Evening star., 1932-04-05
NEW BOOKS
AT RANDOM
I. C. M.

I. C. M.
NEW MINDS: NEW MENa The Emer-
gence of the Soviet Citizen. BY
Thomas Woody, author of "A History
of Women's Education in the United
States" etc. Illustrated. New York:
The Macmillan Co.
In 1917 l50, ,00o, 900 Russians stood up
together for the first time. And, of a
certainty such simultaneous change of
posture, from prone to upright, slid from
the massed backs and shoulders centu-
ries of despotic tsarisn.
Dazed, no doubt, by the sudden effect
Of this gigantic concert Of movement.
but desperately excited and hopeful
Forward was the only way.
And So the Russians murdered the
reigning tsar, symbol of ages Of tyranny.
They repudiated God. tolerant of such
long misrule. They swept away class
distinctions and denied the right Of
personal property.
Kerensky, Trotsky, Lenin, Stain come
and 20. Each for time at the head.
leading the great communistic multi
tude. Today, light for cropping feet.
Tomorrow, kicked aside as handicap
and hindrance.
Plans and schemes Of distributed con-
troll of a government by all stepped
briskly out into the open. Among them
the famous "Ffve-Year Plan," q care
fully worked, comprehensive, inelastic
chart of operations, calculated to cover
every aspect Of the common life, In
furious short-term drive toward political
equities and general economic security.
History. however far back 1t may run.
does not give account OF so huge and
sweeping a revolution as the one pro-
duced by the Russians in 1917. And
vet the general reperCussion OF 1t was
neither so deep nor so wide nor 50 fun-
damentally disturbing az would have
been the case had not the World war,
lust then. been at its most critical turn.
The war over, Russia was well on Its
way in the great experiment OF
sovietiSm.
An experiment Is ever Of acute inter
est to onlookers. A tiny organism under
the microscope, even, draws Its circle OF
observers upon the outcome. Here the
organism under test was a great people.
The glass bearing upon 1t contemporary
craftsmanship the world over, with his
tory added to bring to bear, old expert
ments in political theory.
X x *
For the past dozen years new Russia
has been hunting ground for every
stripe of explorer. The theorist, poiitl-
cal or purely social, seeking to embody
words and phrases with substance OF
corroborative truth. The expert pro-
fessional striving to test settled prac-,
tice by this fresh fountain OF natione
rRn
own tagging spirit or Of the weight OF
useless impedimenta, he is searching for
means of release and easement from
excessive professional exactions.
So for one purpose or another, states
man. economist, industrialist, financier,
along with utopians of every order.
head upon Soviet Russia for enlighten-
ment and possible support. each in his
own line Of interest and activity.
Educators 20 to Russia. They Of all
men might be looked for there. The
mind is their prime concern. Here are
minds, clean as washed states. Upon
them no scratchings and scrolls OF out
worn precepts, of inept and useless
lessons, no lumber of stuff unsable for
any purpose in the day that Is here, in
the days that are to come.
Dr. Thomas Woody is an educator OF
distinction. man of open mind, be-
sides, of reserved judgments as well. or
plain, practical sense, which, Is more
than all, for the educator, so likely to
be swamped in old learnings and their
formalities, so limp-handed and half
hearted in his seizure of the present
and its requirements.
For 20 months DR.. Woody Travelled
Russia to see the workings Of these new
minds under the new education planned
to fit them for the level and encom-
passing program of communism.
Education for all. Education for
citizenship"
WE'LL that is not so startling. That,
too has been the aim and boast OF
America. Yet here, in no time. it is
clear that these Russians 90 not In
terpret the high pronouncement as the
West does. Hard discipline and self
dedication TO a common high purpose
are here the groundwork of all educa-
tional activity. Here are new minds,
millions, where for centuries there had
been but sluggish, insensate bodies. The
Job is to make new men from this ma
terial, men welded to the general enter
prise of a modern communistic state.
No laggards can be tolerated. No
shirkers can be permitted to slow up
the march ahead. Rigid discipline is.
| therefore, the groundwork of the edu-
cative plan.
Sentiment, as the West senses it,
does not exist in the Russian plan
of making citizens. If there be senti-
ment in seiZing upon the tangible
things at hand, well and good. If not,
then the mere overflow of soft feeling
and moral precept, so common in edu-
cation elsewhere, is sentimentality no
more. Out with it!
So, here, from kindergarten years to
those of the higher learning, there is
an engrossing activity with materials,
with the making of things, with prob
lens about these useful things In
hand The advance from simple to
more difficult is slow. Always the ma
terials are those needed in the COM
mon life. with calculations bearing
upon problems of exchange and barter
in these commodities of practical use.
When, st the beginning. children
sing and SAY verses" these songs and
verses are of the animals roundabout
of familiar games, of sentiments hav-
ing to do with the new scheme, Each
tical unsentimental meaning given to
It is plain to be seen that. with
this national cast of mind and pur-
pose, science, in It's findings and meth
DDS. stands high in Soviet education
Experimenting with things, working
with things, with measurable and pom
derable objects. this becomes the
groundwork of growth for young and
old alike. Religion, as such and as
yet. receives but the cold shoulder, the
short shrift. The Russian common
man had had enough of that. as he
knew it, to last long time. A prac-
tical, materialistic scheme. You bet 1t
isl But it is working. Not so well
as it's partial advocates maintain, but
very well, indeed. considering. In face
of its handicap, the long and deaden-
ing serfdom of these people, subjected,
suddenly, to thoroughly regimented
order of self discipline. Oh, very sur
prisingly well!
Gathering here and there from these