New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1921-07-31
Russia's Irnpoverishment

And Russia had no Joseph-not
even Pharaoh who, though despotic,
was intelligent enough to seek an in
depreciation of the dream of the lean
kline which devoured the fat kline.
So what Secretary Hughes has de-
seribed as the progressive impover-
ishnent of the masses of Russia has
continued, and they have arrived at
the present appalling tragedy. The
consequences unescapably flowed
from the conditions that were artif-
cially established. Lenine's polity
was not up to the level OF that of the
squirrel which stores against future
need. Lack of rain precipitated the
famine, but it's cause lies elsewhere.
Bolshevism reduced production to the
verge Of extinction, and there was
DO reserve when nature turned
Stacker.
Dimly Lenine has recognized
whittier he was heading the Russian
people Conquest of political power
by his group, he declared in an early
manifesto, was the first step, equita-
BILE distribution the second; but these
things, he acknowledged, would
count for little unless there was ade-
quate production.
But though Lenine saw the truth
he did not stick to it. Profoundly
ignorant of the laws of production,
as most socialists are, he chung to
the mad doctrine that he would take
from men the fruits Of their toll and
still have them go on working.
Power was sweet to him and he hung
on any way and anyhow. So Russia
starves. A great people, placed on
the table of a cruel vivisectionist,
perishes before the worlds eyes.
Pompeii when destroyed was
buried, but Russia, though destroyed,
is not buried--is seen fostering in
sad Depths She is a mighty warn
ing. She has verified the saying Of
Arthur Young that a bit Of paradise
becomes desert when it's cultivator
loses the results of his labor, while
barren rock blossoms like the rose
when it is workers own. The les
son is as simple as it is old.
But men do not study social laws
with the assiduity they disclose in
the study of physical laws. Yet eco
nomlc truth is as important as scien-
tIfic truth. Russia attests the pun
lsnment that comes when the estab-
= lished habits of the human animal
are ignored. 1t fills few mouths to
argue that men should act otherwise
than they do. 1t is conceded that
the institutions of private property
are not beautiful in all of their
works. The time may come when re-
slglous motives or supreme enlight-
trnment will induce men to labor for
al. with the zeal they display when
iaoorlng for themselves, but this mil
lennium is not arrived. While the
human species is as it is, to attempt
10 usher in a new era by force is
supremely wicked. The outside world
could have saved the Russian people.
When the Czecho-Slovaks were on
the Volga an opportunity beckoned.
Again it did when Yudenitch was in
the suburbs Of Petrograd, and again
When the Poles drove back the Boil
shevists and the road to Moscow lay
open. But the outside world was
confused by the clatter of it's radl-
Gals and did nothing. Never did a
small number exercise more maleti-
cent influence. Surely there is no
reason to envy the thoughts of the
parlor Bolshevist as he reflects, as
4eiiecC ne must, on his responsibility
aof Russia's present misery.
The calamity is 50 engulfing that
al the outside world can now do IS
relatively little. 1t viii take many
years for Russia to recover, even
though the Boshevists be expelled
tomorrow. The most effective help
IS to think straight and to avoid re-
reatlng, if a door to doing practical
good opens, the weak mistakes of the
past.
In the main the Russian remnants
must work cut their own salvation
tut once there is an end of tyranny
which is vicious and an abandonment
{, o. preposterous economic system
q wniell is worse, there will be begin
hing Cd better days and Russia, one