The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1934-10-27
By VERN SMITH

MOSCOW, U. S. s. r., Oct. 81
The Western worker, just arrived in
the Soviet Union, sees Immediately
something that looks very familiar.
He sees a man dressed in rather
neat uniform, with belt and pistol
and helmet, standing in the middle
Of the street directing traffic with
wave of his white gloved hand.
Or he finds group of such figures
at the entrance to big mass meet
ing.
I have never found an American
worker who would not confess that
he felt a sudden involuntary ap-
prehension when he stepped off q
street car and suddenly found HIM
self in the midst of such group
"Policer he thinks, and can't help
the first time a sudden stiffened of
muscles and quick side glance for
support.
Then, he hears, or even If he
doesn't come to the u. S. S. R., he
reads of congresses, even though
they be of soviets, and that doesn't
sound so different from the U. S.
Congress He knows of Peoples
Commissars of Agriculture, of the
Interior, ETC., and compares them
in his mind with the U. S. Secretary
Of Agriculture, of the Interior, etc.
He knows or hears or reads OF
trusts, wages, foremen, unions, the
Party, the army, ETC., and he
naturally pictures these things in
terms of what he knows in the U.
S. A.
This perhaps Is unavoidable, and
yet it is essentially false. The
western worker who stays even a
few days here, and really keeps his
eyes open will be the first to real
ize the difference, probably more
than the present generation of So
Wet citizens, who know all these
institutions in their Soviet form
and have had no experience with
their capitalist namesakes.
No Police
Let us go back for moment to
the police" First of all, you find
that they are not police. Each Of
them would be very correctly in
dignant if called a policeman, just
as Red Army man would feel
somewhat insulted at being called
soldier. The man directing
traffic in Moscow streets is a mem
Der Of the Workers and Peasants
Militia.
The group of militiamen at the
doorway to a mass meeting have
pistols as the New York policeman
has, but they never have pulled
those pistols on the workers-the
militiamen are not there to hinder
or smash the meeting, but to help
its orderly progress-and that is
quite a difference. The pistol is
only for possible use against the
ensmies of the workers. 1t is
pointed in totally different direc-
ton from the direction in which
the CAPITALIST cop" points his gun.
Cats Attentive Hearing
A foreign worker, however poorly
dressed. without word of Russian
at his command, can go up to a
Moscow militiaman and ask his way
by signs, and get an attentive
hearing" a desperate struggle to
understand on the part of the mill
tiaman, and directions in signs, o,
even personally conducted tour tc
the point he wishes to reach. if il
is anywhere near. All in the best
of good humor.
Let an immigrant dressed il
working clothes try that on cop
per in Fifth Ave, New York, OF
Michigan Boulevard, Chicago, "Get
going va lousy Hunky. why dom
va go back where va came 'front.'
is what he would hear, and may bt
there would be a good hard shove
from the gloved hand or a wave o.
the policemsns club.
The Soviet militisman catche
criminals. for here and there
emcng the DECEASED element
there ere still burglars and pick
pockets. The capitalist policeman
catches them too, sometimes, whei
he isn't in collision with them, 70
he defends private property.
There has been no recours'