The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1925-07-23


knew all about them, He knew that
lin the summer they go camping in
tents and have plenty of fresh air;
in the winter they have all kinds of
classes-for various hand-work and
knowledge; in the spring they have a
big exhibition of their work" :.
This he had learned way down on the
Volga in the handbook he gets from
the Communist Youth, to teach him
how to organize other boys and girls.
Women Must BE Educated.
He said that Saratov had promised
School of Peasant, Youth if we
could furnish a building. And it seems
there is building. former barracks
where the soldiers slept who came at
harvest time to work for the grand
duke. During the civil war and fam
inc it was used by hundreds of refu-
gees who burned its floors for fuel
and blackened its walls with their
smoke. But the strong brick building
still stands, needing calsomining, win
dows and flooring. Here is a regular
audience hall, with theater; here is
space for two classrooms; here is a
club-room. and library, and a small
apartment for the club-leader.
1t will cost $1,000 to make COM
plete social center here And when
we get it think We will name it, not
after John Reed as the colony is
named, but after some woman {.
For that also is part of our fight for
! the New Russia against the old. Out
here in the back country it is still
hard for people to believe that women
are citizens, and that girls as well as
boys should have shoes and also
knowledge. 4
Our young Comsomolist also tells
me of a new peasant library put out
by the Government Publishing House,
100 small volumes for $500! 1t
beats even the famous 5 cent libraries
of America And it tells about every
thing peasant needs to know from
Lenin to tractors! $50 we are buying
two of these for use in our library.
Radio Spreads Like Fire.
And games and SOCIAL life! And a
radio with which to hear concerts and
lectures from MoscoY, Leningrad and
Kiev! Yes, radio, also has spread
like wild-fre thru the Soviet Union
and where is it more, needed than in
these dark centers many miles from
railroads, snow-bound in winter,
where now it becomes possible to hear
the best city CONCEPTS. a
They are putting on radio programs
instructing peasants1 AS for games,
perhaps somewhere in Russia there
have been beautiful folk-dances in the
past. But most of this talk about the
social charm of old world peasant life
is just an out-and-0ut lie. No Rus
sian peasant children that knew
ever learned to play games. There
are no balls around. AS for winter
sports, shedding, skating, even making
snow-men,-when have Russian peas
ant children had shoes and coats to go
outdoors in?
Huddled on their great stoves they
passed the winter months and came
out to work or lie in the sun in the
spring The chief social Amusement
possible was calling the girls names
when you were little, or spooning with
them when you were big.
Form New coIIectives.
Yes, that is peasant life with the
glamour removed. But now we are
to have a real club, with stage and
a library. And a radio. And besides
our young Comsomolist we maye have
club leader from America for the
winter woman to work with him
and to organize the girls. And tt
bring in some standards of life thai
he doesn't know about; mosquito-net
ting, for instance, so that our chill
dren's legs will not be covered witt
great red welts and so that we car
knead our bread without kneadinl
hundreds of flies into it also. Fol
these also are some of the unconsid
cred joys of PEASANT life, untouched
by civilization!
AS for the future of these children
already there are signs of what the,
will wish to do. Zen of the older boys
seventeen and teighteen years old
have made formal application to form
their own working collective this au
tumn. They waAtto live at the colon,
another year and use the implements
OF the colony, but taking up new lane
of their own, and having the right t
their own harvest.