Richmond times-dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1914-current, 1918-11-13
New Republic on Solid Foundation

HE new Czecho-Slovak republic with
population Of more than IL 900 900 souls
freed from the yoke Of Austro- Hungarian
tyranny, has gotten right down to business
III 'ne ihatter OF establishing permanent
government 1t has selected its first Presi-
dent IN the person OF DR.. Thomas G. Masaryk
who, as president of the Czecho-Sloyak ma
tiona council since 1915, engineered tho
movement for independence, and months ago
secured allied recognition of that BODY as 81
de facto bclligerent government
The Czechs and Slovaks are in effect tho
same race, with only slight difference in Ian
guage. The Czechs inhabit Bohemia Moravia
and Austrian Silcsia. crown lands of what
was the Austrian empire lying between Aus
ira proper and the south of the German
empire. The Slovaks live in the upper region
OF Hungary, adjoining the Czechs to the cast
ana southeast. The Czechs arc one of tho
most hlghly civilized peoples in Europe and
economically the most prosperous of the Aus
TRAN empire. Their country includes most
OF the coal and iron deposits Of the empire
the principal manufactures and the most
prosperous agricultural districts
The Slovaks have been mercilesslv held
back by Magyar repression. From the outset
of the war in 1914 the Czcchs and Sloyaks
steadily and pcrsstcntly resisted the Hohen
zolern and Hapsburg purposes. riotipr
against being enlisted as soldiers in the nm
holy cause, or surrcndcring in large numbers
to Russia after being forced into service
The harshest measures to crush their strur
giles iii their own land proved unayai,inp
aud in Russia their recent service to tho
allies in wrestling that country from the Ger
man invaders is well known
The area Of the Czech countries is about
$1,000 square miles, and of the Sluvak re-
sion about $4,000. Within these boundaries
there approximately SfT Oo0O60 neop,o
about 100000 of whom are other Than
Czechs or Sovaks. The new authorities have
already indicated that the minority PEOPLES
VIII be given liberal share of sclf-goyern.
nent. which is what might be expected of
so enlightened and liberty-loving a people
Thus. for thcir love of freedom and de-
termined resistance to tyranny tbroueh,ut
tho war under the most trying circumstances.
and the intelligent manner in which they
organized under the menace Of the oppres-
Sor bayonets TO secure their rights the peo-
PIE OF the new republic get the start of other
peoples freed by allied victory i'm the grcat
war in the establishment of the machinery of
sclt-govcrnment, and il IS certain they will
make good use of it to establish their ma
iional existence on solid foundation of on
hShtcned and ordered. security for the flu
ture. God speed the new republic toward
the glorious destiny awaiting it,
History moves in circles and it begins to
appear that we are soon To see the Europe
OF many years ago. Think Of a Poland re-
stored, Bohemia again holding light to
civilization with its educational SYSTEM
Then there is TO be seen "A separate Hungary
and Austria, and the Slavic union in the
Southeast suggests the Eastern Roman En-
pirc OF old. Already Russia has disinte-
grated, and the separation in the main fol-
lows the racial lines OF the old national divi-
sions Face and Great Britain will be the
dominant factors in Europe, reslming their
places OF leadership which were not disputed