Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-12-29
Russia Introduces Education Program
BY FREDERIC J. HASKIN.

The steps by which Russia under
the SovietS Is returning to the capital
istic system are almost imperceptihle
because no very long step is taken At
one time. These steps might be COM
parable to those of a child learning
to walk. The idea of a communicate
government might be likened to a child.
The infant state set out on its career
more than 10 years ago as blindly but
also as confidently as the infant hui
man. It smashed everything around
1t and laid down fresh rules of an
amazing Simplicity-the giSt Of which
was to destroy everything that was
incompatible with the communistic
whim
The child has no idea whatever of
property rights. Neither had the first
Soviet state. But the child thinks
that 1t has a right 70 grasp everything
within reach. So did the Soviet state.
The first returns to the capitalistic
system are matters of familiar recent
hiStory-how money was reintroduced
and the basic idea of capital recog-
nized. Trade had been abolished in
the beginning, but this, too, it was
found, had to be restored. If today a
comprehensive comparison of what was
forbidden by Lenin and what now is
not only permitted but foStered by the
Moscow government were made, it
would be seen that Russia Is more than
half way back to capitalism. Nearly
10 years ago Herbert Hoover, then Sec
rotary of Commerce. declared that one
OF the gravest dangers Russia was fac.
ing was the rise of a new generation
which would lack the training Of the
preceding one, and be untutored in any
fresh knowledge.
When work was abolished in Russia
by the advent of the revolution there
was no incentive on the part of the
youth OF the land to learn trades or
cultivate the habit of industry. The
whole nation was in turmoil with civil
war within its borders and attacks
threatened from without. There was
no incentive to raise crops because the
Red Army would confiScate them.
There was no incentive to work for
money because there was no money.
There was no incentive to work at all
because property rights we're non-exis-
tent. What Mr.. Hoover feared took place
The apprentice system broke down
completely. The youth of the land
could see no point in learning trades
when the state would not permit any
benefit to accrue individually from eff
fort. Moreover, there was no one to
teach a trade nor any one to set an
example of industry So an entire
oNNSA0HAOh ny
practical handicraft and unimpressed by
the importance of labor.
Five-Year Plan.
The semi-capitalistic Soviet Russia
of today is paying dearly for the origi-
nal tantrum. Soviet leaders who have
foreseen the necessity of creeping back
as far as possible to the capitalistic
system have launched the five-year
plan for the industrial development Of
Russia. The capitalist system in the
simplest terms means q system by
which man works for pay and is
permitted to keep as his own what he
earns. This is the system which Lenin
sought to destroy but which present-day
Russia Is re-espouSing.
The industrialization Of such a vast
and populous nation as Russia cannot
be accomplished without work, and work
of a highly skilled order. 1t is at this
point, therefore, that the economic
tragedy of abandonment of apprentice
ship 10 years ago is strongly felt. With
the keen desire to emulate other
industrial nations, especially the United