Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1918-07-09
The Oppressed Czechs and Slovaks
By E. JORDAN
Professor at the Sorbonne

THE Czechs and Slovaks come into history
i In the second half of the ninth century.
At that time they formed a part of the great
Moravian empire of Swatopluk. They were
already coming into collision with the Ger
mans. 1t was a German intrigue that caused
the failure of the great scheme of st. Method.
the apostle of the Slavs: to give them
national liturgy. in conjunction with Rome;
to make Of them third branch OF the Uni
versal church. Owing to this failure. the
sav world found itself condemned to reli-
gious dsmemberment.
C,INCE the tenth century Bohemia under
- her national dukes of the Przmyslid
family, has been subjected to German in
fuence. She received from Germany Chris
tianity according to the Latin ritual partly
under compulson; for Germany rehg'ous
propaganda has always been means OF
political domination. The dukes felt the
attraction Of a civilization then superior to
theirs; in exchange for the title or KING
they allowed themselves to be incorporated
into the empire Such was the policy,
dynastic rather than national, but otherwise
brilliant pursued by the great Przmyslids
of the thirteenth ccntury--ottakar \il'I
l23O), who definitely acquired the roya'
title and Ottakar II I253-127S), VINO con-
quered Austria, Styria, Carniola and carin-
thta. But Bohemia was becoming halt Ger
manized At the court. and among tne
nobility, German customs and speech were
the fashion; the towns were ming WIN
German merchants. Bohemian ethnoiogy
was beginning to assume the aspect which II
has preserved. Some degree OF natiohai
spirit still persisted. however, and ottakar
II contrived to appeal to 1t wnen se..ihs
out upon the struggle against the founder
of the house Of Austria. Rudolph or Haps-
bur1. Witness his alliance with the Polish
princes, founded, says the treaty itself upon
nature and kinship of blood witness ms
anneal to the Polish nation: If Bohemia
,npr bulwark, is vanquished those Unsuitable
Germans will stretch out and seize you 100
with their greedy hands
THE foreign dynasty OF the Luxempurgs'
which was French as much as German
fayored a Czech revival. 1t was chiefly the
nart n,aved by Charles ~ Q346-lS7S).
rsrman Emperor Although. by the Golden
RulI he sanctioned the incorporation OF Bo-
hemia into Germany, he also sanctioned her
autonomy; in a word. he raised Bohemla 10
| the first rank.
rySDER his successor Wenceslas begins the
| | Hussite movement, about which 1t Is es-
| sential to state that II was national as mucn
as religious 1t began with reform OF
| the statute of the university, In which the
Czechs obtained the mastery Imss anu nU was the
| creator of Czech literary prose. And II was
| racial hatred, as much as zeai ior ortho-
| do.v. that drove the German crusaders 10
fall upon Bohemia wnat cause ,as',sa aAe h 't ny
| inhabitants of Prague, unless IL De the
eternal hatred which they nourish against
| our people! o..z ,>.o,aa rr,h,e N
| preserve a national kingship ana IN l'Io lue
! States of the kingdom elected as king feroi-
nand of Hapsburg, brother to Charies "
| A woeful day which marked the beginning
| Of denationalizatioh!
x,rRDINAND I himself proclaimed his
| h crown hereditary, and independent OF tns
| states. That was nothing compareu 10 IN,
events of the seventeenth century In ioi'
pnh.m,a rose up against Ferdinand H. Th'
| later after gaining the victory AT tne Whiu
Mountain, in 1870, inflicted on tne reoeis th'
most terrible repression Twenty-sevei
mobiles were beheaded. sos otners were .ses e
n5ranturers came and formed new no
huity. the middle classes being also ruined
the Czech elements found themselves reouce'
tn the level of the lower classes Tne new
secured official standing to the Germal
language, concurrently with (and soon II
| preference to) Czech
At LEAST, Bohemia still. remained Bohe
| ~ mia-a State united to the other DOMAIN
of the HapsburEs by purely persona yp a.. us 81,
The praEmatc sanction Of Charles VI, MARI
Theresa's act Of l749, the centralzing an
| Germanizing reforms OF Joseph III ana TN
adoption, in 1904. of the Imperial ut'e
Austria tended to deprive her Oh 'h's las
| remainder of individuality.
| National consciousness was becoming on
liberated. Those patriots who sun survive
| despaireo of the future. In 1877 Juhgman
could still exciaim: I'VE shall have had IN