The American issue. [volume] (Westerville, Ohio) 1912-19??, 1925-11-01
Poles NATIONAL CONGRESS AGAINST ALCOHOLISM
New Interest in Poland in Temperance War;
Take Lead Fight for Sobriety Dys Meet in Conference
in Kattowitz



was then Prussian Poland. Some efforts
were also being made in Austrian Poland.
In Russian Poland on the contrary, the
political conditions were so difficult that
beyond what could be done by the Rus
sian administration, and it was very little,
no movement against alcoholism could be
organized. OF course, during the war,
the little that had been begun had to be
altogether interrupted and after the war
those Polish citizens who saw the great
menace that alcoholism had become for
their country, and wanted to organize a
powerful movement against the evil, had
to face great and almost unsurmountable
difficulties.
First they had to get into touch with
one another. For about $50 years the
three parts of Poland, now happily re-
united had been separated, and possessed
on many points different opinions and
tendencies; they were for the most part /.
strangers to one another. 1t has been
the great merit of priest of Poznan, for
mer Prussian Poland for Galdynoki, to
undertake the unifying movement neces-
sary, and this union has been realized
through the efforts of the Polish Anti-al-
cohol League which is now specially rep
resented in the north and also in the
south and center of the republic. Hither-
to the work has been hampered by politi-
cal and economical complications. Po-
land had to sustain very bloody war
+to A.
pass through a disastrous economical
crisis; the misery was great in all classes
of the population so that they had little
interest to spare for the temperance cause.
Catholics United Against Alcoholism
Now it seems that these difficulties have
been overcome and this is proved by the
National Congress Against Alcoholism
which was held at Katowice, German
Kaltertz, the center of a great mining
district, in Silcsia, which Germans and
Poles both claimed as their own but
which has finally been allotted to Poland
The KatoWice Congress shows that union
has been brought about in the Polish
movement against alcoholism, only, it is
true for the Catholic part of the popula-
ton, which is the majority. The Protes-
tants remain outside, for the Polish Anti
alcoholic League has wel-marked Cath
Ollie character though, on the whole, the
relations between Protestants and Catho-
lies are friendly. Quite apart remain the
Jews, who in some regions form a con-
siderable part of the population, but main
tain no cultural nor friendly relations
with the Catholics. The sobriety of the
Jews is, in general, greater than that of
the Christians but curiously enough, they
have almost monopolized the inn-keeping
profession and it gives the Catholics one
more motive for attacking the Jews when
they see in some villages that the Jewish
inn-keeper is the direct cause of the ruin
of many families. 1t is to be hoped that
the Jews also will come to understand
that it is their duty to fight against alco-
holism, not only in the interests of their
own co-religionaries, but also of the coun-
try of which they are citizens.
Germans Face Difficulty
he CT in Do1and &c