The Waterbury Democrat., 1937-09-14
FATHER OF HIS
 COUNTRY DIES
Thomas Garriggue Mas aryk Was First Presi-
 dent of CzechOSlovakia

Prague, CEechoslovakia, Sept. 14- (UP)-Thomas Garrigue Masaryk, who rose from Q blacksmith's ap- prentice to become the first presi- dent of the Republic of CEechoslo- vakia, "The Father of His Country, died today of pneumonia and an ar- terial condition. He was S7.
 Masaryk served three times as chief executive of Czechoslovakia. He had been i'll for two weeks and had been near death for two days.
 Last night his condition gradually became worse. He died at 3:20 @. m. without regaining consciousness. His son, Jan Masaryk, minister to London, President Eduoard Benes and Premier Milan Hodza and their wives were ct the bedside.
 It was on Dec. IA, 1895, that the presidential standard was hauled down from the tower of Lany castle the signal that indicated that the grand old man" of Czechoslovakia had resigned the office he had held for 17 years. Up until the time of his death he maintained a deep in- terest in European affairs in which Czechoslovakia is Q key nation be- cause of its precarious location among democracies and dictator ships. Masaryk long had visualiEed Q republic of Czechs and Slovaks independent of Austria, and dreamed as Q boy that he would some day become first president of the Republic of Czechoslovakia.
 He was born March ', 1850, in the serfdom of the old Austrian monarchy, in Goeding in Maehren, Q part of former German Bohemia. His father, Joseph, was e coachman, who had been a serf until he re- ceived his freedom in the revolu- ton of l84s. After finishing ele- inentary school, Masaryk worked in a blacksmith's shop until he went to Vienna to enter the university. There he earned his doctors degree with Q theme on "The Essence of Plates Soul" In the fall of 1876 he met Q young American student ct Leipzig, Charlotte Garrigue, whom he married two years later. She died in 1923.
 Masaryk first entered politics in the middle '8o's, being elected to the Bohemia diet in 1891 as Q mem- ber of tho Young Czech party op- posing conservatism and clericalisnn. He soon fell out with his party as- sociates, however, when he rejected their nationalist radical tendencies and resigned in 1893. In 1907 Mas aryk again entered the diet, this time at the head of his own party, the Realists. With the outbreak of the World war in 1914 he foresaw the collapse of Austria Hungary and the opportunity for formation of his republic. He went to the Al- lied countries seeking support and found 1t. France approved the plan in 1916 when Masaryk ob- tained the approval of Premier Aristide Briand for dividing Austria Into several smaller states. In 1918 he went to Canada and the United States to obtain their approval.
 A CzechoSlovakian national coun- was formed in Paris and recog- nized by the Allied powers. The declaration of Czechoslovakian in- dependence was Issued from the United States on Oct. i8, 1918. Ten days later the revolution began in Prague and on Nov. s, the republic was proclaimed. Masaryk was claos- en first president. Internally there were large numbers of Germans in Bohemia, Hungarians in Southern Slovakia and Ruthenians in the eastern provinces. The Czechs were opponents of religious freedom. The SlovakS were militant Catholics. But Masaryk succeeded in amalgamat- ing all antagonistic elements. He was elected president flain by par- lament on May 27, 1920 and again in 1927. He retired in 1885.