Show 1 WORLDS WORLD'S HAPPIEST CHILDREN I Halliburton Tells of Russia's Schools Where Students So I I Love Their Work That Its It's Almost Impossible for Directors to Drive Them From It I By RICHARD HALLIBURTON Author of The Ro Royal al Road i to Romance etc I WRITING home about RusI Russia Rus Rus- Russia I sia is one of the most difficult i cult assignments Ive I've ever had To write forcefully and well about this infuriating but astounding country one should have definite convictions and opinions But in in keeping with the experience of most other i foreigners f my convictions convictions' suffer sufI suffer suf suf- I fer such violent and such frequent freI fre- fre I quent changes that I hardly know myself from day to dayi day what my convictions are i I I Each morning I swear anew that 1 I the rule of the Soviets is the cruel- cruel 1 I e est st most brutal and most colossal j racket ever rammed at pistol point down the throats of a helpless na na- na- na tion ion t But before night I will have seen some isolated feature of Bolshevism Bolshevism Bolshevism Bol Bol- that is so enlightened so advanced and so inspiring that forthe for forthe forthe the moment I forgive and forget the tyranny that has produced it The Soviet So system of persecuting and imprisoning the mother sister sister sister sis sis- ter children of any Russian citizen who tries to escape from this gangland's gangland's gangland's gang- gang lands land's grip seems to me as inhuman in- in inhuman inhuman in in- human and barbaric a custom as ever e. e existed sted in the most savage ages of history But just when I am exploding loding with indignation because of it I visit one of the model prisons prisons and and immediately feel that it is we Americans Americans Americans Amer Amer- with our dismal and degrading degrading ing prison system who are the sav sav- ages Schools Appease Wrath The ruthlessness and mercilessness merciless- merciless i ness with which the Bolsheviks go about exterminating all classes of Russian society e. e except the third- third class themselves outrages my sense of jus justice ce and sends me off on the warpath in defense of human human human hu hu- man liberties But again my hostility against I this crucifixion of the civilized minority minority minority mi mi- I cools when I enter one of the special Soviet schools and see the protection and sympathy and spiritual spiritual spiritual spirit spirit- ual stimulation being poured out outto outto outto to young people who before the revolution would have been in some cases actually were beggars beggars beggars beg beg- gars thieves or illiterate and bestial bestial bestial bes bes- peasants Ive I've just come from two days spent in such schools and prisons Let me tell about them quickly before before be be- f fore ore I hear the crack of the racketeers racketeers' racketeers racketeers' racketeers racketeers' racket racket- whip lashing out again from the Kremlins Kremlin's towers and before I put my fist through every complimentary word Ive I've written about the Bolsheviks Here in Moscow is is' is isa a school thatis that thatis is unique in the world world world-a a state school for boys and girls who want to run away and join the circus Want to Join the Circus The circus school is advertised far and wide from wide from Vladivostok to The advertisement reads Soviet Boys Soviet Girls Do you want to join the circus as asan asan asan an artist Are you over fourteen and under eighteen Come to usand us usand usand and learn clowning juggling tightrope tightrope tight tight- rope walking acrobatics horseman horseman- ship We send you a ticket and pay for ever everything The Soviet s state t tat a t e needs you What boy boy or or for that matter what girl girl could could resist such a truly wonderful magical invitation Thousands of applications pour in At present the school directors can choose only a small fraction of those who plead to be admitted accepting preferably the orphans and the homeless The freshman class numbers fort forty the forty most fortunate children in in the whole world if weare we weare weare are to accept the opinion of the others who must just look on from the outside and yearn All freshmen must take the same courses courses acrobatic acrobatic c dancing tumbling tum tum- bling bare-back bare and bicycle riding gymnastics tight rope walking fly fly- mg ing trapeze They also have three hours each day dap of academic study Soviet State Circus School The classes of freshmen and clumsy are followed by the these se second nd year ear students numbering thirty five who now having a chance to specialize are already excellent performers When the sen sea seniors fors appear reduced to twenty-five twenty i one sees marvels of muscle and I agility with barrel chests and bulging ing mg legs But no matter what the class everybody goes through his tri tricks with the utmost joyousness and en en- th u The acrobats have to be pulled out of the ring to make wa way for the next nert They reI re- re j I treat at into the street and carry on i with their springs hand-springs there The I cl clowns having gone through their t daily half hill hour of routine clowning I continue t to o fall down and paddle each other all over the schooL Th The b bare back e-ba e riders both boys a and n d pis girls ls drive the poor old p practice e horse almost to death pleading to I I I 4 IS c. c r ry y c I t 3 N t h 4 t. t N i d v I cx Q 4 I Lessons in n toe dancing begin at six At ten the muscles in their feet and legs are like iron The regime is so strict and so severe that of every I ten who enter the school only two graduate be allowed just one more t time i m me e around the ring just one more dive through the paper hoops The jugglers jugglers jugglers jug jug- hide behind the scenery to steal another period of rehearsal The whole school has to be driven home to the dormitories at night by means of angry threats of punishment punishment punishment pun pun- from the director The day I visited the school the young oung aerial acrobats flying and swinging high over the head of the instructor positively refused to come down and only shouted defiance defiance defiance ance back at him as they continued to sail through the air with the greatest of ease The instructor finally finally fi finally fi- fi nally had to turn the lights off in order to get his zealous over-zealous flying home to supper In no other school on earth Im I'm sure are the students so profoundly i Ll in n love with their studies as inthis in inthis inthis this school Here for once a sport- sport loving child gets all the sport his heart desires accompanied by spangled costumes and colored lights and music and white horses and applause applause all all the glory of the circus In Russia the Soviets So may be exiling exiling exiling ex ex- thousands tears may be flowing flowing flow flow- ing in oceans and no man may be beable beable beable able to call his soul his own but right in the midst of it are the one onehundred onehundred hundred happiest boys and girls on I earth Ballet School in hi Russia Perhaps not quite so happy but certainly as absorbed in their work are the students in the Moscow state ballet school Here they begin not at fourteen but at four Almost as soon as they can walk physically perfect children children children chil chil- dren are placed beside the exercise e. bar and trained to stand on their toes Not only dancing but expression expression expression sion gestures and rhythm are taught the boys as well as the girls The average American boy would die of oI shame if he were caught taking tatting lessons in looking ethereal ethereal ethereal eth eth- ereal and imitating a swan But in Russia ballet instruction is a deadly deadly dead dead- ly serious business and one must be hard as nails to keep pace Dancing Dancing ing is the students' students whole world They eat sleep and live to dance And the results are marvelous By twelve years old the children have conquered the most intricate and difficult steps At the anniversary anniversary anniversary sary performance of the Moscow ballet school with Stalin and all his ministers on hand a year fifteen-year- old boy inspired by the presence of such divinities and by the crash of the hundred piece orchestra leaped and whirled about the stage with such winged toes and such I incredible skill that he brought the dance-blase dance audience to its f feet t and completely stopped the show Out of every ten babies who enter the ballet school perhaps only two finally graduate No one can tell when the cl child is four what it will look like at fourteen Often the boys grow up to b be e six sic feet three and too tall to imitate a swan Or the girl gir because of her ruthless exer ever may develop into such a husky half-back half that it would take two dance partners instead of on one e to stagger with her heron on their shoulders shoal shoal- ders den across the stage The discharges dis dis- dis- dis charges s therefore are frequent But the child meanwhile has had the finest education possible in Russia Russia Russia Rus Rus- sia and is always provided with a sufficient livelihood elsewhere Such institutions as these would help melt anybody's wrath against the Bolsheviks But it is in their penal system where the Soviets com com- completely win ones one's sympathy and ad ad- Russia's Penal System About twenty miles outside Moscow Moscow Mos Mos- cow is the worlds world's perfect prison prison- perfect in that it turns out self- self respecting skilled responsible cithens citizens cit- cit I hens and not furtive embittered I broken broken- men as in America In the first place the word prison is not I used nor the word prisoner There are no cells no bars no guards not even a wall But the I boys and young men who live here have all been thorough-going thorough I I criminals and are serving sentences sentences sentences sen sen- I for every known crime from petty thieving to assassination I The Soviets are implacable en en- They insist that environment environment environment en en- alone is to blame if young I people take to crime If the environment environment environment environ environ- ment is improved character will likewise improve So when offenders come to Bol- Bol they are kept busy going to school learning to be skilled workmen workmen workmen work work- men learning to swim and dance and to govern themselves Their labor in the institute factories is paid for on the same scale as work done by free men Half their salary salary salary sal sal- ary goes toward their clothes and board and keep They can spend the other half in Moscow if they choose and on anything they like TI t 1 d 1 eo ou u oL CU CUA A self sufficient commune has grown up about the place place- The older boys with good records are allowed to mate or marry with ith wives from outside Such mating is in fact encouraged encouraged encouraged en en- and each couple is provided provided pro pro- provided vided with private living quarters There is a splendid school for the children of these menages The result result re re- re- re sult suIt of this enlightened policy is that over eight hundred members of this commune are married and eighteen hundred children laugh and sing around the prison grounds There is a l hospital excellently equipped A movie and theater play to packed houses every night So ideal and so carefree is life at Bol- Bol that the directors director's problem j as at the circus school is to persuade persuade persuade per per- suade his men to leave when their sentence is up I During the monster celebration on November members of all I the state schools and labor unions in Moscow marched by Stalin's reviewing re re- reviewing re- re I viewing stand on Red square He saluted them all proudly as they I passed But when a regiment of one l thousand boys one bOys one thousand thou thou- I sand marched criminals et- et criminals ex-criminals marched before him with their eyes shining banners ban ban- I ners waving and bands playing Stalin and all his ministers cheered and cheered and cheered and the tears streamed unrestrained C down their leather cheeks And as these thousand convicts pa passed ed I 1 thought of Sing-Sing Sing an auk and I San Quentin and Blackwells Blackwell's island isian I and and I almost wept myself from from un shame 0 m B Hen Ben n servy Servia I |