The Bemidji daily pioneer. [volume] (Bemidji, Minn.) 1904-1971, 1919-05-17
RUSSIAN PRESIDENT
STRUCK KANSAS OIL
(By United Press)

London, (By M D.-Nicholas
Tchaikovsky, white haired president
of the North Russian republic, was
ploughing on the Kansas prairies just
az years ago. RI 40 is { E :. 2'55Esss<..ss
At Cedar Vale, near Independence,
Kan,..he and twelve fellow country
men owned and worked two farms
during 1875 to 1877. They constitut-
ed a little Free" communistic COM
lsmna;lys ThsiR neiG hbors probably
spoke Of them as those Russian ina
migrants @ss g. ss$ y. III ~
One, of the farms is today the site
of a rich oil well. Tchaikovsky and
his friends themselves began the well
and discovered traces of oil. But they
didn't know what it was. As il
spoiled the water, they abandoned
the hole. - <.st e
Later, Tchaiskovsky spent year
visiting "shaker" and other religious
settlements in New York. He worked
two years as a laborer in the Roches
Ship Yards at Chester, near Phila-
delphia. a." -. y.
His kindly eyes shining and his
| face aglow with reminiscences-.-that
| is, that small triangle Of it that show
ed above his wonderful white shaggy
| beard-the aged president, now one
of the great influences Of Russia, told
of those days of peace out there with
| his wife and baby daughter-when
the Sunfower state was still young.
II broke 80 acres of sod all alone
one spring." he said. eve went to
Cedar Vale from New York. There
were thirteen of us, both men and wo-
men. We owned everything in COM
mon-land, horses, cattle, imple-
ments. Il, =
"Now there is a rich oil well in
our front yard. remember when we
dug that we'll. About 20 to 80 feet
down we reached layer of queer
smelling clay. We didn't know what
| it was. The water was no good, of
course, so we didn't finish the hole.
Now know what we struck was oil.
OF the situation in Russia, he said !:
"Within, two months after Petro-
lgrad and Moscow are captured, ord
| er could be restored completely in
Russia and q constituent assembly
elected representing all Russia.
"The Bolsheviks are simply vigor-
Gus minority who by virtue of their
control of the food supply and mill
tary dictatorship are able to prevail
| over the unarmed majority. Once the
food control is wrested from them,
their influence is gone. Bolshevism is
| not a new political philosophy which
has saturated the minds of the Russi-
an people. The bulk of the Russian
people would be very glad to rid
themselves Of it, If they had the
means. t.
"Petrograd could be taken in less
than two months if the Allies sent be-
tween 10000 and 10000 additional
troops to North Russia. =
I The capture of Moscow would re-
quire an enveloping operation on q
much larger scale for which from
two to three hundred thousand addi-
tional troops should be sent" -.a
Tchaikovsky predicted that unless
checked militarily, Bolsheyism win
certainly spread over. all Of south
! ern Europe. Whether it will reach
England and France, / don't know.
Perhaps not" .. ...-r..~. 81
On a piece of paper he penciled a.
rough map of North Russia, embrac-
ing the provinces of Archangel, Wait
ka, Olonetz, .Youroslavl, and Kos
troma, a total population of about
IL, 900, 600. OF this, only Archangel
(525, 900 inhabitants) remains in the
provisional governments control. The
Bolsheviks have occupied the other
provinces. =