WOODROW WILSON
America were fortunate in that the struggle for Czechoslovak independence was perfectly consistent with what they considered to be American ideals and with American aims. The Czech press in this country frequently quoted Mr. Wilson’s address, delivered to newly naturalized citizens in Philadelphia on May 10, 1915, and in which the following passage occurs: “I certainly would not be the one even to suggest that a man cease to love the home of his birth and the nation of his origin—these things are very sacred and ought not to be put out of our hearts—but it is one thing to love this place where you were born and it is another thing to dedicate yourself to the place to which you go.” (Addresses and Messages of Woodrow Wilson, Boni & Liveright, edited by Albert Bushnell Hart.)
Direct contact with the President was of course sought, but there were formal difficulties not only during America’s period of neutrality, but also after she entered the war, since virtually all the Czech spokesmen in this country were American citizens, and also because no prudent statesman could in any way commit himself to the dismemberment of Austria-Hungary without assurance that such was the desire of at least a majority of the Austrian peoples, and without certain evidence
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