English Translation

56 - 15 -- the idea of self-employment, as far as it was expressed in the public press itself, came to Omaha. There, around the "American Education Association" (Americká Osvěta), a circle of deep-thinking men was gathered, and one of them, the writer Janák, wrote already on l2. August 19l4 in his paper: "The European powers can, until they dictate the peace negotiations, give the Czechs independence, or at least allow them independent administration. And here it is up to us, who live outside the borders of Austria, to take the first step in this direction, to send a petition to the Russian, English and French governments aimed at it, or that we may send our representatives to those countries' And Janák also proves equally unusual understanding for positive work, He continues: "And for that you need money. From this horror the "Americké Osvěta" ("American Educational Association") opens a collection in favor of the "Czech Fund", The first donor to this fund'is the family of the publisher Rosický, then Janák and Stanislaus Šerpán. Those who thought 'of political work were at first very little. The idea of a revolutionary struggle for independence was absolutely not popular and one cannot be surprised. On the contrary, it was pursued by clever mockery and hatred among the Austrians, by disunderstanding and disregarding the broad masses, otherwise the thought of the independence of the Czechoslovak countries grew spontaneously and at the same time at different ends of the American continent. In New York, too, it was an inconspicuous Czech man, the tailor Josef Marek, an enthusiastic admirer of our struggle for freedom, who in his records of these' beginnings says the following: "Only in the half of August did the National Printing House in Omaha green the "Czech Fund". When I read their appeal, I thought that one should also start a similar action here in New York. But.it passed one day after the other, without anything wrong, Then came that Czech "extra" that the Vltava was red before Czech blood, that the Czech regiments mutated, that Prague had been bombarded and that Masaryk and Klcfáč had been shot. - 16 -