Norwich bulletin., 1914-11-25
THE WAR PRIMER
By National Geographic Society

Galicia-Most of old Poland which survives, ill race and in political con- sciouSness, in typical culture and in character, survives in the Aus trian croWnland of Galicia. Under the more Sternly repreSsiYe rule of Russian and German overlordship, the Poles in Russia and Germany have been driven little by little from their stronghold of national feeling. They are becoming half-hearted Russians and Germans, for Russia and Germany have done all in their power to assim- ulate the well nigh unassimulab1e Pole. In Galicia, however, with constitu- ton of their own, under q perplexed and lenient central government. g consciousness of old Poland remains, and has grown in intensity in recent times.
 Hemmed in by Russia on the north and east by the suspicious border patrol, naturally cut off from Hun gary on the south and southwest by the Carpatlians, barely touching it's sovereign Austria, on the west. the Galician Pole has been left to him. self, to the single-handed solution of his own difficulties, political, economic and administrative. With little to prod him into violent industrial exer- ton, he has continued the past into the present, with its quaint customs. its devotion to agriculture, and it's poverty stricken idealiSm.
 Galicia slopes away from the Car pathians to meet the boundless Rus sian plain on the north. Its southern uplands are devoted largely to graz ing grounds for horses, cattle and sheep. In the middle lands, cereals and sugar-beets are grown. The crownland is sparsely populated, and in many parts lands are very fertile, so that more than enough of bread stuffs, meat and other products are raised for home consumption. permit ting the e3portation of cereals and meat products in considerable amounts mainly to Germany
 Galicia is Poland, ancient Poland, and like the Fatherland of old, it's masses are miserably poor. while it's classes are very rich. One third of it's tillabie lands are held bys great land owners in estates of more than 1,40O acres, and one-half are held in blocks Of 14 acres or less. Galicia. is agri- cultural. It has little mineral wealth, and less industry. Much of it's 30,321 est land, and all else is given over to farming. True, in the Carpathians are found the richest oil fields in Europe, and good zinc mines and rock salt quarries are worked. Still, its min- eral wealth has small significance. The forests. which are estimated to cover one-quarter of the whole surface o1 Galicia, contribute to large lumber trade with Germany.
 Most of it's manufactured articles are the products of home industry, though there is beginning of tex tile industry and it's oil refineries are important. About per cent of its people depend directly upon the soil They are mostly illiterate, small far
 mers and day laborers. who pass the
 severe winters at home, and regular 1y leave their wives to work the farm in summer while they eke out bare nvelihoods by taking seedtime and harvest service upon the German farms across their wetern border Galicia is practically eIf-goYern- ing, the Vienna government interfer- 1 ing but little in Polish affairs. Some
 154 representatives are sent by the people to the Galician Diet at Lem berg, while the crowulaad is repTesent- ed in the Austrian Lower House by 7s delegates, a delegation that gener- l ally holds solid1y together for the in- terests of the Polish people. Tn nor- | nal times, the population of Galicia l is more than 100000