The Washington herald. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1906-1939, 1915-10-20
Russia's Real Problem.


England and France, to pay for war supplies al
ready contracted for in this country. This is the
latest authentic report from Wall Street II APP
pears that the credit of Russia is not good in the
United States and her allies had to borrow the
money for her. This is new light the fnan-
cial condition of Russia. few months ago we
were told in dispatches from Petrograd that since
the prohibition of vodka and the loss of S5oo,ooo-
600 revenues from the sale of that beverage, Rus
STA had been rehablitated in finance, her indus
tries revived and the savings banks filled to over
flowing with the moral regeneration Of the people
due entirely to that edict of the Gar. These two
reports cannot both be true. The old special dis
patches and correspondence from Petrograd were
probably fakes, sent out to inspire confidence in
this country where so many busy bodies trying
to create the impression that this is a kind of
war; for the moral regeneration of the world, in
stead of an old-fashioned fight for national ad
vantage We were treated to lot of that kind
of publicity in the carly months of the from
England, Germany and France, but the literary
men, the college professors and preachers in those
long ago that they were not max
ing much Roadway with such propagandas, and
subsidized. The old style publicity, however, con-
tinued to come from Petrograd.
1t has been patent for some time that England
and France would have to finance their ally in
thfs war, and it has been officially stated in the
British Parliament that Russia and France were
TO furnish the troops to fight while England would
supply the credit and patrol the sea. Russia will
be able to pay in the end if the allies success
full but her wealth is largely undeveloped and she
needed strong financial hacker when she came to
this country to buy munitions Of war.
The one point of interest in this matter is the
fact in regard to Russia The special publicity
agents at Pctrograd still harp on the moral regene-
ration of the Russian people more than the
military movements of the Cars army. These
stories do not help either Russia or her allies to
inspire confidence in their ultimate success. Rus
STA may work out many reforms after the war, if
the allies win, but just now she is engaged in
great struggle to cxpel the Teuton invaders from
a large part of her richest territory. She is en-
gagged in a death struggle with the most powerful
and the most efficient fighting machine in Europe,
and the Gar if he is worthy his crown. is thinking
Of how to fight Germany more than how to work
out moral reforms at home which would all go for
naught if he did not win. The soldier who stops to
pray when a charge is on is liable to be proddcd
with the bayonct of a comradc to remind him that
there are times for prayer and times for fighting
and that they cannot always be combined
The Car took chief command of his armies
and sent the grand duke to subordinate part of
the field Just at the time when some of our most
knowing correspondents telling the Ameri-
can public that the grand duke was working
icrs in the army with his ideas of moral regene
ration of the Russian soldiers. These reports may
have been true, but the Russian army was retreat
ing before the Teuton invaders instead of advanc
ing into the enemys country the Gar had ex
Dectcd. He therefore relieved the grand duke of
chief command, probably on the old theory that
he chief purpose OF army in time of war is
to fight tho enemy on the outside and not try out
experiments in sociology for the moral regenera-
ton of the whole people from which the army is
selected.
Russia has suffered not alone from her own
shortcomings. She has suffered we'll from the
many fctions that have been sent out with the
Pctrograd date since the began. She has
been represented as ambitious to establish sort
Of kindergarten to present object lessons to the
rest OF the world and demonstrate the blessings
Of bcnchccnt autocrat in the moral regeneration
Of this wicked world. 1t may be that the Russian
way is the most efficient in laying down ironclad
rules by which the people are to live, but at the
present time Russia has her hands full with a very
old problem, and the Gar is looking at it in
old way-how to get munitions of war from the
United States to enable his armies to drive the
Teutons from his country.