At the Washington office of the CzechoSlovak National Council the following information was obtained about the body which has been recognized by the State Department as a de facto government:

"The Czecho-Slovak National Council as a government is in the same position as the Belgian and Serbian governments, since it has its seat on foreign territory. The headquarters of the Council are in Paris. The body consists of representatives of the scattered Czecho-Slovak colonies, but all real authority is in the hands of the three principal officers of the Council, Professor Thomas Garrigue Masaryk, President; General Milan R. Stefanik, Vice-President, and Dr. Edouard Benes, general secretary.

"The head of the Council is Professor Masaryk. He has been a teacher in the University of Prague as well as deputy to the Vienna Parliament for a great many years. He left Bohemia a few months after the outbreak of the war with full authority from representatives of the Czech political parties to speak in foreign lands in the name of his people. He is 69 years old and even before the war he was looked upon by every member of the Czecho-Slovak race as the 'grand old man of Bohemia.' Both his official position and the reverence in which he is held by his people makes his authority supreme and unquestioned.

"Stefanik was, before the war, a noted astronomer in Paris; upon the outbreak of the war he entered the French Army as a private and became soon an officer and a daring aviator. He has been wounded several times and promoted for gallantry; he holds at present the rank of brigadier-general in the French Army. He represents the Slovak Branch of the Czecho-Slovak nation on the National Council.

"Dr. Edouard Benes was an instructor at the University of Prague who fled from Bohemia at the first opportunity and was placed in charge of the Paris office. He is a diplomat and author of great ability. "The recognition of the Czecho-Slovak National Council by the United States Govern

ment was preceded by similar recognition extended by the French, Italian and British Governments.

"The Council has permanent offices in Rome and London in charge of men accredited to the Governments of Italy and England. The head of the Council, Professor Masaryk, is at present at Washington; the delegate of the Czecho-Slovak National Council for the United States is Charles Pergler.

"The commander-in-chief of the three Czecho-Slovak Armies, in Russia, France and Italy, is Thomas G. Masaryk; soldiers swear allegiance to the Council and to Masaryk as its head. The general in command of the forces in Russia is Gen. Dieterichs; the commander of the forces on the French front is Major-General M. Janin, while the Czecho-Slovaks in Italy are commanded by Gen. Graziani.

"The exact number of the Czecho-Slovak forces cannot now be stated, since their principal army fighting along the Volga River has not yet established direct contact with the Allies and its present size is unknown. But it is certain that the three Czecho-Slovak armies, as far as their number is concerned, come right after the French, British, Italian and American armies."

DECLARATION OF THE NATIONAL FRATERNAL CONGRESS OF

AMERICA

A declaration of fraternalism read at a conclave in Philadelphia Aug. 27, representing fraternal orders with a membership of about 20,000,000, contained these paragraphs:

"The defeat and destruction of Hohenzollernism we recognize as an essential to the attainment of permanent peace, justice and fraternalism throughout the world.

"Therefore, recognizing the truth of the President's statement that 'whatever disturbs the life of the whole world is the concern of the whole world, and it is our duty to lend the full force of this nation, moral and physical, to a League of Nations,' we

stand for a permanent world agreement through a League of Nations, and justice through an international court, as also with the aid of an international council of conciliation, and to utilize through organization of the units of the National Fraternal Congress of America and fraternal organizations everywhere, national and international, constructive opinion to make the world safe for democracy.

"After victory has been achieved with honor in the contest for the principles of fraternalism and uplift as opposed to the powers of darkness seeking supremacy, we favor the signing of a declaration of world peace in Independence Hall, which will be made perpetual by the League of Nations and the International Council of Conciliation, thus inaugurating the ages of fraternalism."

When you subscribe to a Liberty Loan you subscribe to the sentiment that the world must be made safe for democracy and subscribe to the fund that is to make the world safe for democracy.

You subscribe to the belief that innocent women and children on unarmed ships shall not be sent to the bottom of the sea; that women and children and old men shall not be ravished and tortured and murdered under the plea of military necessity; that nurses shall not be shot for deeds of mercy, nor hospital ships be sunk without warning, or hospitals and unfortified cities be bombed or cannonaded with long-range guns.

You subscribe to the doctrine that small nations have the same rights as great and powerful ones; that might is not right, and that Germany shall not force upon the world the dominion of her military masters.

You subscribe, when you subscribe to a Liberty Loan, to the belief that America entered this war for a just and noble cause; that our soldiers in France and our sailors on the sea are fighting for right and justice.

And you subscribe to the American sentiment that they must and shall be powerful, efficient, and victorious.-Treasury Department Bulletin.

KEEP UP THE SCHOOLS President Wilson has urged generous support for schools of all grades during war time. In a letter to Secretary Lane approving the Bureau of Education's plan for an educational campaign this summer and fall, he said:

"I am pleased to know that despite the unusual burdens imposed upon our people by the war they have maintained their schools and other agencies of education so nearly at their normal efficiency. That this should be continued throughout the war and that, in so far as the draft law will permit, there should be no falling off in attendance in elementary schools, high schools, or colleges is a matter of the very greatest importance, affecting both our strength in war and our national welfare and efficiency when the war is over. So long as the war continues there will be constant need of

very large numbers of men and women of the highest and most thorough training for war service in many lines. After the war there will be urgent need not only for trained leadership in all lines of industrial, commercial, social, and civil life, but for a very high average of intelligence and preparation on the part of all the people. I would, therefore, urge that the people continue to give generous support to their schools of all grades and that the schools adjust themselves as wisely as possible to the new conditions to the end that no boy or girl shall have less opportunity for education because of the war and that the Nation may be strengthened as it can only be through the right of education of all its people. I approve most heartily your plans for making through the Bureau of Education a comprehensive campaign for the support of the schools and for the maintenance of attendance upon them, and trust that you may have the coöperation in this work of the American Council of Education."