The Waterbury Democrat., 1946-10-09
Reds Don't Want War, Writer Finds in Tour
Continued from Page D

freely with the people in their fac- tories, in their markets and in their homes-and rarest of all, to take hundreds of pictures of life and conditions behind the so-called Iron Curtain.
 Got Stalin's Permission
 This privilege was granted to me only after I had cabled Prime Min ister Stalin when six months of ef- forts to abtain a visa through regu- lar channels were unavailing. ap- pealed to Stalin to permit me, as writer for American farm publica- tions, to talk to the common people of Russia in hope of improving the understanding between our two peoples; ten days later I had the visa.
 And I finished my tour with no sterner admonition from official sources than that of the Minister of Agriculture to tell the truth" No official asked to censor my copy, and this dispatch is tram scribed from my Russian. notes, in New York. No one sought to con- duct my travels, although on the half-dozen occasions my coming was known in advance, the Rus sians were quick to set up well come, dress the children in shoes and shirts, erect welcome posters, and set out elaborate banquet tables. It was easy to appreciate the pitfalls of the usual conducted tour" and these occasions afforded me an opportunity for comparison with what I found when I arrived unheralded.
 No Russian official has even ex- amined the hundreds of photo graphs which I took in the cities and farms of Russia.
 Still Spade Barefoot
 Much of the territory I covered was in the former bread basket" of Russia. They're still spading barefooted in Byelorussia; they're still hungry; they're still living in the disastrous war they've just gone through.
 They hate war as only those who have known its terrors can hate it.; they can only feel horror at the thought of going through it all again against a nation which many of them assured me earnestly they love.
 America gave us food which kept us from starving" said a woman on the street in Moscow.
 America gave us Studebaker truck which helped win the wal" said soldier in Stalingrad.
 Other impressions which crowd to the fore in the kaleidoscopic pat tern of my travels by plane. jeep, train, automobile, and afoot in- clude:
 l. The Russian citizen knows much more about the United States than We have been led to
 expect, despite the limited re-
 ports on the outside world pub-
 lished in the controlled Russian
 press
 2. There is genuine grati-
 tude and appreciation not only
 for the assistance which the U. s. gave the Soviet Union to de-
 feat the Germans, but also for
 the U.NRR.A. food shipments
 which in some cases must be
 making the difference between
 life and widespread starvation
 in the two republics aided.
 3. The people are amazed
 and baffled to read in their
 newspapers that the U. s. is
 plotting aggression against Rus
 sia and brandishing the atomic
 bomb extensively.
 1. Communism, as practiced
 in Russia, is far from Utopia.
 Tn its present phase of develop
 ment its features such boogies
 of U. s. left wing labor leader
 ship as the speed-up, incentive
 pay and back-breaxing work
 days.
 When I returned to Moscow aftel my 4,OOO-mile travels, correspond ent greeted me at breakfast in tht Hotel Metropol with the remark Well, see where Tass (the Rus sian news agencY used your namt this morning to answer President Truman"
 I blinked. He showed me the story in the newspaper Pravda. Headlinec "Tass Explanation" it commented on the Presidents statement tha correspondents could not trave freely in Russia.
 The explanation" was, in effect MT. Truman doesn't know wha he's talking about. John Strohm president of the American Agricul' tural Editors Association, is tray cling freely about the Soviet UnioI right now and talking with the peo ple.'
 And what about the people, ar' they looking for war?" my core spondent friend asked.
 T am not strategist, or psy chologist," replied But thu words of one Russian sounded tt me like good sense. He said: Any one who says the Soviet Uniol wants war is crazy. The peopl' have been living on promises O better things in the sweet bye ant bye ever since the revolution. The. accepted World War II as an excus' why they could not achieve highe standard. Now they want to worl for peace-time goals. Our govern ment must consider the people-no war"
 The man who said that was no an official. So far as I could deter mine he was sincere and grinding no party ax. My eyes and ear can vouch for what he says of tn hunger of the Russian masses fo the good things in life whicl Communism has promised for B years as a reward for the sacri fees of self and liberty.
 Whether the men in the Krem lin can give heed to that hunge is something no reporter, free o restricted, can answer. have toll only what I have seen and hear' and aictllred onlu what was be