Valdez daily prospector., 1915-02-20
SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 20, 1915
RUSSIA CHANGED.

A miracle has happened in Rus
 sia-a miracle that has put bread in the cupboards of the poor, fires on the hearths, reformed the wife-bea+- er lifted a people from sullenness and despair to happiness and self respect. And the miracle, strangely enough, was made possible by Rus sia's autocratic form of government under which the little father, by one stroke of the pen, put vodka and it's temptations beyond the reach of the people-by prohibiting the sale of strong drink in any part of the em- pire.
 Henry w. Hitler, who for the last thirty-one years has spent half of each year in Russia managing sill yer shops for Tiffany X Co.,, told a writer for The Survey of the won- derful change that had taken place there, and explained that there was nothing halfway about this prohibit tion. "I had just landed in Mos cow" he said. q felt little chilly in my tea. Not a drop was to be had. hadn't heard till then of the czar's ukase, but I soon saw the effects of it upon the men when went to the shops. I want to say that I never lived through a miracle before, but the regeneration that saw there was nothing short of mi raculous. The Russian peasants speak always of Black Monday in Russia, for they usually come to work sodden, stupid and depressed after day spent in the wine shops. And they're lucky, too, if they don't miss at least one day through the working week for the same reason-drink On pay day the wives who came-so underfed, so badly clothed-to wheedle from them part of their earn ings to buy food for the children, usually came too late-all gone.
 "Now," continued MT. Hitler, "this marvellous change has swept over Russia like cyclone-with the noise left out It is wonderful. The men come to work cheerful. sober; their work has improved incredibly. And the women-as I met them on the streets, a great burden was gradual ly lifted from me. They ceased com- ing after their husbands pay, and as the weeks wore on they and their children began to look--well, as if they had a meal-two meals-final- ly, three meals day.
 This is the outward and visible sign of the change--a change from a peoIge starving, hopeless, ,ineffi- cient, slaves to drink, to a people well nourished, industrious, regen' erated. And, mind you-I left Mos COW the last of October-this was the result of less than three months under this regime. The chief of po- lice of Moscow was jubilant over the almost incredible decrease in crime My job is fine,' he said genially. There's comparatively no crime. It used to be a common thing to see men an women, too, am sorry to say, lying dead drunk in the side streets. You don't see a drunken man now, and women can walk about without being insulted.'
 "The Russian peasant, you know, is the kindliest fellow in the world but let him get two or three drinks of vodka (woodky MT. Hitler pro- nounces it), and he's the. edvil in- carnate. When I lived in Siberia I had a cook who was the gentlest sort of fellow ordinarily, but who had been punished five times for murder after drinking-and he'd have committed another if I hadn't knock ed him senseless with a log one day. Don't think" said MT Hitler, "that this regeneration came in moment from the czar or his despots. The Russian government gives only where it has to. It owns the liquor trade and gets from it a yearly revenue of billion dollars. Now the peas ant knows that his glass of vodka is not good for him. and eats up his money and his ambition, but it has terrible hold on him.
 Years ago a great movement against liquor started an expression of resentment against a government that traded upon the curse of it's peo- pie. Then came the war. The anti