I04 ANDREW J. SHIPMAN MEMORIAL 



ican-born children) at over 3,000,000. The "Prasa Polska" 

 (Polish Press) of Milwaukee, at the close of the year 1908, 

 reckoned the Polish population of the United States, including 

 foreign and American-born, at nearly 4,000,000, and investi- 

 gation has seemed to justify these figures. The latest results 

 show the wonderful growth and increase of the sturdy Polish 

 race in this land of freedom. 



Pennsylvania leads off as the greatest Polish State, having 

 525,000 Poles within her borders. New York State follows 

 close with 502,000, of whom nearly 250,000 are to be found 

 within the limits of Greater New York, and 80,000 in Bufifalo. 

 Illinois comes next with 450,000, and then Massachusetts with 

 305,000. Wisconsin and Michigan have each 250,000, while 

 New Jersey has nearly 200,000. They are scattered through- 

 out the length and breadth of the United States, no State 

 being without them; even Alaska is said to have 150 of them. 

 Nor have they forgotten to bring their national names along 

 with them, as witness the various villages (some of them 

 growing into towns) of Pulaski, Sobreski, Krakow, Gniezno, 

 Radom, Opole, Wilno, Tarnow and Chojnice, here in the 

 United States. 



The Poles, like the Irish, have been so situated historically 

 that their poHtical and religious antagonisms coincide, intensi- 

 fying both. The schismatic Russian tyrant, the Protestant 

 Swedish invader and the later Prussian oppressor have all 

 tended to make devotion to Church and country one mingled 

 and indistinguishable sentiment. They found the Catholic 

 Church here also, but to them it was in charge of an alien 

 race speaking an alien tongue. It therefore became their 

 natural desire to have churches and priests of their own 

 language and national and historic aspirations. Elsewhere 

 the founding of the first churches has been mentioned. But 

 they have kept the good work up even to the present day. 

 Up to last year they had 517 churches and 546 Polish priests 

 in the United States. And there is room for many more, for 

 they have some 810 colonies or settlements scattered at various 

 points throughout the United States. Their clergy have risen 

 to many of the higher dignities in the Church and a Pole is 

 now the Assistant Bishop of Chicago. There is no need 

 to speak about the Polish parochial schools ; they are attached 

 as soon as possible to every Polish church, and the pages of 



