| Show howe about the arctic circle communism farmers in russia by ED HOWE HAVE lately been wondering it if I 1 am a less intelligent efficient and moral man because of 0 my long contact with reformers in 1930 a man named robert kobert marshall went to the town of wiseman north of the arctic circle and remained more than a year recently lie he has written a book about ills experiences while there the inhabitants number TG iq whites 44 kimos ns 8 6 indians and I 1 light mulat to forty dee of the whites are no na tive born and 32 foreign born ger mans english scandinavians etc a fair cros cross s section of the people of the united states living so far from what Is commonly called and being snowed in six months of the year one would think they lived like savages 0 on n the elie contrary their average in all respects Is ht higher her than ours one white and two native kvinen p profess profess to be religious but the rest of the ahe inhabitants pay less than usual at ten t on to the subject and there Is no dIsturb disturbance ame about it when e Is an occasional lonal case of poverty or dis tress both very rare it la Is promptly and generously relieved although there are no welfare workers in the town nor Is there any stealing and violence Is unknown except a tradition ou that a crazy man once killed a native sentiment is strongly opposed to quarreling there are no newspapers pol po ItI clans pastors policemen judge lawyers ers doctors teachers movie plays or welfare workers of any kind mr marshall gave forty five of the adults and most of the children the commonly accepted intelligence test and found that 40 per cen cent t ranked above our average times are always hard and nature harsh but the peo pie manage manage to get along comfortably and decently some are well to do some middle class and some poor but there Is no rioting about it all being given the same opportunity this history seems to indicate that the troubles of the average civilized community are largely artificial and introduced by the reformers also that those of us in civilization in trying to get rid of our troubles become less intelligent less effective and less moral i 0 0 a I 1 believe one bugaboo with which men have long frightened themselves may be safely given up I 1 refer to communism men will continue to be mean idle foolish but the worst of them have lost respect for the conten tion of karl marx man that the best tion of the human problem Is tor for all men to pool their work and earnings arid and at the end of the week divide equally everybody knows and admits now that individualism capitalism every man handling his home his job his family to his own taste Is the best way because it Is hie human way we have at last admitted some men will not work and that the industrious will not divide with them I 1 think we may also dismiss the old fear of general rioting burning and murder men blen are still mean enough to do these things lings ti but are discovering there Is no common sense in burning such houses and food supplies as we have that it Is 19 easier to possess them through election booths or judges that instead of killing industrious men it Is better and easier to let them accumulate more that may be stolen the friendliest critic of the russians walter duranty says the russian town people and soldiers have plenty of food but that millions of farmers are dying because of malnutrition tri tion which means disease caused by lack of food in the united states town people have never been that rough with farmers we have made fools of them but always allowed them enough to eat I 1 have bave known men a long time and had occasion to remark many cases of extreme shiftlessness but believe men are more shiftless now dow than ever before A man of forty live five and who confesses he be Is healthy in writing to me for help says 1 I have no one to appeal to now except my sister ruth but she has been sick three years and unable to do anthlny an tiling for me I 1 have observed also that more men than usual ore are lately working the women note any woman who has achieved considerable prosperity as a result of the new freedom and you will find a lot of men hanging to her skirts one successful actress confesses she Is supporting seven families A tramp said the other day tie he la Is nearly always roughly rebuffed or insulted if be asks for work but that anyone will give him a dime or a quarter with ith a kind word when he says he Is hungry I 1 balzac says every man of sixteen or seventeen Tev enteen falls in love with a woman much older and has trouble it if he marries her a the allied n nations agreed it was a good idea to compel germany to pay the cost of the world war and ana 0 mccu e cu pled pied the country with soldiers to see that the germans did it but there was one serious weakness in the plan germany do it so hie file allies withdrew their troops ithier spending a good deal of mone money foolishly a 19 1933 33 bell syndicate st se ica lc |
