Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1949-12-21
Stolin at 70

StuIin at 70
Never in history has there been anything
quite like the celebration of Generalissimo
Stains 10th birthday. Wholly apart from
the fabulously costly avalanche of gifts
that has poured in on him from the worlds
Communists, the praise addressed to him,
the homage, the greetings, the speeches,
the poems, the songs, the orchestral COM
positions have carried his glorification to
an extreme exceeding that of the most
splendid of the Orient's legendary poten-
tateS.
Indeed, the goddess, with a Spontaneity
as genuine as wooden nickel, and leaving
nothing undone in their synthetic orgy of
fawning adulation and maudlin fulsome-
ness, have practically made god out of
their mortal leader. He is the glory of
the world; he is the supreme genius of
the ages; he is the "coryphee" of all the
sciences; he is the personihcation of wis
dom, truth, justice, charity and everything
else that is good and beautiful; he is the
beloved father" the light of life, the
neverwearying protector of humanitys
peace, freedom and happiness. On this
day, therefore, now that he has reached
the Biblical allotment Of years, 1t is only
natural that people behind the Iron Cur
tain-if they want to play 1t safe-should
Happy birthday, dear comrade! Happy
birthday, dear shining sun of the earth!"
1t is only natural, too, that one should
wonder about what thoughts the great
man may be thinking now as he salves his
soul (Which, of course, he does not believe
in) with all this fattering JUNCTION. Is he
thinking OF the unprecedented violence
and bloodshed that have marked his rise to
power? Is he thinking Of the millions Of
Russian peasants he deliberately starved
to death only 20 years ago? Is he thinking
OF the terrible purges he staged in the mid
1930s? Is he thinking Of the 10000, 900 or
more Soviet citizens he holds in slave
labor camps at this very hour? Is he think
ing Of the vast segments of humanity sui
lenly living under the whips OF his puppets
in the satellite lands? Is he thinking of
what he has done to the Bats, the Poles,
the Bulgarians, the Romanians, the Hun
garians, the Czechs and the Eastern Ger
mans? Is he thinking of how his cold war
has blighted mankind's hope for an en-
during peace? And is he givingany thought
whatever to the fact that no matter where
his shadow falls and his minions take
over, there darkness Immediately sets in,
and freedom periShes, and systematic
terror reduces human beings to frightened
shadows of themselves? ( *
Many men, at the age Of 10, tend to wax
philosophical, if not remorseful over their
past sins or follies, and over the sins or
follies-including the vanity of greed and
vaulting Acknowledgment in the
world around them. In Generalissimo
Stains case regardless OF what may actu-
ally be coursing through his mind today,
there is almost limitless reason for that kind
OF thinking. For he is responsible, in uni
quely large and personal degree, for the
grief, the fear, the black tyranny and the
upending of truth and justice that have
come to poison the life Of nations BY
nature, of course, he may be incapable of
remorse, but certainly there ought to be at
least enough philosophy in him to make
him realize that the flattery being heaped
upon him now is the hattery not simply
Of fools and sycophants but Of terrorized
people whose fair words represent the
opposite Of what is really in their hearts.
Undoubtedly, as leaders 60, this man is
a towering historical figure. But where
truth is spoken, wherever minds are at
liberty to look at facts effectively, his
name is ineradicably Unidentified with the
advance of evil At 10, If he is sentimental
enough to seek some token of public affec-
ton beyond todays deifying propaganda,
he will not find 1t. Among the scores of
millions he has oppressed, and in the free
world he and his system are striving to
destroy, about all he will find is rather
wishful speculation over the possibility
that he may die soon and that then every
thing may become better That in itself is
judgment of him that no amount of
f1attery can soften as he moves now, ap-
parently without mellowing, into the harsh
twilight Of his decidedly unmellow life.
Citizens of the State of Washington
voted themselves so much dough, the Com
monwealth faces bankruptcy. That's the
trouble with arithmetic: Though they call