Trans-temporal cognitive matching

Language is among the prime determinants of a nation and the 'war is the way nations are born and die.' Sun Tzu , The Laws of War

Trans-temporal cognitive matching
Tempus edax, numeri reficere - time destroys, numbers restore.

In the old city called the Gate of God, Babylon, located about 50 miles south of Baghdad, the Processional Way led through the Ishtar Gate to the temple of the New Year. Northwest of the Processional Way, Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylonia and the conqueror of Jerusalem, built his palace. The palace included the Hanging Gardens, one of the Seven Wonders of the World. Next to the temple of Marduk, the city God, stood the seven-staged (295 feet high) ziggurat Etemenanki, also called the Tower of Babel. According to an old story, the descendants of Noah tried to build the tower of Babel so high as to reach to heaven. United by common language, there seems to be no limit on what people can accomplish. This story is closely associated with the controversy about the bilingual education, the controversy between monoculturalists and multiculturalists of which, as noted in the Huntington's (1993) Clash of Civilizations, “the former want to make the world like America and the later want to make America like the world.”

Phenomenological Analysis In this chapter we suggest methodology for testing facets of global social concepts, such as that of monoculturalism and multiculturalism, by using method of trans-temporal cognitive matching. This methodology is illustrated by tracing language differences among the people of the Hapsburg Empire, the role these differences played at the time the Hapsburg Empire was divided among its successor states, and the outcomes of these actions.

The section on the phenomenological analysis is rater long, illustrating that thorough understanding of the circumstances and historical antecedents of the topic of a study is a necessary prerequisite. Without this background work, publishing only the few diagrams resulting from the quantitative study of a relevant and significant problem, the meaning and implications of the study are often lost on the reader. This chapter intends to be also a vivid demonstration that the quantitative-qualitative dichotomy of social sciences is counterproductive and can be transcended, and that the quantitative-qualitative-visual components are vital ingredients of modern research in social sciences.

Lingua Universalis Language differences make mutual understanding difficult and are a significant factor on the war side of the war-peace equation. Attempts at development of an artificial language as the means to promote understanding among nations can be traced to Gottfried Wilhelm von Leibniz and Rene Descartes. Ludwik Zamenhof introduced Esperanto in 1887 and the mathematician Giuseppe Peano proposed Interlingua in 1903. During the Renaissance, Latin was, for every educated person, a second language. This circumvented, at least for scholars, the root cause of the major discrimination of the contemporary world, that is the many advantages given to the native speakers of English. In society as it is now organized at the global level, if you want to function, you have to speak English. With few exceptions, if you want to matter, you must be a native speaker of English.

Language problems are the paramount problem of immigrants. Within the more general framework they are a specific facet of the general problem of acculturation of ethnic minorities. Stephen Frears (2002) movie Dirty Pretty Things describes the world of London immigrants who must take menial jobs and make dreadful decisions just to survive.

The protagonists of this story are Okwe (Chjwetel Ejiofor), Nigerian physician, working as a night porter at a posh London hotel and Senay (Audrey Tautou), Turkish, Moslem, virgin, working in a sweetshop, who is gradually degraded into giving fellatio to her boss, selling her body in an attempt to obtain a passport, and ultimately forced to sell parts of her body for organ transplants. Toward the end of the movie, the person who buys the kidney extracted in a hotel room asks 'Who are you people?' Okwe replies:

"We are the people you do not see.
We are the ones who drive your cabs,
clean your rooms, and suck your cocks."

Unity and Diversity The forces of integration and disintegration are nowhere more visible than in the course of building empires and their decline. While the need for coherent commercial markets and cooperation plays an integrative role, cultural and linguistic separatism is instrumental in partitioning of empires. The process of social integration and disintegration reflects the conflicting needs for cultural unity and diversity. In transcending this controversy, we should foster our shared cultures and keep a common language. The attempts to achieve cultural diversity while preserving unity are threatened on one side by intolerance and racism and on the other side by linguistic separatism, resulting not in flourishing of shared cultures, but leading to erection of cross-cultural barriers and promoting inter-cultural misunderstanding and distrust. While the role of the intolerance and racism is understood by many, the difference between cultural diversity and linguistic separatism is often misunderstood.

Linguistic and Territorial Separatism Does linguistic diversity play a role in the creation of new nations by partitioning empires? The most striking example of this was provided in the course of the recent fall of the Russian Empire that Soviet Union inherited from the Czars. Built over centuries, it fell prey to forces of nationalism in a few short years. For reasons to complex to discuss here, the Russians did not attempt linguistic integration of their empire. Reading Tolstoy’s War and Peace, one finds that half of the book is written in Russian, the other half in French. Catherine the Great was not proficient in Russian, nor was Joseph Stalin, a Georgian with a thick foreign accent. Given the prominence nationalism plays in the contemporary world, we wanted to quantify aspects of linguistic unity as contrasted with linguistic plurality to meaningfully discuss these phenomena. At the same time we hoped to address the question of whether the assumption of the connection of linguistic and territorial separatism is valid.

Disintegration of the Austrian Empire Large multi-ethnic societies have to strike a balance between unity and diversity or perish. The typical course of Western civilizations has been integration, followed by disintegration. A Sisyphus-like effort to tear down borders, expand markets, build common cultures, followed by efforts to erect more borders, to post more border guards and tariffs, to introduce new languages, to resurrect old languages from oblivion, to promulgate provincial languages, to partition empires. The epitome of this process is the story of the disintegration of the Austrian Empire.

Present day Austria is surrounded by countries whose territories in pars or in toto once belonged to the Austrian Empire. The official language of the Austrian Empire was German. The policy of the Austrian government for many years favored an integrative educational system. However, toward the end of the empire, the government began to support and finance bilingual education. Starting from elementary schools and gradually spreading throughout the entire educational system, nationalists finally targeted the Universities, demanding their partitioning along linguistically defined lines. This encountered opposition in both chambers of the House and some representatives made desperate, but unsuccessful efforts to defeat it. In 1882, the partitioning of Universities along linguistically defined lines was mandated by enforced decree. At that time the Austrian Empire was to exist for 36 more years.

Educators and Multiculturalism During the time when Austrian Universities were partitioned along the linguistically defined lines, the president of the University of Prague was Ernst Mach. Mach, a physicist of an international stature, is remembered for the Mach number relating speed to the velocity of sound. Mach opposed this partitioning and was supported by professors interested primarily in science who abhorred political intrusions into the life of the University community. The partitioning of the University was supported by the nationalists and by educators who thought that this action would further their careers. In a personal letter, a future professor at Prague's Czech University wrote, 'It seems that there will be a Czech university in Prague before very long. I have now set about the systematic study of Czech language.’ Among the professors who were not able to get an academic appointment otherwise and gained their academic posts after the 1882 partitioning of the Austrian Universities was Thomas G. Masaryk, the future president of Czechoslovakia.

Enigmatic Crane The catalyst of the disintegration of the Austrian Empire was the First World War. The post-war central Europe was formed, to a degree, by President Wilson, Charles R. Crane, and professor Masaryk.

Much of this narrative on Crane that follows is based on the narrative of Jiri Mucha, the son of Alphonse Mucha best known for his art nouveau posters of actress Sarah Bernhardt. Alphonse Mucha knew industrialist Charles R. Crane (1858-1939) well, as Crane commissioned several of his paintings, among them Mucha’s painting of Crane’s first daughter, Josephine. Mucha saw Crane as enigmatic, inscrutable, taciturn, strange. Crane keenly observed his surroundings, spoke rarely, analyzing the situation. Mucha likened him to a chess player always contemplating his next move. Crane built his industrial empire by sponsoring promising political figures and profiting in later on his investments. Crane was the eminence grise behind many events happening around the turn of the century. However, his penchant for secrecy was so strong that he remains unnoticed by most historians. His primary targets were Slavic countries and China.

Crane and Sun Yat Sen China, Crane financed the T'ung Meng Hui, Together-Sworn Association, a secret society founded in 1905 by Sun Yat-Sen, striving to overthrow the Qing dynasty. In 1909, President Taft (1909-1913) appointed Crane as the ambassador to China. In 1911, the Qing dynasty was overthrown by the coup d'état lead by Sun Yat-Sen.

Crane and Masaryk Among Crane's Slavonic friends were Nijinsky, Pavlova, Stravinsky and Masaryk. Crane became a Russophile, well versed in the intricate politics of Panslavism. Shortly after the beginning of WW I, Crane sponsored a series of Slavonic lectures at the University of Chicago and invited Masaryk to teach this series. Masaryk, aside of his teaching duties, was politically active in various ethnic societies. To further his political ambitions, Masaryk offered to the French and Russian governments that he would be able to form legions from the Austrian ethnic POW. A majority of French and Russian generals opposed this Masaryk's offer as it violated the Hague Conventions of 1899 and 1907. According to Hague Conventions, prisoners of war are protected from torture and coercion, especially from coercion to aid the war effort of the side opposing their country. They are required to give their captors only their name, rank, service number, and date of birth. They are entitled to adequate food and medical treatment and can receive mail and parcels. Allied generals knew well that the Austrian soldiers, recruited by Masaryk to fight against their own country, when captured, would not be treated as prisoners of war but as traitors and hanged. This issue, however, was resolved not by the military, but by Clemenceau’s government who approved Masaryk’s plan. The Russian government concurred. The framers of the Hague Convention knew what they wanted to prevent. Visiting Prague's Military Museum, one may view roads lined with bodies of Masaryk's legionnaires, executed by hanging. Perusing the postwar legionnaire literature, one may find a story of a legionnaire firing a machine gun on advancing Austrian troops, suddenly noticing his father among them. Or a story of a legionnaire, engaged in close bayonet combat with his childhood friend.

Russia's Gold After Russia concluded a separate peace with Germany and Austria, the Czech legions retreated toward Russia’s Far East, following the rails of the trans-Siberian railroad. During this retreat they captured a major portion of Russia’s national treasure. Boarding British ships in Vladivostok, they carried the gold treasure of Czarist Russia to newly created Czechoslovakia.

The Sycophant and the President Toward the end of the World War I Crane introduced Masaryk to President Wilson. At the time Masaryk met Wilson the American public did not favor the partitioning of the Austrian Empire. As late into the war as January 8, 1918, in a message to Congress, President Wilson declared that dismembering the Austrian Empire was not one of the war aims. However, Masaryk managed to change President Wilson's views on this point. Masaryk (convicted meanwhile in Austria for treason in absentia), converted from Catholicism to Protestantism and worked hard to curry favor with President Wilson. His strategy rested on memorizing long passages from Wilson’s speeches and writings. Masaryk did not miss any opportunity to cite, verbatim, these passages to President Wilson, stressing how much he esteemed his views. Wilson’s position of power among the victorious allies was decisive. At the end of the First World One, toward the end of the year 1918, the Austrian Empire was partitioned into its successor states.

Murder in the Air The territorial boundaries of Czechoslovakia were negotiated in 1919 at the St. Germain conference commencing July 20, 1919. Six weeks earlier, on May 4, 1919, the dead body of Professor Stefanik was found among the wreckage of his plane. Czech claimed that the death of Professor Stefanik was an accident, many Slovaks believe that it was political assassination arranged by Professors Masaryk and Benes. At the St. Germain conference Masaryk and Benes broke the Pittsburgh treaty and instead creating the independent Czech and Slovak Republics created Czecho-Slovakia, after Britain, France, Germany, Spain, and Italy, the sixth largest state of Europe. The birth of Czechoslovakia was marked by the murder of Professor Stefanik and its death by the assassination of Alexander Dubcek who tried to give socialism a human face.

New State, New Religion, New Goddess Among the defeated Central Powers with crushing debt to the Allies imposed by the treaty of Versailles, with ruined industries and devaluated currencies, Czechoslovakia emerged as a new European power. Her banknotes featured the picture of Crane’s first daughter, Josephine, sitting in a tree as a Slav Goddess, her currency backed by the golden treasure of the Russian Empire at par with the American dollar. Professor Masaryk became the President of the new state, Professor Benes its foreign minister, the older son of Charles R. Crane, Richard, became the first United States ambassador to Czechoslovakia and Crane’s younger son became the secretary to President Masaryk. The second daughter of Charles R. Crane, Frances, married Masaryk’s son, Jan, appointed as Czechoslovakia’s ambassador to Great Britain. President Wilson got a train station named after him. One of the first decrees of President Masaryk mandated the establishment of the Church of Czechoslovakia, modeled after the Protestant Church of England. When after the end of the First World War they asked Lloyd George who benefited most from the war, he answered "Professor Masaryk."

Prelude to the Second World War Shortly before his death, Masaryk's transferred his presidency to his collaborator, Edward Benes. In his book Czechoslovakia's Role in Soviet Strategy (1978), Kalvoda portrays Edward Benes, as the 'greatest Machiavelli of our time' and maintains that Benes, during the negotiations for the 1919 Treaty of St. Germain, buttressed his territorial demands with forged maps. Germans, who signed the Versailles treaty under protest, attempted to redistribute the assets and territory of the former Austrian Empire they felt were usurped by Czechoslovakia and Poland. They united the Republic of Austria and Germany and overthrew the Benes government. Benes and Masaryk, Jr. transferred gold of the Russian Empire to the English banks and sought asylum in Great Britain. Prior to their arrival in Great Britain, Winston Churchill was working for the Reader’s Digest, condensing books. He was in dire financial strains, forcing him to put his Chadwick ancestral home up for sale. Benes and Masaryk, Jr., using gold from the Russian Empire's Treasury, paid Churchill and many others regular monthly stipend and were instrumental in the formation of the British pro-war party.

The Aftermath After Allies won the Second World War, Benes pre-war government of Czechoslovakia was reinstated. President Benes first action after regaining power was to sign laws that resulted in mass hangings of his adversaries. Next, to solve the problem of ethnic minorities which Neville Chamberlain tried to solve in 1938 by signing the Munich treaty, President Benes signed laws mandating expulsion of ethnic minorities from Czechoslovakia and confiscation of their properties. Similar decrees were signed in Poland. Over 15 millions of Germans and Hungarians were expelled from Czechoslovakia and Poland; this forced expulsion resulted in deaths of more than 2 million people.

Denizens of Hell After the War, Winston S. Churchill in his book The Gathering Storm (1948), musing over major events that took place during his life, concluded that

‘there is not one of the peoples or provinces
that constituted the Empire of the Hapsburgs
to whom gaining their independence has not
brought the tortures which ancient poets and
theologians had reserved for the dammed.’

The end of Masaryk's Czechoslovakia After the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, the Slovak wife of the new premier convinced him to finally honor the Pittsburgh agreement and to divide Masaryk's Czechoslovakia into the Czech and Slovak Republics. This ended the republic created by Professors Masaryk and Benes in 1918, but not their legacy. Niece of Masaryk's successor, President Benes, married Zbigniew Brzezinski, professor at Columbia University and mentor of Condoleezza Rice, the national security advisor in the President Bush II administration. The other advisor of Condoleezza Rice was Joseph Korbel, the former Czechoslovak diplomat and father of Madeleine Albright. Albright was the fellow at the President Wilson's International Center, the United States Secretary of State during the Clinton's administration, and the architect of the U.S. War against Serbia. In September, 2002, President George W. Bush unveiled the super-sized statue of Masaryk in Washington, D.C. At that occasion, Ambassador of the Slovak Republic was granted audience with the President Bush II. He later confided to his friends that after taking to President Bush for about a half-an-hour he realized that President Bush is not referring to the Slovak Republic, but to another state he thinks is the Slovak Republic.

Analysis and Visualization As shown in Figure 1, the Empire of Hapsburgs was a supra-national entity, uniting Germans, Hungarians, Romanians, Western Slavs (Czech, Slovaks, Ruthenians), Northern Slavs (Poles) and Southern Slavs (Serbs, Chorvats, Slovenians). Germans, Hungarians, and Rumanians (about 24 millions) supported the Emperor; Slavs (about 24 millions) favored the partitioning of Hapsburg Empire. The major players were Germans (about 12 millions), Hungarians (about 12 millions), Czechs and Slovaks (about 12 millions), Poles (about 6 millions), and Yugoslavs (Yugo means Southern, about 6 millions).

The Czech and Slovak ethnic Slavs in the United States (about 2 millions), joined forces to lobby President Wilson to partition the Empire. They also signed a treaty at Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, that after the defeat of Central Powers they will form the independent Czech and Slovak Republics. The leading representatives of the Czech faction of the lobby were Professors Masaryk and Benes, the Slovak faction was represented by Professor Stefanik. The lobby claimed the Bohemia, Moravia, Silesia, Slovakia, and Ruthenia provinces of the Austrian Empire. In these claimed territories was located over 70% of industrial capacity of the Hapsburg Empire (Figure 2).

Design Before the WW I, Professor at the Czech University of Prague Thomas G. Masaryk was also a member of the Austrian parliament where he delivered a series of speeches on the merits of multicultural education. In his speech of July 20, 1907, he acknowledged the difficulties of conducting business in multiple languages (Austrian Empire at that time had eleven ethnic groups), but stressed 'how awkward it is, and what a great effort it involves, to speak in a language which is not thoroughly familiar.' In another speech in the Austrian parliament on November 18, 1892, Masaryk criticized the opponents of multicultural education as shortsighted; disregarding the 'unspeakable loss of the best national and political resources' which would result if the education in native languages would not be supported. Hoping to demonstrate the striking similarity between the Austrian multiculturalism toward the end of 19th century and multiculturalism in the United States a hundred years later, we used the method of trans-temporal cognitive matching and interpreted the obtained results within the historical context of linguistic and territorial separatism. Let us look in detail on a case study of Czech separatism where the language separatism led to the formation of a splinter state. To quantify these issues, we analyzed the speeches Thomas Masaryk, the prime mover of partitioning of Austrian Empire and future president of Czechoslovakia, made in the Austrian parliament between 1892 and 1907. Expressions 'the United States' or 'the Southern parts of the United States' were substituted for 'Austria' or 'Austrian Empire,' 'Chicano' or 'Hispanic' were substituted for 'Czech' or 'Bohemian.' The referent group of items was selected from brochures and program of study outlines pertaining to bilingual education.

Results The trans-temporal cognitive matching of the target group of political statements made between 1892 and 1907 in the Austrian parliament and the reference group of items reflecting opinions of contemporary proponents and opponents of bilingual education was by the canonical analysis. Spanning continents and centuries, the trans-temporal cognitive matching (Figure 3) indicated that the overlap of the cognitive structures of the bilingual educators and this of the Professor Masaryk was over 85 percent. Furthermore, the analysis of the study (Figure 4) showed that

Fig. 3. Trans-temporal match of the
cognitive structures of bilingual
educators (85%) with that of Masaryk.

Fig. 4. Percentages of bilingual educators proposing separate language
and separate governments of the United States of America.

the 82% of proponents of bilingual education endorsed the statement proposing abandonment of a single language as an accepted means of communication among citizens of the United States and that the 94% of bilingual educators supported the idea of establishment of separate governments for linguistic minorities in the United States.

Crown Prince Rudolf. Enhanced Reality Portrait.

The opposing view In a personal letter dated December 12, 1886, Crown Prince Rudolf Habsburg describes his view of the Austrian Empire. Addressed to the French statesman George Clemenceau, the letter is excerpted as follows.

‘The Empire of Hapsburgs, in a miniature, already realized the dream of Victor Hugo about
the United States of Europe. Austria is a conglomerate of various nations, united.

This is the guiding idea of our monarchy, not without significance for the world civilization.
Even though at the present time the realization of this idea is less than perfect, it does not mean
that the idea itself is incorrect.‘

In a letter to his friend, Julius Szeps (on July 26, 1882) the Crown Prince writes that

‘The principle of nationalism rests on the most base of human instincts. It is a victory of
primitivism over the noble ideals of equality.

The national and racial animosities are a step backward. It is characteristic that these
principles are most often used by the most divisive elements of our society. As the science
is cosmopolitan, so should be the just societies.

Would the Second World War happen if President Wilson, instead of listening to the sycophant Masaryk and war mongers gathered at Versailles accepted the offer of the Austria's last Emperor Charles to form a federation of Austria, Bohemia, Balkan, and Ukraine? Warren Carroll commented on Emperor Charles' 1917 peace initiatives that they were

However, on October 18, Masaryk created in Washington, D.C. from Bohemia, Moravia, Slovakia, Silesia, and Ruthenia provinces of the Austrian Empire the Czechoslovakia instead. The wisdom of President Wilson’s decision to partition the Austrian Empire has been debated ad nauseam. It undoubtedly contributed to the outbreak of the Second World War. At the end of the bloodiest century in history the political arrangement of successor states of the Austrian Empire looks more like that proposed by the last Emperor of Austria than as envisioned by Woodrow Wilson.

Retrospect and Prospectus Classic Chinese civilization shaped the cultures of other countries of the Pacific Rim. One of its unique features was the use of a pictographic form of written communication. Chinese pictographs are like Arabic numerals in most Indo-European languages: pronounced differently, but understood by all.

Chinese pictographs facilitated administrative tasks, promoted mutual understanding, and encouraged a common culture. Chinese Empire consisted of people of many nationalities, speaking languages as diverse as the languages of Europe, but communicating in a common pictorial language understood not only within the empire, but also by its neighbors. Classical Chinese civilization struck a balance between unity and diversity, unmatched by any Western civilization. Despite the great diversity of various China regions, Chinese intellectuals, coalesced by Confucian philosophy, provided for the cultural unity of the Empire. The Chinese Empire was unified not by national exclusivity or by racial purity, but by its culture. It did not conquer other peoples, it absorbed them. The Chinese pictographs were understood within all four corners of the empire while the local culture, tradition, and languages were preserved and augmented by the Confucian cultural tradition.

Among the cyclical processes of the 'raise and fall' of civilizations, building-up and tearing-down of empires, integration and disintegration of social structures, another recurring process is that of nationalism followed by universalism. This circulus vitiosus can be observed within nations belonging a century earlier to the Austrian Empire. Observing people in Prague's subway, many study foreign languages, mostly German or English. The use of the Czech language is receding into family and private sphere, as the language of the regional business is German and that of large corporations English. The irony of all of that is that a century ago, their ancestors were studying Czech, at that time a nearly extinct language. The rise of nationalism among ethnic minorities of the Austrian Empire was among the main causes of the First World War, the subsequent partitioning of the Habsburg Empire was among the main causes of the Second World War. One of the lessons we can learn from the classical Chinese civilization is about how the Chinese Empire was able to keep the delicate balance between the nationalism and universalism, monoculturalism and multiculturalism, as disturbance of this balance is one of the factors leading to a war.

Postscript What happened, on the personal side, to some major actors of this story? After the military defeat of the Austrian Empire in 1918, the Emperor Charles and the Empress Zita escaped to Switzerland. At that time it was too late to heed Hapsburgs' bella gerunt alii, tu, felix Austria, nube (let others fight wars, you, fortunate Austria, marry) maxim and Charles had to be painfully aware of difficulties able to follow Charles V's plus ultra (always forward) motto which at one time made Austria to imperare orbi universo. However, desperate times call for desperate measures and thus Emperor Charles borrowed Ad Astra airplane from the Swiss Airlines and in the late fall of 1921 flew to Austria. The Emperor and his entourage landed on a field close to Vienna and were joined by loyal troops of General Anton Lehar. Upon the news of the Emperor landing President Masaryk mobilized his army, but before it could be deployed, British commandos forced the Emperor and Zita to the gunboat Glowworm that patrolled the Danube. The Glowworm carried Charles and Zita downstream to the coast of the Black Sea. From Glowworm they were transferred to the cruiser Cardiff, which headed toward the Madeira Islands, a volcanic archipelago in the Atlantic Ocean about 400 miles west of Morocco. There Charles, Zita, and their children lived until 1922, when the Emperor, 34 years old, died.

Defenestration of Masaryk Junior Defenestration (Latin prefix de (removal, separation) + fenestra (window) means to throw something out of a window. After the fall of the Roman empire, the Roman cloacae (sewers) were replaced by chamber pots, portable containers for human waste used in bedrooms, and defenestration became the favorite method of waste disposal. In the History of Plumbing at Muswell-hill.com/foxandco, this transition is described as follows:

When the last Roman garrisons left, the secrets of sanitary design went with them. The early Christians rejected most anything Roman, including the value of cleanliness. St. Benedict pronounced that

"to those that are well, and especially for the young, bathing shall seldom be permitted."

not washed her face for 18 years so as not to disturb the holy water" used at her baptism.

In 1348 the first wave of Black Plague entered England. One third of the population would be wiped out, as rats and fleas thrived in the filth and garbage steeped in and about and all around. The Dark Ages had begun and the cry of "garden l'eau!" (watch out for the 'water' from chamber pots emptied from windows) would echo up and down the streets.

Defenestrated was not only the human waste, but also humans to be wasted. In 1419, Hussites threw members of the city council out of the Prague's City Hall windows. When the inebriated King Wenceslas heard about it, he had a heart attack and died. In 1618, the vice-regents of the Emperor Ferdinand II were thrown out of the window of the Prague castle, this event starting the Thirty Year's War. In 1948, President Masaryk's son was thrown out of the window of his residence next to the Prague Castle, leaving behind excrements he expelled in mortal fear before his body hit the pavement below.

Crane and Palestine In 1917, the United Kingdom was in desperate straits. It was very close to losing the war and sought the support of Jewish Americans to bring the USA into the war on the side of the Great Britain. This mutual agreement, known as the Balfour Declaration, was made in November, 1917. This agreement was among the reasons of the post-war German anti-Semitism in general and the anti-Semitism of Adolph Hitler who fought in the First World War in particular. It was also hoped that the Balfour Declaration would encourage influential Jews, participating in the ongoing Russian revolution, to keep Russia in the war on the side of the Allies. In the words of the Great Britain's wartime Prime Minister David Lloyd-George,

President Wilson, a deep-believing Presbyterian with a profound knowledge of the Old Testament, liked the idea of a Jewish home in the Promised Land. He wanted to believe that this could be achieved without infringing upon the rights of the people who already lived there, as the Zionists at that time were fond of saying, "A land without people for a people without land." However, to ally his misgivings about this, President Wilson dispatched Henry C. King, president of Oberlin College and his friend Charles R. Crane to Palestine. This mission which became known as the King-Crane Commission concluded that in Palestine

However, the King-Crane Commission report was completed after the major decisions of President Wilson's were already made. It was filed away in the State Department and forgotten.