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By April, the United States had reversed its decision to
stay neutral. On April 6, 1917, it declared war on
Germany. On December 7, 1917, it followed with a
declaration of war on Austria-Hungary. A total of 40,000
Czech and Slovak Americans would serve in the U.S. forces.On January 8, 1918, President Wilson issued his Fourteen Points as a blueprint for future peace. Most important to the Czech community was the tenth point. "The peoples of Austria-Hungary, whose place among the nations we wish to see safeguarded and assured, should be accorded the freest opportunity of autonomous development." On May 5, 1918, Professor Masaryk received a triumphant welcome in Chicago. The Czech press recorded a crowd of 150,000. He continued to speak in Cleveland, Boston, and Baltimore with similar results. On May 30, 1918, 20,000 supporters of the Czech and Slovak cause marched in Pittsburgh. It was the largest political gathering up to that time in Pittsburgh. Through political unity, the Czechs and Slovaks hoped to win the sanction of the U.S. and European governments. Masaryk knew they stood a better chance of gaining independence if they worked together, but he had to convince the Slovakians that it was in their best interest to do so. Masaryk tells his strategy. "I was able to show the Slovaks how little they were known in the political world and how serious a failure, we should have courted, had they acted independently. The idea of an independent Slovakia could not be taken seriously though there might be a theoretical possibility of Slovak autonomy under Hungary...Both Slovaks and Czechs knew that I had always stood for Slovakia; that as a Slovak by origin and tradition, my feelings are Slovak, and that I have always worked, not merely talked, for Slovakia." 
The Pittsburgh agreement was signed on May 31, 1918. In the
agreement, the American Czechs and Slovaks for the first
time in a public, written paper, pledged support for a
common country. At the same time, the agreement affirmed
the independent nature of the two republics. Masaryk's
signature on the document made it an official declaration of
the Czechoslovak National Council. Directly below and to
the right of Masaryk's signature is that of Hynek Dostal.
The signatures confirm that Thomas Masaryk and Hynek Dostal
had a professional relationship, if not a personal one.Masaryk describes himself as a complex man. "I am a realist, but I like romance. I see no contradiction in that...I continually have to hold myself in check; when I chose realism and scientific method, it meant that I had to control my romanticism, and to practice mental discipline. I force myself to be a realist in practice: I force myself continuously and consciously. In the same way I overcame the Slav anarchy in myself, in philosophy and other things, by the help of the teachers of the English-speaking world; Locke, Hume, and the other empiricists mitigated the teaching of Plato in me. People seem not to understand that criticism, especially bitter criticism, is often a sign of self-criticism, a painful confession. And I always have within me the conflict between the impulsive Slovak and the sober Czech. Man is not a simple being; it has been my misfortune that not only my adversaries, but my followers even, wanted to make me a one-sided type." 
Masaryk met with President Wilson on June 19th. On June
28th, the State Department issued a strong statement
supporting the freedom of Slavic people from
Austro-Hungarian rule. Shortly thereafter, both France and
England recognized Czechoslovakia as an Allied nation with
the Czech National Council as the official government. This
was enough for Masaryk to convince the United States to
declare the Paris-based council as the "de facto belligerent
government" in September 1918.Masaryk, Benes and Stefanik worked diligently on a declaration of independence. Amid the scrawlings and corrections of the original document, lies the determination of three diligent patriots. On October 5, Germany, Austria-Hungary and Turkey asked for an armistice. German and Austrian historians, both political and military, agree that President Wilson's answer on October 18 to Austria's offer of peace, sealed her fate and settled the question of Czechoslovakian freedom. Emperor Charles attempted a desperate plan of turning Austria in to a federal state. Masaryk, realising that sympathy with Austria still existed, immediately issued the Czechoslovakian Declaration of Independence on October 18, 1918, in Washington D.C. The declaration was cast in a form to remind Americans of their own declaration of independence. On October 27, 1918, Vienna accepted President Wilson's terms for peace and the following day, October 28th, 1918, national independence was proclaimed in Prague. Two days later, Slovak leaders formally entered Czechoslovakia. Masaryk would later write his feelings on political negotiations. "Politics, too, demand a balance between reason and feeling. Even in the most delicate political situation we must notice and plan carefully, what, how and on whom we can count; it has to be as accurate as mathematics; our feelings must never err in their observations and calculations. But the aim, the ideal, is not laid down by reason alone, but by feeling also. The means are dictated by reason; but we can change the situation to suit our aim, we can introduce new elements into it, something of our own. That is creation; that is the poetry of life." 
Czech independence was the result of world turmoil that
caused the fall of the Austria-Hungarian empire. For the
Czech's part, they won their freedom by fighting in France,
Italy and Russia. The irony lies in the fact that the
success of the revolt at home was achieved by force on
foreign soil.On December 21, 1918, Masaryk finally realized his dream. "Friday has always been for me a special day of destiny. I do not know whether other men have such days but, in my case, the weightiest and happiest events have often happened on Fridays. I escaped from Austria in December 1914 on a Friday; President Wilson's final answer to Austria and our national Declaration of Independence were issued on a Friday; and on a Friday I set my foot once again on Czech earth after four years labour abroad."Ten years later in 1929, the St. Louis Globe-Democrat reported on the meetings between Dostal and Masaryk that took place at the "HLAS" print shop in St. Louis. "Dr. Hynek Dostal was associated with Dr. Thomas G. Masaryk in the work of liberating the Czechs and the Slovakians from Austrian rule and in 1919-1920 was largely instrumental in the creation of the present Republic of Czechoslovakia. He worked for that cause in both America and Europe. Dr. Masaryk, now president of the new republic, twice visited St. Louis to confer with Dr. Dostal; so it may be said that, in a sense, the map of Europe was changed by zealous liberators who met in a small room on South Eleventh Street in St. Louis, near the center of the Bohemian settlement." |