Indiana daily times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1914-1922, 1920-01-02
..SHEVIK FALL
My HOPE FOR
] SAD RUSSIANS
Plight Gradually Becoming
Worse in Country Overrun
by Radicals.
IGNORANCE TO BLAME

Bailey says: "While the British govern
ment is still houndering in the morass
W OF the Russian enigma, bolshevik Russia
&Anains enshrouded in a pail of mystery
casionally timid hand lifts a corner
s. the curtain and reveals what some of
suspected and none of us knew. 1T
e ly thin rays of knowledge pierce the
st and illuminate a small part of the
lshev1k stage to earn our surprise or
nsternation. A hating and sparse pro-
ssion of well-meaning gentlemen pene-
lite into the interior of bolshevik Rus
with much of the intrepidity and
pc Of the gIamor with which living
EJne penetrated into darkest Africa and
Zee more safely beyond the long arm of
8nine or his irresponsible commissaries
eite our wonderment and confuse our
Lelligence by their contradictory facts
md conflicting impressions.
zone gentleman, a musician of I'M
& doubted talent, as I can personally af-
firm, and very Inpressionable-ss a good
musician should be-paints for us a very
intimate and truly human picture of the
terrorism of ignorance and the tyranny
of communal government. Another, a
professor. becomes q voluntary member
Of Lenine cavalcade. He Is permitted
to gaze with rightful establishment upon
the creations of the bolsheviki. He speaks
in tongues not Russian with those who
with much sagacity are directing the
bolsheTik movement He is like child
at an eastern bazaar. Amusement and en-
chantment bring happiness to his eyes
and rejoicing 90 his soul We listen
obviously or wonderingly to his stately
revelation Of bolshevik virtues, endeavor-
ing to dissect cold fact from warm i'm
pressions.
FALSE STORIES
GAIN CIRCULATION.
Then there are hosts, ike vuitures,
who wait on the outside Of dark in
terror for news that might escape the
dual vigilance Of the bolshevih and the
allied blockade. The fantastic RESPONSE
bilities of a local commissary are their
special victims. Their lnrid stories win
credence by repetition, and ones impress
sion is that of Petrograd or Moscow Of
dying people, Of dirty streets, of walls
stained with human blood, Of noisome
houses where the handicraft of Surajah
Dowlah is surpassed and OF bedrooms
filled with naught but 'nationalized' mis-
PRESSES. their lovers and their children.
Fl At is .lhtle to be wondered, Indeed, that
8I AseSw who do reach these cities, and to
Hr surprise ind that these pictures of
~ theNbolsheviki are mere pictures, become
Immediately sympathetic toward their
slandered hosts. Calumny is ever vi
cioGs boomerang.
Nov in most Of the stories of tho
bolsheviki there is some truth but to
discover what is true and what is false
is a task Of great difficulty. Some Of
those who enter Russia speak Russian ;
others do not Some are visiting a coun-
try with which they are already IA
miliar; others a country on which their
feet have never previously trod. Now
the presumption would be that he who
be best qualified to speak authoritatively
on the question of Russia. but know
ing Russian is only too often one thing
and knowing Russia is quite another
That insidious allurement for the Eng
lishman which Russia offers Is the enemy
of all cool judgment. Men become her
chivalrous protector from the perils they
imagine Her distress earns their tears
her oppressors their middleton. They
live In a world of noble preiudices and
SoblA desires, which direct their vision
y R1troI their Judgment.
&c even as late as July, 1917 when
AZ golshevik forces were being silently
swed. most of the correspondents Of
sklngLslS> newspapers in Petrograd were
rying feSrfully that Russia must be
ii sved', and making fond hope a politi-
III forecast. What we want are facts
#nd political presclence, but these are
WonIy too seldom forthcoming. What we
do not know about the bolsheviH is
Infinitely more interesting this moment
than what we do know. Yet with infor-
nation so sparse, with informants so
blessed or impressionable, the govern
ment apparently acts upon the~assump-
ton that the bolsheviks of today have
learned nothing since the autumn of
1917 Thus we have Lord Cursor Joined
bv Mr.. Winston Churchill in favor Of
4,,Ao NV Afr
Lloyd George, who, unmfndful of what
Russias armies achieved in 1914, and
what would have happened to us in the
west If she had not preserved her lines
intact at an appalling cost of 1915, re-
members only the turgid disappointment
of 1917. detests the name of Russia and
all things Russian, supported by Mr.. Bal
four, who says, ST refuse to believe there
is any patriotism in Russia while Lenine
! sits in Moscow"
u SYMPATHIES ARE
WITH ILLITERATES.
Now I have no sympathies for the
" bolsheviki as opponents of pure boil
shevik principles. My sympathies lie
with the bewildered illiterate Russian
j peasantry who know not who to choose
for leaders or what to do, and whose
heads are lost amid whirl Of conflict
ing claims and promises. But it is time
T. that we JnOuSnt clearly ABOUT Ine DOL
sheviks as they are today.
From all the various reports that
come to hand, one fact energies in perfect
clearness 1t is that Lenine is expert
, menting at the expense of Russia, in an
idea and an ideal of communist govern
Inent which he has all his life expoused
! and desired to put into force. This gov
A eminent has two main characteristics.
N All must work. in Russia, to work not is
20 starve. There are no trade unions,
4a nd nothing lis known of strikes.
" '<sS 49, exists similar to that which
~ Grdat employed for the build
"a. - ~ h6grad. Lenine, indeed. is in
A 4z& sE a modern Peter. In a coun-
'&As6 ~ ~ laziness is notorious, and Of
AZ <>.z %4s marck justly remarked that the
50 ewould be quite a good fellow
Die worked eight hours a day."
Imagine what this mo work no
&fS IL ~ lctim Of Lenine, backed by the
~ Id ySof the red guard, really means.
~ may be, of course, that Lenine has
8 found the only road to Russia's saliva
q ton. But it is tyranny very much I'M
ashamed. Then trading competition is
eliminated, the profteer exists only IN
der the cloak of secrecy-by the COM
munal shopping establishments. Now in
this idea there is something very Rus
sian. Cooperation has always been one
of the springs of Russian life, and in no
country in the world do cooperative
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