aring, enthusiastic
in outlook--the Czechs win the Russian masses. There is the spirit of
the Crusaders in these fighters, a spirit of personal and national
cleanliness. Liberty to them is not a thing to wave a flag over but to
die for, if necessary. They are too sincere to be dramatic.

[Sidenote: A force in establishing confidence.]

Having come out of Armenia, with its remnant race of human wrecks, and
after months of the demoralizing fatalism and moral laxity of the
Russian, I was astounded by the miracle of stability of the tiny Czech
force in establishing an economic frontier between the Germanophile
sections of Russia and freedom-loving Siberia. Not only is this force
the key to the military problem of opposing Germany in Siberia. But from
the standpoint of sympathetic friendship between confused Russia and
America, the Czecho-Slovaks offer the most helpful force in establishing
confidence and turning into fact the good will which America bears to
Russian citizenry.

They can best tell their own story. Lieutenant B---- of my English class
was typical.

"When war was declared, I was in Switzerland," he told me. "Late in July
I climbed to the heights overlooking Austria. I could throw a stone over
into that land of oppression. That very day, when I went down into the
Swiss village, I heard that the Austrian mobilization had been ordered.
I could not believe that war would come. I returned to the land I hated
and in two days I had joined my class. We were to fight Russia. This was
unthinkable. Better to mutiny against our German and Magyar officers
than murder our brother Slavs.

[Sidenote: Czech regiments went over to Russia by companies.]

"And so it was that the word was secretly passed through whole regiments
of our men to desert to the Russians. The opportunity came when we faced
Brusiloff's army. The Russians knew and were ready to receive us. We
walked over in companies, with banners flying and bands playing and men
falling before the shots that rang out behind us. We hoped to turn and
fight against our oppressors. And for a while some of us did. But one by
one those of us who had entered the Russian ranks were removed and sent
to prison camps, whence we were scattered among the homes and factories
of Russia. My own band of companies was soon thoroughly broken up and
dispersed from Turkestan and the Caucasus to Tobolsk and Irkutsk. As
German influences strengthened at the Russian court we were sent to