m to prison. He
probably expected nothing else, for his eloquence--and he is an orator
in several languages--has frequently carried him along and swept him
round and round, like a leaf, not only in a direction opposite to that
which he previously travelled but flying sometimes in the face of the
most puissant and august authorities. So, for example, he began to
agitate in 1904 against the vast territorial possessions of the Church
in Croatia. This resulted in the then Archbishop issuing an interdict
against him and his meetings--a measure which, I believe, is still in
force. He was described as Antichrist, with the consequence that his
audiences, out of curiosity to see what such a personage might look
like, became larger than ever. For many years he was the only Croat
politician who gave himself the trouble to go amongst the peasants. "In
politics," said Radi['c] to me--he said a great many other things in the
course of our first conversation, which lasted for four hours, though it
seemed a good deal shorter--"In politics," said he, "one should not, as
in art, try to be original. One should interpret not only the living
generation but the ancestors." The peasant, who feels what Radi['c]
expresses, has repaid him well, for there is now no party in Yugoslavia
which is more devoted to its leader. He has taken the place once
occupied by the clergy--he is by no means hostile to the Roman Catholic
Church, but he is the foe of clericalism. "Praised be Jesus Christ! Long
live the Republic!" is the usual beginning of one of his orations, so
that his enemies accuse him in the first place of being a hypocrite, and
in the second of holding views which cannot possibly amalgamate with
those of monarchical Serbia. But the reference to Christ appears
perfectly natural to the Croat peasant--at an open-air meeting of 10,000
of them I saw their heads uncovered, and all bowed in prayer for a few
minutes on the stroke of noon. As for the Republic, this first came into
the picture on July 25, 1918, when the cry was raised at a meeting of
the Peasants' party. A large number of peasants had imbibed this idea in
America--those who emigrated have been in the habit of returning, and
even if their home is in the desolate parts of Zagorija or among the
rocks of Primorija, the coastal region. And thousands of Croats had
spent part of the War as prisoners in Russia--having deserted from the
Austro-Hungarian army--so that they had seen how the Great Wh