The Indianapolis times., 1923-12-08

By SENATOR S. w. BROOKHART
In the Locomotive Engineers Journal
~ WENT to Russia to get facts.
Facts, primarily. about agri-
4 cultural conditions-the crops,
the markets, transportation, the great
cooperative. distributing agencies.
I wanted to see this mammoth ex-
pertinent in workers government at
work, to see what it had done for the
farmers, how quickly it was repairing
the havoc OF seven years of internal
and external wars.
Those are the facts which you can't
get at long distance. nor through the
average newspaper story. It's rare
person in Europe even who knows the
truth about Russia.
Peasants Are Happy.
I saw two thousand miles of farms
intensively planted and with good
crops everywhere. I talked to these
peasants everywhere and found them
the happiest, most contented and most
hopeful people in all Europe. They
are free, they vote in all the elec.
tions, their taxes are low, not half
the rate Of ours; they have the per
petual use of their houses and farms.
They have the greatest thirst for ed
ucation I have ever seen. Since Rus
sia is more than 80 per cent peasant
and about per cent labor, these facts
are very impressive In proving the
stability Of the new government.
All Support Soviet
Russian peasants are practically
unanimous in their support Of the
Soviet government and are enthusi-
astic about the possibilities Of the
future. They are we'll pleased with
the Soviet land policy and are quite
as well satisfied with the new system
of taxation. There can be no doubt
the peasants Of Russia will harvest
a large surplus for export.
In fact, they are so confident Of
a surplus crop they are already sell
ing their surplus Of last year. I saw
long strings of their little one-horse
wagons coming into the stations load
ed with sacks Of grain for sale.
found one place in Europe where they
had already sold and delivered 5000
L
fifteen ships that had taken cargoes
from Crimean ports and others from
Odessa. In all. 1t was estimated this
old surplus will amount to a million
tons and harvesting was ready to
begin on the new crop.
Railroads in Good Shape
I found the railroads in good con-
dition and every train on time. The
cars were clean, the service good, and
the meals satisfactory. I saw much
new work on the railroads, especially
in the war districts. I was informed
80 per cent Of the mileage IS now In
operation and for the first time they
have their own locomotive shops. This
was confirmed by American repre-
sentatives OF the Baldwin Locomotive
Company at Bucharest
Russia's elections are run exactly
like the old stand-pat Republican
caucuses and they ought to be re-
formed and viii be in time. Every
body women and all, vote-except
the czarists. certain intellectuals ana
employers of labor. These exceptions
are an unIalT DISQUALIFICATION anu
ought to be removed.
Communism Is Dead.
Communism as II started is dead.
Even the state operated enterprises
are being reorganized as cooperatives
with the approval Of the government.
Cooperation has grown to six times
its volume before the revolution.
As matter now stand there are three
alternatives in Russia: The present
government. czarism. or chaos. The
soviet government is many times bet
ter than Czarism which we recognized
for 40 years. The recognition Of
government does not mean its ap-
proval. If it did l should oppose 1t and
there are several other countries
whose recognition would withdraw.
There is only one argument for the
recognition Of Russia. It may tend
to settle the world unrest and TO re-
store world prosperity.