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Show THE CITIZEN 7 THE MUSKOVITE MYSTERY-USSIA is still as much of a mystery as it was in the days, of the czars. When Nicholas ruled as czar and autocrat of all the Russias, under the fantastic guidance of a Teligious fanatic called Rasputin, who vied with the grand dukes for power and defiied them, Russia was veiled in the myriad folds of a mystifying censorship. Propaganda, then as now, was successful in concealing the real conditions from the rest of the world. The truth, then as now, percolated but slowly across the borders and was often unrecognizable. Champions of Bolshevism, disguised as impartial observers, visit Russia and return to England or the United States with narratives that would be convincing were they not so manifestly in conflict with more or less authentic evidence and with the statements of other observers whose character and reputation stamp them as trustworthy. WILLIAM T. Goode, special in Russia of the Manchester Guardian, who was held a prisoner on a British warship after leaving the proletarian empire of and Trotzky, seems to hold a brief for Bolshevism ana pleads with the powers to make peace with Bolshevik Russia. Commenting on Winston Churchills recent address urging continued war upon the Bolsheviki, he says that there are two statements which really contain all the rest, and he summarizes them. They are, he says, that 'the present Russian government is the avowed enemy of the existing civilization of the world,' and that Russia, 'one of the greatest granaries of the world, was reduced to famine and had come upon a condition of barbarism worse than that of the stone age. The foregoing places the problem before us squarely and offers an explanation of the conflicting testimony. On the one side we have those who fear Bolshevism will conquer the world, and on the other those who are anxious that the Bolshevik experiment should have a free hand. Consequently, on the one side, we have A testimony calculated to persuade the world that It is its duty to fight Bolshevism to a finish, while, on the other side, we have testimony which seeks to persuade the world that Bolshevism ought to be let alone because it is a benign institution and because, in any event, it is unconquerable. The correspondent does not try to Le-ni- ne controvert Mr. Churchills statement that the present Russian government is the avowed enemy of the existing civilization, for it is incontrovertible. Lenine, Trotzky, Tchitcherin and all Ahe other Bolshevist leaders proclaim that purpose. At this time, seeking peace so that they may recuperate their powers, they declare that they have no intention of conducting revolutionary movements in other lands and pretend to think that the present civilization will fall of its own weight. But the world is not deceived. It knows that Lenine simply couches for another spring at the throat of civilization. ance to every one. It has put the worker on a decent economic footing, man or woman. Appreciating point, the correspondent confines himself to the second statement, which has two elements first, .the reference to Russia as one of. the greatest granaries of the world, and secondly, the reference to the condition of barbarism to which Russia has been reduced. The correspondent inquired blandly how it can be true that Russia is starving when the allies lift the trade blockade for the avowed purpose of obtaining Russian grain to feed western Europe. It is a derisive fling that seems to have value, but is really without point. The allies, when they lifted the blockade, expected to secure the grain in the Ukraine, the southern region of Russia and the richest grain country in in the world. At that time much of Ukraine was still in the hands of its own people; lately most of it has come under the control of the invading Bolsheviki and the Ukranian proletariat. Moreover, Russia is hungry, not because the granaries are empty, but because facilities for transporting grain are scarce. The other day the government at Warsaw, Poland, received an outline of a manifesto of the executive committee of the Russian soviets, which confirmed the soviet jace proposals to Poland. We read that the executive committee urged the Poles to make peace and join the Bolsheviki in the fight against typhus, cold and unemployment. Here we seem to have an official admission that Russia, if not hungry, is cold and sick, that it lacks fuel and is tortured by epidemics. And yet the correspondent has this to say: It (the -- soviet government) has kept the great towns free from epidemics. Continuing his panegyric of the Bolsheviki regime he says: This barbarism has, to my certain knowledge, done what was never done in Russia before. It has tackled the question of illiteracy and ignorance of the masses with a certain measure of success in the present and the promise of more in the future. It has preserved and extended the art galleries and brought them to the comprehension and enjoyment of the workers. It maintains theatres, opera, ballet in full work as before. It provides concerts in the open air and in halls; it caters to the taste of children on the boulevards and in special theatres. It has provided, for the first time in Russia, universal tolerance for religions. It has endowed motherhood and provided for the guarding of infant life. It brings medical assist . And the dictator of the council was Keen, a Lett, who began with a mild sway, but soon established the Red Tirror in conformity with orders HOW the futility of By F. P. Gallagher do these statements square the statements of other ob- servers? Major Robert Davis, U. S. A., formerly a pastor of the Brick Presby terian church, Fifth avenue, New York City, and of the First Presbyterian church of Englewood, New Jersey, and earlier a football star at Dartmouth college, has returned to this country after a year spent in Russia and the Near East. In a letter, recently published, he gives an account of what passed before his eyes in Kharkof, a city of This city has 800,000 Inhabitants. broad streets, tiled sidewalks, public squares with fountains and flowers: God did all he could for the Ukraine, he said, and Kharkof is on its western rim. It taps the wheat pocket of the world, is next door to coal, quicksilver, salt, lime cement, glass-sanIt contains sizable industries, one of which employs 20,000 men. The Bolsheviki took Kharkof and this is what happened: Bootblack stands were removed from the streets because the sight of one freeman kneeling to wipe the boots of another tortured the soul of the true Bolshed. . Porters at the Tailroad station were abolished; each traveler was forced to carry his own grip. The hospitals were not to treat Brights disease because it was a sugar disease; nor gout, because only the high-fevik. d, bourgeoise contracted it. Men were forbidden to lift their hats to women because it inferred superiority of one sex. All women were ordered to wear the peasants kerchief, as bonnets were considered signs of class inequality. The newspapers were suppressed and the champions of a free press established papers of their own, thus closing all sources of information that were not Bolshevik. Neither food, boiled water, nor transportation out of Kharkov could be obtained. Spotted typhus broke out. Patients filled the hospital beds and soon even the corridors could not hold them. Janitors, quacks or inexperienced students were put in charge of the hospitals. Nurses abandoned their duties at will. The dressings of wounded soldiers were changed only once in three days. Typhus patients, delirious, walked the streets. Drug stores were nationalized and turned over to the clerks, who established a working day of five hours, 10 a. m. to 3 p. m., and closed the stores on Sundays. Soon the drugs ran low and were not replaced. Medicine became so scarce that it was administered to patients only once in three days. Nor did the soviet rule. It delegated its powers to an executive committee, which, in turn, transferred its powers to the Inner Council of Five. deep-drinkin- g from Trotzky. The council demanded the surrender of all arms; ordered that no person remove his effects from one domicile to another without a permit from the commissary, nor buy at any store nor transport any material through the streets, without a permit. Persons who occupied five rooms or more were ordered to contribute a full suit of clothing for the use of the Red army and the poor; all who occupied three rooms, a suit of underwear, and all who occupied two rooms, a single garment. Persons who vacated their quarters were allowed to take with them two suits of clothing. All other property was to remain in the dwelling for use of the commissaries and army. Motor cars, carriages, victrolas, typewriters, kodacs, musical or optical instruments, electric fixtures, private libraries were declared to be the property of the state and forefitable on demand. EDUCATION in the schools was der In other parts of Russia this might have been an improvement, but the writer tells us that in the Kharkof district literacy among the younger people was virtually 100 per cent. Examinations were abolished and so, too, was the study of grammar as superfluous and of geometry and physics as theoretical subjects. Holidays with a religious signification, like Easter and Christmas, were abolished and May 1 and October 28 were declared to be Holy Days of the Prole- tariat. Two months after the abolition of examinations 50 per cent of the students of the university petitioned for private examinations and certificates, (Continued on Page 18.) We Never Close Storage Murphy IDoes It Better WHAT? AUTO REPAIRING WELDING RADIATOR WORK ACCESSORIES MILLER TIRES When others fall down on your Job bring it to us. Joseph Murphy Incorporated 761-63-6- 5 So. State |