THE SOCIALIST REPUBLIC

Maoriland Worker, Volume 11, Issue 476, 28 April 1920, Page 2

THE SOCIALIST REPUBLIC

respondent of the "Manchester Guardian".

What Russia has Accomplished

By W. T. GOODE, M.A., Special Cor-

Wo have had a solemn ratification lot what is really No Peace, but no number ot" ratifications will alter the! fact that so long as this question of peace with Russia is unsettled the world peace remains an empty delusion. The. position of Russia as one of the world's granaries, as one of the world's sources of raw materials, calls for a sane settlement—the conclusion ;of the present state of war. THE GREATEST POLITICAL EXPERIMENT IN THE HISTORY . OF THE WORLD. The fact that Russia is at this moment the laboratory in which the I greatest political experiment in the history of the world is being tried, calls for the same settlement with HjUal urgency. Even from tho point of view of those who arc afraid or what may come out lof the crucible Ihe cessation of the war is most urgent, for the eyes of all the world, the excited interest, of all the discontented and unrestful, are turned incessantly towards this experiment, and a state of mind is being produced which is likely to have far more drastic results for the warmakers than any outcome of an experiment in which the conditions shall be undisturbed, in which ALL conditions sb-ill have free play. ''OMDTTIOWSI TX RTJF3IA. The iwifiieriocs in condition existin- irtv,ci-n ciyi'.iaul and uncivili:K>d man, .between,' for example, Air. Churchill and a native of Central Africa, can be expressed in terms of their daily life, in their housing, sanitation, policing, in the security of their towns, the functioning of their industries, iho cultivation of their fields, and so on. Everyone has a pretty clear imaginative picture of a civilised community in contradistinction to an uncivilised one. Let there be no mistake. Russians still live in houses and sleep in beds. They still cook their food and cultivate their fields. They still dress in [ the usual garb of civilisation, and do jnot wear a loin-cloth and feathers. Order is maintained in their streets, which are still swept and tended, as are also their gardens, both public and private. The amusements with which we nve familiar in London obtain also in Russia. Books are still printed, newspapers also, and both are read. 'in fact, all ihe evidences of what we call civilised living are as present in Russia as in England. BOLSHEVIKI HAVE FED RUSSIA. Then "tho granary of the world" is lin a state of famine, we are told. I How does that square with the last i pronouncement of a lifting of the ! i.'.nckiiil. , in onlrr that Russia may i:> i-.-.l Wcv-tt-ni Europe. yomo one ha^J Mi!-ir-':>'tl hv:.- V.'ho ij it? 1 'f I.';'-. , i. 'orn^iMi 7 nlmc:'t romic is i .■.':;.:!;> •:■ ii..> :.■:. :•:■?•!;■.>•.':, !noiv 'nan •.V-γ :,.;.,,.■. :.;.-. i. i'or 'mc evil I coudiuuri h'.' ascribed tv the Bol- ' i •. ; ■' ii.i.- Bolsheviki v.iio have really I la! It to 'he Allies and their ! piY'f<;■-;": who have starved them. ! '('in..-.■ i.- famine in parts of Rii:v>ia. It i:- not cruised by the Bolsheviki, but. by the Allies. The problem of food in Russia is iv:i our of the production or presence oC food, but one of transport. And so long as the Allies force the Russian Government to use their already broken-down transport system for military purposes, so long will the moving of food about the country take a second place, and so long will those parts which even in normal times cannot raise their own food, suffer. SOCIALISM AT WORK. And what of the "Barbarism worse than that of the Stone Age"? talked about by Mr. Churchill. This "barbarism" has, to my certain knowledge, done what was never done in Russia before. It has tackled the question of the illiteracy and ignorance of the masses with a certain measure of success in the present and the promise of more in the future. It has preserved and extended the art galleries and brought the-a to the comprehension and enjoyment of the workers. It maintains theatres, opera, ballet in full work as before. It provide concerts in the open air and in halls; it caters for the tastes of children on the boulevards and in special theatres. It has provided, for tho first time in Russia, universal tolerance for religions. It has endowed motherhood and provided , for the guarding of human life. It brings medical assistance to everyone. It has put the workers on a decent economic footing, man or woman. So far as it has been possible, already it has improved his housing, and will continue the work when the Allies permit. It has kept 3000 factories working and supplied in what measure it can the nerds of the people. I It hiu: improved a transport system broken down by barbarous use in war times and made it answer the desperate needs of locomotion, food and military service. It has kept the great towns fr<?P from epidemic. Throughout the worst periods of the food shorlasn in the larger cities it FED THE CHILDREN , fo Ibat however short adults might go, no child was ever without food.— "Labor Leader." There is doubtless a great truth in the Socialist contention that wastage both in-production and distribution, can be prevented by centralisation. Of this full account is taken in the Catholic acceptance of ment ownership or government con-

trol wherever it can serve the common ",nd. v <-t it i<? equally true that therecan a3 readily be an over-cen-tralisation which will not merely interfere with private rights and individual- liberty, but which wul lead to confusion, to bureaucratic tyranny and the deadly retardation of prdduction even In the most essential necessities of life. The Church fully perceives the elemental truths contained in Socialism, but they are mere-ly-her own Catholic principles seen through the distorted Maraian lens. Whatever is best and most truly progressive in modern social doctrines was put into practice by her morq than five centuries ago, and It is amusing, if not irritating, for Catholic sociologists to hear these commonplaces of Catholio tradition proclaimed as modern discoveries. —Joseph HtWilein, SJ. ■ - ,