New-York tribune., 1918-12-16
Bolsheviki Quelled,
Outbursts Halted ,
AtRussian Meeting
General Oberncheff Stops
TRADE Against Education
System i'm u. S. and Checks
Radicals at Conference

General Konstantin Oberncheff, some
time commander at Kiev and the out
lying Ukrainian district, took the chair
at the third and final session of the
all-Russian convention at Beethoven
Hall yesterday and with an iron hand
and heavy gavei proceeded to enforce
peace and order on the volatile souled
assemblage.
1t was not altogether an easy task
ana under the strain most of the Off
cial business the convention had gath
cred to discuss was thrust into the
background. but on the whole, as the
delegates admirngly admitted, the gem
cral succeeded wonderfullV
The most serious uprising with which
he was called upon to cope sprang not
from the regularly constituted repre-
sentatlves, but from a fringe of Boil
shevlkl and members of the teachers
union, who somehow managed to slip
past the guards and edge their way
into the gallery.
"Quiet" Topics Prove Noisy
1t was while Professor NJ. Voronetze-
vich, of Pittsburgh, was speaking on
education that the trouble reached its
crest. Education was one of the topics
listed on the official programme, and
General Oberucheff, after the turbulent
session of the day before, thought it
would be a nice safe topic with which
to lead the delegates back into paths of
amity And it might have been if only
Professor Voronetzevich had stuck to
his subject, which was how to improve
educational facilities for Russians in
America.
But instead Professor Voronetzevich
launched into a fierce attack upon the
American school system, particularly
as it is exemplificd in New York, Pitts
Eurgh, Chicago and Philadelphia. 1t
Gagged up small children from nine to
five every day, he submitted, and then
what did it do with them? Did it
send them to universities and fuller
life? 1t did not. 1t sent them into
factories.
General Ends Harangue
Several times General Oberucheff in
terrupted the speaker to point out that
this was not the subject he had been
asked to discuss Finally, lust as the
professor was getting to the hottest
part OF his diatribe General Oberucheff
cried, "Enough!" in emphatic Russian,
and summarily elected him from the
platform.
And then the Bolsheviki and the
TEACHERS union representatives in the
gallery made themselves heard. They
booed. They stamped. They hissed.
They cat-caled.
surveyed the gathering in STONY i'm
mobility. Then he expressed himself.
This disturbance will cease i'm
mediately. Otherwise the guards will
clear the gallery and as much Of the
hoor as may be necessary. Meanwhile
the meeting IS suspended until there is
order"
Threat Restores Order
That settled it. Within about ten
minutes, Russian time, the hubbub had
subsded And then Professor Galat-
sky, of the Society for Russian UNITY.
was permitted to advocate a Russian
peoples university in America with
out moro than seven interruptions, and
Professor Petrunkevich, of Yale, was
listened to IN respectful quiet while
he contended that no such separate in
stitution could hope to equal the facili-
ties already open to Russians in this
country. And Professor C. I. Novak
owski, of the Peoples University Of
chicago, and two or three others were
also allowed to talk on education with
out blow being threatened.
Meanwhile John Brow, the former
Chairman, who excited so vehement an
antagonlsm, failed to show up. Lieu
tenant Brazol, who has been accused
OF being monarchist, never uttered
syllable, and all resolutions were
swiftly diverted to a committee for
consideration.
And harmony was still further aug
lmented by the announcement of an
lmpromptu investigation committee
that Delegate H. Bulavko, who resigned
amld an uproar the day before after
havlng suggested that the elimination
or all Jews was indispensable to Rus
sian unity, was not in fact Russian
after all, but a Brunswick. N v
Czecho-Slovak. who had no business at
the convention anyhow. ''N