Poland Is Not Yet Lost

President Roosevelt proclaimed last week that on Oct. 11 the nation would honor Count Casimir Pulaski.* Thus he reminded the world of U. S. sympathy for Poland, turned U. S. eyes towards the 4,000,000 Polish-Americans settled throughout the land.

Nationwide rallies and memorial services would signalize their Week, beginning Oct. 11, climaxed at week's end by parades. In Poland, no Polish flag yet waves, but in the U. S. the mourners of a dead nation this week marched to their colors, sang with hope their anthem, Poland Is Not Yet Lost.

Like German, Irish, English immigrants, freedom-hungry Poles came to the U. S. in flight from oppression--after their army's ill-starred revolt against Russian domination; to escape the knout of Tsar Alexander II; in a tide in the '80s; in a tidal wave in the 15 years preceding World War I. Greatest concentration of Poles in the world today is Chicago's 500,000. Other great centres: Detroit, Buffalo, New York.

There are Polish names which have significance in contemporary U. S. life: Paul Muni in Hollywood; Baton-wielders Stokowski, Rodzinski; Singers Kiepura, Ganna Walska; Pianist Josef Hofmann; Engineers Pawlowski, Modjeski; Economist Mizwa; Editor Pialkowicz.

But the importance of the Poles in the U. S. is still fairly minor. Immigrants settled on farms in New England, Pennsylvania, Texas, the North Central States, went into factories, crawled into mines, swaggered into the Pacific lumber camps,' poured their sweat and labor into the expanding machinery of U. S. industry, sent their brawny children to college, where their names have recently emerged as problems to football cheering sections.

In Washington, last week, Count Jerzy Potocki was still the accepted Ambassador of his refugee Government, was still credited with being the handsomest, and one of the ablest members of Washington's diplomatic corps.

*Like Kosciuszko, Polish adjutant to General Washington who fought devoutly for an alien cause, Pulaski fought as a Brigadier-General in the American Revolution. He was killed at Savannah in 1779, and is memorialized by a fine equestrian statue in bronze in Washington and by a titanic $21,000,000 elevated highway over the filthy flats of New Jersey.

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