New-York tribune., 1922-04-03
Russia
In the Red Sht1d0w

Without these there is no life and
civilization become as memory.
The Soviet government has failed
absolutely in the one, succeeded meas
urably in the other.
No good purpose can now be served
by misleading the meaning of the
famine which is day devastating
Russia. The famine is not an arbitrary
act of Nature, but retribution by Ma
ture upon mans folly and the sins of
/ his leaders.
Viewing the famine in this light and
having in mind the collapse Of every
productive agency In Russia to-day, the
Russian government cannot escape be-
ing charged with the destruction of
civilization and with the death of mil
lions Of its own people.
The Russian government has under
mined the faith of its own peoples,
their incentives to labor and their re-
spect for the rights of the products of
their neighbor's toll.
The Russian government has used
the slogans of an idealistic social creed
as a cloak for a narrow tyranny.
The Russian government has re-
moved from labor the products of la
Dor, from the peasant on the land his
last bushel of grain for the support of
a military and class despotism which
has destroyed them.
Jungle Law Displaces
/ Process of Social Order
The Russian government has weak
ened the bonds of economic discipline
and cooperation. by which alone can
! civilization persist. In establishing
cupidity where industry was, the cyni-
cal law of the jungle where were faith
and the cooperative processes of social
order, venality and graft where were
honor and accountability, man to man,
1t has destroyed the souls of men.
But these things do not represent the
| Turning to the second aspect of gov
ernments function, the power to main
tain order, we ind testimony vastly
more favorable to the Soviet govern
ment than that which is outlined above.
! In casting the balance of the Soviet
government before its own people and
the world it is not to be ignored that
! the Soviet government can maintain
order among the people under difficult
| circumstances.
The Russian people arc a peculiar
| people, answering to few of the tests
of the Western democracies. They are
lethargic; except when driven to bay,
philos ophic, acquiescent to the arbi-
/ y
as if these were the laws of fate
They are for all the world like a
| finely ordered electric motor for which
the current is wanting, Of little value
of themselves, functioning when the
power is given.
The Russian people are not an easy
people to govern. 1t requires a pecu-
| liar set of qualities to understand the
Russian people, to grasp them, to rule
| them. The Romanovs had these quail
tiles and the Soviet rulers have them
! lowed the first Russian revolution Of
March, 1917, did not possess them.
While the Soviet government has
ruled Russia by fads and theories, it
! has yet ruled Russia with hard hand
/ it has dared to make and execute the
law, and has put the fear of the law in
| the hearts of the people.
Under the Soviet government the
machinery of the state creaks but does
function; operation is slow but or
| ganization is firm; ordination,
though complex, is specific.
One cannot charge the members Of
the Soviet government with fattening
on their jobs and prove the charge.
The great majority of workers, high
and low, in the government are sin
cere. capable and Industrious men. who
are suffering the same privations as
their fellows. Current opinion in some
quarters to the contrary, there is no
evidence that affairs are being manipu-
lated to a pass at which the leaders
can make profitable getaway"
Every energy of the government is put
forth to the maintenance Of its power,
even at the expense Of the life of the
Russian people.
SO close is the watch kept by the
government over the order of the