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Historic Markers Honor Thomas Garrigue Masaryk Carol Hochman, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

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Historic Markers Honor Thomas Garrigue Masaryk Carol Hochman, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania Selected Papers from the 2003 SVU North American Conference, Cedar Rapids, Iowa, 26-28 June 2003 Historic Markers Honor Thomas Garrigue Masaryk Carol Hochman, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania Pennsylvania’s historic marker program, established in 1946, highlights people, places, and events significant in state and national history. Currently there are nearly 1,800 of these blue and gold markers located throughout the state. During the past two years, two markers were dedicated to the efforts of Thomas Garrigue Masaryk during his visit to Pennsylvania in 1918. Most recently, on July 23, 2002, a historic marker commemorating Masaryk’s visit to Independence Hall in Philadelphia was officially unveiled thanks to the efforts of Pennsylvania’s Honorary Consul General of the Czech Republic, Peter Rafaeli. A year earlier, on May 31, 2001, a ceremony was held in Pittsburgh to honor Masaryk’s efforts in organizing Czechs and Slovaks in the signing of The Pittsburgh Agreement, an event which helped to establish an independent Czechoslovak state after the First World War. Attending the ceremony to unveil this historic marker were descendants of two men who helped organize and also signed this agreement. Thomas Kotik, the great-grandson of Thomas Garrigue Masaryk joined us that day. He spoke about “The Pittsburgh Agreement as an important symbol of how different nationalities can come together peacefully to create a free and open society;” a relevant point in today’s world of protests and strife. Also in attendance that day were the granddaughter and grandson of the second man important to the signing of this agreement, Milan Getting. The high regard that Milan Getting had for President Masaryk is reflected in the fact that his grandson is named Thomas Masaryk Getting. The Pittsburgh historic marker is actually the second plaque dedicated to the efforts of President Masaryk in this city. A bronze plaque was dedicated to Masaryk and President Woodrow Wilson on October 28, 1989 and is located in the lobby of the high rise office building which had been constructed on the site where the agreement was signed: the Loyal Order of the Moose Lodge. Much to the regret of many in Pittsburgh, the lodge was torn down in the 1980s to make way for this corporate office building. However, thanks to the efforts of the Czech and Slovak population in the Pittsburgh area, an agreement was reached to install a bronze plaque in the lobby near the site where Czech and Slovak immigrants met in 1918 to sign the agreement. The story of The Pittsburgh Agreement is, in part, the story of the efforts of Thomas Garrigue Masaryk and Milan Alexander Getting to create an independent Czech and Slovak state. During the years 1914-1918, they conducted a very successful public relations campaign in the United States and Europe to promote the idea of Czech and Slovak unity. From 1924 - 1932, Milan Getting served as the Czechoslovak Consul for the Western Pennsylvania area and also served as the Press Bureau Chief at the Czechoslovak Embassy in Washington, D.C. Milan Getting emigrated from Slovakia to Pittsburgh in 1902. He immediately became involved in Sokol lodge activities and, in an attempt to keep Sokols around the country in touch with each other, by 1905 was single-handedly publishing the Slovensky Sokol , a weekly newspaper. He remained its editor until 1919. As an editor and journalist with national coverage of Slovak communities, Getting wrote and published many articles supporting his lifelong dream of establishing an independent Slovakia. He recorded the details of his efforts to do so in a book - 1 - Selected Papers from the 2003 SVU North American Conference, Cedar Rapids, Iowa, 26-28 June 2003 which he authored and titled: American Slovaks and the Evolution of the Czechoslovak Concept During the Years 1914 - 1918. I will share some of Mr. Getting’s eyewitness accounts of Professor Masaryk’s visit to the United States in 1918 as he recorded them in this book, which was translated into English by his son, Milan Peter Getting. By 1914, Milan Getting, at the age of 36, was well into writing about and debating what he termed the “Czechoslovak concept” -- a federation of nations and, within the federation, the joining of Slovakia with Bohemia, Moravia, and Silesia. Unfortunately, his efforts were not always supported by the powerful Slovak League, which was organized in Pittsburgh in 1906. Because the homeland Czechs would be in the majority, because of their greater population, many Slovaks preferred to negotiate with Hungary and opposed the proposed Czech/Slovak union. Getting felt an alliance between Czechs and Slovaks was a natural pairing that he favored over an independent Slovak state within the Hungarian Empire. Eventually, Slovak communities in the United came to support the Czech/Slovak alliance, but the Pittsburgh Slovaks were particularly resistant to this idea and stated as much in an official Memorandum. In this atmosphere, Getting worked tirelessly publishing articles promoting Czech and Slovak unity. He organized numerous fund-raising campaigns to gather money and encourage men to enlist as Czechoslovaks in support of the war against the Austro-Hungarian Empire. From 1914 - 1918, Mr. Getting conducted a public relations campaign within the Slovak communities of the United States that set the stage perfectly for the visit of Thomas Garrigue Masaryk. Professor Masaryk had left Prague in December of 1914, not knowing that with the start of World War I, he would not return until four years later -- almost to the day. Masaryk’s efforts as an exile during these years were also devoted to the “Czechoslovak concept” and the idea of totally independent nation states. During the years of 1916-1918, he was the Chairman of the Czechoslovak National Council in Exile. One of his goals, as he traveled throughout Europe and eventually to the United States, was to establish the name Czecho-Slovak in the media reports about the war. One of Masaryk’s early successes was the organization of the Czecho-Slovak Legion. The story of the Legion’s journey across Siberia in the midst of the Russian Civil War was covered in detail by the American press. Masaryk was also successful in gaining President Woodrow Wilson’s attention for the cause of the oppressed people of Central Europe and, in a statement of Allied war aims written in 1917, the “Czecho-Slovaks” were named as one of the groups to be liberated. Efforts to create an image of Czecho-Slovaks united as a country were beginning to catch on. Professor Masaryk had several reasons for coming to America in 1918. One had to do with making plans for transporting the Czecho-Slovak Legion from Russia to the Western European front in France. This plan involved using the railroad to cross Russia and Siberia, Red Cross ships to transport the army across the Pacific, and then moving the troops across the United States and the Atlantic Ocean to join the war effort in France. But Masaryk’s primary goal was to make Americans aware of Slovak and Czech aspirations for freedom. Thus, he began his journey to the United States in the manner of the Commander-in-Chief of his army who wanted to inspire his soldiers to get ready to make the same journey. Early in 1918, Masaryk traveled from London to Moscow where civil unrest was already beginning. His goal was to board a Red Cross train that would be crossing Siberia headed for Vladivostok on the Pacific coast. As fate - 2 - Selected Papers from the 2003 SVU North American Conference, Cedar Rapids, Iowa, 26-28 June 2003 would have it, Masaryk boarded that train on March 7, which was his birthday. He was 68 years old as he started this journey across Siberia, traveling in a hard wooden seat in the style of trains of that period. He was said to be most grateful when a Red Cross worker supplied him with a soft cushion for this seat. During the trip, the train sometimes stopped because of the fighting that was going on between warring factions in the Russian Civil War, and sometimes stops were made to cut wood to power the locomotive. The trip took about a month. After leaving Vladivostok, Masaryk stopped in Japan to meet with officials there regarding the plans being made for the transport of the Legion across the Pacific Ocean, and then he sailed from Japan aboard the Empress of Asia for Vancouver, Canada. On May 2, 1918, the New Yorksky Dennik newspaper reported that Professor Masaryk had arrived in Vancouver. On the 6th of May, Masaryk passed through Chicago where it was reported that over 200,000 people gathered to greet him. On May 10th, Masaryk arrived in Washington, D.C. where members of the Congress and Senate greeted him. On May 25th, the Czechs and Slovaks of New York City greeted Masaryk during an exciting time in the war. Russia was falling and the United States was mobilizing to join the Western front. Austria-Hungary was proposing all kinds of peace moves, and the Germans were massing to break the resistance of the Allies before American troops could arrive in full force at the Western Front. The Czecho-Slovak Legion was also involved in the battle as they made their way by train across Russia and Siberia just as Masaryk had done. In New York, Masaryk discovered a giant map that had been placed in front of the New York City Public Library so that people could watch the progress of the Czecho-Slovak Legion. At this same time, plans were being made in New York, Pittsburgh, and Cleveland to greet the man who was already being acclaimed as the First President of the Czecho-Slovak Republic.
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