The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1916-1920, 1919-08-03

limp about their work. There is not a
ton Of coal in all Bolshevik Russia,
and locomotives must be fired with
wood. Starvation follows the break
down of transportation. and would
continue no matter what sources OF
food there were at the end Of these
broken down lines Of railways.
l was greatly interested to learn as
a passing piece of information that the
great art treasures of the Hermitage
Museum in Petrograd are unharmed.
My friends visited the museum, saw
the pictures and bore testimony that
the gallery Is intact. A few OF the most
valuable pictures had been sent to
Moscow at a time when a raid was
feared across the Finnish border, but
at the time of this visit arrangements
were being made for their return.
Moscow's Chaotic Activity.
While Petrograd is City OF Silence
Moscow is a centre Of chaotic activity.
Being the scat of the most autocratic
governmental power of modern days,
the home of a government that has
centralized It's authority to the highest
degree, while at the same time that
authority has been extended to the
minutest control OF individual lives. the
whole heartbeat Of Bolshevik Russia
was discernible there. Again there
was evidence that the tales Of material
destruction have been overdrawn. The
stories Of q destroyed Kremlin are alb.
solutely untrue. There was no evil
dence of damage within the Kremlin
walls, and the only evidence Of damage
was where two pinnacles on the Red
Gate had been destroyed and workmen
were at that moment engaged In re-
placing them. Hunger was as acute
in Moscow as in Petrograd. The Diff
culties OF transportation were the
same. In spite of this breakdown
in transportation my friends made the
trip from Petrograd TO Moscow in
thirteen hours, which IS only two
hours longer than the old time
schedule.
A revolution which started with
soldiers councils voting on whether or
not they should salute their officers and
what measures might or might not be
used by the doctors in controlling the
spread Of typhus, a revolution which
was marked in the beginning by COM
mittees OF workingnen deposing fac
dustry" to the limit Of socialistic mag
nation, has passed to quite another
phase. There are no more soldiers
councils. Instead, there is the army
dominated by a system Of discipline
that would make a Prussian officer
turn green with envy. TrotzlSy, be
1t remembered, is Lenine's Secretary
OF War. He has been as mad as Nero
with bloodthirst. When the peasants
who wanted a definite title to par
| ticular parcels Of land, quite in con-
| trsvention to the Bolshevik theory OF
communism, revolted, Trotzky sont ar
overpowering military force against
one village, and when Its days work
was done not single man. woman OF
child remained or the $500 that were
! there at sunrise. This was merely ar
example Of terrorism, taken perhaps
from the book OF the Huns.
| On another similar occasion, the
regiments were sent against re-
voting village and retired defeated
Trotzky's method Of discipline In THU
case was TO order the execution o.
every officer in the regiment and every
tenth man I'm the ranks.
Turning to Church for Comfort.
Broadly speaking. however, the OLE
days of terror are over. A steri
morality has taken possession OF tn
people. In their distress there 10 |
great revival OF religious feeling AM
in their desperate condition they ar
turning to the church for comfort
BolshevllS Russia is absolutely dry.
In their political theory of com
munism and with the Government
complete control of the food supple
there Is but one method of avertinl
starvation, ana that is to obtain brea'
cards. But a bread card, II In true
does not always mean bread. an
people sometimes starve with brea
cards in their hands. But without tn
bread card food may not be hat
Those who are entitled to n full brea
card are the soldiers. people engage
in essential work who accept the Boil
shevik regime. actors, ballet dancer
and all government functionaries, VIII
! now number multitude. Others, a
though accepting the Bolshevik rul
but not engaged in what the Stat
regards as necessary work. receiv
half q bread card: while those VIII