The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1897-05-23

monument on the hanks of the Hudson
at West Point, and by the Kosciusko
School for colored people. which Presi-
dent Thomas Jefferson founded at New
ark, the people of this country have
always manifested very marked interest
in the fate of Poland. All oppressed and
down-troddeD nations struggling for free
dom meet with generous and whole hearted
sympathy on this side of the Atlantic, no
matter whether they be Armenians, Gre
| tans. Irish or Jews. But somehow or an
other the case of Poland appealed more
strongly than that of any OF the unhappy
people just mentioned, 10 the American
heart. Their fight for liberty, which has
continue almost without interruption for
more than 100 years, has been signalized
by so many romantic episodes, has tur-
nished such unique exam piles OF bravery, OF
patriot and of chivalrous self-sacrifice,
that anything which affects their we fare
meets with keener appreciation in North
America than anywhere else in the world.
This being the case, attention should be
| drawn to v ry remarkable feature of the
| new policy Of conciIiation, which young
Emperor Nicholas from the very moment
has inaugurated in the Polish provinces
OF his dominions. 1t Is nothing more nor
lie IS than the repeal of that iniqnitous law
| which prohibited every one protesting
any other than the orthodox Greek
faith from owning OK occupying land in
the former kingdom of Poland. Inasmuch
as the Poles, in spite of the cruel persecu-
tions to which they have been subjected
on religious as we'll as on racial grounds,
have remained fervent adherents OF the
Roman Catholic church, this was equiva-
lent TO debarring them from re-
tanning possession of such OF their
ancestral estates as had been left to them
after the wholesale contscation which the
| Russian Government was in the habit of
| decreeing after every revolutionary move
ment, and even without any such cause,
but on the most frivolous and trivial of
pretexts. 1t is worthy of note that in
spite of the reputation for tyranny en-
/ loved by the first Emperor Nicholas and
the renown for the possession of more en-
| lightened and liberal principles accorded
by history to his son, the ilI-fated Alex
ander III, this law was enforced with far
! greater severity under the reign OF the lat
ter than during that OF his parent. In
deed, there is no ruler of Russia beneath
whose rule the Poles may be said to have
suffered so much from persecution and OPP
preston of every CONCEIVABLE character as
that of the so-called Liberation" Car.
The present Emperor has altered all
this and has caused il to be made known
that not only has the obnoxious law in
connection with the tenure OF land in the
western provinces been repealed, but
moreover, that he would be glad to see the
Polish nobility onco again occupying
their ancestral estates. Ever since this
has been understood abroad there has
been a steady flow eastward of the Polish
aristocracy, and they are rapidly recover
ing, by means of purchase, all those
castles and domains with which the names
of their families have been identified
since time i'm me mortal. Among those who
have already taken advantage OF the
Cars new policy in this particular are
the Counts Potocki, ZamoysSi, S.arzenski,
| CZartoriski, and about 100 more bear
ers OF equally illustrious names, who
| will doubtless become in course of time
| quite as loyal 10 the Gar as their fellow
countrymen in the Austrian portion OF
Poland are to Emperor Francis Joseph.
| 1t is pleasant under the circumstances to
| be able to state that these Polish Prin-
cesses and Counts are recovering their
estates at a relatively smaltcost. The old
proverb, according 10 which violence and
persecution always end by infiicting more
jury upon the people who make use
| thereof as an instrument than to those
against whom it was directed, has proved
| true once more in this instance. For
| while the Russian mobiles who obtained the
| Polish castles and estates either by grant
from the Russian Government, which had
confscated them, or else merely at q nom-
inal price at the compulsory sales are now
in such state of financial distress and
bankruptcy that Nicholas has just been
forced to appoint an imperial commission
to devise some means for their relief, the
Polish nobility have prospered to such a
! degree in exile that ere long they will
constitute what is to every monarchial
country source of boundIess strength
namely, a rich and affiuent territorial
| aristocracy, possessed of sufficient means
| to develop the latent resources OF the
| country, and above all to ameliorate the
condition of the peasantry and masses for
| whose material welfare as their tenants
| they are morally responsible.
| Had the until now brief reign OF Nicho-
| las ii been signalized by no other event
| than the Inauguration of this ne W and lib
| eral policy toward the Poles 1t would in it.
| self have been sufficient to render 1t notable
| in the history of Russia. The present Gear
and his advisers have at length realized
what has long been apparent to every un-
| preiudiced student of statecraft, namely,
| that whereas an antagonistic Poland must
| necessarily be a cruel source of weakness
and OF acute danger to Russia, q loyal and
contented Poland on the other hand con-
stitutes bulwark of defense to the huge
empire against It's most execrated
and hereditary, as we'll as dreaded
| foe, namely. Germany. Poland can
never be Russianized. The national
| sentiment the national religion
| and the love for the national traditions are
| too deeply inrooted in the hearts OF the people
| for that, and all attempts in that direction
| have lamen tably failed, the only result hay
| ing been to still further accentuate the differ
| ence between the two races by reducing the
! Poles to the condition OF political pariahs,
| that is to say caste apart, deprived of the
civic rights and privileges of the Russian
| born subjects of the Gar. But while Poland
| cannot be Russianized 1t can be transformed
| in to an invaluable ally; and if any doubt pre-
vailed in the mind OF the present Car it must
have been set at rest by the phenomenal sue
cess which has attended the policy in ibis
direction pursued in Austrian Poland by
IN