The Rock Island Argus and daily union. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1920-1923, 1921-07-22

s3H abolished. 1t is a matter Of
economic adjustment. Rus
sia's experience with the So
mn w cial evil gives the lie to the
Wo~schin belief that girls took the
"easy path" because of depraVlty me Ciot sro
are not a lure There are not enousn IN
clothes to go around man can give Se;ther
an nothing she has not already got. Neltne.
has any money-and if they had they couloh
buy anything with it. Each has 1000, clo. INC
and a place to live-gained by the ratlon sSs-
tenn in exchange for honest work Neltner
could work-and therefore live-any other way
Marriages are performed legally Ihere
are more orthodox church marriages than ever
Divorce Made Easy.
Divorce is easy II couple want divorce
they go before the city clerk and ne witnesses
their divorce agreement You JUST Sisn uP
that you are divorced
Nobody butts in and asks your reasons tor
getting divorced. II either one-husoano or
wife-doesnt consent to the divorce, he or she
has to give good reasons. Then there is an
You may think this all sounds funny But
the fact is church marriages have increased
and divorces have decreased
Marriages have increased because they are
based on love and not on economic reasons.
Simple Ceremony.
The soviet marriage ceremony Is inert
signing of agreement. Formerly brldes were
given rs Yards of cloth, but it was found that
too many people were getting married Just 10
get the cloth!
Now the only economic lure is that married
persons get more space for living quarters
The reason more get married under the ortho-
dox church ceremony is that they fear. II some
thing happens to the government, soviet rec
ords may be destroyed. There is less llkeH-
hood of church records being lost or destroye>
and thus casting future doubt upon the legal
fly of marriages.
was astonished at the absence OF crime
in big cities such as Moscow and Petrograd
was in Moscow for months and often walked
through the streets at night and after midnight
was never held up. And l never heard of
holdup.
But a bandit would have clothes to steal off
his victims back. Or food to steal out of a
house
thief caught in the act, is shot-without
trial No matter whether he steals potato
or whole truckload.
Crime has not always been so rare as this
Alexander Berkman, soon after his deportation
from America was held up in the streets OF
Kiey and his clothes were stolen from him.
The thieves left him in his underwear. Sewed
In the lining OF his trousers, Berkman told me,
81. 900 in American money. Probably the
thief doesn't know 1t to this day!
saw Emma Goldman, too. She, like Berk-
man. is having rather hard time OF it, be-
cause their creed is anarchism. The soviet
trust-like system of Capitalization doesn't jbe
with anarchism.
Plenty of Grating.
When say vice and crime are minimized,
don't mean sovietism has cured such evils. I'm
not bolshevik sympathizer. 1 plenty of
grating. l know that it exists. But there is
no open wholesale footing by those in power.
They have to be cleverer than that. For
thief CRATER is shot-usually without trial.
Yes there is lot of shooting!
Life under the deadly monotony of no.
work-no-eat system seemed rather drab to me.
could plainly see people were not happy.
But there is certain gaiety. Theatres and
operas are open, and well attended.
Everything has been systematized, central
ST RNf liza faSh
styles in VSOmen's dress.
They have to produce everything them
selVes-nothlng comes from outside Russia
Styles are rather topsy-turvy, because every
thing is rationed-like issue" equipment at an
army Quartermasters depot
Silk stockings are worn-by some. A sup
ply depot gets bit of fnery from the central
warehouse-and the first girl that comes in
with her clothing ration card grabs the fnery!
1t may be peasant or proud daughter OF
the silk stockings and the latter the cotton
stockings.
Cloth is issued by the commssary depots
If you know how, you can make your own
clothes. Or you can hire" somebody else 10
do it in exchange for certain articles of food
or clothing-which you must do without
yourself.
unique institution in soviet Russia is
"Subbotinik". The word means Sabbath "hol-
iday" The word is applied to the sort of
oXLrd WUTk tndL IS IOr the PUBIC good and i'm
proves health, and for which no additional ra-
tons are given
The eight-hour day and the fve-day week
prevail in Russia Saturday and Sunday are
holidays. Every weekend each person "volun-
teers"-it is sort of voluntary" act by moral
compassionate participate in Subbotinik
They start out in parades, with a band and
make picnic out Of four hours or so of in
tensivs community work on road-making, fuel
gathering. street cleaning or improving sani-
tary conditions
In Petrograd two winters ago thousands
froze to death. People went to bed in their
clothes. Pneumonia was terrible. There was
a great lack of fuel. This scarcity was not
30 severe last winter, largely because of com
munity Subbotinik.
I found no hostility toward Americans
among officials or plain people. MY observa-
lion was that the people of soviet Russia would
rather trade with America than anybody else
They have friendliness and admiration for
America hatred for England, contempt for
France. and animosity for Germany
Copyright, 1921, by Newspaper Enterprise)
In tomorrow's Argus DR.. Woysebin
VIII tell yOu how all Russia works+aud
Is paid Ia calories instead of cash