Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1922-08-22
Back From Stricken Country
Former Journal Photog-
rapher Paints Vivid Pic
ture of Starvation

A people stricken with poverty
and pestilence, too detected and dis.
couraged to attempt to save them.
selves; thousands dying daily of star
walton, or shot by military authori-
ties for trivial offenses; gaunt 1imbed
children. little more than animated
skeletons, without clothing in zero
weather; corpses scattered through
city streets awaiting the cartmen
who will haul them away to huge
pits for burial with hundreds of 9th
err unidentified unfortunates; dis
ease, sorrow and suffering beyond
human comprehension; a people
ruthlessly destroyed, victims Of
greed and brutal callousness, ma
ton hopelessly wrecked; peasants
solidly awaiting inevitable death.
without faith in God or love for
their fellow-men, tag-end remnants
of a once great empire.
That is the APPALLING picture
brought back from Russia by Floyd
A. Traynham, former member OF
The Journals Photographic depart
ment, who is visiting relatives in At
| la--ta after spending nearly five
months in what he characterized as
''the most desolate country hthe
world"
| Mr.. Traynham went abroad as
special representative Of the Ameri-
can relief administration; at the
same time he obtained pictures for
| Kilograms, an international news
movie pictorial. In this capacity
he Travelled in a private car with an
| r1;o npaI
was in a position to see and learn
more Of the true status Of affairs
in that country than any other
American recently returned from Eu-
rope. He investigated conditions
in Petrograd. M, cow, Riga, Odes-
sa, Ufa and other important cities.
He has been an eyewitness Of civil
iation in ruins land gives vivid,
graphic account Of what he saw.
Zen Millions a Day
"Ten million starving Russians
were being fed daily by the Ameri-
can relief administration when I
sailed for home," Mr.. Traynham
said. "But that is only a small pro-
portion Of the millions who face
death by starvation. the most hor-
rible form Of death.
Industries are practically non
existent; agricultural production has
almost ceased; the only business
practiced to any extent is the bar
ter Of household goods and personal
eff cts, which are exchanged for
the nearly worthless ruble to buy
food at exorbitant prices. The small
amount of food produced in the agri-
cultural districts is confiscated to
feed Trotzky's standing army OF
five million men.
"There is no incentive to labor or
Individual production because all in
dustries and everything else OF val
ue have been nationalized. The Rus
sian thinks, What is the use Of
building up industry? The govern
ment will seize my business as soon
as it becomes profitable No eff
fort toward reconstruction has been
made; no one attempts to rebuild
public structures destroyed during
the revolution or to restore shat
tered homes. Nothing is replaced.
When a door falls from it's hinges,
it is left to lie; when pane of
glass in window is broken, the in
mates Of the house, huddled in their
rags, shiver under the full sweep
of the icy winds, unprotesting, sunk
in a lethargy Of encouragement.
Their lack of energy or desire to i'm
prove their condition, their hopeless
resignation and child-like accept
ance of the situation without pro-
test, is the most pathetic thing
about the Russian people.
Eat Anything
Before the American relief adj
m stration came to their rescue,
the peasantry and starved city
jewellers were reduced to eating dogs
and cats and refuse picked up in
thu streets. It was said that many
of them practiced cannibalism to
keep alive. I talked it'll a peasant
farmer near Ufa who told me he
had eaten the bodies Of his father
and small son, an expressed the
wish that his wife, then sick, would
die before her body became further
emaciated.
1.-THE people I saw on the streets
in many of the cities 1 visited were
h nan rag-bags. They had no
cl thing worthy the n~me. They
wrapped themselves in torn bags
and shreds Of old clothing; when
winter came, they swathed them
selves in more rags, filthy beyond
description. A change of attire was
luxury undreamed of.
"a large percentage Of Russians
have become what the American
relief administration termed 'refu-
gees people who leave their bar
rem homesteads and roam aimless-
ly, picking up food vicariously wher-
ever they chance to find it. They
have but one desire, to get out OF
tn. country. Members of the up
per class, the intellectuals, have dis
appeared, either killed by the peas
antry or escaped across the border.
Only the sta ing army and the
peasantry remain. The peasants
are regarded by the government and
soldiery as stupid beasts whose lives
are not worth preserving. They are
robbed, prosecuted and terrorized.
GAS a result, the people have lost
all moral restraint. They are indif-
ferent to consequences. Nothing
matters. They are generally lack
ing in the ordinary reticences of
civilized people. In many instances
IT, y are only a few PAGES ahead
of the animal.
Death for Nothing
Instant death is the penalty for
| the slightest misdemeanor. The gov
eminent cannot afford to keep pris-
Oner~ IN jail, LOOu Is 100 SCARCE. Liz
simplest expedient is to execute them.
have seen Red guards stab to
death small children for no greater
crime than picking up grains Of
corn spilled from a relief train. Men
and women were shot down for steal
ing food. Mass graves, pits large
enough to hold two hundred bodies,
are dug outside the larger cities.
Corpses collected on the streets each
day are dumped Unfortunately
in4o these graves. In one morning
saw the bodies of more than two
| hundred small children who had
starved to death buried in this man.