Polk County news. [volume] (Benton, Tenn.) 191?-1983, 1920-04-22
Shall Chaos or Reconstruction
in Europe Follow the Great
World War;
RUsSIA'S LONG, BLACK NIGH
Little Wonder People Of That Unhappy
Land Are Blinded by freedoms
Light After Four Centuries
of Suffering.
Article XIV
BY FRANK comERFoRD.

sia waited for morning 1t was ter
rible night. Brutal dreams tortured
her She writhed in despair. Tint
moved slowly. The clock ticked
agonies. The air was thick witt
| groans Motherhood bore slaves, Tho
cradle was coffin Feast, DAYS were
celebrated by massacres. Czlrs from
Ivan The Terrible, lo44, to -AIlA4iasS-:'
the last Of tic En'~ar1 rs, executed
in 1918, used the bodies and souls VI
human beings as manure to ferttlize
the soil In which the rank weed of
Imperialism grew. History calls them
emperors, truth labels them brutea,
torturers, murderers. They bore the
brand Of Cain
1t was Hghtless day, q hopeless
night, for Russia, which began With
the curses Of Ivan and ended with tie
execution Of Nicholas During thls
night Of three hundred and seventy
five years they marched the tfeadmIll.
The world heard the endless tramp ofl
feet. In the dark, great bodies swayed
with WEAKNESS. Heavy shoulders
were bent forward. Strong les
marked time on the treadmilI 81 y
They kept time to the. lash Of -
Rhlps III laid bs.re. ileir rOaefs ~ ssstte
Sacks Of young and old, Of women ami
children as well as men, Sweat formed
into red froth as it mingled with their
blood. They grew blind in the dun
gson darkness. They stumbled and
halted, only to be called back to the
monotony and drudgery of the tramp
by the lash and the bludgeon. Their
legs rose and fell-they marched but
never forward. 1t was left, right, left,
right; tramp, tramp, and always on |
the treadmill steps in the hopeless /
dark. They mumbled prayers, but Godl
couldn't hear the curses of their mas |
1t was so dark in the treadmill that
even God could not see, and so God
for Russia. Forgotten, abandoned,
Il sbent their great weary backs to-
ward the sod, the grave offered rest
1t was kind. The only thing they
owned was their pains. They lived
of suffering, a socialism
Of slavery.
The revolution Of 1917 battered
down the door of the treadmill. Seized
with wild joy, they madly rushed to-
ward the light. When they got out
N the open. saw the sky and sun,
hey were hewildered. In the fury OF
1 new delight they rushed on. 1t isn't
strange, it is pathetic. that eyes blind
ID by ages Of darkness blinked In the
light. 1t isn't surprising that they
ried to reach the center of the sun.
suffering in the light is different from
in the black the Russians
new.
When their eyes became accustomed
o the light they looked around them
0 see where they were-to learn what
lad been happening in the strange, 1
eautiful world.
Tremendous Task Before Them.
They had a task before them, the \
uilding of free mans house, house
D the light, house without a dark 4
orner They knew little about free
ON, except that they wanted it with
II their hearts. Their experience hai
cen with slavery. They knew little
bout the practical work of buildias
house in which freedom might live
ure and secure.
They saw civilization with the eyes
I surgeon. They gasped when rhey X
aw that its body was covered with
malignant sore II was an ugly,
,stering, running growing sore. They
armed its name. 1t was written IN
le loudest Of chronicIes-it was the
curable, horrible leprosy Of the
orld. 1t was POVERTY.
hey were told that 1t was the cause b
the nasty thing religion labeled s.n,
Iat poverty had transformed Christ
laseS struck In clay into bunch
lcked souls, that the slckening mats n
I running from sores caused the red
otches on the worlds body known #
red-light districts; that other ef
cts were the swollen blackish blue
ills the tenements and slums. They ~
uddered. Even the darkness of the
sadmill had not produced worse.
They learned about poverty They
ad ita autobiography In IL they