The Washington times., 1921-03-17
BRITISH AHEAD
IN SOVIET DEAL
HapQood Predicts America VIII
Drop Aloofness Policy When
Others Have Trade.
BY yORMAN HAPGOOD.


BY NORMAN HAPGOOD.
The signing Of the trads agree.
ment between Great Britain and
Russia marks the end of an epoch.
The British Empire finally recog-
nizes the facts and starts in to make
itself solid in Russia, while France
tries to work up another war with
the Soviets and the United States
continues to issue official news"
about the impending downfall OF the
Moscow government.
ENGLAND NOT SENTIMENTAL.
Great Britain 10 not sentimental in
most of her foreign enterprises.
France could bark away about Boil
shevism and loans, but England had
her eye on the future.
The United States could play with
Mr.. Bakhmeteff a most able and At
| tractive playmate) and get out excit-
ing stories with happy endinss about
Russian conditions, but the British
| thought 1t worth while to get a few
facts. and not get too drunk on propa-
ganda, packed and marketed by small
emigre groups in foreign capitals.
Will our State Department even
now continue to publish through the
| newspapers stories about the peas
ants in revolt everywhere. the army
| disintegrating, one district after an
other lost to the Reds? Does our
Government ask us, grown-up Ameri-
can citizens to believe that II Ia with
a government about to fall that Great
Britain has concluded a trade agree
ment?
Now that the British have beaten
| us to II, with all the vast economic
| advantages that will follow from be-
ing frst, is IT possible that we may
pick up courage enough to look into
| the situation for ourselves?
thought of going over to the State
Department and asking how the Brit
tsh step affected its view of the newS
but on reflection decided to keep quiet
and let events knock us into reason
able action. Events have a way Of
being more conclusive than argu-
ments.
| KRAssIN AN IDEAL ENVOY.
Krassin has been an ideal man to
carry these complicated negotiations
| through to q successful hnish. He
is going to appear in history as one
of the finest figures connected with
the Russian transformation.
|
an extremist, he is primarily an engi-
neer. so constructive and balanced in
his makeup that I have often heard
even Tsarists praise him. He took
part In the rebellion of 1905. like
most progressive youth, but between
then and 1917 he was occupied in
many big engineering projects under
the Tsar and was connected with
large German business interests.
When Lenin came into power he
| re ealized at once that his hardest prob
| lem was economic
Not only would there have been in
any case enormous difficulties con-
| nected with an attempt to introduce
communism into a country of peas
ants but the difficulties were multi
piled by the fact that the whole pro-
ductive and transportation system Of
Russia, bad enough in peace. had
broken down in the three years OF
war and was carried on with a large
remaining element of Czarist graft
LENIN MADE THE CHOICE.
In these circumstances, looking
about for the most competent man to
head the job, Lenin decided on Kras-
sin. For several months Krassin de-
clincd to undertake II.
The theorists were too much in evil
dence. They had torn a leaf out of
Karl Marx, or thought they had, and
were having the railroads and the
factories run by little groups of work.
ingmen.
Krassin was interested, in a general
way, in Karl Marx, but he was a good
lot more concerned, for the Immediate
ming large industries, and running
them with every conceivable condition
against success
So when Krassin accepted IL was on
condition that all these isms should
be put to sleep, as far as he was con-
cerned, and that he should have die
tatorial powers. These powers were
granted and used by him to the full
II was not long before he was referred
to as the economic dictator of Russia.
HIS WORK SUPERB.
His work on the roads and in the
factories was superb, and so uncom-
promisingly devoted to efficiency that
at times he could not go to Petrograd
for fear Of being shot by the more ex-
treme Communists.
1t was his understanding Of eco
nomic conditions that finally led to
his being sent out into western Eu-
rope to see whether the blockade
could be broken. and on what terms.
The Bolsheviks have made plenty OF
mistakes, though not as many as the
nations opposing them. One mistake
was in sending men at first like Lit
vinov and Kameney to negotiate with
the western powers. Men Of the
propaganding type could make no
progress.
AS soon as Krassin turned up things
began to change, and the difficulties
which have just been liquidated were
only such as inhered in the situation,
a situation, complicated by the sup