The Czechoslovak Review/Volume 1/John Siman dead
JOHN SIMAN DEAD.
A few days after issuing the above call to the Bohemian Sokols John Siman, president of the Sokol Union of America and Clerk of the City of Chicago, died of pneumonia February 28, 1917. The day before, while he was unconscious, Republican voters of Chicago made him again their candidate for City Clerk.
John Siman was born in Chicago of Bohemian parents in 1870. He was as good an American as any descendant of the Pilgrim Fathers and in his public life he fought consistently for good government. As City Clerk in Chicago, to which position he was elected by the biggest majority ever given to any candidate, he made an enviable record in economy and efficiency. At the same time he always took a lively interest in the life of his people on the West Side of Chicago, and his character and ability secured him the highest honors in the gift of his country-men. Although he had never seen the land of his ancestors, he heartily approved the movement carried on since the war began for the liberation of Bohemia from the Hapsburg yoke.
Siman’s life exemplifies clearly the fact that a sturdy American patriotism need not conflict with a warm affection for the ancestral land in Europe.
Bohemians in Chicago have suffered a real loss in the death of John Siman.