The Washington times., 1921-03-20
CONTINUED from First Pase)


work, half fed, half clothed.
Wells raised q fund to supply
them with the latest books and
with paper, which they lack. And
he speaks quite plainly Of his own
government that has helped the
French to starvc people, scientists
included, guilty of no crime except
the effort to govern themselves.
Unfortunately the British COM
mercial instinct has taken charge
and England has opened trade
with Russia This may postpone,
perhaps permanently prevent, the
collapse which Wells eventually
expects, although he does not posi-
lively say it, ~ the ending OF
Russia's effort.
In America and England print
ing and distributing good cheap
books has dwindled because paper
is dear. In Russia the work Of
distributing the best literature to
the people goes on at government
expense. Bookshops are closed,
book selling is illegal. Citizens get
their books free from tho govern
ment, rs they ride free on the
street cars, such as they are, with
deep holes between the tracks,
rails broken, passengers chnging
70 the roofs and to the windows.
Ruin is the primary Russian
fact at the present time" says
Wells, and he adds that England
and France would have repeated
the Russian crash with local varia-
tions If the war had lasted two or
three years longer.
In Russia they don't fine or i'm
prison profiteers; they shoot them.
What trading and cheating exists
is done by children, in secret, for
children, being not responsible, arc
not shot.
Russia's absolute ruler, Lenin,
Is guarded against attack moro
closely than any car ever was
guarded. You pass through
rooms, many rows Of watchful
armed men, before you reach
Lenin's desk. There he sits, with
Q forehead shaped like that Of
Arthur Balfour and legs so short
his feet barely touch the floor.
There have been bloody days in
Russia as in every revolution. For
a while everybody found armed
without Bolshevik permission was
shot. Many tens Of thousands un-
doubtedly were killed in the
streets. Many a peasant took
vengeance with knife, gun, club on
the man in the chateau and his
family. Those unpleasant things
happen when you break down a
system that has the few riding
cheerfully on the backs of many.
The killings now have subsided.
To the western mind everything
In Russia seems strange. Trotzky,
originally a pacifst, is the head
of NE army, organizing Russia's
fighting forces. He does it well
and has beaten back all the efforts
of the Allies, including the feeble,
foolish efforts of the United States.
He, as it happens, is a Jew, who,
as Wells says, learned how to get
things done here in America.
The ignorant say the Bolshevist
movement is Jewish. Some Jews
are leaders in the Russian move
ment. They are leaders and also
objectors in all movements wher-
ever they live. Wells observed
among the most interesting Bolshe-
vik leaders mot Jews at all, but
blond Nordic men,"
Included in those that should
read Wells book are Social
lists that would divide up the
population into Capitalists" and
"proletarians," as a cook stamps
out biscuits. Wells explained to
Lenin and others "that in England
there were two hundred different
classes at least" There are not
so many classes in Russia, but less
numerous in Russia than in an9
other of the civilized nations are
the so-called "proletarians," men
working for wages, fixed in rnt,
away from the land, from any
ownerhip of the means of produc-
ton, and from hope Of financial
independence.
Russia is not all in DEBACLE.
Many things are falling. but some
are building. More men and
women have learned to read from
the government of Lenin than
from all the governments of all
the czars. That is progress.
The poorest children in Russia
are better fed than the men that
control the government. Of what
other nation can you say that?
You see thin, worried men and
women in Russia, but fat children.
Wells believes that depressing
conditions in Russia are the result
of war and the Allies blockade
more than of experiments in gov
ernment.
IF one of these military adven-
turers OF the Yudenitch or Denikin
type were, by some disastrous ac-
cident, to get control of Russia, his
success would only add strong