The menace. [volume] (Aurora, Mo.) 1911-1920, 1918-06-08

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LSfSD peoples brought under the yoke of that me-
EGSD dleval autocracy by force of arms. Those
peoples differ entirely in blood, religion and
social aspirations from the Austrians and Magyars
or Hungarians who rule the dual empire
Most of the subject peoples have past history
exceptionally rich in deeds of valor and humanity
But they have suffered long and deeply under the
iron heel OF tyranny that knows neither mercy
nor remorse
The purpose to extend the sway and intensity
} the oppression of the Hapsburgs over these COM
munties was the immediate cause of the world war
IN no part OF the world will the American policy
of breaking the shackles of despotism and setting
enslaVed peoples free bring more righteous graft
ticaton than among those now in bondage to Aus
tria-Hungary.
In the territory lying north and east of the Ad-
rlatlc Sea are the Jugoslavs or southern Savs in
cluding the Serbs, Croats and Slovenes while fur
ther north in the diversified country stretching from
Austria proper to the Swiss Alps are the Czechs
or Czecho- -Slovaks, including the Bohemians, Mo-
ravians and Slovaks.
AS the home of John Huss, burned at the stake
Tor heresy by the most heartless of autocracies
Bohemia commands the interest and sympathy of
all Hberty-lovng people. Both Jugosavs and
Czechs are branches of the Slavic race and are
} therefore ethnically akin to the Slavs of Russia
Though cruel and protracted bondage to the Tur-
klsh and the Austro-Hungarian empire has forced
the Mohammedan and Roman Catholic faiths upon
a few OF the Jugoslavs the great preponderance
still hold to the Orthodox Greek Church. having
resisted long and successfully the united efforts of
Rome and Vienna to fasten the papal system upon
them. Roman Catholic power long since turned
Bohemia also into CORY battlefield whereon papal
arms sought to exterminate successfully the Ortho-
doX and Protestant religions.
When fanatical and bloodthirsty Ottoman Turks
crossed the Bosphorus and took Constantnople near
ly five hundred years ago. they swept like wild-6re
towards the EurOna and
ehacement OF Christian civilization. In front of
them was consternation behind them, ashes
AS the furious Turkish hordes approached the
kingdom of Hungary with no visible power able to
dispute their progress the Serbs sailed forth from
their mountain homes and hurled back the invaders
in a defeat that broke forever the spell of their
triumphant advance. With a sense of security
the Hungarans then turned their arms against
other peoples of Europe while the Turks by vastly
superior numbers surrounded and overwhelmed the
Serbs and other Jugosavs whose vaor they avenged
with centuries of plunder and butchery.
After the union of Austria and Hungary to form
the empire now ruled by the Hapsburgs, intrigue
and coercion became active in transferring the Jugo-
savs from the Turkish to the noess cruel Austro-
Hungarian yoke. The congress of Berlin in 1878
appended the little Serbian states of Bosnia and
Herzegovina to Austria Hungary as vassals About
thirty years later their identity was botted out by
incorporating them into the empire, whose languages
and the Roman Catholic religion were then forced
upon their schools and their people. ..
Throughout their long and brutal oppression, the
Jugoslavs have cherished the dream of forming
separate state and of working out their destiny ac-
cording to the natural trend of their common blood,
language, religion and ideals. But their imperial
masters have met all these laudable aspirations
with cruelty that would shame Turkish sultan.
Serbia alone of the Jugosav states was able to
expel the Turks and achieve independence by dint
Of her own valor. Her recognized strength and
prestige made her the leader in the Jugoslay as
piration for independence autonomy. To crush
that aspiration and destroy its leader the pope and
Emperor Francis Joseph decided in 1914 that the
time was ripe to blot the brave little kingdom of
Serbia from the map by Incorporating it into the
Austro Hungarian empire and forcibly Romanizing
it as had been done to Bosnia and Herzegovina
They evidently reasoned that the destruction of
the historic little state would be peculiarly easy
then because its resources of men and money had
been depleted in the bloody wars with Turkey and
Their first step in the proposed assassination of
their unsuspecting neighbor was to fasten on the
Serbian government a secret concordat or treaty
with the pope, which was executed at the vatican
June "a, 1914
The Roman Catholic weekly magazine, America,
in its first issue Of July the same year, sets forth
the principal arrangements of this concordat, which
have seldom been surpassed in the annals of diplo
matte imposition. Though in the whole population
of Serbia, about 100000 In number, there were
only 10000 Roman Catholics yet the papal hier-
archy including two bishops, was to be established
by law throughout the kingdom and paid salaries
from the national treasury, Roman Catholic SEM
mary was to be established and maintained by the
government and controlled by the bishops. and the
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