CZECHOSLOVAK INDEPENDENCE
House of Representatives on February 25, 1916 (see Bohemia’s Claim to Independence, published by the Bohemian National Alliance in Chicago, 1916), and thereafter it was printed on the title page of The Bohemian, later The Czechoslovak Review, and served as a veritable battle-cry for the Czech inhabitants of the United States.
The Czech propaganda, while well organized in this country, was spontaneous. At times it seemed that every Czech living in the United States had constituted himself a committee of one for the purpose of convincing his fellow-citizens of other origins, and particularly the White House, of the justice of the Czech cause and the propriety of aiding it. At one time the White House was so deluged with telegrams from Czechs from all parts of the country that the situation so created was the subject of a special Washington dispatch by the Associated Press. That these expressions of hope for the liberation of their native land, and of faith in Woodrow Wilson, inevitably had at least the effect of very early focusing his attention upon the problem, needs no special evidence.
At no time did Mr. Wilson resent this activity, though he did insist upon loyalty to America in the first place. In any event, the Czechs in
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