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THE EAGLE OF THE EAST
(Conrinued Jrom page 33)
land' huge indt:bted ness to the
WC!>t now some S2 billion.
The latest wri nkle in Warsaw's
economic program is the decision to
permit direct investment in Poland
by people of Polish origin living in
the We
t.
lt remains
to
be seen how
res pon~ i ve
the estimated six million
Americans of Polish ancestry wiJI
be. along with smaller Polish se ttle–
men ts in Ca nada, France. and Brit–
ain who together eo mpri se a n
international commu nity known in–
fo rmally in Warsaw as " Polonia ."
The Soviets. by their acquiescence
if nothing else. approve of Gierek's
full-ftedged Wc tern connect ion. Af–
ter al!. they're doing much of the
~a me
thing themsei, ·es. But even
more importa ntly.
Mr.
Brezhnev
doesn·t want in terna! di sens ion to
erupt in ide Poland any more than
M
r.
Gierek does.
This docs not mean that the com–
promising Polish app roach to eco–
n om ics pl ea es the far more
ideologically puritanical Sovie ts.
Proof of this is the fact that it is
easier for a Pole to get a visa to visit
the United Statcs th an the U.S.S.R.
- his ideas. his appearance. the ve ry
quality of the clothes on his back
migh t "co r rup t" Sovie t citizens.
(Poie · gloat over the fact that the
'·impo ned .. perfume so ld in
1oscow i made in Poland - whi le
in War ·aw one ca n buy the leading
French name brand .)
Showdown Over Productivity
Dcspit c the impress ive stalistics, thc
ha lcyon
1971-75
heyday of the Pol–
ish consumer may be drawing to
a
el
ose.
Gic rck is sti ll promisi ng to im–
provc and cxpaml consumer lines in
the nt:xt (
1976-80)
five-year plan.
but he is emphasizing that improve–
ment from now on will be more
dosel y ticd to the principie of ·'bet–
ter work. better pay" and a marked
imprO\Cmcnt in the quality of Pol–
ish expon items.
Likc al! East bloc countries. the
qualit) of industrial ou tput lags
co nsidcrably behi nd Wc tern econo–
mie ·. Thi:. is largely beca use Poland.
lih other Communist states. has
··outlawL:d" unemployment. which
38
A COMMON SIGHT
in rural Poland -
a
horse and wagon passing by
a
road–
side re/igious shrine. In devout/y Roman Catho/ic Poland, private farmers
own tour fifths ot agricultura/ land, usual/y in
sma/1
six- or seven-acre plots.
automa t ically guarantees lower out–
pul per rnan and wasteful man–
power utiliza tion.
Not enough work todo on the job
has led abo to a nation of chronic
moonli ghter!:>, who find more re–
wa rds in th cir second jobs - upon
which also they pay no taxes. A high
ratc of absentce ism rounds out the
lis! or industrial woes.
Mr.
G ierek clea rly
ha~
his work
cu t out for him in thc ycars ahead.
Last Thoughts
Despitc thcsc drawbacks - and
what nation. East or West. capitalist
or cummunist doesn't have many –
a visit to Poland and Eastern Eu–
ropc
a~
a whole i
a
refreshing one.
lt de ·t roys prejud ices and ingrained
stereotypes.
Ea!>tcrn Europc is not
a
Sovict–
ii.Cd - not ye t at least - bleak. gray
a rca
on
thc map. Each nation in the
region has i
ls
own set of uniq ue
na tional cha racteristics -
q
ua li ties
based upon ccntu ries- long develop–
ment of di stinct traditions. customs.
languages and religious philosophy
which su rvive and. to a great
J ea !, -.urmount thc ovcrlay of So–
vic t-s tylc communism imposed only
in the last three
decadc~.
In visiting thi!, part of the world.
one ca n onl y come away wir h
profound compassion for thc Poles.
th c C1.cchs. the llungarians. the Ro–
munians. und thc Yugoslavs. To a
na t ion. the!>e people have suffered
grea t l) throughout history. lt has
been thei r sad lot to have been
sandwiched in between more pow–
er ful nat ions and kingdoms. l t has
been their fa te, as thes mallcr sta tes
of Europc. to be repeatedly con–
quered. occupit:d, absorbed and oc–
casionally wi ped off the ma p as
nat ional enti t ics. To be sure. some
of them have done their fa ir share
of mischief-making down through
the yea r . but for th c most part,
thcsc peopil!s have becn the vict ims
of. no t the perpetrators of,
international intrigue and tragedy.
culminating in thc incredible com–
pendium of horror that was World
War
ll.
In the case o f the Poles. one can
only admire thL:ir trcmendous deter–
mina tion to rebuild a nation de–
pletcd by thc wartirne loss of six
milli on countrymcn , including
ncarly al! of the intelligentsia, ac–
complishcd with
40%
of the country
initially in
ru in~.
and the heart of
the country. Wa rsaw. nearly totally
wrecked.
Americans. in this bicentcnnial
year.
~hould
thank their God for
having been spared such dcstruction
in two global conll icts thi century.
lngrat itud e
to
our God - perhaps
America 's greatest national sin - is
a
dangcro~
indulgence in a ther–
monuclcar age "hich reduces Ame r–
ica's
once- fo~midable
ocean buffers
to thc :,iLc of the Bug Ri ver.
Poland's castcrn bordc r.
O
The
PLAIN TRUTH July 1976