Fulton County tribune. (Wauseon, Ohio) 1883-1925, 1920-12-10
CZECHO-SLOVAKIA: BORN
ABOARD. FREIGHT
TRAINS

Amid the disorders of Central Eu-
rope one new nation affords a con-
spicuous exception to the chaos, strife
Of her. That nation is Czecho-Slo-
vakia.
The inception Of this new national
ity from a racial unit Of ancient and
distinguished lineage is modern ro-
nance comparable to the crusades of
the middle ages.
Early in 1918 the intrepid Czech
warriors started out from the Kiev
district Of western Russia in railway
cars, some of which were decorated
with the slogan, From War to War
Around the World"
At that time it looked as though
the summer Of 1918 would find them
In Champagne or the Argonne, Joined
with the thousands Of their compa-
triots who were already fighting in
the allied armies to down the Hun.
But a strange combination Of circum-
stances delayed them in Siberia
through the short summer of long days
and the long winter of little sunshine.
A communication follows from
| Maynard Owen Williams, first Amer
ican correspondent with the spectacu-
| lar anabasis Of the Czecho-Slovaks
across Siberia:
"Xenophon had a fine trip, If one
| is to judge from the accounts Of his
favorite press agent, and Napoleon
and Sherman have made famous ex-
cursions, but when it comes to the
world encircling vision of the tourist
bureau writer, and the doggedness Of
death, the wonderful Czechs take the
palm.
"The war found them about as en-
thusiastic in their friendship for Will
liam Hohenzollern and his Potsdam
confederates as they were for the
Hapsburg house that betrayed them
centuries ago, after they magnanimous-
ly joined the Austrians in the repulse
Of the hordes from Asia that then
threatened Europe.
''Their going over to the enemy was
one of the reasons why Germany's
southern neighbor failed to pick up
rapidly amid the heavy traffic that re.
suited from the mobilization OF
Europe.
whole regiments Of them went over
to the foe. Other thousands were
shot down by their Austrian compan
ions in arms, and all their organiza
l off hr Ir
Germans or Magyars, whose methods
and aims they hated. Thousands Of
them escaped to Russia, where they
! were sent to the cold of Siberia or the
malaria of the Tashkent region al
prisoners Of war.
MANY of them entered the Russian
army under Kerensky, but with tht
signing of the Brest-Litovsk treaty
they lost faith II their Russian com
panIons in I arms ! and MIf6 4 q spirit s 8:
loyalty to the cause Of freedom tha
no other group surpassed, they set ou
from Russia to cross Siberia, the Pa
cife, America, the Atlantic and France
to hurl themselves once more agains
theft opbressors and traditional foes
"Wheh I met them their e train
were strung but from the Ukraine t
Lake Baikal, ali moving toward tn
port of VladivostoE.
J "The Bolsheviki walked into the
trap which they had themselves pre-
pared, for had they lived Up to thei
promises, the Czechs would have al
been in Vladivostok by July. Whel
the Reds attempted to disarm fh'
Czecho-Slovak expedition, the Be
! hemians refused, to be as meek a
! the anti-Bolsheviks usually were then
, and the result was a continent save,
! for democracy while the world wa
: hunting through its atlas to find ou
who these fighting men with tn
strange name really were, and wha
they were doing SO far from home"