The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1922-01-19
TOPEKA STATE JOURNAL
Information Bureau
FREDERIC }. HAsKIN, DirectOE.
washington, d. @.
AN AMERICAN-RUssIAN REFUGEE

Washington, D. c., Jan. IA little
committee of Americans headed by
Russian princess has undertaken the
task of caring for refugees who have
fled from the soviet government.
The princess is the granddaughter
of President Grant, and married
Prince Cantacuzene, aide-de-camp to
the Grand Duke Nicholas of Russia
After twenty years of life in the pal
aces and military camps of Russia,
and exciting experiences in the revo-
lutionary days, she came back to this
country, one of the 100000 refugees
who have fled from the Bolshevik
rule.
These refugees, she says, are prac-
tically all that is left of the Russian
educated class. They are professors,
biologists, chemists, bankers, artists,
engineers and students. She recalls
DR.. Charles Cranes statement that
more Russians with professional abil-
ity were crushed by Bolshevism than
/ by the Tartar invasion which shook
Russia centuries ago.
Naturally the princess is against the
soviet government She believes that
it is nearing a collapse, and that it is
hostile, by its very nature, to the pro-
fessiona1 class. Much, of course, can
be said on the other side. These are
the views of a refugee who was identi-
fled with the old regime.
under Bolshevik regime" Princess
Cantacuzene explained. Those who
stayed in Russia are lost to Russia as
useful material, forever. The Bolshe-
Wiki have built their government with
the peasant class as the basis and they
cater to this class. The Russian peas
ants are a strong foundation for a
government, but in any progressive.
civilized state there must be encour-
agement given to the thinkers, and the
skilled and learned
$50 we regard the 100000 refu-
gees as seed corn from which Russia
must grow up again to strength after
the fall of the now decaying Soviet
government The refugees are wait
ing patiently for the time when they
can go back, and we believe that day
is not far off"
OF about 100000 wandering Rus
slams, approximately 100000 are in
need of assistance, it is estimated.
These are to a large extent the women,
children, old people, and wounded.
Helping to keep them alive and to
put them on their feet is the mis-
sion which the Princess Cantacuzene
and her committee have undertaken
because they feel that Russia will
soon need her refugee element.
1t is a difficult task. The refugees
are scattered from Finland to Con-
stantinople in Europe. They are in
Paris, Berlin, and Jerusalem. A few
are in this country. Wherever they
are, they want only a chance to earn
their living somehow until they can
return to their homeland
Experiences of Refugees.
1.-THE refugees are willing to do
anything" the Princess says. Their
spirit is wonderful. Here is one
typical instance: my own ex-neighbor,
a rich. land owner in. Russia, wrote
me some months ago that she, her
daughter and granddaughter had es-
capped from the bolsheviki and were
stranded in Serbia. They were in
rags, had tried to obtain work and
had been unable to do SO because of
the condition of their clothing.
twenty-five dollars was sent. The
old lady was ~, very fat, unused to
work, and of delicate health, to my
personal knowledge. Within three
months, however, I had a letter from
her saying that $40 had been spent to
buy clothes for her, her daughter, and
granddaughter; that the granddaugh-
ter was earning her living by sewing,
the daughter was teaching French,
while she herself was working in a
paper box factory.
zone of her gardeners, who had
also escaped from Russia, had found
her in her retreat. and they had to-
gether bought a few pair of ducks,
geese and chickens, establishing a
would be a success. Five dollars of
the $25 she had passed on to another
refugee, poorer than herself, and she
added that need not think further of
her. A few weeks ago still another
letter from the same old lady told me
her poultry-raising- was such a success
that she had been able to give up work
in the factory, and she and her house,
hold are all self-supporting and con-
tent now"
04r,
selves to circumstances with the same
cheerfulness. An astronomer went to
work cutting wood. Army officers
found jobs washing dishes. A prince.
once powerful, is selling sausages in
a store. They are said TO prefer the
hardest work to charity. The princess
reminds US that no Russian has come
to this country to tell what Russia has
done in the allied cause, and that no
Russian, except herself, has come to
beg.
Because the Russians are proud, the
American Central Committee for Rus
sian Relief, as the Princess commit
tee is called, tries to find them work
when possible, rather than send
money and necessities to help support
them.
In some European cities there are
shops and factories where none but
Russian refugees are employed. In
Paris, some of the dressmakers' as
sistants, and the salesgirls and models
in the big establishments are refugees.
Starting Refugees in Business.
How the committee puts refugees to
work is shown in the story of a. group
in Berlin. Germany is not sympathetic
to the Russian who is anti-Bolshevik,
and many refugees there have had diff
ficulty finding employment. One wo-
man in Berlin wrote to the committee
asking for $1,000 to start a workshop
for some Russians there. The money
was sent. In three months a case of
| toys, carved boxes, and embroidered
articles was sent to the committee. The
articles sold in New York and Chicago
| department stores. and another $1,000
was mailed to the shop. Then word
! came back not to send any more
money, as the shop had sold goods
amounting to 100000 marks and was
self-supporting.
| Comparatively little of the commit
! tees work has been done among refu-