We have at hand a whole stack of clippings from English-language papers published in various cities in the United States, in which we find detailed or general discussions of present-day Polish affairs. In reading the opinions of the various newspapers, we come upon some very flattering remarks, pleasing to every Pole, but colored naturally with American statistics about our greatness, and eagerness for action, which for business purposes are frequently falsified.

Indeed, reading such flattering remarks about ourselves or our nation is much more pleasant than reading censure or ridicule, but it is a well-known fact that only a weak or stupid person likes flattery. A nation of such worth as ours, strong in its thousand-year-old culture and history, the equal of which it would be difficult to find among other nations--a nation constantly growing in its political development and one whose people know how to discriminate in their thinking--does not need any flattery or exaggerated statistics or "facts," but 2should demand only a just appraisal of itself and its endeavors.

However, the opposite seems to be happening. Those who inform the reporters of the English press try to outdo each other in supplying false data and figures. They multiply the number of us here in the States by six, they exaggerate the funds collected for aid to the homeland, and, what is worse, they outdo themselves in describing the extraordinary military preparations which we are making here in order to fight one of the enemies.

Descriptions of this kind are a valuable asset to the English press because they are in line with their business, which is to sell as many copies of their papers as possible. They increase the sales of their papers by interesting the large number of Poles, who, if they can even spell out the words in English, will buy the particular paper in which they find panegyrics concocted to please them.

What do we gain by this?

Let us remember that our enemies read these papers. They see in them an even 3worse threat than the English reporter, who purposely exaggerated, wished them to see. When the authorities come in contact more and more often with such reports of the training of thousands of men, when they hear of hundreds of thousands of dollars collected by us for a war fund, they are apt to prohibit these activities on the grounds that the United States has declared her neutrality and deprive us of the only means we have of coming to the aid of our homeland.

If we should be careful not to publish exaggerations of fact, we should be even more careful not to give out incorrect and often harmful information. In one of the English-language papers from Youngstown, Ohio, we find an interview of one Porembski with a news reporter, in which this countryman of ours--obviously very poorly informed in national matters--asserts that the Poles do not want and will not fight for their independence.

This gentleman asserts that only ten per cent of the Poles in the United States want the reconstruction of an independent Poland and the rest want only to be freed from oppression by the nations which annexed Poland.

Where Porembski read this, who told it to him, it is difficult for us to imagine, but we wish to emphasize here, that it would have been much better if Mr. Porembski had stuck to his own business and that the world had never heard of him. The ability to make money in the United States does not give the various Porembskis the right to voice opinions on national matters in general, about which these gentlemen do not have the slightest notion. The Porembskis do not have the right to come out with nonsense which might make a laughing stock of us and of the entire Polish cause.

Our whole nation, Mr. Porembski, demands and desires to fight for its independence, with the exception of one Mr. Porembski of Youngstown, Ohio. We do not know who empowered Mr. Porembski to express his opinion in the name of the Polish National Alliance. We do know, however, that the Alliance does not need any interpreters and when the time comes--and this will happen before the week is up--it will take the necessary steps not only to announce its stand, but also to parry the blows of the various Fatherlands and other Slav-eating publications in America.

In another paper we find a notice of the beginnings of some sort of an uprising in Poland, which the author imagined after hearing that several divisions of sharpshooters had entered the kingdom. Ignoring the fact that the present talk of sharpshooter divisions is pure nonsense, since everyone capable of bearing arms was impressed to serve in the Army in Austria-especially young men over eighteen, already trained--we wish only to draw your attention to the fact that the spreading of questionable rumors by indiscreet informers only spoils our freedom of working and thinking.

Therefore, it is high time to appeal to all informers, both the necessary and the unnecessary and indiscreet, to become more circumspect now about voicing nonsensical facts. They should be mindful of the words "verba volant, scripta manent," which mean that you can talk all you want to, but that what is written remains and cannot be erased as quickly.