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A STATEMENT BY NICHOLAS D. AVKSENTIEV AND PROFESSOR PAUL N. MILIUKOV

In

N addressing American readers we wish to emphasize one thing in the Russian situation which may not be sufficiently known in this country. the midst of all that human suffering, dissolution of statehood, economic decay, and financial chaos, brought about by the four years of Bolshevist domination, there is one thing which will finally detach itself as the chief result of the revolutionary stage of Russian history. This is the fact that, in spite of all the destruction brought about by Bolshevism, Russia is not a desert, and elements of organization can now be found everywhere. Under that heavy cloak of Bolshevist uniformity, Russia is alive and not dead, in spite of all her miseries and sufferings. The experience of the past four years increased the political consciousness of the large masses of the Russian people, and by the side of destruction and ruin germs of new life are everywhere. Elements of new power, the nuclei of new governmental structure, can be found everywhere in the country, and they can crystallize at any moment as liquid crystallizes under a certain degree of temperature.

It is unnecessary to prove that the Bolshevist rule is undemocratic. Communism opposes itself to democracy, as the rule of a "conscious minority"-to government by democratic election. The Bolshevist practice in Russia serves to show that an insignificant minority can rule only by tyranny, by resorting to the obsolete methods of the former autocracy to a degree never known before. The result is the complete exhaustion of all material resources of the country and an intense hatred of the prevailing majority of the population towards the Bolshevist rulers. The days of the new autocracy are numbered; their end is near.

The

But who will take their place? current answers often given to that question are three: 1. The Bolsheviki will evolve themselves into a decent government; 2. The downfall of Bolsh-" evism will be followed by anarchy and chaos; 3. There will be reaction and restoration of the former Czar's autocracy upon the downfall of Bolshevism.

In our opinion-and it can be proved -the Bolshviks are unable to evolve. Merely economic concessions will not revive Russia. At the same time the Bolshevist rulers are well aware of the fact that even elementary political concessions would bring the Bolshevist régime to a speedy end. Any step toward democracy-like abolition of the notorious "Che-ka" (the Bolshevist secret police) and free elections to the Soviets would at once deprive them of their power. At the moment this statement is dictated rumors are rife that Mr. Lenine intends to convoke a Constituent Assembly in January or Febru

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ary, 1922. This scheme is somehow connected with the renewed talk of recognition of the Bolshevist Government. As could be expected, no mention is made that the elections to such an Assembly would be free and by a secret ballot. Therefore the news is of no significance or value. Whoever knows the situation in Russia at present knows that under the pressure of the "Che-ka" the elections would be swept by the Bolsheviks. There is also some talk about a coalition between the Bolsheviks and the other Russian parties. This talk is also of no importance, since the corresponding fact in the Russian situation is the continued prosecution of the leading members of all political parties opposed to Bolshevism, who are being executed, kept in prisons, or exiled.

The Bolshevist aim behind these rumors is to gain recognition and the necessary economic and financial help from foreign countries. But no help can really relieve the Russian people unless the political situation in Russia is radically changed. In the absence of serious political concessions-which are impossible-the economic concessions are ineffective and bound to be extremely limited in their application. Therefore we think that Bolshevism will fall just as Czarism fell, owing to its incapacity for a real compromise.

As to the inevitability of chaos in Russia upon the downfall of Bolshevism, there is no such possibility, in our opinion, since even now, as we stated above, Russia is not at all a wilderness. Germs of new life are rife all over Russia and nuclei of a new political organization are likely to develop at once and everywhere, at the first opportunity. The agents of Mr. Hoover's Relief Administration can probably testify to this by their personal contact with the Russian people throughout the country. The vitality of the non-Bolshevist population cannot be taken, of course, as a sign for the vitality of the Bolshevist régime, as some people take it. Russia is alive in spite of the Bolsheviks, and not because of them. That is why we expect that the salvation of Russia will necessarily come from within, from her own people. It is true that the great mass of the population is too downtrodden and lowspirited to start on a general and organized revolt. But it would be a mistake to think that the spirit of resistance has entirely gone. On the contrary, it extends itself to the formerly privileged groups of the Red Army and Red bureaucracy, in the measure that the Bolshevist Government proves powerless and incapable to secure even their material existence. We are hopeful, therefore, and satisfied that the change will come soon, and that it will be caused by the changed state of mind of

the population. It was the same state of changed psychology which brought about the speedy downfall of the Czar's autocracy in March, 1917, in spite of all the huge resources at its disposal.

As to the danger of reaction, it must be stated that this danger really exists, owing to the activity of Russian monarchist organizations abroad which are helped with money by the German reactionaries. In this country a similar monarchist organization is being helped by a prominent American business man. But the fate of the military adventures that can be prepared with this money is sealed in advance. They cannot be made either stronger or more successful than the many attempts by the so-called "white armies" and "generals," which ended in complete failure and only helped to prolong the Bolshevist rule. The basic reason for all these failures in the past and in the future is a conscious choice of the Russian masses, which are unwilling to support such "liberators" as are likely to bring back to them their former landlords and administrators. Monarchy, which is closely allied with such elements, is doomed forever. Russia will resurrect as a democratic federated republic. Federation is the only means to bring back and to unite on the basis of free agreement the various parts of the now dismembered Russia. This process is not easy, and may develop slowly and gradually, but it is sure to develop as soon as a firm basis is laid for it by a stable democratic government.

It is with the aim of welding together all the Russian democratic groups that the conference of the members of the former All-Russian Constituent Assembly was called in Paris, in January, 1921. The members of that democratic parliament were elected in the end of 1917 by the entire population of Russia, on the basis of universal, direct, equal, and secret suffrage. The majority of the Constituent Assembly belonged to the anti-Bolshevist parties, and therefore the Assembly was dissolved by Bolshevist bayonets after one day's session. In January, 1921, a conference of the members of the All-Russian Constituent Assembly was called in Paris, which elected an Executive Committee, which we have the honor of representing. The activity of the Executive Committee extends now over the principal countries of western Europe. Our organization does not pretend to represent formally the people inside of Russia, but we are working in full accord with all the Russian democratic groups. Our aim is not to direct or to govern, but to follow the developments in the interior of Russia and to help our democratic movement to assert itself against both extremes of Bolshevism and reaction.

ROMAIN ROLLAND: THE MAN AND HIS WORK

A

MASSIVE and luminous biographical portrait of Jean-Christophe's author is achieved by Stefan Zweig in "Romain Rolland: The Man and His Work."1 It is the first biography of Rolland in English. It combines the charm of rich objective delineation with a persuasive revelation of Rolland, the artist.

From Rolland's boyhood, a physically frail one, it appears that music has nurtured and sustained him. His mother taught him the piano. When he was ill as a child and death seemed near, “a melody from Mozart watched over his pillow." "Whenever my spirit is weary, whenever I am sick at heart, I turn to my piano and bathe in music," says the novelist; a day rarely elapses without his "holding converse" with Beethoven. Shakespeare he discovered as a boy in a dusty loft. From Shakespeare and Beethoven he inherited a passionate admiration for greatness, and something of his own will to greatness, and the ability "to know life and yet to love it." Because of his preoccupation with these two masters he failed twice in the entrance examination to the normal school.

At twenty-two Rolland had added a third great idol, Tolstoy, the publication of whose savage attack on art entitled "What Is to Be Done?" presently racked the young æsthete with frightful doubts and uncertainties. Sitting down one day in his attic, the troubled youth wrote Tolstoy an impulsive letter, describing his perplexities and bewilderment. In time came Tolstoy's answer to his unknown correspondent-thirtyeight pages of long-hand written in French, an entire treatise. Rolland's cry had profoundly impressed the Russian. "It has touched me to the heart. I have read it with tears in my eyes," wrote Tolstoy, and then expounded his idea that only that art was of value which bound men together. "The hour when Tolstoy wrote to his unknown correspondent," observes the biographer, "has been revived in a thousand letters from Rolland to a thousand unknowns."

One beholds Rolland laying the foundations of his art upon the "hidden masonry of years spent in isolation," his life the continuous struggle of one who "cannot come to terms with mediocrity." One sees him laboring in an attic room "small and simple as a monastic cell," first as a student, then as an unrecognized dramatist and a professor of musical history, and even now that fame has overtaken him and he holds a Nobel Prize for literature. In 1912 Romain Rolland was still unknown; in 1914, shortly before he had attained his fiftieth year, with the publication of "Jean

1 Romain Rolland: The Man and His Work. By Stefan Zweig. Thomas Seltzer, New York. $4.

Bain

ROMAIN ROLLAND, FROM A DRAWING BY GRANIE

Christophe" his fame broke upon the world like a flood.

Zweig gives us an unforgetable picture of Rolland at his work in two tiny attic rooms in the heart of Paris, up five flights of winding wooden stairs:

Amid the books sits the gentle monk of this cell, soberly clad like a clergyman. He is slim, tall, delicate looking; his complexion is sallow, like that of one who is rarely in the open. His face is lined, suggesting that here is a worker who spends few hours in sleep. His whole aspect is somewhat fragile-the sharply cut profile which no photograph seems to reproduce perfectly; the small hands,

his hair silvering behind the lofty brow; his mustache falling softly like a shadow over the thin lips. Everything about him is gentle: his voice in its rare utterances; his figure which, even in repose, shows the traces of his sedentary life; his gestures, which are always restrained; his slow gait. His whole personality radiates gentleness. The casual observer might derive the impression that the man is debilitated or extremely fatigued, were it not for the way in which the eyes flash ever and again from beneath the slightly reddened eyelids. . . . The small and frail body radiates the mysterious energy of work....

The ardor of our recluse is allembracing, reaching forth to include the cultures of every tongue, the history, philosophy, poesy, and music of every nation. He is in touch with all endeavors. He receives sketches, letters, and reviews concerning everything. . . . With his small, upright handwriting in which all the letters are clearly and powerfully formed, he permanently fixes the thoughts that pass through his mind, whether spontaneously arising or coming from without. . . . His thriftily collected hoard of these autographic intellectual goods is enormous. The flame of his labor burns unceasingly. Rarely does he take more than five hours' sleep; seldom does he go for a stroll in the adjoining Luxembourg; infrequently does a friend climb the five flights of winding stair for an hour's quiet talk.

There are a few passages in which the biographer's explicitness recedes before his personal affection for Rolland. The disaster of Rolland's brief marriage is only hinted at. But the brilliant warmth with which Stefan Zweig reveals many of the inner workings of genius is vastly satisfying to any student of literature and of the men who create it. NEWTON FUESSLE.

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THE NEW BOOKS

FICTION BRIDGE ACROSS (THE). By L. Allen Harker. Charles Scribner's Sons, New York. $1.75. Mrs. Harker's Raby in this story is as truly girl-like as her Allegra in a former tale.

She is impetuous and tomboyish, therefore delightful to know. Her troubles with her cynical and drug-ruined but somehow attractive father, her wartime experiences and bachelor girl life in London, and finally her love story make up an agreeable romance. DAUGHTER OF THE MIDDLE BORDER (A). By Hamlin Garland. Illustrated. The Macmillan Company, New York. $2. In this agreeably written narrative Mr. Garland carries on the semi-biographical record of "A Son of the Middle Border" in an equally readable manner. Particularly interesting is the account of his friendship with Mr. Howells and John Burroughs. The publishers are right in saying that this is an auto

biographic record which reads like a novel but which is in fact a part of the intimate social history of midland America.

HELEN'S BABIES. By John Habberton. Memorial Edition. The Stewart & Kidd Company, Cincinnati, Ohio. $3. HELEN'S BABIES. By John Habberton.

The F. A. Stokes Company, New York. Memorial Edition. $2.50.

As the two titles above show, two memorial editions have appeared of "Helen's Babies." The first edition was published about forty-five years ago. It achieved an enormous success, and it almost seemed that the author's jocose dedication was to be realized-he dedicated it "To all fathers and mothers each of whom possesses the best children that ever lived," gently suggesting that each such father and mother should purchase a copy. Mr. Habberton was a newspaper man; he died less than a

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year ago. He was always fond of little children and delighted in inventing games to play with them. One of the memorial editions states that he was kind-hearted, generous, a man of small business ability, so that the profits from the half million copies of "Helen's Babies" that were sold either never reached him at all or slipped away from him. Both these editions present colored pictures of the characters.

JUGO-SLAV STORIES. Translated by Pavle Popovic. (The Interpreters' Series.) Duffield & Co., New York. $2.

These nine stories by the greatest of modern Serbian writers are correctly described as giving an extraordinarily vivid and true picture of the life and the soul of the Serbian people to-day. They deal with every side of the national life, and range from tragedy to comedy, and from legend to the most up-to-date realism.

NOBODY'S MAN. By E. Phillips Oppenheim. Illustrated. Little, Brown & Company, Boston. $2.

We do not know how many stories Mr. Oppenheim has written, but we happen to note the fact that twenty-nine of his books have been reviewed in this department. His popularity is not at all on the wane, but we frankly express our judgment that this particular book I would not rank high as compared with those that have appeared since the war ended. It is less exciting and "gripping" than "The Great Impersonation" and less entertaining than is "Jacob's Ladder." Perhaps this is because it deals chiefly with English politics and only incidentally with detection of criminals.

TO HIM THAT HATH. By Ralph Connor. The George H. Doran Company, New York. $1.75.

This deals largely with industrial and social problems and, like all of the author's stories, is inspired by wide human sympathy and belief in mutual effort for advance and accomplishment. The scene is the Canadian Northwest. There are stirring incidents and tense situations.

HISTORY AND POLITICAL ECONOMY HISTORY OF VERMONT. By Walter Hill Crockett. Illustrated. 4 vols. The Century History Company, Inc., New York. $31.50. This history of the great-little State of Vermont gives in elaborate detail the story of the State from its beginnings. It is the result of much research, and should become a "household word" in the families of loyal Vermonters. The type is exceptionally readable, and there are numerous illustrations.

MUSIC, PAINTING, AND OTHER ARTS ART AND ARTISTS OF INDIANA. By Mary Q. Burnet. Illustrated. The Century Company, New York. $6.

Indiana has become prominent in literature and the author wishes us to appreciate what prominence it has in painting. The period covered is that of over a century; it includes the New Harmony Settlement, the itinerant portrait painters, the earliest art school of the Middle West, and, finally, the artists of Indiana who, having studied abroad,

From "Robert Henri; His Life and Works." Reproduced by permission of Boni & Liveright CATHERINE

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Illus

By the Photo Pictorialists of Buffalo, trated. The American Photographic Publishing Company, Boston. $3.50. All students of pictorial photography will like to own this book, which describes the methods in general use for "controlling the photograph"-in other words, for producing the diffused and sometimes beautiful effects which are to be seen in all current exhibitions of "advanced work" in photography. Some of the numerous reproductions shown in this volume are very pleasing, many others suffer from faint printing, but all will whet the reader's interest and make him wish to see the originals. The

text, while largely technical, is on the whole clear and informative.

BIOGRAPHY

SILHOUETTES OF MY CONTEMPORARIES. By Lyman Abbott. Doubleday, Page & Co., New York. $3.

The papers from Dr. Abbott's pen which have appeared in The Outlook under the general title "Snap-Shots of My Contemporaries" have been gathered with others in this volume. In addition to the sketches which appeared in The Outlook the volume contains similar sketches of John Fiske, General William Booth, Abraham Lincoln, and Theodore Roosevelt. The publishers have given the volume the advantage of clear type and attractive binding.

Dr. Abbott in his preface describes his use of the title "Silhouettes" as indicating his effort "to trace in outline the portraits of some of my contemporaries," thus making a volume which should be a gallery of shadow pictures. One reviewer, Mr. Willis Fletcher Johnson, in the New York "Tribune," in an appreciative and friendly article, takes exception to the title of the book because "a silhouette is a portrait showing just one side of the subject and without a touch of color or gradation of light and shade and without the slightest background or environment. But these pen-portraits of a few of the great men whom he has known in a lifetime of more than eighty years are vastly more than that."

“They Gave Me Up!"

"But I Refused

to Die"

"If anyone has suffered all that there is to suffer from Bright's Disease and Diabetes, I am certainly the man. Think of going along for years with your blood pressure never under 190 and often up to 260! Think of your blood rushing so madly through your system that you panted for breath. Think of being so absolutely nerve-wracked and run down that the least noise or disturbance would send you into a frenzy of irritability.

"I went through all that-and more. Finally they gave me up-everybody. But I refused to die.

"First, I changed my whole scheme of living. I went.on a diet as strict as any man has ever faced. I watched every single little thing that would either help or harm me-and acted accordingly. I willed that I would get better.

"And then I heard of Paradise Water, from Paradise Spring in Maine. Its claims were so strong that I bought some simply to disprove them! I had tried practically every remedy of every sort and I didn't believe I would get any help from Paradise.

So

"But the very first case of Paradise convinced me that it would help me. I stuck with it-drank it in large quantities and to the exclusion of all other water. At the end of six weeks, my blood pressure was down to 145, or but 10 degrees above normal. Think of that! And I began to acquire a general feeling of fitness of peace of mind, of buoyant good health, that I hadn't experienced in years.

"That was about 8 months ago. Since that time, except for several brief periods when I couldn't get it, I have averaged from 1 to 2 gallons of Paradise Water every day. And I tell you I knew the difference right away when I didn't

SOUTH AMERICA

UR exceptionally well-planned
Cruise-out to this intensely in-
teresting field for pleasure travel will
leave New York Feb. 4, 1922.
The

itinerary includes calls at HAVANA-PANAMA CANAL-the historic cities of PERU and CHILEARGENTINE, URUGUAY and BRAZIL, arriving back in New York-via the East Coast Route-on April 3d. All information and literature on request. THOS. COOK & SON 245 Broadway, New York 150 Offices Throughout the World

have it. I feel good only when I drink Paradise Water. I look at it as the best blood purifier, the best internal cleanser, there is and I say, in all earnestness, that no one who drinks it regularly-sick or well-will fail to benefit thereby."

The above remarkable story is an exact statement of fact. This man is a leading business man in a Middle West metropolis, and if you are interested, we'll send you his name and address.

If you are ailing specifically from Bright's Disease or other forms of Kidney or Bladder Trouble, from Prostatitis, Articular Rheumatism, Feeble Digestion, or Heart and Arterial Deterioration, start .drinking Paradise Water today. Your grocer will deliver a case to your door; or if he hasn't it in yet, order direct from us. Also served at drug stores. Comes in Natural or Carbonated, both delightful table waters, in addition to their healthgiving qualities. Quarts, pints, half-pints. FREE: If you want more information about Paradise Water, without obligating yourself in any way, write for valuable free health book, "The Story of Paradise Spring "-also names of dealers in your city. Write now.

PARADISE SPRING CO., BRUNSWICK, ME.

PARADISE WATER

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Miss Canfield was educated at the Ohio State University and at Columbia. She has studied and traveled extensively in Europe and spent three years in France doing war work.

HE physical and political aspects of

Tthe Rusical problem are strikingly

presented in two authoritative articles, "The Plight of Russia," by ex-Governor James P. Goodrich, of Indiana, and "The Russia of To-Morrow," by Nicholas D. Avksentiev and Professor Paul N. Miliukov.

Mr. Goodrich was a Special Representative of Herbert Hoover in Russia, where he spent two months investigating conditions in the Volga Valley. He is intending to return to Russia again in a few weeks to continue the work which he has begun and which is regarded as a most important factor in the passage of the bill appropriating $20,000,000 for Russian relief.

Mr. Avksentiev has been one of the leaders of the Social-Revolutionary party for the past twenty years. After the Bolshevist revolt of November, 1917, he became one of the leaders of the antiBolshevist movement. At present Mr. Avksentiev is the Chairman of the Executive Committee of the Conference of the All-Russian Constituent Assembly.

Professor Miliukov is one of the founders and leaders of the Russian [ liberalism; he was the spokesman of the Liberal Opposition in the Duma. He is now the leader of the left wing of the Constitutional-Democratic party and a member of the Executive Committee of the Conference of the All-Russian Constituent Assembly.

E

LON K. JESSUP is associate editor of "Outing" and the author of "The Motor Camping Book" and other volumes. IERRE DE LANUX was born in Paris

P and lived there until 1916, when he

came to America on a mission from the French Government with the French High Commission. He was a member of André Tardieu's Bureau Technique on the Peace Conference in 1918, and in 1919 went on a mission to the Balkans.

HREE aviation officers who took part

Tin the bombing test off the Virginiz

capes come to the defense of the air plane in this issue.

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1921 PREPARES THE WAY FOR 1922

THE

BY ALVIN W. KRECH

President of the Equitable Trust Company of New York HE business year 1921 will not be fondly remembered by those among us who believe that the country's economic health is reflected primarily in the number and the size of dividends and extra-dividends; 1921 cannot boast of record earnings and capacity productions, but it can claim the distinction of' having been the first post-war year to face the seriousness of the situation and to start the uphill job. It has been an austere year, a year of thoughtful planning, a year that chastened wisely. True it is that the individual business man is first of all concerned with his own affairs and is inclined to consider his own balance-sheet as infinitely more important than the Federal Reserve Bank statement; but, after all, individual prosperity can only be the emanation of a general healthy state of affairs. And 1921, a year of deflation (and deflation, to quote Professor Gustav Cassel, means not only a reduction of expenses, it means also a corresponding reduction of incomes), has done much towards bringing back a healthy state of affairs. The business community was perhaps obliged to observe a rather disagreeable diet, but the banker who is asked to diagnose the case may now confidently point out quite a number of highly satisfying symptoms.

As a body politic we are splendidly alive. The President's Message, Director Dawes's report, and Secretary Hughes's "thunderbolt" are splendid affirmations of our aptness to meet serious emergencies in the most direct and matter-of-fact manner. We have the men and we have the natural resources, and we must even admit that on closing of subscription days we were lately quite under the impression that the country's savings have not as yet been entirely depleted by an unhappy system of taxation. Incidentally one may also recall that the ratio of reserves of our Federal Reserve Bank is about seventy-three per cent.

The international situation is rich in fair promises. Secretary Hughes launched in Washington a bold "peace offensive" which should win for the world the inestimable trophy of international economic understanding. Last year we recorded a few shy attempts at real world pacification, and to-day we I could cite a hundred instances reflecting the world's fervent desire for peace. There is perhaps no more significant gesture than Marshal Foch's chivalrous proposal that the defeated nations be aided so that they may be re-established commercially. Victory does not rest after the laurels have been plucked, and it is our imperative duty, from selfinterest if not from any other reason, not to abandon those who need our coOperation.

I confidently hope that the destinies of 1922 will be happily shaped by the trenuous and courageous efforts of the past year.

COLGATE'S

COLGATE'S

RIBBON DENTAL CREAM

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