, 1921-08-18
NOV IT'S RUSSIA

lM = w VIC n Out dDOuI Ill IudI Jul IGd-
edsonably be expected Of a Christian nation in the way
t Of loans and food and supplies to western and cen
hotfal Europe toward placing the peoples of those coun-
~ ! tries on their feet and on the road to self support. We
are not boasting about it, for the peoples receiving
"a our help sorely needed it and would have persisted
4 without our aid.
- 1t seems that we are not through, that we have an
e ether chore and in this particular case we ought to
IT pause for inquiry as to a few things before we rush in.
!" { It is Russia now.
Senator France says it will require four billions of
Ar dollars to place our old friend on her feet and we
should tap the United States treasury fc- the money.
That has been the trouble. The old strong box has
Il been raided too often and We are seeing hard times
p ourselves In the end, we will, of course, find a way
! = aid Russia But while we rush the food to the To-
Galities where it is needed, we have the right to make
\ rome general observations.
n + Why is it that the United States must fly to the
nd of every country of the old world that insists on
destroying its substance by rushing recklessly into
var or experimenting with forms of government that
? centuries of experience have demonstrated always
!. bring ruin in their wake? The world war and its dis
tfessing aftermath was due solely to the refusal of the
b People of Europe to assert themselves and proclaim
freedom from sek-appointed rulers who sought to ex-
n Iloit their subjects for personal glorification. The sit
: gatioh in Russia can be blamed only on the absurd
! government that prevented the people from accumu
lifting a surplus to tide them over unusual weather
&nditions that have prevailed this summer
] 4 There was some satisfaction in extending recon-
Hruction aid to central Europe, as the peoples of those
Countries were in the throes of breaking away from
their traditional rulers and setting up governments of
ter own. There was some prospect that, once re-
Eeved of their present distress, they would see to it
), that unprovoked war did not come again and that they
: you'd busy themselves with peaceful pursuits. But
" Ia Russia there is no suggestion of a change in gov
eminent Senator France expresses the conviction
that the soviets are merely passing through a process
o d logical evolution; in fact, the four billion loan tina,
b proposes is to be made to that very government to
u enable it to keep its hold on the country. The Rus
' sian people have been impoverished while the Rus
" SIAN government has made war upon about every ma
/ tpn within reach, and carried its communistic propa
il ganda and sent its agents of revolution into every
country in the world A loan from America would be
ncthing less than a reimbursement to Russia for mon
!, ey and supplies expended in that way, and doubles,
= much of it would be spent to continue those program'
7 OF bloodshed at home and organized discomfort abroad
2 Has anybody estimated the cost to the allies and II
IA sks United States of Russia'a detection during th'
' WAY? 1t is quite possible that the war would havt
Il ended without the entrance of this country had no
s The soviet government compelled the withdrawal o.
&c Russia. and the United States might have been ,savet
- tie expenditure of $4,000 Ewes and thirty billions O.
- dollars. We are invited to perpetuate that same gov
IS eminent with huge loans of cash and enormous gift
8 Of food and supplies.
our affection for the Russian people and our willing
a ness to befriend them in times of calamity. In tn,
!. dread famine of 1891 when millions of the Russian
= people were saved from death by food supplied from
America We are ready to repeat that contribution
but there should be a condition that the soviet annie
t be disbanded, the soldiers returned to productive &C
cuI,ations, the people given a chance 10 provide 10
n themselves and their dependents, and the economi
ia affairs of that once magnificent empire be restore
n through industry and intelligent productivity, on thei
own account, and an end put to reduisitioning Of foo,
: supplies to continue senseless war against the Poles
the Armenians and the Siberians. In short a genera
settling down and going to work
The surreder of a few American prisoners VIII
ought to have had better sense than stray into Rus
sis in her torn up condition is a mighty cheap condi
/ tion to make as the price of food to starving million
who had nothing to do with the Imprisonment an
Z never heard of it. We want our own people out o
Russia of course, but there are other ways of secur
ing them, and better ways too than trading the neces
saaies of life for them.
Having thus spoken plainly on the subject we ha
better tell Mr.. Hoover to relieve the Russian distress
With his usual promptness and thoroughness. An,
while he is feeding our friends to quietly let then
know what we think about their running a perfectl
gpod country by their COMPOUNDED foolishness.