The toiler. [volume] (Cleveland, Ohio) 1919-1922, 1921-01-29
Adroit Propaganda.

Inc result is that the workmen in these shops feel
tlat the eyes OF nation are upon them. Plaeards
Illustrate plctorally all the various means of social
service which happen at the moment TO be most ro.
CURED from nursing wounded soldiers to clearing tba
snow from railway tracks-a simple lesson in civic
morals, by pictures which even the iliterate conIJ
understand. one placard that saw, appealed for the
more equal treatment of women, and quoted some. nm
peasant Russian proverbs shameful symptoms of
the brutality of the past Others are in gayer vein
anu pour satire, often rough but usually amusing ON
the three enemies of the Revoluton-tbe copital;st
the anstocratc soldier and the priest Every railway
station and every provincial town has it's s.ooit
pmkt, public reading room. hung with these car
toons, in which leaflets are distributed and sneecbo.
made saw these places packed There are TRAVELLING
Libraries which perambulate the RAILWAYS distrihutin
pamphlets, leaflets and books. There are also tbe
famous propaganda trains, six in number equipped
with every device of pubcity-a theatre, cinemato
graph band, printing press and lecturers who can
discourse in all the languages of Russia on every ton
OF the day. from the crimes of Wrangel and Mierand
down to the best way of destroying lice These methods
are making life infinitely interesting than il was
Capitalist society makes the mind of the peoplo nv
Its unorganized quasmonopoly of the printing press
iy ana rapidly making the mind of this receptive Rms
sian nation One example will show the curious com
bination of persuasion and force There is an armed
gendarmerie whose business il is to collect the reouis
toned grain from the PEASANTS Tolstoi has described
the floggngs with which taxes were collected in th.
old days. The Communist gondarmes start worl, nv
hoding meeting at which expert "agitators, (this
word is freely used) play the feelings of the peas
ants, and paint the dire need Of the towns and tb,
army Then the gendarms take off their coats borrow
scythes and help to gather the harvest Only II thev
nave entirely failed, by eloquence and good Offices
TO WIN the peasants is force used to take the grain
spent morning at Vladimir in talking TO Coms
munist "agitators" Uhe most interesting and attract
i've oil them were womcn) whose business IL Is 10 vor
among the peasants. 1t is hard work to nduee m.
mothers in the villages to trust their children to e
new schools No force is used Instead excursions Of
mothers are organized to see the knderaartens in th,
towns and presently appeals come pouring In for tbe
creation of similar institutions in the villages Th,
"agtators" are never satisfied until ,hov h.r. -.
tho younger and moro intelligent women 10 work q,
some Kind Of social service and they are slowly coming
forward now to take training courses as nursing sisters
or kindergarten teachers. saw one of tho latter
courses at Vladimir and heard the young women aI
peasants or former factory workers discussing child
psychology with real interest and intelligence.
The Decay Of Superstition.
Ihe chief difficulty In the villages IL the relipinu,
question: There Is full religious liberation In Russis
but tho Communist party Is fcrccy anticlerical. and