The Raymer enterprise., 1920-05-13
Shall Chaos or Reconstruction
In Europe Follow the Great
World War;
RussIA's LONG. BLACK NIGHT
Little Wonder PsopIs Of That Unhappy
Land Are Blinded BY Freedoms
Light After Four Centuries
. Of Suffering.
Article XIV
sy FRANK coMEaFoRo.

ey FRANK coMERFoRD.
For nearly four hundred years Rus
sia waited for morning II was a ter
rible night Brutal dreams tortured
her. She wrlthed In despair. Time
moved slowly. The clock licked
agonies. The air was thick with
groans. Motherhood bore slaves. The
cradle was q CONN. Feast days were
celebrated BY massacres. Cars from
Ivan the Terrible. 1914, to Nicholas.
the last Of the Romanoffs. executed
In 1918. used the bodies end souls Of
human beings a. manure to fertilize
the soil In which the rank weed Of
imperialism grew. History calls them
emperors. truth labels them brutes,
torturers, murderers. They bore the
brand Of Cain.
Il was q llghtless day. q hopeless
night. for Russia. which began with
the curses Of Ivan and ended with the
execution Of Nicholas. During this
night Of three hundred and seventy
i've years they marched the treadmlll.
The world heard the endless tramp Of
feet. In the dark, great bodies swayed
with weariness. Heavy shoulders
were bent forward. Strong legs
marked time on the treadmill steps.
They kept time to the lash Of the
whip. 1t laid bare their backs. the
backs Of young and old. Of women and
children as well as men. Sweat formed
into red froth ~ 1t mingled with their
blood. They grew blind In the dun
geon darkness. They stumbled and
halted, only to be called back to the
monotony and drudgery Of the tramp
By the lash and the bludgeon. Their
legs rose and fsll-they marched. but
never forward. II was left, right. left,
right: tramp, tramp. and always on
the treadmill steps In the hopeless
dark. They mumbled prayers, but God
couldn't hear. the curses Of their mas
tiers drowned out their petitlonings.
1t was 80 dark In the treadmill that
even God could not see. and so God
forgot Russia. Forgotten. abandoned.
they bent their great weary backs to-
ward the sod. the grave offered rest
It was kind. The only thing they
owned was their pains. They lived q
communism Of suffering. socialism
Of slavery.
The revolution Of 1917 battered
down the door Of tho treadmlll. Seized
with wild Joy, they madly rushed to-
ward the light When they got out
In the open, saw the sky and sun,
they were bewildered. In the fury Of
Z new delight they rushed on. 1t isn't
strange, 1t IL pathetic. that eyes blind
ed by ages Of darkness bllnked In the
light. It isn't surprising that they
tried to reach the center OF the sun.
Suffering In the light Is different from
suffering In the black the Russians
knew.
When their eyes became accustomed
to the light they looked around them
to see where they were-to learn what
had been happening In the strange,
beautiful world.
Tremendous Task Before Them.
They had q task before them, the
building Of free mans house. house
in the light. q house without a dark
corner. They knew little about free
dom, except that they wanted 1t with
oil their hearts. Their experience had
been with slavery. They knew little
about the practical work Of building
q house In which freedom might live
pure and secure.
They saw civilization with the eyes
Of q surgeon. They sasped when they
saw that Ito body was covered with
! malignant sore. It was an ugly.
fostering. running. growing sore. They
learned IT. name. It was written II
the loudest Of chronicles-it was the
incurabls, horrible leprosy Of the
world. Il was cancer-POvERTY.
They were told that It was the cause
Of the nasty thing religion labeled sin,
that poverty had transformed Christ
images struck In clay into hunch-
backed souls, that the slckenlng mat
ter running from sores caused the red
blotches on tho worlds body known
a. red-light districts; that other ef-
fects were the swollen blackish blue
bells. the tenements and slums. They
ehuddered. Even the darkness Of the
treadmlll had not produced worse.
They learned about poverty. They
read it, autobiography. In It they
read how It had robbed children Of
theIr childhood. erased faith from the
uinds Of msp. moh!lIzed women n