SOVIET RULERS A GANG OF THIEVES, BOON DECLARES

By Hector Boon.

I left Moscow on Saturday, the 10th of October, by the courier’s train which was carrying despatches for Joffe, the head of the Soviet Peace Mission, and arrived in Riga on the morning of Tuesday, the 13th.

There travelled with me an English officer, Capt. J. S. Campbell, late of the Gunners, who had been captured by the Reds in January when on the Pechora River, East of Archangel, on a timber survey, and who had spent a considerable time in prison both in Archangel and in Petrograd. My other travelling companions were Mr. Hopwood, the assistant manager of Kodak, who had been in Moscow for eighteen years, and his two daughters.

Both Campbell and myself will always affectionately remember the charming reception given us by Col. Tallents, the British Commissioner to the Baltic states, and the assistance which was rendered us by Mr. Louden the British Consul. While in Riga we also saw Mr. Young, the American Commissioner, to whom we gave all the latest information respecting Americans held prisoners in Moscow.

In Riga we found it difficult to realize that we had finally escaped from the Bolsheviks, and it was only when we arrived in London, on Oct. 19, having travelled via Berlin, that we really felt that at last we had reached safety and civilization.

‘Gang of Marauders.’

In London I found people who were interested in Russia actively discussing the proposed trading agreement with the Bolsheviks, but nobody who had had any experience of them supported the scheme or were other than strongly opposed to it. I have spent the best part of the last three years in Russia, partly with the Reds and partly with the Whites, and during the whole of that time I occupied myself as a business man.

All my personal business interests are centred in Russia, and I have everything to gain by resumption of trade with that country, but notwithstanding, I am absolutely and uncompromisingly opposed to any trade relations whatsoever with the Soviet power. I shall have nothing whatever to do with Russia in so far as trading is concerned while the Bolsheviks remain in power. I regard trading with the gang of marauders who now wield power in that country as unsound in theory and in practice.

The basis of all business is credit, and the basis of credit is reputation. The Bolsheviks are thieves. Their word is worthless and their stock in trade is principally stolen gold, and I decline to become a receiver of stolen property even at the instigation of the British Government.

Mr. W. B. Vanderlip told me in Moscow that as soon as Mr. Harding took office the United States would recognize the Soviet Government and trading between the States and Russia, would be in full swing this coming year.

With all due respect to Mr. Vanderlip and his fantastic contract (which is not worth the paper it is written on) I do not believe that the United States of America will have anything whatever to do with the Soviet Government or that the United States Government will follow the lead of the British Government by entering into an ignoble contract with the biggest bunch of murderers and scoundrels the world has ever seen, or do any act which will tend to increase the power of a gang of marauders whose aim is to smother the truly democratic form of government which obtains in the States, and in the building up and protection of which the sons of America have so gallantly shed their blood in the past.

I should like the people of America to know that, apart from Mr. H. G. Wells and certain misguided members of the British Government, there are only two classes of people in England who desire that England should trade with the Bolsheviks, viz: those manufacturers and merchants who have large stocks of goods on hand which they are unable to dispose of, and the Direct Action people and their associates. Outside these two classes the people of England are opposed to any dealings with Lenine & Co.

“The Enemies of Mankind.”

For those manufacturers and merchants, whether they be English or American, who wish to trade with the Bolsheviks, I have nothing but contempt. They are the sort of people who fleeced their respective countries during the war, who lost no opportunity of taking advantage of their country’s plight, and to-day they are willing to deal with the enemies of mankind, if by so doing they can fill their own pockets.

There are not more than one per cent. of real Bolsheviks in the whole of Russia. The anti-Bolshevik elements in that country are unitedly opposed to the lifting of the blockade. Whilst they appreciate that to a certain extent their present deplorable conditions of existence would be somewhat improved by the importation of goods of first necessity, they prefer to undergo still greater hardships if by so doing they can bring about the overthrow and final destruction of Bolshevism.

Mr. Wells has stated that the Russian population is roughly content with the Bolshevist rule. I am at a loss to understand how Mr. Wells gained the impression of “roughly content.” Had Mr. Wells spent a year in Russia, as a free agent, unhampered by Bolshevik guides, and then made the statement that the population was “roughly content,” I should have characterized it as a cold, calculated lie, but inasmuch as he only spent two weeks in Petrograd and thirty hours in Moscow (I was there at the same time), we can attribute the statement to ignorance; in fact, Mr. Wells has shown himself as remarkably ignorant in relation to many of the vital factors of the Russian situation.

I do not believe that the honest trades unionist in any country is in favor of that form of government which the Bolshevists have instituted in Russia. I cannot but feel that if the genuine trades unionist in England and America possessed the same first hand knowledge that I do of Bolshevist rule he would be willing that the Government of his country should trade with the Soviet Power and thereby strengthen it.

Nowhere in the world to-day is the genuine workingman so badly treated as he is in Russia. Labor is conscripted and trades unions have been abolished. The workingman has apparently no rights and no voice in the government of his country. He is denied the right to strike or to protest against his grossly inadequate wages.

The Bolshevist government is the government of the militant minority. That minority comprises principally the criminal elements of the country. Lenine time and again stated that the people, taken as a whole, are too ignorant to be allowed to have a voice in the government of their country. He maintains that the country should be governed by the dictatorship of strong men who should decide what is good for the people, and, having decided, should enforce their will upon the people by means of military power.

I would recommend the workmen of America to note and inwardly digest:

(1) The people of Russia have no voice in the government of their country.

(2) There is no freedom of pen or speech.

(3) Labor is conscripted.

(4) People accused of offenses against the Soviet laws, which are not stable but are altered from day to day, are thrown into prison without trial.

(5) There are no juries.

(6) Trade unions have been abolished.

(7) The right to strike is denied.

(8) There is military conscription.

And, having done so, to say whether or not they desire to bring about the same conditions in their countries. I don’t think they will. I think they will agree with me that such a government is impossible. Those foreigners who have lived in Russia under the Soviet rule are unanimous in denouncing it as the worst government the world has ever seen.

Wells Knows Nothing About It

Mr. Wells, after two weeks’ stay in the country, tells us that the Soviet power is the only possible form of government for Russia at the present time. He conveys the impression that inasmuch as he has decided that “there is now no alternative to that Government possible,” that that settles the matter and we must do as Mr. Wells advises us. Mr. Wells ridicules Marx and yet, almost in the same breath, tells us that the Bolshevist Government, which is a Communistic government, is the only possible government for Russia.

It would seem to me that we are entitled to judge the value of Mr. Wells’s advice on these two statements alone and that it is not necessary to delve further into his impertinent literary gymnastics except to say that Mr. Wells, despite his boast that he was not hoodwinked during his stay in Russia, if judged by what he has written, was fooled up to the hilt.

Mr. Wells states: “Much that the Red Terror did was cruel and frightful; it was largely controlled by narrow-minded men, and many of its officials were inspired by social hatred and the fear of counter revolution, but if it was fanatical, it was honest. Apart from individual atrocities it did, on the whole, kill for a reason and to an end.”

Again, I suppose, we must attribute this statement to Mr. Wells’s ignorance. There has never been in the history of the world a more corrupt and dishonest organization than the Extraordinary Commission. There is no greater scoundrel than a Dzherjinsky, the President of it. But, ignorant and bumptious as you are, Mr. Wells, who are you to tell the world that the Extraordinary Commission is honest? What do you know about it? What have you seen of its methods? I venture to say that you have seen nothing and that you are writing, as you frequently do, of things you know nothing about.

You live in a free country, free from all persecution, enjoying every human comfort, under an established Government; and you go to Russia, spend two weeks there with your bleating, mouthing perversion of humanity, Maxim Gorky, and come back and tell your countrymen that they must support a set of blackguards.

A final word with you, Mr. Wells—leave Russia alone. You have done a lot of harm and you have earned the just resentment of every true friend of Russia. If you must dabble with poison, write another “Ann Veronica.” The Russian problem is one which will be solved by men, not by literary acrobats.

In conclusion, I would like to remind the great American people that they fought in the great war to make the world safe for democracy. You helped to destroy German militarism, but remember that German militarism was nothing as compared with that of Soviet power. Having set out to rid the world of militarism and make it safe for democracy, have you any right to leave the task undone? Is there not a moral obligation resting upon you to crush the militant minority which is exploiting and terrifying 99 per cent. of the Russian people?

The World
NEW YORK
ITS ACCOMPLISHMENTS—ITS AIMS AND ITS CLAIMS

THE WORLD as established by

JOSEPH PULITZER, May 10, 1883:

“An institution that should always fight for progress and reform, never tolerate injustice or corruption, always fight demagogues of all parties, never belong to any party, always oppose privileged classes and public plunderers, never lack sympathy with the poor, always remain devoted to the public welfare, never be satisfied with merely printing news, always be drastically independent, never be afraid to attack wrong, whether by predatory plutocracy or predatory poverty.”

More than thirty-seven years have passed since that utterance was made. During all that time The World has tried mightily to realize the supreme ideal thus set for it and to that end it is striving with all its power now.

So it is not unbecoming to point out the degree of success which The World has attained. There can be no boasting in measuring the altitude this newspaper has reached in its ever soaring flight; no braggadocio in reiterating its aims, in setting forth its claims.

For the millions of persons who read The World agree that it does big things in a big way. Else they would not read it. Nor would they crowd its columns with advertisements, themselves most interesting and important reading.

Even to enumerate the big things The World has done in the last twelve months, to rehearse the public services it has rendered, would take too long here. But consider for a moment the last of these. The World’s determination to improve the housing conditions of this city resulted in its discovery and exposure of unprecedented building graft. The inquiry by the Joint Legislative Committee on Housing, compelled by The World, has resulted in further amazing revelations. No prophet is needed to foretell that infinite good may come of it.

Really, it seems not impossible, if the Legislature will do its share, that a New Yorker of moderate means will be able to house his family decently and have enough money left to buy food and clothing.

THE EDITORIAL PAGE

The newspaper that would obey the precepts laid down by The World’s founder has need of an editorial page, sound, strong and independent.

That The World’s attitude on public questions is guided by these instructions of Joseph Pulitzer is generally agreed by the reading public. Its editorial policy is one of intelligent liberalism. It would seek for the evils of democracy a cure in more democracy. It would welcome the widest opportunity for change and experiment in fitting popular government to new conditions, while setting its face like a flint against revolution by force and the subversive doctrines of anarchy. It finds in freedom an assurance of safety alike from reaction and Bourbonism and from half-baked soap-box theories of “direct action.”

Yet any man or woman who has something really worth while to say and who can say it briefly and with propriety may find a hearing in The World’s Editorial Forum.

A cartoon is an editorial—when it is one. The daily cartoons of Rollin Kirby upon The World’s editorial page are almost as often reproduced in Europe as in the United States as the finest examples extant of American public opinion portrayed at a glance in pictorial form. They thus combine present-day political effect with permanent historic value.

POLITICAL WRITERS

The World is particularly fortunate in its political writers. In that direction, the greatest achievement of the year was Louis Seibold’s interview with the President of the United States. By the courtesy of The World the interview was published in newspapers all over the country. It and the writer were lauded by magazines, reviews and papers devoted to journalism.

Equally remarkable was the expose, by the same political authority, of the underwriting of Gen. Leonard Wood’s campaign for the Presidential nomination.

Charles Michelson heads the admirable staff of the Washington Bureau of The World. It goes without saying that the White House and all the departments are visited daily. Mr. Michelson never needs to deny or amend his accurate despatches.

In Albany, Charles S. Hand reports the open sessions and the “inside” doings of the Legislature with equal impartiality and fearlessness.

Women in politics, who since the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment have taken their place in the Parties side by side with the men, serving as associate leaders in District, County or State organizations, are closely and accurately followed in their newly authorized activities.

THE UNITED STATES—By Wire

The New York World’s telegraphic news service in the United States extends north and south from Duluth, Minn., to Brownsville, Tex., and east and west from Eastport, Me., to San Francisco. Any point in the country can be reached, no matter how small, through arrangement with a correspondent in the nearest large town. Every city in the United States, large and small, either has a World representative or has one within telephone call.

The news queries to The New York World cover every section and every variety of news, and are on the wires either by telegraph or telephone at every emergency.

FOREIGN CORRESPONDENCE
and General European News

Good Americans native born and good Americans of foreign lineage have an interest equally deep in foreign news. This good American newspaper has built up a superb organization to gather news from the most authoritative sources all over the globe and to despatch it by cable, wireless—by courier, when necessary.

The high standing and reputation of The World’s correspondents abroad give them easy access to heads of Governments, prelates, diplomats, scientists, captains of industry and leaders of labor.

James M. Tuohy, the London representative of The World, is the dean of London correspondents. His knowledge of European affairs is admirable. Joseph Pulitzer appointed him as head of the European clearing house for news for The World and Mr. Tuohy has appointed correspondents for The World in all the capitals of Europe, being personally acquainted with each man and woman he selected. No one knows more than Tuohy about politics in Ireland and British rule in Ireland, subjects in which tens of thousands of The World’s readers are engrossed.

Every reader of The World is familiar with the names of its staff correspondents abroad, for they, being certain of the facts they state are only too glad to accept public responsibility for them. Lincoln Eyre, in Paris; Arno Dosch-Fleurot, who has a roving commission at the moment; Cyril Brown, in Berlin; Miss Beatrice Baskerville, in Rome, have become the friends, even the guides, of the thoughtful who support this newspaper—whenever and wherever the interest of mankind is focused, there and then a staff correspondent of The World is present; at the front headquarters of battling armies, at all important conferences of diplomats, at discussions of bankers, at congresses of labor—in Moscow, Constantinople, Vienna, Spa, Versailles and Geneva—anywhere. And the lines of immediate communication stretch from London to the remotest corners of the earth.

THE CITY NEWS GATHERING DEPARTMENT

The editorial and reportorial staffs of The World are composed of highly trained, intelligent, quick-witted men, peculiarly gifted as writers. They have broad human sympathies, which make them swift to see news and stories of interest to humanity. These writers and news collectors have been drawn from all parts of the country and from many countries. Each one of them has some specialty, some unique gift of understanding, so that when a story “breaks” the City Editor can select from his staff the one man peculiarly fitted by nature to understand, unravel and write it. As matters of great moment in business, finance and commerce, and court trials, sporting stories, crime and detective stories, social affairs, political intrigues, adventures, accidents, sea and shipping yarns, war stories, hunting escapades, stories of nature, music, art and the theatre are constantly “breaking,” it is necessary to have on the staff of a great metropolitan journal men who can instantly “jump out” on the story and grasp it, gather its many strands and come back in a few minutes, or few hours, ready to write not only an entertaining but a truthful and accurate story.

Through long experience—many of the men have been on the paper almost from boyhood and others were trained in the best editorial rooms in the country—these men have acquired professional skill, great reverence for their work and a decent regard for the rights of the reading public. The World, because of its complete local staff organization, has knowledge of practically every news event in New York and prints everything that is of interest to the public.

FINANCIAL

Forecasts made in the columns of The World as to the operation of underlying of economic factors in finance have proved so accurate during the upheaval attending the Great War, as to give the Wall Street Department, conducted by Samuel S. Fontaine, an enviable reputation both at home and abroad. Some of these predictions have been as startling in the fulfilment as in their conception. Here is one notable illustration:

In the fall of 1914, when British bankers demanding almost hysterically that the United States ship unlimited quantities in liquidation of current liabilities and sterling was quoted at $7 a pound, the financial editor predicted that, before the end of the Great War this country would not only have purchased all United States securities held abroad, but that the debit balance of England in this country would grow to such startling proportions that the pound sterling would be driven below $4 in New York. English economists were aghast at such financial iconoclasm. They dismissed it as a bit of Yankee ignorance and insolence. Every high school boy knows how abundantly this prediction has been fulfilled.

When the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, at the suggestion of the Federal Reserve Bank, first began its campaign to force deflation by means of high interest rates imposed on borrowers on stock collateral, the Financial Editor of The World called the attention of the Washington authorities of the fact that the necessity for liquidation was not confined to stocks, but that it extended to all quarters of the country and that the profiteering that was causing most discomfort to the people was centred very largely in the South, where the banks had loaned enormous sums on cotton at fictitious prices, and in the West, where unwarranted credit was being extended grain and food orders.

The truth of this was immediately conceded by the national banking authorities. Rediscount rates were made uniform at all regional institutions, and the great price readjustment movement, which has led to a universal decline in the cost of living resulted.

The World through its financial columns began nearly a year ago to call public attention to the usurious rates charged by some of the profiteering banks of Wall Street, which, it declared, amounted to the proportions of a public scandal. These charges were taken up by Comptroller of the Currency Williams, and confirmed in every particular. In denouncing these factors the Comptroller took occasion, in an interview given the Washington Correspondent, to pay a high tribute to the Financial Editor of The World;

Mr. Fontaine has not only rendered a public service but he has shown all along a remarkable grasp of the situation.

Some notable articles pointing out the necessity for economy at the hearthstone, if the country is to return to the thrift of pre-war days, have appeared in The World’s financial columns and have been widely copied by the press of this country. They have met not only with widespread approval, but they have been real factors in promoting a wholesome spirit of economy of the land.

THE DRAMA

No other city in the world contains so many theatres as New York, or is the centre of so great activity in every branch of the stage’s art. The entertaining articles on plays and acting by Louis V. De Foe, for more than twenty years The World’s dramatic critic, are everywhere recognized as a dependable guide to the theatregoer—this, because of his fearlessness and fairness and the authority of his opinions and impressions gained from more than a quarter of a century of constant observation and study of the most popular and generously patronized of all the arts.

ART

Art affairs are covered by reviews of important exhibitions in the museums and galleries, news mention of other exhibitions, reports of sales of major interest and summaries of art activities in other cities where museums are maintained.

Special attention has been given for years to projects for the physical beauty of cities and to the movement for industrial art education whereby American craftsmanship may win and hold distinctive place in the world’s esteem. This movement, to which the leading museums and many manufacturers have committed themselves, looks beyond the art courses in the public schools to the establishment of schools of design, aided if not wholly supported by public funds, in which the talented young may be assured training as thorough as is given in any of the schools of Europe of that type, to the end that an industrial art worthily American may become a real national asset.

MUSIC

The World’s music department is in charge of one of America’s most competent critics, James Gibbons Huneker. His daily observations on operatic and concert doings are eagerly looked for, not only because of their immediate analytical value but also because of their informing spirit. The critic’s comprehensive knowledge and wide experience enable him to discuss music in its relation to all its sister arts.

Mr. Huneker’s opinions are authoritative because he is primarily a musician. From the time he first stirred his readers as a raconteur, his enthusiastic followers have kept step with him on his progress through the whole seven arts.

His last book “Steeple Jack” has attracted attention.

BOOKS AND LITERATURE
“What You Want to Know About Books You Want to Know About”

Once a week, in The World, a page under the editorship of E. W. Osborn is devoted to “Views and the News in the World of Books.” Here the latest offerings of the publishers, in books of history, of essays, of poetry, of general facts and of fiction, are treated in the simplest fashion as matters of the current news. The department has no interests to serve save those of its readers, to whom it aims to furnish exact information, with a measure of entertainment as generous as the books may afford and the editorial intent may achieve. The Book Page under its present policy has been a feature of The World practically for the last twenty years. Within that period it is believed to have established something of credit for timeliness and for fairness of judgment. While recognizing the diverse tastes and desires of a great body of readers—as a newspaper book department must do—this page has no helping word for a volume deemed in any way unworthy of any reader’s attention.

Robert C. Benchley’s column, “Books and Other Things” is concerned more with books than with other things. But he writes so entertainingly about a book that, if you do not read the book, you surely will read Benchley again.

SOCIETY

The World publishes the latest news about the women and men who are prominent in New York and in all social centres. It tells not only of the entertainments the fashionable and wealthy give for their own amusement, but of those they hold to aid the charities they maintain. Weddings, the first appearance of debutantes, theatre parties, all the diversions of those who are worthy of mention, are described precisely and picturesquely in the columns of this newspaper. So are receptions to official personages—in a word, all the functions where culture and good taste are displayed.

WOMEN IN NATIONAL REFORMS

The World, since the inception of the woman’s movement, has chronicled the advance of women in organization from the small individual club working for development along conventional lines to the great federated bodies who throw the influence of educated and enlightened womanhood on the side of national reforms. The germ of practically all philanthropic endeavor has either sprung from or been promoted by organized women, and the columns of The World bear ample testimony to the detailed care with which these ambitions have been aided by publicity.

AVIATION

As a forward-looking newspaper The World was prompt to see the possibilities of aviation. The earliest experiments of the Wright brothers at Killdevil Hill were reported by a staff correspondent, and The World’s interest in the science of flying has been unflaggingly demonstrated ever since. Glenn Curtiss’s historic flight from Albany to New York, the longest accomplished up to that time, was stimulated and rewarded by $10,000, the gift of The World.

When the war broke out in 1914 The World was promoting in all possible ways the cause of civilian aviation, notably by lending its columns and aid generously to the projected transatlantic flight for which Mr. Curtiss was building a machine. Since the armistice it has continued to display its faith in the future of flying. The Pulitzer Trophy, one of the handsomest ever designed for a flying event, attracted to Mitchel Field, Mineola, this year an unprecedentedly large field of fast aviators. As a consequence of this meet American interest in the speed possibilities of the airplane will undoubtedly be greatly enhanced.

THE BUREAU OF ACCURACY AND FAIR PLAY

A Bureau of Accuracy and Fair Play has been maintained by The World since July 7, 1913. Its objects, as stated by Ralph Pulitzer in the order creating it, are:

“To promote accuracy and fair play, to correct carelessness and to stamp out fakes and fakers.”

In establishing the Bureau and sending official notice of the organization to its correspondents, inviting their co-operation, The World not only insured better and more conscientious service in its own columns, but it spread the gospel of accuracy and fair play in journalism throughout the newspaper world. Every notice sent out by the Bureau to correspondents was prefaced by the following declaration:

“The World aims to be accurate. It aims to be fair and just to every person who reads it and to every person whose name it prints.

“Accuracy and fair play are inseparable in journalism. Inaccuracy often means injury to innocent persons. A newspaper’s influence is measured by the number of people who read it AND BELIEVE IN IT.

“The words ‘accuracy and fair play’ sum up the law of libel. If what is published is true and fair the writer need not worry about the libel law, civil or criminal.”

On the reverse side of the notice sent to correspondents, in order that all might be impressed with the very decided views on accuracy and fairness entertained by Ralph Pulitzer, and by his father before him, were printed extracts from their public utterances on the subject.

All complaints involving the question of accuracy or fair play received in any department of The World are turned over to the bureau. These complaints include libel actions, letters from attorneys and others, and complaints made in person at The World office. The bureau makes careful inquiry and determines whether or not these complaints are well founded, and, if they are, who is responsible for the matter complained of. Having determined that a complaint is well founded, the necessary correction is prepared and turned over for publication to the managing editor of whichever edition of The World published the particular matter complained of.

A card-index record is kept showing who are responsible for inaccuracies and unfair publications, and this record indicates who are habitually inaccurate or unfair. Deliberate faking, which, happily, is extremely rare, is invariably punishable by dismissal. Carelessness or unfairness may be punished by reprimand, suspension or dismissal. Chronic carelessness results in dismissal.

Such is The New York World. Such is its manner of obeying the precepts of its founder—of doing its duty to itself—and of fulfilling its obligation to the multitude of readers who maintain it so generously, and who have raised it to the supremacy it enjoys.

TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES

Typos fixed; non-standard spelling and dialect retained.