Page:The Czechoslovak Review, vol3, 1919.djvu/437

companions, are ignorant; it is not for us to advise, it is for you to decide. If you think that you have erred, retract openly. But if you are innocent, persevere to death, to your last breath, in the truth that you have found.

The master looks through tears at Duba. But in his soul he feels fixed upon him innumerable eyes of his friends over at home, students and preachers, noble ladies and their servant women, peasants and professors, knights and doctors who came to him to seek the truth; eyes that were fastened on him, as he preached in his chapel of Bethlehem, eyes of simple men and women who came to him for the way of salvation. To all of them he spoke of the light, the faith, the life; he showed them the way; they believed in him. Could he betray them? To retract! To abjure a truth that does not belong to him alone! Rather than denounce truth the master goes to the stake.

The University Militant, University Triumphant received that sacred inheritance, the unqualified, full veneration of truth. This is, I believe, what professor Masaryk always told his students: examine and judge; judge without prejudice, without any other rule but conscience. Serve the truth, love it sincerely, and be sure that thereby you will serve the country.

The true, living, active faith always triumphs. That is the second great lesson taught us by the University of Prague—confidence, optimism, love, love of the people, love of the simple, the ignorant, the humble, of all those whose constant labor created the fatherland and sustains it. Truth, democracy, country—that is the tri-color of the University of Prague, the banner which it has flown from its first day and which it has preserved intact during storms, the flag that floats today victoriously over the young Czechoslovak Republic.

The glass industry of the Czechoslovak Republic is thoroughly organized and is affiliated with the Central Association of Czechoslovak Industry (Mikulandská ul. 6, Prague II.). It is divided into three sections for tube and poured glass, for sheet glass and for refined glass. In the first division are found plants which make bottles of all kinds, table glass, fancy glass, glass used for lighting purposes, and tube and rod glass for further manufacture, The second section consists of those factories which produce sheet and crown glass, and the last section includes all those establishments which convert glass into armlets, pearls, artificial jewelry, buttons and novelties, or which take partly manufactured glass and increase its value by polishing, cutting, engraving, painting, etching and enameling.

Some of the big glass manufacturers have their own shops for the refining of their products, but a majority of the glass refineries are independent establishments which get their raw material from ordinary glass works.

There are in Czechoslovakia factories equipped with all the latest aids of modern chemistry and engineering, large plants located near coal mines and in centres of railroad transportation, but there are also old works scattered through the forested regions and dating back to times, when wood was used as fuel. Most of the modern glass factories are found in northern and northeastern Bohemia, and this district is also the headquarters of the well-known Gablonz (Jablonec) ware, made by the workers in their homes.

The quality of Bohemian glass is famous all over the world, and this reputation has been won by hard competition in the course of centuries. It is due to the incomparable quality of the product and to conscientious and skillful finishing by thoroughly trained workmen.

During the war all export of Bohemian glass stopped, and in the meantime the world market was supplied by our competitors. And yet as soon as war was over, the demand for Bohemian glass became at once insistent; it was plain that the buyers were not satisfied with the quality and finish of the products which were supplied to the market while our industry was out of it. It appears now that not only will