Show jan masaryk took his life in protest against robots by BAUKHAGE news analyst and commentator NV washington ASHINGTON for some time after I 1 heard the tragic news of jan suicide a strange memory haunted me I 1 saw A man and woman alone in a darkened room they are re two of the last three human beings on earth the rest have been destroyed by an army of automatons man created robots creatures who have all other human attributes but no sensitivities no souls mechanically made the robots are the triumph of the productivity of the machine but they have revolted and turned i against their creators they now are marching on the last human stronghold T the h e lights go out you can hear the rayth 11 mic tramp tramp tramp of their iron feet there is a crash of glass as they push in sensitive to pain through the win dows two revola er shots ring out in the dark as the human beings corn com 1 mit suicide to save themselves front from the horrible wrath of the automatons that you may remember was the cl max of the play possums un versal robots written by karel kapek I 1 was reminded of it because of f one of the first deeds of jan ma baryk in 1946 when he returned to his native country after the exile imposed on him when hitler s robots crushed the first czech republic when masaryk returned he laid lowers flowers on the grave of karel kapek the great czech author who wrote e that prophetic play giving us the word robot and the warning be hind it the words comes down from the old slavic lobota servitude we have accepted the word we have not heeded the warn ins ing the robots like the golem of the hebrew myth and the adam of the psalms yet being be tore a soul was breathed into h s substance tub stance otter offer a grim warning to as now bengs be released today may reenact re enact kapek s play on a stage wide as civil bation day after day come the fright ined echoes from europe of the tear of war and yet no people wants it if you were to wr te iown all the material demands of the d and the rulers of each nat on and put them in the hands of df the peoples of the world and tell them it if you want these you must nave war who would pay the price df bf war none none but a robot pv phout sens without soul the martyrdom of jan masaryk seems to have hurt rather than aelred the communist cause I 1 spent ome some time with the former czecho slovak ambassador to the united states tates jur c on the eve n ng of the day when masaryk s sui tide cide was announced believes that masaryk f fe e t he could serve his country b ater dead than as a living prisoner on r for the ambassador amb assado says he was a prisoner alive but ath vv th every word and gesture I 1 fi L through the censorship of the communist screen would be come a symbol of the spirit of czechoslovakia Checho slovakia surrendered enchained a noble and historic name and all it has stood for besmirched and obliterated dead the name the spirit live the ambassador recalled an epi sode in that epic odyssey which has gone down in military history as 4 3 i adz JAN MASARYK the name the spirit live one ot of the marvelous achievements of df world war I 1 the march of the czechoslovak legion which fought beside the allies against the rus ians and after the bolshevists bad had made their peace with the germans ought fought its way from the ukraine to vladivostok a trek that makes the world a great marches pale by corn com par son many believe that masaryk had rema ned on with the new govern ment as tore fore agn minister not be cause he accepted as mp inevitable comman st domination but be cause he felt he could serve best w th n the government working se creely with democratic elements he made a cryptic declarant decI arat on in a speech to the czech czech army after the comman st assumption of pow er in which he said czech and slovak brothers I 1 am with you this may have been an indication of his true purpose to d the thee un der ground but something changed his mind about the course cour he was to pur sue one must take into consideration the attitude toward sell self destruction in a country which had a long aradi tion ol 01 martyrdom and underground resistance and no catholic back ground I 1 do not know how much A t a mystic jan masaryk may have been but it has been emphasized that only a few hours before bis his death he visited his father s grave with others to venerate the honored memory and he remained there alone long after after the others had gone perhaps he felt that he had received in that lonely vigil some mystic command say as hamlet did after a similar experience and thy commandment all alone shall live within the book and volume of my brain d with baser matter yes by heaven peace depends on worlds children recently I 1 received a pa pamphlet from the general brotherhood board containing an article by gordon all port department of social relations at harvard entitled guide lines for research in international coop erat on allport points out that most in ter national conferences meet in the I 1 if aa 4 il t I 1 t kj V V I 1 h ile h credit united nations world these united nations members nem bers don t quarrel can yon you guess ess the country to which these children of members of the united nations staff belong glare of cameras microphones and bald heads and that it is time to concentrate our efforts on the chil dren in teaching children about the peoples of the world allport says the tendency is to accentuate the differences he ile says the american child learns with horror about head hunters about infanticide and he learns to laugh at the dutch who clop in wooden shoes and at the quaint observances of easter among adherents to the orthodox faith the implication of inferiority is a usual by product of our present method of teaching cultural and national dif ferencek feren ces less dramatic but far sounder would be the teach ng ol 01 the common considerations of justice and morality that are identical over vast areas of the earth practices that may SEEM to differ drama often ind cate common as pi rations and common values the prayer wheels of tibet and the si lent quaker meeting have virtually identical functional s significance so too the initiation rites of the pawnee and the american high school corn com men cement little effort has been made AU ali port claims to search for the corn com mon ground of mankind and be he suggests that the united nations prepare an encyclopedia of the uni and si simi larit es in the oe de eels practices and aspirations of all peoples an a h b would serve as a reference gu de tor for innumerable aspects of policy tor for years to come allport thinks that a study of th common peoples of the world un would reveal that more important to them than boundaries and national aspirations are ma matters t of self respect pride food shelter marriage and the wel fare of their children yes as I 1 said earl er ask the peo pies ples of the world to vote between capture of territory acau s t on ol 01 ports or oil I 1 elds at the pr ce A w ajr r and there would be no ques tilia of their choice |