Evening star., 1934-12-23
Continued from Fourth Page.

S1a INTO one vast eScape-proO1 prison nlled WIN
helpless inmates who are forced to do what the
Soviet theorists think is good for them. There
is no pretense at pity no soft talk about "hu-
manity" Every new move is made with
broadside blow, without the slightest con-
sideration for the human agony and disruption
it will cause.
THE Soviets know how difficult it is to force
the older generation to swallow their par
ticular brand of dictatorship-the generation
that once was accustomed to the vices of per-
sonal liberty and unhampered access to knowl-
edge. But the Soviets have successfully seized
the children and brought them up to be perfect.
handmade Communists inoculated from in
fancy with a passionate desire to keep the
working classes in the saddle and with pro-
found fear of capitalism. They have been
vigorously guarded from knowledge concerning
social systems other than their own and taught
to believe in their new religion with a fanatical
faith.
Bolshevism is a religion just much as the
organized Christianity it destroyed. The Boil
sheviks have substituted Karl Marx for God
and made Lenin his prophet. They have be-
come as dogmatic, as intolerant militant,
as the fiercest Christian zealots of the Middle
Ages. They will convert you or send you to
Siberia. 1 have seen violent cases get up in
public and tell how Communism has redeemed
them from political sin-with trembling voices
and shining eyes, just like those who hit Billy
Sundays sawdust trail. They will suffer gladly
even die-for their communiStc CONVICTIONS.
1t is this very fanaticism. combined with a
convenient primitive ignorance, that has en-
abed the Bolsheviks to achieve so astoundingly
much 1t is this regiliouS mania that has
brought miracles to pass.
With one breath the dictatorship has said:
LET there be no more churches
With the next breath they have said:
Let there be more illiteracy.''
And iliteracy disappeared as quickly ana
thoroughly the churches.
With another gesture, all the little peasant
farmers were forced to collect on big farms and
to work in large teams This uprooting caused
. hundred million broken hearts and violent
resistance. But the state. 1ineing aside all
opposition, soon controlled the imagination
and enthusiasm of the children who had as
yet developed no special attachment to their
homes and with these young converts the
government managed to raise the efficiency,
comfort. cultural level of the farms, as well as
quantity of farm products, almost 100 per cent
IndustrialIy, Russia has Ieaped. under this
violent spirit, from last place almost to
first Her factories, her mines, her steel mills,
roar and hum and belch smoke "a hours day.
The demand is miles ahead of the supply.
New Office buildings, new apartments, are MS
ing with incredible speed. The builders work
with a perfect frenzy. Volunteers beg to be
allowed to help, in the old days volunteers
once begged to help build new cathedral.
Here in Moscow, only last week, a thousand
university students, with wave of cheering,
flung themselves upon the job of paving a
public square, and without any compensation
whatsoever drove through with an enthusiasm
that allowed them no rest until the work was
done.
Half the population of Moscow has helped,
manually, as volunteers, to build the new SUBJ
way.
These workers. paid or unpaid. skilled or un-
skilled, go marching and cheering and singing
along the streets day and night-bands play
ing, banners waving. This marvellous team
spirit among the young Communists, this eager
ness to efface themselves in order to upift the
communal whole, brings lump to ones throat
and tears to ones eyes.
On November I witnessed gigantic demon
stration of this political patriotism on Moscow's
magnificent Red Square. 1t was to celebrate
the seventeenth anniversary of the Soviet regime.
stood within 100 feet of Stain and his minis
tiers and for hours watched the pageant pass by
Lenin's tomb, on one corner of which was
Stalin's reviewing stand. One hundred thou
sand soldiers, faces aglow with crusade light,
saluted the master-wave after wave Their
cheering made the very Kremlin towers shake
as it rolled from battalion to battalion through
the square.
With this vast army at attention before him,
Comrade Voroshiov. minister of national de-
fense, standing besides Stain, stepped to the
radio loudspeaker. His voice roared out: II
salute you, comrade soldiers I salute you,
comrade visitors. And I shout to the world
that Russia does not want Russia hates
war with her whole soul. But let our enemies
beware. We have-we are-the finest army in
the world We will defend our policies to the
last man. Not an inch of land, not one ounce
Of pride, will we surrender"
As he spoke his last dramatic word mill