Evening star., 1932-05-01

l / shut the departed Winter
from the severe court room.
It fell across a plain pine table-the
bench of Red justice. And 1t flashed
on a portrait of Lenin seated at his
desk, peering over an outspread news
paper He looked down upon trail
which dramatiZed the crisis that his
faith today faces.
In this room, crowded with drably
dressed workers and peasants packed
on wabbly benches, I recently saw
court convened to pass judgment on
three farmers $50 called whose crime
was failure. RusSias crying need for
skilled specialists, the havoc that igno-
rance plays with Communism's high
hopes, and the desperate battle waged
with inefficiency were all set out in the
bizarre proceedings which threatened
the lives of a trio Of men.
The Soviet Portia tapped for order.
Excited chatter quieted. A thin, dull
sheet of paper hung limp in her fingers.
From it she read, into the tense silence
of the room, three names.
Punishment Is Death.
Three men rose from a bench at the
foot of the platform, shifted uneasily IN
their heavy, patched boots and fastened
eyes haunted by hope and fear upon
the tribunal. They were to be charged
with the only offense in the Soviet law
punishable by death.
Wide-eyed, the girl looked at the
defendants and recited the indictment:
You are accused of counter-revolution-
ary activity in the form of willful de-
struction of II tons Of vegetables raised
on the collective farm of which you
are, respectively, director, assistant di-
rector and gardener. 1t is alleged that
the destruction was effected by mixing
highly periShable vegetables in the same
bins with the harder ones and keeping
them under conditions that were certain
to bring about decay of the whole mass.
| What is your defense?
The director of the farm. small,
tired man, holding his frayed cap in
his hand, stepped forward to answer.
Nervous at first, he calmed IS he re-
! lated his strange excuse.
Makes Loyalty Plea,
"I am a member of the Communist
party. I have been loyal to the reVolu-
! ton. NY service in the army and my
| recognized good work as director in
! shoe factory prove this. did not will
| fully ruin the crop on our farm. I was
ordered by the party to take the d.
/ ltCGOlSLltp u Ol Lll6 ldI AIit PelI ~ NOlAA
mittee was aware that l had studied
| farm management only 10 days.
MY assistant director had been a
| factory worker with >only few months
agricultural experience. and the gar
dener in his youth before the Revolu-
ton had worked on small farm Of
IS acres where the great problem was
not storage, but getting sufficient to
eat. None of us possessed the expert
ence or learning necessary for our task.
Comrades it is true we failed. But our
failure was not willful-it was not
negligence. Ignorance was to blame. -
Court retired to reach a verdict. The
Judges were impressed by the sincerity
of the defendants. They were aware,
too, of Russias close race between the
new industrialization Of factory and
farm. and the ignorance of the work
ers They considered deliberate sabo-
tage and negligence as possible causes
Of the mems acts, but voted against it.
1t was lust another case of shortage of
trained people to man the forced in
dustriaI revolution of a backward ma
ton.
Tribute Paid TO Ignorance.
; Waste where scarity prevails-this is
the tribute paid to ignorance In Red
Russia. AS the years production Of q
vegetable farm rotted through lack OF