Gottland: Mostly True Stories From Half of Czechoslovakia Read Online Free Page B

Europe: NOT A STEP WITHOUT BATA .
1936, CONTINUED: HUMANITY
    An anthology of canonical texts by Jan Antonín Bata is published.
    “I notice to my horror that our good old simple folk are growing up to be charity cases.
    “Let us teach those among us who have lost their jobs to live modestly, but in a human way—at their own expense. By insisting that the state provide welfare for the unemployed,they are weakening the country. Let us take the work they give us, work at any price. Let us recognize that accepting hand-outs is a disgrace. Handing out welfare is not a show of humanity—it is a way to kill the human soul. It is a way of corrupting the weak.”
    So how is one to help those who are losing their humanity?
    His answer: leave them to it.
    After all, those people—according to public opinion—should have died of starvation long ago, but they’re still alive.
    In 1931, Tomáš Bata had already warned workers who were laid off that if they accepted welfare, they would ruin any chance of ever returning to him.
    The newspapers write that Zlín has no unemployment. In reality, the city evicts those who have lost their jobs from their homes and forces them to go back to their places of family origin. If anyone is a communist or is active in the unions, he won’t remain in Zlín for long. Bata keeps his own private files of Reds.
    In case of unrest, he has his own people—he corrupts the local policemen. For example, in January 1934, nineteen police officers from Zlín who live in Bata family homes were awarded a 60 percent rent reduction.
    The communist senator Nedvěd thunders that Czechoslovak law is no longer in effect in Zlín.
    Going back to the crisis—despite the fact that thousands of people have been laid off, the number of shoes produced hasn’t fallen. In 1932, over a million more pairs were actually manufactured than in the previous year. “Bata-ian terror” is how the communists explain this success.
    By 1936, Jan Bata has four daughters, one son and a wifecalled Marie. We do not know much about his personal life, apart from the fact that two years later he will bring his wife a pair of newly invented nylon stockings from a short trip abroad. What might he say to her last thing at night?
    “Our country needs our work, Maňa. We are the biggest taxpayer in our republic.”
JUNE 28, 1936: LITERATURE
    Jan Bata convenes a writers’ conference in Zlín. Perhaps, after what happened with
The Shoe Machine
, he wants to take charge of literature.
    He gives 120 men of letters a guided tour of the town, and then lets them take the floor.
    “I feel great joy at seeing industry and literature together. These two elements should be united,” declares a former author of decadent fiction, Karel Scheinpflug, on behalf of the writers of Prague, and adds: “Literature can do a lot for industry, and vice versa.”
    Bata tells the writers about his own cultural needs and those of the citizens of Zlín. “Our fight to improve people has been a success.”
NEXT DAY: SURREALISM
    The 120 writers view the work of 152 painters at the Jan Bata Art Salon. (Four months earlier, Bata had organized an artists’ conference.) He casts a tolerant eye upon the works of the greatest artists, which he has bought. His gaze comes to a stopon a painting by Toyen (known earlier as Marie Čermínová), who paints eggs, stones and string to illustrate delusions; her work was highly praised by Paul Eluard when he visited Prague.
    “I admit,” says Jan Antonín Bata, “that I try to find people who haven’t got lost in a single style. I know of a young fellow who paints dead chicks. Or men who look as if they only have an hour to live. I don’t think that’s right. Whom do these crude daubs serve? Society? The social classes? The nation? There’s one picture in particular I can’t get out of my mind: Slovaks with axes, and sparks flying from their eyes, who appear to be moving forwards—give me a break! I want to help artists. But