In Chicago these days Vaclav Klofac is making a visit; Klofac is an agent of the Czechs who has been for a long time in the Balkans. He has come to America now to get some publicity for himself among the Czechs of Chicago, telling about the "glorious" Balkan war.

Last Sunday he visited the Serbians of the North Side to give a talk at a meeting to which he had been invited by the Serbian patriots.

He told how he had seen the war with his own eyes--how he had been greeted and embraced by Serbian dignitaries, what "heroes" the Serbian officers are, what geniuses the Serbian generals; and he alleged that Minister Pasic surpasses them all, and that every Serbian ought to be proud of so splendid a stateman. Klofac spoke as a man, who wants to flatter the audience and inflame national fanaticism.

After Mr. Klofac had finished his talk, Comrade V. Bornemissa, editor of Narodni Glas (People's Voice), took the platform. Comrade B. declared that he wondered how Mr. Klofac was able to glorify the fratricidal Balkan war, which was promoted by the "genial" Pasic. The Balkan war, said he, is not for the benefit of the people. Pasic took the opportunity of the war to speculate on the bourse and fill his pockets. Neither did Klofac omit telling how the minister of war, with his drunken subordinates, turned over Serbian soldiers to firing squads, and how Serbian peasants were beaten.

When Comrade Bornemissa began to prove his statements by reading from Belgrade newspapers, the president of the Serbian Sokol, Dusan Popovich, jumped up and pushed Comrade B. from the platform.

After that Comrade M. Polovina mounted the rostrum. But before he was able to talk, the Serbian "patriots" hit him with blackjacks. The same procedure was used on Comrade B. Both comrades received several injuries before they were 3thrown from the hall on the sidewalk. The Czech delegate Klofac calmly remained seated with a smile on his face while the Serbian "patriots" perpetrated these atrocities.

That is the way in which freedom of speech is respected at "patriotic" meetings.