friends. After the declaration of war, Voska was the first envoy from Masaryk to reach our friends in London and America.
The first task of the National Alliance after the outbreak of the war was to convince our fellow-countrymen in America that political action was necessary and opportune. This task was a difficult one, and it was complicated by the lack of unity among the Czechs in America.
The work of Tvrzický, Dr. Fisher, Šerpán, and others, caused the greater part of those in the liberal camp to join the revolutionary movement shortly after the National Alliance was established; but the minority of this group, under the leadership of Dr. Iška, remained hostile almost to the end towards liberation activities, and was reconciled only after it had been divulged that Dr. Iška’s paper, Vesmír (The Universe), had been paid for by the Austro-Hungarian Embassy. The Socialists were divided into two groups. One part, led by J. Martínek and A. Novotný, editors of the Americké Delnické Listy (American Labour News), at once joined the movement while the other part, associated with K. H. Beránek and Jelínek, editors of Spravedlnost (Justice), remained neutral. Immediately after the arrival of Vojta Beneš, however, and after the meeting at Sandusky in September 1915, the majority, including Josef Novák, branch secretary of the Socialist Party, joined the Czech National Alliance.
Great assistance was rendered to the movement by the Czechs in Cleveland who, in January 1916, under the able leadership of K. Bernreiter, devoted themselves to our cause and remained devoted to it until the end. Similar work was directed at Cedar Rapids by C. V. Svoboda and at Boston by Josef Kovář. The Czech Evangelical settlements associated themselves with the movement from the very outset. Their leaders were J. Zmrhal and Dr. Smetánka.
The Catholics were at first favourably disposed towards Austria-Hungary, but later, under the influence of events in Bohemia, they adopted an attitude of cautious neutrality, with a bias in favour of the Habsburg Empire. It was not until the spring of 1917, when the United States declared war on Germany, that under the influence of the Rev. O. Zlámal, of Cleveland, they gradually threw in their lot with the national liberation movement. In the end Vojta Beneš succeeded in inducing the central Catholic organization, the National League of Czech Catholics, founded on January 14, 1917, under the leadership of J. Kestl and F. Šindelář, to join the common cause.
