Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1917-05-01
Russia Stands Loyal and Firm.

In affirming the purpose of liberal Russia to
wage the resolutely until just and durable
peace is assured, NJ Kerensky, Minister of Justice
in the Provisional Government and trusted repre-
sentative of the country's workmen and soldiers,
makes this interesting statement:
People abroad must not be mislead to
the peace talk among Russian Socialists and
labor leaders. Peace propaganda under
Czarism ten times prevalent than
This, however, was never permitted to
reach the ears OF the outside world, though
there were actual attempts on the part of the
bureaucratic government to conclude a sep
arate peace. Today, with newly won
freedom Of speech, we have healthy dis
cussion which dissolves itself harmlessly into
oratory instead of breeding sinister intrigue"
This straightforward account of the situation
should reassure those who have feared from recent
rumors that Russia might be detached from the
fighting forces of the Allies. Russian liberals are
vitality interested in the defeat and dethrone-
ment of Prussian militarism as Americans are. In
some respects, indeed, the Russians have more at
stake than any other member of the Allied group
because their domestic freedom as we'll as their
security against foreign perils depends upon the
outcome of the world war for democracy. Their
great revolution itself assertion of the peo-
ple's will that the be prosecuted with vigor
and efficiency instead of being reasonably mud
died as the Bureaucrats doing No oondi-
tions declares NJ. Kerensky, could have been more
shockingly outrageous more menacing to the
Allies than the disorganization of the Russian
armies last January
"At that time" he says, with only two
days food supply hand, instead of three
weeks supply at the beginning of the war,
assertions were so frequent as to cause seri-
Gus impairment of morale. Seventy per cent
of the blast furnaces engaged in turning out
munitions were not working because of the
shortage of fuel, and the metal output had de-
creased seventy-hve per cent. Had the Ger
made advance this spring. with the
old regime in power, Petrograd would have
fallen. Everybody in Russia knew the i'm
minence of danger and realized that revolu-
.tion was absolutely necessary for the safety of
the nation. This explains why It was accom-
plished with such unanimity"
1t is not to be expected then that the popular
forces which hurled pro-Germanism from the
seats of power, from the throne itself and
which look to France and England and America for
support and brotherhood in the present defense
and the future upbuildng of Russian republic it
is not to be expected that those forces would con-
clude separate peace with the Hohenzollern
monarchy embodiment OF the very evils against
which they revolted
Far from making a separate peace probable
the regime in Russia has strengthened and
will continue to strengthen the nations fighting
ability. The graft and incompetency and positive
treason which infested the Bureaucracy have been
supplanted by skillful and loyal leadership It is
impossible. of course, to repair in a few weeks or
months the damage wrought by long seasons of
administration; but substantial beginning has
been made; and with the aid and counsel which
the United States is to render the work of reor-
ganizing Russias economic machinery and putting
the full force Of the countrys vast back
of the army will proceed swiftly and efectualIy.