Evening star., 1953-08-30
By Eddy Gilmore

necessarily right away. The
doctors have too much to do.
The wife had no trouble
giving birth to the two chill
dren. She simply showed up
at the maternity home. was
put in a room with three
other waiting women.
When the pains got almost
unbearable she told one of the
nurses. Then she walked in
to another room. Three or
four other women were also
there, all having labor pains.
They had their babies together
with kindness and sympathy
from the nurses and the doc
tors, but with nothing to
ease the pain or help pass
the time.
The girl who now is in
school goes six days a week.
She shows up at 8 in the
morning for classes that begin
at 8:15. Three days a week
she remains until 1870 pm.
The other three days she
leaves at 1890. She has a
lot of homework. 1t takes
from two to three hours to
prepare this every day.
I don't know what her
course is going to be like un-
der the new government of
Georgi Malenkov and others.
But under Joseph Stalin'S
regime she heard a lot about
Joseph Stain. and the Com
muniSt Party.
She heard how the school
she was attending with Al
other girls in the class was
better than any school in any
foreign country. She was told
and her mother and father
were told-that six million
children her age were unable
to go to school in the United
States because the States and
the government did not pro-
vide for all the children. Just
the children of rich Americans
went to school. They heard
this over and over again.
At school they were given
what was described as. an &C
curate picture of race rela-
tionS in the United States. 1t
was described as a good book
on the subject. It was called
Uncle Toms Cabin"
There are. however, some
very nice Russian teachers.
Just as there are some very
nice Russian children and
very nice Russian people.
But let's get back to that
typical Russian family.
Unmarried Daughter
The daughter is about %.
She is not married and has
no children. I make the dis
tinction because quite a few
Russian women have children
who are not married. The
state doesn't encourage this,
but it treats the mother and
the child just the same as it
treats a mother with a hus-
band and a child with a
father. If the state can prove
the identity of the father
and it usually can-he has to
contribute the largest financial
share to the child's dpkcep
But this young Russian
woman has no child and has
never had one. For this she
pays a tax of about 100
rubles a year. 1 mean for
not having a child.
If she had a child and no
husband she would not pay
the tax. However, doubt if
any one willfully goes out and
has a child Just to escape the
childless tax.
If she had three children
she would get a small pay
ment of money. When she
mad a fourth she would get
even more. The more children
she had the more money she'd
get for having them. When
she had her tenth she could
glory in the title of Mother
Heroine" Shed be given a
badge and a hatful of rubles.
The Russians, I believe.
borrowed this idea from Mus
solini. In any case, there is
heavy emphasis on building
up big families and birth con-
troll is frowned upon with the
same Communist severity as
American capitalism.
Russian women, incidentally,
try to practice birth control.
At least a lot of them do. Life
is difficult in the U. s. S. R.,
and another child makes it
more difficult,