Evening star., 1922-01-20
CRANE PICTURES
RUSSIA OF TODAY
intellectually Dead" Is Men,
tai Status of Home OF
the Reds.

Expressing the strongest opposition
to the United States ever having any
relations with Russia until the entire
Russian government has been repudi-
ated. Charles r. Crane, former United
States minister to China, who recent
ly spent six weeks touring Russia in
his private car, spoke at luncheon
held at the Russian embassy under
the auspices of the committee Tor
Russian relief. headed by Mrs. Robert
Lansing and Princess Cantacuzene, to
day.
Besides sketching the hopeless general
conditions in which the country has
fallen, the brutal tyranny Of the bolshe-
Wiki, the status Of the church and army,
fear, disease and starvation that are
found on all sides. Mr.. Crane told
graphically Of the disastrous effects
of the red regime on education, the adj
yancement Of the professions, art and
the total lack of the ordinary comforts
and pleasures of life. He said that II
the United States were given RUSSIA
as a territory there would not be in
teIlectual men enough found in Rus
sia to form the nucleus of a provisional
government
.IntelIectuaily Dead"
Russia is intellectually dead said
Mr.. Crane. in describing the mental
status of Russian people. THE great
university at Tomsk is a mere mock
cry of its former standing, with lis
poorly clad, poorly fed group OF pro-
fessors going through the motions or
running a university. They are with
out supplies of food. fuel. light or
equipment, with only dead books and
the merest pretense of meeting the
needs of the thousand students. who
likewise go through the motions OF
desiring TO be educated.
Terrorism constantly overhanging
and systematically applied is slowly
crushing out Of Russia all educa-
tional and professional activity. for
what is true of Tomsk is also true of
the entire educational system. Men
of brains shut off from contact with
the balance of the world for -four
years. deprived of books and news.
papers, except such as the bolsheviki
choose to issue. living under a COM
pulsorY employment system and the
terrorist espionage, never knowing
| what hour may bring their execution
cannot keep their mentality even nor
nal.
True in Other Lines.
This is true in other lines also
Physicians in the hospitals reported
the same mental inertia. The hos
pitals are merely buildings into which
| are taken i'll and wounded. There Is
no medicine, no soap or other cleans
ing material. no sheets, no appliances
| for sick relief whatsoever. Physicians
even have ceased the farce of writing
prescriptions, since in all of Russia
there are literally no drugs accessible
to the public. Deprived Of medical
of the discoveries and innovations In
their profession. the medical men OF
this unfortunate country are also
retrograding.
TT would seem as though the over
ruling principle in .ne bolshevik pro-
gram is to vitiate, corrupt and delib-
erately demoralize the population, ard
toward this end the country is ration
ed on the most meager living allow
ance, for which each must do his al
lotted task"
Russia's Show Place.
Moscow, Mr. Crane said. is the show
place of the government. SO to speak
Here the bolsheviki were camoufaged
and, with their best foot foremost,
life and capacity for their govern
ment. Installed in an old Russian
palace, with a full complement OF
servants and lackeys. certain for.
eigners who were the commissars
guests were treated to a prosperous
appearance. insufficient food, the
horrible black bread they serve. dis.
pels the illusion, since it is sour an6
tough and a far crv froe1 the bread