Old Father

In Prague Castle's gothic, spidery Ladislaus Hall last week the 420 Deputies and Senators of Czechoslovakia's parliament met to elect a President by secret ballot. The secrecy was unnecessary because all the world knew what the result would be. For the fourth successive time gentle white-chinned Thomas Garrigue Masaryk, first and only President of Czechoslovakia, was overwhelmingly elected. Today President Masaryk is 84; if he lives out his fourth term he will be 91.

"Dear Father Masaryk," as Prague papers like to call him, was the son of a one-time serf, an illiterate Slovak coachman on an imperial Habsburg estate. At 13 young Masaryk was ready but too young to enter a teacher's training school. He worked for a blacksmith for a while, then went on with his schooling, supporting himself by tutoring. At 26 he earned a Ph.D. in Vienna.

In Leipzig, he met a young student named Charlotte Garrigue, followed her to her Brooklyn, N. Y. home, married her, took her back to Vienna.

Thomas Masaryk created Czechoslovakia. As a professor in Prague he vehemently preached Czech and Slovak nationalism, got himself into bad odor with the Habsburg regime and finally, just before the War, teamed up with an able little man named Eduard Benes who was to become one of the shrewdest politicians in Europe and immovable Foreign Minister in all Masaryk cabinets. The firm of Masaryk & Benes escaped the country separately after the outbreak of the War. Immediately they began a great series of journeys to Paris, London, Rome, Petrograd, Washington, to convince Allied statesmen of the wisdom of lopping the ancient kingdom of Bohemia and surrounding Slavic territories from the prostrate body of Austro-Hungary to make a new republic. It so happened that this territory contained the rich rolling plains of Slovakia, the great Skoda munitions works, the potent Bat'a shoe factories, rich coal deposits, glass and steel works and the famed breweries of Pilsen.

Of all the nations that have risen from the War Czechoslovakia is most despised by her neighbors, for this rich territory was won not by blood and battle but by picking winners before the peace conference. Because she is rich industrially her people have remained placid. Sixteen years after her foundation Czechoslovakia is an island of real democracy in a turbulent sea of black, brown and green dictatorships. Citizens of Prague have more freedom of expression, more personal liberty than in any other post-War state.

During the 16 years of his three presidencies, Father Masaryk has seen Czechoslovakia grow rich under French backing, attempt to solidify her position with Dr. Benes' Little Entente, slump slightly with Depression and finally face the menace of Naziism on her borders. The two most serious problems that the old gentleman faces at the beginning of his fourth term are: 1) a Nazi Austria to the south and a Nazi Germany to the north; 2) a possible Habsburg restoration with a revival of Hungary's demands for part of her lost provinces of Slovakia and Carpathian Ruthenia.

But even such grave threats to his country's serenity President Masaryk does not allow to disturb the calm tenor of his daily life. Maintaining the burning interest in all varieties of subjects which has caused him to write books on everything from Hypnotism and Suicide to Marxism and the problem of small European nations, he still reads voluminously in four languages. He loves a brisk canter on horseback, or a romp with his small grandsons, children of Charles Revilliod, who only a few years ago used to play naked as jays in the gardens of the presidential summer palace near Prague. Receiving reporters last week Grandfather Masaryk admitted that Willa Gather was his favorite author and added:

"We need not feel discouraged if in some countries the principles of democracy are not fully put into practice. Generally speaking it has had little chance here. A decade or two is not enough against a long tradition of autocratic government. Human nature doesn't change so quickly."

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