The Birmingham age-herald., 1915-09-14
Defeat Is Attributed to Lack of AmmunitiOn-Bureau- crats and German Influ-
 ence Held Accountable
POOR MANAGEMENT AROUSES AVALANCHE
 OF PUBLIC CRITICISM
Purchasing Agents Demand 10 Per Cent Commission
 From American Plants
 Before Ordering

Stockholm, August 16.-(Correspondenco Warsaw and the failure of the Russian defensive have had a much more pro- found effect on Russian national feeling than is admitted in Petrograd dispatches
 The feeling which has shaken this stolid and unemotional country from one end to the other, though is not one of discour- agement or submission. It has moved nobody to talk of ultimate defeat or the possibility of Russia's undertaking peace negotiations. Russla's reaction is one of intense indignation at government officials responsible for her ammunition shortage The full tragedy of this shortage has been observed only by the men at the front, who with empty gun caissons have help ,essly faced the concentrated artillery at- tacks of the enemy, and have watched the assured progress of the German and Austrian trench builders under their very positions. These soldiers were deter mined experienced fighters, Russias best troops, acquitting themselves with un- usual bravery in every bayonet action, but crippled and finally demoralized by insufficient ammunition and the knowl- edge that it was this lack of ammunition that ordered their continued retreat.
 Avalanche of Criticism
 The most rigidly censored press ia the world and a national and inherent inhbi- tion of free comment of any sort has failed to check the avalanche of criticism 0v.1 k.z,,. -..-- officials.
 For once, expression of opinion in Rus- sia has become free and unhampered.
 No attempt is made to conceal this re- preach against the methods of the bu- reaucrats accused of having crippled Russia's fighting strength and delaying the ending of the war. It is not OK pressed alone by men of revolutionary in- clinations or opposition tendencies, nor is 1t uttered in hushed voices or secret places but is loudly and c,amorously cur rent everywhere among men of all parties and classes.
 A prominent man of the Duma said to an American correspondent in Petrograd . few days ago:
 Tn my opinion. in this present awaken sng of the army and the people to the criminal neglect and corruption of their officials, there are the germs of the most serious revolution the country has ever hHoWllI TeVOlutiOn supported Dy the army. This revolution will come as soon as the war is over"
 In this protest being 30 bitterly eX- pressed in Russia there is no disloyalty It is, in fact, high expression of loy- alty which is resentful that the purpose of the nation is being frustrated and the chances of victory weakened by officials.
 German Influence Blamed
 common view is that the evil Is &C., counted for by the residue of German in- huence which still exists in various gov- ernment departments. It was a spirit of revolt against this persistent German e'e- ment that caused the terrible Moscow riots two months ago. When the order expell- ing all Germans from the city was not enforced the mob took the matter into its own hands,
 In Petrograd numerous meetings de- nouncing corruption of government off cials were broken up by the police. In these meetings 1t was only declared that Russian officials were defeating the at tempts of the army to win the war and that while they continued in power vic- tory was impossible
 The allegation has been made that the Russian officials who superintend the purchase of war munitions were primari- ly interested in seizing the opportunity the war offers of amassing private for tunes. American and English business men who have been trying to sell ann munition to the Russian government de- clare that without an average payment of 10 per cent commission on all sales 1t is impossible to do business with the Russian purchasing commissions. Some- times the contract, they say, is delayed for months while the amount of commits oion Is adjusted.
 Ammunition Troubles Shortly before the fall of Warsaw 1t seemed that the situation had been great iy improved by the arrival of 2,000, 900 shells. It was not until some of these were taken to the firing line that 1t was discovered, according to reports, that they were too large to fit any Russian gun. By an odd coincidence. however, they were of the exact calibre to fit some of the German artillery. It is we'll known that a large amount