The Heart of Europe/Foreword

by Alois Francis Kovarik

Foreword ivilization cannot make true progress without liberty and justice, and it needs peace as well. Without liberty and justice, however, peace is ephemeral. Without peace, progress is or at least seems to be slow. Yet history offers plenty of examples of various social struggles and wars fought to establish the rights of man as an individual and the rights of nations as collective units with the resulting greater progress during the peace periods that followed such struggles. History also gives us examples of “might is right” with the resulting retarding influence on the progress of civilization. As American citizens we consider the declaration of our right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness as the corner-stone of the structure of our democratic form of government. This principle applied to us as individuals we firmly believe to be fundamentally necessary when applied to nations. As a nation we have proved our belief in this principle by the declaration of Monroe’s Doctrine nearly a century ago as well as by our recent beliavior toward Cuba and by our present attitude toward Mexico. What we believe to be the truth for ourselves we believe to be the truth when applied to others. We believe in the right of every nation to life and to the freedom of self-development without interference by force from other nations, provided that such a freedom does not interfere with or violate the corresponding rights of other nations. The present great European war is a conflict between races on the one side espousing this liberal and democratic principle and races on the other side boastfully proclaiming that “might is right.” It is a struggle of races for the possession of the right to their individuality—their national soul—against races denying the weak nations the same right to live as the strong nations. Prussia’s history is a history of conquest, of Germanization, and of preparations for more conquest and Germanization. Even with a knowledge but not a full realization of these facts, the world generally, previous to this war, would have resented on behalf of the German race any insinuation that such crimes as have been committed by the Germans in this war could be claimed to be possible of perpetration by them. During this war, however, the true earmarks of the national character of the Prussianized Germans have become amply known to the world. The world can well form its own judgment about a race that can celebrate and have its school children participate in the celebration of the sinking of the Lusitania! What rights and justice can a conquered nation expect from such a race? The forcible expatriation of the Poles by Prussia in the years preceding the great war as well as the Prussian behavior in Belgium and northern France since the beginningof the war makes Prussia a proper ally of Austria and of Turkey, whose Serbian and Armenian crimes are only a continuation of their histories so replete with murder, oppression, and injustice. Austria’s treatment of Bohemia after the Bohemian period of the thirty years’ war was one of constant forcible expatriation, murder, and attempts at a complete annihilation of the Bohemian people. Her continued fearful oppression and enslavement of the Bohemian people for two centuries and her untiring zeal to destroy all the cultural products of centuries of the Bohemian people, especially their literature, and to erase the glorious history of Bohemia from the pages of history of the nations of the world was the application of “might is right” of victorious German Austria over Bohemia. Were it not for the fact that the blessings flowing from the French Revolution spread over Bohemia, as well as over Europe generally, it is not unlikely that Austria would have continued her fearful rule in Bohemia during the past century as she carried it on during the two preceding centuries. Austria’s moderation in her persecution was not due to any change of her innate nature, but was rather the result of general European pressure in favor of humanity and toleration and also due partly to dynastic fears. Austria’s practised motto ever has been Oppression and Injustice. Under a misrule such as Austria is guilty of over the various peoples of her empire, the peace and progress loving Bohemian race cannot and will not forever remain. In the last half century during which the Bohemian people wrested a small portion of their inherent rights of self-development, they have produced an enviable literature, they have advanced science in all its branches, they have contributed wealth to music and art. Through their own efforts against odds, they have placed themselves as the leading intellectual people in Austria-Hungary. Among them illiteracy is practically unknown. A race with such a strong determination and character has a true and real soul. The Bohemian race to-day is worthy of its illustrious past; it is worthy of its national heroes, Hus, Comenius, and Havlicek. It has the right to self-development unhindered by an undesirable patriarchal government of its German neighbors. It has a right to absolute independence, political as well as cultural. It is hoped that this war may bring, among other things, an end to the vicious rule of minority over majority, of Austrian Germans over the Bohemians, and of the Magyars over the Slovaks and the Serbs.

Alois F. Kovarik

 

New Haven, Conn., January 20, 1917