Evening star., 1933-10-04
GIRLS LEAD SOVIET
INTO WORLD TRADE
Growing Demand for Semi.
Luxuries Opens New
Field for Sales.
ny WILLIAM ALLEN WHITE.

MOSCOW tN.A.N a.. 1t Is night IN
q park In Moscow beautiful park
where. in the old regime. the aristoc-
racy disported itself. Now the prole-
tariat fills the park; band is playing
the overture to Wagner's "RienZi." A
theater set in the park has just evacu-
ated 1000 proletarians for a between
act stroll.
They have been listening to what in
America would be called comic opera,
staged with all the splendor and color
which the Russians demand. 1t was a
production which in New York would
have cost at least $4,000.
The strollers under the trees along
the graveled walks smoking cigarettes
and talking. are all working people. Tor
the most part young. 1t is gay crowd
Three or four thousand are in the park,
and not drunk. Propaganda and
working class coercing are doing fairly
well what prohibition failed to do in
America.
DrabIy CARRIED But Gay.
Yet it is anything but a solemn
crowd; vital vivacity animates it.
One forgetS how drably it IS garbed.
For it is a holiday crowd in its Sunday
best at the end OF a rest day. Yet.
despite the fact that it is an urban
crowd, a theater crowd it is clad much
like an American village crowd before
a rural movie house in a town of less
than 900 Even the soldiers are not
smartly caparisoned in MOSCOW crowd,
nor do the soldiers swank; not even
commissioned officers.
In the park the soldierly khaki and
red emphasize slightly the monotonous
garb OF the people. But the only really
sharp contrast of color is in one adorn-
ment that polka dots the crowd. 1t is
the red berets Of the girls.
Two years ago the beret was al
most unknown in Moscow. To this
theater the girls used to come with their
heads tied up in white kerchiefs." said
a Moscow habitant. and l am not sure
whether these red berets are the flowers
that foretell the full fruits of the revo-
luton or whether the berets may not
be danger signals that may mark its
end. Certainly they are something new
in Communism.
Sign of End?
The girls are crazy about them. The
red berets indicate that all the propa-
eanda of our party has not been able
to suppress and sublimate the good
old Cor the bad old. if you please sex
appeal of capitalism or private property
in good looks! This beret on the heads
of women is the beginning Of millinery.
and millinery may presage the fall Of
Karl Marx, the dissolution of noble
dream"
Probably the burst of the beret into
the drab picture of the proletariat is
not as terrible as it seems. Indeed
probably it merely marks new stage
iE the evolutionary process Of Com
munlsm No one cen walk the streets
- Will hi ntnc
deny that these bolshevists have done
q notable thing They have lifted an
entire population Of l7o00o,oo0 people
to a standard Of living which is as
near q common standard. an absolutely
equal distribution Of food and clothes
and housing, as is possible in human
society.
Let us hasten to say that it is low
standard. probably only about one jump
from misery-nothing like the normal
American standard incidentally, the
PEASANTS have not risen to the city
standard Famine and want are al
ways just around the corner from the
peasants. Hence, the tremendous rise
Of urban population in Moscow since
the revolution
Cities Ride on Farmers.
The peasant still has his typhus ana
the diseases OF Ul6lIulTlIlOIl anu uIlUei-
nourlshment and want But since the
beginning Of human history cities have
ridden on the backs of farmers They
are doing it under communism, as
they have always done it under cap
itAlism But the degree Of subsidence
below the normal Russian standard OF
living which the peasant suffers Is.
after all, only small degree.
One may say that the communists
have succeeded approximately in bring
ing all Russians to this common low
standard of living 1t is certainly
higher and better average standard
than Russians enjoyed under the Ro
manoffs For under the Pcmanoffs
less than 5 per cent l;ved in luxury.
and less than 10 per cent enjoyed the
common comforts CT modern civl:za-
ton. The masses went cold and hum
CRY and cringed while they were do
ing It,
Today the Russiao masses no longer
oringe They have few comforts and
no luxuries. but they are reasonably
secure in the necessities of life. And
st may be that the red beret the women
wear this year Is a signal that Russia
IL about to take the next upward step
from bare necessities to rneager com.
forts
Whether Russia will be able to take