Charlevoix county herald. (East Jordan, Mich.) 189?-1953, 1920-10-15
POLAND PLAYS
NO new ROLE
Country Harassed by BoIsheviki
Was Once the Savior of
Europe.
STAYED MARCH OF THE TURK
In Size Poland Once Outranked Every
Nation Of Continent and In Popu-
Iation Stood at tho Forefront
of Europe.

ashington.-Poland, whose history
is tragedy, and whose people have
been called "Children Of the Sum-"
plays no new role when she seeks to
stop the Onslaughts of the bolsheviki,
for it was she who once stayed the
march of the Turk across Europe.
This fact is recalled in communi-
cation to the National Geographic So
ciety, which sums up POland's sad
and eventual history as follows:
I'm size she Outranked nearly every
nation Of the continent. Russia alone
of the European nations is larger than
Poland was at her greatest. In popu-
latiOn she stood at the forefront OF
Europe; only Russia and Germany
had greater populations before the
war than are TO be found In the lands
that once were Poland; for unparti-
square miles, and the lands that once
lay within her boundaries support
population Of approximately 5U,OOO,-
600. In area she was as large as the
former German empire, Switzerland,
Belgium, Holland and Denmark to-
gether; larger than Great Britain,
Italy and Greece combined; larger
than Austria-Hungary and Serbia in
one Within what were her boundaries
there dwells a present population
larger than the combined populations
of Great Britain and Belgium; larger
hon Of pn1U nd
Holland together; and matching that
Of the old Austria-Hungary.
Three Times Partitioned.
poland was three times partitiOned,
and these partitionings were readjust-
ed between the Practitioners by the
congress of Vienna in 1915. Where
the original partitions had given Rus
STA 1S1 900 square miles, Prussia 54,-
600 square miles, and Austria 1900
square miles, the reappOrtionment of
the Vienna congress gave Russia 220,-
500 Prussia 10000, and Austria 35,-
which Russia secured, and particular
Iy Kiev, had been identified with Rus
STA generations before.
poland, in the days of her greatest
area, extended from a point within 80
miles of Berlin, on the west, to the
meridian of the Sea of Azov on the
east; on the north 1t reached nearly
to the Gulf of Finland and on the
south down to the Khanate of Crimea.
"What we now know as Russian Po-
land is that neck of territory stretch
ing westward between the Prussias
and Galicia. This territory has an
area almost exactly equal to that of
New York, yet, in spite of the fact
that its extreme southern boundary
lies north of the latitude of Winnipeg,
Its population Is as great as those of
New York and New Jersey combined.
Russian Poland, in this limited
sense, consists of great plain, some
what undulating, with an average ele-
walton Of about 400 feet. sloping up
ward toward the highlands of Galicia
on the south and toward the swelling
ground paralleling the Baltic on the
north. 1t joins the lowlands of west
ern Germany with the great plain of
western Russia. It's rivers are slow
and sluggish, with their mouths often
but a few dozen feet below their
sources and seldom more than a few
hundred feet below. Th@r basins in
tricately interpenetrate one another,
and the frequent foundations of these
basins have covered them with q very
rich alluvial soil.
Winter Like New England.
'Russan Poland usually has a win
ter somewhat similar to that Of New
England. There is an even cold, with
not great deal of snow, but often
with razor-edged winds from the
northward. The rivers of this region
usually freeze over about the middle
of December and the Vistula is under
Ice for approximately so days during
the average winter.
"In the eighteenth century, when
the city of Warsaw, next to Paris, was
the most brilliant city in Europe, this
fiat plain was unusually rich In herds