The Czechoslovak Review/Volume 1/A valued friend

A VALUED FRIEND

In England and France, in Russia and Italy, leaders of public opinion have arrived at much more definite conclusions with reference to the coming reconstruction of Europe, than have their colleagues in the United States. Metropolitan journals of the Allied countries realize that Austria, which has for centuries taken up so much space on the maps of Europe, is doomed, and they pay much attention to the new states which will appear on the future map of Europe, chief of them being Bohemia. In America the big dailies moulding the public opinion of the nation have not looked so far ahead; at most they accept Poland as a coming state, but Bohemia and Jugoslavia have not yet entered within the range of their vision.

Now that the United States is about to join the Allies and consequently will have a voice at the peace conference, it ought to make up its mind as to what concrete changes it will favor in the reorganization of the present boundaries of Europe. Presumably all Americans will endorse the principles announced by President Wilson in his address to the senate, Jan. 22 , 1917: “Every people should be left free to determine its own policy, its own developments, unhindered, unthreatened, unafraid, the little along with the great and powerful. I am proposing government by the consent of the governed.” The Bohemian Review would like to accomplish this much: to impress upon American public opinion the fact that principles embodied in the history of this republic, if applied to Europe, make necessary the creation of an independent Bohemia. And it welcomes with undisguised pleasure any voice showing that the Review does fulfill its function of informing the American press on this point.

One of Chicago’s daily papers, The Evening Post, printed the following editorial article in its issue of March 20, 1917, entitled “The Voice of Bohemia”:

“The national aspirations of Bohemia have found an appealing voice in the Bohemian Review, a new monthly publication that we welcome because of its informative value and its intelligent discussion of problems in which all the world is interested.”

“The Review is issued from Chicago under the editorial charge of Jaroslav F. Smetanka, whose recognized leadership among Bohemian-Americans qualifies him for this important educational work. Among articles of much interest and value in the current number is one by Thomas G. Masaryk, the Bohemian patriot, on ‘Bohemia and the European Crisis’. Mr. Masaryk gives the historical background for the national aspirations of the Bohemians and presents a case that must win the sympathy of all lovers of freedom.

“In Europe there is no more heroic people and none who have better deserved the liberty they seek. Those of them who have adopted America as their land are among the most loyal of our citizens and display by their response to republican institutions the spirit and capacity of a race inherently qualified for democracy.

“The Review will quicken the interest of Americans in the cause of Bohemia and will cultivate a sentiment that may yet find opportunity to express itself in behalf of Bohemian liberation.”