The Czechoslovak Review/Volume 3/Change of Ministry

Change of Ministry

The first Czechoslovak cabinet, representing a coalition of all the parties, has passed into history. On July 8 President Masaryk appointed a new ministry, composed as follows: Vlastimil Tusar, premier; Dr. Edward Beneš, foreign affairs; Antonín Švehla, interior; Karel Prášek, agriculture; František Staněk, posts and telegraphs; Dr. Cyril Horáček, finance; Gustav Haberman, education; Dr. Leo Winter, social welfare; Antonín Hampl, public works; Václav Klofáč, national defense; Jiří Stříbrný, railroads; Dr. Gustav Heidler, commerce; Dr. František Veselý, justice; Dr. Vávro Šrobár, public health; Edward Houdek, food supply.

A lengthy crisis preceded the constitution of the new cabinet. It had its beginning in May, when the national democratic party instructed its representatives in the cabinet, Rašín and Stránský, to resign. Masaryk refused to accept their resignations, as both men, and Rašín in particular, were doing work of great importance in their respective departments. The party, however, did not abandon its attitude of opposition to the entire cabinet, and party feelings ran very high just before the municipal elections which were held on June 15 and were the first expression of the popular sentiment since the revolution. Two weeks before the elections came Bela Kuhn’s barbarous inroad into Slovakia; the Czechoslovak forces were caught unprepared and had to fall back, so that for a time the Magyars re-occupied one-third of Slovakia. There were many reasons why this unfortunate situation came to be, but the national democrats placed the responsibility on minister of national defense Klofáč, a member of the Czechoslovak socialist party, and on the entire social democratic party, because at the time of the Bolshevik revolution in Budapest it had declared itself firmly opposed to the march of the Czechoslovak forces on Budapest and to any interference in Hungarian internal affairs. The socialist parties were greatly embittered at this charge of the national democrats, looking upon it as an unfair means of raising popular opinion against the socialists at a time, when everybody in Bohemia was straining every muscle to right the dangerous situation in Slovakia. So the socialist block and the democrats went into the elections in a very embittered state of mind.

The elections themselves passed away quietly; there were no disorders anywhere, and the result made clear the relative strength of the Czechoslovak parties in the nation on June 15. It should be, however, emphasized that no elections were held in Slovakia, where at the time bitter war with Magyars was in progress.

Of Czech parties social democrats were strongest. They received 922,782 votes, 29.80% of the total; after them came the republican party (agrarians) with 661,353 (21.36%); the third in strength were the Czechoslovak socialists, formerly known as national socialists, who got 493,359 (15.93%). With them are included progressives; this party was before the war led by Professor Masaryk, but in 1918 a majority of them coalesced with the national democrats, while a minority maintained their name and party organization, and after the revolution co-operated generally with the socialist block, while preserving freedom of action. President Masaryk himself since his return to Prague kept aloof from party struggles and does not permit any single party to claim him. After national democrats came the people’s party (Catholic) with 303,614 votes (9.81%), and fifth were the national democrats, formerly known as Young Czechs, long the leaders of the nation; they received only 265,769 votes, 8.58% of the total.

A number of minor parties and local tickets received votes. Their importance in national politics is not great, but they ought to be enumerated here so that a complete picture of the elections might be presented. Small landholders’ party received 125,820 votes, Czech fusion tickets in towns with German majority received 71,512, shop keepers’ party 57,526, citizens’ party in Moravia 16,710, farmers’ party 12,709, Czechoslovak labor party 7890, Czech progressives in Moravia 5065, and various local tickets 152,582.

Before we pass on to trace the influence of the municipal elections on national politics, it is necessary to record the fact that on June 15 the Germans of Bohemia, Moravia and Silesia turned out in full strength to hold all their real and artificial positions. The elections were the first free elections in the Bohemian lands, for under the Austrian rule the Czechs had always been intimidated in racially mixed towns. There was no complaint from the Germans against the fairness of the election of June 15; the Czechoslovaks claim that fully 200,000 of their men were unable to vote, because they were serving either in Siberia or against the Magyars in Slovakia. At any rate, of the total vote cast in the municipal elections in Bohemia, Moravia and Slovakia the Czechs received 3,096 ,391 or 68.21%, the Germans 1,422,038 or 31.33%, and the Jewish ticket got 21,076 or 0.46%. That means a considerable improvement over the Austrian statistics of 1910, which gave the percentage of Czechs in the three provinces as 62.54 and Germans as 34.91. It may be confidently expected that the next census will show 70% Czechs in the three Bohemian lands, and taking the entire republic it will show a Czechoslovak majority of more than three-fourths against a German-Magyar minority of something like twenty percent.

After the elections there were signs of an understanding between the socialist block and the republicans or agrarians. The socialists by virtue of their showing in elections demanded larger representation in the cabinet which would naturally have to take place at the expense of the national democrats. Offers were made to the latter to take them into the next ministry with a smaller representation. But the democrats refused. Conferences were held for several weeks, with many audiences by President Masaryk; the socialist block was apparently willing to give the republicans the doubtful privilege of putting their own man into the chair of premier, but in the end social democrats as the most numerous party received this honor, and Vlastimil Tusar, who served since the revolution as the Czechoslovak commissioner in Vienna and had thus been removed from personal quarrels of the past months, was charged with constructing the cabinet.

Of the fifteen members of the cabinet social democrats have beside the premier three, namely Haberman, Winter and Hampl; Czechoslovak socialists have three, Klofáč, Stříbrný and Heidler; progressives, numerically very weak, but with many intellectual leaders of the nation among them, have two, Beneš and Veselý. The republican party of the countryside has four representatives in the ministry, Švehla, Prášek, Staněk and Horáček; Slovaks have two, Šrobár and Houdek. The principal change consists in the departure of Karel Kramář, one of the great men of the nation; even his political adversaries desire to have his great talents used in some manner in the service of the state. Of hardly smaller importance is the loss of dr. Rašín, a great finance minister, bold and original and energetic; however, his successor Cyril Horáček is also a man of large caliber. Dr. Stránský, former minister of commerce, has been for years one of the big Czech figures in the Vienna parliament and will again be heard from. Other changes include the resignation of minister of Railways Zahradník for personal reasons, of Dr. Soukup, minister of justice, also for personal reasons, and of Dr. Hruban, representing the Catholics in the first ministry; they will not be represented in the new cabinet.

Thus the Tusar government is a coalition of the social democrats, national socialists, progressives, agrarians and Slovaks against the natinal democrats and the people’s party. It is not a socialist government, although naturally socialist demands will receive more favorable consideration than from the first cabinet. Tusar himself, for twenty years active in socialist politics, is a man of great common sense and keenly aware of his responsibility. In an interview given by him to the correspondent of the Chicago News, Tusar indicated plainly that he was no theorist and that he would encourage no economic experiments. In his first address to the National Assembly Tusar had this to say about socialism and economic changes: “In socialism which before war was purely critical there are also great constructive forces. The times demand that we make use of those forces and strive toward such an organization of production, as would answer to the ideals of the workingmen, and at the same time secure unbroken continuity of production during the period of rebuilding. The government intends to go in this direction with firmness but also with great circumspection, being fully aware that the organization of production is a very sensitive organism which will not bear forcible or hurried interference.”

On July 4 Prague celebrated Independence Day with more enthusiasm than most American cities. All the newspapers had appropriate articles, the whole city was decorated with American and Allied flags, and in the afternoon the largest hall of the city on the Žofín island was crowded with representatives of the government, university, city, foreign diplomats and legionaries from America. Richard T. Crane, the American minister, and President Masaryk were the principal speakers. Masaryk said: “There are as many democracies, as there are nations and states. For myself I find that the principles of the American democracy appeal to me most and I accept them. At this moment I can declare that those principles have ever been and ever will be the leading principles of my politics and of all my life.”

Two days later the whole nation celebrated, unhindered for the first time, the anniversary of the death of John Hus. The night of July 5 great funeral pyres burned on all hills of the Czechoslovak Republic in memory of the fire at which Hus was martyred: and the following day every city and almost every village had a celebration with a noted speaker as the center of the fete.

The war with the Magyars closed July 4. On that day entire Slovakia, as delimited by the peace conference, was evacuated by the Magyars. There are still difficulties with the anarchistic regime prevailing at Budapest, and Tusar had to address a firm note of protest to Bela Kuhn against the bombarding of a Slovak town by a Magyar aeroplane. But everyone hopes that watchful waiting on the long Magyar-Slovak frontier will not break out into fighting once more.