Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1920-07-03

old engines and cars and using their
parts to patch up those whose state OF
decay is less advanced. In few months
all will be over and there will not be
single train running in Russia. 1t is
melancholy sight to see the ruthless
devastation of the forests all along the
railroad lines. Within the limits Of
possible transport. they have been alb.
solutely destroyed. Next winter the in.
Of wood to heat their houses. Then
their tragedy will be over"
Trade an Illusion
When ] mentioned the probable re-
sumption of trade relations between the
western nations and soviet Russia, my
informant burst into grim laughter.
''Trade?' he scoffed. "An illusion
for years to come 1t is impossible to
transport even a h6ndredth part Of what
is needed to feed the cities. Two years
| Of bolshevism have destroyed Russia
| sapped its life blood, reduced its people
to physical and moral wrecks. I don't
know how many years it will take to re-
pair this damage, if it can be repaired
at all. The fundamental evil which is
responsible for this tragedy is laziness.
| IL is an incurable disease with which
the theories of bolshevism have inocu-
lated the Russian people. Nobody works,
| except in the munition factories, where
tho Red guards stand over the workmen
with loaded revolvers."
Before they were allowed to leave the
territory of the soviet republic the Swiss
refugees were examined by a Bolshevik
commissary. care you going to tell
about what you have seen here when
you get back homer" he demanded. And
on their replying that they certainly in
tended to do so, he continued sneeringy
the trouble. We have our men in all
foreign countries. We have trained
them. They will contradict your stories.
And they will be believed. not you ~
There is a great deal Of truth in the
Bolshevik commissary's mocking words.
Thousands Of independent witnesses
have exposed Lenine's Red paradise
during the last two years, and they have
not been believed. The agents of the
Soviet are everywhere, in Europe and
America, spreading false reports, cast
ing doubt on the narratives of perfectly
reliable and disinterested refugees, and
busily seeking to discredit the opponents
of bolshevism. A strangely fascinat-
ing story could be written about the
occult protection which the dictators
in the Kremlin have undoubtedly en-
joyed and still enjoy in the capitals
and councils Of the western countries.
But the time has not yet come.
VIII these Swiss republicans, at
least, be believed and find fair hear
ing! The general impression resulting
from their accounts is that BolshevlK
rule in Russia was never so near alb.
solute, final collapse as 1t is today, with
internal conditions rapidly leading TO
inevitable catastrophe and the Red
army, on which the power of Lenne
and his acolytes alone still rests, dis
integrating daily under the blows ad'
ministered to 1t by the victorious Poles
What strength the Bolshevik dictators
still have left they derive solely from
the negotiations they are carrying on
in London, which inspire them with
desperate hope that their rule will yet
be recognized and sanctioned by the
western world. Krassin's presence in
, the British capital is their sole consola'
| tion and triumph; and it Is a very great
triumph, pregnant with incaCulable
consequences. Were it not for this
diplomatic victory, according to the
unanimous statements of the Swiss
refugees whom | questioned, Lenine and
Trotzky and the entire soviet system
would have fallen on the day the Polish
troops entered Kiev, and Russia would
already be delivered from their insane
tyranny.