The Waterbury Democrat., 1938-11-28

heads. Yet somehow 8 state had to be welded together and fused into a going concern over night, SomehouW that was done.
 Then came the worst terror of all, the terror that European countries lying geographically to the east yet belonging spiritually to the west have always had to face. Persians, Tatars, Turks, standard bearers all of ideas that had no place in the liberty-loving West, had been repulsed success Sively from the heart of Europe. Now Poland, when she was least able, had to take up once more the burden of keeping the East out of the West. For in 1920 the Bol- shevik party in Russia became dominant and proclaimed the World Revolution. Poland, lying first on Bolshevism's western path, became the first object of Bolshe- vism's attack.
 BOlshevik War
 TCW A1ilCA A4CdAAS h11ON dUOub tllC Bolsheyik war and when it is re- called to them they wonder how Poland ever came through it vic- torious. Yet she did. In the very moment when it looked as though Fate was testing the new nation beyond her limit, when the very capital of the state was threat ened, the tide miraculously turned and the nation was saved. Central Europe, too, was saved from or- iental despotism in its latest guise of BolShevism.
 A nation cannot fill the role of rising sun" if most of her energies are poured into healing the wounds of the past. An as- cendant nation must have a pro- gram that marches forward and upward. This Poland's leaders knew and this they gave the na- tion just as soon as peace was re- stored. While past injustice was wiped out through widening of New Poland's frontiers, Polish thinking was deftly guided toward a new and altogether alluring ob- ject. Toward the sea, became the nations slogan, and toward the sea the national energy was di- rected.
 The story of how Poland, with only few kilometers of sea coast and no sea-faring tradition be- hind her, staked a claim to sea- power and made it good, is a modern parable of the talents. Even to me, who have watched the transformation happen, it still seems a miracle. First there was a fishing village on the Polish Bal tic coast. Then one began to go to Poland by sea in an antiquated, pre-war tub of a boat and to land at a strange, inconvenient, waste called "Gdynia." Then everything was changed: two slim new motor ships, the "Pilsudski" and the "Batory", as up-to-date as the Queen Mary" herself and far more cosy, began to take one to a stream lined port: Poland's five talents, invested at Gdynia, had become ten.
 Merchant Fleet
 Gdynia and the Polish ner- chant fleet are the most spectacu- lar monuments to the first twenty years of New Poland, the years whose accomplishments we cele- brate today. It would be unfair to stop with Gdynia, however, for Poland has not stopped with it. The Man of the Hour has gone. Three years ago Joseph Pilsudski laid down the burden of ruling but Poland is still faithful to Pilsud- skis vision of her as rising sun" Now the strength of the nation is girded again toward the completion of a project, this one a greater even than Gdynia. Poles call 1t the 0. O. F., we shall speak of it as the Central Indus trial Scheme.
 In Sandomierz, in central Po- land, throughout the region where the River San, coming down from the High Carpathians, flows into the Vistula, a gigantic transform ation is taking place. If Amer jeans knew about what is hap pening there-and they don't they would inevitably compare it with the vast works undertaken in Russia during the twenties with the help of American engineers. The essence of the projects mean ing this: an overwhelmingly agri- cultural region is to be made into a 'balanced region an area in which the farm shall feed the fac- tory and the factory in turn, civil ize the farm. It is a dream which President Roosevelt envisageS often in word and writing. In Po- land 1t is the dream which capti- yates today the whole romantic nature of the nations people.
 Accomplishments
 It is easy to measure Poland's accomplishment over the last twenty years by tangible evidence of it-by pointing to Gdynia and the hydro electric plants of the San valley, or to the improved quality, as well as increased ouan- tity, of Polish ham exported to the United States. But Poland's real arrnY11nlfqhrnanf if1fhn fuun dncadng