(One of) the largest immigrant group(s) to respond to industrialization was the Poles. About 2 million of them "fled" Europe for America between 1870 and WWI.
Primarily, the Poles fled to the US to earn money to buy land (and stave off starvation). Originally European Peasants, they were forced to abandon ship when mechanized agriculture took over. Plus, Catholic Poles bred like rabbits, compounding economic pressures with large populations of landless individuals. Who could resist such a temptation as $1 a day?
Many Poles arriving in the US went to big industrial cities like Buffalo, Pittsburgh, Detroit, Milwaukee, and Chicago. 4/5 of the men worked in coal mines, meatpacking factories, textile/steel mills, oil refineries, and garment-making shops. I'm sure they would have no problem with putting America on rubber tires, helping humans develop wings, and working at movie theaters.
Less money spent on workers' salaries is money saved. So when you get your allowance this week, remember that every penny today came out of a poor Polish workers' salary in the past.
Besides, whatever money the workers were earning was being sent back to relatives in Austria and Russia.
Uh oh! That means less money in the US! TIME TO PANIC!!!
Few Poles wanted to return to Europe after WWI was over and an independent Poland was created (I don't blame them). Instead, they doubled their efforts to integrate into American Society. This resulted in Polish institutions, street names, and the like (where do you think the road name "Pulaski Pike" came from?)
Yay! A link to my blog! Anyway, I liked this informative insight into the travails of the Polish immigrants. They almost seem to get overlooked alongside the Irish and all the Asian immigrants (Japanese, Chinese, etc.), and we tend to forget about the Polish hardships during this era. Viewed in this light, the Poles seem like dependable workers who have been subject to unfortunate circumstances throughout pretty much all of history...
ReplyDeleteI had no idea that the Poles were such gigantic part of the United States during this time. Great Insight! I must agree with Matthew that they will, like all other immigrant groups that are not prevalent to the current era, be long forgotten throught history. Well, that's life...
ReplyDeleteCool post! I'm Polish on my mom's side but always grew up with the "settled in Chicago and Detriot in the 1920's and had industrial jobs" stereotype. But apparently they did more than that and have been around in other places for quite a while.
ReplyDeleteUgh.. guilt trip. Now I feel bad that I ever had an allowance. Anyway, I could see why they did not want to go home because Poland was in the midst of major crisis at the time. Great post.
ReplyDeleteInteresting stuff about the Poles "the minority", and I liked the squirrel picture.
ReplyDeleteGood job, I admit that I hadn't read these two pages but this post did a good job filling me in!
ReplyDeleteHowever, I find the picture at the top of your blog to be pretty darn morbid. You may want to change that. As soon as possible.
Interesting to learn about all thiss tuff that those Poles did in the 20s! Thanks for a great wealth of information! And the squirrel pciture is excellent!
ReplyDeleteI feel for the Poles. I can not imagine what they had to go through.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the information! I only have 5 minutes left of class so...thank you!!!!!! I really want to learn more about the different ethnicities at this time
ReplyDeleteI had no idea as to the magnitude of strength that the Polish people held. Thank you for sharing, because sharing is caring.
ReplyDeleteI must ask that your remove the rabbit-breeding/Catholics metaphor ASAP. Then remove this comment.
ReplyDeleteAssuming the issue I raised in my other comment has been addressed, I also appreciated your coverage of this interesting topic. We don't always stop for those special "highlighted" sections of text -- the ones that, despite being marked as subjects worthy of closer attention, get ostracized from the main narrative! I'm glad we got a chance to learn with you about the poles. I also love your new masthead at the top of the blog.
ReplyDeleteI had no idea that the Poles played such a large role in the US... its not really something you think about today. I had no idea there were that many Poles in the US. Great post.
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