The Czechoslovak Review/Volume 2/Thoughtless and thoughtful editorials

THOUGHTLESS AND THOUGHTFUL EDITORIALS.

 

In tracing the comment of American newspapers on Bohemian events one is generally greatly encouraged by the growing appreciation of the noble stand of the Czechoslovak race and the righteousness of their demands. But occasionally a paragraph is found which arouses the ire of a Bohemian reader. Take, for instance, this short paragraph from the St. Paul Pioneer Press of February 6th:

“Bohemia now proposes self-determination, etc., etc. If Europe should really accept this formula, the continent would look like a patchwork quilt.” It would be unwise to lay too much stress on the would-be jocularity of the writer, but the fact that such writing is still possible proves that Bohemia, her place in history, her high degree of popular education, her long fight against the Hapsburgs, and the great sacrifices made by her men during the present war, are not yet familiar to the real leaders of American public opinion, namely those who write the editorial page of our newspapers.

But as against one disagreeable clipping like the one above there are many others on the style of the following dispatch published in the newspapers of February 25th: “A Daily News dispatch from Berne says: A neutral who has arrived here from Austria states that he was greatly impressed by the wonderful courage with which the Czechs are confronting their rulers. Hundreds of instances of Bohemian soldiers having deliberately thrown down their rifles rather than fight the Italians were mentioned. These men often made their choice well knowing that the penalty would be—as it invariably was—that they would be shot then and there.”

The Chicago Journal, always friendly to the cause of Bohemia, has written a splendid editorial on this text. After quoting the above cablegram, it says:

“In some ways, this is the finest chapter of war history that even Bohemia has written. She refused to fight the Russians at the very beginning of the war, but the Russians were fellow Slavs; and besides, the Bohemians then were together, and in part, at least, under their own officers. Thus the Twenty-eighth regiment, from Prague, went over to the Russian side en masse. But in the case just reported, the Bohemians were sent against a race with whom they have no ties of blood or language, and the organization which enabled them to act together in 1914 has been destroyed.

“There are no longer any Bohemian regiments. It is doubtful if there are any Bohemian battalions. Czech and Slovak soldiers are scattered in small groups among the troops of other races, so that they form a minority in the battalions of Poles, Ruthenes, Roumanians, Croats, Serbs, Germans, Magyars and other races under the Hapsburg crown. The officers are almost invariably Germans and Magyars, and these two races have charge of all the artillery and machine guns. Each little bands of Czechs or Slovaks is watched by superior numbers of supposedly unfriendly fellow subjects, commanded by unsympathetic despots, and liable to extermination at any moment by weapons against which it is helpless. Yet even under such circumstances, these heroes defy their tyrants, and die!

“The Spartans at Thermopylae did no more.

“This magnificent heroism imposes a duty on the Allies, the United States included, which we must never forget. No settlement of the struggle which leaves the heroic Bohemian people subject to the vengeance of the Hapsburgs and Hohenzollerns can be considered for a moment. It would be a betrayal, not only of the principles for which we are waging war, but of the liberties of the human race. Bohemia has earned her freedom. She must have it.”