CZECHOSLOVAK INDEPENDENCE
itself was an act of first-rate political importance, since without it no activities abroad would have been possible. It was a standing refutation of Austrian and German charges that the Czech movement was an artificial one financed by the Allies, and it made possible the proud boast that Czechoslovaks financed their revolution themselves. President Masaryk would have been helpless without this aid.
The organization very soon launched numerous political activities in the real sense of the term. American neutrality during the first period of the war imposed certain legal and moral restrictions, since the Czechs are intensely loyal and sincere in their Americanism. But it was realized that even in case of permanent neutrality America inevitably would exercise considerable influence at the Peace Conference, and that her good-will and friendship must be gained. The result was a shower of pamphlets and the utilization of every possible opportunity to address American audiences. Such addresses literally ran into hundreds and their nature and standard may best be judged by the fact that Czech spokesmen succeeded in reaching such organizations as the April, 1917, meeting of the American Academy of Political and Social Science in Philadelphia, and
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