THE POLISH NATIONAL ALLIANCE

Detailed History Page 3

By Donald E. Pienkos

Early in the twentieth century, the PNA forged close ties with a number of smaller patriotic movements and even brought the Polish Falcons Alliance, a physical fitness society committed to Polish independence, into its orbit. But this strategy failed, for example, the Falcons, reasserted their independence after a few years. In 1910 the Alliance hosted a national congress of the organizations of the Polish community (or Polonia and even representatives from partitioned Poland. This impressive gathering in Washington, D.C. coincided with the dedication of monuments to Pulaski and Kosciuszko (the latter paid for by the PNA and one of several erected in these years around the country under PNA leadership), but the Catholic groups boycotted the congress, another like it was not held.

The outbreak of World War I in 1914 brought a change in the PNA efforts to lead the four-million-strong Polish community. Instead, the Alliance adopted a new strategy in working alongside the Catholic organizations to advance common goals. The first result of this change was the Polish Central Relief Committee--its goal to collect money and materials goods for the inhabitants of the war-ravaged Polish lands. In 1916 the PNA helped form the Polish National Department [Wydzial Narodowy], the first political action federation to succeed in uniting the great majority of the community's secular and religious organizations. Leading the Department was Chicago civic activist and one-time PNA leader, John Smulski (1867-1928). Smulski worked with the pianist-patriot Ignacy Paderewski, spokesman in the U.S. for the Polish National Committee in France headed by Roman Dmowski. PNA representatives like President Casimir Zychlinski (1859-1927) played large roles in these efforts and in the August 1918 Congress of the Polish Emigration in Detroit that brought together nearly a thousand Polish American leaders to back Poland's independence.

In the inter-war years (1918-1939), the PNA kept to its policy of cooperation as the best way to realize the goal of uniting the organized Polish American community, but relations between the PNA and independent Poland became strained after Jozef Pilsudski seized power there in 1926. A so-called "left" [Lewica] faction of PNA activists led by Censor Casimir Sypniewski (1877-1958) did push for close ties with the new regime, but the Lewica was defeated by the more conservative "old guard" faction led by Francis Swietlik (1890-1983, censor from 1931 to 1947) at the 1931, 1935 and 1939 PNA conventions. The old guard's victory was consolidated when Charles Rozmarek defeated President John Romaszkiewicz (1873-1949) in l939. Rozmarek (1897-1973) went on hold the reins of office until 1967.

The Nazi-Soviet invasion and partition of Poland and the outbreak of World War II in September 1939 renewed the PNA's deep engagement in Polish affairs. At its convention held that same month, $100,000 was voted for Polish relief, by the year's end, more than one-half million dollars had been donated to this cause. Swietlik, as chairman of the Polish American Council [Rada Polonii Amerykanskiej] charitable federation, played a key role in leading the community's wartime humanitarian efforts.

PNA President Rozmarek in turn took a leading role in forming an all-Polonia political action' federation, the Polish American Congress, PAC [Kongres Polonii Amerykanskiej]. Founded in 1944, the PAC pledged Polonia's total support for America's military victory and the restoration of Poland's post war independence. Moreover, when the war ended with Poland under Soviet communist control, the PAC continued to operate, unlike the Polish National Department, which disappeared after World War I. Throughout its history, the PAC has been headed by the President of the PNA. Rozmarek headed the PAC from 1944 to 1968. In 1967 Aloysius Mazewski (1916-1988) defeated Rozmarek for the PNA presidency; he was then elected to lead the PAC. Following his death, his successor, Edward Moskal (born 1924), followed him as head of the Congress. This continuing PNA leadership of the PAC may be interpreted in various ways, in one sense it reflects the realization of an original PNA aim--that of leading the organized Polish ethnic community.

ORGANIZATION AND STRUCTURAL DEVELOPMENT: In 1881, at its second Sejm, the PNA set up its own official publication, Zgoda. Initially a weekly in the Polish language, Zgoda became a bi-monthly in 1947, Since 1968, the 16 page publication has appeared mainly in English. In 1908 the PNA established its own daily newspaper Dziennik Zwiazkowy [Alliance Daily] for the general Polish language readership of its time. This paper continues to appear five times a week. In 1987, the Alliance added to its communications activities by inaugurating its own radio station, WPNA, to serve metropolitan Chicago.

In 1886 the Alliance became the first Polish fraternal to set up its own burial insurance plan. This move was important to its success in building its membership, despite early criticisms the Alliance received from some clergymen who charged that its recruitment of non-Catholics made it an "anti-Catholic" organization. These charges were aggressively refuted by member activists, some of them priests, who appealed for a fair review of their program. The PNA even secured the Pope's blessings for its work. By 1900, the PNA had surpassed its rival, the Polish Roman Catholic Union, in membership and assets, a position it has held ever since.

In 1900, an extraordinary PNA Sejm approved the admission of women as insured members. While this action came a few months too late to head off a move by women to form a new fraternal, the Polish Women's Alliance in America, it helped bring about a massive expansion in its own membership, By 1910, the PNA counted 71,335 members (to 28,358 in 1900) and in 1920 this number was 126,521. Ten years later it had risen to 286,526. Thereafter, membership stabilized at approximately three hundred thousand insured members, a development greatly and adversely affected by the Great Depression. Membership once again began growing after World War II with its peak years coming in the early 1960s. At the Alliance's 1963 convention, an all-time high to this point of 351,166 members was reported.

In addition to its decision to admit women, PNA membership growth in the twentieth century is chiefly a result of two other developments. In 1917, fraternals won permission from their state regulating agencies to insure children and adolescents for the first time. The PNA began aggressively enrolling youngsters under the age of 16 and formed a youth and sports department on their behalf. In the early 1930s the PNA formed its own scouting organization, one modeled after Poland's Harcerstwo, which lasted until the early 1940s, when it disbanded partly due to pressure from the Boy Scouts of America. At its height, the movement was very active and counted more than fifty thousand youngsters.

Following World War II, PNA membership again rose significantly due to its success in recruiting thousands of Polish refugees (the "displaced persons"). Many of these newcomers, like many of its women members and many from the ranks of Harcerstwo involved themselves in the Alliance and did their part to invigorate its fraternal life

Entry into the PNA has traditionally come via a person's decision to enroll in one of its local groups or "lodges" [Grupy or Towarzystwa]. Since 1880, more than 3,200 have existed; of these about nine hundred were operating in the 1990s. The lodge is an autonomous, grassroots, unit in the PNA structure, Its members elect their officers and manage their own particular fraternal activities. Groups of lodges join together to set up councils [Gminy], whose representatives are responsible for promoting the recruitment and fraternal activities of their member lodges and holding elections at which delegates, to the PNA national conventions are chosen. (Since 1927, conventions have been held every four years.)

The national convention is the highest decision-making body of the Alliance. Here, the delegates elect their national officers, determine the fraternal's budget, and, approve its policies for the next four years, At present, national officers include a president, two vice presidents (one of whom is a woman), a secretary and a treasurer, and a board of fourteen national directors. Elected as the PNA's chief judicial officers are the censor and a deputy or vice censor. Thirty-two commissioners who oversee the work of the Alliance at the local level, two from each of the sixteen territorial districts of the PNA, around the country, are also elected at the convention by the delegates residing in their particular districts. There are no limits to the terms of the five executive officers of the Alliance, the censor and vice censor. However, since 1975, directors and commissioners have been restricted to serving two consecutive four year terms in the same office.

An enduring aspect of PNA fraternalism has been its many-faceted interest in its members' educational advancement, Already in 1891, the Alliance began to set up libraries and reading rooms in Chicago and other centers of Polish immigration. Student loans, scholarships, citizenship, and night school courses began to be offered from the late 1890s. In 1912, the PNA established its own Alliance College, in Cambridge Springs, Pennsylvania, twenty miles south of Erie. Eventually, a four year coeducational institution with a peak enrollment of more than six hundred students in the 1960s, Alliance College graduated more than four thousand young people in its seventy-five years of existence. However, in 1987, the costs of maintaining the facilities and recruiting an adequate student body forced the RNA. to close the college. The fact remains that the Alliance expended $20 million on its behalf over the years.

Conscious of assimilation's impact on the millions of persons of Polish origins who have entered the American mainstream, PNA leaders have worked to maintain their awareness of the Alliance's mission and their involvement in its activities. Thus, English has replaced Polish as the main language of the fraternal. Under Aloysius Mazewski, the PNA developed a variety of new insurance plans to better meet the needs of the ever. more diverse Polish American population. Under his successor, Edward Moskal, this initiative has been complemented by new efforts to train, expand, and professionalize its sales force to more effectively enroll new members and to stem the decline that has affected the PNA and all Polish fraternals since the 1960s.

Financially the PNA has experienced continued, growth. In 1900 its assets were $98,339; in 1920, $5,656,563; in 1950, $56,298,000; and in its centennial year of 1980, $167,355,216. In the year 2000, its net worth exceeded $340,000,000..

The slogan of the Polish National Alliance is "W Jednosci Sila, w Zgodzie Potega" [In unity there is strength, in consensus power]. The PNA emblem is a shield showing an eagle, a knight on horseback, and the Archangel Michael -- symbolizing Poland, Lithuania, and Ukraine -- the three main regions of the old Polish commonwealth that lasted until the eighteenth century. This shield was used in the uprising of 1863; it underscored the aim of the Poles -- some of whom were later active in the PNA -- to rally all three peoples in a fight for freedom from foreign domination, Above the shield two hands clasp -- the symbol of fraternal cooperation.

SOURCES:

Stanislaw Osada, "Historia Zwiazku Narodowego Polskiego i Rozwoj Ruchu Narodowego Polskiego W Ameryce," 1880-1905 [A history of the Polish National Alliance and the Rise of the Polish National Movement in America.] Chicago: Alliance Publishers, 1905, 1957.

Adam Olszewski, "Historia Zwiazku Narodowego Polskiego" [A History of the Polish National Alliance] covering the years from 1905 to 1950. Chicago: Alliance Printers and Publishers, 1957 1967, five volumes.

Romuald Piatkowski, editor and compiler, "Pamietnik Wzniesienia Odsloniecia Pomnikow Tadeusza Kozciuszki i Kazimierza Pulaskiego Tudziez Polaczonego z Ta Uroczystoscia Pierwszego Kongresu Narodowego Polskiego W Washingtonie, D.C., w Roku 1910" [Memorial on the Occasions of the Dedication of the Monuments of Tadeusz Kosciuszko and Kazimierz Pulaski together with the Convocation of the First Polish National Congress in Washington, D.C. in 1910.] Chicago: Polish National Alliance, 1911.

Donald E, Pienkos, "PNA: A Centennial History Of The Polish National Alliance Of The United States Of North America." Boulder, Colorado: East European Monographs, distributed by Columbia University Press, 1984.

Alvin Schmidt, "Fraternal Organizations." Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press, 1980.

"1996 Statistics Of Fraternal Benefit Societies." Naperville, Illinois: National Fraternal Congress of America, 1997.

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