The Washington times., 1935-05-08
Trip to Russia Killed
Faith in Communism

MIS-. Marian Chtt1 sanger Is
the granddaughter of the late II.
w. Child, president OF the YellotO-
stone Park and Transportation
Company, and OF George r.
James, of Memphis, q member of
the Federal Reserve Board in
Washington. She is a graduate
OF Wellesley College.
Her husband, r. II. Sanger, Is
the son of Col. William Cary
Sanger, Uho UdS Assistant Secre-
tdry of War under Theodore
Roosevelt.
The family is one of the oldest
and best known in NeU York
State, hdUing resided at Sanger
field House, Sdnoertield, N. Y,
since 1881. On the maternal side
he is also the grandson OF the
late William Earl Dodge, eminent
phildnthropist. Mr.. Sanger tDGS
graduated from St. Marks Pre-
pdrGtory School, HARVARD Uni
DerStty and HARVARD Business
School.
BY MARIAN C. SANGER
In classrooms at Wellesley Col
lege and through student discus.
sions I imbibed the theories OF
communism and became a con-
vert to them.
was told that in Russia women
had at last become the equals OF
men; that they were helping to
direct all phases Of gigantic and
glamorous social reconstruction.
There also-so the teaching ran
an enlightened state gave to
children such care and culture as
no generation of childhood ever
had known, anywhere.
Other communist teachings ap-
pealed to me strongly. Such as
"anti-militarism," classics so
ciety," from which exploitation
had been banished; and the build
ing of a new system upon social
justice"
Stayed One Year
With my husband, also a con-
vert, I went to Russia as a work
er. We held several different
kinds of jobs, travelled 10000
miles, and stayed one year.
In Russia there is no equality
for women. A few women, wide
ly publicised, hold posts of med-
crate Importance. Men rule. They
hold the good jobs. Women take
what is left.
In the main, Russian women
are burden bearers: They do
work which men will not do.
Excepting the young zealots
who parrot the propaganda
phrases which I now know to be
lies, Russian women do not go
out and take jobs because of any
new freedom" or equality"
Women work for wages because
their men are paid so little that
their children would starve un-
less both parents work.
AS for childhood'S advantages
under the Soviet system, many
mothers begged me to adopt
their babies and take them home
with me to America-merely to
insure that they survived; in
order to make sure that they
would not starve to death.
It was quite a different kind
of request, that I adopt a baby,
which brought to me one Of my
most vivid lessons on the Soviet's
So-called classics society.
Crime of Violence
I was working in the nursery
of a North Caucasus zinc fac
tory. A cunning six-weekS-old
boy was put in my arms. It's
father, a Red army man, had
returned from Kharkov two days
before, found some fault with
his household, and had shot his
wife through the head. A nurS-
cry helper explained that of
course the father would not be
given death sentence, since that
was reserved for crimes against
the state.
AS 1 asked questions, it ap-
peared that the father had no
interest in his children, five in
all; the state would be suffi-
GENTLY burdened with the care
of four-and wouldn't I take the
baby? But surely, the man
would get the maximum penalty
for an ordinary crime?
"NO indeed" a nursery
helper told me, "He is a Red
army man and is needed at his
post"
Someone called that Volodya
had arrived, and in walked the
officer-and murderer. I asked
him where he was going and he
said:
"Oh, I am just moving into
the unmarried officers quar-
tiers where there will be some
one to prepare my meals"
MURDER UNPUBLISHED
A strange form of classics so
ciety and of social justice, under
which hard labor in the mines,
or death, will be the penalty in
flicted upon a worker who breaks
a machine or peasant who steals
a loaf of bread, while Red army
murderer goes free, unpunlShed!
Very soon, in Moscow, I found
a field of work that was almost
entirely preempted by women. And
I asked myself. had women been
freed from kitchen toll merely to
haul barrow loads Of cobblestones,
dig sewer trenches and sweep car
tracks under the harsh direction
of q male superintendent?