The Washington times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1902-1939, 1936-08-17
Opponent Of Poultry
Farm Expects Exile
For His Opinion
BY ARNE STROM

Commissions kept visiting us
The members we're generally re
markable men. One, the author o,
several books on poultry farming
was especially noteworthy. At {
later date he and several other i'm
portant men were exiled to thu
north for seven or nine years.
We at once became great friend.
and agreed that the question o.
poultry farming in Russia was Sc
helpless that there was no point
in wasting the short time we coulc
spend together in discussing the
subject.
Discuss Soviet
He asked me a lot of questions
about American and West Eu
ropean conditions and told me g
lot in return about prerevolution
airy Russia, repeating, as so many
had done before him, that life was
much better for everyone in those
days than now.
"Of course we often had fam.
inc in various parts of our huge
country owing to failure of the
crops, but then we helped each
other and help also came from
abroad.
"The poor have always been
with us in vast numbers; but
they were only a fraction of the
new prOletariat that BOlShevism
has made.
I'm my unhappy country the
class which happened to be in
power has always well known
the art of exploiting the weak,
but they never reached the pro-
ficiency of the Communists who
rule today. The Communists
themselves don't realize that
they are cutting the ground from
under their own feet by these
hazardous experiments with the
Russian peasant, who forms
fOur.fifthS of the whole Russian
nation, and by trying to force
Western culture onto him in the
form of a technique for whose
understanding the peasant has
no aptitude.
REGIME WORST OF ALL
Remember, too, that the Rus
sian Communist is the worst Of
all the bad administrators Rus
STA has ever had, and the result
is bound to be what you see to-
day-want, misery and the death
of millions from starvation all
over our unhappy country.
1--WE Russians are good at criti-
Ching ourselves; we are not
afraid of splitting in our own
faces, but Communism seems to
have wrought a fatal change in
this our once leading and most
engaging national characteristic.
We go on blaming ourselves as
a nation, but at the same time
we fight for ourselves as indi-
viduaIS lit is put down to the
will to live), by Systematically
accusing others of being the
cause Of our wretched results.
Everybody pleads his own cause,
and l think that in our nation
there are more pleaders than in
any other. Don't you think l
am right in what / am Saying?"
I nodded without speaking,
Tell me what you think of
US as a nation. Do you like
US? Can you stand living
amongst us?"
I told him nothing would please
me better than to spend the rest
of my days amongst Russians
under normal conditions. I would
not mind whether it were the
Russian intelligentSia or the Rus
sian peaSantry. AS things were
at present, my one thought was
to escape from Russia, from this
mob government, for, although
I lived like a prince compared
to the Russians themselves, that
did not mean that 1 lived any
thing like so we'll as the unem
ployed in Western Europe OF
Moreover, I was not
selfish enough to enjoy living in
a land where all but a tiny
minority starved and froze. Any
how it was my duty to get my
wife and our child into safety
before they had witnessed as
many horrors as I myself had
done. There is no hope here for
this poultry farm.
He interrupted:
II know. But for most en-
terpriseS in Soviet Russia the
chances in the future are just
the same as here"
He had read several Of my let
tiers and had rejoiced at seeing
the truth told frankly about the
conditions.
FORETOLD HIS DOOM
81, myself, am on the black
list and 1 am ready to disappear
one fine day, for 1 was once
against the enlargement of a
pOul' y farm which lay in a
part of the country where it
was impossible to get feed.
Il shall certainly disappear
one fine day. For this both my
wife and l are quite prepared.
MY books on poultry farming