of La Garde, von Hartmann, Mommsen, Treitschke. ”

“ In spite of the dislike of the Turk, which was then common to all Christian nations, the Bohemians looked with alarm on any increase in those burdens of taxation which already weighed so heavily upon them; and, as already hinted, they dreaded the rule of a King, who might find it more convenient to reign at Presburg than at Prague. So strong was this feeling, that the [377] Bavarians, who had hoped to win the crown of Bohemia for their Duke, now believed that they could form a Bohemian party, which should commit itself openly to the side of Zapolya. ”

“ Thus the reactionary policy was successfully introduced in Prague, and from that time on, the revolution declined, and the government gradually relapsed into its old despotism.
In a few days after the surrender of Prague to Prince Windischgratz, the elections for the General Diet were held, the election for the Bohemian Diet being indefinitely postponed. There was, therefore, nothing left to the National party but to send as able men as possible to Vienna, who should do what they could to secure for their nation some of the promised reforms. ”

“ Bohemians have no desire to embarrass their friends by asking too much at an in convenient time. But it surely is not too much to ask that the Allies speak not of autonomy, but of self-determination, for the peoples of Austria-Hungary. All that the Bohemian nation asks is that it be allowed to determine for itself under what government it shall live. ”

“ Bohemia will of course be constitutional and demcoratic. The regeneration of Europe will be achieved, not only by the reform of foreign policy, but, above all, by the active furtherance of liberty and progress in the inner life of the European nation; for this task the Allies and Europe can fully rely on the Bohemian nation. ”

“ Every attempt to revive Bohemian constitutional law, which above all conflicts with the rights of the Germans in Bohemia to national self-government, will meet with the sharpest possible resistance from all Germans. Further the constitutional aims openly revealed in the declarations of the Southern Slav deputies will meet with determined opposition from all Germans in Austria. That this question should have been raised at such a moment as the present, when the need of a strong unitary central State (Gesamistaat) has been demonstrated by the world-war, meets with our sharpest condemnation. ”

“ But if the scattered Czechoslovaks were not strong enough to support an army, they had pride enough and money enough to support at least the revolutionary government of their native land.
It has been a pleasant surprise to the members of the Central Committee at Chicago to watch the rising tide of liberal giving among their member ship—and that membership includes today practically every man and woman born in Bohemia. The greatest source of revenue, exceeding in importance even membership dues, have been the big bazaars or rather national fetes. ”

“ Up to the end of the world war the latent content of Czech drama (which in this respect was quite similar to the Irish) was determined by the struggle for national independence; so that the concept of “nation,” the dream of a future state, could be utilized as leading character or principal theme to reconcile the requirements of national consciousness with the Bohemian’s deeply-rooted humanitarian impulses. ”

“ A foreign committee has been formed of Bohemians living beyond the boundaries of their native country, aiming to inform the world of the real facts, to interpret to the statesmen, political leaders and journalists of the Allies and the neutral states the desire of the Bohemian people, and to champion the Bohemian program. All Bohemian political parties have up to this time been fighting for a qualified independence within the limits of Austria-Hungary. But the events of this terrible war and the reckless violence of Vienna constrain us to claim independence without regard to Austria-Hungary. ”

“ FROM THE EARLIEST PERIOD OF BOHEMIAN HISTORY TO THE HUNGARIAN INVASION.
(-885.)
The history of a lost nationality is necessarily tragic and can rarely be commonplace. In the case of Bohemia the interest is increased by the variety of the parts which she was forced to play, each of which, while of great value to the world, assisted in some degree to hasten her ruin. Thus, for instance, the intense desire to maintain her own independent life brought her into collision with neighbouring States which were determined to crush or to absorb her ”

“ When once a free Bohemian land emerges in the heart of Central Europe we shall know that the flood of German-Magyar aggression is receding, never to rise again. For the Powers which establish Bohemian independence will by that very act be united in the future against a possible recrudescence of German Imperialism. There is not a single State among the Allies whose interests clash with those of the Czech nation. To all of them the freedom of Bohemia will be a safeguard against a new German advance and a barometer of German pressure. ”

“ But the increase of the power of the Protestants gradually brought the Catholic rivals together; and towards the end of July, Maximilian had already consented to assist in suppressing an Austrian rising. Now, in September, he entered Bohemia; and his general, Tilly, became the chief person in the Imperialist army. This seems to have been the turning-point in the war. Christian of Anhalt, who had joined the Bohemian forces, was compelled to retreat to Moravia; while one of Ferdinand’s generals was despatched to Presburg to prevent Bethlen from marching to the assistance of the Bohemians. ”

“ The writer sincerely hopes that all fairminded, all intelligent, impartial and well meaning men and women will agree after reading this brief statement of facts that this is the highest time to put a stop to the vicious propaganda of the enemies of peace and harmony, to this vitiating of truth and feeding race hatred and prejudice in order to further ulterior ends of the enemy just conquered. ”

“ The dangers which seemed most to threaten Bohemian liberty were the possibility of Ferdinand’s election to the throne of Spain, and the extreme probability of his election to the throne of Hungary; while the subjects which ranked next in importance to these were the maintenance of the right of the Assembly to elect their future King, and the preservation of the supremacy of Bohemia over the dependent crown lands.
Never, perhaps, did the controversies at the beginning [375] of a reign more completely fail to foreshadow the events which should make it memorable. ”

“ But, though men like Jakaubek of Kladrau had an important part to play in the coming struggle, it was from the third Bohemian party that there were to be drawn the most determined fighters, and the most impressive figures, in the struggle of Bohemia against the German Emperor. This party had been founded by those fiery spirits who had been banished from Prague by Wenceslaus; and they derived their name of Taborite from the mountain which they had made their chief place of refuge after their expulsion from Prague. ”

“ Studies previously rejected were to be encouraged. But the tyranny of Latin only made way for the tyranny of German. That was to be the one recognised language of education; and Bohemian was to yield to it even more completely than it had yielded to the language of an older civilisation.
Nor had Parliaments or municipalities any chance of life. No laws were to be passed by the Bohemian Estates without the sanction of an Austrian Board; the censorship of Bohemian books was to be conducted from Vienna; a brand-new municipal code was to check the free play of the old Town Rights. ”