Evening star., 1924-08-14
BY SEYMOUR B. CONCER.

very prominent place in the May day
exercises this year, although the IN
tention to make May a Children' S
May day. celebrated with all-day
outings in the parks. with prizes for
the best singing OF Thou Hast Left
Us. o Lenfn'' and the "Interna-
tionale," with games and free ice
cream. was abandoned for fear of in
clement weather. The movies how
ever. opened their doors free TO child
audience May 1 and ., with a mixed
program of Jackie Coogan and boil
shevist propaganda film
The "Comsomol' Oeague of Com
munist YOUTH has it's clubhouseS for
youths on the verge of mans estate,
with games and periodicals, debating
societies, evening entertainments and
Dances and is run with considerable
skill. The worldwide desire to make
a noise Is catered to by borrowing
the American practice of college yells
of which the "ComSomoltsf" have a
large variety which they let off at
communist gatherings. and other ap-
propriate and inappropriate occasions,
to their own satisfaction.
4. Youths Cheer Trotsky.
= OF late, the ComsomoIsti have been
embarra ssing the party machine by
y,
popularity with them has waXd
rather than waned in consequence
of his being disciplined by the ma
chine. They have been turning out
| to cheer him regularly in his daily
speech making campaign, with which
he is trying to organize his oppoSi-
tion following against the machine,
and have a special yell in which the
Trotsky services are extolled.
This boisheviZing among the chill
dren and youth, however, has it's linz
itations. In the first place. it reaches
only a comparatively limited number
of the young Russians. An attempt
has been made to spread the Com
somor' generally throughout the viii
lagos, but the peasant elders in many
| cases are sitting down hard on the
movement because of it's irreverent
spirit toward religion and parental
authority.
The chief Limitation on its influence
on the coming generations. how
ever, the. fact that innoculation with
bolshevist doctrine does not take
permanently in most cases. OF men,
bers Of the Comsomol, only per cent
enter the Communist party. The
others drift away and discard their
communism as they get regular jobs
| marry and rear families. These are
the official communist figures, which
are a source of deep distress and con-
Germ to the official bolshevist papers
and the bolshevist leaders. / have
| not seen any figures on the efficacy
of the bolshevist vaccination in the
scout movement, but doubt whether
| the craze. which I Intentionally com
pared to postage stamp collecting and
other enthusiasns of youth, is or will
be any more lasting than such en-
thusiasm customarily are with the
majority of boys.
Regarding the army, I know def
nitely from the complaints of officers
and political commissars that the
peasant conscripts customarily slough
off the effect of the communist teach
ings within a few months after their
return to their villages. Every ef-
fort is made to hold. them perma-
nently. This year the soldiers were
furnished on discharge with a care
fully selected stock Of books, litera-
ture and letter paper, and were ex-
horted for weeks before their re-
lease to spread the light among their
fellows of the land and to keep in
touch regularly by letter with their
old officers Few letters were re-
ceived and most Of these were fiffed
with unpleasant truths on the sit
| uation in the villages. OF the soldiers
discharged last year, it is said in
army circles that virtually all of them
have been lost to communism, despite
the attention devoted to their poll
tical education in the ranks.
Copyright, 1894, by Public Ledger co..