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GIFT OF 
 
:.) 
 
 Herbert l|ttauer 
 
 before the polfsh ©onuentfnn in Buffalo, N. g. 
 on Nnuember \Zt\x 1919 
 
 "...gigantic strides... have been made in the building of the 
 great edifice of independent Poland." — (Herbert Hoover). 
 
 "Poland after ten months, was a democracy with a govern- 
 ment for the people and by the people". — (Herbert Hoover). 
 
 "The need of Poland for help and assistance from the 
 United States is not yet over... The coming winter will be a 
 hard winter in Poland". — (Herbert Hoover). 
 
 JCatiunal |Jolish €ttmmtttee nf America 
 "fat Selfef fit polanb*' 
 
 2138 l^ttxct Aufnue 
 €bkag0. 111. 
 
Mt. Herbert Hoouer 
 
 ^tffxxt the l^txlxsh €onuenti0n In Sutfalo, 5f. g. 
 011 ^nmmbtt Uth, 1910. 
 
 I have been asked to speak to you on 
 the progress which has been made with the 
 establishement of free government of the 
 Polish people; of the service that you can 
 do in the maintenance of this inspiring Re- 
 public; of the service that you must main- 
 tain at the same time to the country of your 
 adoption. 
 
 I have had the fortune to be associated 
 since 1914 with many of the men who are 
 now comprised in the government of Po- 
 land. More particularly, since last Jan- 
 uary I have been in intimate association 
 with the problems and perplexities of the 
 Polish people. It is truly an inspiring thing 
 to witness thirty millions of people of one 
 race and one language emerge from 150 
 years of foreign military dictatorship into 
 a free country. It is doubly inspiring to an 
 American to see a new nation founded on 
 the inspirations and ideals that we of the 
 
 1) 
 
tMfted'lStateS-ft6l(l"^s the very basis of 
 liberty. 
 
 The sympathies of the American and 
 Polish peoples are not an over-night crea- 
 tion. There is not a school child of the Unit- 
 ed States who does not know of the great 
 service to our own war for freedom of those 
 great military leaders, Kosciuszko and Pu- 
 laski. There is not a Pole who does not 
 know the service these same men gave to 
 free Poland, for which they gave their lives, 
 further, during this 150 yrs. there has been 
 a constant migration of Poles to the United 
 States in an endeavor to find freedom. 
 There has been a constant return of these 
 Poles to Poland and an interpretation of 
 American hopes and ideals amongst the 
 Polish people. The American sympathy for 
 the struggle of Poland to secure her inde- 
 pendence has been constant from the days 
 (^ our own freedom. It was President Wil- 
 son who first enunciated the absolute stipu- 
 lation that the complete independence of the 
 whole of the Polish people was a fundamen- 
 tal condition of this peace. 
 
 You, the Polish citizens of the United 
 States, have out of sympathy for your 
 mother country been constant in contribu- 
 
 Q}'' 
 
tion and moral support to those leaders for 
 Polish independence who entered War- 
 saw in triumph in January this year. You 
 have contributed not only your resources, 
 but your sons to this great thing. America 
 has still another great link of sympathy 
 with Poland. One of those two great Poles 
 who now lead the Polish people, lived many 
 years in the United States and his inspira- 
 tion and vision of government arise from 
 our institutions. Thus it comes that one of 
 the two great men who have been the Guild- 
 ers of the freedom of Poland is an Ameri- 
 can citizen. These two great men, Padere- 
 wski and Pilsudzki, are today two of the 
 greatest figures that have emerged from 
 this war. They have the abilities, the 
 courage and resolution of constructive 
 statesmanship. 
 
 It requires but a short review of the 
 situation that existed ten months ago with- 
 in the present boundaries of Poland in con- 
 trast to its position today to appreciate the 
 gigantic strides that have been made in the 
 making of the great edifice of the indepen- 
 dence of Poland. Poland has been for 150 
 years under subjugration of foreign military 
 government. The Polish people were griven 
 no opportunity for the development of po- 
 
litical experience. Their only training as 
 statesmen lay in political sabotage and in 
 opposition. This same opposition has main- 
 tained alive the spirit of Poland for over 
 150 years and, ripening at times into bloody 
 revolution, finally secured the Polish people 
 their independence. Yet political opposi- 
 tion is a poor school for constructive gov- 
 ernment. The world feared that the Poles 
 would fail in this emergency — but they 
 have not. 
 
 During the war Poland had been rav- 
 aged by four separate invasions — parts 
 of it by even seven invasions. The destruc- 
 tion of property and civilian life was great- 
 er than all the destruction of property and 
 life on* the Western front. Between three 
 and four millions of Poles have died of 
 starvation or disease during the war. The 
 Russians had ruthlessly destroyed thou- 
 sands of square miles and driven the entire 
 ponulation from home in an endeavor to 
 create a desert that misfht retard the ad- 
 vance of the German armies. This shocking 
 barbarity, the literally hundreds of thou- 
 sands who died as refugees at the roadsides, 
 is itself perhaps one of the curses that fell 
 on the military oligarchy of Russia. The 
 Germans also systematically abstracted at 
 
the point of the bayonet every resource of 
 Poland, scraping away such minor surpluses 
 of food as existed in the more prolific sec- 
 tions of Poland and leaving other regions 
 to starve. This, together with the destruc- 
 tion of her farms and the looting of every 
 bit of agricultural machinery, left millions 
 of Poles at the armistice threatened with 
 starvation. There is a greater exhaustion of 
 work animals in Poland than in any other 
 part of Europe. 
 
 At the time of the armistice, approxi- 
 mately one quarter of Poland was in the 
 hands of the Austrian army, approximately 
 one half in the hands of the German army, 
 something over one quarter in the hands of 
 the Bolshevik army. The armistice called 
 for the evacuation of certain undoubted Po- 
 lish territory by the German and Austrian 
 armies. With the German withdrawal, 
 hordes of Bolshevik invaded a large part of 
 Poland, perpetrating indescribable crimes 
 in every village and city. Even in the East, 
 North and South, the armistice provisions 
 left Poland completely surrounded with 
 enemy territory. She had no outlet to the 
 sea and could not send a letter or telegram 
 except through enemy hands. I do not know 
 in history of so appalling and dishearten- 
 
ing a situation as faced that great soldier 
 and patriot, Pilsudski, when, escaped from 
 a German prison, he laid the first stone of 
 the Polish government at Warsaw. Here 
 
 was a country of thirty millions of people 
 in a state of total anarchy; in the midst of 
 a famine such that the children had ceased 
 to play upon the streets; a country with 
 thousands dying daily from typhus and con- 
 tagious diseases; a large part of the coun- 
 try in the terrible grip of Bolshevik inva- 
 sion; the Bolshevik army advancing behind 
 a cloud of conspirators, and disintegrated 
 by 150 years of separation, a population 
 incapable of paying taxation; a people abso- 
 lutely without the means for preserving 
 order or repelling invasion; a people with- 
 out even the rudimentary machinery on 
 which to build a great administrative gov- 
 ernment. The railroads and telegraph lines 
 had been greatly destroyed and had practi- 
 cally ceased to function. The rolling stock 
 had been destroyed or removed from the 
 country. 
 
 Yet, eight months after the arrival of 
 Pilsudski in Warsaw, I found in Poland a 
 vigorous government, functioning with 
 Ministers of Foreign Affairs, of War, of 
 Food, of Finance, of Railways, of Labor, of 
 
Education, of Agriculture and of Public 
 Health. An army of 500,000 well-drilled, 
 well-equipped and spirited troops. Order 
 established throughout the entire area. The 
 Bolsheviki driven out of Poland. A general 
 election had taken place under universal 
 franchise. A congress had been set up, and 
 from tne moment that it convened the gov- 
 ernment of Poland ruled, responsible to this 
 assembly. Local government had been estab- 
 lished in every quarter. Land reform had 
 been inaugurated by law. A public school 
 system had been established. Poland, after 
 ten months, was a democracy with a gov- 
 ernment for the people and by the people, 
 in a country that had had no government for 
 150' years but the government of foreign 
 oppression. Railways had been rebuilt. A- 
 bandoned cars and locomotives had been re- 
 paired and brought into use. Regfular, 
 though deficient^ train services were being 
 maintained over 30,000 miles of railways. 
 Canals were opened and in operation. Coal 
 mines were running. Fields abandoned for 
 years were being steadily replanted. Post 
 and telefrranh services had been re-estab- 
 lished. TvDhus was beiner brought under 
 control. The fundamental finance of gov- 
 ernment was being steadily extended. Po- 
 
land had gained at the Peaee';eonf erence her 
 critically necessary boundaries and her out- 
 let to the sea. The people iiad been fed, 
 and children were again plaj^g in the 
 streets. r ^ ^ 
 
 I am proud that the United States could 
 have had, through her organized represen- 
 tatives in Poland, a material part int«^ 
 making of this great mi-racle. I am preftld 
 to have been appointed by the American gov 
 emment to direct this service. American as- 
 sistance was given to Poland in ships, in 
 opening the route to the sea through Dan- 
 zig, in railway material and skill, in fight- 
 ing famine and typhus, in financial assist- 
 ance to the government, in charity to the 
 poor. Beyond this, devoted and disinterest- 
 ed Americans have participated in the 
 building of her economic and political gov- 
 ernment. This service marks the final re- 
 payment of a debt of the American people 
 of 150 years^ standing. 
 
 The need of Poland for help and as- 
 sistance from the United States is not yet 
 over. That assistance must continue for 
 yet another year. In another year Poland 
 will have found herself not only with fully 
 developed political institutions but her 
 
great resources will give her an economic 
 independence that will enable her to con- 
 tribute to the welfare of others. Owing to 
 the destruction of agriculture, it will be an- 
 other year before Poland will be able to pro- 
 duce sufficient food to maintain her popu- 
 lation. Fully thirty per cent, of the fertile 
 land of Eastern Poland has yet no plows. 
 Her railways require more reconstruction 
 and more rolling stock. Her spinning mills 
 must be repaired and raw material found 
 for their operation. Six hundred thousand 
 workmen are idle, because they have not the 
 material on which to labor. Five years, 
 with literally no production or imports of 
 textiles, have left the Polish people under- 
 clad and cold. Typhus still rages on her 
 Eastern frontiers. Her population is as yet 
 unable to contribute in taxes the necessary 
 expenditures of the government. Her cur- 
 rency was inflated and debauched by enemy 
 armies by every device known to financial 
 robbery, and, above all, Poland today must 
 hold the front line of Europe against Bol- 
 shevik invasion. In the midst of her econ- 
 omic misery, she must maintain an army of 
 500,000 men, fighting on a front 1500 miles, 
 as the outposts of Europe. Yet the people 
 of Poland are fired by an emotion of f ree- 
 
 9 
 
dom and sacrifice that will carry her over 
 another year of suffering. A little help 
 will mitigate that suffering, will expedite 
 her recovery, will guarantee the final stabi- 
 lity of her free institutions. 
 
 The Polish government has been con- 
 fronted with a most difficult problem in the 
 matters of its large Jewish population. 
 These people have suffered from the same 
 terrible domination as the Poles themselves. 
 They have been driven from the proper de- 
 velopment of participation in all branches 
 of agricultural and industrial and intellect- 
 ual life into the narrow groove of middle- 
 men, and held there in the most terrible 
 submersion. 
 
 The result is, more especially in times 
 of famine when the middleman of any kind 
 is between the upper and nether mill stones, 
 that racial conflict has been much height- 
 ened. 
 
 Whatever the qualities of the Jewish 
 people of Poland may be, in the minds of 
 their critics it must be borne in mind that 
 their present position is the doing of the 
 Gentile and all the world has yet to pay for 
 this accumulated century of injustice. For 
 this, the Polish government now ten months 
 
 10 
 
old is not responsible. With a government 
 gradually developing stability with law and 
 order, the latent animosities of populations 
 escape to the surface. It is not my inten- 
 tion to traverse what may or may riot have 
 happened in Poland, but only to point oat 
 that in a period of ten months the Polish 
 government has developed to a point that I 
 life is safe and that freedom from tyranny I 
 is accomplished. The fine, nonsectarian i 
 work done by the Jewish Joint Distribution 
 committee in Poland and the active leader- 
 ship of many important Poles and Jews in 
 finding a solution to this accumulation of 
 centuries of wrong, has placed the whole 
 Jewish problem in Poland on a new foot- 
 ing, and one to which we have every reason 
 to look forward with confidence. 
 
 Thus, the coming winter will be a hard 
 winter in Poland. It will not be so hard as 
 the winter that we have passed, and how 
 hard it will be will depend entirely upon the- 
 service that Poland can secure from the 
 United States. Poland requires 600,000 to 
 800,000 tons of wheat and rye. She requires 
 100,000 tons of fats. She ought to have 
 200,000 bales of cotton. She also requires 
 other raw materials. Altogether, the eco- 
 nomic life of Poland could be kept revolving 
 
 11 
 
and her position steadily improved if she 
 could find credits for $150,000,000 in the 
 United States. I believe it is the duty of 
 the Poles themselves to directly organize 
 this assistance and to prevent any fishing 
 by intermediaries for a profit in this pool 
 of misery. You should have a strongly 
 developed organization that will scrutinize 
 the appeals made to you. 
 
 Poland also requires charity for her 
 destitute. I and my colleagues are en- 
 deavoring to provide the food supply and 
 clothing for 1,200,000 destitute, undernour- 
 ished Polish children. Committees compris- 
 ing the most devoted Polish men and wo- 
 men have been established in every city 
 and village in Poland. Canteens for feeding 
 children have been in operation for many 
 months. They were established by the A- 
 merican government, but their appropria- 
 tions having been exhausted they must now 
 depend upon charity. These are the two 
 problems before the Poles in the United 
 States, as to whether you, in the greater 
 prosperity that you enjoy, are prepared to 
 devote your major resources to the loaning 
 of money to the government of Poland for 
 the purchase of its essentials, and whether 
 you are prepared to assist us in charity in 
 
 12 
 
the support of your own brothers and sis- 
 ters in Poland who are preserving the life 
 of 1,200,000 children. The Polish govern- 
 ment and public charity are paying all the 
 expenses of this organization in Poland, 
 We are depending upon you to enable us to 
 buy in the United States the clothes, milk 
 and other foods for these children, which 
 cannot be bought in Poland. 
 
 There is another subject on which I 
 wish to say a few words, and that is the 
 question of the duties of citizenship of Poles 
 in the United States. You and your an- 
 cestors have come to the United States to 
 free yourselves from oppression and to 
 participate in a country of greater prosper- 
 ity and a higher standard of living. You 
 have come, therefore, to take advantage of 
 the institutions that have been built up here 
 in 150 years for the well-being of the peo- 
 ple in this country. You have been given 
 the priyilege of entrance into this com- 
 munity without restriction and you have 
 benefitted by its blessing. It is right that 
 you should have a tender heart for the 
 country of your origin, but your first and 
 primary duty is to the country of your adop- 
 tion. It is a happy circumstance that the 
 whole of the American people are equally 
 
 13 
 
anxious with citizens of Polish origin for 
 the upbuilding of the Polish republic, aijd 
 that therefore there is no conflict in this 
 service to both countries. 
 
 The people of the United States are to- 
 day themselves facing great difficulties of 
 social and industrial character. If we are 
 to solve these difficulties, it will be by the 
 undivided support of our i nstitutions f rom 
 which we have obtained the blessings which 
 we now enjoy. Many foolish ideas are be- 
 ing circulated amongst the f oreignborn 
 population of the United States. Many of 
 these foreign - born are interesting them- 
 selves in the destruction of our primary in- 
 stitutions and defiance of our laws. The 
 :, American people are fast losing patience 
 ^'' with this attitude. It may develop out of this 
 that the "open door^^ towards Europe will 
 \jjs}^^ be in a large measure closed. But, worse 
 / than this, there may develop out of it a 
 
 prejudice against every speaker of a foreign 
 language in the United States. It creates 
 prejudice against extending aid to those 
 countries in Europe from which our foreign- 
 born populations spring. 
 
 If reforms are needed in the United 
 States, they will be carried out by those 
 whose parents have grown up amid our in- 
 
 14 
 
stitutions and those who have become in 
 sentiment and spirit a part of our people* 
 It is fortunate that the Polish population of 
 the United States have been but little in- 
 fluenced by these forms of agitation. If a 
 Pole exists who has associated himself with 
 the organizations that devote themselves 
 to the destruction of our institutions, that 
 Pole is not only disloyal to the United States 
 but he is endeavoring to paralyze the arm 
 that is supporting the independence of his 
 own mother country. Those who are dis- 
 satisfied with our institutions can always 
 choose the alternative of retiring to those 
 from which they came. 
 
 It is therefore the duty of those of you 
 who speak our language and who have 
 lived under our institutions, to see to it 
 that people of your blood do not associate 
 themselves with movements that are an- 
 tagonistic to our public sentiment and to 
 our social and economic institutions. 
 
 15 
 
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