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120. Establishment of private schools is permitted only within the limits of laws.

The state administration shall have the supreme conduct and oversight of all instruction and education.

121. Liberty of conscience and profession is guaranteed.

122. No one may be compelled directly or indirectly to participate in any religious act; this does not apply to the authority of father or guardian.

All inhabitants of the Czechoslovak Republic have equally with citizens of the Czechoslovak Republic the right to practice in public or in private any confession, religion or faith, as long as the practice is not in conflict with public order or good morals.

123. All religious confessions are equal before the law.

124. The performance of definite religious acts may be forbidden, if they violate good order or public morality.

125. The marriage relation, family and motherhood are under the special protection of the laws.

126. Every physically fit citizen of the Czechoslovak Republic shall submit to military training and obey the call to defend the

state.

Details are regulated by law.

VI. PROTECTION OF NATIONAL, RELIGIOUS AND RACIAL
MINORITIES.

127. All citizens of the Czechoslovak Republic are fully equal before the law and enjoy civil and political rights, regardless of race, language or religion.

Difference of religion, faith, confession and language shall not be a handicap to any citizen of the Czechoslovak Republic within the limits of general laws, in particular with reference to access to employment by the state, to offices and dignities, or the pursuit of any occupation or profession.

Citizens of the Czechoslovak Republic may, within the limits of general laws, freely employ any language in private or commercial relations, in matters relating to religion, in press or any publications, or in public assemblies of the people.

This shall not affect rights which belong to the organs of the state in accordance with any present or future laws based on considerations of public order, safety of the state and efficient control.

128. The right to use a definite language in public offices is regulated by special law which forms a part of this constitution.

129. In so far as citizens may, in compliance with general laws, establish, direct and administer at their own expense charitable, religious and social institutions, schools and educational institutions, all citizens, regardless of nationality, language, religion and race, shall be equal and may in such institutions freely employ their own language and practice their religion.

130. In cities and districts in which there lives a considerable fraction of Czechoslovak citizens of other than Czechoslovak language, children of such Czechoslovak citizens shall receive in public schools, within the limits of the general law governing education, suitable opportunity to be taught in their own tongue; but instruction in the Czechoslovak language may be made obligatory.

131. Wherever in cities and districts in which there lives a considerable fraction of Czechoslovak citizens, belonging to religious, national and language minorities, definite sums are to be expended on education, religion or charity from public funds on the basis of state, municipal or other public budgets, such minorities are hereby guaranteed, within the limits of general regulations applicable to public administration, a proportionate share in the expenditure of such funds.

132. Principles set forth in Section 130 and 131, especially the definition of the expression "considerable fraction," shall be carried out by special laws.

133. Every form of forcible denationalization is forbidden. Violation of this principle may be declared criminal by law.

HONORING THE CONSTITUTION

(From The Review.)

It is no ordinary desire to celebrate, but a profound sense of public need, that has led to the organized effort to make this year's anniversary (tomorrow) of the birth of the United States Constitution a day of special observance. Eight national patriotic associations have united in this effort, and have enlisted in behalf of it the interest of a large number of eminent public men and civic organizations throughout the country. It is most earnestly to be hoped that the impulse thus given will result in a genuine revival of interest in the momentous instrument which has been the corner stone of American liberty, security, and greatness. Beyond the eloquence and the patriotic appeal of the celebration itself, there should come well-devised plans of public enlightenment on the essential elements of the Constitution. That these have long been lost sight of by the great mass of our people-not to speak of the utter ignorance of them prevailing in a large section of the population-is one of the primary reasons for the movement, the other being that undermining of respect for the Constitution which has so long been deliberately promoted by certain "advanced" thinkers, with little check from its supporters.

PARIS, March 16, 1920.-(Mail)-Count Albert Apponyi, head of the Hungarian peace delegation, in the second and concluding article on the Hungarian peace treaty which he prepared for The Associated Press, calls for a plebiscite of the inhabitants of the regions severed from Hungary by the Versailles treaty. He says:

"Comparing Hungary as she was before the war with the new states created or aggrandized through dismemberment, the situation is this:

"The Hungary of old is the finest natural geographic unity in Europe, whose limits are fixed by mountains and rivers; whose parts are economically interdependent, so as to make the whole almost self-supporting. For more than 1,000 years this part of Europe never gave trouble to the rest, rather averted from it whatever trouble threatened its tranquility and safety from the east. While historic Hungary stood, the troublesome areas of Europe was as distant from the center as the Balkan peninsula.

"To make the moral cohesion of her people perfect, one factor alone was wanting: racial unit. On this plea was her dissection planned. New constructions arise on her ruins, based on the racial

principle, irrespective of geography, history, or political economy. We make the astonishing discovery that these new constructions are racially quite as mixed as Hungary has been."

Count Apponyi declares that 54.5 per cent of the 18,000,000 inhabitants of "Hungary proper" were Magyars, 16.1 Rumanian, 10.7 Slovak, 10.4 German and the rest Serb, Ruthenian or miscellaneous. Comparing these to the newly organized or aggrandized states he says that the population of Czecho-Slovakia has claimed parts of Hungary containing 3,570,000 persons, of which 47 per cent are Slovak and 37 per cent Magyar or German. Rumania claims territories on which live about 5,260,000 souls, of which 53 per cent are Rumanian and 43 per cent Magyar or German. The population of parts of Hungary annexed by Jugo-Slavia, says Count Apponyi, is only 22 per cent Jugo-Slav, 33 per cent Magyar and 27 per cent German. Count Apponyi continues:

"These figures show that the only principle of organic unity that has been wanting to Hungary's racial unity is likewise wanting to the states artificially built up on her ruins; the difference consists only in this, that Hungary was possessed of every other principle of unity, while the new states have none, absolutely none. What is still worse, the leadership in them will be transferred to races of inferior culture, the results of which we may already notice, after one year's occupation of the territories torn from Hungary. There is a wanton destruction of cultural values, universities, high schools and others. On the territory occupied by Rumanians, 5,000 grammar schools are deserted, the former teachers having been expelled and nobody being found to supplement them, in consequence of which more than 2,000 children are left without education of any sort.

There is a conspicuously lower level of public functionaries and the general prevalence of semi-barbarous methods of government.

"What can result from this state of things? Will those people who are violently severed from their beloved old associations only to be subjected to alien government of an inferior sort—those 4,500,000 Magyars and Germans torn from Hungary-will they ever be reconciled to denationalization, implying economic losses and cultural retrogression? Can the conscience of humanity tolerate such a downfall of millions? Anyhow, it is certain that those new constructions, with no vital principle in them, will be distracted by the permanence of a most violent, because most legitimate, irredentism and that through them eastern and central Europe will know no rest, till the equilibrium represented by old Hungary is restored.

"These facts answer the question how far the destruction of Hungary and the constructions planned on her ruins might promote

the general welfare of mankind? It would confer on our part of Europe the following blessings:

"Racial discussions not assuaged but embittered; permanent unrest, implying danger of new wars.

"Economic difficulties enhanced; thereby social dangers aggravated.

"Cultural retrogression in government, learning, general standard of education.

"But how does liberty fare in the proposed peace treaty? In its terms millions of men will be driven from one allegiance to another, without being consulted as to their wishes. In the case of nearly half of them, of Magyars and Germans who should become Czecho-Slovak, Rumanian or Jugo-Slov subjects, you may confidently assert that it would be done against their will, that it means moral torture to them. But even the Slavs and Rumanians who would be transplanted to states racially more homogeneous, can simply be 'supposed' to long for such change and there are many symptoms indicative of the reverse, chiefly among the Slovaks, Ruthenians and the Roman Catholic Jugo-Slavs.

"There is only one way to settle that question with a result that can no more be challenged: it is the plebiscite. And the plebiscite is what Hungary asks for and insists on. In every region claimed by our neighbors, so do we say, let the people decide; we unconditionally submit to its decision; we do not want a single soul to remain with us but by an act of free will. We have been charged with oppression of the non-Magyar nationalities; well, instead of going into argument we propose to make those same people whom we are alleged to oppress, judge of our case. If we have really been oppressors, they will gladly seize upon this occasion to break away from us; but if they stick to the old country, then the charge of oppression is belied by those who know best.

"We accept this crucial test, we are anxious that it should be applied; if our opponents shrink from it judgment goes against them by default. The good faith of both parties is then put into such clear light that in fairness the discussion must be considered as ended.

"The plebiscite offers the only solution which combines justice with expediency. It would insure the tranquility of Europe, since everybody would be where he desires. On the liberty of nations on their right of self-determination rests our whole case. Our principle is in any case, fore-ordained to prevail after a passing hour of darkness and we feel proud of having thrown in our lot with whatever is most sacred to humanity."

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