Poznaris Wilson

Thomas Woodrow Wilson, twelve feet high, stood in the centre of Poznan's municipal park last week pointing to a granite map of Poland with an enormous outstretched arm which promises to be a great convenience to Polish pigeons. Mrs. Wilson, Poland's President Ignacy Moscicki, U. S. Ambassador John North Willys, Auguste Cardinal Hlond, Mr. & Mrs. Bernard Mannes Baruch and Daughter Belle piled wreaths about Statue Wilson's ankles. Out by the gate was a smaller bust of Democrat Wilson's faithful lieutenant Herbert Clark Hoover. President Hoover, now unalterably Republican, sent a message: "It has been my own good fortune to visit Poland. It has been my good fortune to meet the illustrious citizen to whose inspiration this gathering is due. It has been my good fortune to know President Wilson to whom it was given to play a part in the history of Poland . . . Kosciuszko . . . Pulaski . . . ragged regiments of Washington. ... It is therefore peculiarly touching to us that a ceremony such as this should take place in Poland on the anniversary which stands first in our calendar."

The distinguished-citizen-to-whose-inspiration-the-gathering-was-due was the silver-maned Politico-Pianist Ignace Jan Paderewski, first Premier of Republican Poland (1919). He it was who ordered the Wilson statue from the U. S. mountain-molder, Gutzon Borglum, and paid for it. Many years ago he was engaged to give a concert at Stanford University. Subscriptions failed to raise the necessary amount. The treasurer of the concert, an undergraduate working his way through college, presented his own note for the deficit. Paderewski returned the note to the concert treasurer, Herbert Clark Hoover.

Poznan, where the statue was erected, is a city that had nothing in particular to do with Thomas Woodrow Wilson, a great deal to do with Ignace Paderewski. It was there that he landed from a British warship in 1919 while Germans still held the town, to become Poland's first Premier. Poznan has always been a Paderewski, anti-Pilsudski bailiwick. The Wilson unveiling resolved itself into a grand Paderewski jamboree. Dictator Pilsudski and Pianist Paderewski (officially tending his sick wife in Switzerland) both considered it wise to absent themselves. So did General Pershing who had been invited. At the last minute, lest the Paderewskites should stage some really serious demonstration, Dictator Pilsudski sent puppet President Moscicki to the unveiling. He drove with Mrs. Wilson and the Baruch family through streets of cheering citizens. As President Moscicki came abreast of rank after rank of Poznan citizens most of them shouted: "Long live Paderewski!", a few "Long live Mrs. Wilson," none shouted "Long live President Moscicki." The President. Mrs. Wilson and friends rode on through the streets.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.