Margie May - A comment to your comment concerning my comment based on a comment by Karen - (smile) Professor Ivor Norman Richard Davies FBA, FRHistS http://www.normandavies.com/ makes for good reading. I see he has several publications available and any one of them would be a treasure to own. I'm sure he's quite correct in his analysis of the Austrian Hungarian partition. In the end though, and to answer Karens question, we need a statistical analysis of Polish immigrants, by partitioned areas, that settled in and around Columbus Nebraska, but even then, the results may not tell us what we need to know since she didn't mention a general time period which could possibly have a bearing on the end result. The immigration of Poles into the US, by general area, was not simultaneous. Emigration from Prussia began in the 1870's and peaked around 1890, Austrian controlled Poland began in the 1880's and from the Russian partition in the 1890's (Bukowczyk "And my Children did not Know Me"). Polish emigration continues to this day - only the numbered amount, by comparison, changes - so does the legality. Tomasz On Jul 5, 2011, at 5:35 PM, Marge Sandlier wrote: > Tom, > > A comment on your comment: > > I agree that the Austrian Hungarian Empire seemed to be much more > relaxed in their treatment of the Poles in the Austrian partition, from > what I've read. But...I've also read that Galicia was by far the > poorest of the Partitioned Poland. The area was mostly agricultural, > there was very little industrialization. My cousin Roman in Poland has > also mentioned this from time to time in our chats. > > Some time back Roman highly recommended to me the book "God's > Playground: A History of Poland" by Norman Davies. It is a two volume > set...which I have not read all the way through. It is a great > reference though. Davies writes about the Austrian Partition: > > Economic, social, national, cultural and political factors combined > to aggravate the poverty in which most of the people lived. The ... > "Galician Misery" was proverbial. A well-informed analyst, writing in > 1887, contrived to demonstrate that rural overpopulation in Galicia had > outstripped that in all other parts of Europe, and was approaching > levels prevalent in China and India. According to his study, the > cumulative effects of inefficient agricultural techniques were > compounded by rigid, conservative attitudes, by crippling taxation, and > by the inordinate number of unproductive petty officials; some 50,000 > people were dying each year as a result of near-starvation conditions; > and one-quarter of the total inhabitants could safely emigrate before > any improvement might be expected. Of all the three Partitions, Galicia > had the highest birth-rate and the highest death-rate, together with the > lowest rate of demographic growth and the lowest level of > life-expectancy. Galicia was in a worse predicament than Ireland at the > start of the potato famine. As compared with the standard of living in > England at that time, the average Galician produced only one-quarter of > the quantity of basic foodstuffs, ate less than one-half of the standard > English diet, possessed only one-ninth of the Englishman's propertied > wealth, and received barely one-eleventh of the English farmer's return > on his land; yet he paid twice as high a proportion of his income in > taxes. One need not necessarily take Szczepanski's figures as gospel to > accept the obvious conclusions. All available statistics point in the > same direction. Galicia could fairly claim to be the poorest province > of Europe. (Volume II, page 145) > > Davies goes on to write: > > For many peasant families, emigration offered the sole chance of > survival. In the twenty-five years before the First World War, more > than two million people left Galicia for good. No less than 400,000, or > almost 5 per cent of the population, departed in 1913 alone. Some went > to the industrial areas in Silesia, and in particular to the Duchy of > Teschen where the Polish element in the expanding mining community at > Karwina grew quickly into a strong majority. Others went to France or > Germany. But most took the ship from Hamburg for America, joining the > ceaseless tide of Europe's weary and oppressed who passed through Ellis > Island on their way to the mines of Pennsylvania or to the frontier land > of the mid-West. (Volume II, page 147) > > I imagine Davies made his comparison between the Galician population and > those in England, because Davies is English. He is married to a Polish > woman. One of the reasons Roman recommends this particular history, is > because Davies is English. Therefore, Davies sees the Polish history > from an outsider's perspective and writes with less bias than someone > from Poland. > > Marge > > Thomas E. Lassek wrote: >> Comment : >> >> >> Another thought - I think the odd's would favor more Polish immigrants firstly from Prussia than Galacia, from Russia than Glacia, from Prussia than Russia. Everything that I have read over the years seems to support this. Prussia always seems the worst, followed by Russia, and then Galacia. Galacia was administered by the Austrian Hungarian Empire, which in my opinion, are always credited with humane (more or less) treatment which was carried over to occupied Polish lands. >> >> Tomasz >> >> > > > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to [email protected] with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message