The Washington times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1902-1939, 1920-11-10
Today
Wed Miss Civilization.
Still Palaces, No Shops.
On a Mustard Seed.
Another Jones Bill.
} ARTHUR BRISBANE
(copyrisht. isio).

by ARTHUR BRIsBANE-l
Copyright issoL
Our civilization is called srti-
ficial and imperfect, and it is
both. But you would miss It II It
should vanish and the world turn
back to the uncivilized stage. :.
H. G. Wells, able, fsir-minded
Englishman, has visited Russia
under Bolshevism. Wells is So
'cialist, or thinks he is, and knows
that our system is imperfect.
Yet, what most impressed him
In Russia was the absence OF in
stitutions that he would criticize
most freely in going condition.
In st. Petersburg, he was dc.
pressed by the "palaces, still and
empty" Even more depressing
was the absence Of busy shops, al
though those shops, in working
order, represent to the Socialist
a Bourgeois class living as para
sites on the proletariat."
Only half a dozen shops are
open In all st. Petersburg. "They
are dead Shops" says Wells, they
will never open again" "This
cessation Of shops" he says,
snakes walking about the streets
seem a silly, sort of thing to DO.
Nobody walks about any more.
Reading what Wells says Of his
trip to Russia, knowing that he is
free from prejudice, you realize
how dangerous it is to tear down
what exists hoping to build up a
theory.
st. Petersburg's population has
dropped under Bolshevism from
100000 to 100000, and is still
falling.
The death rate that was %
per 1000 is now 81, and the birth
rate that was 80 is now Is. That
would soon eat up a nation. In
the country, however, to which the
people have been fleeing for food,
conditions are better.
Russia has been at war for six
years without interruption, the
allies and this nation-to its dis
grace-forcing more war upon
the miserable starving Russian
people when the great war ended.
The artificial city, st. Peters
burg, built by Peter the Great on
a swamp and named for himself
is sinking back into the swamp.
And the Russian empire that he
artificially built up Of savage
heterogeneous tribes is sinking
back toward the tribal state of
savagery.
The question is: Can Lenin
make his new theoretical rule
FROM BELOW? Successfully
gather up the old fragments and
replace rule FROM ABOVE? If
he does it, he is miracle-worker,
and to do it he will need ruthless
ness and power as great as those
of Peter. He has the ruthlessness,
and he has great power. But can
he stand civilization on its head,
put the feet where the head was,
and keep it walking onward?
Ahot 10 uiS PiOuiCh'
Elihu Root wrote to Mr.. Hard
ing:
"You cannot scrap the League.
1t can't be destroyed now."
The lawyer said to the prisoner,
looking out from behind the bars:
"Why, they can't put you in jail
for that"
81 am in JAIL" said the logical
prisoner. And the League is
dead, at least as regards this
country. 1t was a scheme, cum
ningly conceived, to make this ma
ton a full partner in paying for
Europe's wars and supplying men
to carry them on, and a minor,
out-voted, no-account partner in
deciding what should be done.
The wonder is that any man, even
partly sane, could have gone
through the detail of such a
scheme and then accepted it.
Lonesome Mac" real name w.
T. McCleery, carves things to keep
busy and attract attention. Ev-
erything within reach he carves
walking sticks, rhinoceros horns,
ostrich eggs-his masterpiece
being a carved mustard seed. Bet
ter than the carving on that seed
was the thought.
On one side of the seed he
carved spider, and on the other
an elephant. Excepting men, they
are probably the greatest works
Of nature, the great carver. The
spider Is engineer, house builder,
warrior, the elephant is biggest,
most intelligent, and moral of
land animals.
To put them on opposite sides
of mustard seed. was a happy
inspiration. Such carving seems
to us very fine work. Yet nature
carves complicated living beings so
small that thousands of them could
live in the eye of the elephant, as
carved on that mustard seed. In
other words, there is nothing big,
nothing little in the infinite uni
verse, and silent Macs work re-
minds us Of that.