Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-08-10
CZECHO AFFAIRS TWINE ROUND
LAWYERS LIFE IN AMERICA
Charles PergIer Busy Re-
forming Nations Poll
teal System.
Made Citizen by Serving as
Minister to Japan-AIso
U. S. Envoy.
BY WILLIAM HARD.

One of the most amazing and most
curious careers Springing from the en-
virons of the Capital City is that OF the
Iowa lawyer, Mr.. Charles Pergler, now
busily engage in trying to reform the
political electoral system OF the repub-
lie of Czechoslovakia.
Mr.. Pergler is the author OF q pro-
found treatise on The Judicial Inter-
probation of International Law in the
United States" and has been dean
of the American University School here
of economics and government; but his
main preoccupation is that of discour-
aging and discomfiting Mr.. Eduard
Benes, who is the Czechoslovakian
minister of foreign affairs. This effort
Mr.. Pergler conducts in both heml-
spheres, and it is difficult to know at
any given time whether he Is studying
and teaching jurisprudence in Wash
ington or making stump speeches in
Prague.
Encountering him on the streets of
Washington the other day, this writer
inquired of him:
How are you getting along with
classifying the Supreme Courts inter-
national law decisions?"
Mr.. Pergler replied:
i've been elected in Prague to the
lower Czechoslovakian Parliament"
further. Il thought you were an Amer
ican."
II was" replied Mr. Pergler, "but I
automatically got CzechoSlovakian citi-
zenship when the CZechoslovakian gov
eminent made me Minister to Japan"
American at the Time.
But" objected this writer, you were
an American citizen when you We're
Czechoslovakian commissioner to the
United States"
Yes" replied our deepest student
and practitioner of international COM
plexities. 1T was. That is why I was
not made Minister to the United States
but only commissioner. AS Minister, /
should have had to become Czecho-
slovak. AS commissioner, could re-
main and did remain an American.
My son is an American now. I am
back here visiting him and my wife.
They like it here. There are lots OF
things here that would be good for the
politics of my country"
This writer thereupon resumed his
efforts to understand the politics OF
Mr.. Perglers country, which at his
birth was CzechoSlovakia, and then
was the United States, and now is again
Czechoslovakia. These efforts on the
part of this writer began some 13 years
ago when Mr.. Pergler, residing at
Cresco, Iowa, but circulating through
Chicago and New York and Washing
ton, was the principal American agent
and manager of Thomas Garlgue
Masaryk, who journeyed to Washing
ton to change the mind, and who did
change the mind, of President Wood
row Wilson regarding the propriety and
desirability of Czechoslovakian indie
pendence from the Austro- Hungarian
empire and who subsequently became,
and now is, President OF the Czecno-
slovakian republic. Mr.. Pergler,
through his services to DIR. Masaryk
and to the Czechoslovakian cause, be-
came the first representative OF the new
Czechoslovakian State in its diplomatic
relations with our State Department
and was then dispatched, again as a
diplomatic representative, to TOXIC.
There began his dispute with Mr..
Benes. then as now Professionalism
minister of foreign affairs and active
figure in all European international
political maneuvers.
Dispute Conducted Here.
This dispute Mr.. Pergler, returning
to Washington, conducted from thIs
side of the AtIantic-for years-througn
announcements and manifestoes Inen,
suddenly. last October he performed
one of the most startling feats In all
contemporary political history.