Waterbury Democrat., 1902-06-13
STRUGGLES FOR LIBERTY
Nations That Have Won Their Inde-
 Dendence.

pendence.
 | 1 wish 1 had by me a map or the world of TITO. in order to trace the boundaries of Jorge mid d-European country that had existed and dnourished a distinctive national life and langu- age for thousand years, says writ CT in the Little Chronicle. In 1772, after heroic struggle against Prus- l sia, Russia and Austria, under their three greatest rulers, Frederick the Great, Catherine the Great, and Maria Theresa, Poland vanished from the 1 face of the earth and political boun- daries knew it no more. Kosciuzko, the Polish patriot, with many follow CTS, threw himself into the war for in dependence in America. There was brief hope of a restoration of Poland when Napoleon dominated the fortunes 1 of Europe but the hope died.
 l You can trace the outlines of the original country on the map of Eu- rope by connecting Wilma ill Western Russia with Lemburg in Northern Austria, following the Carpathian mountains westward and turning north l to Posen, Prussia. Warsaw, the old capital, is still the capital of Russian Poland. In Posen to-day, after a hun- dred years, Polish children refuse to speak German at school Tn Vienna, ] Polish troops i'll the Austrian army profess inability to understand orders in German. In Warsaw and Wilma revolutionary societies exist and count less patriots have marched to Siberia. Poland was erased from the map but the Polish people still remain Poles, tenacious of their language, their re- ligion and their nationality, refusing to be reconciled to their conquerors. l 1 mention the subject here because of the light it throws on a present is- sue Since the partition of Poland in 1772 no free, white people have been wholly absorbed by other nations. Amazing changes in the map have talk en place-a few by cession of territory from one country to another; more by colonization, but the largest and most important changes have been made by the successful waging of wars for in- dependence. When the shot was fred at Lexington that rang around the world, there was not a square mile of territory in the New World but dwelt under the flags of England, France, Spain. Portugal, or one of the smaller countries of Europe. Who would have dreamed that, i'll fifty years, all this was to be free, after the Old World empires had been drained and exhaus- ted by an aggregate of hundred years of rebe1lion?s
 In the school histories the American Revolution appears isolated but it had it's beginning when the Puritans learn ed their new lesson in the years at Leyden, Holland, before the Mayfiow- CT set sail for the New World. And the French revolution was the off spring of the establishing of represen- tatiye government in America Then the wave of Revolution rolled back ward across the Atlantic. In the years from 1916 to 1925 Bolivar wag- ed holy war on Spain and, one by one. the republics of South and Central America and Mexico. unfureld their flags. Portugal retired to Europe and Spain to Cuba which never ceased to agitate for freedom for seyenty-fiye years.
 Greece and the Balkan states threw off the yoke of Turkey; Italy out of medieval fragments erected q free and united country. Egypt, i'll 1S4O, waged successful war against the sul- tan, only to be baked of complete sn-. dependence by the intervention of the I powers
 What 1 want to make clear is that, from the American revolution down, none of those people who fought and won freedom was believed to have the remotest chance of success. They were poor in wealth and numbers, in- experienced in public and military life. without political status, friends ] or financial standing. Yet the aver age duration of each war for indepen- dence was over eight years. Much of the resistance was not dignified by the name of war in Europe, but was called guerrilla warfare.
 In 130 years no power, however great, has held any considerable col ony that was determined to be free, and none, until this war in South Af- rica, has attempted to conquer an in dependent white people and reduce them to a subject nation. I do. not say that such thing may not be done, l but that it has not been done, and, that judging from the past, the re- sources of Great Britain may easily be exhausted long before the Boers have exhausted their powers of re- l sistance.