The Washington times., 1917-05-03
SOCIALIST ATTACK Is
IGNORED BY ROOT
No Proof Of Cabled Protests to
Russian Government.

NEW: YORK, May 3.-Elihu Root
who has been chosen to head the pro
posed American commission to Russia
maintained silence yesterday in the
face of adverse criticism which his
selection has aroused among Social
lists here and the warnings that his
presence might defeat the aims of
the commission.
Mr.. Root said he had read the ad-
dress Of Prof. Alexander Petrunke-
witch of Yale at the Economic Club
dinner here Tuesday night. in which
the professor urged his audience to
bring pressure to bear on President
Wilson to appoint men on the commits
sion who would be acceptable to the
Social Democrats, now in power in
Russia, but on the address Mr.. Root
declined to comment.
The rest of the commission has not
been selected by the Administration
in Washington, so far as known, and
It was said that Mr.. Root himself
was not being consulted in the desig-
nation of others.
Law Violations Hlnted.
The question whether any Socialists
here have violated a Federal law by
sending to Russia reports IT allega-
tions tending to discredit Mr.. Root in
the eyes of Social Democrats and thus
defeat the measures Of the Govern
ment of the United States" in the
words Of section 5 OF the criminal
code, was much discussed yesterday.
but no Socialists or others could be
found who would admit that they had
sent such messages.
They did not conceal their hostility
toward Mr.. Root, and several Social
lists intimated that the only reason
they had not sent messages to Rus
sian newspapers condemning him as
an enemy of Socialism was because
''it would be a waste of cable tolls"
because he was ALREADY too well
known to the Russian Socialists"
Editors of radical Socialist papers
here freely admitted that they had
been attacking Mr.. Root since his
designation as the head of the com
mission to Russia and that copies of
LnGlT papers 10
Russia regularly.
The principal basis OF the attacks
on him has been the case of the Rus
sian radicals, Rudowitz and Pouren,
who fed TO this country while Mr..
Root was Secretary OF State. The
Russian government sought to have
them returned, and Mr.. Root is being
attacked on the ground that he ia
Yored their eXtradition.
Root Favored Aliens.
As a matter of fact, according to
the reports of the Rudowitz and
Pouren cases published when the two
men were fighting extradition in 1909.
Mr.. Root. who was then Secretary
of State under President Roosevelt,
passed final judgment on whether
they should be returned to Russia,
and determined that neither should
be extradited-
Previous to making this decision
both OF them were subjected to pro-
longed trials before United States
commissioners, Jan Pouren in New
York, and Christian Rudowitz in Chi
cago, and during these trials Presi-
dent Roosevelt, Mr.. Root, and other
Government officials were occasion
ally criticised severely by radicals
here for not releasing the men forth
with.
Secretary Root said that he wished
to have all OF the evidence as to the
character of the mems alleged Of
fenses before him when he made his
final decision. He reopened Pouren's
case after the first commissioner who
heard it had decided that Pouren
should be sent back to Russia, and
after a petition against extradition
bearing thousands OF signatures had
been sent TO Washington.
After the second hearing, at which
new evidence was introduced, Secre-
tary Root decided that Pouren's only
onenses IN Russia had been OF a po-
htical nature-he had taken part In
a revolution-and decided not to ex-
tradtte him. Mr.. Root came to the
same dscision in the case of Rudo-
witz and liberated him.