Cresco plain dealer. (Cresco, Howard County, Iowa) 1913-1945, 1918-01-25
CREsCo HOWARD COUNTY, IOWA. FRIDAY JANUARY 25 1918
Bohemian First to Buy the Limit.

Bohemian First to Buy the Limit.
| The first man in Howard County tt
buy the limit, 81, 900 maturity value. OF
War Savings Certificates is Charles
Vopava, young Bohemian farmer
residing southwest of Cresco. A broth.
er also bought several stamps before
enlsting in the navy. The largest re.
mittances coming to the Cresco post
office for War Savings sales at the
postoffices outside Cresco in this coun-
ty are coming from Protivin. an al
most exclusively Bohemian commun-
ity. 1t is in these ways that the good
Bohemian citizens of this community
are helping win the war for. the land of
their adoption and to help free the land
of their birth or of their ancestors.
Americans of Bohemian birth, and
there are thousands of them in the
middle west more than 100, 900 in
Chicago alone-know how closely the
Czechs came to disrupting the Aus
trian empire in the twelve or fifteen
years Immediately preceding the out
break of the great European war. The
The cabinet crisis brought about in
1897 by the compulsory language"
bill; the riotous scenes in the Vienna
Reichsrat in 1910, caused by the rein
PRODUCTION of the language measure;
and the suspension of autonomy in
1913, following the dissolution of the
diet and the appointment of a conces-
sion of administration, shook the mon
archy to its foundations.
Austria is the hereditary enemy of
the ancient kingdom of Bohemia, which,
under Ottokar in 1858, extended from
the Rissengebirge to the Adriatic. Fol-
lowing the ancient religious wars of
the Hussites and the bigoted Ferdi-
nand H., and the thirty years war,
which reduced the population from /
staunch 1000, 900 to less than 700, 600,
the proud little kingdom. rentlby endless
internal dissensions, fomented by ene-
mics within and without the state, be-
came the vassal of the hated house of
Hapsburg. Bohemia's history since
the seventeenth century has been, in
many respects, similar to that of Pol
and-a hopeless struggle against an ar
rogant and autocratic government.
But, the hour of Bohemia's recon.
stitution IS state appears about to
strike. History is filled with strange
ironies.s, Those Czechs who left the
banks Of the Elbe and the Moldau and
the Eyer because they found Austria's
yoke too heavy to beer, and sought
refuge in free America, soon will be
given another opportunity to deal a
blow to- the overlords of
Vienna who for more than three CEN
;uries ground out their national life al
most to extinction.
Austria today is closer to the brink
If the precipice than ever before in
Ter precarious history. Franz Josef,
whose remarkable personality did more
han any other force to hold the dual
together in the last fifty
'ears, is dead. Carl, the old mon
lrch's successor, more or less handi-
apped by the arrogant and despotic
of Germany, rules an en-
ire financially bankrupt and drained to
IS last ounce of man power by a colos-
al war. The guns of a relentless foe
hunder on her frontiers and would,
we're it not for the occasional and
rantic aid of her more powerful ally,
'e at this moment parked in the pub
ic places of her capital. Her people,
made spiritless by hunger and depriva-
ion, cry for peace. With the house of
1apsburg crumbling to its ruin, a new
I'D powerful adversary has sprung in
o the lists-America, now the home Of
of thousands of Czechs.
That the allied armies will win this
7ar there no longer is any doubt in
7ell informed circles. The central
overs cannot resist much longer.
With America and the entente powers
upplied with food and guns, the houses
f Hapsburg and Hohenzollern will be
umbled. Every Czech in America has
n opportunity to strike for the re-
emption of the old home land, and
ne harder the stroke the quicker will s
ome the day when Bohemia will be I
estored to its own. The purchase of
liberty bonds and Thrift certificates
leans that those who insulted and +
oused the, kingdom of Bohemia and
'bbed her of her birthright will be
eaten down and brought to their knees \
nd the ancient kingdom restored.