THE POLES IN THE UNITED STATES 103 



and undergrowth, and build a fire and sleep, or if it was too 

 cold, just sit around there on the ground." But as they 

 worked in Pennsylvania they saved their money, went into 

 small businesses and became landed proprietors in a small 

 way. But in the eastern States the Pole found a way to 

 take up land and become independent in a much better way. 

 He became a farm laborer from the start, saved his earnings, 

 and when he had learned the American way of doing things 

 bought the land from his employer. In this way hundreds of 

 what used to be called "abandoned farms" in New England 

 have passed into Polish hands. And they are making great 

 inroads upon the eastern end of Long Island in the same 

 way. One of the men concerned in settling the Poles upon 

 New England farms says: "Agents at New York told the 

 incoming immigrants stories to make the Pole see the Con- 

 necticut valley farms as the promised land. Being new and 

 green to America the Pole at first paid the highest price and 

 was given the small end of the bargain. But they succeeded. 

 They make good citizens. Almost without exception they 

 are Roman Catholics and are faithful to their obligations. 

 They are willing to pay the price to succeed." Another wit- 

 ness, a New England college professor, says: "The Polish 

 farmer uses as up-to-date implements as the American does. 

 The crops of the Poles compare very favorably with those 

 raised by Americans. In one particular (that of upland farm- 

 ing) the Pole has taught the Americans a lesson." The 

 Connecticut valley and western Rhode Island bid fair to 

 become New Poland in the course of time. Meanwhile in 

 Pennsylvania, Illinois, New York, Wisconsin and Michigan 

 the Poles prospered and increased in ever-mounting numbers. 

 The story of their struggles and successes is no mean one. 

 Father Waclaw X. Kruszka, in his "Historya Polka w 

 Ameryce, Poczatek, Wrost i Rozwoj Osad Polskich w Stanch 

 Zjednoczonych" (Polish History in America; Origin, Growth 

 and Distribution of Polish Settlements in the United States) 

 — thirteen slender volumes — gives facts, statistics, anecdotes 

 and historical gleanings of every kind in regard to his coun- 

 trymen here, and makes a fascinating record of their work and 

 triumph down to the present day. He estimated the total 

 Polish immigration at about 2,000,000 and the total number 

 of Poles in the United States in 1907 (including the Amer- 



