Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922, 1905-10-15
POLES ARE PLEASED
CONTINUED from First Page)

NOOulluutu llOhA EAio1 4 NoSp
indeed wholly banished from the schools.
And under the new regulations the Poles
have no right to parcel out and colonize
land purchased from their own COM
patriots or from German owners. How
different are the conditions created by the
recent ukase in the nine western govern
ments" of the Russian empire. Here, in
deed by virtue of the ukase, the Polish MI
nority has by one stroke been placed in the
ascendant with the result that Russian
landed property, great and small, may be
expected soon to change hands in favor of
the Poles AS the new ukase permits the
peasant of Russian or other extraction to
sell his freehold to Polish peasants, class
of financial NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS. banks
in the management of which the Poles OF
Prussia show so much deXterity, will not
fail to spring up in order to take advantage
of the new possibilities.
In the nine western governments the
Polish and the great Russian mobiles are
the land owners on the largest scale. and
most of the small rural freeholds belong to
Lithunian, Little Russian, White Russian
and Black Russian peasants.
Poles Return from America.
The towns except for a few Russian
officials are inhabited chiefly by small
Jewish traders and money lenders, while
the Poles fill all of the liberal professions.
The refiux of Polish emigrants, who re-
| turning from America, invest their savings
! in small farms is already great, and 1t
NAV be safely predicted that they will
! come to reinforce the Polish ranks in the
nine governments and displace the Russian
peasant. AS to the great landed property
| II must be noted that Polish and Great
| Russian estates are alike mortgaged to the
! utmost limit, and that both Poles and Rus
slams are equally eager to sell out. Polish
landowners for patriotic reasons have
until now held fast to their property, and
on1v sell their land to Russian newcomers
hitherto the sole class of legal buyers
| when there were no means Of conveying
| IT to a Pole or OF selling to a Pole who
| through connections or corruption had a
"niIl" with the government Up to 1866
| after a Russian domination of seventy
wears in the nine governments, only one
great landed estate out of seventy had
passed from Polish to Russian hands; even
| today, after forty years of prohibitive
laws districts where 43 per cent of the
| great free hold estates is owned by Rus
SLAMS are very rare while districts where
! 75 per cent still remains Polish num-
| erous Under sthe new ukase the great
Polish landowners will now ind difficulty
| in disposng Of their encountered estates.
| Thousands of the younger sons of the
weather families of Polish extraction in
the nine provinces, form at present the
flower of the technical professional men Of
Russia; they are TO be met with every
where from Dneiper to the Amur, as d.
rectors station-masters, constructors Of
railways, surveyors, engineers in govern
ment or private stations ard managers Of
| factories Those who belonged to the
gentry left their country, taking their por-
tions in money and leaving the land to
their elder brothers so as to avoid split
ting up the estates. From ancient times
In Poland all prosperous men Of business
have had a propensity TO retire as country
sauires TO the homes of their youth, or, at
least, 10 settle their sons and sons-in-law
on a family manor. The demand for
Polish land in the nine governments from
this class OF would-be buyers and from
the rich manufacturers OF the Vistula
provinces will be much greater than the
supply
May Remove All Restrictions.
The consequence is obvious-a rise in the
price of Polish land and a corresponding
fan in the price of Russian hand. Con.
sequently the Russian great landowners in
the nine governments will be the first to
petition for the repeal Of those articles
OF the last ukase which forbid them TO
sell or TO let land TO a Pole. strong
movement is already going on for a thor
ough repeal OF all restrictions on dealings
In landed property. In a few years the
Immigration Of new Polish landowners will
be followed by an emigration of the great
Russian landlords. and as the Polish pur-
chaser always brings in his train number
of Polish hands and officials the process
! of Polish home colonization will commence
precisely where Il was arrested 100 years
ago. At the same time, by establishing
themselves in the nearest town, the Polish
, vendors Of land will swell the ranks OF
the Polish municipal population. The
! schools with the teaching OF the Polish
language will certainly hasten in those
provinces a process which may already be
! observed on a large scale In GalIcia and