Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922, 1919-04-20
ICCEST JOB IS
STILL AHEAD OF
U. S. SAYS DENNIS
Must Combat BoIshevism,
Says Northwestern Pro-
feSSor in Speech at Uni
versity Club.

"The job which we have before
us now is a much bigger job than
the one we had before US when we
entered the war;" declared Prof
Ralph Dennis of Northwestern
university at the University club
last night, speaking on Russia and
Bolshevism." Professor Dennis
spent 10 months in Russia \as 4
Y. M. c. A. worker and later as
United States vice-consul in Mos
COW.
Lenine, Trotzky and Techerin he
described as highly educated mer
who believed that bolshevism is the
means of bringing justice to the
greatest number.
They are bent upon setting the
world afire with socialism," he
said and they have the money to
do it. There is Russian money now
in this country and the country is
divided into districts with speakers
going about declaiming the propa-
ganda.
"They have done much in Russia
They have stamped out vodka. ]
spent 10 months in Russia and !
didn't see 10 drunken persons.
don't believe the stories that have
been published that the bolshevists
believe in the communizing Of
women.
Want Good Life. >.
"Another thing-don't imagine
that the Russians. long for a gov
eminent such as we have in Amer
lea. Thousands of Russians are now
in the red guard army who have
been in America. / remember one
night when I lost my way in a
Russian city. l met four soldiers
and stopped to ask them the way.
l found that three of them spoke
English. We chatted for 20 minutes.
When l left l said, You'd better go
to America again. You can make
lots of money there One of them
replied, We want more than money.
We want a good life
"And this typifies the attitude OF
the Russians. I love the Russians
They are the most kind-hearted,
spontaneously generous people.
With two generations of education
they will give the world a gift OF
genius undreamed of by any other
people.
"A few facts about Russia. 1t is
country about the size of the
United States, Mexico and Canada.
Of its 190,000,000 people, four-ffths
are peasants. About 80 per cent
are illiterate. They were known as
the dark people, Now the dark
people are loose. They have taken
the knout in their hands and. with
the sun of liberty dazzling their
eyes, are striking out blindly. Ev-
erything is disorganized because the
brains of Russia have either fled or
have been reduced by the bolshevist
principles. In Petrograd when I was
there, a pair of shoes, if you could
find one, cost $3.50, suit of clothes,
$1,000.
81 know of one factory which,
after the bolshevists had taken pos
session and had dumped the pro-
prietor and manager out of the front
gate, 66,000,000 rubles were paid in
wages in three months, and the val
ue of the product of that factory
was only 100000 rubles.
Fine Plan on Paper.
"The bolshevists have fine plan
on paper, but ! do not believe they
can make it go. Lenine sees this
and recently he has offered as high
as 100000 rubles salary to men who
can come in and manage a large
factory. He sees that the commit
tees of workingmen have not the
ability to make the factory go as
it should. Railroads are disorgan-
lied so thoroughly that food prices
in the cities are incredible, while in
the country not many miles away
there is plenty of food at fair
prices.
There is today no such thing as
private property in Russia. For
merly there were enormous estates
the owners of which frequently
lived in the big capitals while the
peasants toiled in a condition equal
to that of slaves. In the Kiev dis
trict where the soil is wonderously
rich, one nobleman owned an es-
tate of more than 100000 acres.
Big Job Ahead.
Can we meet the big job ahead
of US, the job of combating the
spread of bolshevism. l believe we
can if de do three things. In the
first place we must Americanize our
population. Secondly the gulf be-
tween capital and labor must be
bridged. And, thirdly, we must
have a league of nations.
"The people in Russia today who
are bitterest against capitalism are
those who have lived in America
Labor and capital can get together
and understand each other. The
labor unions are one of the great.
est forces in America today to com.
bat the spread of bolshevism here
The same arguments now being
used against the league of nations
were used against the other great
forward movements of history. Il
is true the league means taking e
leap. But without it there will BIZ
only a continuance of war. 1t i;
the best thing we have. I believe
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