The only full length biography of P. W. Norris, the second superintendent of Yellowstone National Park but the first superintendent to live, work and evangelize the first national park. Born in New York, the Norris family moved to Wayne County, Michigan to homestead. P.W. moved to Ohio where he engaged in the real estate business; served in the Civil War and established a village, which exists today, Pioneer, Ohio. In 1865, Norris returned to Michigan where he engaged in the real estate business purchashing large tracts of land. He founded a village named for him in 1873. Travelling West in 1875 and 1877, Norris wrote of his extensive travels. After his appointment as superintendent, Norris built the first roads and headquarters as well as lobbying for funds from Congress to preserve the Park. His success in securing the first funds for the first national park guarantied its perpetual preservation to this day. Roughly, the book consists of about a third history of Michigan, Ohio and the Yellowstone National Park supplemented with thirty-three photographs, mostly never published before.

Col. P.W. Norris: Yellowstone's Greatest Superintendent

Binkowski, Don

C & D of Warren

Leo Krzycki (1881-1966) was one of the most talented speakers in theunion movement, and only John L. Lewis (1880-1969), considered the mostskillful orator in the union movement, could surpass him. While he wasdescribed as "one of the most dramatic men in the American Labor movement,"Krzycki has generally been ignored by historians and writers. Today, no onein the labor movement remembers him. "There was no one like him," exclaimed Mrs. Mildred Jeffrey. "He was areal orator; a very effective speaker who could make rousing speechesbringing people to their feet. Whenever they needed a speaker, they calledon Leo." Accordingly, Krzycki has been recognized in every labor who's whosince 1925. No labor organizer has made such large contributions to the formation ofthe Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America (ACWA), the steel workers, therubber workers, and the auto workers as Krzycki. For over five decades hededicated himself to securing social justice for the American worker throughthe union movement as well as the Socialist Party. Krzycki proved to be apremier organizer who met regularly with workers; walked the picket lines;and was arrested on several occasions. Unlike other union leaders whodirected strategy from their offices safely ensconced from the battle lines,Krzycki struggled in the trenches, in the front lines, personally leadingrank and file workers. A product of Polonia (Latin describing the Polish American community),Krzycki was molded by his Polish American environment. Born in Milwaukee,Krzycki learned early of the brutality inflicted upon striking workers."The story of Grandpa Martin Krzycki's association with the steel workers atthe Bay View rolling mills was told many times, of workers beaten andbloodied strikers gathering at Martin's saloon during the strike in 1886 andof 'matkas (mothers)' coming there tearfully seeking word of their sons andhusbands," recalled Gene Krzycki. Fired at the age of fifteen while leadinga lithographers walkout of teen-age press tenders in Milwaukee, Krzycki wasblacklisted two years. Later he began his organizing career on behalf of unions. Initially, hewas a member of the Lithographers Union becoming a vice president in theInternational President Lithographer Press Feeders Union. A founding memberof the Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America in 1914, Krzyckienjoyed a life-long, collegial relationship with President Sidney Hillman.Promoted from chief labor organizer to the Executive Board of theAmalgamated in 1922, Krzycki became a vice-president eleven years later.Naming his first son, Eugene, for Eugene Debs and his second son, Victor,for Congressman and socialist leader, Victor Berger, Krzycki joined theSocialist Party in 1908. Elected twice on the socialist ticket, heserved as a Milwaukee alderman and then under sheriff. Running for Congresswith Berger, he too was arrested in 1918. He ran again for Congress and alsothe U.S. Senate on the Socialist ticket. Working with all of the celebratedSocialist leaders of the XXth century, like Debs, Morris Hillquit, Berger,Norman Thomas, Hoan, Oscar Ameringer, Powers Hapgood, Krzycki became amember of the Executive Board and then its national chairman. Gene Krzycki revealed that "the closeness of Berger must have felt to myDad and his family" was expressed in the token of gifts like the silvercommemorative cup (see photo), a wooden play pen on casters, and tricyclebestowed upon Victor Krzycki. As testimonial of his rhetorical skills,Krzycki joined Thomas and Theodore Debs in a "Debs Commemoration Dinner." Using his Polish language skills, Krzycki traveled to the variousPolonian centers of clothing workers organizing and resolving strikes.Polish Professor Adam Walaszek documented the many Polish locals of theAmalgamated, which also included Ukrainians and Russians. Often, Krzyckic

Poles Together: Leo Krzycki: and Polish Americans in the American Labor Movement

Biographies & Memoirs

Leaders & Notable People

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Poles Together: Leo Krzycki and Polish Americans in the American Labor Movement

As Dr. Edward Jennings wisely observed, "Most Polish American historianswere too conservative to be interested in radicalism. On the other hand,most historians, especially labor historians, were liberal to radical, andweren't interested in the Polish community because it wasn't radical enough." However, it must be emphasized that I am presenting primarily anAmerican perspective of liberal persuasion of the work of Leo Krzycki in thePolish Left, 1942-1950, while attempting to be loyal to the Polish cause.The Detroit Left was an infinitesimal part of Polonia. Hopefully, I havenot been chauvinistic to either view. The label, "Detroit Left," resulted from many radical activities, oftenspawned by the Depression. The anti-Soviet writers coined the expression,"Detroit Left," based upon the perceived headquarters of the Polish Left.Only Krzycki's involvement has been researched, not the complete breadth ofthe Polish Left, so that their entire involvement remains to be revealed. Starting with Daniel DeLeon's "Detroit IWW," headquartered in Hamtramck,Detroit was home to the radicals in the circle of C.L.R. James known as theJohnson-Forest Tendency in the 1940s. A 1940s member of the Detroit Habonimrecalled "the panoply of radical groups that existed in Detroit, not onlyZionist radicals, but Communists, Trotskyites, Socialist Labor Party people,and even a few surviving Wobblies." Black Power manifested itself in DRUMand Malcolm X, dubbed "Detroit Red." "In the Detroit area, as nationally, labor did more than most civiliansto win the war," stated William O'Neill. During WW II, Detroit, America'sfourth largest city, became the center of America's heavy industry, thearsenal of democracy. The auto workers union, the UAW, headquartered inDetroit, represented the "most important working-class organization in allof American machine industry." Starting in 1919, B.K. Gebert (1895-1986)agitated and organized Ford workers, 1937-40. Probably, no large Americancity was as unionized as Detroit with such a multitude of militant CIOunions. The higher wages paid to union members allowed those few CommunistParty (CP) members and radicals of other persuasions to support not only themany CP front groups in the Detroit area but also other radical groups. Smaller than Chicago, a small Polish communist cadre developed, startingin 1919 with the Glos Robotniczy (The Worker's Voice) and then in 1924 withthe paper, Trybuna Robotnicza (The Workers Tribune) by Gebert. With themost Polish city in America, Hamtramck, in its territorial center, Detroitbecame a central geographical location in America with its many Polishorganizations and buildings. The Polish Workers Hall erected in 1919 at 3014Yemans, Hamtramck, developed into the center for the Polish Left. JosephKowalski, the first Pole on the executive board of the Communist Party ofthe USA (CPUSA or CP), made Detroit his headquarters. Marrying a Detroiterin 1920, Gebert also headquartered himself in Detroit. Stanley Nowak(1903-1994) settled in Detroit and pioneered the rise of the UnitedAutomobile Workers. His Polish Trade Union Committee consisted of militantCP members. They used the radio as effectively than FDR. However, it must be remembered that the socialists, active for over 40years, paved the way for the CPUSA, created in 1919 from left-wing groupsexpelled by the Socialist Party. Tadeusz Radwanski (1884-1960) not only edited the various newspapers butdeveloped a CP correspondence course in Polish. In 1936, the Polish leftfounded the Glos Ludowy (The People's Voice, 1936-1991) which because theofficial organ of the Polonia Society, IWO, headed by Gebert. Edited byHenry Podolski; Wladyslaw Kucharski (1883- 1960); Thomas X. Dombrowski(1917-1956); Conrad Komorowski (1906-1991); Adam Kujtkowski et al., the GlosLudowy paper had a national circulation and it was lat

Leo Krzycki and the Detroit Left: Volume 2

Historical

In Tolerated but Never Accepted: Polish American Officials Of Michigan, Don Binkowski traces the long and tortuous history of the Polish peasant's struggle to participate in America's democracy and election of officials in Michigan and elsewhere in America. Successful in their efforts to establish a 1919 independent Poland, the second-generation Poles gradually focused on all political levels culminating in the election of three Michigan congressmen and other officials during the New Deal. Binkowski documented their successes and failures in Michigan's and the nation's executive, legislative, and judicial branches while Polonia supported the eventual independence of Poland from the communists.

Tolerated But Never Accepted:: Polish American Officials Of Michigan and Polonia In A World Political Perspective

History

Americas

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Tolerated but Never Accepted: Polish American Officials of Michigan and Polonia in a World Political Perspective

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