Evening star., 1920-07-15
BY PAUL SCOTT MOWEEa.
By Cable TO The Star and ,ntcas"
Daily News Copyright, I3-v.

Daily News. Copyright. 1879.
PRAGUE, Czechoslovakia. July ID
Czechoslovakia. as constituted pg ''e
peace treaty, is a singularly elongated
state lying horizontally il the center
of Europe. 1t is bounded on the nor u
/ b. Germany and Poland and on 'he
! south by Austria. Hungary ana hu-
mania A member of the Brltish pa
lament referred irreverently TO 1t as
that banana-shaped state" AS mat
ter of fact. however. CzechosloVakla is
shaped something like the lSiahu ol
Great Britain. 1t is about the same
| length. but not quite so wide
| Economically the position OF Czecho-
slovakia is not SO bad. since II can
communicate with the North sea py
the River Elbe and with the Black sea
by the Danube. From a military point
of view, however. it's frontiers appear
to be indefensible. Germany sur
rounds the western part OF the Couif-
try. Either the Poles or the nun
garians could easily invade the eastern
| part, which is so narrow that moblllza-
| tion for its defense would be very an
/ ficult. 1t is obvious. therefore, that
Czechoslovakia. even more than soilie
| of the other states of central -urope'
must spare no pains to lay the louiud-
! tionS of peace with her neighhorS.
| The western half of the country con,
! sists of the provinces of Bohemia ana
Moravia and part of SieSia. Ihese
provinces are extremely rich, both IN
| dustrially and agriculturally. bohemia
was called the Pearl of Austria.
Moreover. these provinces form an eco
nomic and geograp phical unit consisting
| of fertile plains bordered by hlgh hlils
The eastern half of the country con-
Ssts. however, of the thinly populateo
province of Slovakia and that sub-Car-
pathian region that looks southwark
over the plains of Hungary rather than
toward Bohemia. AS the rivers ana
valleys all run southwark into Hungary,
natural communication with Prague to
the west is rather difficult.
The SlovakS. though racially akin to
the CzechS, have been united economi-
cally with Hungary for centuries. They
We're accustomed to go down to the
Hungarian plains for work in the sum-
mer and northward to the mountains in
winter for work in the lumber camps
and to run down logs to the Hungarian
| market. Thus. while the western half
| of Czechoslovakia is a natural unit, the
eastern half is not naturally connected
with it. Great skill will be required to
weld the two parts firmly.
The population of the country is about
| 100000 900. composed roughly of 5000 900
Czechs. $500 Slovaks. 1000 Germans,
100000 Ruthenans, 200. 600 Magyars and
i so coo Jews. In Bohemia, which is the
most densely populated province. AZ per
cent of the population is engaged in in
| dustry. 46 per cent in agriculture and II
| per cent in commerce.
Largely Roman Catholic.
Under the leadership of Jan Huss
| the reformation swept over Bohemia
| and Moravia, but after the Haps-
| burgs crushed the Czech armies
Professionalism was stamped out large
| ly and the majority of the people of
both provinces are now Roman Cath
olics. They are not particularly
Jealous in the faith. however. Thus
Huss, the enemy of Catholicism, is
everywhere revered by the Catholic
population and is. indeed the nA-
tional hero. Moreover, there isfea.
movement among certain priests to.
secede from the authority of Home.
1t has been reported that seVeraf of
the priests have recently married, =.
In Slovakia. on the other hand, the
population is devoutly Catholic Th6
| Protestant churches of the entire