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Between Polish Positivism and American Capitalism: The Educational Agents' Experiment in the Polish-American Community, 1889–1914

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 February 2017

Anna D. Jaroszyńska-Kirchmann
Anna D. Jaroszyńska-Kirchmann*
Affiliation:
Department of History at Eastern Connecticut State University, Willimantic, CT
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Extract

Those who think that the job of an intelligent agent of Mr. Paryski is limited to selling his books [and] his newspaper, collecting the money, attending to business and never showing up again are wrong indeed…. The true, intelligent agent of “Ameryka-Echo” has the responsibility to visit as many Polish families (or Lithuanian, Slovak, and Russyn) as possible, to encourage them to learn, to facilitate their learning through providing them with suitable inexpensive books and newspapers, getting to know their problems and needs, and giving them appropriate advice so that people can be brought out from their misery and degradation…. Whoever wants to effectively work for the people, needs to go among the people, get to know the people and then to begin the Positivist work (praca pozytywna).

Type
Articles
Information
History of Education Quarterly , Volume 48 , Issue 4 , November 2008 , pp. 485 - 507
Copyright
Copyright © 2008 History of Education Society 

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References

1 Wójcik, J., “Przygody Agenta,” Ameryka-Echo, July 23, 1910, 15.Google Scholar

2 Polonia is a term used to denote all Poles living outside of Poland. Polish-language newspapers at the turn of the century occasionally published lists of names of agents authorized to collect money for the subscriptions, see for example Polish Weekly “Czas“ (Brooklyn, NY); Gazeta Polska Narodowa (Chicago); Kuryer Polski and Gazeta Wisconsinska (Milwaukee); Gwiazda Polarna and Rolnik (Stevens Point, WI). With the exception of Gwiazda Polarna, none of the newspapers ever used the term other than simply “agents.” Only twice the lists of agents, which appeared in Gwiazda Polarna in the spring of 1914, were entitled “Agenci Oświatowi ‘Gwiazdy Polarnej”’ (educational agents of Gwiazda Polarna), but it appears that it was a random occurrence. Gwiazda Polarna, April 10, 1915, 3; June 5, 1915, 3.Google Scholar

3 Rosiński, Wiktor, Antoni A. Paryski: Zycie, prace i czyny, 1865–1935 (Toledo, OH: Ameryka-Echo, 1945), 46. The phrase “kaganek oświaty” comes from Adam Mickiewicz's famous poem. Novels Trylogia by Sienkiewicz, Henryk, and Faraon by Bolesław Prus, as well as poetry of Adam Mickiewicz, belong to the canon of Polish classic literature. See also Majewski, Karen, Traitors and True Poles: Narrating a Polish-American Identity, 1880–1939 (Athens: Ohio University Press, 2003), 44–46.Google Scholar

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21 Borden, , “The Salvation,” 24. Chelminski seems to interpret this activity as pure opportunism on the part of Paryski, who aimed at getting rid of the Communist paper printed in Polish, a competition to his own Ameryka-Echo. David Gwidon Chelminski, “Toledo's Nineteenth-century Polonia: Ziomki i Rodacy (Countryfolk and Compatriots),” (PhD diss., The University of Toledo, 1989), 477.Google Scholar

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37 Ameryka-Echo, January 5, 1930, 19. The letter appeared for the first time on December 5, 1903, 3. Over the years, the wording changed slightly, but the gist of the message remained the same. All translations done by author.Google Scholar

38 “Sprawa niezmiernej doniosłości dla polskiego ogółu,” Ameryka-Echo, August 24, 1907, 1–2; AA. Paryski, “List otwarty do Bolesława Prusa,” Ameryka-Echo, April 30, 1910, 1. See also lists of funds collected throughout May–July, 1910.Google Scholar

39 Kmiecik, Zenon, Gazeta Świąteczna za czasów redaktorstwa Konrada Prószyńskiego (1881–1908) (Warsaw: Ludowa Spółdzielnia Wydawnicza, 1973); Stankiewicz, Witold, ed., Czasopiśmiennictwo ludowe w Królestwie Polskim, 1905–1914 (Warsaw: Ludowa Spółdzielnia Wydawnicza, 1957); Krzysztof Dunin-Wąsowicz, Czasopiśmiennictwo ludowe w Galicji (Wrocław: Wydawnictwo Zakładu Narodowego im. Ossolińskich, 1952).Google Scholar

40 “oświate, Jak szerzyć,” Ameryka-Echo, October 10, 1915, 14.Google Scholar

41 Ibid.Google Scholar

42 According to Miąso, Paryski employed two and a half thousand agents, but the figure seems greatly exaggerated. Miąso, The History of the Education, 87.Google Scholar

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45 See for example Ameryka-Echo, August 17, 1907, 1. The lists include last names and first name initials of the agents, making it difficult to identify their gender. It can be done only when the last name appears with an ending, which in Polish language indicates female gender (-ska), or when a full first name is listed. In a few places either Panna/Pani or Miss/Mrs. proceeded an agent's name, also allowing for gender identification.Google Scholar

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52 “W, Przygody agenta. jaki sposób i wśród jakich warunków odbywa sie obecnie praca oświatowa A.A. Paryskiego. Ilustrowana obrazkami prawdziwymi z życia naszego ludu w Nowym Yorku i okolicy,” and “Wspomnienia z pola pracy oświatowej Wydawnictwa A.A. Paryski,” Ameryka-Echo, July 23, 1910–May 20, 1911.Google Scholar

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57 Wójcik, , “Przygody agenta,” Ameryka-Echo, November 26, 1910, 15.Google Scholar

58 Ibid., August 27, 1910, 14.Google Scholar

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67 Ibid.Google Scholar

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69 Ameryka-Echo, February 5, 1909, 14.Google Scholar

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77 Gwiazda Polarna, January 7, 1911, 14.Google Scholar

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79 Borden, , “The Salvation,” 38.Google Scholar

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