The Washington herald., 1920-12-04
Mr.. Wells on Russia.

TNHE only feature of particular interest in
H G. Wells account of what he saw in
Soviet Russia is its disclosure of Mr.. Wells
own mind Mr.. Wells, himself Socialist and a
Communist, has pictured with great vividness the
utter misery rife in Russia but in desperate en-
deavor to preserve the sanctity of Communism he
has attempted to place the responsibility for its
complete failure exhaustion and the allied
blockade.
He has chosen to ignore the fact that the ap-
palling situation in Russia is due to the absolute
and utter failure of Socialism to maintain produc-
tion. One needs better proof of this than
comparison of conditions in Poland with those in
Russia Destruction and exhaustion incident to war
have been infinitely greater in Poland than in
Russia proper.
Furthermore, Poland is an industrial state, in
capable at best of producing much more than her
own food supply, whereas Russia proper was until
the war began, the largest food exporter in the
world. Unlike the peasants of Poland whose land
has been overrun by the contending armies of Ger
many, the Gar and subsequently of the Sovets the
Russian peasants have not been prevented from
their planting and harvesting of crops yet the cities
OF Russia face starvation.
The peasants produce little more than enough
to support themselves and will willingly part with
what little surplus they have only in exchange for
manufactured goods which socialzed industry under
the Soyets has failed to produce What little food
the Boshevik government is able to secure for its
urban population must be taken from the peasants
at the point of the bayonet. Poland on the other
hand, while enduring the greatest misery, has yet
been able to preserve the life and health of its
population with only comparatively small amount
of assistance.
The fact that Poland did not go Bolshevik, has
resulted IN saving so per cent OF her population
from death, whereas the more favorable agricultural
Of Rnss hatya II 81.
perhaps to 10 per cent of the population.
To demonstrate the failure of Bolshevism how
ever, does not require extensive argument 1t is
possible to point out in dozen directions the total
breakdown in production. For instance the Boil
shevik are now, on their statement, operating
only to IS per cent of the railway equipment they
possessed at the time of the Bolshevist revolution
And Russia has the shops and materials with which
to maintain her railway systems.
The new bureaucracy created by the Com
munists has accomplished nothing but ruin in its
attempt at industrial and commercial reform By
its destruction of all independent cooperative and
consumer societies, which supported by the
people at large and held important place in the
social organism Of the country, the Soviet govern
ment has cut itself completely off from the vital
forces of the country
No bureaucracy in the history of the world has
taken upon itself such extensive functions, or
has been completely insensibe to the will of its
subjects. No bureaucracy has been more in
capable of performing the task assumed than the
Soviet has proved itself to be. The realization of
this incapacity has been the chief inspiration for the
propaganda which would place the responsibility for
Russia's troubles on the blockade.
There have been few accounts by visitors in
Bolshevist Russia which so vividy portray the
misery of the Russia people as does this of Mr.
Wells and at the same time no statement has ever
been such complete expose of parlor Socialists
grasping for strsws in attempt to justify his
beloved system.