Evening star., 1921-07-27
The Children of Russia.

The heart of Herbert Hoover, Sec'
retary of Commerce. needed no stimu'
lus to insure its swift and sympathetlc
response to the cry of hosts OF starv'
ing children in soviet Russia. Yet. had
a stimulus been necessary It Woulo
have been supplied in the eager COM
passion with which his fellow country
men have heard that distant. heart
breaking appeal. The men and wom-
en- of America who are today hosts
to 3,5O0,O0O little, grateful invisible
guests" in twenty-three countries or
Europe cannot find it in their hearts
to deny bread to the children OF Rus
sia because Of the folly or the blind
ness or the sins Of their elders. They
have wanted, moved by that peremp-
tory instinct to help the helpless. to
extend their beneficence into the dark
ness of Russia. Yet how to do so
without strengthening the hand OF
death under which Lenin holds peo-
pie too pitifully oppressed to revolt, has
been the problem. The answer to that
problem is to be found in Secretary
Hoover's recent admirable telegram to
Maxim Gorky.
America will help and will rejoice
to be able to help the tiny sufferers OF
Russia, but it has no idea Of support
ing the bolshevist tyranny through
making possible the diversion Of its
relief supplies to feed the red armies.
So Mr.. Hoover. speaking as the head
of his great relief organization. lays
down the following stipulations:
Agents and workers Of the relief ma
chine must be accorded free entrance
and permitted unhampered movement
throughout Russia by the soviet gov
ernment, which must guarantee no in
reference with the disposition Of such
supplies as will be taken in. The soviet
government must rid itself Of its at
titude of hostility toward the United
States and release those Of our citizens
whom it now holds captive. A pledge
that the relief agents will abstain
from all political activity while in
Russia is offered in return
This is obviously the only basis upon
which that relief which America can
give and wants to give could be Of
fered. The soviet government. OBJ
sessed by mad economic theory and
a mania for unrestricted power on the
part of its leaders. has brought to the
nation to which it promised the mill
lennium degree. Of suffering and de-
has ever been required to endure.
Born to a heritage Of servitude which
would have long since driven a more
sensitive people to revolt, the great
mass Of the Russian people has so
far endured that suffering and de-
.spair. Yet, if the latest reports from
the interior are to be believed, their
Incredible supinity shows signs Of dis
integration: resentment and wrath
toward those who have brought them
to their present pass begin to be gen.
orally manifested.
Should the soviet leaders now refuse
to accept the fair and generous terms
which accompany the American offer
Of relief SO sorely needed, the blood
of tens of thousands of Russian babies,
needlessly sacrificed. will be upon their
hands. The spilling Of blood-wanton-
ly,. pitilessly and barbarously-would
ibe no new thing to those upon whom
the responsibility Of a decision has
tbeen thrust. Yet there is reason to
hope that, sensing a subtle change in
;the temper Of the destitute millions
ito whom, they have brought horrors
tinconceivable., they will not dare to
risk this final crime Of deliberate
wholesale infanticide.