Albuquerque morning journal. [volume] (Albuquerque, N.M.) 1903-1926, 1919-04-13
HOW bOLSHEVIkI
ORATORS SPREAD
POISON IS TOLD
Orators Found No Audience
Until the Men Began to Be-
come HOmeSiCk and Won
der Why They Fought,
tst MORNING JOURNAL SPECIAL LEASED WING,

lbf MOURNING JOURNAL SPECIAL LEASED WREl
New York, April 12.-Archangel
advices received today disclose how
the Russian Boisheviki spread their
propaganda among the American
troops fighting under the northern
lights. The Associated Press had a
correspondent with the allied forces
in northern Russia throughout the
entire campaign. His dispatches. by
cable and mail have given the only
detailed accounts of the activities of
the American forces; in fact he has
reported exclusively every skirmish
between the allies and the Bolsheviki
army. He also told exclusively the
story of the recent refusal of one
American infantry company to go to
the front line trenches, later con-
firmed by General March, chief of
staff of the army.
A mail letter received today is par
ticularly timely, since it throws a
clear light on the Bolshevik methods
which General March discussed in
Washington today in his weekly con-
ference with newspaper men.
The letter, which tells of the Boil
shevik propaganda from the first ef
forts when overtures from the enc
my were received with ridicule down
to the moment when inconsistencies
made some of the doughboys more re-
ceptive to the insidious oratory and
literature, follows:
Archangel, Feb. II Correspond
ance of the Associated Press. )-Thatl
the Bolsheviki are the worlds best
propagandists was demonstrated dur
ing the long, cold nights that occur in
this region. ~ 49,. ,,..5 ! a.
Down the line of the highway tol
Petrograd along which are the
graves of the Americans who have
fallen and where the Yankees hadI
been fighting for months around al
little five-house village called Kadish,
the Bolshevist orators showed how ex-
pert they were in spreading their
views. Generally they talked in Rus
sian, their speeches being translated
by Interpreters in the American
ranks Occasionally they sent to Pet
rograd and got some ex-AmericanI
to give a lecture in Eng
lsh on the reasons for Bolshevism to
q more or less interested audiencea of
on the other side of NoI
Mans Land.
For a long time when our linesI
on the Kadish sector were separated
from the Bolsheviki by only a seven
ty-five- yard stream, over which there
was wooden bridge which neither
side wished to destroy, both figuring
on using it some day, almost nightly
there occurred a strange entertain
ment. Sometimes it was a monologue,
in which a Boolshevik orator on one
side of the stream would loudly ha-l
the Americans Sometimes it'll
was a sort of a duet, in which the
American would reply with "CanI
that stuff" What's eating you? ?" and
other similar American expressions.
Once, when the Bolsheviki were feel
ing particularly lively, they gave al
vaudeville show. follow
ing their English-speaking orators
plea to come over and join them with
On accordion solo, the tune of which
was "Yankee Doodle
The Americans have seen some of !
The brutality. There We're five mu-
tilated bodies of Americans down Ust
Vaga way IN the Shenkursk sector, |
hat out-argued all the Bolshevik !
but on The whole. one |
lay, down on the Kad.sh line the |
Bolsheviki sougth an excuse to trot |
)ut and show our soldiers how we'll |
hey treated their prisoners. They |
brought out one American who had |
been missing a long time, and also / |
Scot, in view of a party of officers |
and men. The two appeared well fed. |
Then the Bolsheviki whisked the pair |
away into the woods and invited all |
the Yankee to "come over and get fat |
.ened up
Perhaps the truth of it all may be |
hat the Bolsheviki sometimes kill |
prisoners and sometimes try to make |
Bolsheviki out of them, all depend
ng on the caprice of the officer COM |
or the sector in which the |
prisoner is taken.