PEASANT TO PRESIDENT

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 915, 7 March 1930, Page 11

PEASANT TO PRESIDENT

RISE TO POWER OF T. G. MASARYK CZECKQ-SLOVAK LEADER Today the Czecho-Slovakia Republic is celebrating the eightieth birthday i - : Professor T 1 Alasaryk, whose rise to fame and power j makes a remarkable study. It is difficult to credit a greater j change in the fortunes of any man. In December, 1914, lie fled across the j frontier of Austria-Hungary—a uni- j versity professor about whom it was I rumoured that he corrupted the young, ; a philosopher whose teachings were ; an evangel to some, but an abomina- I tion to most; a scholar who was un- : recognised at home, although famous j abroad. Four years later lie returned I in triumph as first President of the * republic, cheered by | the crowds in the streets, and wel- j corned by members of all parties alike j in the National Assembly. Alasaryk was born on March 7, j 1850, in the town of Hodonin, on the Moravian border, son of a coachman ! on an Imperial estate. His childhood

was restless and extremely varied, his parents moving from village .o village. His, father was a Hungarian, and his mother came from the town of Hustopec, on the Moravian Plains. At home, Alasaryk learned Czech and a little German, and at school he was the star pupil, being sent eventually to the high school. When only 13 years old, being too young to enter training for the teaching profession, he was trained as a locksmith, and then as a blacksmith, but in 1865 his parents yielded to urgings, and lie was sent to Bruno to study. Here he remained until he was forced to leave through a clash with the principal, who disliked his restless nature and liis views. However, he rose in his profesison, and in 1882 became a professor at the University of Prague. POLITICAL ACTIVITY His position a* the beginning of this century was a curious one. He had taught several generations of pupils, had written a number of remarkable works, and already had behind him a significant political and publicistic activity, but his name in his own country was notorious rather than famous. He was hated by the Church, punished by the State, and all but expatriated by the national leaders, because all three found him a disquieting influence. In 1900 a party known as the Realistic or Progressive Party was formed to carry out his views, and in 1907 and again in 1911 Alasaryk was returned to Parliament. Here lie made a name for himself in an international dispute, and also -in lecture tours. His writings led to liis being made a professor in London in 1915. Early in the war, however, he recognised that it would benefit his country to side with the Allied forces, and his work in this connection bore fruit when lie represented Czecho-Slovakia at the Peace Conference. His ultimate return to his own country was a triumph, and coday his position as leader is undisputed and assured.