Evening star., 1948-05-16

Stanislaw Mikolajczy scarcely is
mentioned any more.
The differences which kept Po-
land In constant turmoil for almost
two years after the end Of the war
seem to have been absorbed and
sublimated in the colossal task OF
reconstruction.
People Work for Poland
The effort is one Of proud nation
alism. The Communists can claim
little credit for it, but they are
reaping it's benefits. People are not
working for political party or an
idea, but for Poland, and they can
see and feel the results that are
being achieved.
Even the most critical observers
are constrained to admit that some
one, probably Hilary Mine, the Com
munist powerhouse in the cabinet,
has done an incredible Job on indus
trial revival.
But one need not 90 to factories
to see the signs of new life. Almost
overnight, jumbled heaps of bricks
give way to cleared ground and
almost as quickly again, to buildings.
Warsaw is so completely dam
aged that 1t will be years before the
task can be completed. Yet the
changes in the Is months since I
last visited this city are tremendous.
Compared with Germany, where
nothing of the sort ever seems to
be Accomplished, it is unbelievable.
Thal same surging vitality is to
be found outside the cities. The
road from Warsaw to Krakow leads
through one Of the most thickly
populated peasant regions of Po-
land. Every hamlet and the fields
that surround it shows signs OF the
effort.
Everywhere one looks some one
is plastering, or whitewashing, or
fixing windows, or putting up raft
ers, or moving about in way that
suggests a definite goal and aim.
Plows are driving through the
rich earth Of the fields until 1t is
too dark to see. The number OF
bouncing calves and kids and
gangling foals seems to be exceeded
only by the number Of youngsters
who care for them.
Food and Business
To all this exertion the govern
ment has reacted with obvious
satisfaction. The era is one of the
velvet glove and not the iron fist.
The inevitable secret police are less
in evidence than at any time since
the war.
Ask some one how things are
going, and he is likely to reply in
whispers with meaningful holdings
of his head.
"One doesn't speak much about
that" he says. You know why.
:. :" But then he goes on.
"If only taxes weren't SO high, we
would be all right. There's food.
There's business" Then the phrase
one hears again and again. "One
lives. One gets along"
Most people believe there will be
change, and that it will be for
the better. The idea of fight or of
abandoning their country once and
for all to Eastern Europe's new
order never seems to enter their
heads.
A once-wealthy aristocrat with
foreign connections, whose lands and
property have disappeared in the
postwar reforms, replied in shocked
amazenent.
II wouldn't think Of leaving my
country. Would you," he asked, IF
yours was in trouble?"
Unwilling to upset this state of
high morale, the government has
let up on some Of its more obvious
campaigns. 1t still would like to
see a fusion of the Polish Socialist
and Polish Workers (Communist)
Parties, but 1t is not being hurried.
Church Is Unmolested
More than anything else it would
like to see the influence of the
church diminished, but church lands
remain untouched, in the wave of
breaking up estates which has en-
quilted the country since the war.
Church festivals go unmolsted.
Once, there was period when a
genuine working agreement between
the church and the government
might have been possible. That
seems now to have passed. One
Communist leader said savagely:
IF it is progressive, 1t is no longer
the church"
In Poznan, Eastern Europe's 1000
year-old trading center, 1t is possible
to get a glimpse today Of what that
new world will be like and how
different it will be from anything
Eastern Europe has ever known.
Basically, 1t will be a world Of
sweat and toll. Despite all the prop
aganda, Eastern Europe's biggest
resource remains the back-breaking
efforts of individual men and women.
Surprisingly enough, it will have
some Of the features which the
Marshall Plan is hoping to intro
duce in Western Europe. Customs
and trade barriers are giving way
under the compelling pressures of