Salt Lake Tribune | 1917-06-19 | Page 4 | Gorky Points out the Cause of Russ Evils

GORKY POUTS OUTTHE CAUSE OF RJJSS EVILS Present Political Instability Due to Backwardness in Scientific and Technical Knowledge. PROPOSES TO SET MATTERS RIGHT Noted Author Turns His Back Upon Politics and Will Devote Himself to Artistic Questions. PETROGltAD, Sunday, .Tune IT, via l.onflon, June 18. Maxim Gorky, the au-t.'tor, au-t.'tor, is taking the lead in a widespread movement for political and economic reconstruction re-construction of Russian affairs, haying announced that he has abandoned PlltK; and In the future would devote himseit io cultural and artistic questions. "The evils from which Russia is suffering suffer-ing have as their first cause our painful backwardness in scientific and technical knowledge," he said. "To that may be traced the present political instability of vhih you hear so much. "In regard to politics, I will merely deny the stories circulated abroad that I am an adherent of the faction which desires de-sires peace even at the price of Russia s destruction. I am accused of being one of the 'porarhenets,' a new term of derision de-rision applied to that fnctlon. My position posi-tion Is merely that I condemn all wars and expect the present war will be ended by the combined action of the world's democracies. "As regards our international condi- , lion, I advise vou not to believe the, talk about anarchy too readily. Undoubt- edly anarchy ovists temporarily, but its seed existed long before the revolution. The fact is that under the conditions of the old regime of despotism, arbitrariness, cruelty and falsehood Russians could not develop a sense of order and justice. Science the Medicine. "Todav many are disillusioned. I am "beginning even to receive letters proclaiming pro-claiming that the revolution is ruining Kussia. This querulousness is a product of our national passivity and is equilavent to crying fire without summoning the fire brigade.' We must have a positive and definite scheme for curing our underlying Ills. The medicine, I am convinced, is science. Nearly all the evils of our daily life spring from the absence of science. "Through lack of science half our peasant peas-ant children die before reaching the age of 5. Krom the same cause nearly all the peasant women suffer from women's complaints. The moujiks cultivate the land so badly that the average yield Is less than one-fourth the yield obtained in Kngland or Belgium. Conditions in our cities are equally as had. We have no drainage anywhere. Our town soil is poisoned. Wo are choked with smoke and dust. Town children are rickety, nervous wrecks. Against such evils we need not sterile dreams, but science. technique, machines, efficiently developed industry. ' What Is Needed. '"To assist In bringing this about there should at once be created scientific in-sti in-sti tut ions, for instance. Institutions of applied mechanics, chemistry and biology, and the whole series of bacteriological, hygienic and general medical institutions. if, thereby, we cleanse Russia physically and intellectually, our anarchy will cease. Those are the Ideas underlying my new movement, ideas winch led to the foundation foun-dation of the 'free association for development devel-opment and dissemination of the positive posi-tive sciences.' The association will widen existing achievements of scholars in all that concerns man and society, concentrating concen-trating first of all on alleviation for the; struggle for ' bread and fighting the ! morbid phenomena which undermine our social life. We are determined not to rest until we have created a pan -sci en tine institution which has no parallel anywhere any-where in the world. "I have admirable collaborators . already al-ready and intend to appeal to all classes nf workers, manufacturers and professions profes-sions to assist and to provide the vast sums which are necessary. "Soon anarchy will be uprooted by order. or-der. Believe me, Russia is not lost. I believe firmly in our nation's genuine aspirations to higher civilization. 1 consider con-sider our present troubles transitory and easily curable by means of the steady and fervent application nf the two supreme su-preme principles knowledge and work."