The Wilmington morning star., 1947-04-12
Once Hero In Russia
by ANNE o,HARE MCCORMICK

Union. His death recalls a time in the late
tWenties when the American visitor in Russia
was proudly taken to factory shows designed
to pump up enthusiasm among the workers
for the techniques and tempos OF the Machine
Age. There was a naive and engaging excite
ment in these performances, despite the
sameness of the pattern. In nearly all OF
them Henry Ford and Uncle Sam were inter-
changeable characters. The father OF mass
production was not a caricature of a bloated
capitalist but a Wiry, lively figure in red,
white and blue who was cheered as a symbol
of the industrial speed-up that under the So
Wet system was soon going to turn the us.
S.R. into a bigger and far better America.
Those We're the days when visitors were
welcome IN Russia. Our Government had not
yet recognized the Soviet Government, but re-
lations between the two countries were friend
lier than they were afterWard. Americans OBJ
tanned Was fairly easily and were freer to
wander around the Soviet Union than they
have ever been since. Bankers, Senator's, re-
porters, tourists of all sorts were curious to
see the Great Experiment and their hosts
were eager to exhibit it. The United States.
exemplified by Henry Ford, was the model
of the streamlined, machine-made way Of life
the dictatorship of the proletariat promised
to give everybody in double-quick time. The
Comn.lssar of Agriculture was importing Ford
tractors by the thousands on the theory that
the tractor was the perfect instrument for col
.lectivizing the land.
What has happened since? The passing of
Henry Ford somewhat blanketed the accounts
of Mr.. Gromyko's performance at the Secur-
ity Council on Monday, but it also served to
emphasize the change that has taken place
in Soviet-American relations since the days
when We are not on diplomatic speaking
terms and the Soviet citizens one met spoke
w%istfully of becoming "Americanized."
The session of the Security Council in which
the Soviet representative replied to the Tru-
man proposals for aid to Greece and Turkey
attracted a record attendance and was said
to be the most exciting in several months.
But to a reporter who had not been present
for a long time it was a depressing seance,
lacking something that gave life to the early
sessions. Everything is better organized now;
the procedures are smoother; the members
have settled into the grooves Of a Well-eStab-
lished deliberative body. But in the initial
debates, in Mr.. Gromyko's first walk-out,
there was a sense that the Council was break
ing ground, pioneering, making the difficult
adjustments to be expected between nations
coming together for the first time in a COM
NOR enterprise: There was a quality OF novel
ty and experimentation about the whole bust
ness. The diSagreements, though sharp and
real, were regarded as a necessary part of a
tentative process. Nobody thought the pre-
liminary attitudes would be permanent.
Few things so yet, but meantime they have
become both set and somehow artificial. The
debates are just arguments. skillful or inept,
between sides" AT first people wondered
what the Soviet representative would do or
say, while now they take for granted that he
will always say no to airy proposal OF Britain
or the United States. Mr.. Gromyko was ex-
pected to oppose the American plan for
Greece and Turkey. and he had a sound case
against the method Of reporting it post
IA cto' to the United Nations.
But he was disingenuous in stresslng this
point and ignoring the amendment to the Sen
ate resolution which gives the Council or the
Assembly full authority 10 halt the program
and thereby makes it, in the words of Senator
Vandenberg, "the greatest act OF voluntary
allie glance to the United Nations. The asser-
ton that sending troops or even military in
structors to any country Is an interference in
it's internal affairs and a blow to its indepen-
dence is more than disingenuous on the lips
Of a spokesman who insists that Poland is
independent despite the presence Of large So
Wet forces and a full corps Of Soviet military
instructors. In his prepared speech, delivered
in good and solemnly didactic English, Mr..
Gromyko charged the United States with I'M
der1nining the United Nations by not appeal
ing to the Security Council, but in his attack
on the Austin resolution proposing that U N.
observers remain in Greece while the Balkan
Investigation Commission was drafting its re-
port, he said this would be a screen" hiding
activities of the United States which are not
in the interests of the United Nations.
The inference is that we either bypass the
U.N. in our own interests or attempts to use it
in our own interests. In everything the Soviet
delegate said, in his prepared script and ex-
temporaneously, he referred to the United
States as if it were an enemy. Twenty years
ago capitalism was the enemy, but a more or
less impersonal capitalism which did not con-
flict, even in the eyes OF the Commissars,
with an emulous admiration for the American
system and a ready cordially for Americans.
What struck one most in those days was the
child-like eagerness Of the Russian people to
get in touch with the world. Now they are
walled in, suspicious of all foreigners, espe-
cialiv critical of Americans. Has the change
come about just because we have fought a
war together and are now allies? Whatever
the reason, it is taking all sense of reality
| and honest debate out Of the councils OF the
YfritaA Nations -Nau Yopk Tin0ek