TENDING TOWARDS SANE DEMOCRACY IN RUSSIA

"There is no real communism in Russia", declared Captain Paxton Hibben '04, of the American Committee for the Relief of Russian Children, when interviewed yesterday by a reporter from the CRIMSON. "Communism is a beautiful theory, but it refuses to fit in with the conditions in Russia at present. We in this country hear a great deal about the socialistic form of government under Lenine and Trotsky, but as a matter of fact, there is no such institution in existence there".

Captain Hibben has returned but recently from Russia, where he was connected with the Russian Commission of the Near East Relief, and spent a great deal of time in Russia as an actual witness of what was going on.

Peasants Demanded Land

"There are many reasons why communism has not been successful in Russia. In the first place, when the old regime was overthrow, it left no party with a definite program. The Kerensky government did not have the support of the people,--in fact over half of Russia had never even heard of it. Then the party of which Trotsky and Lenine are the leaders took over the reins. They en-countered obstacles on every side, when they tried to put communistic principles into effect. One of the most important features of communism is state ownership of land. The peasants demanded that they be allowed to own their land themselves. This was an insurmountable obstacle, and the principle had to be given up. In a similar way, one by one, the theories of communism failed to go into effect. The present government is tending towards a sane, workable democracy".

Captain Hibben described the famine which has a large part of Russia in its grip. "No one in America can realize how terrible the conditions really are. This wholesale death by starvation is more terrible than can be imagined. The Soviet government has spent $115,000,000 in gold for relief, but they can do no more, and the nations of the world must take up the cause.

"Still, tacking all in all, I believe that Russia is evolving a sane form of government which will give a fair chance to the man at the bottom".