Evening star., 1925-05-24
False Soviet Theories Balk
Recognition by America

have conducted relief operations in
Russia know that if we did not have
special written agreements. even re-
lief operations would have been prac-
ticallY impossible in view of the de-
nlands of the labor unions under the
la Dor code. The result has been what
Mr.. Hoover has SO aptly called an
economic vacuum ] remember
very picturesque proverb, once cur
rent among Russia MS but il seems to
have been lost sight of entirely when
it came to industry and the organiza-
ton Of their economic life-'With
seven nurses the child is blind.
Children Property of State.
:. Children are considered the prop
erty of the state, and the only reason
why the Soviet government has not
taken all the children and gathered
them into orphan asylums is simply
because they have not as yet been
able TO furnish buildings enough to
hold them. But the principle of prac-
tical state ownership of the child was
iudiCially affirmed in the organ Of the
department of Justice on September
Is. 1923. In other words. the whole
tendency of modern democracy. which
is to enhance and protect the rights
of the individuals, here receives an
absolute veto. The child in Russia is
considered to be primarily an instru-
mentality for the ACKNOWLEDGMENT of
the state. In American Jurisprudence
and in Christian philosophy the state
is bound to protect the interests of
the individual having been created by
the collective will of the individual
members of civil society. That is re-
versed in Soviet Russia. There the
Communist state Is the be-all and the
end-all of the entire system of juris-
prudence. and the individual is i'm
portant only as a means to an eco
nomic end. That is the direct anti
thesis of our individua listic concept of
free democracy.
s. He shall not provide for his
children any education except that
provided and prepared by the literary
guides of Soviet Russia.
Death for Religious Teaching.
9. Sho7 Id he attempt to give his
children religious instruction he may
be shot. / did not expect in this
day and generation to witness in
the city of Moscow scenes that might
have been staged in the arena under
Trajan, or Nero, or Diocletian, or
any one of the Caesars. The al
legged political activity of certain &c
clesiastics is but a revamping of the
old device adopted by the pagan per-
secutors. There is a law in Russia
the only place 1 know of in the civ.
iliZed world with such a law-to the
effect that to teach religion to any
body under Is years of age is pun
ishable with death. I saw men go
to their death, surrounded by Boil
shevik bayonets, because they re-
frc 70 ttvn fno i,p Cl,~;e
tian religion.
l heard the chief prosecuting at
torney of the Soviet government ask
IA men: will you stop teaching the
Christian religion?" May we not feel
a just qualification to know that
every one of those men replied: Il
will not, because it is the law of
Cod? And the answer came back
in my hearing: That divine law
which you quote does not exist in
Soviet territory. You must choose
between the divine law, so called by
you, and the Soviet law They
chose. Some of them are rotting
there in prison cells at this moment.
One in particular they singled out
as their answer to the universal pro-
test Of the civilized world and blew
his brains out on Good Friday night,
1923.
Counter Revolutionary Acts.
10. A man is also liable to be shot
in Soviet Russia if he contributes
any help to his own country. / am
not speaking of time of war. That
would constitute a legitimate cause
for punishment for treason. If you
should go to Moscow, tomorrow and
send back to the United States even
a harmless report on the crop, or a
report on economic conditions, If 1t
displeases the central executive COM
mittee you can be shot for IT. Other
wise, what does article 81 of the
penal code mean when it says: ANY
support given to those sections of
the international bourgeoise which
do not allow equal rights to the
Communist system of ownership
are likewise to be considered
counter revolutionary acts" Any
help consequently given to a govern
ment which does not recognize the
communist system of confiscating
private property is a counter revo-
lutionary act under the criminal
code and you can be shot for 1t.
They justify it as economic espion-
age" There has developed an ex-
tension. to that which l am still puz-
zling over A man could also be in
dicted for unconscious economic es-