Evening star., 1941-11-12
(15th OF d Series.)
BY RALPH INGERSOLL.

been only. for a year or two that all
the citizens of Moscow have had
shoes and shirts. In talking with
people who have been in Moscow
before the war I have learned to spot
certain signs which date the time
of their visits. Those who were there
10 years ago think of Moscow as a
city whose streets never will be
paved; those who were there only
two or three years ago still remark
on how many barefooted people they
saw on the streets. I saw none in
Moscow. Well. these people who are
so newly clothed have already &C
uuired some conventions that seemed
almost prissy.
The boss must wear a coat in the
Office on the hottest summer day. No
shorts, let alone slacks, for young
proletarian ladies in Moscow. Life's
photographer, Margaret Bourke-
White, wears slacks when she takes
pictures and she was continually
shocking people by wearing them.
On one collective farm they took her
aside and talked to her about it,
Gen. MacFarlane'S British battle
uniform was definitely not approved.
1t is a cover-all uniform, modelled on
the uniform the Spanish LoyaliSts
wore
Divorce Stories Exaggerated.
Several people criticized the fact
that wore dark blue linen trousers
and a soft shirt and tie when I first
got to Moscow. 1t was still hot then,
with the temperature over 80 most
days. They said I was wearing sport
clothes that were inappropriate, and
one said that he thought it showed
an anti-Soviet attitude in me. 1
asked him what in the world he
meant by this, and he said that
wearing sloppy clothes like that
showed a lack Of respect.
There has been a great deal OF
talk about promiscuous sex life in
Russia. I do not know what it
was like after the revolution. but
things have settled down consider
ably now. The legal arrangements
seemed very sensible to me. Divorces
can be had for the trouble Of
appearing together at a govern
ment bureau-provided there are
no children. If there are children.
there Is alimony to pay I haven't
the code book, but one divorced girl
met told me she collected 33ls
per cent of her husbands earnings
for the support of their one child.
The state deducted this from his
checks and sent her the money.
Thirty-three and a third per cent
alimony doesn't encourage casual
breaking up of established homes.
Yet, the legal provisions are only
the beginning. Many people told
me that they did not approve Of
any divorces when there were chill
dren. Some gave instances in which
friends and parents had intervened
to keep families together. Even a
childless man or woman is criticized
or laughed at if he or she has had
more than two divorces. To Com
munist, such casualness would be
unthinkable 1t would be a re-
Election on his emotional stability.
State Nursery Stories Refuted.
do not know who began all these
stories that Russian children we're
taken away from their parents at
an early age and placed in state
nurseries. AS a matter of fact, the
shortage of state nurseries seems
just as acute in Russia as it is in
England, both countries having the
problem Of providing for the chill
dren during working hours while
their mothers are on the job in fac
tories.
Russian censorship is almost
puritanical in its structures on the
stage and screen. There are no lee
shows in Moscow. I saw one film
in which the heroine had an illegiti-
mate baby, but she was a foreigner
(an American, as a matter Of fact
and the moral Of the plot was thai
her new friends in the Soviet Unior
forgave her. 1t was all very deli
cately handled.
I saw no prostitution in Moscow
Before the war a favorite place fol
Intourist guides to take visitors wa!
the home for reformed prostitutes
| Scornful of U. S. Communists.
I was very much interested by TIL,
Russians attitude toward the Amer
ican Communist party. I don
know whether their reaction was {
bourgeois or q revolutionary mani
festation. But it was clear and dis
tinct. They thought American Com
munists were stupid and spok'
scornfully of them. The subjec
used to come up when we woult
talk about the pact between Ger.
many and Russia. They said:
ANY fool could have seen tina
we were simply playing for time
that while we were at it we had t,
be polite to the Germans. The las
thing we wanted was to help Ger
many defeat Great Britain and ",
gave the Germans as little as W,
could"
I said:
why didn't your friends, the Com
munists in America, think Of that
They were fighting aid to Britain
as hard as they knew how"
And the answer was always
shrug and some crack like:
What can you expect Of imprac
tical people?"
When I told officials in Moscow
how the Communist party hat
turned on Roosevelt and joined will
the most reactionary industrialist
in the country, fighting the Presi
dents foreign policy by attemptin,
to discredit his reforms at home
singing mud at any one who op
posed them, they were Mortified
They tut-tutted and shook thei
heads sadly. They did not seem u
know much about the activities o