The New Year witnesses a new milestone in the life and activities of the Chicago Society News with the installation of our newly elected officers. We have placed upon the shoulders of these, our new leaders, the responsibilities of our organization, which with each milestone become more exacting and onerous. To fulfill the duties of the respective offices, honestly and conscientiously is a task indeed, and measures up to the requirements of a large and growing business.

The future of the Chicago Society News is not the task of the officers alone, for they are but the executives of the Will of the membership.

Unless we, the members, assume the responsibilities of our membership in our outstanding body politic, the work of the officers must of necessity, fall short of the mission of our society and its obligation to our people. The initiative in civic matters must come from membership and officers.

In reviewing the work of our society can it be said that we have done all that we should and could have done for ourselves, the Polish National Alliance, and our community? Everyone must conceed that we have accomplished a great deal, but no one is naive enough to maintain that we have done more than scratch the surface. There is still a tremendous amount of pioneer work to be done on behalf of our people as well as a definite and far reaching program for those who will come after us. We should not be selfish to the extent of confining our work to our immediate wants or pleasures, but rather should strive to build for the future with a definite motive in views; the enhancement of the chances of our boys and girls of tomorrow to the credit of ourselves, our community, and our country.

What are some of the things we should strive for, one may ask?

The Chicago Society News should strive to attain recognition in civic affairs and demand adequate representation for our people in all public undertakings and activities, and should not permit one or two men to monopolize the representation of our people.

It should demand more recognition in public office, commensurate with our power and numerical strength, and encourage organization of our people in a campaign of education calculated to utilize our great power effectively when it may become advisable. Our latent powers can be measured only when fully organized into a militant whole on questions of policy and justice. For that work leaders are needed and the Chicago Society News has them to offer.

One of the first steps in this work should be undertaken in the Polish National Alliance itself, and through it we should reach out and gather in, the intellect and brains among our people and draft them into service for the general welfare of our people. The Polish National Alliance needs brains to-day more than it ever did, because it has entered a period of decadence in the past three or four years, and the energy and foresight that only brains and intellect can give, is necessary to revive the activity that will assure the perpetuation of its usefulness and service. Brains are at a premium to-day, but the Alliance happily is in a position to pay that premium and can afford the price. Just as any successful enterprise needs rejuvenation 4to continue to progress, the Alliance also needs rejuvenation in its executive branch. It is a colossal job and men of ability should be called to the task. The sooner we undertake the work the sooner it will be done.

We know that the welfare of the Polish National Alliance demands reconstruction from cellar to garret, and we should have the courage to start the reconstruction even though our effort may be misunderstood, criticized, aye, resented by those who would perpetuate themselves in office, or use the organization under various pretexts to their own selfish aggrandizement. Even though we may not be given a single delegate to the next convention, as we have been warned, let us put on the armor of right and justice and work for the general good of the Alliance and fight against the exploitation of this splendid organization by men who have outlived their usefulness to it. No good was ever accomplished although there was a fight with many reverses in the skirmishes preceding the battle proper. We may, perhaps, lose the skirmishes but we will win the battle in the end, because we contend for Right and Justice to the Alliance and its membership.

The insurance features of the Alliance have never been adequately exploited, nor have the potentialities of the organization ever been developed for the benefit of 5the membership. The civic possibilities have never been touched, the possible power for good absolutely lost sight of. The work for our people in the United States has been sorrowfully neglected through the insistence of certain people to meddle in European affairs to the detriment of crying needs at home.

It is the duty of the Chicago Society News and kindred groups to fight the fight of the Alliance for the good of the Alliance and the sole benefit of the membership of the Alliance. When that has been done then the Alliance should reach out to do the greater tasks of our people in particular. It can be done if we will but give it the impetus to start.