In 1910, Paderewski funded the
Grunwald Monument in Kraków to commemorate the 500th anniversary of the
Battle of Grunwald. The monument's unveiling led to great patriotic demonstrations. In speaking to the gathered throng, Paderewski proved as adept at capturing their hearts and minds for the political cause as he was with his music. His passionate delivery needed no recourse to notes. Paderewski's status as an artist and philanthropist and not as a member of any of the many Polish political factions became one of his greatest assets and so he rose above the quarrels, and he could legitimately appeal to higher ideals of unity, sacrifice, charity, and work for common goals. In
World War I, Paderewski became an active member of the
Polish National Committee in Paris, which was soon accepted by the
Triple Entente as the representative of the forces trying to create the state of Poland. Paderewski became the committee's spokesman, and soon, he and his wife also formed other organizations, including the Polish Relief Fund in London, and the White Cross Society in the United States. Paderewski met the English composer
Edward Elgar, who used a theme from Paderewski's
Fantasie Polonaise in his work
Polonia, written for the Polish Relief Fund concert in London on 6 July 1916 (the title certainly recognises Paderewski's Symphony in B minor). Paderewski urged fellow Polish immigrants to join the
Polish armed forces in France, and pressed elbows with all the dignitaries and influential men whose salons he could enter. He spoke to Americans directly in public speeches and on the radio, appealing to them to remember the fate of his nation. He kept such a demanding schedule of public appearances, fundraisers and meetings that he stopped musical touring altogether for a few years, instead dedicating himself to diplomatic activity. In January 1917, on the eve of the
American entry into the war, US President Woodrow Wilson's main advisor,
Edward M. House, turned to Paderewski to prepare a memorandum on the Polish situation. Two weeks later, Wilson spoke before Congress and issued a challenge to the status quo: "I take it for granted that statesmen everywhere are agreed that there should be a united, independent, autonomous Poland." Paderewski also proposed that same year to reorganise Poland into a federation called the
United States of Poland. The establishment of "New Poland" became one of Wilson's famous
Fourteen Points, the principles that Wilson followed during peace negotiations to end World War I. In April 1918, Paderewski met leaders of the
American Jewish Committee in New York City, in an unsuccessful attempt to broker a deal in which organised Jewish groups would support Polish territorial ambitions in exchange for support for equal rights. However, it soon became clear that no plan would satisfy both Jewish leaders and
Roman Dmowski, the head of the Polish National Committee, who was strongly anti-Semitic. Reports of the
Lwów pogrom reverberated around the world and gravely damaged the reputation of the newly recreated Polish state under Paderewski. Prime Minister Ignacy Paderewski, complained bitterly to the US President Woodrow Wilson about anti-Polish propaganda in the United States, declaring that the violence was mainly a result of 'Jewish arrogance and agitation'. At the end of the war, with the fate of the city of
Poznań and the whole region of
Greater Poland (Wielkopolska) still undecided, Paderewski visited Poznań. Following his public speech there on 27 December 1918, the Polish inhabitants of the city began the
Greater Poland uprising against Germany. In 1919, in the newly independent Poland,
Józef Piłsudski, who was the
Chief of State, appointed Paderewski as the
Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs of Poland (January 1919 – December 1919). Paderewski and
Roman Dmowski represented Poland at the 1919 Paris Peace Conference and dealt with issues regarding territorial claims and minority rights. Paderewski signed the
Treaty of Versailles, which recognized Polish independence won after World War I. At the
Paris Peace Conference, the Polish deputation were irate at the Western powers insistence they sign a 'Minorities Treaty'. There were some achievements during Paderewski's ten-month period in government: democratic elections to Parliament, the ratification of the Treaty of Versailles, legislation on protection of ethnic minorities in the new state, and the establishment of a public education system. But Paderewski "proved to be a poor administrator and worse politician" and resigned from the Government in December 1919, having received criticism for his perceived submissiveness to the Western powers. At the request of his successor as Prime Minister,
Władysław Grabski, Paderewski represented Poland at the
Spa Conference, when Poland was threatened by the
Polish–Soviet War, but Piłsudski's success at the
Battle of Warsaw later that year rendered those negotiations redundant, and put to an end Paderewski's hopes of regaining office. ==Return to music==