The Cordele dispatch. (Cordele, Ga.) 19??-1971, 1917-09-30
RUSSIAN vim
NEARLY GONE
REQUIRES A BRAVE MAN TO BE
AN OFFICER NOW-NO REAL
FIGHTERS LEFT.

Stockholm, Sept. 27.-An American
who has spent ten years in European
capitals, and whose positions compels t
him TO take the viewpoint of an i'm
partial observer, reached here today
after six weeks i'll Petrograd and
gives a pessimistic report of the
fighting spirit in Russia and Of pol
itical and industrial conditions there.
He says:
There is no fighting spirit except |
among the Cassacks and Caussians,
and that seems to be waning. A eau
casian colonel said to me:
There are no real fighters left in
Russia except us, and we are not Rus
slams, thank God, but Caucasians and |
Mohammedans'
"The interior cities and villages are |
filled with Russian troops who refuse |
to go to the front. Young Russians |
of the better class are hunting the |
streets of Petrograd for men who are
willing TO become officers Since the |
daily occurrence only The most fervcnt |
patriots will assume the risk of TAX
ing commissions.
'"Ehe reports of open disobedience
CT troops at the front and of deeds of |
violence committed by them are coun-
tless. Railroad Gravel in many places
is unsafe because soldiers loot trains,
steal baggage and even murder those
who resist.
81 sat in the war office at Patrograd |
when the report was received of the |
murder of nearly 100 officers at vi |
borg and of the preparations Of pros
cripfion lists against officers in Tam
merfors.
Newspapers in Halsingfors carry
daily accounts of military deeds of |
violence and of the murder of officers |
and civilians by soldiers. The govern |
mont has not dared to dc more than
announce that these matters will be
Investigated carefully.
''The Bolshevikis are gaining the |
upper hand in Petrograd and are in
creasing in their strength in Mos
COW. I venture to predict their even
tual supremacy. | know this means
almost the elimination of Russia as a
factor in the war and places new bur
dens on America.
"The governments utter powerless- |
ness was recently shown, in connec- |
tion with its exile of a number Of
dark forces. The Bolsheyikis took |
them from train at Viborg and now
are sending them back to Petrograd, |
and the government does not dare to
insist that its deportation order be
carried out.
THE Bolshevikis demonstration of |
joy over the fall of Riga, he'd in front
of the War office, was suffered by |
the government in silence.
when Korniloff issued his uIti-
h'htuiI inc news WAS received WIN !
joy by greaG proportion of substan- |
tial citizens and even men in the gov
ernment departments told me Of their /
secret hope that he would come toll
Petrograd. The comments from Eng
fish and American newspapers. rcjoic- /
ing at Korniloff's failure were re-
ceived with amazemcT, by these pee +
pie, who saw in his success The cnly
possibility of saving Russia.
"a factory manufacturing war ma
terials, and employing $1,000 hands,
has just closed because i has been
impossible to meet the wage demands.
Armed workmen terrorize the owners
of factories, workmen's committees
spend their whole time drafting wage
schedules and nobody may be hired
or discharged without their consent"