528 State Papers and Addresses

It was men like Herrman who, having once known the indignity of spiritual
and economic subjection, could value their new-found freedom in a way that we
of today, born and used to it, might well study and emulate.

Thanks to the spirit and the determination of men like Augustine Herrman,
Democracy became a living force throughout the World, a force that ultimately
re-crossed the oceans and gave to the people of the Old World the blessings and
privileges that had been developed under Democracy in the New.

Today in lands across the sea, thousands of sturdy free men—free men
still despite their temporary chains, are chafing beneath their thraldom. Can
it be for a moment imagined that men who had come to know the priceless
value of freedom, will ever willingly submit again to loss of their individual
dignity ? Can it be supposed that the women of those tragic countries, having
felt the up-lift of the opportunities their families had known, would ever permit
their men folks to rest content with galling servitude?

You know the answer, perhaps better than I, for some of you, no doubt,
were born in Czecho-Slovakia, the Bohemia of ancient days. You know un-
doubtedly better than I the temper of your people today, a temper that all the
World is beginning to appreciate because of recent developments in that land
across the sea.

On Tuesday of this week, the State of Maryland paid its official respects to
the people of Czecho-Slovakia through observance of Republic of Czecho-
Slovaki Day, commemorating the founding of the Republic. This was only a
deserved recognition of the important part played in the development of our
State by Augustine Herrman and the many other former citizens of Czecho-
slovakia and their descendants. True evidence have they given of that splendid
trait in every man's make-up, by which it is possible to retain the deepest vene-
ration and love for the land of one's birth while at the same time giving com-
plete allegiance to the land of one's adoption.

No truer American ever lived than Augustine Herrman. Nevertheless, to
the last days of his life, we are informed, his signature always carried the word
"Bohemian, " so that all the world might know his origin and the love and re-
spect he retained for it.

These are dark days, for those who love the Nazi-devastated countries of
Europe. When the clouds of despair, however, have been dispelled by the bright
sunshine of re-awakened hope; when the hordes of Hitler finally have been
crushed, as indeed they will be and must be, the spirit of Old Bohemia will still
be there to help restore and rebuild the Republic of Czecho-Slovakia. To all of
you gathered here today, it gives me unbounded gratification to express the
deep feeling of kinship that exists, and that ever has existed, between the people
of Maryland and the people of your Fatherland. Blessed as we are with the
heritage of liberty, however, so must we be determined to preserve that heri-
tage untarnished, for if once the unthinkable were to happen, and Democratic
America were to go the way of other fallen States, then, indeed, would there be
little hope for any of the peoples of any nation throughout the World.