The Czechoslovak Review/Volume 3/What Mr. Crane saw in Prague

by Charles Richard Crane

WHAT MR. CRANE SAW IN PRAGUE.

To an experienced traveler who will compare Bohemia not with America, but with Europe, it is a surprise to cross the boundaries of this new republic—a transition from chaos to order, from misery to comparative affluence. Charles R. Crane, former Chicago manufacturer and philanthropist, recently a member of the American mission to the Near East, tells his impressions of the Czechoslovaks in the Chicago Daily News. He says:

“The little Czecho-Slovak state is the healthiest and sanest place in Europe. Alhough its people are Slavs, they have long lived close enough to the Germans to acquire habits of thrift, order and discipline without losing their Slavic grace. They are good farmers and good managers of industrial enterprises, yet they have the artistic note. President Masaryk, in his address on July 4, said there were as many kinds of democracy as there were peoples, but he would accept the American kind as ideal. His address at the University of Chicago about fifteen years ago on the philosophy of the government of a small nation made a profound impression. He is now applying that philosophy with great success.

“The whole attitude of this strong little people and especially its industry and devotion are in the greatest possible contrast with the processes of its great Slavic relative (Russia) to the east. Although Czecho-Slovakia is a young and inexperienced state, there is order instead of chaos. Construction and not destruction is the main note, and murder, either as a pastime or as a governmental function, has no existence. There is no trace of the amateur imperialism characterizing many of the other small states and some of the medium sized ones. The people are keeping their heads and are not too much dismayed when things go against them, as in the case of the Teschen decision.”