The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1917-04-19
|UKRAINIANS, LITTLE KNOWN,
 THOUGH MIL 10 MS IN NUMBER
 VICTIMS OF EUROPEAN STRIFE
Their Country Devastated by First One and Then the Other Nation, Peoples Spirit Is Not Crushed-Ap-
 peal Now to America to Save Them From Starving

known in America from ms leCtuios at the University in Chicago.
 Professor Milukoff said on the floor of the Duma, '"The object or the Ukrainian movement Is the seh-soV- thoroughly democratic Q movement carried on, so to say, by the people itself. For this reason 1t is impos- sible to crush it.'
 And what did the same man say about the position of thirty million Ukrairians in Russia? He said: "The mere obtaining of Ukrainian news- paper is construed as a manifesta- ton of a treacherous disposition. Ev- cry subscriber to a Ukrainian news paper is closely watched by the post office officialsNand no such subscrfb- CT can ever hope to obtain an official position himself" Ukrainian societies of every kind are being constantly suppressed and contrary to the oe- rnands made, not only by the Ukrain- ian people, but also by the Petrograd Academy of Science and by the Pan Russian Congress of Teachers, the Ukrainian language is debarred by law from all the schools and public institutions. The result IS that the percentage of people unable to read and write is nowhere lower than 50 per cent in the Russian Ukraine, be- ing only 20 Der cent. in the best equipped districts of proper Russia 1. In Austria the constitution of 1876 l has accorded to Ukrainians in Ga- | lfcia the same guarantees Of autono- my as to the other nine races of Aus | tria. But in reality they have been incompetently governed and harshly oppressed by the Polish aristocracy and hampered all along in their de- velopment. In their endeavors to throw off the yoke of the Polish mo- bility, they used obstruction in Par liament and Legislature and only af- ter a prolonged and bitter struggle the Ukrainians in Galicia have been able to obtain a certain degree of freedom and self-government. But having at least the chance to work for more home rule they have been better off than their brothers in the
 Russian Empire.
 The Russian invasion of Ga1icia de- stroyed at a blow all this work of many years. The Ukrainian language has been forbidden as an official me-
 dium of communication both in the 1 services of the church and in the schools of Galicia. All the Ukrainian newspapers in Galicia have been SUD- pressed, the liabraries destroyed, the
 Ukrainian books belonging to ind- vidua1s confiscated, and collections 1 of the museums sent to Russia. All Ukrainfan associations have been dis solved, hundreds of Galician notables Of ukrainian nationality were sent to Siberia. Galicia has twice suffered from the passage of the Russian ar mics. Towns and villages are burned and people are living in holes dug in erth. Thousands are on the point of 1 starving. They are threatened by physical destruction, and which is still
 more desperate by a subJectiof1 to the future Po1ih State, to lose forever
 their stubborn fight against the Polish
 nobles. The only help they receive is that given by Ukrainians of the
 United States. I
 The Ukrainian immigrants in Am- erica are proud of their adopted
 country and think that the American
 people and government, being in ia.
 vor of self-government for all the countries, should speak at the peace lconference (when the time of peace will cone) on behalf of all those na tfonalities in Europe which have nc
 states of their own, as Irishmen, Al l61IIO1ic, 2 AullSD 1IlLA Ol0S Georgians. 'Bohemians, >Slovaks, Croa I tions, Serbs, and the last but not thu least on behalf of the Ukraine. Tn,
 submerged nationalities are a dis.
 grace to Europe and great cause O
 the war.
 Only when all peoples are self-gov
 erned and none suppressed, will it b,
 possible for them to meet in a gen
 erous and active -co-operation. Free
 dom of nations does not necessaril.
 imply separation of states and subdi
 vision of the globe into hostile racia
 units; on the contrary, the course 0
 the world leads us more and more il the direction of large federations, bu
 nationalities which are component o
 federation ask for real se1f-govern
 ment and refuse to be ruled by neigh bors. Until nations learn to com
 bine unity with freedom, war will b
 a permanent menace.
 As far az nationalism means an i'm
 posed rule over other nations it 1
 remnant of the beast in man, a far as 1t means autonomy, it is tn
 great force for progress