The New York herald., 1921-05-29

\ ER RANSOME disbelieves the
Nj prophecy that the world il
not big enough to hold the
Soviets and those of opposite political
faith. 1t seems to him an act of folly
20 wage a crusade against the present
Government OF Russia. He says 1T
has been said that when two armies
face each other across 4 battle front
and engage in mutual slaughter they
may be considered as a single army
engaged in suicide. Now Il seems 10
me that when countries each one
severely doing ills best 10 arrest its
private economic ruin do their ut
most TO accelerate the economic ruin
Of each other We are witnessing
something very like the suicide of
civilization itself Mi Ransome be-
lieves that although At present an ir-
teconcilable conflict may seem un-
avoidable, time will bring compro-
misses. mo man he says, mot
purblind but sees that Communist
Europe Is changing no less than Capt.
talist Europe
Mr. Ransome's analysis of the Rus
sian tangle is more clearsighted than
hat Of most observers. for he is no
doctrinaire. He says that it is folly
to blame the economic collapse of
Russia upon the new experiments
which are being made there because
All Europe * undergoing the same
ordeal. He does not let us forget that
No country in Europe is capable of
complete economic independence" The
problem of Russia is essentially one
of transportation Her lack of loco
motives Is paralyzing her more than
any other one thing. 1t prevents the
country and the city from exchanging
their products and results in a system
~ barter. This is the weak point of
the Soviets' Government. Mr. RAN
some says; The relations between
Town and village are the fundamental
problems of the revolution Town and
countryside are in sharp contradiction,
daily intensified by the inability of the
towns to supply the countrys need
The Russian peasant is essentially
peaceful and so the wild disorder that
many prophets have foreseen is not
i reality. Nevertheless the Govern
ment has not been very successful in
esta blishing it's control in the remoter
districts. In a sense the Russian Gov
ernment is a paper government just
as the rubles are merely paper money.
Mr.. Ransome believes that there is
enough inherent vitality in the Russian
people and Government to weather
the storm. He says; The Soviet con-
stitution is not as much moribund as
IN abeyance."
Mr. Ransome's account Of the red,
republic Is lightened by his apprecia-
tion of the grim humors of the situa-
ton. He records that at Jaroslavl
better meals were served in the prisons
than at the Soviet's headquarters and
so the members of the executive com
mittee ate there. The lice which car
because Of the fruitless endeavors of
Semashko. the Commissioned of Public
Health. to suppress them.
No matter how much suffering there
may have been under the Soviets the
work of propaganda went relentessly
and merrily on. In this fact Mr. Ran
some saw the essential keynote of the
No expense and no in
senuity is spared n propagating IDEAS
despite the struggle against famine
ind pestilencc. The most striking
proof of this fact was in the propa-
sanda trains. There were five Of
Them. The Lenine had been painted
! year and half ago. when. a. faded
boarding in the streets Of Moscow still
testify. revolutionary art was domi-
mated by the Futurist movement Every
carriage Is decorated with striking but
not very comprehensive pictures in
the brightest colors and the pro-
lctariat was called upon to enjoy what
the prerevolutionary artistic public
tad for the most part failed to under
stand Its pictures are art for arts
sake and cannot have done more
than astonish and perhaps terrify, the
peasants and the workmen of the
country towns who had the luck to
see them. The Red Cossack is quite
different As Burov put II with deep
satisfaction AT first we were in the
artists hands and now the artists are
In our hands 4 sentence suggesting
The most horrible possibilities of Of
ticial art under Socialism, although
n course bad ant fourishes pretty well
even under other systems"