The news scimitar. (Memphis, Tenn.) 1907-1926, 1919-11-19
FoR RUSSIA

groups and sections are fighting against each other,
To crown it all Germany is entering Russia in the guise OF a
iriend, and is even now fighting side by side with Russian soldiers
against the elements Of disorder and ruin. Germany is doing
this for the purpose OF gain; for her own ends. Defeated and
driven back on the west, and crushed i'll Middle Europe, she
hopes to retrieve her losses by the conquest OF RUSSIA conquest
that is being attempted in the name OF order and civilization.
There is heartfelt sympathy for the Russian people in Amer
lea and Europe which may prove their salvation, and protect them
from Prussian milharsm in its new manifestation under an al
legged republican form OF government in Germany.
Until recently Russia was a terra incognita. The cars kept
the people in worse than Serbonian ignorance, and they were
dumb. They had no voice to express themselves IN a manner
that could be understood. All the horrors of the Russian govern
mcnt were charged up against the Russian people, and everything
Russian was hated by the Western world. How unjust this senti-
ment was the West did not know, 1t has learned, and, singular
as it may seem, it has learned through Russian writer's, who gave
emotional expression to Russia by vocahzng and interpreting the
soul OF the masses.
In this respect the pen was mightier than the sword. Forty
years ago the intenectuals OF the Western world began to know
Russia through her scientists and artists, but the intelectuals do
not rule any country. They are detached and exclusive, and are
no part Of countrys feeling. The greatest discovery in chemistry
in the nineteenth century, the law Of atomic weights, was made
by a Russian.
The greatest contribution to photography was made by the
now venerable Prince Kropotkin in his writings on Northern
Africa. Lingustics and medicine also were benefited by Russian
scientists, but these works, great as they were, appealed only to
the fortunate few.
The first appeal made to Western feeling, apart from cold
intellect was made by Tolstoi in his "Cossacks," translated into
English by Mr.. Schuyler, American minister to st. Petersburg.
Before his time. the great Frenchman Merimee had translated
into French, much Of the work of Gogol and Pushkin. These
were passed on into other languages. Then came the novelsts
Turgenev and Dastoievsky, expressing emotional Russia, and
proving that the Russian masses felt and thought and suffered as
do other people; that they are really worthy to be considered a
part OF the human family and of human knship with other peoples
Tostoi accomplished but little, He was too magnificent and
metcoric. His brlliancy lighted the world, but it was so intense
that it was dazzling and binding,
The gloomy Turgenev and his school told OF the masses,
Of their loves and hates, their trials and sufierings, their intensely
human lives, and, through the gloom of this emotional literature
the simple virtues of the Russian masses, their infinite patience
their loyalty, their wonderful endurance in spite of oppression
and suffering stirred the feelings of the Western world by re-
veaing virtues, strong, beautiful virtues, which were not even
suspected heretofore.
Feeling is what makes public opinion. Cold intellect and
science cannot do this. To illustrate: When the war broke out
we were familiar with German science, music and poetry-that is
our ntelleetuals were-and we knew and admired the Germans in
a way, because there were so many OF them in this country. Ger
man science, music and poetry appealed to our ntelcctuals-to a
small minority-and was not apprehended or felt b. the masses.
1t took only one horrible emotional appeal, the sinking Of the
Lusitania, to destroy all the good impressions made by the Ger
man intelectuals. This barbarous and brutal act reached the
feelings OF the American masses. 1t required no interpreters to
reveal its horrors, The masses apprehended it and understood
it, not through their intellects, but through their feelings, and
from that moment the masses hated Germany and everything
German,
BY this one act they were Judged end summArilv condemned.
and no other mete-wand was considered. Their feelings were
aroused and stricken, and the prcachments of the hiehbrows that
had extoled so highly the genius of Germany in its numerous
manifestations were swept aside. Emotion and feeling were at
flood tide, and American public opinion overwhelmed and sub.
merged everything else.
The war has revealed very little that is admirable in the Rus
sian character, They have shown themselves to be good fighters
but we knew this before. Russian novelsts and noets had
revealed to us the national soul OF the Russian people. and
we knew enough to enable us to see that the sins OF that vast
country IN me past were governmental and not popular. The
Russian people were not morally outlawcd as were the German
people. ~
The stories OF Turgenev and his associates are unbeautifu,
are terrible and horrible, but, through it ALL they reveal the nr
mordal virtues and beauties of the Russian masses. and these max,
OF the Russians our brothers and co-workcrs. All Of which ~
10 snow that the literature of a country is a serious matter and :
terrible force. Not the literature OF science or of the intellect
which makes only a limited appeal, but the emotional 1iteratrr
that expresses the soh OF a nation, such as Dickens and Thacker,y
Jane Austen and others, who rose not too far above the mediocr
in their productions.
An automatic hat rack, exhibited to the hotel men in conven
ton, attracted much favorable comment 1t is coninned 1%th