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H. A. Miller and the Mid-European Union of 1918

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 March 2019

Arthur J. May
Arthur J. May*
Affiliation:
University of Rochester
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Extract

At noon on Saturday, October 26, 1918, as World War I drew to its agonizing close, the courtyard behind stately Independence Hall in Philadelphia witnessed one of the dramatic episodes of its long and colorful history. From a platform Professor Thomas G. Masaryk, soon to be President-designate of Czechoslovakia, read out a "Declaration of Common Aims" of the newly created Mid- European Union. Flanking the venerable philosopher-statesman from Prague were representatives of European nationalities who had just signed the "Declaration," eminent citizens of Philadelphia, and delegates of American patriotic societies and political parties.

Type
Research Article
Information
American Slavic and East European Review , Volume 16 , Issue 4 , December 1957 , pp. 473 - 488
Copyright
Copyright © Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies 1957

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References

1 Gibbons, Herbert A., John Wanamaker (2 vols., New York, 1926), II, 421-2.Google Scholar

2 Cleveland Plain Dealer, October 28, 1918; Phila. Public Ledger, October 27, 1918.

3 See the obituary notice by Negley K. Teeters in American Sociological Review, XVI (1951), 563-4. I am deeply indebted to Professor Teeters of Temple University and to Maurice Miller, son of Professor Miller, for permission to study the unpublished memoirs and other papers of Professor Miller, including the Minutes of the Mid-European Union, which are in their possession. (These documents are cited hereafter as “Miller Papers“).

4 Thomas, William I. and Znaniecki, Florian, The Polish Peasant in Europe and America (2 vols., Chicago, 1918)Google Scholar.

5 Miller Papers. Cf. Herbert A. Miller, “What Woodrow Wilson and America meant to Czechoslovakia,” in Czechoslovakia, edited by Robert J. Kerner (Berkeley, Calif., 1940), p. 74. (Hereafter this work will be cited as “Kerner“).

6 North American Review, c c (1914), 879-86.

7 The Mew York Times, May 23, 1915.

8 Cleveland, 1916.

9 Philadelphia, 1924.

10 The original idea of a Union Miller credited to Rose Szewc of New York City, who was interested in the foreign-born; she served as secretary of the Union.

11 Illuminating data on these activities are available in Masaryk, T. G., The Making of a State (New York, 1927), pp. 27, 84-85, 218Google Scholar: Benes, Eduard, My War Memoirs, (Boston, 1928), pp. 98–102 Google Scholar; Pergler, Charles, America in the Struggle for Czechoslovak Independence (Philadelphia, 1926), pp. 22–25 Google Scholar; Voska, Emmanuel and Irwin, Will, Spy and Counterspy (New York, 1940), pp. 26–34 Google Scholar, 200-01; Capek, Thomas, The Czechs in America (Boston, 1920), pp. 265-75Google Scholar.

12 Miller Papers; Mary E. McDowell, “Tried in her father's stead,” Survey, XXXVI (1916), p. 116; ibid., “Alice Masarykova,” Survey, LXIII (1930), pp. 630-2. Excerpts from the letters written from prison by Miss Masaryk to her mother appeared in the Atlantic Monthly, CXXVI (1920), pp. 577-87, 770-9.

13 Miller, Herbert A., “The Lost Division,” Survey XL (1918), 307-9Google Scholar.

14 Masaryk, op. cit., pp. 218-43; The New York Times, May 23, 26, 27, 1918.

15 The New York Times, June 16, 1918; George Creel, How we advertised America (New York, 1920), p. 186; Kerner, op. cit., p. 80.

16 In his dealings with influential Americans, Masaryk profited greatly from help tendered by a wealthy manufacturer of Chicago, Charles R. Crane, a staunch friend of the Slav nationalities; years before, Crane had persuaded Masaryk to occupy for a time the chair in Slavonic studies which he established in the University of Chicago. His son, Richard, was secretary to Robert Lansing, Secretary of State; his daughter, Frances, married Jan, the ill-starred son of Thomas G. Masaryk. The idea which Masaryk originally had of a society of Americans exclusively to promote the interests of nationalities was abandoned as impracticable. Masaryk, op. cit., p. 254.

17 Miller Papers; The New York Times, Sept. 16, 1918; Survey, XLI (1918) p. 3; Masaryk, op. cit., pp. 250-1, 291.

18 Miller Papers. Cf. Kerner, op. cit., p. 81.

19 Miller Papers; Herbert A. Miller, “The Bulwark of Freedom,” Survey, XLI (1918), 5; Masaryk, op. cit., p. 255.

20 Miller Papers. On di Cellere, see, René Albrecht-Carrié, Italy at the Peace Conference (New York, 1938), pp. 46, 79-80.

21 Miller Papers. Miller's statement also appeared in the Survey, XLI (1918), 5-10. To aid the common cause, Masaryk published a vigorous argument for the breakup of the Habsburg Monarchy, contending that dismemberment would not only shackle Germany but prove helpful to Russia. “The Czecho-Slovak nation,” Nation, CVII (1918), 386-8. Cf. Charles Pergler, “The Bohemian question,” Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, LXXII (1917), pp. 158-60.

22 Minutes of the Union, Oct. 3, 1918, Miller Papers. The surviving records of the Union are incomplete. The Minutes were so long and so detailed that “we have decided to cut them, only put in the essentials,” Miller said. Ibid., Nov. 18, 1918.

23 Ibid.

24 Oct. 23, 1918.

25 Kerner, op. cit., pp. 82-84; Masaryk, op. cit., pp. 294-5; Alfred Leif, Brandeis (Harrisburg, 1936), p. 407; Robert J. Casey and Mary Borglum, Give the Man Room (Indianapolis, 1952), pp. 250-1.

26 Minutes of the Mid-European Union, Oct. 21, 1918. Miller Papers.

27 It was intended to display the bell in leading American and Old World cities as the symbol of a happier tomorrow for central Europe, and then models would be cast for the capital of each participating nationality. But somehow or other Carpatho-Ukrainian- Americans got possession of the bell and shipped it to Prague.

28 Philadelphia Record, October 28, 1918.

29 Philadelphia Public Ledger, October 23, 1918.

30 Philadelphia Evening Public Ledger, October 23, 1918.

31 On Sychynski, see, May, Arthur J., The Hapsburg Monarchy, 1867-1914 (Cambridge, Mass., 1951), pp. 341-2Google Scholar, and Park, Robert E., The Immigrant Press and its Control (New York, 1922), pp. 333-5Google Scholar.

32 New York Evening Sun, October 25, 1918.

33 Minutes of the Union, October 23-26, 1918. Miller Papers.

34 Whirring motion picture cameras and policemen with clubs, an observer lamented, I robbed the affair of “Jeffersonian simplicity.” He missed “the stateliness and dignity that might have been expected when the new Middle-Europe Union took its place among the nations of the world.” Philadelphia Inquirer, October 27, 1918.

35 Philadelphia Evening Public Ledger, October 28, 1918; The New York Times, October 28, 31, 1918. See also, Simeon D. Fess, “Mid-European Union: a bar to Germans,” The New Tork Times, December 1, 1918.

36 Minutes of the Union, October 30, 1918, November 6, 1918. Miller Papers.

37 Minutes of the Union, November 12, 1918. Miller Papers.

38 Minutes of the Union, November 18, 1918. Miller Papers; The New York Times, November 25, 1918.

39 Minutes of the Union, November 26, 1918. Miller Papers.

40 Herbert A. Miller, “Statement concerning the history and present prospects of the Mid-European Union,” (undated, but apparently written in the summer of 1919), Miller Papers; J. B. Kozak, “The legacy of T. G. Masaryk,” Czechoslovak Government Press Bureau, April 20, 1945.