number of meetings, great and small, Czech and Czecho-American. Towards the end of May, I had to return to Chicago in order to hold meetings of our various organizations. Then I spoke at the University, in the Press Club and elsewhere. At Chicago University I had already lectured in 1902, when I had made many friends among the Czechs and Americans; and Mr. Judson, now President of the University, had helped me very liberally.
Receptions and meetings like those at Chicago took place later on in New York, Boston, Baltimore, Cleveland, Pittsburg and Washington. Everywhere things were so organized as to arouse American interest. Our national costumes, colours and emblems and the artistic arrangement of the processions were pleasing and drew the attention of the masses to our movement for independence. Before the war I used to denounce “flag-wagging”; but, in America, I realized that in so doing I had overshot the mark. Professor as I then was, I had failed to see that a well-organized procession may be worth quite as much as an ostensibly world-shaking political article or a speech in Parliament. During the Chicago procession I well remember thinking of the well-known British preacher, Spurgeon, who said he would be willing to stand on his head if, by so doing, he could call attention to a good cause—this in a church, then why not in the street?
At first there had been personal and political dissensions in our American colonies as elsewhere. America was then neutral; and German, Austrian and Magyar influences were strong. Some of our people distrusted the revolutionary character of our movement and among them were quite a number of pro-Austrians. But our movement made headway, the leadership of the National Council was recognized, the pro-Austrians no longer carried weight, and though the Dürich affair caused some excitement no political damage was done. Naturally our colonies were greatly and, in many cases, decisively influenced by the American declaration of war on Germany on April 6, 1917. Then doubts disappeared and unanimity prevailed, as the collections for our funds testified.
Two consequences deserve special mention. The first was that our Catholics went hand in hand with our “Freethinkers” and Socialists so strong was the unifying force of the movement for liberation, as those will appreciate who know what the relations between the Catholics and the non-Catholics had been before. On November 18, 1916, the Czech Catholic Congress at Chicago had agreed upon a memorandum to Pope
