progress towards that position to which we have full historical rights as
well as the natural rights of a living and strong nation...." And again, in
an article in the _Narodni Listy_ of December 25, 1917, Kramar wrote under
the heading "By Order of the Nation":

"We have sought with utmost sacrifice to find a compromise between our
just claims and the international situation which was unfavourable to
us. The war has completely changed all our policy, removing the
possibility of a compromise to which we might have been disposed, and
we cannot once more roll up our flag now so proudly unfurled, and put
it aside for the next occasion."

As we shall show also later on, there is not the least doubt that the
necessity for the independence of Bohemia was proclaimed not by a few
extremists, but by all the Czech parties with the approval of the
entire nation.

When Kramar in 1917 again took over the leadership of the Young Czech
Party, which led to the amalgamation of four nationalist parties, a change
took place also in the leadership of the Czech Social Democratic Party
which hitherto was in the hands of a few demagogues and defeatists, such as
Smeral, who dominated the majority of the members. The return of the
Socialist Party to its revolutionary traditions and its entire approval of
the Bohemian state right and the national policy of Czecho-Slovak
independence means a complete and absolute consolidation of the whole
Czech nation.

As the Social Democrats became quite loyal to the Czech cause, the National
Socialist Party lost its _raison d'etre_. Owing to the great sufferings of
the working class during the war, it became imbued with Socialist ideas.