The Washington times., 1922-03-30

most too much considering the gen
eral situation. Here the children had
so little that they were constantly
hungry. and what little they got had
to be obtained with the greatest diff
fculty.
Soon I learned q few facts. There
was not enough food or clothing In
Russia for all the children. The Boil
sheviki thought II necessary to have
q few show schools in each city for
the benefit Of the foreign missions.
For the children the same situa ion
delegations and reporters. The chill.
drsn were exhibited. paraded on ev-
cry occasion and written about. These
schools received the cream of every
thing. What was left went to the
other schools. which were. Of course.
in the majority.
Persons that visited the show
schools only and judged Of the care
Of children in Russia by them, went
away utterly ignorant Of the true
conditions of tho mass of children
under the Bolshevik regime.
Allied intervention and the block
ade are chiefly responsible for the
terrible poverty In Russia. Yet what
ever there was Of life's necessities for
the children could have been dis
tributed more equitably. The Boil
shevik system itself involved the dis.
elimination and inequality In regard
to the children, a. II did in the treat.
ment of the workers. For the lat.
ter there were various cateEortes OF
rations. officially planned and car
ried out.
Mora' Effect Bad, Too.
obtained In practice, though more un.
officially. In the first place, the sys-
TEN of show" schools itself was vi
cious, dem,rniziins and establishing
special priv..eses. That N return in
volved prste1se, sham and deceit.
which could not help having their ef-
feet upon teachers az well as chill
dren.
But mos. vi ell. II was the central
ization Of tho State and its resultant
complex machinery of bureaucratic
officialdoru dat made the best ef-
forts of the Bolshevili, in this as in
other directions. futile and barren.
A hundred years ago Gogoi
startled hia countrymen by his great
work, do al souls" 1t was a scath-
ing arraigninSnt Of Russian feudal-
ism and its rarasitism. Lead Souls
have come TO life again in Russia.
But there Is nc Gogol to pillory them.
And II there were, he would nave
much less ch Ance Of a hearing in the
Russia OF today than the great
Qogol had in his time.
Who ara the modern deal souls?
That will be best clarified by illustra-
ton. Every CT cieche. boarding school.
reformato-y-in fact, every institu-
ton where children and grown peo-
pie live, 10 entitled to as many food
and clothing rstions A. the number
of its inmateA.
All institutions depend on the Cen
tral Distributing Department Tin Pc
trograd, the Pterokommuna; in Mos
COW, the Mo~kommuna. etc. for their
| supplies. Numerous orders signed
and countersls ned by scores OF
tchinovnik. must be secured for
everything needed by . given insti-
tuition.
Food Given in Bribes.
The tchinovniki systematically de-
laying matters until they receive
some bribe. II becomes necessary to
get orders for more than the actual
number Of the population in-the insti-
tuition 80 that some extras" may be
left for bribes a. well as for the
hungry friends Of the economic
manager" Of the institution in charge
OF the supplies.
For instance. the school Of my
friend had sixty-five children. All
former niatrons had added a number
OF fictitious names-"dead souls"-to
the actual total of the children In the
schools. In return for the extra ra-
tions thus secured and used az a
bribe, the matrons were assured
quick service. Having In this man.
per provided themselves with in
fluence" in the various departments,
1t did not matter II the managers in
charge of the schools sabotaged their
work, neglected and even abused the
children or often speculated with the
provisions obtained for the inmates
They had friends on high"
The results of this pleasant ar
rangement, universal in Russia, are
obvious, of course. But nv friend