The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1926-11-06

AuA4B lOi the uGdu LlOuA dlLSI QluuST
when all good patients go to bed.
Yet still the women did not come.
We knew that they were lingering in
the Peasants Sanitarium, ten minutes
walk away in the famous summer
palace Of the car, with it's gorgeous
park and gardens.
One Eager to See Them.
sat on the driveway among beds OF
red and golden flowers looking down
thru vineyards to the Black Sea. One
of the women physicians sat beside
me, her eyes wandering alternately
down the driveway towards the gate
and then back to the balconies of the
sleeping rooms. Thru the ratings
peered multitudinous insubordinate
faces, which should have been in bed.
"They are like children" said the
doctor, smiling. you wouldn't think
they were grown-up workers. Yet
can't blame them. This is the first
group Of foreign women we have seen
since the revolution"
| CUDDENLY "a giggle rang out from
~ the women's wing of the building,
followed by another and another. 1t
was plain that at least four rooms
were full Of laughter. Swiftly the doc
tor went into the sanitarium, return
ing in a moment with a hardly sup
pressed smile: 1.-THE representative
Of the young patients is practicing
her speech. She is scared stiff. She
has never met a delegation before"
Patients Organized.
You see,ewe were all organizing 10
welcome our guests. For a santa
rum in Russia is not just a discon-
nected group of individuals, as it is
in America. In America the patients
have nothing to do with the manage
ment They merely submit; If they
don't like the treatment or the food
they go away to another place-if they
are rich, or grin and bear it if they
are charity cases, But here the work
ers go to ssanitariums thru the Social
Insurance of their unions, and the
sanitariums belong to them collect
ivoly. No sooner have they arrived
and got acquainted than they organ
ize, true to Soviet tradition. their com
mittees and sections. Thereafter, If
you don't like the food or the doctors,
you raise an organized fight about it.
And If German women's delegations
visit you they are received, not only
by the management, but, above all,
by the general assembly of the pa
tents.
TT is worth noting, however. that no
one dressed up" for the delegation.
There were not even clean kerchiefs
doled out to the women; the white
shapeless sanitarium clothing, some
what mussed by wear, and the black
wooden cloaks remained in their every
day condition. But the mems section
and the womens section and the
young peoples section each chose
their representatives to make
speeches-and these workers, who
nine years ago were suppressed, 81
lent, illiterate even, were thinking
over the words of welcome for their
distinguished foreign guests. One
prepares for labor delegations in the
Soviet Union, not with clothes, but
with speeches.
They Come-At Last.
At last arrived the two large auto
coaches, and the delegation proceeded
to the chief doctors room to wash up
for dinner. The doors Of dozen
rooms opened as they passed and the
patients poured into the corridors, lin
ing them with curiosity. Between
cheering and clapping files there
passes into the dining-room a thin line
of tired, pleasant, rather dowdy-look-
ing German working women, smiling
back at their hosts. Then the doors
we're closed and the voices Of nurses
sound in the hall: Get back to bed.
for heavens sake. You can get
whole hour of rest before they Will
finish dinner"
TN the dining room l sit next to the
president of the delegation.
kindly German working woman, for
many years a member Of the social
N0AANSAohAC patty VI ln6
worn elderly woman beyond her has
belonged to a union for "a years and
to the social democratic party for 81
years. One remembers from this how
old the workers movement is in Ger
many, how much it has seen and en-
dured Yet now these veteran mem
bers are threatened with expulsion
from their party for daring to come
on this excursion to Soviet Russia.
They form one-third Of the delega-
ton; another third consists Of non.
partisans and slightly less than q
third Communists.
Peasants Are Magnet.
I'VE couldn't drag ourselves away
from Peasants Sanitarium," says the
president of the delegation, explain
ing their lateness. This was orr
first chance to talk to peasants from
all over the Soviet Union, and they