Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-01-25

CONTINUED From First Page.l
can be obtained in the government
owned hotels at which I stayed. But
dinner here is far from cheap. A din
ner costs $3.50. 1t is plentiful and
good"
In the smaller villages the govern
ment shop is open for but an hour and
| half once a month. This is a great
event in the lives of the people and
| there Is a tremendous rush and scram-
| bic to make purchases. When the
peasants buy their supplies grumbling
comments are frequently made by the
women about the shoddy town goods for
which they have to give their good wheat
and grain.
Peasant Found FESTIVE.
Everywhere Mrs. Hamilton found the
peasant more prone TO rebel than the
town worker and women more express
sive Of their feelings than the men.
The clothes obtainable at the govern
ment store are poorly made and expen-
Sive. A Communist who was wearing
new suit was asked by Mrs. Hamilton
how much he had paid for it. He re-
! piled that the price was $40 and this
| after he had received the special dis
count to which he is entitled as a
member of the Communist party
The market at Smolcnski is described
| as typical. On one side there are food
| stalls kept by private sellers who pay
rent to the government and on the
other there is a great collection of
! people in queer nondescript clothing
who carry trays in front of them with
| odd trinketS and stray remnants-a top
| hat, a silver spoon, a photograph frame
scent bottle, fur, ikons, old gloves and
other articles they wish to sell.
All Seek Education.
That these articles may be second
| third, or even fourth hand, that they
match neither in style nor color, is
nothing, Mrs Hamilton said. They are
durable and inexpensive, whereas brand
new clothing at the government store
| is high in price and poor in quality
The needs of the mind are perhaps
being better supplied than those of the
body. Everybody is hot in the pursuit
| of education and all are compelled to
| sit and make pothooks and to listen to
| lectures on Russian art.
The cinemas, theaterS and opera are
| filed with rows of Stolid, unsmilins
workers who are commanded to attend
| the performances.
Each factory receives a supply OF
tickets from the government which II
| hands out to the workers. That the
worker might prefer to pass the eve
| ming in different way Is not consid-
cred. He must absorb the new culture
Plays Used in Propaganda.
The plays are concerned primarily
with propaganda. The acting is usually
of high order, but the limitations i'm
posed on the plot by the need to present
certain principles are great. RED
PuCt - uyl1iph Mrc Hap1i1toy1
is good example of the new Russian
drama. she said.
Frequently the text of the play deals
with the conditions in capitalist coun-
tries and the difficulties and hardships
of the workers in these places. Chill
dren are taken to theaters whose spe-
cial province is to present plays suited
for the child mind. But no fairy tales
or symbolic plays may be shown.
The theater and the movies" are not
the whole of the educational program
For the children there are schools with
we'll heated class rooms where they are
taught sometimes by teachers who are
themselves barely Eteratc. Schools in
the larger cities, however, have teachers
Of higher order, the traveller found.
"Wild" Children a Problem.
Each school is run by a soviet, or
ommittee-composed of teachers and
students, and there is one never-failing
remedy for getting rid of an unpopular
teacher. Let the pupils but report that
the teacher used the word religion or
mystical" and another teacher joins
the ranks of the unemployed
The conditions of children varies
greatly from those in well kept colonies
under expert care, to the unkempt
hordes that wander north in the Sum-
mer and south in the Winter, riding
the trains, living on herbs and what
ever else they can find constantly be-
ing decimated by tuberculosis, hunger
and exposure.
These children present one of the
most trying problems with which the
new regime has to cnna AttnrnnrAtr orc