Cresco plain dealer. (Cresco, Howard County, Iowa) 1913-1945, 1915-08-13
The Bohemians, Aspirations:

Issued On Friday OF Each Week.
The Bohemians, Aspirations:
Racial warfare between Slav and
German has been accepted as an OBJ
vious fact since the war between Rus
STA and the two Kaisers began, but few
Americans realize how deep this racial
hatred goes and how Austria may, at
any moment, be confronted by revolt
of her Slavic subjects. Geographically
the most important of the Slav states
belonging to the Austrian Empire is
the Kingdom Of Bohemia, and its Czech
(Bohemian) inhabitants are continually
at loggerheads with their German
neighbors. The reasons for this state
of things are made clear by the Lon
don Morning Post, which says:
'"To explain this antagonism, it is
necessary to go back to the period OF
the Reformation, which led to the Hus-
site wars. 1t was John Huss, the Rec
tor of the University of Prague 1882
1915, who adopted the doctrine Of John
Wyclif. For two centuries the Czech
peasants repealed successfully many in
vasions of the German and Hungarian
Papal armies, which ravaged Bohemia
in the same way as their descendants
have done in Belgium and Servia. But
the odds were too great. Half Europe
was in arms against Bohemia, and the
martyrdom of its population began
with the defeat of the Bohemias in the
battle of the White Mountains (l62O.)
''Two-thirds of the population were
either exterminated or driven abroad,
and many emigrants settled in England
where they founded the Morvaian
church. -
Those who remained at home, says
The Post, elected the ancestors of the
present Austrian Emperor to the throne
Of Bohemia
"A mistake for which they had and
still have to pay dearly, because the
Hapsburgs broke the contracts made
with the Czech nation. The Haps-
burgs had only one thought; to destroy
tie glory Of Bohemia, to stifle the cul-
tire Of the Czechs. and to kill their
language, in which Chelcicky and other
Bohemians preachedlto the world uni
versal peace, equal rights for all men
and religious liberty"
Centuries of fermentation, have not
deprived the Czech of his individuality,
the Post continues:
."This individuality of the Czechs is a
characteristic of the peasantry of Bo-
hernia, who, following old traditions,
devised distinctive style of arranging
their homes and their costumes. They
have their own poetry, music, dances,
customs, and ceremonies, all of which
may re considered as the artistic side
of Bohemian peasant culture. The
Czechs look now with pride upon this
traditional art of their peasants, see
ing in it many links with the various
branches of the Slavonic race.
''The great progress of Bohemia
during the past century in art, educa-
ton, and industry has gradually drawn
the attention of Europe to the historic
rights of the Czechs. The virility of
this race has served to make more ap-
parent the inefficieRcy of the Austrians
and to emphasize the fact that the
Hapsburg Monarchy is not modern
institution, but MEDIEVAL survival.
Austrian misrule can not continue in
the face of the present high intel
lectual and economic development of
the Czechs as opposed to the backward
condition of the Teuton rulers.
The Post forsees the utter defeat of
the two Kaisers and prophesies the
erection of an independent kingdom of
Bohemia.
.'The hour of national enfranchise-
ment has arrived and Bohemians, Nor
avians and Slovaks are looking forward
to new life. Bohemia will retake
her place among the free nations; the
old lands of the Bohemian Crown,
namely Bohemia, Moravia and Silesia,
will be united again.
''1n the new Europe which is about
to be born the Czechs also desire their
place in the sum- They desire to re-
store and to maintain their national in
dividuality, and to remain Slavs as
they always have been. Literary Di-
ges.
Re 0nnorfunities for Real FaYner3