ers in the Dual Monarchy,
nearly a million of whose subjects are in Russia--and of these at
least fifty thousand Czechs are fighting the Austrians and
Germans in the ranks of the Roumanian army. Many more will refuse
to leave Russia, but the coming back of one-half, after having
witnessed the winning of liberty by the Russians, will influence
their countrymen in no small degree. Just as the French soldiers
under Lafayette and Rochambeau, after helping us gain our
independence, returned from the free fields of America to a
France where the burdens of the plain people were almost
unendurable and brought on the great French Revolution, the
soldiers and prisoners who return to Prussia and to Austria-Hungary
from the strange scenes of the Russian Revolution may, perhaps,
leaven the inert slave masses of the Central Empires with a
spirit of revolt for liberty.

We should institute a great propaganda from the Italian front.
For instance, I have been told by a man who has been on that
front, a man who should know, that if a few American troops were
sent there and signs erected stating "Come over and surrender to
the Americans, you will be taken to America well fed and paid a
dollar per day when you volunteer to work," there would be a
great rush of Austro-Hungarian troops eager to be taken prisoner.

The losses of Austria and Hungary have been enormous--men up to
fifty-five have been drafted for the army, and the troops have
often suffered defeat and the horrors of retreat at the hands of
Russians, Serbians, and Italians.

And all the time the iron hand of the German Kaiser grasps more
and more of the power. Cheerless prospect it is for the once gay
Hungarians, the once happy Austrians, if to financial ruin and
the killing of the flower of their youth is to be added the iron
horror of Prussian domination.

Our citizens of Austrian and especially of Hungarian descent have
been loyal to their new flag. And our great President with
enlightened wisdom has eased the enemy alien regulations so as to
favour those born in the Dual Monarchy. America will never
forget the loyalty, ungrudgingly given by those of her people
born under the double eagle of the Hapsburgs.

In my many visits to Hungary I grew to like and admire the
Hungarians. Natural in manners, hospitable, polite, there is
something in them that wins Americans. How different the open
hospitality and friendliness in Budapest from the stern, cold
formality of the Prus