The Washington herald., 1921-03-13


and various small groups which vote
now with the Left and now with
members further fight. The Com
munists are not represented in the
Diet and the Socialists, although
regarded by many of the more con-
servative as ''anti-religious"-P
ish Poland is. of course, profoundly
Catholic and many Of the Socialists
are Jews. either in race or religion
are not "anti-nationalist" and are
regarded as patriotic in the broad
sense.
Toe Many Clerics.
There are thirty clerical delegates
rather too many, 1t Is thought.
even for Poland, and in the next
election. 1t is said, the clerical
groups will strive to influence the
voting rather than send SO many
men to the Diet itself. They are of
various degrees of enlightenment
and toleration. naturally. and when
one of the more medieval begins
as happened on the afternoon Wis
tied the Seym-to argue for the ne
| cessity of q union between church
and state and the giving to the
church Of . political power more
in keeping with earlier centuries
than our own, his speech is inter-
! rupted by constant shouts, boos,
and laughter from, the Extreme
Left.
The Jewish delegates-the whole
Jewish question will be considered
more in detail later-occupy a posi-
tion corresponding to the curious
situation. of their people in the new
Polish state. The Jews make up
about So per cent of the population
of Poland. In many of the cities
they make up half or more than
half of the population and the con-
troll of trade is largely in their
hands.
In this formative stage of the
new state they are fighting for all
the self-government they can get
before the mold Is set, so to speak,
and they often seem more preoccu-
pied, therefore, with their own
struggle for autonomy" than with
the interests of the state as
whole. They are opposed to SEN
ate, which they feel would effect
ually block any pro-Jewish legis-
lation which might be initiated in
the more popular body, and are re-
garded by the Polish Nationalists
as wishing to set up q state within
a state.
Meet In Former School
The Diet meets in a building
which, like the Smolny Institute In
Petrograd, used by the Bolsheviks,
was formerly a school for young
ladies of the aristocracy and named
after the Empress Maria FederoVna'
mother of Nicholas II. -...
The hall itself was formerly the
Chapel and it's arrangement has
scarcely been changed for its secu-
lar and sometimes noisy role The
delegates, Of whom, from the gal
lery running down the sides OF the
long, narrow, church-like interior,
one sees little but the tops of their
heads, are like representatives III
every other national assembly from
Helsingfors to Santiago de Chill,
except that here and there one no.
tices the robes of the. clerical mem
bers and a few peasants In the
tight, home-spun breeches Of un-
dyed wool and the braid-trimmed
Jackets of the Carpathian noun
taineers.
1t is sometimes said that eighty
Of the delegates can neither read
nor write, but the young Polish
newspaper man who was showing
me the sights laughed at this. Ger
tainly all whom one could see were
turning over the pile of papers and
pamphlets on their desks with the
solemnity of those who were read
ing-even our own Congressman
never get time to read more than
fraction of the printed bills or
hope some day to read them
The speakers come to the rostrum
and address their remarks to the
assembly from there. Behind them
sits the marshal of the Diet, Mr..
Trumpzyncski. veteran Polish
member of the German Reichstag
and a thorough parliamentarian.
With the exception of the inter-
ruptions of the clerical speaker the
proceedings on the day I visited the
Seym were quiet and conventional
enough.
On the next afternoon, however.
when the Right undertook to rush
through a measure without what
the Left thought was sufficient no
tice there was a mild riot. There
were not only boots and catcalls,
but a hullaballoo from rattles and
bells which some of the Left had
evidently thoughtfully brought with
them, and the marshal closed the
session for the day and suspended
several of the noisier delegates in
consequence.
Copyright, 1871. BY New York Evening
\