Evening star., 1924-08-14
ARTICLE XI.

Rolsheyism. having alienated the
peasantry by laundering ignorance
of the peasant problem, and dis
couraxed wage earners with a COM
munism whose dividends are low
wages and unemployment, is trying
to save its bacon through the chill
dren and youth of today. Catch EN-
young and train 'em right, Is the
recipe on which they are WORKING
with more success, it must be ad-
mitted. than has attended their ef-
forts to win over the grown-ups.
They are Iaboring unremittingly on
the Youngsters of all ages, from the
Tommy fuckers Of and 4 in the
orphanges and institutions, who sing
for their suppers in boisheVlst
Mother Goose rhymes. to- the youths
of Is to 19. for whom lively good
times with ''the gang" and member
shin in the League of Communist
Youth are made Synonymous, and who
are fattered and educated alike by
being allowed to form the cheering
section at bolshevist gatherings.
Even the army is regarded very
largely as a boarding school in whlch
the young peasant recruits are given
a two-year course in communism
in hope that some of it will stick.
They are having the greatest sue
cess in the institutions where live the
children whose parents are dead,
missing or believers in the bolsheVlst
doctrine that a home and family life
are bad for children. and in the
Boy and Girl Scout movement, where
enthusiastic youngsters collect COM
munist catchwords as those in Amer
lea collect postage stamps.
Children in the former are par
ticularly susceptible because they are
completely. under the influence OF
their bolshevist matrons and teach
ers and have no standards OF criti-
cism or comparison. The children
attending the day schools are more
difficult material to work on, as they
bring from their homes, often when
those homes are communist, a QueS-
tioning disposition of the kind that
makes a child a problem to the wise
man everywhere. 1 have frequently
read in the newspapers letters from
communist teachers complaining of
the difficulty Of overcoming such
home prejudices and suggesting best
answers to particularly puzzling
questions.
B0lsheyist Scout M0venhent.
In the scout or pioneer" move
ment, embracing children Of from
s or 9 to 13 and IA, bolshevist dog
mas are absorbed like scout law in
the American institutions, the scout
masters and mistresses being all COM
munists and working on carefully de-
signed lines. One of the most strik-
ing impressions of my stay in Russia
was felt by n congress Of the COM
munist Boy Scouts, at which a 13-
year-old orator. knee high to a
grasshopper." delivered glib speech,
as full of grown-up bolshevist phrase
ology and Leninisms as the adjura-
tion of the veteran politbureau lead
err to whom he was replying. The
latter had addressed his words to
"the hope of bolshevism, the youth
of the coming generation" The boy
orator wound up with a pledge that
the young guard stood ready to seize
the torch of bolshevism whenever 1t
dropped from the faltering hands Of
the old guard and carry the light on
to future generations. He and his
chums took themselves very serious
ly and evidently believed themselves
capable of stepping into the breach
and grabbing the torch that minute If
necessary.
Groups Of the scouts or Of children
from the bolshevist institutions are
everyday sights on the streets of
Moscow, the latter, indeed. rather pitt
full sights as their teachers shepherd
them about, all dressed exactly alike
in the drab uniformity which child
hood 5detests, and singing the doggerel
dirge. Thou Hast Left Us, o Lenin, .
anti-religious hymes and songs about
the wickedness and coming extermi-
nation of the hateful sBuryhur
(bourgeoise). whom their infantile
minds probably equip with horns, tails
and other AppurtenAnces OF the bogie
man.
Children and scouts were given .