It is truly astounding how frequently our correspondents, both men and women, write about the old country only in order to deride it and express their enormous preference for the United States rather than the country where they were born or from which those have come to whom they owe their lives. They write about the old country very thoughtlessly. If there is anything that hurts us it is to receive and read letters of that kind. We read them carefully, line after line, to make sure that we read correctly, and only after overcoming our intense dislike, do we edit such a letter for publication. If we are trying to print them in full, it is only in order to show our readers that there are many of our nationality who like to sling mud at the country where they were born. The reasons for such mud-slinging are usually grossly material. It is because in their old home, by reason of unfortunate circumstances, they did not get 2along as well as in their new home; they could not eat and drink their fill as easily in the place where their mothers gave them birth as they can, by reason of changed conditions, in America. Also, because they did not feel as free and unrestrained in the old country as they do in their new, adopted home.

These two are the principal reasons and those most frequently given why many of our correspondents extol America to the point of calling her "Golden America," and talk about the old country in a derogatory way. We remember quite well--it is not so long ago--when a debate on this point developed between our correspondents, a debate which soon reached the heat of passion and which we had to put an end to because it degenerated into personal attacks and insinuations. We are glad to admit that at that time we wrote an article in which we took the position of those who spoke well of the old country, and expressed our disapproval of all those who were trying to disparage her.

After the publication of that article, letters on the topic stopped coming to 3our offices for a time. But soon again some correspondent thought he wanted to write about the old country, and again in the sense that the living conditions over there are most pitiful as compared to those in America. From between the lines of such letters, again began emerging a heaping platter, spreading its always excitingly stimulating aroma, with a huge, foaming jug, a thing which, let the truth be told, is still very much in the minds of most of us here in Bohemian America. This again became the topic of many letters, and if we still give them publicity in our columns it is not because we approve of them, or, still less, agree with them. In fact we print them as examples of letters as they should not be written, hoping that their writers will understand, and next time, write about something else.

Since our hope seems to be vain, we consider it our duty to say why we disapprove. Our old country, while not directly in the path of war with all its horrors, yet is subject to a great deal of suffering through the present conditions in Europe. It will take a very long time before she recovers from all that she has had to 4go through so far. Let us hear in mind that her suffering is not diminishing; in fact, it is increasing from day to day, and will be increasing as long as the war lasts. This suffering, these horrors will multiply if the actual fighting should be carried into our beautiful countryside, in the immediate vicinity of our native cottages, which now resound with the sighs and sobs of mothers, wives, sweethearts, and children who have been left behind. Our old country writhes already in a despair, the degree of which we cannot even imagine. Under such circumstances, would it not be better to sympathize with the old country, and try to help her as much as we can rather than to pass derogatory remarks about her, none of which have any other effect but to humiliate and discredit her in the eyes of America? Our old country, even for us here in our new home, remains our mother, and we, as her children, must not despise her, but we must be grateful to her for bringing us up at least so far that we have been able, although in a far distant country, to obtain a firm footing, and to achieve a considerable degree of prosperity. Having come so far, it is our duty to remember our debts, the greatest of which is the one we owe, and shall always 5owe, our old mother, whom we must never forget. Let us be grateful to her for whatever she has been able to do for us, even if that may not have been a very great deal. Derision and mud-slinging is a mighty poor way of showing appreciation. Let us not forget that Bohemia is and always will remain our mother who raised us, while America is only our father, a father who takes care of us according to our deserts as measured by our work. We should honor both our mother and our father, but our mother must remain more dear, more precious to us because she suffered more with us and for us, and even in her suffering she always tried to give us as much of the best as she could.

Now she is suffering while we are in comparative prosperity. Let us not forget her, let us give her, quite of our own free will, according to our abilities, and let us do it now when her need is greatest. Let us help her not for our own sake, but for the sake of our sisters who, deprived of their husbands, fathers, and sons, cling to her and seek consolation in their sorrow and despair under her protective wings. Let us do our duty toward them. The knowledge of 6duty well done will be our compensation for having given of our substance when the need was most burning, for the most sacred purpose. By helping them we help ourselves, for are we not a branch of the great tree of our nation, a strong, living branch which soon will blossom again in a way it never has blossomed before.

Let us keep all that in mind. Let us keep in mind that we can help through the Cesko-Slovansky Pomocny Vybor (Bohemian-Slavonic Auxiliary Committee), and through the Ceske Narodni Sdruzeni (Bohemian National Alliance). Let us give to them generously and often. They have a most important duty to perform and need our full support. If we all do our part we shall get our minds off all such shameful ideas and notions as writing derogatory letters about our own old mother country.