The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1927-10-21

learn 'all about Russia in the time at its
disposal Yet the fact that each economic
specialist covered a particular field in which
he was Well-informed and put his research at
our command; that the group divided into
five parts, each travelling almost continuously
for several weeks, covering thousands of
mlles-partly through country untouched by
railroads; that we went where we wanted to
go and saw what we wanted to see; that we
visited Moscow, Leningrad, and seven other
large cities as well as the great industrial
center of the Donetz Basin, the Caucasus. the
Upper Volga, the Ural mountains, the Crimea,
the Ukraine, including Odessa and Kherson; ;
that everything was open to us from the
books of factory to the office of the foreign
minister; that we talked with workers, with
leaders of both factions within the Commun-
list Party, with former White officers and
Mensheviks bitterly hostile to the govern
ment; that we had Interpreters of our own
and selected additional assistance carefully
lead us to believe that we achieved a more
reliable survey than any one could secure in
dividually.
We must record the fact that the Russians
made no apparent effort to hide the bad al
though they displayed pardonable pride in
showing us the best Indeed, almost invaria-
bly,, the officials who most impressed us with
their ability and sincerity were anxious to
hear our criticism of the weak points in the
Soviet regime. There was no objection to
our talking to any one, either through inter
prefers or in languages we understood There
seemed to be real readiness to help us get
the facts. The request was repeatedly made
by workers and officials that on our return
home we simply "tel the truth about Russia"
This duty we shall strive to discharge con-
scientiously.
A line running roughly through Berlin and
Vienna divides Eastern Europe from Western.
It marks off two civilizations. One is indus
trial, tidy, clean, composed The other is
agricultural untidy alternating a lavish
splendOr with down-at-the-heel drabness. In
the latter area fall the Baltic and Balkan
states, Turkey, Poland and Russia To one
who knows only western civilization, the east
is strange, uncouth, frequently unpleasant.
1t is long, long way from Main Street
1t is therefore difficult to Judge modern
Russia honestly Prejudices will be colored
by many considerations which have nothing
to do with the revolution; which are implicit
in the East, whatever the form of govern
ment. It is well nigh impossible to discount
those prejudices, unless one knows the East,
or has lived in Russia under the car, and can
thus soberly judge what is with what was or
compare what is with like civilization next
door-say Poland.
Most of us did not have this advantage.
Two days in Poland were not enough to
change the outlook of lifetime We CANA
suddenly into a strange land In France,
Germany, Belgium and Holland we recognized
certain basic kinship, but Russia was diff
ferent world; it's people lived differently from
our people; its ways were not our ways
Measured by the standards of such a city
as Philadelphia, Moscow, with an equal popu-
lation, is at once more gorgeous and more
ramshackle. Noble spires and peeling stucco
cobblestone streets, swarms of booths and
peddlers, motors one to the block instead of