CZECHOSLOVAK INDEPENDENCE
attitude was attributed to the personal influence of the then Professor, now President Masaryk.The charge, current even today, shows not only a lack of understanding of historical forces, but is also unfair to Woodrow Wilson both as a statesman and scholar, and as an historian.
For the fact is that long before the war, and long before he commenced his political career, the War President exhibited a knowledge of Czech history and Czech aspirations which it is safe to say was not possessed by any other leading statesman of the Allied or Associated Powers.
Wilson’s work, The State, first appeared in 1889, and there he touches upon the Austro-Hungarian problem. In the edition copyrighted in 1898 (D. C. Heath & Co., Publishers) the discussion reappears. If we are correctly to judge the origins of Wilson's attitude toward the Czechoslovaks the matter is of some importance and justifies even an extended quotation. Long be fore the war, in a scientific work, the future President of the United States, and for a period a dominant world figure, had this to say concerning a realm in the downfall of which he was to play so fateful a part:
[ 36 ]
