Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1919-06-08
Charles Edward RUSSELL One of the Foremost Radicals Speaks
the Highest Terms of Patriotism and Se-Sacrifcng Con-
duct Of Business Men-His Study of the Bolshevil

were idiots and only one was honest
and helpful.
"A second disappointment quickly
followed. There were no uprisings of
world. The world went on as before,
so far as it could in time of war. He
had said to mankind: Here is my plan
to end poverty, ignorance, tyranny
and unhappiness." And mankind be-
yond the borders of Russia paid no
attention to him.
$50 bolshevism even at that early
day was doomed Lenin. as said.
found to his sorrow that the prole-
tarians had neither the honesty nor
the ability to govern the country. He
had supposed. in the seclusion Of his
broodings ana his readings Of philos-
ophy, that once the owners were dis
possessed Of their factories and their
railroads that the workingmen there
in and thereon would be capable Of
managing and operating them. He
discovered. too late, how tremendous
had been his error. -~' '''+ ''
"Intercommunication Is necessary in
modern life. In point of fact. there
cannot be. modern life without 1t.
Massachusetts makes shoes. Kansas
grows wheat. Shoes are exchanged
for wheat. Railroads make the ex-
. change possible. When the agencies
Of transportation collapsed in Russia,
the end of bolshevism was more than
in sight-it was at hand.
ION top Of this disaster Lenin piled
another when he repudiated the debt
that Russia owed to other nations.
Instantly all commercial intercourse
with the outside world ceased. No
one would sell Russia anything. Could
the factories have been manned by
capable workers there would have
been no raw materials to keep them
running.
"Lenin saw that his scheme, beau
tiful in his eyes as an ideal, was not
workable. The proletarians had failed
him. Accordingly he began casting
about for help in some other quarter.
Up to that time he had paid scant at
tention to the peasants; to the men
who planted the fields and harvested
the food crops.
I'm his attempt to build up the
ruins caused by the dishonesty and
incompetence Of the proletarians,
Lenin. catching at a straw, appealed
to the peasants, saying: The land Of
Russia belongs to you. Take it,
up to the year 1861, it should be
remembered. the main body of Rus
sian people. some 100000. were in
slavery. The serfs, as they were
called. were owned outright by the
mobiles and the great landholders.
After their emancipation the govern
ment purchased large tracts of land
or to communes that is, to rural set
Elements.
Peasants, commonly, went to live
in such settlements and were as
signed small fields in the immediate
neighborhood. The fields were large
enough for them at the time. but the
peasants had children and when the
children grew up there was not land
enough for all.
Russia. under the empire, exported
wheat. but the truth is that Russia as
q whole was hungry. There was not
enough food produced, transportation
was inadequate and the peasants
were in poverty; besides. they were
illiterate.
when Lenin told the peasants to
take the land Of the large owners he
supposed there would be an increase
Of at least 20 per cent in the food
supply Of the Russian people, The
increase was scarcely s per cent.
Here. then. was Lenin's third mis-
calculation and humiliating disap-
pointment.
Much Of Russia, you understand, is