The county record. [volume] (Kingstree, S.C.) 1885-1975, 1920-09-30
Soundness of the People.
(Felix Angus in The Baltimore
American)

American)
In my time l have known many
bosses; Democratic bosses, Republi-
can bosses, national bosses, state
bosses, county bosses. AS rule the
political boss is a pleasant fellow
with big heart and real desire for
public service. So long as this desire
to serve is bigger than anything else
in his bosom he gets along. But he
falls down when he Graves power and
allows it to intoxicate him.
There is very little in the boss bus,
ness just now, first, because it does
not pay, and, second, because in all
intelligent countries the people are
taking hold.
In many respects the worst two
bosses the world has ever known are
performing in Russia. Lenine and
Trotsky have gone the limit. The
trail of the Red terror has left marks
of human blood all over that magnifi-
cent empire and people have grown
hopeless of Russia.
Friends and readers of this paper
ask me why the newspapers do not
print the truth about Russia. The
newspapers are trying their best to
get the truth and to print it, but
think of the difficulties of getting
facts from a population of over one
hundred and sixty millions, when the
situation changes weekly and every
form O. socialism, communism and al
the other isms is shouting at the toI'
of its voice and trying to offer ii
own particular brand of hellishness.
It is costing over five million d
lars a year to collect and deliver the
Yews printed in The Baltimore Amerl-
can, an expenditure made possible by
the cooperation of newspapers in all
parts Of the world.
One definition of what is true is Gin
accordance with the actual state OF
things" So, truth about Russia may
be true every day and yet may change
every day because the "actual state or
things" there is changing all the time.
It's a pretty mad old world we are
living in at present and Russia is one
nlare where self-constituted bosses
are riding the people.
Now we cannot make the world
safe for democracy or for anything
else without counting Russia in our
program. We need Russia not only
to feed Europe but as great work
ing part of civilization. The old bos-
ses, the Car crowd, are gone never to
return. The present bosses. Lenlne
and Trotsky, are on the way. The
real permanent bosses are beginning
10 wake up.
1t seems to me that the best light
we are getting from Russia comes
from travellers who can give US their
personal Impressions of what the Rus
sian people are doing and talking
about. In other words, the big news
of Russia is the people.
Some years ago an able young Rus
sian was attached to the Embassy at
Washington. He came of high fani-
ly, was experienced in Russian gov
ernment life, was broadly educated.
He learned the American view and
was thus able to form an exceptional.
" clear idea of the Russian situation
after he returned to Russia.
Naturally this man was not pleas
ing to Trotsky, who put him in prison
as an enemy of the Soviet gang and
kept him in the damp cells of a fort
ress for five months. This man was
Col. Andrew Kalpaschinkoff, and ne
has written book called "a Prison
er of Trotsky," and quotations from
this book are being published in the
periodicals.
The big point is that right in the
darkest days of Red Russia an lntei-
iigent observer with trained faculties
sees the great proportions of the one
power on earth that is destined to
own and to govern-the power Of the
people.
When this refined and educated man
came in contact with his fellow Rus
slams, rubbing shoulders with them,
sleeping and eating with them, his
ideas were completely changed. This
is what he found, in his own words:
81 began to discover the moral treas
ures of my race and to understand
the errors of the educated minority
who wanted to handle many millions
of men regardless of their vital de-
sires and interests" Russia is to be
saved by the moral soundness of it's