The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1917-12-14
.SLAvONIANS DO NOT SYMPATH|zE.
 WITH AUSTRlANS
Bohemians and Slovaks Seeking Their 1ndepend-
 ence From the Allies.

Much, though not a word too much, has been said of the sufferings of Bel | gtum, Poland and Serbia; brave, un- fortunate peoples bludgeoned by the warmakers of Berlin. But there is an- other heroic state whose martyrdom as cruel as these has passed almost nnoticed-Bohemia!
 By this term is meant the CZecho- Slovak nation, including Bohemia pro- per, Moravia, Silesia and slice of northwestern Hungary. This nation numbers nearly 12.00O,000 members, has a rich and ancient culture, a stir ring history and an unbreakable love for liberty. It has resisted all the ef- forts of the Hapsburgs to Germanize it, and remained a Slavic state. In this vast struggle the place of the CZecho- Slovaks can only be on the side of the Slavs and of the Western nations. Not their geographical position but their whole historical development and na- tional programme forces them to join those who have proclaimed as their aim the respect for nationalities and liberation of all nations, great and small, crushing of Prussian militarism and consequently the regeneration of Europe as whole. The national ideals of Bohemia and her reformation are unrealizable in Austria Hungary where the organization of brute force secures to the minority the means of exploiting the majority.
 Bohemia can never accept the ideal of Prussia and Germany which would enslave the world by military drill and Machiavellian mixture of science and culture. The German is strange mixture of schoolmaster and bully; he first knocks his opponent down and then gives him 8 lecture and sermon.
 Bohemia is a part of Austria-Hun- gary but, nevertheless, the Czecho- Slovaks are working and even fighting for and with the Allies. The peculiar passive revolution of Bohemia is now known to the whole world, though the Austro-Hungarian and German cen sors for a long time succeeded in sup pressing the facts and in spreading false news about the unity and loyalty of all the Austro-Hungarian nation. Europe now knows what 1t means when all the leading politicians and writers of Bohemia and thousands of men and women of all classes are inn prisoned and many even sentenced to death, when all independent neWspa- pers are suppressed, when the Czechs regiments refuse to fight and surren- der whenever opportunity offers And Europe also realizes the awful moral situation of a nation which wholly sympathizes with the Allies | h1y oIov ical organization of militarism, are forced to fight against those whom they consider as Allies, and whom l they love as brethren.
 We of Czech and Slovak origin are peculiarly happy at this juncture that American interest and that of oul kinsman in Europe coincide. We are demanding today independence fol Bohemians and Slovaks in effect, a: far as they are concerned, the Czech: and Slovaks are endeavoring to abol ish the Austro-Hungarian government and to institute a new government. II this city they are acting consistent! with the Declaration of Independenct which maintains that governments arc I instituted among men to secure tht
 right to life and happiness, deriving their power from the consent of the governed and that whenever any form of government becomes destructive o! these ends it is the right of the peo. pie to alter or to abolish it and to in stitute new government.
 The Austro-Hungarian government has never been anything else but des, tructive of such ends; 1t has attempt.
 -,e Slovaks; it has attempted to rob then of their native tongue; it has ex plotted them economically and during the last four years it has sent thous ands of them to the gallows or forced them to face the Austrian firing squad and it has imprisoned their spokes man on trumped up charges.
 The Czechs and Slovaks therefore have the perfect right to attempt tc abolish this government and to insti ute a new one. Indeed, the center ol gravity of the worlds reaction ha. shifted to Vienna. Austro-Hungary i! a land of unlimited and unbridled ab solutism, and in struggling for inde' psndence the Czechs and Slovaks art also fighting for democracy in the
 best sense of the term.
 The American people and the Amer
 ican government have never hesitatet
 to express their sympathy with peo pies struggling against alien domina
 ton and for independence. It is vel to remember that the famous messag
 of President James Monroe dated De
 cember 2, 1923 formulating the doc
 Urine now bearing his name, also sym l aR
 for independence in the followin
 words: that they would succeed i
 their contest and resume their equa
 station among the nations of the eartf
 From the facts which have come
 our knowledge there is good cause t
 believe that their enemy has lost fol