Evening star., 1927-03-13
Former Leader VIII See
Washington During Two
Months Visit.
Interviews, Stories and Pos.
sibly Lectures Will Oc-
cupy His Tour.
RY EDWARD BARNES.

Pacing up and down hotel room,
hands clenched behind his back, a
huge head, with close-cropped halr
bowed slightly in brooding thought,
Alexander Fedorovitch Kerensky re-
called that momentous day, almost
, exactly 10 years ago when the commit
tee of IL met secretly in his home
in st. Petersburg.
1t is not strange that that day, the
18th of March, 1917. should have be.
come symbol of the past, symbol OF
the future, for this short, stocky man
of As, with pallid face, squirting eyes
and dominating manner, who IS Visit
ing our country for the first time
after 10 years of exile from the
country he tried desperately but un'
successfully to guide through the
crisis of revolution.
Gentlemen" he said on that eve
ming to the leaders of the social
revolutionary party, you are in the
midst of revolution" And these men,
who had been working for years to
overthrow the regime OF the Czars'
decrepit in it's senility, scoffed at ker'
ensky's prophesy. The following
day. March 12. revolution swept Rus
sia, for six months event followed
event with lightning-lik rapidity. Out
of the turmoil rose Kerensky, former
LAWYER, radical member of the Duma.
BY July he had risen to a position oil
virtual dictatorship, as premier OF the
provisional democratic government SET
up, succeeding Prince George Lvov.
Has Magnetic Personality.
With his magnetic personality and
commanding powers of oratory
Kerensky attempted the impossible
Out of the anarchy of revolution he
tried to raise unified democratic re
publican form of government with
Socialistic tendencies. The middle
class he counted on for his backing
proved to be insignifcantly small, in
choate and undecided as to what they
wanted The army suffering losses
amounting to nearly six millions in
the World War, uncared for, without
ammunition, was utterly demoralized
For four months, with indomitable
courage, Kerensky struggled with the
complex problems.
In November of the same year he
disappeared. Lenin and Trotzky, with
their Bolshevist followers, advocating
Communism, swept into command
Thousands of peasants who had toiled
for ages on land they could not own
were given the land. The proletariat
oppressed under Cars, was given a
commanding voice in affairs.
Emerges From Anarchy.
This movement had backing and for
10 years it has been gathering and
strengthening its power and the
country has emerged from anarchy
into comparative prosperity. Lenin
became the hero of the Russian rev
olution. The man who might have
been hero under different circum
stances paced, like a Gagged tiger, ur
and down the narrow confines of a
hotel room a day after his recent
arrival in this country.
1T will happen again." he said
Men scoffed at me on that day in
March when I told them the revoIu.
ton had begun. There are those who
scoR at ne now. when / say that just
such a revolution is again imminent
in Russia. In the near future the
Bolshevist regime will be crushed
and destroyed, just as we destroyed
the iron rule of the Cars. Each
week, during the past few years,
have had word from Russia, from lfb.
eral democrats there. A democratic
government is forming quietly within
Russia, there will be no need of inn.
porting men from outside, though II
leaders are needed, I and my friends
in exile are ready for our return"
KerensIxy's Escape Secret.
How Kerensky made his escape
from Russia on that fateful day for
him of November /, 1917, will prob
ably remain always secret, shared
by him with friends still in Russia
who aided him. The details of the
escape might cause the punishment
even the execution of these latter, now