Milwaukee’s Kuryer Polski began as a daily newspaper on June 23, 1888 under Michael Kruszka (1860-1918). Under his dynamic leadership it attracted a wide readership, locally and across the country. The paper’s editorial stance was pro-labor, strongly nationalist, and aligned until 1900 with Wisconsin’s Democratic Party. Then Kruszka reversed its course in favor of the progressive Republican cause. The support of the Kuryer Polski for Polish-language instruction in Milwaukee’s public schools brought it into conflict with the Roman Catholic archdiocese, which viewed this as undermining the Poles’ faith and their support for its parochial schools. In 1906 the Church even sponsored a rival Catholic Polish language daily, Nowiny Polskie. In 1912 its bishops went further and forbade Catholics to read the Kuryer Polski, a move that resulted in a long, highly publicized “freedom of the press” court battle. In 1908 Kruszka published an authoritative, if controversial, first ever history of the Poles in America written by his priest-brother, Wenceslaus. The paper also backed the appointment of Polish priests to serve as bishops in America, yet another high visibility issue in Polonia. The Kuryer Polski continued until 1962 under a succession of excellent editors, among them Chester Dziadulewicz.
Donald E. Pienkos
Professor Emeritus, Political Science
University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee