Our Czechoslovak countrymen, particularly the friends of the patronat (management) of the Masaryk School and all free thought school systems, should receive reports from time to time concerning the progress this school is making, together with reports on the increase in enrollment, if any, and finally, reports on the state of our classes, etc. The students of this school receive instructions in the Czech language and in the free thought spirit. It is equally desirable, however, to report to our liberal-minded public every important fact and happening as it actually occurs in the life of the aforementioned school; to report all the unfavorable and often troublesome conditions which the patronat must often face, conditions which are really ascribable to the indifference of our people, an indifference which may be noticed among all our lodges, clubs, and societies. Thus, at the 2beginning of the new school year, our Bohemian free thought school lacks the influx of new pupils, the sons and daughters of our Czech parents, parents who pose as active members in our free thought organizations, but who, at the same time, do not offer the advantages and opportunities of a Bohemian free thought schooling to their own children. This they should do while their children are still of a tender age, an age in which the children are more impressionable and able to understand the language which their parents employ at home. It is therefore requisite that such children be enrolled now and begin to take part in the activities of the school with the other children who are already receiving instruction. They should be enrolled at the very beginning of the school year so that the rest of the pupils will not be held back in their progress by the late enrollees.

The patronat endeavored to secure the best available teachers, and our Czech parents may therefore entrust their children to us in the knowledge that the youngsters will be taken care of. In a few weeks the patronat will celebrate its tenth anniversary. On that occasion a full and detailed account will be given of work already accomplished.....It would be desirable, too, 3to be able to report an increase in enrollment, and to point with pride at our Cicero free thought community. The work which has progressed for a decade should not be held back by the lackadaisicalness of our Czech parents or by their belittling of our work. A self-conscious effort and a sincere desire to see our school prosper is needed. Parents should not wait till some of us begin to stir up their slumbering national consciousness; they should not wait till we flood them with requests and appeals to entrust their children to a Czech school.

We are now witnessing the calm and systematic planning and activity in the enemy's camp, a camp steeped in religious mysticism and ideationally opposed to ours. while they plan, we, feeling secure because of our numbers, relax our vigilance, and worse, slacken in our work, thus giving others a chance to fish in our domain using for their bait honeyed words, attractive promises, and various other means to gain their own ends. It certainly is not dignified, as far as we are concerned, to be compelled to step before our Czech people 4and sermonize to them about their duties toward the Czechoslovak free thought school system, and yet this admonition was necessary and unavoidable. What effort and what labor, what financial sacrifices were necessary to build our [Czech] school in Cicero! And now, impossible though it may seem, the rooms usually occupied by the first and the second grades are empty. The number of newly enrolled pupils is so small that we find it necessary to report this fact to the Czech public, the same public which likes to point with pride to its national institutions--as long as they prosper. Therefore, you Czech parents, who, for whatever reason, no matter how negligible, make impossible the entrance of your children into our Czech schools, consider this: It is your moral duty to preserve your children for our ranks so that they can be the pride and ornament as well as the useful members of those cultural groups of which you yourselves are now members. Do not procrastinate, let your children come to this school now; do not stand in the way of their opportunity to gain more knowledge, even though such knowledge may be conveyed to them in only the Czech language. Do not underestimate our school system, but lend a helping hand in raising its standards so that it might be more than a mere 5equal of the regular institutions or the parochial schools. Give our schools an opportunity to gain prestige even among the public schools.

We shall be grateful to all who will come because they read these lines and register their children in the T. G. Masaryk School. We shall be also convinced that even these tardy parents are not indifferent to our efforts, and that they are glad to do their duty to support the patronat, to help it, and thus sustain the Czechoslovak free thought school system. Enroll your children after 4 P.M. The office is open every day.

Jan Sebek, president;

Josef Holub, secretary.