The people's voice. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1939-1969, 1941-12-10
| TIMES CHANGE,
Men CHANGE
With Them
By LOWNDES MAURY

the Soviet capital in English, Russian
French, German, omitted reference to
crime. Ut was as clean as our high
ly intellectual Christian Science Mon
itor.) The accounts from the Rus
sian center of their Arctic explora-
tons, Of their advances in scientific
plant culture, the perennial wheat,
training rice to flourish as far north
as Moscow latitude of Labrador), Of
their successes at cooperative farm
ing, of the study being given by mil
lions of the ordinary men and women
of the constitutions of other nations
before adopting one modelled closely
after our own-all these intrigued me
much. l found answers in the Mos
COW News. 1 even studied the Rus
sian language. 1 found this as accur-
ate as, and similar to, Latin, and as
pliable and far-reaching as, and more
phonetic than, English.
Last February the house in New
York which would take my annual
payment returned a portion stating
that our postal authorities, urged on
by the smallest Drained, largest
mouthed, witch-hunter of all time
Martin Dies, had barred from the
mails the Moscow News. Now, in 10
months, every radio listener in this
land is intent above all to hear the
Moscow News. AS an apology for our
Butte boy who is postmaster general,
hazard the guess that he had never
read an issue of the Moscow News
when it was barred from the U. S.
mails; because if he knew it's char
acter he would have informed Martin
that with the exclusion of the Moscow
News should go the National Geo
graphic, the Popular Science Month
ly, and the Southern Churchman (the
Episcopal Church organ). In fact,
there was more reason for barring the
Southern Churchman. 1t had advised
| all its patrons to read "The Soviet
Power" by the Dean of Canterbury.
The Dean certainly wrote brief for
Russia.
My love for our country and my
fellow countrymen is strong and I'M
failing, but we are too self-centered
and provincial. We do not realize
that outside of English-speaking coun-
tries there is much political and eco
nomic wisdom, literature, music, dra-
ma, science, and culture, never rooted
in Anglo-Saxon thought. Twenty
years before we, as a nation, saw the
value Of the friendship Of our neigh |
bors to the south, forced the teach
ing of Spanish in the Butte high |
school. 1t soon became the most pop
u1ar Elective" Two hundred pupils |
in one year here studied Spanish. q |
opposed the rejection by 100 percent !
ers, knife and fork clubs of German
from our high school work. Our |
young folks are not as narrow minded
ish, some wished to study German,
now some desire to know a little Rus
sian.
The President has kept informed
of the growth of Democracy in Russia.
His vision could hardly see nine years
ago, when his administration first rec
ognized and sent an ambassador to
Moscow, that in 1941 the life of lib
erty in England and the Americas
might be hanging on the balances of
the present war between Fascism and
Russian Democracy. But in general
way, he knew that when our capitalist
press was bowling Free Love in Rus
STA, the percentage of divorces was
higher in Washington or Paris than
in Moscow. He doubtless knew that
while devout bankers were crying
through their press that the Russians
were opposed to all religion, there
had merely been separation of
church and state; that much land
had been taken for peasant proprietor
ship from the Orthodox Greek church
quite like the Episcopal church,; ,
that freedom of religious worship was :
guaranteed in the Stain constitution.
Mr.. Roosevelt may have known cit is
a fact) that there were, just before
the German invasion, three times as
Russia as were permitted under the
Tsars
Our President, of course, knew Of !.
The miraculous strides forward in /,
mass education under the Soviet rule. .
If well-educated electorate has a
bad form of government, it will prob
ably change to a better form. There
Is no perfect government. Our own
Is changing fast to collectivism of !,
some form; no one knows exactly :
what it will be 10 years from now.
The Russians tried communism for
Jour years. They also tried to con-
vert the world. They soon found the
world too selfish for communism and :
hey also discovered that it would :
not work in Russia. They then must :
nave gotten hold of a program of
eugene ". Debs for uplift of labor,
Susan B. Anthony's plan for women's 4
lights, and the now forgotten platform n
If the Populist party as written lin 0
1888 by the renowned Senator Sock. r
ess" Simpson from Colorado. Il
From these sources, they evolved a Il
Farmer Labour government They v
ollowed our old populist desire to 0
AXE over the banks, the railroads, the e
insurance companies, the electric 5
'ower, the mines, the packing plants, Il
nd the smelters They enfranchised a
They gave labor full equal "
'oice in government. AND 1T ALL 6
For Is years the uplift p
f the ordinary man was faster than t
yer known before in any large ma n
ion. There was no commercial crisis, Il
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