Page:The Czechoslovak Review, vol4, 1920.pdf/168
Other younger organizations are: The Progress Building, Savings and Loan Company, 4963 Broadway; “Oul” Building and Loan Association, 5638 Broadway; Capital Savings Building & Loan Association, 5209 Fleet avenue, with a branch on Buckeye road; Hospodář Savings and Loan Association, 12608 Miles avenue; Quincy Savings and Loan Association, Quincy avenue at East 89th Street.
All these encourage thrift and teach the value of small savings by the same methods which the government adopted for the sale of thrift stamps. Twice a year Včela places on the market a block of shares. The subscriber pays fifty cents a week per share, and at the end of six years is owner of a $200 dollar share, which he may either draw or leave on deposit at five per cent interest.
The builder of a new home can get a construction loan up to three-fourths of the value of the property under way, and these loans are paid off by monthly payments which take care of the interest and constantly reduce the principal. Thus the workingman is assisted to finance the building of his home, and it would require an extraordinary run of bad luck to keep a Czech from completing his payments.
The savings and loan associations have by no means a monopoly of Czech savings and investments. The Broadway Savings and Trust Company, one of the strongest banks in the city, is built largely upon the patronage of the Czechs. The Columbia Savings and Loan Company, also at Broadway and East 55th street, with a branch at 4828 Fleet avenue, also deals chiefly with Bohemians. On the west side the Clark avenue Savings Bank may be considered a Bohemian bank, while the Society for Savings and other down town banks carry many Czech savings accounts. The day after payday in a Czech neighborhood sees a constant procession of depositors with passbooks and hard times seldom find the Czech without an account to draw on.
Newspapers.
Among the occupations of the Czechs listed in Cleveland in 1869, there was one printer. We are not informed whether he had opportunity to work at his trade at that time, but he undoubtedly did in 1871, when the newspaper “Pokrok” (Progress) was brought here from Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and established at 104 Croton street. Its successive editors in Cleveland were men of the widest reputation, F. J. Zdrubek, J. V. Capek, and Vaclav Snajdr. In 1878 Mr. Snajdr merged “Pokrok” and “Dennice Novoveku” (Star of the New Era) under the name of the latter, and continud to edit it until 1915. In 1911 “Svet” (The World) was started as a daily paper under the same management in an excellent new building at 4514 Broadway. “Dennice Novověku” was continued as a weekly until 1915, when it was entirely absorbed in “Svet.” This chain of newspapers has always represented the free-thinking Czechs.
Since the founding of the first paper “Pokrok,” forty other periodical publications in the Bohemian language have seen the light in Cleveland. Some of these have been the organs of various societies or institutions, some have been parish papers, and some excellent newspapers of general appeal. Their careers have varied in length from a few issues to nearly twenty years. The first attempt at a daily paper was made in 1888 by J. V. Lunak, with “České Noviny” (Czech News), but the time was not yet ripe for a daily, and Mr. Lunak suffered considerable loss in his venture. Later “Volnost” (Freedom), which had been founded in 1880 by Edward Veverka and Charles and Edward Vopalecky, developed from a tri-weekly into a daily. This paper was published without a break from 1880 to 1908.
At the present time there are three Bohemian newspapers of importance published in this city, besides several smaller publications of limited interest. There are two dailies, “Svet,” already mentioned, and the “American”, which is published at 5377-79 Broadway by F. J. Svoboda, who founded it in 1899. Both are good papers, well edited and illustrated, and are widely read, the “American” being favored by the adherents of the Catholic faith.
“Americké Dělnické Listy” (American Workman’s News), published at 4032 Broadway, was founded in 1909, and is the organ of the Bohemian branch of the Socialist party in America. It was in a considerable degree due to the influence of the editor, Joseph Martinek, that this branch of the party rejected the St. Louis platform. Mr. Martinek, who in 1917 spent some months in Russia as a representative of the Bohemian National Alliance, came back decidedly of the opinion that the Bolsheviki are not true socialists,