[Half-tone, three column-sixth of a page, portrait of Dr. Dumba]

The Austrian Ambassador in Washington, Dr. Dumba, has been a guest in this country. He has been using this hospitality in a manner which corroborates our old saying about comforting a viper on one's own bosom. An Austrian nobleman in name, he has been guilty of criminal deeds elsewhere besides the United States. Ambassadors who are our guests are expected not to set our roof afire, not to try to deprive us of our livelihood, and not to endanger our families by their questionable and definitely criminal plotting. In Dr. Dumba's case anyone who entertained such expectations would have been disappointed--even those who, in their charity, have been closing one or even 2both eyes at the clumsiness in diplomatic and social circles which he has manifested in his utterances and articles on many occasions. Some time ago, in an article in the North American Review concerning the causes of this war, he ran against the good name and reputation of the Slavic nations. He has been given a prompt reply by a member of our editorial staff, Mr. Skala, who, in an article published in a prominent place by the Daily News and a number of New York papers, disclosed the true and real causes of this war. This, it seems, held Dr. Dumba for a few months, but his hatred of everything Bohemian did not diminish. Recently, after the disclosure that he has been organizing strikes in this country, the country whose hospitality he has enjoyed, strikes by which he attempted to cripple whole industries and deprive thousands of families of their livelihood, he gave new vent to his hatred in a special interview with American newspaper reporters. He made the bare-faced statements that the Bohemian element is unintelligent, does not know how to read and write, and doesn't read anything, while the German workingmen are "some corkers," with an all-round education, able to talk intelligently about any and everything, men with whom one can deal sensibly. But the way to deal 3with the Bohemian workingmen is to promise them on one hand everything under the sun, on the other to put God's fear into them in the old country, threaten them with police investigations, persecute them by court martial, and otherwise deal with the relatives of American Bohemians in the old country so that American Bohemians will think twice before trying to make an honest living by working in factories that manufacture war materials for the Allies.

Of course, Dumba's statements aroused our public to a considerable extent. We have considered it our duty to protest on behalf of our countrymen against Dumba's insults and his efforts to diminish the value of the work of Bohemian and other Slavic workingmen in the United States, and have expressed the expectation that the matter at hand will not remain without the attention of our Congressman A. J. Sabath. In this expectation we have not been disappointed. Prompted by our article, Mr. Sabath, on the eighth of September, sent a letter to President Wilson. We quote:

"To His Excellency Woodrow Wilson, President of the United States, Washington, D. C.

"My dear Mr. President,

"Together with millions of rightly thinking citizens I approve wholeheartedly the steps you have been taking in these exciting times. I am convinced that all loyal American citizens have utmost confidence in your energetic political actions relative to our international situation, and I am sure that you will not permit our country to become engaged in the gigantic struggle now being waged in Europe. I can understand that the serious tasks you have to perform, the serious problems you have to solve, fully occupy your attention, and it is for that reason that I venture to call your attention to an interview of Austrian Ambassador Dumba, who is trying to justify his unwarranted intervention in our internal affairs by wilfully insulting a large number of our people who, although formerly Austrian subjects or children of former Austrian subjects, now are good and true, patriotic American citizens. He should be 5immediately condemned for the shameful arrogance with which he maintains that these people (that is people of Slavic nationality) are ignorant and that he can use them, therefore, to incite strikes in various industries in the United States. According to my opinion, his statements made him impossible [sic], and I am making the polite request that, while considering his program as disclosed by Archibald's letters, you would also kindly take this insult into consideration, and demand that he be recalled by the Austrian government. An action of this kind will make other representatives of foreign countries understand that you would not tolerate either their interference in our internal affairs or their insults to a large percentage of our population.

"Yours very truly,

"A. J. Sabath."

A fine counterpart to this action of Congressman Sabath, who has proved by it that he is a staunch defender of the rights of both our immigrants and our 6citizenry, is the resolution of the Cesko-Slovanske Podporujici Spolky (Bohemian-Slavonic Benevolent Societies) as published in this paper yesterday.

In addition to all this, a huge protest mass meeting is going to be held in the Pilsen Auditorium at 2:00 P. M. today. It will be participated in by our Slavic brothers, and their speakers will also address the meeting. It is up to our countrymen to attend this meeting in large numbers and thus show that they can not only read, but also properly deal with those who insult them and who tried--and cannot any more now--to deprive them and their families of their livelihood.

After that, we shall have done with Dr. Dumba. But let us not forget that Dr. Dumba is not more than a wheel in the whole system that sends our people to be slaughtered on the battle fields, and the best brains of our nation to the gallows. If Dr. Dumba has dared to try putting into operation a plan by which thousands of American families would be put into misery and confusion, 7if he has dared to insult the Bohemian people in such a shameless manner, here, where he has to exercise at least a degree of restraint, where can the limit be to which his "boss",the Austrian government, is likely to go in the persecution of our brothers in the old country, where there is nobody to stop it and where our people are completely at its mercy?

In our present protest against Dumba we are raising our voices against the bloodthirsty system prevailing in the Austrian Monarchy, a system that murders our fathers, brothers, and friends.