Page:The Czechoslovak Review, vol3, 1919.djvu/427

choslovak Republic stand absolutely loyal to their new state which in addition to political liberty has already realized so much of their program. Even though they are often still hungry, they have confidence in the future.

The workingmen are very devoted to their organizations, for they see in them the instrument for the bettering of their economic condition. Disputes as to wages etc. are settled for entire industries by collective bargaining between the employers and the labor unions. In the metal industry, for instance, the Association of Steel Manufacturers (Zemský Spolek Strojíren) deals with the labor organization of metal workers for all of Bohemia. In February of this year these two bodies agreed on changes which the eight hour law made necessary in the conditions of labor, by simply bringing up to date the existing agreement which had been in effect since February, 1912. I wonder, how many contracts between employers and workers in this country have been faithfully observed for seven years and then modified without a strike. The agreement I am speaking of applies to some fifty steel mills and foundries, employing 30,000 laborers: it provides for the distribution of the 48 hour week between the weekdays, settles the minimum wage to be paid by the industry, under what conditions piece work shall prevail, pay for overtime, rights of labor representatives etc. An agreement like this is looked upon by both parties as law and is strictly observed on both sides. Labor unions are responsible and stick to the bargain they made.

But while labor unions have been constructed primarily for the purpose of improving the material lot of the members, they cannot avoid contact with politics. Most of the organized workers are socialists, and as there are at present two principal socialist parties among the Czechoslovak workingmen, there are also in most cases two labor unions for the same industry, and some clash is bound to result among the workers. The situation arose out of the development of political life among the Czechs during the last two generations. After 1848 came first the period of purely nationalist agitation, but with the growth of industrial life the social question came to the fore and its first champions were social democrats, professing the doctrines of Marx. When the first social democratic deputies of Czech nationality put aside the traditional demand for the restoration of national rights, a large part of the working class organized a new labor party, known first as national socialist, now as the Czechoslovak socialist party. In order to maintain itself this party had to create its own labor unions. This party was the worst enemy of Austrian militarism, and during the war most of its leaders were arrested and its organizations suppressed.

When the Czechoslovak Republic came to life on the ruins of the Dual Empire, one half of the program of the Czechoslovak socialists was realized. There remained the effort to bring about in the new, free state economical and social justice. In this it is at one with the social democrats, except that it refuses to adopt the Marxist doctrines. The two parties co-operate in the National Assembly and cabinet, and while local friction is bound to occur, they will undoubtedly coalesce sooner or later. While the labor unions are thus dragged into politics, they nevertheless try to limit their activity to the economic field. A very promising branch of their work is the establishment of co-operative societies which on the one side reduce the cost of living for the members, and on the other side teach the workers not lo look forward to exaggerated and false dreams of complete and sudden socialization, but to gradual development which will come through the spreading of co-operative institutions.

Let me emphasize once more that the Czechoslovak organized labor has no intention of indulging in social experiments at the risk of the republic and of its own prosperity. It is devoted to the Czechoslovak Republic and collaborates heartily at its upbuilding.

Everybody in Bohemia today is studying English—high school students, businessmen, professional people and state officials. Tutors are in gread demand and new textbooks and grammars multiply. One of the recently published helps is a collection of idiomatic phrases for use of students who have mastered English grammar and acquired a fairly extensive vocabulary. The book is called “Jak to říci anglicky?” and contains over 1500 commonly used turns and phrases which are peculiar to the English language and cannot be translated literally.