The Ely miner., 1930-06-20


Society, Washington. d. c.
~ GLANDS Importance among the
- nations of Europe has been rec
I Ognized by the United States by
the raising of the United States
legation at Warsaw to the status of
an embassy. There has been marked
friendliness since the World war be-
tween the great republic of the West
ern hemisphere and the new republic
of Central Europe, and a loan of
many millions has gone from the for
mer to help place the latter On a
strong financial foundation.
American business methods have
captured the imagination and admira-
ton of the Poles, and scarcely work
on scientific management is published
in America today that is not trans
lated into Polish. Poland has indus
tries that were begun before the dis
cOvery Of America, but some of them
are being reiuvenated by American
methods under the guidance of Amer
lean engineers.
Oldest of POlands industries to be
affected by new methods are her salt
mines which were adding to the SAVIOR
of Central European foods as early
as the Tenth century. The first iron
forge began operations in 1893 and
may be looked upon as the beginning
of the iron founding industry which
now contributes millions Of dollars
worth of values each year to Polish
manufacture. An important lumber
industry, based on timber lands COW
ering $4,000 acres, was begun in the
Eighteenth century. A tree must be
ninety years old before it is cut. The
entire forest area of the country is
more than 100000 acres.
One of Polands most interesting in
sdustries is a plant for building rail
way equipment that was started in
NapoleOnic times as a wagon factory
The textile industry keeps more than
100000 spindles busy, and there are
ture of paper, chemicals, and metal
articles.
Only Germany, which is Polands
nearest western neighbOr, exports
more goods to the country than does
the United States. In a recent year
mately 16 per cent of all Polish
imports.
Old Poland Resurrected.
The Poland of today is not an en-
tirely new entity. She is rather
resurrection of the old Poland which
of Christendom. In size she out
ranked nearly every nation of the con-
| tinent. Russia. alone of the European
| nations is larger than Poland was at
her greatest. In population she stood
at the forefront of Europe: only Rus
sia and Germany had greater popu-
| lations before the war than are to be
| found in the lands that once were
Poland; for unpartitioned Poland had
an area of $4,000 square miles, and
the lands that once lay within her
boundaries support population Of
| approximately 100000. In area she
was as large as the former German
empire, Switzerland, Belgium, Hol-
land and Denmark together; larger
than Great Britain, Italy and Greece
combined; larger than AustriaHun-
gary and Servia in one. Within what
were her boundaries there dwells
present population larger than the
combined populations of Great Britain
and Belgium; larger than those of
France, Belgium and Holland together; {;
and matching that of the old Austria
Hungary.
Poland was three times partitioned,
and these partitienings were read
| justed between the partitioners by the
congress of Vienna in 1915. Where
the original partitions had given Rus
sia 1S1, 900 square miles, Prussia 54.
600 square miles, and Austria $4,000
square miles, the reapportionment of
the Vienna congress gave Russia 22O,-
500, Prussia 10000, and Austria 35,-
600 square miles. Much of the land
which Prussia secured, and particu-
Iarly Kiev, had been identified with
Russia 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 it reached nearly to
the Gulf of Finland and on the south
down to the Khanate of Crimea.
Former Russian Poland.
What was known before the World
war as Russian Poland is that neck of
territory stretching westward between
the Prussias and Galicia. This terri
tory has an area almost exactly equal
10 that of New York state, yet, in
spite Of the fact that it's extreme
southern boundary lies north of the
latitude of Winnipeg, its population
is as great as those of New York and
New Jersey combined.
Former Russian Poland, in this linn
tied sense, consists of a great plain,
somewhat undulating, with an aver
age elevation of about 400 feet. slop-
ing upward toward the highlands of
Galicia on the south and toward the
swelling ground paralleling the Baltic
on the north. 1t joins the lowlands Of
western Germany with the great plain
of western Russia. Its rivers are slow
and sluggish. with their mouths often
hut a few dozen feet below their