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some of the shabby little churches have something to do with it. The Parson's "grip" always holds something besides Prayer-Books. After butchering time there may be a few small steaks or other savory trifles, and when boys gather around a furnace or old stove with some tidbit sizzling on the end of a stick they are very likely to think there really is something in the Parson's preaching. On some of these occasions the Parson's valise is likely to show a businesslike set of clippers also, and a group of smooth-headed young Christians appear before their admiring friends after shedding their shock of unbrushed hair. It was after such an incident that the visiting bishop of the diocese commented on the neat, nice-appearing boys. The Parson confided his part in it to the bishop, who observed that it was not every minister who was able to trim the congregation.

In some of these communities summer boarders of the humbler sort are relied

upon as a cash crop, for it is very hard to find an available market for farm produce. Young people from factories and department stores, content to rough it a little, find health in the country air; but sometimes the swimming-hole, the fields and sky, are not sufficient. Some

of the Parson's friends in one isolated hamlet sent out a cry for help-they couldn't keep their boarders without some Saturday-night amusement. So the Parson loaded up a few accessories and journeyed over the hills and through the swamps and got up a sociable. They had a fine time, with games and dancing; the tired Parson spent the night with a neighbor, and most of the city boarders attended the service he held the next morning. Sometimes he has a Sunday itinerary of fifty miles or more; he goes to one place Saturday night, visits around or holds a party, has an early service the next morning, journeys on to a second hamlet for service, and then perhaps to a third. At every place

he is secular as well as religious adviser; he can always tell where seed potatoes are procurable, what to do for peach borers and apple scab, and what the biggest boy should do to prepare for a good job.

Just now there are communities beyond number where just such work as this is needed. It is what we rather snobbishly call "uplift" and "social service," but remember that the religion that vitalizes it is not "popularized." It goes hand in hand with a dignified liturgy and a beautiful service, and, though I have not heard the Parson preach, I am quite sure that he does not need to give his hearers a résumé of the week's events, with his private interpretation of the Washington Conference and the trend of the universe added. He has translated his church into terms of work, and the time may yet come when the seed from these Connecticut hills may change the whole destiny of State and Nation.

PEACE IN THE NEAR EAST

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A few weeks ago military operations were going on between Turks and French in Cilicia on a 350-mile front, and between Turks and Greeks in western Asia Minor. The first of these wars is now closed by the Treaty of Angora. The second one is not to last long, as we hear of a general retreat of the Greeks towards the sea.

Like the Wiesbaden agreement between France and Germany, the Angora treaty is not the work of regular diplomats; M. Franklin-Bouillon, a French Congressman, having received full powers from Paris, has negotiated it with the Nationalist Government of Mustapha Kemal at Angora. The Angora Government has not been officially recognized by the foreign Powers. But it represents the Turkish nation, it has carried on a successful war against the Greek invaders of Anatolia, it has held its own against formidable odds. The great National Assembly of Angora has no money, but it also has no foreign debt. The army lives on the country. And it must be admitted that Kemal's authority and independence have been constantly growing during the last months.

The terms of the Angora treaty are as follows:

1. Hostilities are to cease immediately and all prisoners to be released on both sides.

2. Full amnesty is to be granted in all regions evacuated by one party and occupied by the other.

3. The rights of minorities are solemnly recognized by the Turkish Government, on the same basis as in the European treaties of 1919 regard

BY PIERRE DE LANUX

International

KEMAL PASHA, TURKISH NATIONALIST LEADER

ing minorities in Poland, Rumania, etc.

the

4. The Turks will recover a strip of land which they lost by the Sèvres treaty (1920), and where the population is overwhelmingly Moslem. (In the five districts crossed by the new line, from Payas, on the Alexandretta Gulf to Djezire-ibn-Omar, on Tigris, the Moslems are respectively 86 per cent, 77 per cent, 82 per cent, 80 per cent, 65 per cent. A plebiscite would undoubtedly have given Turkey what France and Syria abandon by the Angora treaty.

What are the consequences of this treaty?

First, France is withdrawing 50,000 men from Syria in the next three months, leaving only 35,000, most of whom will be withdrawn later.

Second, France resumes her traditional policy of friendship with the Moslems, a policy which will insure her peaceful control over the millions of Mohammedans in Algeria, Tunisia, Morocco, and the Sudan.

Third, a pacifying and stabilizing effect of this treaty is expected in the Caucasus and in central Asia. Owing to the general disorder which prevailed there in 1919 and 1920, the Russians had overrun national resistance in Northern Caucasia, in Georgia, in Armenia. The new state of things in Asia Minor does not directly affect Russia, but it shows once more that national will is finding sooner or later a successful expression everywhere. What happens to the Turks is an encouragement to the Caucasian nationalities. Some time ago Mustapha Kemal had concluded an alliance with the Moscow Government, from which he expected a supply of arms, ammunition, and money. Moscow did not live up to the pact, and, as there is little chance of the Bolshevist doctrine spreading in a Moslem country, there seems to be no future for the Soviets' influence in Asia Minor, where military help was their only asset.

Last, but not least, France can now concentrate on her peaceful mission in Syria proper. Her duties are many, because her influence has been lasting and deep and has aroused many hopes. To quote "The New World" of Mr. Isaiah Bowman: "The interests of France in Syria do not date from recent times. From the days of the early Phoenician traders, long before the Christian era, Marseilles had maintained commercial intercourse with Syria, and the relationship has remained unbroken to this day.

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During the Crusades, France took the lead in the effort to redeem the Holy Land from Mohammedan conquerors. It was quite a natural thing that Frenchmen should thereafter become the rulers of Syria. Antioch and Tripoli had French princes, Jerusalem a French King. France, 'the eldest daughter of the Church,' had played a noble part in the redemption of lands sacred to Christians, and in recognition thereof the Pope conferred on French kings the title of 'Protector of Oriental Christians.'"

In modern times the French have financed the Syrian railways and built the important silk factories of Lebanon, which export annually one million pounds of silk to France. Besides, to quote Bowman again, "French schools are more numerous throughout the former Turkish territories than those of any other nation. There is need of France in Syria and elsewhere in the Near East, in the interests of Western civilization and as a barrier against anarchy."

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Criticism has been directed against the Angora treaty. It has not come from the Moslem world, nor from the French opposition parties. It has come from the British Colonial Office. As these attacks have not been seriously supported by the most enlightened part -the largest part-of British public opinion, there is no need of reviving the quarrel. Like other quarrels between England and France, it had no ground except in the irritation of a few officials whose combinations had been upset, combinations which were founded upon the hope for everlasting trouble in the Near East, and especially in the French

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(C) Keystone

FRENCH HEADQUARTERS IN ADANA

sphere of action. Peace is worth too much for the peacemakers to take such petty schemes into consideration. It is true that France did not ask anybody's permission before concluding peace with the Kemalists; but, after all, England asked for no approval when she concluded a trade agreement with Moscow, or when she continued supporting Emir Feisal after he took an attitude of open hostility towards the French.

A more serious objection has been raised by Armenians abroad and by their friends, who wonder how the Christian population of Cilicia is to be protected when Turkish rule is resumed.

The guaranties given to Christian minorities in the evacuated regions, and in particular to the Armenians (whose proportion runs between eight per cent and fifteen per cent in the above-men

BOUNDARIES OF SYRIA

(1) Northern boundary established by the Treaty of Sèvres

(2) Southern boundary established by the Franco-British Agreement

(3) New northern boundary established by the Angora Peace Treaty, October, 1921

tioned districts, all of which have a density of less than fifty inhabitants per square mile), are the following: French troops will withdraw gradually, and be replaced by Turkish regulars only. The police force will be commanded by French officers. There will be French consuls in the main cities. The present Government employees will be left in place.

France, which has spent one hundred million francs for the Armenian refugees and fought in Cilicia for three years, cannot do more. Some are blaming her for not assuming the whole responsibility of Armenia's protection. She has been blamed by others for taking too many responsibilities. But the facts speak for her. France is satisfied that she has made peace in all the regions of the world that were in the reach of her influence. Can all her critics say the same?

As early as 1919 there were plans for the settlement of the Armenian question. These plans were held in suspense because America had not decided about her attitude in the matter. America, which had done much to encourage the national aspirations of the Armenians, finally did not accept the mandate over Armenia, which was voted down by the Senate. It is probable, however, that America will play a large part in the future development of the Armenian country.

The various small fires that followed the great world blaze are thus being put out, one after the other. The smoke of battle is now lifting from these lands of western Asia where so many interests have been clashing ever since Alexander the Great. "Nowhere else has so much history run through so narrow a space," it has been said. Leaving the past to bury its dead, we find that since the Armistice of 1918 Anglo-French differences have been the poison which prevented a peaceful settlement from being reached at once. The solution has now been found, and friction will lose its intensity as soon as colonial extremists stop their thundering and leave chance for sober ppi LIF to crystallize.

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BY EX-GOVERNOR JAMES P. GOODRICH, OF INDIANA

understand the real situation in Russia it is necessary to go back a bit, because the famine is due to a number of contributing causes. In 1920 there was planted in all Russia seventy-six per cent of the crop planted in 1916. In 1921 the peasants planted fifty-five per cent of the 1916 crop. The major part of that decrease occurred in the years 1918, 1919, and 1920, with a marked decrease in the last two years. There are several causes given for such a condition, one the policy of requisitions, which is recognized by both Mr. Trotsky and Mr. Lenine.

The other is due to the war which swept over this famine district-a civil war following four years of foreign conflict in, which Russia was engaged. The peasants had a partial crop shortage in 1920, due to two causes-short planting and, failure of rainfall. Then in 1921, following the season of a fifty-five per cent planting, came an almost total failure of rain. The rainfall in May, June, and July was less than ten per cent of normal. So that had there been a normal crop planting during 1921 in that part of Russia, from the Tartar Republic on down to the Caspian Sea, there would still have been a tremendous grain shortage in the lower Volga country.

I have recently returned from Russia, where I spent two months in the famine districts. I first went to Moscow, then out to Samara and down the Volga River to Saratov, then thirty miles below Saratov. I drove out in the Volga district to sixteen different communes, visiting the various communal houses, examining their records, going through their grain-houses, collecting all the statistics that I could get to ascertain the true situation. I afterwards went to Kazan, and then from Moscow to Petrograd, covering most of the so-called famine district, except the extreme lower part and the district at the north end, extending out towards the Siberian frontier.

On my return to Moscow after my first trip, I went to the Commisar of Agriculture and asked him to prepare me certain statistics, which I afterwards got on my return there. In the capitals of the various states I went to the Commisar of Agriculture to get what facts I could obtain there, and then went into the commune and got the communal records, which are very complete in most of these Russian communes, especially so in what is known as the German-Russian Commune in the lower part of the Volga Valley. Those records are very complete and accurate in the Tartar Republic. Other places have kept their records with more or less accuracy, so the conclusion I arrived at was made up of this information obtained from the Commisar of Agriculture at Moscow, and from the commisars of the various states. By checking that back with the records of

the local communes, I think that the information I have is reasonably accurate.

The famine district is perhaps the most densely populated in the world outside of China, dependent wholly upon agriculture. The Volga Valley has no industrial background; no manufacturing centers, as the industries of Russia very largely disappeared during the last three or four years, so that the people must depend wholly on the products of the soil. And so we find extending from Kazan to Samara a population averaging above 100 to the square mile. That is four times the population of my own State of Indiana depending on agriculture alone. When you eliminate the waste land in these provinces, or rather the commune or collections of communes, there are found from 150 to 190 to the square mile, so that you can realize something about the real situation from the population view-point.

Traversing the German and Russian communes, I found an appalling situation. Entering the cities of the lower Volga and observing great, strong, round-faced, red-cheeked men and women in the bazaars and on the streets, one might think that there was no famine in that country; but when you go into the community houses, where deserted children and orphans are assembled, go out among the communes and into the communal homes, where they have gathered the victims together, you realize how terrible the situation is, especially when you get down to brasstack facts and see the very small amount of food the people have upon which they must depend to sustain life for the next six months of winter.

Let us consider two typical communes. I do not select them because of their unusual character, but because they are typical of communes on the Volga. First, there is the commune of Schilling, which is German, with a population of 3,798. It contains 4,467 dessiatines, which is only 31⁄2 or 34 acres to the inhabitant. The peasants planted in 1919, 1,590 dessiatines of land, which yielded 37,950 poods of grain, of which the Government took 12,000 in taxes that year. (A dessiatine is equal to 2.2 acres of ground and a pood is 36 pounds.) In 1920 the peasants planted 1,737 dessiatines, a little more than in 1919, and raised 30,533 poods. That year they had almost a failure of wheat, the crop decreasing from 22,888 to 4,646 poods. There was a partial drought in 1920, but their potato crop increased from 7,000 to 19,800 poods, which kept them alive that year.

But the Government during that year took 5,000 poods, or forty per cent of what they got the year before. In 1921 the peasants planted 1,255 dessiatines, about twenty per cent less than in 1920. of these 1,255 dessiatines they did not get back even the seeds used to plant

the crops. I went through their grainhouses. They had eleven communal grain-houses, which are usually filled with grain; but nine of them were empty without a pound in them, and the other two were only partially filled. I met there a rather clean-looking lot of farmers, Russian farmers, who had assembled in the communal hall. This year the Government did not tax them at all, but instead gave them back enough seed to sow 330 dessiatines of rye, so that they have plowed for next year 800 dessiatines of ground ready to sow either rye, wheat, or other grain which they may be able to secure.

The crop this year compared to 1919 was only about six per cent, and compared to 1920 about seven per cent. The peasants had enough available foodstuffs to preserve the lives of 3,798 people in that particular commune. But there are not that many now, because a great many of them have already died. They have only about 11⁄2 poods of food per capita, including their cabbage and everything used there. These reports they gave to me recently, but since July 1 25 of them have died from cholera, 30 from typhus, and 45 from starvation. They said that in that little commune they have 1,146 children under fifteen years of age and that at least 800 of them must have help or die of starvation before next spring.

It was my opinion, judging from the serious expression on the faces of these farmers, that they believed they were telling the truth. They said the Government had promised them seeds, and they were in high hopes of getting it. This commune and all others told me that if they could get enough grain to sow their wheat next spring they would not need help after next harvest. In the Russian commune of Babaroff I found eight out of nine warehouses empty of grain.

Near the commune of Schilling I saw a grandfather and grandmother, a son, the daughter-in-law, and five children on their knees crawling across their little allotment of land gathering every weed they could get, tying them in bundles, and hauling them down to their commune, where they thrash out the weedseeds and grind them in the communal mill, mixing with rye. The straw from the weeds they put in stacks, that their stock may eat it to keep them alive until the next harvest. I asked them whether or not the stock would eat the weeds, and they replied: "They will not until everything else is gone. But they will eat it before they will starve to death." I saw children out along the little waterways gathering rose pods, cockle-burs, and the like in little bags. These they took home to grind in their little communal mills, which they have everywhere.

In this commune 145 people starved to

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death this year, 65 died of typhus, which is increasing, and 82 of cholera.

I

I had heard reports from different communes of people starving, but knew that they had food enough to prevent them starving for the time being. said to them-there were twenty or thirty in the communal hall: "I wish you would tell me why it is that where there is enough to preserve life for all of you for several months you permit your neighbors to starve to death." Rather slowly a peasant answered the question: "You Americans do not understand. There is not enough to keep us alive until next harvest. So that if we divide up now and do not get help we shall all starve to death. It is better that some should die in order that others may live."

That was his philosophy. He told me that the peasants had had an unfortunate experience in the year 1891, when 300,000 of them died of starvation in the Volga Valley. When you get inside of Russia and understand the terrible situation which confronts the Russian people, you cease to wonder why, knowing that death must overtake them all if they divide, they should choose to preserve their own families. They are making every possible preparation to meet the situation. Perhaps they will discount the figures we get, because a human being has a tremendous capacity to maintain life under adverse conditions.

In the commune of Houk, twenty versts beyond Markstadt, we found the communal kitchens in operation. They serve one meal a day at the noon hour, giving to those who have no food three ladles of soup made of cabbage, carrots, and other vegetables with some meat in it; also about a half-pound of rye bread. Next we visited the communal home, where orphans and abandoned children are collected from the near-by communes. In this home we found 145 children. When they are first received, they are deloused and given a bath. These children, when they enter the home, are dirty, ragged, living skeletons, with a helpless, hungry look in their faces, and take little or no interest in their surroundings. They seem more like an animal that has been shot to death and crawled off in the brush to die. It was a sorrowful sight for an American to witness. After the children are cleaned up they are given rough cotton clothing, very scant and light. Most of them are without shoes and stockings, although the thermometer on the day we were there was 28 degrees below zero and the home in which they were quartered not very well heated on account of the shortage of fuel.

I found in this commune forty-one houses which had been abandoned. The owners had either died or fled. The roofs had been torn off these houses to get wood for fuel, which is very scarce in that country, as the lower Volga is almost as devoid of timber as western sansas. On the outskirts of this com

mune, as we were passing a small shed
near one of the abandoned houses, we
found in it two little girls, ten and
twelve years of age. They came out of
the shed holding their arms about them,
shivering and crying in the cold, bitter
wind, which was blowing the snow
across the commune on that bitter day.
I inquired of them regarding their
troubles. They replied that their father
and mother and two of their brothers
had died of cholera and starvation the
week before; that for the past five days
they had had nothing to eat except cab-
bage leaves and carrots, which they had
gathered about the commune. They
were barefooted and had no clothing ex-
cept thin cotton dresses extending to
the knees. They said that they were
very, very hungry and looked as if they
were in great distress, being exceedingly
thin and emaciated.

I asked these little girls why they did
not go to the communal authorities and
apply for help at the feeding kitchens.
They replied that they did not think it
would be any use, as they had learned
that there was not food enough for
everybody. We gave them 100,000
rubles, which are worth about $1 in
American money, and told them to go
to the communal hall, where they would
be taken care of, and this they did.
These children probably would have
starved to death had we not discovered
them. I asked the communal officers
why they did not look these cases up;
but they did not give a very good ex-
cuse, replying that cases of hunger were
usually called to their attention and
that they had all they could do, with the
limited supply of food at their com-
mand, to care for those who came to
them.

The Soviet Government, whatever you may say or think about it, is co-operative in the work of relief to the fullest extent. It will not permit a pound of food to be diverted, but is carrying it to its destination without loss. No one can steal food from the American Relief Administration, under penalty of death. I heard a man tell the A. R. A. officers at Saratov that if any one stole anything to report them; that any one stealing American food would be stood up against a wall and shot; so that there has been a remarkably small amount of food lost. I talked with different communal officers, who drive forty or fifty versts across the country, hauling the food out and distributing it to the kitchens, whence every pound of food goes into the mouths of the hungry people of Russia. That which is now being sent is used only for children.

I believe that 20,000,000 bushels of corn and 5,000,000 bushels of wheat sent from America would save the situation. The Russian Government has exempted from taxation what was called the famine provinces, so that every province in Russia is seeking to get into that class. There are from ten to fourteen provinces in the famine area, with a population of about 25,000,000 people.

The American Relief Administration

feeds children in both Moscow and Petrograd, as the Russian Government, realizing the seriousness of the situation, has taken from the Volga district many abandoned and orphaned children and has sent them into Moscow and Petrograd, and several thousand more have come from the Tartar Republic.

Regarding transportation, I had a conference with the Commisar of Railroads two days before I left, and went over the whole situation with him. If you can rely on the reports of the British Commissioner, appointed a year ago, Russia has over 1,200 more engines now than then; 8,026 in good running order, 7,000 engines needing light repairs, and 6,000 engines needing heavy repairs. The Russian Government has bought 856 engines from Germany and 1,000 from Sweden. They are being delivered now. The Government has 440,000 freight cars in good order and 110,000 that need light repairs, which is twentythree per cent, a rather heavy proportion. There is no question but that the Russian Government can move the food supplies and move them quickly. The Commisar says that he can, and I am certain he is right.

Regarding the shortage of animals, in 1919 the Schilling commune had 1,223 horses, in 1920 it had 891 horses, and in 1921 it had 451 horses. Of cows it had 582 in 1919, 461 in 1920, and 413 in 1921. The cows decrease but little in number, as they are needed for milk to keep the children alive. Of sheep there were 1,352 in 1919, 1,151 in 1920, and only 424 in 1921. That shows a decrease of sixty per cent. Of pigs there were 781 in 1919, 246 in 1920, and 58 in 1921. That is a decrease of 92 per cent. This tells the story without comment.

The Russian people are well equipped to use corn for food. Every commune in Russia has its communal windmill, with the old-fashioned stone burrs, with which they grind all their foods. The Commisar of Agriculture in the lower Volga Valley has been carrying on a campaign to induce the Russian farmers to raise corn, to diversify crops, and get away from the antiquated three-year system, under which they cultivate but one-third of the land each year. The Commisar of the Tartar Republic has been especially active in this educational propaganda.

The work of the American Relief Administration in Russia, having only recently begun, is not at present very extensive. There are only seventy-five in the personnel; in fact, a large force is not needed, as the local people not only do most of the work but also furnish without charge buildings, equipment, and everything. The Soviet Government is furnishing transportation free all over the country, and assists in every way possible. Although not so efficient as it might be, the Government is co-operating in a wholehearted way with the work to which the American Relief Administration is devoting its labor and resources in Russia.

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