Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1918-02-06
DYNAMITE IN
RUSSIA'S SOUL
The Only Nation That Under
stands the Franciscan Ideal
Of Voluntary Poverty

GIT HAS always been a mystery to me-"
says Dostoievsky, "and have marvcled
{; thousand times at that faculty in man
and the Russian. ! believe. more especially
of chcrIshing in his soul his loftiest ideal
side by eide with the most abjoCt bascness.
and all quite sincerely
That is a hint Of the sort Of wisdom about
Russia We need today. Ar" we to sit At her
feet like little children? or is she TO sit at
ours while we cast out her demon"
We have been putting some Of the cheapest
sort of praEmatic tests to Russia. The cheap
est way Of stating praGmatic test is by the
formula, IF it works it's true" When
ever Russian idcalISm doesn't work we say
it isn't true But IL would he ut least II
thoughtful thing to do 10 read William
JameS's book, "Pragmatism," before we apply
the tests of the master of praGmatsm.
James. in explaining his principles, made
use of n quotation tn the effect that il was
important for a landlady to know how much
II lodger earned each week. but that it was
more important to know his philosophy. lie
might make $40 Il week and believe in pay
ing his debts. lie might make 500 a week
aud believe in sncallng off without paving
His philosophy was the index, even to his
business principles.
We must learn Russas philosophy before
we talk about her material liabilities and
assets We nc not have to visit Rus liz to
learn II. She is here, Mt the Academy of
Music nearly every Friday afternoon and on
the shelves of the Free Library. Listen to
1.Ussian music. Read Dostoievslly's "'Thc
Brothers Karamozov,' as Il very typical Rus.
sian hook to begin the study of the Nusco.
vte soul. We feel in thes, works of art n
frantic idcalism reaching out TO uneXplored
realms of sensation One moment we feel
with Dostoevsky, that We are Caught on the
hooks of reality" the next we are trans
ported to n faryland more fantastic than any
we dream of. And our first impression Of il
all Is that everything Russian Is queer In
our vocabulary the word Russian" has come
to mean queer.
This is very suspicious, BY all the natural
looks of things the yellow, unasslmilable Jap
anese should be "queerer" to us that the
Russians. But they are not We under
stand the Japanese very well these DAYS
Their oddities have all been standardized and
il is painful but true to realize that they have
commercialzed their oddities quite self.con.
sciousy whenever 1t pays them TO play IN
the "tearoom stuff" and the "geisha stufr''
for provincial Americans We understand
| the japanese so well because they have
| adopted our state of mind In induStrDIisnn iii.
! plomacy and individualism. But not So tho
| Russians. And 1t will not take much boart.
| searching for us to realize that that which
| oflends us In the Russians just now Is not so
| much the appearance OF treachery or utopian-
| ism, but that they are so "unOuslnesslItxe"
Those crazy Russians are acting iust Iita
| their own wild music and wild novels - ,yc
| say. As If there We're any other wav in
| which they could possibly act! What is tho
| point In taking long trip to the METROPOLITAN
| Opera House to see a lot of Russian dancers
turn inside out to Rimsky- Korsal,oy music
that stands on its head and then 90 and
| blame the Russians in Petrograd for turning
inside out and standing on their headsP
Well, we go to get n thrill, because IT'S 90
queer" So does Paris so does Rome ca
does London. Paris went wild over "Sche.
| herazade" But we cannot go on forever
| with this schoolboy explanation about oueer-
ness. We need some constructive idea of
what Russian queerness means Here Is
one that is not complimentary TO America
! and western Europe-that which we call
Western Civilization. Have We OF the west.
| ern nations any great man, any great nm.
derstandable model. who acted as oueerIv n.
| n Russian? We have, We have a whole hos
of legendary heroes who did wilder thing,
and thought wilder thoughts than any Bol
shevik is capable of-our Christian saints
We profess to be ardent admirers of ON
saints. Take as good example the mos
popular OF them, that great man who did
more than any one else In his age TO kee,
Christianity from falling into the ruts o
commercialsm--St Francis Of Assist
| A man can learn a great deal about In
| meaning of Russian "queerness" IL he will
read Sabatier's life OF St Francis. becaus
only IN Russia today Is poverty as an idea