1812. For this reason, Kosciuszko is often called "The Father of the American Artillery."

In France, Kosciuszko refused to accept repeated offers of titles and wealth, first from the directory and later from Napoleon for he considered their offers to restore an independent Poland insincere.

Later, after Napoleon was defeated, Kosciuszko likewise refused to become viceroy of the Kingdom of Poland that Tsar Alexander I created from some of his Polish lands.

Rather than cooperate with the sham freedoms of Napoleon or Alexander, Kosciuszko preferred to spend the rest of his life as a humble but free man in the village of Soleure, Switzerland, where he died on October 15, 1817. To the end he was true to himself, sharing from his meager means whatever he could with the poor and underprivileged of the village.

When he died, Polish peasants began raising a monument to his memory. On the outskirts of Krakow from which Kosciuszko launched his insurrection against the Russians in 1794, the people of Poland brought hands full of earth from their native towns and villages and deposited them together, with soil from the various battlefields upon which Kosciuszko fought. So many came that today Kosciuszko's hill, some 200 feet high, dominates the skyline of Poland to form a citadel.

There is little doubt that Kosciuszko was among the greatest men of his time. Yet it is regrettable that until today, so little is known of him in the United States.

Despite his unquestioned contribution to our independence, not a single scholarly biography in the English language exists. Nor have the people of the United States ever significantly paid tribute to his greatness. The few statues that stand in his memory were largely the result of contributions by Polish immigrants who felt that something should be done to honor him, though they themselves really did not really understand the man or the meaning of his life.

Poor Kosciuszko, even the Department of Defense let him down when they refused to appropriate funds to restore Kosciuszko's garden at West Point.

Were it not for a campaign launched by Maj. Gen. Charles Stevenson, retired, and the financial support of the Polish American veterans of Massachusetts, another centuries old tradition would have ended.

Poor Kosciuszko, when Congress was passing out honorary citizenships to those who distinguished themselves during the American Revolutionary War. Kosciuszko who had done so much was overlooked, because he did not push himself in his case.

Today, we have the opportunity to give this hero of two continents the recognition he deserves, by accepting the house at 301 Pine Street as a national historic site.

In so doing we are not merely giving belated recognition to Thaddeus Kosciuszko, but to the virtues and ideals he embodied throughout his life.

In so doing we build a bridge of understanding between the peoples of the United States and Poland, as he himself was and remains a bridge between the people of these two lands.

In a letter sent to him by George Washington, the Father of our Country wrote: "I beg you to be assured that no one has a higher respect and veneration for your character than I have."

Let us give expression to that respect and veneration. Let us accept the house at 301 Pine Street as a national historic site.

I would like to add that a comment was made that that humble house was not a fitting monument for Kosciuszko. I think that knowing Koscuiszko there would be no finer monument. To have a plantation or villa was not Kosciuszko. Kosciuszko in his own life would not have it. What he would like would be a monument to reflect the simplicity of what he felt and what he lived by.

Mr. TAYLOR. Doctor, we appreciate your very helpful statement. I thought you made a strong point when you pointed out that the various memorials mentioned by the National Park Service were not in fact established by the U.S. Government but were in fact established by interested citizens. You didn't mention the monument on the grounds of the Saratoga National Historical Park in New York State. Was that established by the Park Service, or do you know?

Mr. KUSIELEWICZ. I don't know.

Mr. TAYLOR. But that would be the only one of the ones that were mentioned?

Mr. KUSIELEWICZ. If it were founded or subsidized by the National Park Service.

Mr. TAYLOR. If it were, that would be the only one?

Mr. KUSIELEWICZ. Yes.

Mr. TAYLOR. Any other questions?

Mr. PISZEK. Mr. Chairman, if you would permit me, please, as an example of what Eugene was talking about, how it could inspire others, we had several months ago a black leader from Buffalo call us and say to us that he heard about our work to try to get the Thaddeus Kosciuszko home declared a national historic site. He said, can we come down and see you, because we have a potential problem some time in the future here in Buffalo. There are large numbers of blacks here and there are large numbers of Poles. We would like to come down and get to know more about you Polish people so that we blacks will know more about you and you will know more about us and we can prevent possible confrontations in the future.

This is the type of thing that springs from a good deed and that is already in action.

Mr. TAYLOR. Well, thank you, Doctor.

Mr. Piszek, please call your next witness.

Mr. PISZER. The next witness is Father Ziemba, presently the director of the Polish Orchard Lake Schools in Michigan, Saint Cyrils, Methodius Seminary, St. Mary's College, and St. Mary's Preparatory, founded in 1885, with alumni all over the United States.

He is also founder of the Orchard Lake Center for Polish Studies and Culture, chairman of the President's Advisory Council on Education and Cultural Affairs of the Polish-American Congress and Director of the Project: Pole.

Father Ziemba.

STATEMENT OF FATHER WALTER ZIEMBA, PRESIDENT AND DIRECTOR, POLISH ORCHARD LAKE SCHOOLS IN MICHIGAN, SAINT CYRILS, METHODIUS SEMINARY, ST. MARY'S COLLEGE, AND ST. MARY'S PREPARATORY

Father ZIEMBA. Mr. Chairman, members of the committee, ladies and gentlemen. My statement is on record and as the last witness for Mr. Piszek here, the words of the poet come to mind, brevity is the soul of wit. With some freedom and ambiguity, I can say I deal with souls, not always in homiletics with brevity or wit, but I would like to concur with the other witnesses in everything they have said about the fittingness of this particular house being designated a memorial in honor of Thaddeus Kosciuszko and express at the same time gratitude to the Department of the Interior for concurring in the request that was made and making it possible.

Thank you.

(The prepared statement follows:)

STATEMENT OF VERY REV. WALTER J. ZIEMBA

Mr. Chairman, Representatives, Gentlemen of the Committee: According to the National Park Service, the criteria it fixes for National Historic Sites are based-and I quote exactly-on "Structures or sites associated importantly with the lives of persons nationally significant in the history of the United States."

An examination of the decisions under these guidelines inidicates that the action proposed in this hearing is well within the boundaries. Quite apparently, according to these criteria, the locaton need not be exact. It need merely be identified by legend, as in the case of the traditional but not exact, birthplace of Abraham Lincoln. In passing, I think this is quite appropriate, since legends and myths are indeed truths of the heart, and no nation has a full hertitage without them. Nevertheless, it is to be noted that, according to the criteria, the site need not be exact and may be merely traditional.

Further, the event which makes it a National Historic Site need not be one of long duration. Thus, the Ansely Wilcox House in New York, where by purest happenstance, Theodore Roosevelt took his oath of office as 26th President of the United States on September 14, 1901, due to the death of President McKinley, has been declared a Naitonal Historical Site by the National Park Service.

Nor, according to the criteria of the National Park Service, need the site be important at the time; it may be made so by the subsequent illustrious life of the person with whom it is connected. Thus, the birthplaces of Presidents Franklin D. Roosevelt, Herbert H. Hoover, John F. Kennedy and Lyndon Baines Johnson have been declared National Historic Sites. Further, not only are the National Park Services criteria broad enough to include sites before the person became of national lustre, but even after his national service has been fully rendered as in the case of the Gettysburg home of President and Mrs. Dwight David Eisenhower after his term as President ceased.

Further still, the National Historic Sites criteria are broad enough to include persons unknown and engaged in ordinary pursuits. Thus, the Allegheny Portage Railroad, which lifted passengers and cargoes of canal boats over the Alleghenies has been declared a National Historic Site. In further point, the criteria is broad enough to include a momentary happening at a purely random point, as the National Historic Site marking the point where the Golden Spike was driven commemorating the completion of the first transcontinental railroad.

The fact of the matter is that the criteria established by the National Park Service are broad enough to enable it to effect what common sense and a sense of proportion and justice seem to indicate in each circumstance.

The National Park Service is foremost in acknowledging the greatness of General Thaddeus Kosciuszko. And, fortunately, the law is broad enough to include this last and only dwelling connected with Thaddeus Kosciuszko. It has been said that it was a boarding house and that he lived there only six months. But it would be as wrongful to exclude it on this ground as to call the dwelling where Thomas Jefferson lived for only a few weeks while he wrote the Declaration of Independence of no importance because it was a boarding house.

Fortunately enough, since the National Park Service criteria are broad enough to include a vague traditional site, it is wide enough to include the actual residence of General Kosciuszko.

Indeed, its further criteria include, and I quote exactly-"Structures or sites associated significantly with an important event that outstandingly represents some great ideas or ideal of the American people." This alone is enough to qualify the house as the meeting of the minds, to say nothing of the persons of the most exalted imaginations in all world history, Thomas Jefferson and General Thaddeus Kosciuszko. There were no ideals of grander magnitude or of greater portent for the human race than those voiced by these two political philosophers and architects of human freedom and, doubtless, these wide views were fully reviewed at Kosciuszko House.

But. happily for this humble little dwelling which housed the great spirit of General Thaddeus Kosciuszko, our great nation can find place. It can find place for the last remaining connection with a simple and great man of deep humility whom General Washington, Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, indeed all of the Founding Fathers were proud to call friend.

As an American of Polish descent, I am glad indeed that the immeasurable service rendered our nation at its birth by Polish citizens is at long last recog nized; but I am even more proud as an American, for it is a day of great honor for our country when it honors one of the first few Citizens of the World, General Thaddeus Kosciuszko, like Thomas Jefferson, a true Pioneer of Freedom. Mr. TAYLOR. Thank you very much, Father.

Are there any questions?

(No response.)

Mr. PISZEK. I have something short. I would like to read John Cardinal Krol's statement, if I may.

Mr. TAYLOR. Proceed.

Mr. PISZEK. May I voice the interest and the expectations of the millions of Americans of Polish descent and especially those in Philadelphia that the decision of your honorable committee will favor the preservation of the Thaddeus Kosciuszko house as a national historic site and memorial to a great general who risked his life in defense of freedom of the people of our country and also as a memorial to the ties which have bound the citizens of the United States with those of Poland. The Thaddeus Kosciuszko house will serve as a reminder that liberty to survive must be universal. It will also serve as a reminder that the liberty which we enjoy was acquired with the help of others. Such ideals should always be given prominence.

(The prepared statement follows:)

STATEMENT OF E. J. PISZEK, PRESIDENT, MRS. PAUL'S KITCHEN (ADDITIONAL)

I have a few short closing remarks. Much testimony has been offered here today of the high esteem in which Gen. Thaddeus Kosciuszko was held by the great men of our Nation, including its father, President George Washington, and its spiritual creator, President Thomas Jefferson.

But, if they could speak, the most telling testimony which could be offered here today would be that of the common people, the common soldiers, and the common laborers, even the prisoners of war Kosciuszko commanded.

It is said of King Arthur, that the most courageous act of knighthood was not the wielding of his sword Excalibur, but by bringing water to a child dying of smallpox, though he was warned that he was almost certain to die if he did so.

By the same token, the mighty fortifications at Saratoga and West Point are indeed tributes to General Kosciuszko's tremendous skills; but the monument to his great heart is written by the fact that he went without food himself to give it to the hapless British prisoners of war; and though living on money borrowed from his family, he declined to draw his salary as a regularly commissioned officer of the Continental Army on the ground that the soldiers in the ranks needed it more.

In this respect I most respectfully call the committee's attention that the Polish soul of General Thaddeus Kosciuszko greatly paralleled that of President Abraham Lincoln. It is true that for almost a thousand years, he had learned as a Pole their undying watchword, that Poles never, never, never will be serfs. But, as with President Lincoln, every act of his life proved that as General Kosciuszko would accept no man as master, he wanted no man as his slave.

There is a legend that his brother officers thought he lived far too simply and brought to him a body servant, a black man named Agrippa. General Kosciuszko told them he was quite satisfied with the way he lived, that he was well organized, that Agrippa's services were superfluous and he really didn't know quite what to do. He was told to do as he pleased, whereupon he immediately turned to Agrippa and said. "You are free."

What comes from the heart goes to the heart, said Goethe, and it was only after General Kosciuszko lay badly wounded in terrible pain and apparently dying that it was discovered that he commanded the affection of the Western world. The physicians of London, in real anxiety, carefully prescribed hydrotherapy and exercises remarkably paralleling those of today.

The physicians said:

It gives us the most heartfelt satisfaction to think that we may possibly contribute to the comfort of a man whose character and exertions in behalf of his country have called for the admiration of the whole civilized world. Thomas Jefferson wrote the stricken man:

"I wrote to you my dear and respectable friend that Captain Lee of the ship Adriana has brought to you as a present from the Whig Club of England an elegant sabre, mounted in gold and inscribed: "The Whig Club of England to

General Kosciuszko,' said to have cost two thousand guineas. It is a thing which ought not to be put to hazard."

When the wounded Kosciuszko arrived back in Philadelphia on August 18, 1797, it was to a tumultuous reception. President Adams wrote him congratulating him on his arrival in Philadelphia

"I hope you will find all the consolation, tranquillity and satisfaction you desire after the glorious efforts you have made in a greater theatre, on my arrival in Philadelphia, I hope to have the pleasure to receive you.”

And from Mount Vernon, General Washington wrote:

"I beg you to be assured that no one has a higher respect and veneration for your character than I have; and no one more seriously wished, during your arduous struggle in the cause of liberty and your country, that it might be crowned with success.

"But the ways of providence are inscrutable and mortals must submit. I pray you to believe that at all times and under any circumstances, it would make me happy, to see you at my last retreat from which I never expect to be more than twenty miles again."

But gentlemen, as has been written, the captains and the kings depart, and there comes a time, that moment of truth when a man speaks the final truth of his heart, as if before his maker.

Thus, when he made his will, Gen. Thaddeus Kosciuszko made Thomas Jefferson, architect of American freedom, his executor; but he spoke with the soul of Poland when 11 years before the birth of Abraham Lincoln. he left his property for the freeing and educating of his fellow human beings, the then American slaves, as his sole American heirs.

It is in this spirit, that of Lincoln, that we of Polish descent speak in behalf of all Americans today. With malice toward none and with charity toward all. let us do the right as God gives us to see the right-gentlemen-in all of American history, we respectfully submit, few men are more qualified as exemplifications of this universal brotherhood of man than Thaddeus Kosciuszko.

I would like to conclude in my remarks by reading into the record a statement from His Eminence John Cardinal Krol:

"May I voice the interest and the expectations of the millions of Americans of Polish descent and especially those in Philadelphia that the decision of your honorable committee will favor the preservation of the Thaddeus Kosciuszko house as a national historic site and memorial to a great general who risked his life in defense of freedom of the people of our country and also as a memorial to the ties which have bound the citizens of the United States with those of Poland. The Thaddeus Kosciuszko house will serve a reminder that liberty to survive must be universal. It will also serve as a reminder that the liberty which we enjoy was acquired with the help of others. Such ideals should always be given prominence."

Thank you.

Mr. TAYLOR. Mr. Piszek, before you go, are you the owner of the property at 301 Pine Street?

Mr. PISZEK. Yes.

Mr. TAYLOR. Do you plan to make it available for a national memorial or historic site?

Mr. PISZEK. Yes.

Mr. TAYLOR. Have any formal agreements been entered into on this property?

Mr. PISZEK. We sent a letter of confirmation to the Park Service, saying that we were willing to give the home to the U.S. Government. I would like to add one additional thing. Being a Philadelphian, having visited the area almost a hundred times, I would like to place into the record the fact that the two homes west of the Kosciuszko house have not been restored and really are in relatively poor repair, two homes west of the house. I think the testimony was given that all the homes around it were restored. Most of them are, but the two to the west have not been.

Mr. TAYLOR. Do you see any prospects that they will be restored?