The county record. [volume] (Kingstree, S.C.) 1885-1975, 1919-11-06
AIM REVOLUTION
IN AMERICA
REDS AVAIL THEMSELVES OF
EVERY OPPORTUNITY TO
SPREAD PROPAGANDA

lnlCeQ SCdCeS, pIUpdSoHua S'iiiieu w
bring about the forcible overthrow
of our present form of government
Chairman Wadsworth, the Senate
military committee, has been inform
ed by Assistant Secretary Philips in
a letter made public today at the
State Department.
The Bolsheviki, Mr.. Philips said,
have at their disposal large quantities
of gold, partly a revenue of the for
mer Russian government and partly
a reserve belonging to the Rumanlan
government, and it is considered i'm
portant not to give them means
through commercial transactions to
bring this gold into the United States,
where it could be used to sustain
their propaganda of "violence and
unreason".
Mr.. Philips said that while there
was no blockade of Petrograd so far
as the United States was concerned
no licenses for shipment OF goods to
Bolshevik Russia were being issued.
This policy of nonintercourse, he
added could not be continued after
the proclamation of peace without ad-
ditional legislation.
Mr.. Philips wrote in reply to Sen
ater Wadsworth, who had asked why
the administration had adopted a
policy of nonintercourse with that part
of Russia controlled by theBolsheviki.
His letter follows:
"In reply to your letter of October
20, 1919, concerning the socalled
blockade of Petrograd, l beg to inform
YOU that, so far as the United States
is concerned, no blockade exists. 1t is
the present policy of this govern
ment, however, to refuse export IL
censes for shipments to Russian ter
rieory under Bolshevik control and
20 refuse clearance papers to Amer-
can vessels seeking to depart for
Petrograd, the only remaining Bolshe-
vik port. AS you are aware, these
measures cannot be continued after
the ratification, of peace, unless there
is new legislation.
"The policy of nonintercourse with
territory under Bolshevik control is
based chiefly on two considerations.
1t is the declared purpose of the Boil
shevik in Russia to carry revolution
throughout the world. They have
availed themselves of every oppor-
tunity to initiate in the United States
a propaganda aimed to bring about
the forcible overthrow of our present
form of government. They have at
their disposition in Russia a large
quantity of gold, being partly rev.
enue Of the former Russian gold re-
serve and partly a reserve Of gold be-
longing to the Rumanian government
which was stored in Moscow for safe
keeping at the time of the German
advance into Rumania. 1t is consid-
cred important that the Bolshevik
sholud not be given the means through
commercial transaction to bring this
gold into the United States where it
could be used to sustain their pro-
poganda of violence and unreason.
"The second consideration related
to the control which the Bolshevik ex-
crcise over the distribution of neces-
sites. All foreign trade has been
'nationalized'. This means that there
can be no dealing except with the
Bolshevik authorities. Moreover,since
the fall of 1918, the Bolsheviki have
maintained system of discrimina-
ton in the dictribution of food. The
population is divided into catagories
along occupational and class lines,
and receives food, so far as food may
be available, in accordance with
scale which is adjusted with view
to the maintenance of the Bolsheviki
in power and the fulfllment of their
program for the extinction of the mid
die classes.
"The rations given to members of
the Red army is estimated, in the Of
fetal Bolshevik Gazette of February
6, 1919, to be three times the average
for the several catagories of the civil
population. 1t has seemed altogether
inadmissible that food and other ne
cessities of American origin should be
allowed to become the means of suS-
tanning such a program of political
oppression.
"The government has not been UNI
mfph(hia of the material distress OF
nd locent people within the Boil
~ hss; An ,'ss attempt 9ss wa was ..;ss1s made
of these people through the co-opera-