The investigation developed the fact that most of the settlers had lived previously in the congested "Little Polands" in Chicago, Detroit, and Milwaukee. The settlers explained that they lived there as in the old country, having their own Polish church, Polish schools, Polish banks, Polish stores, Polish books and papers, speaking Polish in their homes, in the streets, and in social gatherings. Even in the factories where they worked, their fellow workers were often Poles; sometimes even the foreman was a Pole. There was almost no opportunity for coming in contact with the American ways of life and with the country's language.
Several settlers declared that they had learned more about America and had used English more during the last two years in the northern wilderness than during the previous seven or eight years in the city of Chicago. Settling on land, they came in contact with the American land agents, other company officials, government authorities, American banks and stores, and with American neighbors at the community meetings. Here in the wilderness they first found how badly they needed English and a knowledge of American ways. A number of parents started to learn English by taking lessons from their children, who themselves were learning English in the local public schools.
The company's officials stated, in confirmation, that the Polish settlers in their colonies were growing in dignity and self-reliance, that they were assuming American characteristics and an American bearing.
As the colonies of the company are comparatively young, it is impossible to foresee their future with certainty. So far they seem to be on a sound basis, and their success rather than their failure is to be expected. The soil is good and the settlers stick hard to their work on the land. The first colony founded seems to be over the danger line already. It is no longer under the financial control of the company, the settlers have secured loans outside, and their farms are progressing from the experimental stage to that of established security.
However, a settler expressed the following apprehension to the writer:
You see us, men and women, old and young, working here in the wilderness like beavers, clearing and digging, scraping and building. All are pressed hard by a strong hope of establishing a permanent home and of earning future independence. But we still live in makeshift houses, and so far only a few families are able to make a living, bare and meager, out of their clearings, diggings, and cows. The vast majority--almost all of us--have, at times, to leave the farm in care of women and children and look for work elsewhere--in Duluth, Chicago, Detroit--for the purpose of earning bread for the family on the farm. A number temporarily hire out to the company, but the latter's wages are considerably less than we get in the industrial centers.