CZECHOSLOVAK INDEPENDENCE
yellow banner of the Hapsburgs. Since such a large percentage of the Czechs in this country voluntarily joined the American army, evidently they, too, are objects of contempt to the German American press.
But can there be even the shadow of an excuse for charging Czechs with treason even to Austria? Waiving for the time being the question that Austria-Hungary declared war without consulting her own parliament, such as it is, and that she entered upon the struggle against the wishes of her own people, except the minority consisting of Germans and Magyars, it still remains a fact that even from a legalistic standpoint the Czechs are not traitors. Legally, the ancient Bohemian state still exists. Its rights were and are suppressed by force, but theoretically they have been repeatedly acknowledged by the emperors of Austria themselves. The Czech diet, the convocation of which has been prevented by the Austrian government for years, did not declare the war, and as a matter of constitutional law the Czechs were not bound by the Austrian Government’s declaration of war. In fact, again as a matter of constitutional law, the present Austrian emperor to the Czechs is nothing but a usurper, as was his predecessor, the late Francis Joseph, because
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